by S. M. Butler
“I let the Giroux family dictate my life for far too long. I let myself stay in the dark.” I shook my head rapidly. “I’m not going to let you do the same thing.”
He started to reach for me, like he was going to comfort me. I slipped beneath his outstretched arm and swung the crutch into his mid-section. He doubled over and I slammed my knee into his face. In an instant, my knee was covered in blood and Murphy was on the floor.
Murphy groaned from his prone position. I gripped his pistol and slid it out of his holster.
Panic and shock slid over me like melting ice chips. “Sorry, Murph,” I whispered, grabbed the crutch as well, and ran.
Addison
There was no sign of Chris in the hallway, and my guard friend was gone. I supposed they didn’t need him there when I had company. I didn’t stop to analyze it though. I used the crutch to steady me as I ran, trying not to leave weight on my leg as much as I could.
My breath was short, and hard to keep up, but I was dead in the water if I didn’t get out. The doors clanged open behind me, and I heard my brother roar my name. I didn’t look back. I had to hide, from them, from Giroux, from Giroux’s enemies. I didn’t have friends anymore.
The entire facility was a maze of tunnels. And they were tunnels. There were no windows, no doors leading outside. I wasn’t sure how to get out. I remembered coming in, but everything had been getting turned around. Blood loss had begun to set in by then, and I’d been dizzy.
I had to leave. The problem was now that I had the opportunity, I had no plan. I hadn’t even attempted to learn the layout of the place first. Now I was wandering through dark tunnels, injured, like some stupid girl out of a horror flick.
My body ached with the exertion, more so than I’d expected, but I wasn’t really at my best. I was going to have to hide. Let them think I left. I found a door and slipped through, finding another hallway. I hobbled quickly down the center. All these guys were well-trained Navy SEALs, which made this a little terrifying. It was one thing to outrun mobsters looking to kill me because it would piss off Giroux, but military men? This was what they trained for. It was more luck than anything that let me get away in the first place. Murphy hadn’t expected me to hit him.
I gripped the handle of the pistol, my finger along the side of the gun. I didn’t know why I grabbed it. I didn’t want to shoot anyone. I found an empty room and slipped inside. I shut the door and locked it, staying behind the swing of it in case they opened it. I leaned against the wall to catch my breath. So tired. So sluggish. Neither of those were good things at the moment.
I ripped a whole in the scrubs so I could see the bandaged wound but I didn’t see any new blood. Maybe I hadn’t ripped anything yet.
I froze as the door jiggled. I held my breath when it stilled. Then I heard the key turn in the lock. My skin was clammy, with a fresh coat of sweat glistening on my arms. My grip tightened on the gun as the door opened.
He walked in further. As soon as he was all the way inside, I slid the door shut and pointed the gun at his head. “Don’t move.”
To his credit, he didn’t even blink. His crystalline eyes stared right at me, stoic and professional. “I won’t. But you’re not going to shoot me.”
“Please. I’ve been with the Giroux for a long time. Maybe I’ve learned how to be a killer.” I was bluffing. Rene had been the first real person I’d ever shot and I still saw his awful face when I shut my eyes.
But Murphy didn’t change. “You won’t.”
“Try me.”
“You can’t.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because…” he paused and a small twitch of his lips betrayed the secretive smile on his face. “I didn’t put a full magazine in that gun. It’s empty.”
Panic slid through my blood, like ice. Not loaded? Fuck. I hadn’t even checked. He knocked the gun from my hands while I was distracted. I grabbed my crutch and lunged for the door, but his large mass tackled me to the floor, his heavy set arms wrapped around my torso, pinning mine to my side. He lifted me to my feet with an ease that both scared me and unearthed a desire for his touch I’d thought I’d long forgotten.
I shrieked and pushed back with my good foot against the wall, but the guy was like an anchor. “Let go of me!”
“Can’t do that.” Murphy’s low timbre sent chills through my body. “We need you.”
We. Not I. He didn’t care anything for me other than me being a stupid asset to their mission. “Please! I can’t stay here.” Desperation seeped into my voice.
“You need to come back and talk with us.” Murphy’s stupid calm voice permeated the haze of my fear and anger. Images of Rene grabbing me, his hand cemented on my wrist flared through my eyes.
Panic renewed, I squirmed until Murphy had no choice but to readjust. As soon as I felt my body slip from his, I tried to run, but he yanked me back by my arm, and in the same movement, turned, lifted, and pressed me against the wall, the hard concrete biting into my spine. My feet barely touched the ground, just the toes.
“No!” I screamed, seething as I tried to kick him, but he had me immobile. He held both my wrists in his hold above my head, his legs pressed against mine. When I struggled, only my stomach moved. With the weight off my feet, my leg started throbbing.
My heart raced, and I was dizzy. My breathing was shallow, and an ache began between my legs that had nothing to do with any injury. He held me fast. His breath was hot on my neck, a warm caress across my skin. I wanted more. I wanted… him, I realized.
“Please,” I begged. I wasn’t sure if I was begging him to let me go, or touch me more. “Something…”
“Easy,” he whispered against my ear. His breath tickled against me, displacing the tiny hairs around my hairline. “You’re gonna hurt yourself.”
“I don’t want to be a prisoner. I just want to go home.” Sobs broke from my throat. I’d lost. They had me in a position I couldn’t control, in a place I couldn’t identify, and I was so tired.
“No one is going to hurt you here.” It was hard to reconcile the soft tone of his comforting voice with the hard-edged man I’d seen earlier. This was not the same Eamon Murphy I’d grown up with. This was not the boy I knew. He was a man, one that was trained to be lethal. A terrifyingly deadly weapon who now had me in his grasp. “Trust me?”
“I’m scared of you.” The admission physically hurt my chest, leaving me aching.
His head rested against the space between my shoulder and my neck, but other than that, his body remained impassive. His voice caressed me like a cool feather. “I will not hurt you. I will protect you.”
“I don’t believe you.” The words were just a whisper on my lips. “You want to lock me away.”
“For your protection.”
“Liar,” I growled.
“I would never lie to you, Addison.”
The fight was disappearing, vanishing. I wanted to fight him, I wanted to run, but my body was shutting down. I commanded my body to fight, but the strength behind it was gone. Lead weights attached themselves to my hands and legs, or that’s how it felt.
“I don’t feel good.” I was losing control. My vision spun in circles.
“Just relax,” he said. “I’m going to take care of you.”
“What…” A haze of incoherence settled over my consciousness. “What did you do to me?” That was the only explanation left. The more my blood pounded, the worse I felt. I was tired and sluggish, and my world was beginning to spin.
“Your brother thought you might run, so he laced your sandwich and the water you drank with a sedative. He told me on the notepad he was writing on.”
Slow blink. I twisted my head to see Murphy. My eyelids were getting heavy, but he was close enough that I could still see him clearly. His face was bloody, a product of my head butt earlier. His nose was turning colors already. I’d probably broken it. “He’s a bastard. You’re a bastard. I have to go. Please.”
“I promise. You’re s
afe with us.”
“I’m not safe anywhere! I’m not working with Simon Giroux. Rene killed Alex… I watched it happen… He looked so surprised…” I told him, my words slurring even to my ears. “I’m tired… I don’t want to be locked away anymore… I don’t want to be alone…” My head lolled to the side, the lead weights finally making their way to my mind, and my body finally crumbled.
He caught me, lifted me into his arms. I rested my head against his chest, curling into him. One arm supported my back, the other under my knees. I closed my eyes, the fight long gone as the darkness crept in. This felt right. It felt good. I believed him when he said I was safe, because the real truth was that Murphy had never lied to me. I hoped there really wasn’t a first time for everything.
~*~*~
Murphy
Addison’s body went limp almost as soon as I picked her up. I regretted letting Chris drug her, but he’d been right. Addison had bolted the first second she’d had a chance. She’d always been tough and determined. But in those last moments, before she passed out, I’d seen vulnerability and shadows of stress beneath her eyes.
She fit so neatly into my arms, her body curled toward my chest in sleep. Her head lolled back against my arm, exposing her long, slender neck. Her chest rose and fell softly. Guilt slithered through me as I carried her back to the service elevator.
I don’t want to be locked away.
Chris met me at the door. His grayish eyes swept over his sister, his brow furrowed. “She passed out?”
I nodded, hoping he’d let me carry her. She was his sister, but she was now my responsibility. I could have pulled rank, but then he probably would realize that I wanted to carry her. “Yeah, sedative worked fine.” The guilt I felt sat on my heart, heavy and full.
I don’t want to be alone.
The elevator door opened and we got in. Chris cleared his throat, but he didn’t reach for her. That gave me odd satisfaction. “She’s gonna be pissed when she wakes up.”
I glanced at her, her face peaceful and unworried, so unlike what it was when she’d been awake. When I’d caught her, there had been actual fear in her eyes. Whatever was going through her head when she raised that gun, she’d been afraid of me. Or maybe what I represented. It left a bad taste in my mouth.
“What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking we should probably get White to look at her and make sure she didn’t pull out those stitches running around like that.” I didn’t see fresh blood on her, but that didn’t mean much. I wanted to be prepared.
“I’ll call White.”
The elevator doors let us out in the hallway we’d been careful not to show Addison when we’d brought her in. She was stubborn. We both knew if she’d wanted to go, she was going to do it. We’d hoped to avoid that stubborn streak and convince her to work with us before Master Chief had to report to Lieutenant Nelson. I didn’t want Hardy to have to lock his own sister away, any more than I wanted to do it myself. But she had to be cooperative or there wasn’t anything we could do to protect her, and I’d promised her I would.
I supposed I was lucky, compared to Hardy. I didn’t really have any family to worry about. The Giroux family couldn’t go after anyone that I loved because there wasn’t anyone. Not anyone that were known, anyway. But we couldn’t ignore they’d gone after Devyn and now they’d gone after Addison. They knew more about us than we knew about them. That needed to change, and soon. I had the feeling that Addison was the key we needed to unlock their fortress of information.
“Murph?” Hardy paused outside his door, his hand on the door knob.
I was supposed to be their leader. The guy in charge when Master Chief and Lieutenant weren’t around. But I didn’t know what to do with Addison Hardy. “Let’s get her settled and we’ll talk.”
Hardy glanced at her and nodded. “Right. The room’s set up.”
“You sure keeping her here is secure? You saw what she did.” She couldn’t have been more than a hundred-thirty pounds, and injured to boot, but she fought like a bulldog. I was kind of proud of her, even though my ego and my potentially broken nose didn’t much like it.
“I know. She’s worked on her fighting skills since we taught her.” Hardy chuckled and opened the door to his compartments. The bastard sounded like he was proud of how much trouble she’d caused. Hell, I’d just had the same thought.
Actually, I was kind of impressed. In high school, she’d been a little flighty. We’d tried to impress on her the importance of being able to defend herself. It seemed it worked.
“She’s my sister, Murph. I can’t put her in lockdown. She doesn’t deserve that.”
“Having her free to walk around here. You know that. She’s a risk.” The underground facility was one of sixteen we had around the world. We’d built them all in the last two years so we could deploy from almost anywhere in a matter of hours. It was part of our separation from the official military.
“I’ll take responsibility.”
Like hell he would. Hardy was my best friend, but he was also part of my team. We’d agreed to do this together. That was how it had to work. I followed Hardy to the back room. In the hours after we’d brought Addison back, we’d cleaned out the room and made it a simple bedroom. There was only one way in or out, and because it was underground, no windows. It wasn’t a prison cell, but it would keep her out of trouble, at least.
Hardy pulled back the covers on the cot and I placed her sleeping form down in the center, gently settling her head against the pillows. She let out a soft mewl, but didn’t wake up. She wouldn’t. We’d knocked her out cold for the next few hours. She needed the rest, and we needed the break.
Brody and Devyn had flown back to the States earlier to meet with Master Chief, which left just Gabe White the corpsman, Dylan Urban, Hardy and me for a couple days until the other guys came back from clearing out the Giroux mansion. A couple days to get her to tell us everything. Addison curled on her side when I set her down, and Hardy pulled the blanket up around her body. He brushed her cheek, and I finally saw the first signs of sadness cross his expression.
It had to suck. I couldn’t possibly understand where Hardy was coming from. Still, my mind kept wandering back to the room I’d found her, where her body had been warm against mine, her curves fitting in just the right way against me as she struggled…
I stopped and announced to Chris. “I’m going to see if White is here yet.”
I whirled around and left the room. I needed to not think of her that way, which was exceedingly difficult when I could see her. Attraction was normal, I supposed. Addison wasn’t an unattractive person. And she was feisty, something I loved about her personality. She’d always known what she wanted. She’d always kept me on my toes. But she was Hardy’s sister. It was weird to think of her that way, and increasingly difficult to not.
Gabe White came in Hardy’s apartment with a quick knock on the open door. “Hey. Hardy called for me?”
I pointed back toward the bedroom. “Your patient’s in there.”
He held up a brown tee and blue shorts. “I got a change of clothes from Richter. Hopefully, she didn’t rip out all my sewing with that run she took.”
“I didn’t see any new blood on her. If we have to keep her here, we’ll have to eventually get her real clothes, I think. Those should do for now. The paper scrubs have to be uncomfortable.”
White snickered. “Yeah.” He paused as he neared me. His eyes scanned over my face, his mind working already to diagnose my broken nose. “That nose looks painful.”
I touched the bridge of my nose with my thumb and forefinger and winced. “Yeah, it is.”
“Let me see what’s going down in there, and I’ll look at it.” That was the interesting thing about White. He never even flinched at injuries, and he was always calm. He walked past me and went inside the bedroom. I could hear the murmurings between Hardy and White, but I didn’t make out what they were saying. I didn’t really want to hear it.
“Yeah. She’s sleeping off the sedative.”
“Dude, she clocked you good, huh?” He chuckled and came closer to inspect my throbbing nose. I would have rolled my eyes, but that would have hurt. “Didn’t think anyone could get the drop on you like that.”
“Didn’t see you come running,” I growled. Normally, I wouldn’t have cared if Dylan was ribbing me about anything, but I had to admit… being taken by surprise by a girl who was all of a hundred and thirty pounds and almost a foot shorter than me was a little embarrassing.
“Because Hardy said to stay back. I was covering the south exit anyway, on the off chance that she’d go there.”
“She doesn’t know about that exit,” I replied.
Dylan shrugged. “Eh, she might have found it eventually. She’s smart.”
That she was, which it didn’t surprise me that Dylan picked up on it after only a few days, and her intelligence made the current situation harder. She knew how to fight, how to lie… what else was she more proficient in since leaving home?
Hardy and White came out of the room, quietly shutting the room behind them. White came over to me immediately. “Sit over there.” He pointed to the couch.
“Doc, I’m fine,” I grumbled, but his face hardened.
“I don’t give a shit if you think so. Go sit down and let me see your damn nose.”
“That’s so romantic,” Dylan snickered.
“Fuck off, Urban,” I growled, but sat down on the couch.
“You only wish,” Dylan laughed and left the room.
I winced as White inspected my nose with that tough line of concentration on his face. Whatever he did to it was obnoxiously painful, and made my entire face throb, but he cleaned the area, wiping away the blood with gauze and antiseptic wipes, before he added a bandage over it. “Come see me tomorrow and we’ll see how it’s doing then.”
“Fine,” I said, sullen. He packed up and left soon after. Hardy sat down on the couch next to me and let out the longest dramatic sigh ever. “How’s Addison?”
