“What kind of fucking whore are you? You fall asleep as soon as I’m gone? You disgust me.”
He laughed. She wished she could kick him in the balls and make his laugh turn into a cry of pain. How she hated his laugh. How she hated his face. She never thought she could feel such anger toward another human being in her life. But he posed a direct threat to Stryker. She’d be damned if she ever let him hurt the man she loved.
“I still have use for you, stupid puta. I just need your thumb…” His words broke off into more laughter. “Did you really think you could escape me? You learned your lesson, didn’t you, puta?”
“You’re the only bitch here.” She spit in his face, using what little moisture she was able to work into her mouth. He drew back his hand as though to strike her again, but he drew in a deep shuddering breath, and gradually lowered his arm. “You’re lucky I’m in a generous mood right now. I just want your thumb. Don’t make it so that I have to cut it off you.”
Anya tried to suppress the shudder that ran through her, but she knew from his smile, she wasn’t completely successful. She knew he was the type of man who would have no problem cutting off her thumb and would probably even enjoy it. He pulled her phone out of his pocket, and she stared at it in confusion, before it suddenly dawned on her what he was about to do.
He grabbed her thumb and pressed it to the phone, unlocking it. After several silent moments, he smiled brightly. “Tsk, tsk, tsk,” he said, shaking his head at her. “How terribly unoriginal. I would have thought you would have programmed him as ‘lover’ or ‘boy toy.’ But instead, you just put him under his name. You disappoint me.”
“You disgust me.”
He hit the speed dial button for Stryker and put the phone on speaker so she could hear it ringing. There was a click on the other end of the line, but there was no greeting. “I assume I’ve reached the infamous Stryker,” Benicio said into the phone.
“And who am I speaking with?” Stryker’s deep voice came across the line, and Anya wanted to cry at the sound.
“Let’s just say it is the man in control.”
“His name is Benicio Davila! He’s from the drug—”
“Ah. Benicio. I’ve heard so much about you.”
“This little puta you’ve been with doesn’t have any discipline. But I’ll fix that for you. It just may take more time than I had planned.”
“What is it, exactly, that you have planned? Because you aren’t really acting like a rational man right now.”
“You’re not in a position to talk, Stryker. I’m the one in power right now.”
“You only have the woman. I have the drive you so desperately want. How are you going to rebuild your empire without this?”
“I have the programmer ready to do as I bid when I return to Mexico. The drive only gives us a starting point. What your men destroyed in Mexico was far more valuable. So, you see, the drive is just a bonus at this point. Knowing you’ve suffered because of this woman’s death will be the true reward.”
Anya choked. She had to stop Stryker from trying to save her. Benicio had a streak of evil in him a mile wide. They couldn’t stop him. Not even if all of the men from the ranch came to help. She didn’t want them to be hurt by this one man’s madness.
“Put her on the phone for me.” Stryker’s voice didn’t leave room for discussion.
“She’s not really in a position to talk right now,” Benicio said, looking over at Anya, whose head was hanging to the side, but she sat up straighter and blinked back her tears.
“Unless I talk to her directly, I’ll not be able to give you whatever it is you want.”
“I thought I’d already made it clear what I want from you. Do I need to repeat myself?”
“Put her on the phone.”
A muscle twitched in Benicio’s jaw, then he held the phone out toward Anya. She couldn’t stop the tears that slid down her cheeks. “Stryker,” she said with as firm a voice as she could muster.
“Anya. How badly are you hurt?”
“I’m fine, Stryker, there is no need for you to—”
“Now you’ve had your chance to talk to her. I expect you to deliver on my request. Bring the drive to the old mill facility near the abandoned tracks within thirty minutes. I suspect you’ll try to bring those men of yours along, but that is pointless. I can see far around me and will be able to take them out long before they get me in their sights. You have thirty minutes starting now.”
* * *
“We should storm the place.”
“While I appreciate your enthusiasm, Snap, Benicio is right. As soon as he sees us coming, he’ll draw a bead on us. It’s best for you to stay back.”
“And let you take the fall for all of us? We’re going to back you up, Stryker; we just have to make a plan for how all of this is going down.”
Stryker ran a hand through his hair and paced the small room. The bastard had to be stopped. But his team was right. If he went in there alone, neither he nor Anya would make it out alive.
“Buzz, can you pull up a detailed map of the town?”
“I can do you one better. I can pull up a live satellite image of the town.” Buzz’s fingers flew across the keyboard, and within seconds, they were watching him zoom in on the little town they now thought of as home.
“He said the old mill, right? What would that look like?” Buzz asked, and a couple of the men chuckled.
“City boy, through and through,” Phantom muttered as he looked at the images Buzz had pulled up.
“Yeah, well, this ‘city boy’ is helping your happy asses, so just can it right now.”
There were a few more chuckles in the room, then silence as the men studied the images. They were all tense, and the lighthearted banter helped ease some of the nervous energy that gripped the room.
“There.” Stryker pointed at a building on the edge of town near the abandoned railroad tracks. “It’s the perfect size for a feed mill, and its location makes sense. But there are very few buildings around there. Team, this is going to be virtually impossible.”
Phantom slapped Stryker on the back. “We’re not known for taking the easy jobs, brother.”
Stryker looked at the guys, knowing how fortunate he was. These men were his brothers in more than arms. They were his family. And they were ready and willing to help him save the woman he loved.
“All right, Phantom, we have ten minutes to make a plan and gather gear.”
“Not a problem.” Phantom nodded firmly. “She’s going to be okay.”
Stryker looked each one of them in the eye, hoping to convey how much he appreciated all they were doing for him. “Then we roll out.”
“Hoo-yah!”
* * *
“You’re not going to get what you want. You never will. He’s too smart for you.” The wise thing for her to do would be to say nothing. But, for some reason, she couldn’t control herself. All she wanted was to point out to the man that he was inferior to everyone…especially Stryker.
Because she knew Stryker was coming. She felt it in her bones. She knew beyond a doubt that he was going to come for her, and that he was going to try to save her. But Benicio had the upper hand. He had pulled her to the second-floor landing of the building. From his vantage point, he would be able to hit Stryker as soon as he entered the building.
She had to do something to protect Stryker. He would be walking into certain death if she didn’t do something to warn him. Benicio had turned his back on her and was pacing back and forth, looking at his watch every few seconds. She ground her teeth together. This drive they were talking about meant far more to him than he had revealed. In fact, he was desperate for it. That was the angle she was going to have to play with him.
“Benicio,” she said, attempting to make her voice sound as defeated as possible. “Benicio, please, I can’t take a
nymore.”
Benicio spun on his heel and faced her. At first she thought he had sunk so far into his madness that he wasn’t even aware of what he was doing. But then, his eyes focused on her and a slow, animalistic smile came to his face. “So, you are finally cracking, eh, my ice queen? Tell me… What is it you can’t take anymore?” He leaned down in her face.
“Please, I’m just so thirsty, and tired…”
“That’s it, puta? You’re tired and you’re thirsty?”
“And…and I’m scared. I don’t want to do this anymore. I’m ready to tell you everything I can.”
“It’s a little late for that. I’m about to have all my answers delivered to me.”
“No. You’re not. Stryker gave me the drive when he came and saw me this morning.”
His look of triumph faded slowly and an expression of anger crept into his features. “What? Tell me the truth, you fucking whore! I destroyed your clinic looking for that flash drive. It wasn’t there.”
“You didn’t know where to look. I saw you take boxes of my medications. I hid the drive in one of the medicine bottles.”
“You couldn’t have. There’s no way you had time.”
“You came into my clinic a couple of hours after he left. I had plenty of time.”
Suddenly his blade was out again and pressed against her throat. “You better not be lying to me this time, puta. I know you’re worried about your precious boyfriend, but if you are lying to me, I’ll make you watch while I torture him, slowly and very, very painfully.”
His blade dropped down and slashed at the tape at her ankles, then at the tape at her wrists. Before she could move, his hand was in her hair and the blade was pressed against her neck. “Stand. Slowly.”
Anya did as he said, knowing she was not only buying Stryker time, but also giving him a better advantage when he came inside. She stood slowly. “If you don’t move down these stairs fast enough, I’ll push you down them,” he threatened.
Anya drew a deep breath and began to move down the stairs, clutching the rail tightly. She was having a hard time pulling air into her lungs as he ushered her forward, her chest tight with anxiety.
She stumbled along, gasping. He was going to kill her. The realization brought about a sudden calm in her. If he took her life instead of Stryker’s, it would all be worth it. She squeezed her eyes shut against the fear that clawed at her from inside. She could do this. She could fight him just a little longer.
He dragged her outside into the hot sun to a Land Rover. The SUV should have plenty of room to hold the boxes she had seen him take from her clinic. She focused on the SUV instead of the sharp pain in her side or her bare feet treading on the rough ground. She stumbled forward until he yanked her to a stop and opened the rear of the Land Rover. The boxes of her medication filled the back of the SUV.
“Find it.” He pointed to the boxes and shoved her toward them.
Anya’s heart was racing and her hands were shaking so violently, she didn’t know if she’d be able to go through the contents of the boxes. How much time had passed? At least fifteen minutes. That meant she had another fifteen to burn before Stryker arrived. She had to keep Benicio distracted.
Her legs were trembling as she leaned into the back of his Land Rover and began to dig through the contents of the first box. Why had he pilfered her medications? The answer struck her instantly. He intended to give them to his crew to sell on the black market as soon as he returned to Mexico. The medications were hard to come by, which was why she always kept them locked up in her cabinets.
With determination, she dug through the box, trying to find anything that could help her. But all she could find was bottle upon bottle of simple pills that she gave to animals in need of help. She needed syringes and a vial of horse tranquilizer that she could quickly stab into Benicio’s thigh, but she had to find the right items. And her time was quickly running out.
As if in response to her thoughts, Benicio’s voice cut through the hot, humid air. “Hurry up!” he barked.
“You’re making me too nervous,” she said weakly, hoping he would believe her.
“If you’re lying to me, puta, you’ll live long enough to regret it. Because I will make you cry for mercy before I kill you.” His voice was a low growl behind her.
She reached into another box and felt the glass medicine vials, and for a moment, her heart soared. “I’m looking, I’m looking,” she pleaded. “Did you bring all the bottles with you?”
He took a step back from her, cursing under his breath, and she knew she had found a potential weak spot. She turned to glance back at him. “You did take all the bottles, right?”
“Keep searching. You have a few more minutes.”
Her heart was pounding so hard, she was certain he could hear it. She turned back to the SUV, and with one hand dug through the bottles, making the appropriate rattling sound, while the other hand, the one she concentrated on, carefully maneuvered the vials until she found the one she needed. Now she could only pray he’d been greedy enough to grab syringes too.
Time was slipping away, and she knew he was going to take her back soon. Feeling through the boxes blindly, she nearly cheered when her hand wrapped around a syringe. She didn’t even look at it before she plunged it through the thick rubber stopper of the vial and began to draw out medicine.
“What are you doing? You stupid, fucking whore!” He spun her around and lifted his hand to backhand her, but she plunged the needle into his stomach. She had gotten a decent amount of the medication into the syringe, but he knocked it from her hand so fast, she doubted she had gotten much into his system. But it would slow his movements. It would cause him to be less aware and give Stryker the upper hand.
He grabbed her arm and pulled her up close. “You want me to hurt you, don’t you?” She felt a slight tremor in his grip and wondered if he was already feeling the impact of the tranquilizer. She may have just saved her own life, and Stryker’s too.
Chapter 28
Grabbing her hand, he hauled her back into the mill and let go of her so suddenly she fell to her knees. She had to remain strong for Stryker. Everything she did, every choice she made, must be to try to protect Stryker, if at all possible.
She knew she would do everything in her power to protect him. Even if it meant sacrificing her own life. She wavered as she climbed back to her feet in front of the man responsible for her grim thoughts, and wanted nothing more than to punch him in the face. She needed to distract him. That was the best way to provide help for Stryker.
“Why is this drive so important to you? What’s on it?”
His smile was mirthless. “You wouldn’t understand.”
He was doing something that was making a lot of noise, but she was too disoriented with fear and thirst to figure out what it was. “I actually know quite a bit about computers,” she lied. “What does this drive have on it that is so important to you that you’re willing to kill for it?”
“My dear, I would kill someone if they failed to bring me the right item I requested. Killing you means nothing to me. Killing Stryker, on the other hand, is very important to me. As I’m sure you know, he went into Mexico and virtually destroyed my leadership team. What he doesn’t know is that I’ve had leaders in training for years, in case just such a thing would happen. He hasn’t crippled me. He’s merely made me adjust my timetable.”
“Then why the fixation on this drive? If you have a plan in place, why not just go ahead and move forward with it?”
“And this is why I say you know so little. Do you want to know why I’m one of the youngest leaders out of all the drug cartels, hmm? Because of that drive. It has encrypted data on there that no one else can see. So, I simply must have it back. And if it costs two foolish American lives to make it happen…” He shrugged nonchalantly. “Now, back up those stairs. I want to see him coming.”
&nbs
p; “Too late.” Stryker’s voice was cold, hard, and full of anger. But it was sweet music to Anya’s ears. Before she could react, Benicio grabbed her and pressed the muzzle of the gun directly against her temple.
“I can see why you came,” Benicio said, hiding behind Anya’s body. “She certainly is sweet.”
She was afraid to move. She was afraid to do anything. Benicio had the gun pressed so tightly to her head, she knew the slightest move could have her brains splattered across the floor.
Despite the heat and the fact that she was sweating, a chill slipped down her spine.
“Let her go, Benicio, and I’ll give you the drive.”
“Your little whore claims you gave it to her when you went to see her early this morning. Which one of you is lying?”
Stryker hadn’t looked at her since he had entered the building. He’d kept his eyes fixed on Benicio. But at Benicio’s words, his eyes flicked to Anya briefly. She pleaded for his forgiveness with her eyes, but his eyes quickly darted back to Benicio.
“I gave her a copy of the drive this morning for insurance. I was afraid you had gotten it when you destroyed her office. But I found it where she had shown me she would hide it.”
Anya’s heart was pounding. Would Benicio believe their story? Now that he had no use for her, was he going to kill her?
“Let her go and I’ll give you the drives.”
“No, no, no. It isn’t that simple. There is a laptop in the corner over there. Put the flash drive in and cue it up.”
Stryker stared at him for several long moments, without any expression on his face. “I’m not the tech savvy one,” he said softly. “I’m just the one who gets things done.”
“Then you’ll get this done, won’t you?”
“You’ll need to turn on the laptop for me. Like I said, I’m not the tech savvy one.”
A SEAL Never Quits Page 25
