Page 41

M addox

Whap. Whap. Whap.

Something was being slapped against the cold stone wall, the sound penetrating my foggy mind.

I lifted my head, staring into the darkness as I blinked, trying to reduce the haze in front of my eyes.

Every muscle ached from the brutal torture only hours before.

I took gasping breaths just as the steel door was swung wide open.

Within seconds, a penetrating light pulsed all around me, instantly blinding me. Agony shot through my shoulders as I tried to turn away, the chains holding me in place creaking from movement.

The laugh coming from the other side of the prison cell brought a snarl to my cracked lips. I dragged my tongue over the bottom one, tasting blood. As bootsteps pounded on the cold concrete floor, I braced for whatever the motherfuckers were about to do.

They wouldn’t break me. Not tonight. Not tomorrow.

Not next week.

Fuck them.

Another laugh, the sound darker than before.

Suddenly, a blast of water hit me hard, the agony from before increasing. I shifted as much as possible as the centrifugal force opened healing wounds, pounding my body until there wasn’t an inch of me that wasn’t in anguish.

As quickly as the flood of liquid had started, it ceased altogether. The light returned, concentrated on my face. Another blinding moment, but this time, I looked the asshole square in the eye.

And I grinned.

“ Hoy será el día en que morirás .”

Today will be the day you die.

There was no mistaking the sound, the soft scrape indicating a weapon being dragged across the exterior of the wall.

I opened my eyes wide, immediately jerking up.

Reaching out, I touched Charmaine, her sleeping form lying peacefully next to me.

Before she had a chance to make a single sound, I pressed my hand over her mouth and leaned over.

“Don’t say a word. Get dressed quickly and hide in the bathroom.

Take the weapon with you. Just do it, Charmaine. ”

I’d left the light on in the small bathroom enclosure, partially closing the door. In the slender light, I witnessed the extreme fear in her eyes. She nodded and I pulled my hand free, immediately crawling from bed.

She slipped from under the covers, grabbing her clothes and the weapon on the nightstand beside her, heading toward the bathroom while I dressed.

I secured the drive and the paperwork in my jeans, my heart already thrumming with anticipation.

With a gun in both hands, I moved silently toward the back side of the window, carefully moving the curtains and peering outside. Seeing nothing, I held my stance. The fuckers were there. There was no doubt in my mind.

Thirty seconds passed.

Two minutes.

Another three.

Still nothing.

Then I detected movement off to the side, also noticing a vehicle slowly cruising the parking lot. I’d used a fake name checking in and the clerk hadn’t seen Charmaine, but that meant shit. I was well known, the men sent to kill and kidnap likely given a full dossier on my talents.

The element of surprise should work in my favor.

As long as an entire army hadn’t been sent on the mission.

How the fuck had we been found? I hadn’t told Damon where we were headed, mostly because I’d yet to decide. Unless we’d been followed, and I’d been extremely careful, there was no way for the fuckers to discover our location.

Unless Charmaine had been bugged.

Something I hadn’t thought about. We’d been provided with clothes on the plane. Why the fuck hadn’t my brain kicked in then?

Movement drew my eye. I craned my neck, easily making out two figures. But there were more. If I had to guess, I’d say four. Four was a good number.

Sneering, I stood where I was, narrowing my eyes when they reached the room. They were attempting to get in by using tools. Their element of surprise. Fuck them. When the asshole reached the chain, I moved away from the wall, holding the gun at chest level.

With a solid kick, they managed to open the door by a few inches. The stupid fuck made the mistake of sticking his head in through the opening.

A single bullet ended his life.

But that was just the beginning.

The other assailant pulled back, firing off several shots before kicking the door, finally displacing the chair. Once inside, he immediately aimed in my direction, getting off two shots that narrowly missed me.

I tossed myself over the bed, immediately dropping down behind and firing off three shots in rapid succession. The fucker was down.

I rushed to the door, peering out and hearing shouting. By my calculation, we had maybe one minute before all hell broke loose.

Remaining quiet, I rushed to the bathroom, taking her by the hand and placing my finger over my lips. She was terrified, but nodded in response, clinging to me as I ran toward the door.

After peering out, I heard footsteps and detected the direction where they were headed to the second floor. Taking no chances, I pushed her in front of me, going in the opposite direction.

She was surprisingly quiet, allowing me to push her forward until we reached the other set of stairs.

The fuckers were coming, moving faster after detecting our escape.

“Go. Go. Go.” There was no time to waste. If they surrounded us, there would be little I could do to protect her.

Once on the pavement, I had two seconds to scan the area. “Run toward the forest. Now. Head to the convenience store and wait. I’ll be right there.”

“I can’t leave you,” she gritted out.

“Do it! I’ll come find you.”

The quick look into each other’s eyes was all the time we had. I pushed her gently and she took off running. I waited until she was hidden in the trees before racing toward the dumpster.

Footsteps were getting closer. As soon as two men came into view, both holding assault rifles, I didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger. One went down immediately, the other managing to survive. While hit, he’d lunged forward at the last moment and it appeared I’d gotten him in the shoulder.

His shots pinged off the metal. Before I could raise my weapon again, another asshole came, tossing his body against mine. The blow was brutal, knocking us both to the pavement.

We pitched and rolled, the assailant managing to knock the weapon from my hand. He was a strong motherfucker, slowly twisting the barrel of his handgun toward my face. We were both straining and the streetlight above highlighted the evil grin on his face.

I smiled given the pressure, few seconds left since the other jerk was standing over us, waiting in case the first gunman failed. I threw my leg over his, pitching him over onto his back. With one hand I grabbed my fallen weapon. With the other I gained control of the trigger on his weapon.

There was no time to second guess my decision.

I fired both, jerking back as blood and brain matter splattered my face.

Hissing, I rolled off, prepared to shoot again and watched as the last of the six men dropped to his knees going face down.

Well, fuck me.

I rolled over on my back, knowing that within minutes someone would call the police. The shots had been loud.

This wouldn’t be easy to explain, nor could I take the chance the reason our position had been compromised was because of a leak in either the justice department or the FBI.

Scrambling to my feet, I rushed back to the room, collecting the bags and heading to the vehicle.

What I’d left on purpose were the clothes that had been brought with the Navy SEALs when they’d extracted us in Honduras.

While I’d prefer taking the items with me and ripping them to shreds until I found the bug, I couldn’t risk the possibility I was right.

Someone had been a step ahead of us the entire time.

With time of the essence, I gunned the engine, praying to God Charmaine had followed my command.

I was out of the parking lot within seconds, rushing toward the convenience store. Before I pulled to a stop, Charmaine rushed outside. She knew better than to hesitate, jumping into the passenger seat. Less than a minute later, we were headed west. Away from the city.

Away from the carnage.

I continuously glanced into the rearview mirror, slowing only as two police cars rushed by with their lights flashing.

She said nothing, but the scent of her fear was palpable. I pressed my hand against her leg and she finally allowed a soft shudder.

The darkened road greeted us, no one following. At least for now, we were safe.

“Are you okay?” I asked gently.

“I don’t know. What happened?” She turned her head toward me and a quick glance told me she already knew the answer.

There was no sugarcoating the situation in the least. “They’re dead. But there will be more.”

“What do we do?”

I took a deep breath, yanking my phone from my pocket. “I’m contacting the one person I know I can trust without issue. And you’re going to do exactly what I tell you to do.”

“Okay,” she whispered. “Whatever you say.”

Charmaine

Danger had seemed just a part of my life, at least to a point. While a few articles had taken me close to the depths of treachery, there was no denying that this time I’d been tossed into a particularly vicious trap.

And the predators just continued to slip from the shadows.

“Are you certain of the address of the motel where you stayed?” Gray asked, as anxious as Maddox remained.

“Yeah, I’m positive. Why?”

I’d only just met Gray Jenkins, Maddox’s former Navy commander.

While I’d seen him in the lawyer’s office, he hadn’t spoken to me.

He was pensive, pacing the floor of his house where we’d gone after the attack.

The man stood stoically in pajamas and a robe, good enough to open the door in the middle of the night.

I sat silently, uncertain what to say at this point.

“There’s no indication anything occurred at the site,” Gray answered as he glanced in my direction.

“What aren’t you telling me, Gray?” Maddox was adamant, as angry as I’d seen him up to this point. “Do you have an idea who might be behind this?”