Page 33 of Renegade (The Santini Assassins #2)

IN THE HOLE

GREYSTONE

“ Y ou okay?” Greystone asked Slash, back in the observation room.

“I’m fine,” she replied. “He won’t be though. Say the word and I’ll use my blade. I won’t hesitate, and I won’t regret it.”

“Tough as nails,” Dakota said.

Slash smiled at him. “He’s a piece of shit. His words don’t faze me, but I think in twenty-four he’ll want that water.”

“He can drink his own piss,” Caroline said.

Slash grinned. “I love that. In fact, I’ll pour it down his goddamn throat.”

The fury in that room was palpable, pulsing through him at a frenetic pace. Greystone needed to take things down a few notches or they’d execute Haqazzii in three minutes, not three days.

“Thanks for that visual,” Greystone said as his gaze floated over the group. The second he connected with Caroline, that familiar jolt of energy pounded through him .

He held her gaze until she said, “Let’s recap the eight-hour shifts.”

Ten minutes later, they had a confirmed schedule. With that done, Greystone said, “Show me the hole.”

Dakota led the team down the hallway to a metal door.

On the other side was a ten-by-twelve room with black walls and a clean cement floor.

Hanging from the ceiling were chains with handcuffs.

There were also places on the floor where a person’s ankles could be secured.

In the corner sat a large, white bucket.

The four recessed lights were flush with the ceiling and covered with iron bars.

“Simple and effective,” Greystone said. “I’ve seen some that look like medieval torture chambers.”

“The cement is thick, so no cell signal down here,” Dakota explained. “It’s also soundproofed. There are four surveillance cameras mounted in the ceiling corners for continual live feed. Anyone in BLACK OPS can access it on ALPHAnet.”

“What happens to his body?” Greystone asked.

“We have a crematorium,” Dakota explained. “I’ll let CK know you’re coming Tuesday around two in the morning. It’s in Franconia.”

“How far is that?” Greystone asked.

“Thirty,” Dakota replied. “You can stay while the body is cremated or leave it with him. Password is Pied Piper.”

They grew silent while they studied Haqazzii for several minutes. He sat erect the entire time.

“It’s gonna be a long three days,” Greystone said. “Let’s move him to the hole. Caroline, Slash, Addison… weapon up. Dakota, Hawk, and I will escort the prisoner.”

After the team pulled on their ski masks and gloved up, Greystone grabbed the black cloth sack. Together, they left the room.

In the interrogation room, the women pointed their weapons at their prisoner.

Greystone covered his head with the sack before Dakota and Hawk unlocked the cuffs.

Haqazzii struggled, but Greystone and Dakota kept a firm grip on him.

They led him out with Hawk taking up the rear while the women kept their guns pointed at him.

Moving as a silent pod, they brought him to the end of the hallway.

To Greystone’s surprise, Haqazzii stopped fighting them.

In the hole, they re-cuffed him, leaving him to dangle by his wrists from the ceiling. Greystone dimmed the lights. To keep from getting kicked, he stood behind him and removed the head covering, then walked around to face him. Two of the women held him at gunpoint.

“You might as well shoot,” Haqazzii said. “I will never tell you anything. The Day of Destruction is coming. There will be mass chaos in America. Even if I’m not here to rejoice, it will happen.” A creepy smile filled his face. “It will be epic.”

Greystone’s hand curled into a fist. He drew his arm back, clocked Haqazzii on the right side of his face. Then, he delivered a punishing blow to his gut and stepped back. Blood dripped from the prisoner’s nose as he struggled for breath.

The next three days would be hell… for all of them. Watching another human suffer was tough. Being the reason for his death was a soul-sucking way to live. But this is what Greystone had signed up for.

War was ugly. It was the devil’s work and not what God had intended, but this wasn’t the Garden of Eden, and he wasn’t Adam. He was an assassin, plain and simple. And his job was to protect the innocent by eliminating the scum of the earth wherever he found them.

Tonight, he’d found one at a nightclub.

He pulled out his phone, snapped a picture. “We’ll make sure your people see this.”

Haqazzii’s lips split into another sinister smile. “They’ll come for me, and they will show you no mercy. I will enjoy the woman. She will fight me, but I will overtake her. ”

Another rush of hatred surged through Greystone. He side-kicked Haqazzii in the center of his chest, sending him flying backward, but the chains holding him in place swung him back with tremendous force.

That’s gotta hurt.

Greystone took a five-second video of the prisoner while he hung there gasping for air.

His guts churned. He took no joy in exacting this level of pain, even on a known enemy. Greystone waited while his team left the hole. In the hallway, he bolted the door, then lowered the metal arm, ensuring the prisoner couldn’t escape.

“I need to get Teddy—Tank—over here,” Greystone uttered.

Upstairs, in the break room, the women returned their Glocks to their holsters while everyone removed their ski masks. Torture fucked with him. But a talk-session wasn’t gonna work with Haqazzii. This wasn’t just physical torture, it was mental torture as well.

“I saw speakers next to the cameras,” Greystone said.

“We can pipe in any sound, including music,” Dakota explained.

“Show me where I can control this.” He eyed Caroline. “Austin, you’re with me.”

Dakota brought them into a room he’d not been shown during the initial tour. It was a mini-command center with a console, two monitors on the desk and three on the wall. Live feeds showed every hallway in the building, inside the interrogation room, and inside the hole.

Greystone stood there watching Haqazzii. His eyes were closed, but his mouth was moving. “Are there mics?”

“Yes,” Dakota replied.

“He’s praying,” Greystone said.

Dakota regarded him. “You doing okay?”

“Hell, no.” He glanced back at Haqazzii. “War is a fuckin’ bitch. ”

Dakota squeezed Greystone’s shoulder. “I know, brother.”

“Where does he go to the bathroom?” Caroline asked.

“He’ll piss in his pants,” Dakota said. “There’s a bucket in the corner, but he has to be uncuffed. Don’t leave him alone unshackled.”

Greystone nodded. “Yeah, I learned that the hard way.”

Dakota pointed to a section on the console. “These buttons are important. This is a kill switch. It shuts off the electricity, so if someone gets out, we can throw them into darkness. Keep your night goggles with you.”

Greystone and Caroline nodded.

“This button locks the exterior exits and keeps the hangar door from rising. Nothing opens from the inside until this lever is pulled.”

Greystone made mental notes of everything. It was a basic console, but after three days, and very little sleep, things might get a little turned around.

“We got this, right Austin?” Greystone asked.

She regarded both men. “We’re set.”

“The fridge is stocked, but I’ll grab a few things and drop them by later.” Dakota glanced at his watch. “It’s two in the morning. Since there are no windows, there’s no sense of time. Things can feel a little wonky after a while, so step outside to get a frame of reference.”

Twenty-minutes later, the team rolled out. Slash and Prescott were expected back to relieve them mid-morning.

Greystone and Caroline were alone… alone with a ruthless terrorist in a secure location where no one would hear them screaming if things went sideways.

But things weren’t going sideways, not on his watch.

They stood side by side in the command center, observing the prisoner dangling from his chains.

She ran a comforting hand down his back. “This isn’t your first rodeo, is it? ”

Her touch was exactly what he needed to take the edge off, but the second he stared into her eyes, she brought the heat. As he expected, she looked as calm and confident as always. There was no fear, no concern, but there was a touch of sadness, something he’d never seen before.

“This turned out to be some fucked-up first date,” he said.

She caressed his back which a soft hand, and he breathed easy for the first time in several tense hours. “Do you know the effect you have on me?” he asked.

With her hand cemented on his back, she pushed onto her toes. “I only know the effect you have on me, so you’d have to tell me… or maybe you could show me sometime.”

He swept her into his arms and kissed her. One, long passionate kiss. Then, she hugged him, holding him tightly against her.

“Death sucks, even if it’s the enemy,” she murmured.

“I know, babe.” He kissed her cheek. “It’s war, and war is never pretty.”

As they stared into each other’s eyes, he wanted to tell her everything would be okay, but he was never one to make a promise he wasn’t confident he could keep.

“We’ve got each other’s backs,” he said. “And there’s no one I’d rather have by my side than you. No one.”

Her loving smile gave him hope. “Same.”

In silence, they watched the prisoner.

“If he told us what we need to know, he’d get arrested and put in prison,” she said, breaking their long pause.

“He came here to destroy, and he’s willing to die for his cause. If I’d been captured while in the middle east, I would have done the same. It’s what we sign up for, even if we don’t believe it can happen to us.”

Sadness blanketed her eyes. “Are you hungry? Can I make you something to eat?”

“I’m okay. You? ”

“The thought of food makes me nauseous,” she said. “I could use my laptop though.”

“Where is it?”

“My place.”

“I need Teddy’s help online. If I can wake him, I’ll see if he can grab our laptops before he comes out here.” Greystone called Teddy, hit the speaker button.

“Sleeping,” Teddy answered, his groggy voice making Greystone smile.

“Teddy, we got one of the terrorists.”