Stronger than Sin (Sin Hunters)

by Caridad Piñeiro

  The barest hint of a smile passed over Carmen’s lips before the blackness of the fabric blinded him. He reached out and encountered the warmth of Liliana’s arm. Followed the line of it down to her hand, where he twined his fingers with hers and squeezed gently.

  She returned the caress, but a second later Bruno’s rough shove at his back pulled them apart.

  “Get going,” the other man said and applied pressure on Jesse’s back to guide him forward.

  He stumbled against a chair leg. Bumped his knee sharply along the edge of a cabinet. As he hesitated, Bruno shoved him hard once more.

  “Get a move on, Jesse,” Bruno advised.

  He took a larger step, found himself up against Liliana’s back. He wrapped an arm around her midsection, and they step-stumbled their way blindly out of the lab and to a car that was apparently waiting outside. In front of Jesse came the motion of Liliana stepping upward, and he followed, plopped down next to her in the seat.

  Something landed in his lap. As he laid his hands on it, the shape and texture were familiar—Liliana’s medical bag. The one with the pen.

  He fumbled along the edge of her bag until he found her hand. Her relieved sigh sounded beside him and he twined his fingers with hers, hoping to provide comfort with that touch. Hoping that in just a few more hours, the nightmare he’d created with his own foolish pride and selfishness would soon be over.

  Somehow Jesse fell asleep in the SUV.

  It had been deliciously warm in the car. That warmth, combined with the darkness from the blindfold and the road noise, had lulled him to sleep.

  It probably shouldn’t have been a surprise, considering how little rest they had gotten the night before.

  As he stirred, the weight of Liliana’s hand in his brought contentment. Peace. Desire.

  Jesse doubted that he would ever think of Liliana and not want her.

  He bent toward her. Smelled her scent, which had become imprinted on his brain. Bumped his nose against the side of her face.

  She turned, and even with the blindfold, he discovered her lips and kissed her. Shifted back toward her ear and whispered, “It’ll be okay.”

  “Yo se,” she confirmed, and with a squeeze of his hand, they slipped back into silence.

  He didn’t know how much time passed before the car decelerated and inched down a bumpy road. No more than fifteen minutes, if he was a good guess of time. Of course he couldn’t tell how long they had been traveling, since he had fallen asleep.

  If his rest had been no more than a power nap, he suspected the trip had taken a little over an hour. Enough time to move them into South Jersey and closer to Camden and Philadelphia. Remembering that Morales and his assistant Jack had mentioned grabbing people from those two cities, he suspected that they had arrived at the location where he had been kept.

  A few minutes later, the SUV came to an abrupt stop. Doors opened and slammed before someone roughly grabbed his arm and yanked him from his seat.

  He lurched from the car, struggled for footing on the uneven ground. A smaller body plowed into his, and he steadied Liliana as she tumbled from the SUV.

  “Get a move on,” Bruno said, applying pressure on his arm to turn him around, Liliana behind him, her hand on his side as she used him for a guide.

  His foot kicked a metal threshold, rattling it and stubbing his toe. He stepped over the threshold and continued walking forward. Liliana’s body was tucked tight to his.

  Finally Bruno yanked off his blindfold and then Liliana’s.

  As his eyes adjusted to the brighter light, he confirmed where he was.

  Back in his prison.

  His body tensed, and it took all of his willpower to not let anger and fear overwhelm him. Especially as from the shadows of the large warehouse, Morales approached with Jack beside him.

  Frankenstein and his faithful servant, Jesse thought.

  Beside him, Liliana stiffened, and he remembered that she, too, had a history with the scientist.

  Morales smiled as he neared. An unctuous smile that left Jesse feeling covered in slime.

  “Mr. Bradford. Dr. Carrera. What a pleasure to see you two again,” Morales said.

  Whittaker stepped forward, hands in his pockets, change jingling. “The good doctor here has offered her assistance. She has more of the inhibitor complex and will help us out with the patients.”

  Morales arched a thin brow, apparently dubious. “Really? Out of the goodness of her heart?”

  “In exchange for me. For my freedom,” Jesse admitted, knowing that Morales could never comprehend doing something for nothing.

  Morales screwed his eyes almost shut as he peered at the two of them and then smacked his lips, as if savoring something delicious. “Ah, I understand. Mr. Bradford is quite well endowed.”

  Liliana trembled beside him, but with fear.

  “I know you could never understand, but I want to help Jesse get better. I want to make sure your patients are also well,” Liliana countered.

  “We’ll see about that,” Morales said and cocked a finger in Jack’s direction.

  “Get them set up at the worktable while I speak with our friends,” he instructed.

  Jack was about to take Liliana’s arm, but when Jesse almost growled at him, he reconsidered and instead just held his arm out in the direction of the far side of the lab.

  As they moved away, Whittaker said, “We need to transfer two of the patients. Have a buyer for them.”

  “But they’re all unstable,” Morales whined, sounding like a child being deprived of a favorite toy.

  Whittaker was not about to relent. “Edwards will get them ready for the sale at the other location.”

  Despite Morales’s continued protests, Whittaker and his men pulled two of the patients from their cages.

  Liliana watched from across the room as they half carried, half dragged the patients out the door, but Jack prodded her in the ribs.

  “Mind your own business,” the little man warned, but Jesse made another threatening motion and the scary man backed away, clearly afraid.

  “Not nice, Jesse,” Dr. Morales advised as he neared, a long rod in his hand.

  Beside her, all color slid away from Jesse’s face, but he remained steadfast by her side.

  As she took a longer look, she realized why her lover had gone pale. The rod in Morales’ hand was a cattle prod. The instrument with which the scientist had goaded Jesse, creating the damage that had produced the bony exoskeleton along his ribs.

  “You won’t need that,” she said and pointed to the weapon.

  Morales grinned and held up the prod. “I see Jesse has told you about our little games. They were quite amusing.”

  About amusing as baiting bears, she thought but kept her cool despite her disgust with the man and her anger at how he had abused Jesse.

  “If you have charts on the patients, I’d like to review them. Take some blood samples so we can decide on a course of treatment for each of them,” she said, her voice clinically professional.

  Morales snickered and tapped the prod against the palm of one hand. “You may have fooled them, Dr. Carrera, but you can’t fool me.”

  “The charts, please,” she urged yet again and held out her hand.

  Morales jerked his head in the direction of the more than half a dozen cages holding an assortment of individuals. “Charts are by each door. You may want to be careful with some of the patients. They might bite.”

  Turning his attention to his assistant, Morales said, “Keep an eye on them, Jack.”

  Jack bowed and rubbed his hands together, eying her in a way that gave her the creepy-crawlies.

  Morales then walked away to a far corner of the large space, where temporary walls had been erected to create an office. The two walls that faced the laboratory were half glass, allowing him to observe whatever was happening in the area.

  With Morales gone, Liliana set up a small space on the top of the worktable, laying out the test tubes with the
inhibitor complex in one rack, the syringes along the surface, as well as her scrip pad with the pen. No sense not making things appear normal, she thought and faced Jesse.

  He had been standing by her side, vigilantly watching her and Jack, who hovered nearby, doing as his master had bidden—keeping an eye on them.

  Realizing she hadn’t brought extra test tubes for taking the blood samples, she said to Jack, “Do you think you could get me some more test tubes and another rack?”

  With a shrug, he replied, “I guess I could.”

  He scurried off to a locker beside Morales’s office and, as he did so, she looked up at Jesse. “Come with me to check the first patient.”

  Jesse followed her to one of the cages holding a frightened and naked young woman who pulled up the sheets and blanket on her cot to hide herself as they neared. As she did so, she immediately turned the drab olive-green of the army blanket.

  Liliana raised her hand in a gesture meant to console. “Don’t be afraid. We’re here to help,” she said, but the woman remained huddled beneath the sheets, cowering in fear.

  Liliana was about to grab the chart when she noticed Jack at the worktable with the equipment she had requested. But as he placed it down, he glanced around furtively and picked up her pad with the pen.

  “No,” she muttered, drawing Jesse’s attention to Jack’s actions.

  “Fuck. I forgot he’s a klepto,” he said and raced toward Jack, but not in time.

  Jack twisted the pen, then pulled the cap off, exposing the GPS device within. He stared at it for a moment, confused, but then, as realization set in, he raced for Morales’s office, screaming the doctor’s name.

  “You’ve got to go, Liliana. Now, before it’s too late,” Jesse said and ran after the man, his long strides eating up the distance between them and catching up to the smaller man.

  Jesse tackled Jack to the ground, but by then Morales was on his way out of his office and running toward them.

  Liliana knew she should run. That escaping was what Jesse wanted her to do, and yet she couldn’t, afraid of what the men would do to her lover. Unable to move closer because fear was rooting her to the ground.

  As Morales dropped the pen to the ground and stomped on it several times with the heel of his foot, Jack elbowed Jesse in the ribs, attempting to get free, not that the puny man could really inflict much punishment.

  With a rabbit punch to the back of Jack’s head, Jesse knocked him unconscious and approached Morales, hands fisted at his sides. A mix of desperation and hope forcing him to act. Making him pray that Liliana would heed his plea and escape before Morales could neutralize him.

  “You’re not being a good boy again,” Morales said and turned his attention to Jesse, the cattle prod held before him defensively.

  “She’s leaving,” he said and expectantly held his breath as Liliana slowly moved toward the door of the warehouse, finally doing as he asked.

  “You know I can’t let her do that, Jesse,” Morales said, his voice deceptively calm. Seemingly unconcerned with Liliana as she inched ever closer to freedom.

  “You’re not going to stop her,” Jesse warned and took a step toward Morales, hiding his fear at what the prod would do to him. Planning for how to get Morales to strike him where it would do the least damage—in the bony area Morales’s previous attacks had created.

  Morales raised the prod and jabbed it in Jesse’s direction like a fencer executing a lunge.

  Jesse avoided the dangerous tip, feinting to one side. Dodging it as Morales attacked again.

  Behind the scientist, Jesse could see that Liliana was already at the exit to the warehouse.

  Jesse’s moment of joy was short-lived, as the tip of the prod grazed his upper bicep, unleashing a torrent of pain when the electrical shock traveled across his nerve endings.

  He called out in agony and crumpled to one knee. As Morales prodded him again, the rage the scientist had somehow created with his virulent combination of genes awoke, creating a burning pit in his gut. Sending adrenaline racing through his body.

  “Stop it!” he screamed, so long and so hard that Liliana paused in her flight and turned wary eyes in his direction.

  “Run!” he hollered, wanting her to keep on going. Wanting her to escape, but then Morales jabbed the prod toward him again.

  Jesse managed to turn. Absorbed the blow against the deadness at his rib cage.

  The pause in the pain provided the opportunity he needed.

  He snatched the offensive device from Morales’s hands. Smiled at the look of fear that crept onto the doctor’s face.

  Liliana was at the door, but she hesitated, looking back toward him. Her eyes pleading with him to come along, as well. But he couldn’t and safeguard her freedom.

  “Go, Liliana!” he called out, urging her on. Praying for her success.

  The pain of the barbs in his side registered only a second before another jolt of electricity surged through him.

  His body jerked, dancing on the ends of the wires connected to the Taser that Jack held. Long moments passed before Jesse could no longer bear the pain and crumpled to his knees.

  As he fell, he realized Liliana had stopped and closed the door to the warehouse.

  Dizzying circles of black danced before his eyes and the smell of his burning flesh reached his nostrils, but Jesse exhorted her once again. “Run.”

  CHAPTER 33

  The signal from the GPS device disappeared from the computer screen.

  “What the fuck? Try to get that signal back up,” Ramon instructed his computer tech, but the FBI agent beside him just shook his head.

  “Someone shut off the signal. Maybe they’ve been found out,” Special Agent Rafael Sanchez advised.

  Ramon shot an angry glare at the man, at the same time hoping Sanchez was wrong. With the kind of people with whom his cousin was dealing, being discovered meant certain death.

  “Pull up the last location for the signal. Maybe they had already reached their destination.”

  “It seemed that way, Chief. The signal was stationary for a good half an hour or more,” his technician advised.

  With a number of keystrokes, the young man opened the GPS tracking log and displayed the last destination before the signal had been lost.

  Agent Sanchez tapped on the edge of the monitor. “Can you get us a map or photo images for the location?”

  “How about both?” the technician said. Within seconds, the technician brought up satellite images of the area, overlaid with a map showing the various roads nearby.

  Ramon motioned to one main drag close to the last location. “This is a small county road, but it gets a lot of traffic from people heading to Atlantic City who want to avoid the Parkway.”

  Sanchez made a circular motion around the fairly empty area surrounding the possible location. “Seems like a lot of open space.”

  His tech Manny piped up. “There are lots of small towns with fairly spread-out homes. Most of the space you see is probably part of either Fort Dix or Fort Maguire.”

  “Are you saying the military is involved in this?” Sanchez challenged.

  Ramon was quick to clarify. “What he’s saying is that the two bases take up a great deal of area in that part of South Jersey. In between them are the towns and lots of green acres.”

  Sanchez bent and peered at the monitor once again. “According to this satellite photo, there are no buildings in the area.”

  Manny tapped away on the keys and then said, “Satellite photo is nearly two years old.”

  “The Wardwell scientists and their patients went missing just over a year ago. Someone could have built a facility there in the meantime,” Ramon offered for consideration.

  Sanchez pulled back his suit jacket and placed his hands on his hips. With a nod, he said, “I’ll call and try to get us an updated satellite image.”

  Ramon straightened from the monitor and faced Sanchez. “Can I call the local police? Ask them to check out the area and r
eport back to us?”

  The FBI agent hesitated but then nodded. Almost immediately thereafter, he held up his forefinger and said, “But make it clear they are not to engage. We’re dealing with a dangerous crowd who they are not equipped to handle.”

  “Confirmed,” Ramon said and went to make the call.

  Jesse’s unnatural roar, so much like Santiago’s lunatic howling when she had been held captive, stopped Liliana as she went to exit.

  She turned and watched as Morales jabbed Jesse with the cattle prod again.

  “Run!” Jesse shouted and then grunted with pain as he dropped to his knees.

  Morales stuck Jesse again, but this time her lover ripped the rod from Morales’s hands.

  As Jesse rose, his sheer size and muscular physique intimidating on their own, Liliana noted the wicked gleam on Jesse’s face. She’d seen that kind of emotion before—on Santiago as he killed the psycho mercenary who had been holding her captive. On her ex-fiancé as he had pummeled her one night in a rage.

  Debilitating fear gripped her, making her hesitate.

  “Go, Liliana,” Jesse called out and she finally moved, dragging open the heavy warehouse door.

  “Run,” she heard Jesse say once more, weaker this time. Then the howling began again. A strange, desperate howl filled with pain and frustration.

  Turning, she saw that Morales was on the floor but slowly rising. Before him, Jesse jerked and staggered as Jack laughed with glee.

  “Hit me, will you?” the man said, his hands wrapped around a small box. Wires led from the box to Jesse, who was still howling, although not as strongly as before. His body twitching as he crumpled to his knees.

  It took Liliana a moment to register that Jack had Tasered Jesse. That Jack was continuing to pump electricity into him, heedless of the fact that it might be fatal.

  Jesse was enduring the torture so that she might escape. All she had to do was step out the door, only something had her turning back to the tableau before her.

  Morales, cattle prod back in hand.

  Jesse falling to the floor, his body still reacting to the flow of electricity.

  They were going to kill him, she thought. They were going to kill Jesse because of her.