How would I ever escape?
CHAPTER EIGHT
Nishi
Instead of heading straight back to Augusta like I expected, my father drove slowly through Eatonton, then parked at the opposite end of the woods near a park. It was still dark out, though dawn was rapidly approaching. No one was around. My father handed a manila file folder to Ling, who perused it, flipping through several pages, before nodding and handing it back to Katsu, who sat next to me in the backseat, deliberately crowding me.
I remained silent and stared out my window, trying to ignore Katsu and his attempts to intimidate me.
Desperation clung to me, my heart sinking deeper and deeper at my predicament. I was a prisoner once again. I had been purchased by an evil man. Bought like an item at the store. And on Friday I would be forced to wed Malik against my will.
My father glanced at me in the rearview mirror. “Your foolishness can be forgiven if you successfully complete a task before the wedding on Friday night. A very important task.” He still spoke in Japanese.
I snorted, rolling my eyes and looking away from him. Whatever he wanted, I wasn’t doing it.
“Katsu.” My father motioned at me. “Untie her hands and give her the file.”
Katsu cut through my bonds, then tossed the manila file folder in my lap. Written across the top in big black letters in English was the word, “Dregs.”
Was this the same file I’d seen them arguing about earlier?
I hesitated. Had my father figured out I knew English? Was this some kind of test? The rumors about the dregs were that they were supposedly former soldiers who had been cast aside when their employer had deemed them no longer fit for duty. It was rumored that they were killers, monsters, beasts. Extremely dangerous. To be avoided at all cost.
Or so the rumors said. But did anyone really know the truth?
The file was about two inches thick. That was a lot of pages. What was in this file?
“I know you can read and speak English,” my father went on, this time speaking in English. “I have known for some time.”
I let out a soft gasp. He knew? So much for my secretiveness. I hadn’t fooled anyone. I sent him a glare, unable to think of a suitable response.
He cocked a brow. “You don’t think I knew about you listening in on our conversations? I’m no fool, Nishi. Read the damn file.” He motioned to the file folder I held.
I hesitated, then my curiosity finally won out. I opened the folder.
At the top of the first page was the title, “The Trainer.”
I sucked in a startled breath as I stared at a photo of Logan. My Logan. The very same man I’d met earlier that night. The photo was of a slightly younger Logan, his hair shorter, cut in a military style, probably taken a year or so ago. But it was definitely his handsome face staring back at me.
I felt my father’s gaze narrow on me. He knew. He knew I’d been with Logan. The Trainer.
How? How had my father known? Had he seen Logan dropping me off earlier? He must have.
Trying to act nonchalant, as if I had never seen Logan before, I carefully skimmed the top page.
Recruit Number 52. Name: Logan. Age at time of recruit: thirteen. Mother: Katherine Williams. Father: Edward Waters. Female siblings (full): Heather Williams, current residence Phoenix, Arizona. Female siblings (half): none. Male siblings in the program (half): Nathan, Antonio, Liam, Noah, Ryan, Luke…
The list of Logan’s half siblings was extensive and went on for the rest of the page. That was a lot of siblings. At least a hundred…Wow. How could one man produce so many offspring? Had the women been artificially inseminated? What the hell was this?
I didn’t want to believe Logan was a dreg, but if this information was true, then that was exactly what he was. How could Logan be a dreg? He was too kind. Too generous. Not a killer. Not a monster. Maybe the rumors about the dregs are false.
I slowly turned to the next page.
This page seemed to be some type of lab results. I flipped to the next page.
Same thing. More lab results.
And the next page. More.
I skimmed over a few sentences.
Recruit 52 has been experiencing violent episodes of severe vomiting and diarrhea after injection of mixture 26-C. Dehydration imminent. Recommend unrestricted access to liquids to restore lost fluids. No antibiotics or medical intervention allowed.
What the hell was this? What did that mean? What was mixture 26-C? Trying to ignore the stares of my father, Ling, and Katsu, I flipped to another page and read more.
Recruit 52 showing signs of heightened senses only forty-eight hours after injection of leopard DNA.
What? Leopard DNA? Was this real?
I kept reading.
Recruit 52 withstood injection of mixture 28-F with only minimal side effects. Proceed with mixture 36-P.
Horror and disbelief twisted my gut. What was this? Had Logan been treated like a lab rat? Experimented on? Subjected to some type of injections? What did the different mixtures consist of?
My heart squeezed. No, no, no. It couldn’t be true. This was sick. How could anyone treat another human being like this?
Read more, Nishi, before your father takes the file away.
I flipped through several more pages of lab results, then reached a page that was titled, “Strength, endurance, and torture testing.”
I only read a few paragraphs on that page before my stomach roiled in revulsion.
Recruit 52 had been tortured in horrendous and disgusting ways, all in an attempt to make him stronger, to test his endurance, to see how much torture he could withstand.
I’d read enough.
Swallowing hard, I thrust the file back at Katsu and slowly lifted my gaze to my father’s in the rearview mirror.
“Where did you get that?”
My father smirked. “From a military man who has offered us an exorbitant amount of money to eliminate all the dregs. There is information on nine different dregs in that folder. We recently received information that one of them is already deceased—the giant redheaded guy called The Gardener. So that means we only have to track down and kill eight dregs.”
I feared where this was headed. “What does this have to do with me?”
My father motioned to Ling. Ling swiped something on his phone, then turned around in his seat to hold the phone up for me to see.
It was video footage. Of the hotel. It showed Logan pulling up in his black truck, and me getting out of the truck and hurrying inside. The footage was far enough away that it wasn’t crystal clear, but anyone who knew me would recognize me in the video. Logan’s features were obscured by the dark and his truck windshield, but my father had obviously figured out who he was by looking at the file.
They must have harassed the desk clerk—or killed her—in order to get that footage from her.
I slowly lifted my gaze back to my father’s.
“That man in the truck…” my father pointed to the phone. “Is a dreg. Recruit Number 52. His name is Logan. He is called The Trainer. He helped you earlier tonight. Tell us what you did with him. What you know about him. Tell us where to find him.”
Was he serious? My lips were sealed. “I don’t know anything about him, Father, I swear. He just gave me some money and dropped me off at the hotel. I have no idea how to find him.”
Katsu reached over and twisted my arm painfully. So painfully that the elbow joint popped. I bit my lip to keep from crying out. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing how much it hurt.
“Answer the questions, Nishi. Or I will break your arm.”
I shot Katsu my fiercest glare, then turned back to my father. “I don’t know. The man in the video found me loitering around the gas station a few hours ago and gave me a ride to the hotel. That’s all that happened. I swear.”
My father’s gaze narrowed even more. “I don’t believe you. But I will give you a chance to amend your wrongs.” He nodded at Katsu, who released me
abruptly.
My elbow popped again as the joint slid back into place. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to block out the pain.
“You help us find The Trainer,” my father continued. “And your punishment will be suspended indefinitely.”
Firsthand experience had taught me that any type of punishment at the hands of my father or Katsu was bound to be painful and very memorable.
If you give them Logan, they won’t punish you. Just do it.
If I give them Logan, they will kill him. How can I do that to him?
He’s a dreg, Nishi. You don’t know anything about him. Just do this and they won’t punish you for escaping.
But Logan had helped me. How could I just give him up? How could I betray him that way?
My father lifted the piece of paper that Logan had scribbled his number on, waving it at me. “This is his number, is it not? The Trainer?”
I didn’t answer.
“Call him.” My father tossed the piece of paper at me. It floated down behind my father’s seat, landing on the floor near my feet. I ignored it, refusing to call Logan. Refusing to lure him out so my father could kill him.
“Pick it up!” Katsu ordered, twisting my arm again and wringing a gasp of pain out of me.
Glaring at him, I slowly bent to retrieve the paper with Logan’s number.
Katsu held a cellphone out to me. “Call. Him.”
My father’s hard stare ordered me to obey. “Do as you are told, Nishi. Call the dreg. Tell him to meet us here.”
My hands shaking, I slowly did as they ordered, tapping Logan’s number into Katsu’s phone, then pushing the “call” icon.
Don’t answer, Logan. Please don’t answer.
It rang four times before it went to a standard voicemail. Please leave your message after the tone.
I let out a sigh of relief.
Katsu scowled. He yanked his phone from my grasp, and snatched the paper with Logan’s number from my hand. My father drove the truck back out onto the road. No one spoke. What did they have planned now?
“You know what to do,” my father told Katsu.
What did that mean? What was Katsu supposed to do now?
Minutes later, we were heading out onto the highway toward Augusta. They were taking me back to my prison.
But they still had Logan’s number.
And there was no telling what they might do with it.
CHAPTER NINE
Logan
A coyote howled from somewhere off in the distance, jerking me out of my stunned disbelief.
The Black Dragons had Nishi.
I shouldn’t have dropped her off at the hotel like that. I should have brought her inside the maze with me where it was safe.
You don’t know that. You don’t even know her. She might bring the Black Dragons here. She might be a spy.
No. I didn’t believe that. Nishi wasn’t a spy. It had been several hours since I’d taken her to the hotel. She’d had plenty of time to come back here with the gang if she wanted to.
Dammit. I began pacing across the forest floor. Should I go after her? Try to help her? How would I find her? How would I save her if I had no idea what had happened?
I couldn’t go alone. I wasn’t about to take on a gang by myself.
The coyote howled again. Another coyote answered with a serious of yips and yaps. Then silence.
Ryan and Luke had left hours ago to pick up women, so only Noah and I were here at the maze. Dawn was rapidly approaching. I imagined Ryan and Luke would be back within an hour or so.
I couldn’t wait that long. If I was going after Nishi, I needed to go now.
It might already be too late.
Maybe Noah would be willing to go with me.
I turned and headed back inside. If I could somehow help Nishi, I would. I couldn’t just leave her at the mercy of the Dragons.
What if it’s a trap? What if she planned the entire thing?
No. I refused to believe that. There was something special between us. A rare connection. A bond. Certainly I wouldn’t feel that with someone who was about to betray me. I had sensed goodness in her. Honesty. Not deception.
I found Noah in his tech room, bent over the desk with some type of electronic device, a pair of magnifying glasses perched on his nose, a soldering gun in his hand, and the smell of burnt lead filling the air.
He glanced askance at me, his natural eye focusing on me above the lenses of the glasses, while the prosthetic eye gazed unseeingly straight ahead. Noah set aside the soldering gun, and lowered the glasses to the end of his nose. “What’s up?”
I hesitated. How did I explain this? Would he be willing to drop everything to help a complete stranger? A woman who was associated with the Black Dragons?
I gave a quick rundown of the situation, then asked, “Will you help me?” I held my breath as I awaited his response.
Noah eyed me for a long moment, his gaze probing. Then he unplugged the soldering gun, and set the magnifying glasses on top of the desk.
“If this girl got to you that much after one meeting, then she must be something special. You haven’t even looked at a woman in seven years.”
I squirmed uncomfortably, my face heating. He was the only one who knew that. And he’d never mentioned it before.
Noah rose from his chair. “Of course, I’ll help you, bro. Let’s go.”
Relief crashed over me. My partner was willing to help. Of course he was. He was my best friend. My brother. Maybe, between the two of us, we could find Nishi and save her from the Black Dragons.
A half hour later, we reached the hotel. Pulling the hoods of our sweatshirts up over our heads to help obscure our features, we hurried inside and approached the front desk.
“Hi.” I smiled at the young woman behind the counter. “Can you tell me if some Asian men were in here recently?”
She hesitated, fear entering her eyes, then quickly lowered her gaze. “Um…”
“It’s all right,” I murmured. “We aren’t here to hurt you.”
She glanced back up at us, her gaze questioning.
“We’re the good guys, we promise.” Noah winked at her, making her blush. “We’re trying to catch the bad guys.”
“Oh, are you…police?” She eyed him with big, interested brown eyes.
“Something like that,” I responded, drawing her gaze back to me. “Were they here? The Asians? Did they take a woman with them?”
“Yes. About a half hour or so ago. They forced me to pull up the hotel cameras, then they made me tell them which room she was in. They dragged her out of here a few minutes after that. I felt bad for her, but there wasn’t anything I could do to help. They threatened to kill me if I called the cops.”
I was right. The Black Dragons had Nishi. Now what?
We thanked the woman and headed back to my truck.
If the Black Dragons had taken Nishi, then chances were she was on her way to Augusta right now. I had no idea where the Dragons’ compound was located. The Dragons were one of the most dangerous gangs in Augusta. Getting inside their compound would be difficult, if not impossible. But first, we had to find them.
And we had no idea even where to start.
Noah and I sat in silence for a moment. “What do you want to do?” he asked finally.
I groaned. “Shit. I don’t know. I don’t even know where the Dragons hang out.”
“I feel your frustration,” he murmured. “But there’s really nothing we can do right now. Let’s head back to the maze. I can do some research, see if maybe we can find out where the Dragons live.”
“All right.” While I hardly knew Nishi, I couldn’t just ignore what had happened. I had to at least try to save her. Nate had done the same for Alissa, and look at them now. They were happy. In love. He’d risked his life, and we’d risked ours helping him to save Alissa.
I would do the same for Nishi. A girl I barely knew.
But first I had to find her.
It wasn’t u
ntil we arrived back at the maze, and I retrieved my phone from where I’d tossed it into the center console, that I discovered I had a missed call.
From an unknown number.
There was no message.
Shit. Had I missed a call from Nishi? The call had come in only minutes after my call with her had been disconnected. If she had been kidnapped by the Black Dragons, it was unlikely she’d had access to a phone to call me back that quickly.
Noah read my mind. “Don’t call back,” he warned. “It’s probably the Dragons. If you don’t respond, they won’t have anything on you.”
I raked a hand through my shaggy hair. “What if it’s from her?”
“If it’s from her, we’ll find her. I have an idea,” he murmured. “Let me see if I can track the number and find out where the phone is at. That will give us an idea who called. And it might help us find out where the Dragons are at.”
“Good idea.” Noah was the best hacker I knew. He could track, hack, program, research, create, uncover, conceal just about anything that had to do with computers and electronics. While my brain processed languages, his processed the binary system. If there was a way to find out who had called me, Noah would be the one to do it.
It might take us a few days, but I vowed I would find Nishi. With Noah’s help, we would save her.
It was time to embrace my past. Time to do the things I didn’t like to do.
I’d been trained for this very type of thing. I may not have liked it. I may have resisted most of the time. But I was still good at it.
It was time to turn off my humanity and release the beast that hovered inside.
I was going after Nishi.
I was going to free her.
No matter what it took.
It was time to embrace who I was.
Time to be a dreg.
CHAPTER TEN
Nishi
Just as I suspected, the moment we returned to Augusta, my father ordered Katsu to punish me. They marched me right to the torture room and locked me inside. And now, twelve hours later, I had painful bruises to prove what I’d been forced to endure.
Katsu had just released me, and I currently waited outside my father’s office for his instructions.
The Trainer (military romantic suspense) (The Dregs Book 5) Page 6
