My mind drew a blank on what to do to get out of this situation. I glanced down to see how much time had passed since we’d be kidnapped from the courthouse, when I remembered the watch Kenna had placed on my wrist the day she’d arrived.
I was in utter shock when I noted Agent Dillon Graham was highlighting on the screen. It couldn’t be, could it? There’d already been compromised operatives within other organizations involved in this complex scheme Dominic had cooked up, why not add a few more.
I didn’t know if it would help or hurt us, but I had to try. Makenna had informed me only a limited few knew I had the watch, so I held down the buttons she’d shown, to indicate an emergency. The watch began to blink and the screen highlighted with “Tracking—Help on way.” I just prayed it was the assistance we needed.
“What the?” The voice said in astonishment before I felt a blunt object hit the back of my head, casting everything in darkness.
The van stopped moving. I knew from the sounds around us that we were at some hanger at the airport on the outskirts of town. I’d hoped for something more imaginative, but criminals always looked for the easiest exit, not expecting anyone to know the plan of escape, as if it hadn’t been in every murder mystery book ever written. I mean, come on—evil person decides to flee by plane, train, boat, or automobile. Not very creative if you ask me, but I wasn’t in a position where I could argue.
Thankfully, I’d planned accordingly. My only problem: I hadn’t expected the force of the dart or the length of the needle on the front to be able to pierce a small portion of my Kevlar vest. Whoever fired the damn thing managed to hit the weakest point of the vest, allowing the needle to nick me enough to make me pass out for a few minutes but not enough to cause me to feel the full effect of the tranquilizer dart.
Pissed wasn’t even part of my vocabulary at the moment. I was beyond that, when I noted someone had struck Marcus on the back of his head, causing him to blackout and bleed. Whoever tried to harm my man would pay dearly.
The van doors in the back flew open, and bright light came pouring in. I didn’t’ react to anything, because if I did, they’d try to shoot me up with more drugs to cause me to pass out. So I pretended to still be out of it, breathing here and there, and let my body go limp as someone carried me gently from the van to a padded area on the floor.
The light that had been so bright was cut off when the hanger doors were pulled closed, blocking anyone from knowing what was transpiring in here. “Why the hell did you bring that bitch?” The high-pitched hoity-toity tone told me instantly it was Cassia Hamilton.
“I wanted to bring her as collateral, remember? You told me you’d do anything to see her permanently disappear. Besides, maybe I’ll have some fun with her, and then kill them both.” The words were harsh. The man who delivered them sounded like evil incarnate. Did this voice belong to Damien or someone else?
Cassia immediately squealed at such a high pitch it would give barn owls nightmares, which were notorious for their nightly deafening squawks. “You will not lay a hand on my Marcus. He’s the love of my life. He’s going to be my husband one way or another, until death parts us.”
“Don’t tempt me, Cassia. I’m ready to kill that bastard just to get you to shut up about him.” The hardened voice struck back. “You promised if I got both of them, we’d run away and live happily ever after.”
Cassia laughed long and hard, reminding me of the sinister laugh of Maleficent from the tales of Sleeping Beauty. It bordered on the edge of demonic, causing a shiver of cold to run up and down my spine. It was all I could do not to move and give away that I was awake.
Water droplets hit my face as, I had to assume, someone tossed some water on Marcus to wake him up since he immediately responded with, “What the hell?” His voice was filled with panic as he asked, “What have you done to Makenna? Why are we here?” A moment later his vision must have returned, as he uttered Cassia’s name in question.
Through squinted eyes, I could see her lean down to help Marcus sit up. She caressed the side of his face. “My poor darling. I’m sorry for what the bad men did to you.”
Damien roughly grabbed Cassia by the arm and dragged her several yards back across the room. “Keep your fucking hands off that piece of trash. You’re mine now, Cassia. You’re too caught up in this to ever be free again.” He spoke as if his words were law, causing me to wonder if Damien had been brainwashed or was just delusional.
Cassia fought to free her arm. “I’ve told you I’ll never be yours. My heart will always belong to Marcus. I don’t care if he doesn’t love me now. He’ll be so inconsolable over losing Makenna that he’ll have no choice but to come to me for comfort.”
Her words made me flinch slightly. I added a moan to look like I was fighting the effects of the tranquilizer dart, while in reality, I was attempting to get out of my handcuffs, which I knew I could do, as my teammate had replaced the real ones for a set of magic cuffs. I hated having my hands behind my back. For that matter, I disliked this whole scenario. It was too close to my SERE training and was starting to give me flashbacks.
Marcus’s voice sounded panicked. “What do you mean I’ll lose Makenna? I’ll do anything you ask as long as no harm comes to her,” he pleaded.
Damien was quick to whip out a gun from behind his back and took aim at Marcus. His head motioned toward Cassia. “Did you know this little blonde tartlet had a crush on you for well over five years? It didn’t matter that I dressed liked you or grew my hair and beard to look like yours. No. All she wanted was you, and I could never understand why. At least resembling you worked in my favor when it came time to help my father out of a jam.”
He looked over to Cassia again, before shaking his head in disgust. “She didn’t stop me from moving the incriminating files over to your computer. She tried to two-time me. She wanted to blackmail you into marrying her, but then got her daddy’s help to try to reverse the charges against you and finger me and my father in your place. Cassia manipulated all of us from the very beginning.”
Damien never let his gun down during his tirade. He shifted it left and right, ready to hit either one of us at any given moment. “Put the gun down, brother. You knew killing would not be a part of this plan.”
The second man in the van removed his ski mask and revealed himself to be my teammate Dillon Graham. It was only when I’d had Sophia do a more in-depth search on Dillon and Damien did I discover they both shared the same father. Thankfully, only one son—Damien, who was now holding the gun at us—cared to walk in his father’s footsteps.
I heard Marcus cursing under his breath. “No wonder.”
I knew what he was thinking. I’d briefly opened my eyes in the van and saw the confusion on his face as his watch had indicated Dillon was close by. I was proud of him for activating the tracker for backup, risking it all to save us despite not knowing whom to trust. Everywhere we’d turned today, there’d been bad seeds amongst the groups meant to protect and serve our country. I guess in some cases, money was the root of all evil. I’m just glad I had a diamond in the ruff I could rely on. At least I think I did. I prayed Dillon hadn’t tricked me.
Dillon held up his hands as Damien seemed more crazed than ever. “I didn’t promise anything. Dad’s been taken away. The rest of my accounts are frozen. I’m an anxious man in a time that calls for desperate measures. If killing these two means I can get away and obtain what I want, then so be it.”
Dillon shook his head. “I’m not going to be a party to all this. I told you: I love you, you’re my brother, and I’ll help you no matter what our sadistic father started. We can all end this peacefully now. It might mean you have to do some time in jail, but I’ll be there for you, no matter what.”
Damien held both of his hands up to his head, the gun still in one hand, grabbing it like he was fighting some internal battle inside his mind. “Enough!” he yelled out. “Don’t give me that blood-and-family-is-thicker-than-anything crap. Dad told me not to trust you.
He said you would never be one of us. It’s an eye for an eye in this world, and I’m ready to show you how far I’ll go to prove that.” He let his hands drop from his head and began to pace, until he seemed to come to a decision, once again raising the gun our direction.
Before Damien could squeeze the trigger, Dillon shot him in the center of his hand, forcing him to drop the gun. I watched in horror as Cassia quickly picked it up, pointed it my direction, and fired. I readied myself to take the hit, knowing it would impact against my chest, but Marcus threw himself in front of me, taking the hit himself.
I wanted to scream out the words “No! You bitch!” and jump to Marcus’s side to ensure he was okay. But I couldn’t allow myself to react and give her reason to fire again. I had to wait for the right moment, hoping she’d be distraught over the idea of killing the man she loved.
At least I’d had enough foresight to put him in an undershirt lined with Kevlar material. He’d flat-out refused to wear a standard vest, so I’d given him the shirt and asked him to wear it. He’d bitched about the weight of it but had reluctantly put it on, not knowing it could save his life.
While Marcus was knocked on his back from the impact of the bullet, Cassia was distracted long enough for me to fire off a shot, which pinged off the side of her gun, knocking it away from her. It was immediately clear my shot didn’t faze her, as her face turned red with anger, and her eyes rapidly began to search the ground for the weapon.
I could tell she’d reach it before me, and with her being a loose cannon, I couldn’t take the risk of someone seriously being wounded by her alternate reality. I reached into the top of my boot and pulled out a throwing star. I stood up, took aim, and launched it, causing it to pin her hand to the floor. It wasn’t a pretty sight, and she’d definitely need stitches, if not surgery to have full use of her hand again, but I wanted everyone safe.
At that moment, the hanger doors flew open and light cascaded in, causing everyone to squint from the intensity of the sun’s rays. When my vision cleared, I noted Dillon had his brother handcuffed with his arms behind his back. The whole time, Damien spouted profanities. “You’ll regret this. I’ll never consider you my brother, and I’ll live for the day when I’m released so I can take away what you hold precious in life.”
Dillon was quick to ask. “Is that a threat?”
Damien smiled maliciously. “That’s a promise!”
“Good to know, because if that’s the way you want to play this, I’ll just pretend you never existed. I wanted to be there for you, to keep our father from corrupting your mind, but I guess I’m too late.” Dillon’s words were spiteful, but I could sense he would feel relieved that this part of his life was over.
Dillon’s words reminded me of the talk I had with him a few days ago with Rick listening in on the line. We’d confronted him about being Damien’s half brother and Dominic’s son, wondering if he’d volunteered to be part of the team in order to funnel details to his family. That would’ve explained why I kept getting creepy vibes about him when he was doing guard duty at Marcus’s penthouse.
Rick and I both were relieved when Dillon had announced his intentions to take his father and brother down. They’d apparently been threatening his mom and sister, who happened to look a lot like me. That’s why he was always so intense, staring at me.
I watched as Titan’s team took Damien off of Dillon’s hands before arresting Cassia. “Did we get enough evidence?” Dillon had asked aloud the same words I’d been wondering, given him and I were both wearing wiretaps to record everything that had just happened.
Gary and Rick both nodded as they took Damien and Cassia into custody and dragged them over to an awaiting vehicle. I was kind of surprised to see Rick here, but given how the case exploded into something we hadn’t anticipated, I’m sure he wanted to be here just to ensure it ended safely.
It was Rick who finally responded. “Your plan worked perfectly, Makenna. Good job!”
My heart was elated to hear Rick finally approved of me. It was rare to hear a compliment, even rarer to get the words he’d spoken. The only downside was now the case would be over in a few days, maybe a week, tops, as I needed to be debriefed by the SEC, FBI, and Titan.
“What’s going on?” Marcus’s words were somewhat slurred.
I ran over to where he was—still on his back and somewhat disoriented on the floor. I unsheathed the knife hidden in the lining of my boot and cut through the zip ties that held his hands together.
Checking for any wounds, I slid my hands over his body. I yelled out to my team members. “We need a medic over here.” When we had a bust of this magnitude, we usually had an ambulance standing by as a safety, somewhere out of harm’s way. Gary radioed for the ambulance to be brought in.
I tried helping Marcus stand, but he seemed uncoordinated for the moment, so I got him into a sitting position. “How are we still alive?”
My hand cradled the side of his face as I reached under his shirt and pulled out the flattened bullet that had been stopped by his protective undershirt. “This would’ve hit a lung or your heart had I not tricked you into wearing Kevlar anyway.” I held up the scrunched up piece of metal for him to view. He quickly looked down at his chest and felt the depression it had caused in the material.
“It was heavy because it was lined, right?” His question was met with my nod of agreement.
I noticed his eyes had trouble focusing on me, which made me wonder just how hard Damien had hit Marcus in the van. He had blood on the side of his head where the butt of Damien’s gun had struck him. I caressed his head, and felt a large bump on the back of his skull. He must have hit the floor hard when he threw himself in front of me to keep me safe.
The medics ran to Marcus and started to assess his head trauma, citing he probably had a concussion, but they’d need to transport him to the hospital to make sure there were no serious injuries or swelling of the brain.
I stood up and moved to the side, but Marcus refused to let go of my hand. “I only feel at ease when I’m touching you, Makenna. Please don’t leave me.”
If only his words were more than just this moment in time. The past couple months had been hell on my heart. I’d been torn between my anger towards him and my father, the need to do my job, and then the love I’d discovered still existed deep within me, knowing that I only felt truly whole when Marcus and I were together.
“Makenna?” The words sounded like they were said underwater.
“Makenna?” Marcus’s voice was filled with panic.
“Makenna! No! Do. Something. Now.” His words were desperate.
Why did my body feel so heavy and light all at the same time? Why was it so hard to hear anyone except my thoughts? What’s happening to me? When did the air get cold and hard around me on one side of my body and so warm on the other? Everything went black as I succumbed to the peaceful feeling wrapping me in its warmth.
My nose twitched at the smell of something strong. I wanted to back away from it, but it kept coming at me. “Come on, open those eyes, Miss Bradford.” The voice was from a female, someone I’d never heard before.
The quiet and darkness that surrounded me started to ebb away slowly, revealing the sounds of beeping, footsteps, and people mumbling in the distance.
I tried to push the offensive odor out of my way. It made me sick to my stomach, and I wanted no part of it.
“Come on, Kenna. Come back to us, love.” It was Marcus. His voice was laden with concern.
The smells around me started to make sense. It was smelling salts to try and wake me from a slumber. There were subtle hints of bleach and ammonia in the air, causing me to feel instantly nauseous. My eyes flew open, and my hand jerked to my mouth as I tried to keep from throwing up. Soft hands rubbed my back, while I noted Marcus held a puke basin in front of me, catching the contents of my stomach.
“There, there, Miss Bradford. Do you feel you need to throw up any more?” It came from a female nurse.
I closed my eyes and shook my head. “I think it has passed. Could I get some water to rinse my mouth—”
Marcus had a bottle of water, with the top removed, already in front of me so I could rinse my mouth out. The man loved to try and anticipate my every need.
The nurse took the basin out into the hallway to dispose of it in the trash can before grabbing another one for me. “Do you feel like you could tolerate some ginger ale to help settle your stomach?”
“I guess so.” Hell if I knew. My stomach felt like it was all twisted up.
As soon as the nurse left, I turned my head toward Marcus, who was in surgical scrubs. He had a hospital ID bracelet on his wrist and a bandage around his head. “What happened?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “That’s what we’re waiting to find out.”
I could feel my brows furrow as I tried to piece together how I got here.
“You caught the bad guys, Makenna, and then you fainted, scaring the shit out of all of us. We thought you’d been shot or wounded, but we couldn’t find any marks on you.” Wearing a pained expression on his face, he closed his eyes for a moment, and then reopened them as he added, “They’re running tests on you to see why you collapsed. All they know so far is that you’re extremely dehydrated. That’s why they have you hooked up to an IV.” It was then I noticed one of my hands had an IV drip connected to it.
His hand reached for mine, giving it a squeeze. “I wish you would’ve trusted me enough to discuss your plan with me, but Rick made it clear you needed my reactions to be real and not staged. He explained why you had to keep things secretive.” I could tell I’d hurt his feelings, just by the tone in his voice.
“I didn’t mean to exclude you.” I offered.
He nodded slightly, before wincing. “I know and I don’t blame you. If the shoe were on the other foot, I’d probably want to do the same, just to ensure your safety.” He moved closer, where our eyes lined up. “Now that this is over, I don’t want any secrets between us ever again.”
Makenna's Trust: Titan Security Series #3 Page 23