Dangerous

by Sharon Green

  "Then let's see why it is," Jake suggested in the same kind of whisper, part of him praying hard that whoever had been in the room hadn't gone running to warn his boss. "Maybe someone just walked in to check on things…"

  Matt nodded and began to move again, Jake following in his shadow before shifting to Matt's right as they reached the door. They'd want to jump through the doorway at the same time, confusing the aim of anyone in the room who happened to be armed.

  And that was exactly what they did. One jump and they were inside the room, their guns aiming at the two people who stood aiming guns at them. Jake had enough time to register the presence of a man slumped over a board in front of surveillance screens, and then he felt shocked when he recognized one of the two female faces behind the pointed guns.

  "Killen!" Tain exclaimed, shifting her aim to Matt. "What the hell are you doing here?"

  "I was going to ask you the same thing as soon as I got my jaw retrieved from the ground," Jake countered, and part of him immediately shifted from shock to relief. "Now I understand why the security field went down before Matt put it down."

  "You two know each other?" the second woman asked without moving her weapon away from where it covered Jake. "Whose side are they on, Tain? Standing here pointing a gun at them is silly if they aren't enemies."

  "Killen works in my old department, and there's no way he's part of this arrangement," Tain answered. "If the same goes for his friend there, we can all put up the guns."

  "Matt's my partner," Jake supplied, his own gun now held down at his side. "Matt Reardon, meet Tain Halliday."

  "So you're Tain Halliday," Matt said as he also lowered his gun, his face creased into a grin. "Our paths never crossed while you were still with the department, Tain, but I certainly heard a lot about you."

  "This is my partner, Riss Matthews," Tain said, but she seemed to be disturbed about something. "I'm all for holding old home week, but not right this minute. Do you two know who and what's supposed to be in this house, or are you just here checking out a hunch or something?"

  "We know that that slave drug has been imported from Oliven, and we think that Coleson is behind the effort," Jake answered, wishing there was time to take Tain aside and talk to her privately. "When they went to arrest Coleson they found him gone, and now Maggie and Rachel are bulldozing through his life and files. Experienced agents have been sitting on their thumbs while newcomers were given assignments that were mostly beyond them, but we're starting to get that all straightened out. Now tell me why you two are here."

  "We're here because we tripped over a clue," the woman Riss answered, her face prettier now that she was smiling. "We found a kidnapped girl and got her back, a girl everyone thought had run off on her own. But Tain recognized the drug she'd been given, so we followed the supplier trail to this place. We also didn't report what we were doing because we weren't sure who to report to. No one has said a word about this drug being around, which means that someone high up is making an effort to keep its presence quiet."

  "We came to the same conclusion about other departments and we've already passed along the word," Matt said with his own smile. "The Board won't be happy to hear that Coleson isn't working alone, but they also won't turn a blind eye… Do you think we can get on with looking for this Ricky Norstrom character now? He may know where Coleson is holing up."

  "A very good point," Jake agreed at once, pulling himself out of staring at a Tain who looked oddly disturbed. "And with four of us instead of two, we should have very little trouble reaching the man. Do you gals have any idea where the man is?"

  "We think he's in one of the rooms upstairs," Tain said, also pulling out of distraction as she pointed to the monitors near the unconscious man. "There are only a few men enjoying themselves up there, and one of them seems to be doing all the directing."

  Jake followed her gesture to see the various monitors, half of them marked "Upstairs" along with a room number. One of the monitors showed a view of three people, two women and a man, and at first Jake couldn't make sense of what he was seeing. One of the women was bent over what had to be a punishment form of padded wood, shouting soundlessly when the switch the other woman held reached her naked backside.

  But when the second naked woman finished the stroke given to the woman bent over the form, she also bent a little and was switched in turn by a man wearing nothing but undershorts. The second woman hopped around with her mouth moving a little, then she gave the first woman another stroke of the switch before bending again herself to repeat the process. Both women were crying, but the man was obviously laughing.

  "Let's start with that one," Tain said, and Jake glanced up to see that she stared at the same screen he'd been looking at. "I think he would look really good draped over that form himself, assuming the women are up for giving what they've been getting."

  "I think those women will be very much up for it," Riss said, also staring at the screen with an odd expression. "Giving back what they've been getting, and then adding any other touches they consider fitting. If I'm not mistaken, those two are agents from our department, Tain, agents who are supposed to be on detached assignment. If Margate is responsible for this, there's no way they'll be able to keep the bitch alive."

  "It's hard to imagine that Margate isn't responsible," Tain said, her own expression turning stony. "We'd better get this under control as quickly as possible."

  Jake heard Matt agree in a growl, his own feelings a perfect match to those of the others. Seeing ordinary women savaged was bad enough, but when those women were fellow agents…

  They all left the security room and headed upstairs, Jake already able to taste the sweetness of turnabout and payback…

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Tain made sure to keep her eyes open as they all made their cautious way upstairs, but it looked like Ricky had put all his guards outside the house. He might have a couple of strongarm types in whichever room he was in, but there wasn't a sign of muscle in the hallways.

  But that didn't mean Tain had nothing to worry about. Running into Killen like that had been a shock, especially after all the trouble she'd gone through to avoid the man. She'd been hoping that she'd be over her feelings for Killen by the time she saw him again, but no such luck. Her body had tightened with the first look she'd gotten of him, and it had been all she could do to keep the feeling off her face.

  Although it suddenly occurred to her to wonder why she'd thought that seeing Killen again would be such a problem. They no longer worked for the same department, after all, and that had been her original reason for avoiding the man. Why, then, did she still feel something of an urge to turn and run? Could it be the way she'd treated Killen while they were still on Oliven? She'd been trying to ruin his interest in her at the time…

  "One of us needs to keep watch in this hall while the rest of us check out those rooms one by one," Riss said very softly, dragging Tain's full attention back to what she was in the middle of. "We can't afford to leave our backs undefended, and if necessary we can take turns standing watch."

  "That's a good idea, and I volunteer to stand guard first," Killen said, speaking just as softly. "I meant to say something about us not making a lot of noise, but it's come to me that those rooms are probably soundproofed. If they weren't we would have heard something from at least one of them by now."

  "Good point, and your offer is accepted," Riss said with a smile. "Having backup is going to make this job easier for all of us - I hope. Let's do it, brothers and sister."

  Tain joined Riss by the first of the doors, Matt right behind them, and then Riss opened the door and swung it wide. The instant the door was out of the way they stepped into the room, seeing the two men who were very involved with a single woman. The woman was completely naked, but the men wore shorts that they'd pushed down. One of the men was between the woman's thighs pumping hard while the other was being aroused by her mouth, and for a moment they had no idea they weren't alone.

  "Sor
ry, boys, but fun time is over," Riss said with a lot of satisfaction, and then she shot the one screwing the woman. Tain's shot taking down the second man came only a split second later, and then both men were stretched out unconscious. The man who had been between the woman's thighs had collapsed on her left leg, and Matt hurried over to move the man's body off her with Tain and Riss only a step behind him.

  "Are you all right?" Tain asked the woman after crouching next to her, holding her gun back and out of the way while she used her free hand to stroke the woman's hair. "Can you open your eyes and talk to me?"

  "Yes, I can open my eyes, but I'd rather not," the woman's faint voice came, obviously with a lot of difficulty. "I know I have to be imagining that the nightmare is finally over, but if I open my eyes I'll see that for a fact and I won't be able to stand the disappointment."

  "Since you aren't imagining us, open your eyes so you can know that for a fact," Tain said, this time giving the woman an order instead of a suggestion. "We're really here to put an end to this general nightmare, and as soon as we have the place secure we'll call for ambulances and help. Will you be all right until then?"

  "I'm in a lot of pain, but that's something I've almost gotten used to," the woman said, her opened eyes looking from Tain to Riss to Matt and then back again. "I should be fine as long as none of them come to hurt me again… You're real, you're actually, really real."

  The woman had touched Tain's hand, and then she'd gripped the hand tight. Tain could see that the woman was on the ragged edge, but she wasn't alone in needing help.

  "From now on, I'm the only one whose orders you have to take, so if any of those lice try for you again you can do anything you like to stop them," Tain said, patting the woman's hand before getting herself loose from the grip. "I'll be back once all the shouting is over, and until then you can just rest here."

  The woman looked fearful, but she just nodded as Tain straightened up. Riss and Matt had checked the unconscious men to make sure they were really out, and once it was established that they were it was time to move on. They left the door to the room open, and when they reached the next room it was Matt standing guard and Killen behind Tain and Riss.

  This second room was the one they'd seen in the monitor, with the two female agents and the single man. Tain didn't shoot the man and neither did Riss, but Riss made sure that the man saw she was aiming at one of his eyes.

  "Drop that switch, get down on your knees, then lace your fingers behind your head," Riss ordered the man in a very hard voice. "I'd enjoy seeing you missing an eye when you woke up, but I doubt if you'd feel the same way… "

  The man wasn't stupid enough to doubt Riss so he did as he was told with snarls but without hesitation. Once he was on his knees with his fingers locked behind his head, Riss glanced at Tain.

  "Okay, partner, do your thing with our sisters, please," Riss asked, making sure not to take her attention away from her prisoner. "It would help if you can also do something about their pain while Killen helps me with this one."

  Tain knew that Riss meant to use some of the slave drug they'd taken from Nat on the man, and the idea had her wholehearted approval. What their sister agents needed most was some immediate payback, and then they'd be able to wait until they had the real reason for their torture within reach. It was possible that their sanity would never return completely, but they had to be given the chance to reclaim it.

  "Okay, gals, both of you listen to me," Tain said softly to the women after gesturing the standing one closer to the one bent over the form. "From now on you'll take orders only from me, and my first order is that you forget about any previous orders. The second is that you retain awareness of what pain you feel, but the pain stops being crippling and all-consuming."

  "Oh … damn," the woman next to Tain muttered as the one bending over the form quickly straightened. "I know I'm still hurting, but it's much better now. I recognize Riss, but I don't know the rest of you angels. Where did you come from?"

  "I'm new in your and Riss's department, and the men are from my old department," Tain supplied. "There's no time now to go into details, not until we have this place completely secured. We'll have to leave you gals here, but you shouldn't be bored by the wait for us to get back no matter how long the time is."

  "They're giving him something," the other agent said as she watched Killen forcing the kneeling man to swallow what Riss had provided. "I wish it could be the same drug they gave us, but unfortunately I know it can't be."

  "But it is the same drug," Tain corrected with a smile she knew wasn't very nice. "These fools think men can't be affected by the drug, but they've been lied to. The stuff works fine on men, as long as they're given enough of it to make up for their usually greater mass. As soon as the confusion passes, you'll be able to do whatever you like with that slime."

  "You really are angels," the second woman said while the first showed a smile just like Tain's. "And you're right, we won't be bored waiting for you to get back. We'll owe you quite a lot, but we won't be bored."

  Tain could see the hatred burning in the eyes of both women, but that was perfectly all right. Neither of the women had broken down once she was freed from previous orders, so there was a good chance they'd be able to get over what they'd gone through. Only time would tell, but time was something they didn't have a lot of. As soon as the man had been properly drugged, Tain asked the women a couple of quick questions and then joined the others in leaving the room.

  "Your friends said that that's where Ricky is," Tain said once they were back in the hall, pointing to the door in the middle of the others. "The men are friends of Ricky invited here for a 'night of fun,' so it might be a good idea to finish off his friends before we call on the big man himself. That way we won't need to leave anyone out in the hall."

  Tain's companions quickly agreed to her suggestion, so they bypassed the center door and went to the two rooms on the opposite side of the hall. Tain stood guard while the others found the next room empty, so she continued to stand guard for the fourth room. That one wasn't empty, and Matt shot the man while Killen worked to ease the woman the man had been savaging. When Tain heard the woman suddenly start to cry she knew the woman had been freed of previous orders, and a couple of minutes later Riss, Matt, and Killen were back out of the room with the door closed.

  "That's another woman who'll probably never be right again," Killen growled, looking more savage than Tain had ever seen him be. "If we don't get the spread of that drug stopped completely, I'll never be able to sleep without nightmares again."

  "You and all the rest of us," Riss told him with pain in her own voice. "That's why we will get every piece of garbage involved in this horror."

  "If we do get it stopped, there's supposed to be a reward," Matt said, showing a grin that looked out of place at first. "The reward is being able to hunt down Coleson, and that's one reward I mean to collect on. Shall we see if Ricky can point us in the right direction?"

  By that time Tain and Riss were also grinning, and Killen's fury changed to show that it now had a specific target. Words of agreement were unnecessary as all of them turned toward the last remaining door, Tain, at least, more ready for that room than she'd been. She'd been doing some thinking while standing guard, and if Ricky Norstrom tried to play cute Tain thought she'd be prepared to counter him.

  And then Tain and the others were in the midst of finding out. Riss and Tain threw open the door with Matt and Killen right behind them, and as soon as they were inside they spread out so that they all had a clear line of fire. The big boss laughed as he watched two more of his friends chasing a girl around and whipping her every time they got in reach.

  There was obvious muscle standing next to the big man, one on each side of him, and for a long moment no one but the two heavies noticed the newcomers. The two men twitched in the same way, showing that their first urge was to go for their guns, but being already covered made them change their minds. Tain could see that they'd realized it w
asn't amateurs who had come in and now held guns on them, and then Ricky himself noticed what was happening when Riss spoke.

  "Everybody stay right where you are," she said, drawing the attention of the two men doing the chasing as well as the woman being chased. "The party is over and now, just the way the old story goes, it's time to pay the piper."

  The men holding the short whips snarled at the idea of being interfered with, and one of them was stupid enough to start for Tain and the others at a run with his whip raised for striking. Tain's dart reached the fool first, Killen's following hers no more than a second later, and the fool collapsed a good eight feet away from his intended targets.

  "No, that's not the way to do it," the man who had to be Ricky Norstrom said, his own words viciously delighted. "Here's the right way: slaves, all of you attack those people at once and do your best to kill them."

  Ricky grinned as every woman in the room struggled to her feet, and the rest of the men were enjoying themselves just as much. Once the captive women were in the way Ricky's muscle would be able to pull their guns and start shooting, and if the captives were also killed it would be no big deal. After all, they would have no problem getting new slaves to take the place of the old.

  The only problem was, Tain had anticipated Ricky using his slaves against the invading force. The women were barely on their feet before Tain shouted, "Stop! And from now on you'll only take orders from me."

  The women froze where they were, not even one of them in the way, and while Ricky cursed and screamed at his slaves to obey him, Tain and her companions calmly shot every man in the room but the big boss. Ricky's cursing broke off when he suddenly realized he was the only one left conscious, but that didn't stop him from trying bluster. Ricky was a thin, homely man and not very tall, something that could be seen easily when he got to his feet.