Primal Obsession

by D. M. Mortier

  Imani had a tracking device on Alex. Justin, Colt, Imani, and Mac got back into the SUV with Colt’s few remaining men in separate cars behind them and a few of Mac’s agents bringing up the rear. With the scare for Imani fresh in their mind, there were no limits, no restraint.

  “The only thing I want to hear from you, you pig, is the names,” Imani muttered. She stared at Baldacci as though she’d tear him apart with her bare hands. “We know where they are, but we need to know what the fuck we’re dealing with.”

  “I don’t understand why you can’t make us the damn weapons!” Despite his situation, sitting with his hands cuffed between Mac and Colt, he was still trying to negotiate for weapons as though he expected to get out of this.

  “Get it through your thick fuckin’ skull. I…don’t…make…weapons!” Imani was almost growling as loud as Colt had earlier.

  “Well, if you want your son back, you’re going to have to change your fuckin’ mind. We’re not backing down. You will make the weapons for us!”

  “What about our parents?” Justin asked quietly.

  “We never had your parents. That feed was fake. That was to throw you off our plan. Your wife helped us with that.”

  Justin looked to Colt and nodded. He didn’t even feel bad about what they’d just agreed. Melissa would pay.

  “I’m going to make sure you’re housed in the worst fuckin’ prison, if those fuckers hurt my godson,” Mac told him in a chillingly soft voice.

  Justin’s phone starting buzzing. He placed it to his ear without looking at the caller ID.

  “Justin?”

  “Nakia? Baby? Are you okay?”

  Everyone in the SUV went quiet in collective surprise. Justin put the phone on speaker.

  “Jay, I’m sending you my location. Can you come?”

  “We know where you are, baby. We’re eight minutes out.”

  “Please hurry.”

  Her urgent panicked tone scared him to his core.

  There was some scuffling in the background, and an accented male voice yelling, “Where the fuck is she? Find the engineer! Find the kid.”

  Justin was already doing over ninety miles per hour in a fifty-five zone. The sound of a pissed-off Russian’s voice propelled him as nothing else would. “Fuck it!” He punched the SUV to 100 miles per hour in seconds.

  “Did you bring her and the half-breed?” a different male voice said in the distance. Justin didn’t recognize the voice because it was so muffled; however, the voice still seemed familiar.

  “No one deserves a comeuppance more than Imani.” A female voice could be heard sneering in the background. “I hate that uppity bitch.”

  “That’s Melissa,” Imani muttered bitterly. “Could that girl be any more stupid?”

  “She hates you,” Justin said softly. He knew that he didn’t have to tell them the obvious, but he still found it hard to believe the depths of Melissa’s prejudice. Hell, he was stunned at his brother’s prejudice. He had no idea how Colt had not fucked them all up for messing with Imani. There was no way he’d accept that shit. Either they accepted Nakia, or he’d say fuck ’em. “If she sees Nakia instead of you, they may kill her.” Again Justin told them the obvious.

  “After that lawyer killed my men, the order changed from capture her to kill her,” Baldacci told them drily.

  “Deal with that for me, will ya?” Justin drawled.

  Colt didn’t hesitate. He planted a firm fist into the left side of Baldacci’s face and smiled with satisfaction at the audible snap of bones and the pain-laced scream from the mobster.

  Baldacci slumped unconscious in his seat.

  “Jay? Are you still there?”

  “I’m here, babe.”

  “They’re going to find me,” Nakia said.

  Her whispered words were barely audible, and Justin had to turn the volume up almost to full capacity on the console so that everyone in the SUV could hear her.

  “I’m almost there,” Justin said.

  “There’s a small window in here. I can’t get through, but little Alex can. It’s a bit of a drop. However, I think the debris will break his fall. Can you get him, please?”

  “We’ll be there soon. Wait a few minutes and one of us will be below the window to catch him.”

  They heard the Russian bellow, “Check every room in this fuckin’ place again!”

  The sound of distant footsteps and doors slamming filled the SUV.

  Justin stopped the vehicle about a quarter-mile from Nakia’s location. Understanding the heightened urgency, everyone quickly jumped out of the car. Mac threw Baldacci’s unconscious body over his shoulder and jogged toward the drop point where he’d agreed to meet up with other agents who would secure the mobster. Justin shook his head at the sight. Mac was strong, but to lift a man of Baldacci’s size? Yeah, that’s not quite right. He filed that one away to think of on a later date.

  Justin, Colt, and Imani activated their shields and ran toward the building where Alex’s locator was strongest. Through his Bluetooth, Justin listened in to the activity happening around Nakia.

  They came to a halt in front of a three-story building that seemed like an abandoned warehouse. The paint had long been worn off the concrete walls, the glass in the windows was black with dirt and broken in numerous places, all entrances looked obstructed with debris, and the place seemed deserted with no visible sign of life within. Despite all of that, they didn’t doubt that they were in the correct location.

  “Damn, I sure hope Nakia’s on the first floor,” Imani muttered drily as she gazed up at building.

  Justin was so focused on listening to what was happening inside the warehouse, it took him a moment to understand why Colt gave a sharp bark of laughter. And then he heard what he’d been dreading from the warehouse.

  “Get out of there!” a male voice demanded.

  Nakia gasped.

  “I know you’re in there, miss. Come out slowly and you won’t get hurt.”

  “Can’t a girl use the bathroom?” Nakia seemed peeved and not at all terrified.

  Confident that no one could see him because of the invisible shield, Justin moved quickly around the building trying to find a way inside.

  Colt and Imani followed the beacon to Alex’s location.

  “Jay, I’m out of time. Sending the package now.”

  Justin stilled at the sound of fear in Nakia’s voice. He wanted to tell her that he was even now entering the building and that Alex’s parents were at the ready. But of course, he could say none of that. He quickened his steps, and with the stealthy expertise of a burglar, he infiltrated the building.

  “Miss, I’m not going to tell you again.”

  “Almost done,” Nakia told him sweetly.

  Justin wasn’t surprised that the interior of the warehouse was as modern and well maintained as the outside was old and derelict. It had a gleaming tiled floor and clean white-washed walls. An air conditioner hummed quietly in the background, and various rooms were decorated in modern chic office furniture. It also didn’t surprise him to hear Melissa’s voice coming from down a hall where she was demanding that someone pull Imani from the bathroom. Again, he wondered what he’d seen in her. How was she able to get under his defenses and completely blind him to who she was?

  Hidden behind his shield, Justin moved farther into the warehouse, navigating through the numerous men and women who were apparently running around performing tasks as though they were having a normal day at work. However, what was alarming was the number of armed mercenaries throughout the rooms that he passed. Any of those men could have been men he would have meet on the battlefield. Already he’d encountered at least twenty of them, and he was sure that there were more in the building. Even with the FBI agents that Mac had outside, they wouldn’t be able to neutralize this nest, especially given the possibility that Alex and Nakia could get caught in the crosshairs.

  “Justin, we’re beneath the
window where Alex’s signal is strongest, but we don’t see him.” Colt’s voice coming through the built-in Bluetooth device in their shields was laced with concern for his son.

  “Send me his location,” Justin whispered, despite the shield’s ability to mute his voice to the outside world. As soon as the locator on Alex came onto his phone, Justin started moving faster toward the beacon indicating Alex’s location. “I think I’m close, but we have to get them out without engaging.”

  “What? I’m going to destroy those bastards for what they did to my people, my home, my family.”

  “We can’t. At least not today. We can’t take the risk with Alex, Nakia, and Imani here. There’re too many of them.”

  “Get my son.”

  “I will. Tell Mac to hang back. We’ll need him, but not now.” Justin continued moving, following the GPS to Alex. He passed a large room that had a glass-wall panel and looked like a prestigious corporate boardroom, complete with gleaming black furniture and a large boardroom table, which sat at least twenty and had leather chairs. Of course it wouldn’t be complete without the requisite armed bad guys, paired with his triumphant, evil, soon-to-be ex-wife. The sight of a KGB commander chilled him to the bone. The shock of it had him frozen with indecision. What the hell was Sergey Smirnov doing here? And then another man stood. It was as though he’d been gut-punched with iron fists. He stumbled.

  The sound of gunfire, followed by Alex’s cries, forced him out of his daze, and Colt’s, “What the fuck was that?” had him in a full-on sprint.

  Unfortunately, it also got the attention of the mercenaries, who also sprinted toward the sound.

  Alex’s locator suddenly died.

  Justin stood in the doorway of the bathroom where the locator had indicated Alex only a few moments ago. A man with an obvious gunshot wound to the chest was in the middle of the room on the floor, bleeding out but apparently already dead. Justin moved farther into the room baffled by the lost signal. “Colt?”

  “We have Alex.” Colt’s relieved voice reached him. “Keep Nakia safe.”

  The sheer relief over Alex’s safety was short lived, as the bathroom was soon swarming with soldiers.

  Justin gave them a wide berth, not wanting to engage unless absolutely necessary. He watched as they searched the room in frustration.

  “Where the hell is she? Where’s the kid?” Sergey muttered.

  “That bitch is here. I can smell her.” The man who Justin had never thought would betray them stood in the midst of Russian soldiers against his country, against his family. Justin was sure he was still in a state of shock. He ignored this betrayal now and, instead, tried thinking of possible places Nakia could be hiding.

  The windows in the room were clearly too small, and there was no way she would have made it out of the bathroom without him seeing her. She had to be in the vent.

  “Search the vents!” Sergey must have come to the same conclusion that he did.

  Justin wasn’t surprised. Sergey might be a sick bastard, but he was also a brilliant strategist. But then so was Nakia. He hoped she moved as though her life depended on it, because it did.

  Nakia lowered Alex as far down through the window as she could. She was shaking like a leaf. Although she’d carried a gun most of her adult life, never had she ever had to shoot someone. Now in less than twenty-four hours, she’d killed four people. The man had reached into the stall to grab her and had grabbed her breast instead. She’d just lost it and shot him without thinking. She knew that the sound of the gunfire and Alex crying would bring everyone running toward her. Now, she moved as fast as she dared.

  Letting go of Alex and seeing Imani immediately take him gave her an added spring in her step to get out of there. As she pulled the air conditioner vent facing open, she thought about Jay and wondered if he was close. There was no way she could get her ass out of that window, and no way in hell she could fit her ass into the air conditioner vent. As footsteps came rushing toward her, she dove behind the door of the office next to bathroom after ensuring the vent and window were left open to leave the easy conclusion in their minds that either opening was her means of escape.

  While everyone was busy examining the male body and then trying to look through the open window and vent, she quickly crawled out of the office. Remaining low to the ground, she crawled quickly past another office, where she could hear Melissa cursing the men for their incompetence in not finding Imani.

  The relief on seeing Imani alive had brought immediate moisture to her eyes. Imani had mouthed “thank you” as soon as Alex had fallen into her arms. Nakia smiled now thinking of the sweet reunion between mother and baby. For the hundredth time since she’d met Alex, she thought of one day having a baby like him passed through her mind He was a beautiful, mild-mannered baby. She couldn’t wait to feel her own baby in her arms, that was if she could get out of here alive.

  After darting in and out of hiding places to avoid the many guards along the hall, she finally had to take refuge in another vacant room because the hall was so littered with armed guards.

  The big Russian, who’d so senselessly killed so many of his own men, was even now yelling that everyone should get off their asses and find her.

  Nakia knew that it was only a matter of time before they found her. She hid behind a chair in the room as men entered the adjacent room, scouring every inch of it if the noise they were making was anything to go by.

  “Come with me, Nakia,” Justin whispered.

  Nakia bit back a scream. “Where did you come from?” She stopped when she looked behind her but couldn’t see him. “Where did you go?”

  “I’m right here. Keep moving. We need to move.”

  Justin’s commanding voice left no room to argue. Nakia felt as though she was living in a bizarre realm where nothing made sense. He gripped her hand and pulled her along to follow in his wake. She had to stop her scream every time he would come in and out of invisibility wielding a wicked-looking knife with silent, deadly precision, and created a path for them. He kept her hidden behind him each time he had to silence and disarm a guard before them. When they reached a heavily guarded hall, suddenly some of the guards in front of them started dropping as though they were wired dolls and someone had pulled their plugs.

  Nakia watched in disbelief as Justin entered the fray, completely undaunted by the mystery of the other guards falling where they stood. She ran along in Justin’s wake as he silently created a path. Nakia knew their silent getaway wouldn’t last for long, and it didn’t. Too soon a shout rang out behind.

  “Get her!”

  “Run!” Justin whisper-yelled.

  “You don’t have to tell me twice.” Nakia took off as though a starter had set off the gun to her own personal race. As a track athlete in college, she was soon running well ahead of Justin. And then she realized that he was deliberately running behind her to shield her from any possible bullets coming their way. However, she knew that she didn’t have to worry because the men still thought she was Imani and they wouldn’t risk killing her by shooting.

  “Run to the gate,” Justin ordered. “Our car is waiting there.”

  She looked back to see how many were after them and stopped when she didn’t see Justin again. She wasn’t dealing with the invisibility thing very well.

  “Keep running!” Justin ordered.

  “Stop doing that disappearing thing! I can’t see where you are.”

  “Fuck! Keep running!” Justin growled.

  Nothing made sense, but with at least ten men running toward her, she turned and ran as though she were in the final of the one hundred. The passenger side door of the vehicle was opened and the engine running as she approached the dark SUV idling at the curb. She was shocked to see Imani with Alex in her lap in the back seat. A white guy with ink black hair—a Clark Kent look-a-like, tall and built like a sleek panther—sat in the driver’s seat. And before she could fully process what was happening, the vehicle
dipped with the others entering, and a solid weight pushed her to slide closer to Imani. Nakia shrieked as the car pulled away from the curb on screaming tires at a break-neck speed. The sound of bullets ricocheting off the windows filled the SUV.

  Alex screamed and hugged his mother tighter.

  Justin and Colt suddenly appeared, Justin in the seat beside her and Colt in the front passenger seat.

  “What the hell?” Nakia wasn’t surprised that her voice sounded hoarse and confused.

  “Thank you for keeping my son safe, Nakia,” Imani said softly beside her.

  Nakia looked at her as though she’d lost her mind. “Are you going to ignore that freak show I just saw?” When Imani didn’t answer her, she turned to Justin and punched him in the arm. “Ouch!” Why the hell was he so hard? That hurt like a mother…

  “What was that for?” It was Justin’s turn to stare at her as though she were losing it.

  “You do a Houdini on me, and you ask why I hit you?”

  Justin pulled her into his lap and kissed her with that mind-numbing hunger that she found searing every time he kissed her. In seconds, every thought left her head—the bullets against the car, Imani sitting next to her with Alex playing goo-goo faces, and she certainly didn’t think of Colt and the driver. Her senses were only attuned to Justin, his taste, the feel of his hardness against her softer curves, and his masculine scent. She wound her arms around his neck and pulled him in closer.

  “Yo, bro, my son doesn’t need to be seeing that.” Colt’s teasing voice reached her as though she were under water.

  Justin released her lips but held her gaze. “Are you okay?”

  Nakia could only nod because she couldn’t find her voice.

  “They’ll never touch you again.”

  At his almost apologetic tone, she brushed her lips against his and murmured, “That wasn’t your fault.”