by Wendy Rosnau
“It’s my fault,” he said. “I was supposed to protect you. I never thought that you would be kidnapped. I don’t know how Onyxx was able to locate us. The night they came and took you—what happened?”
“They came through a window, I guess, like you did tonight, then they took me from my bed,” she lied.
“Why didn’t they take me, too?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you tell them anything?”
“No.”
“Sehr gut.”
“I have a question for you. Jacy Madox told me my father shot my mother.” Pris watched closely as she asked the question she already knew the answer to. “Did he?”
“Of course not. He lies to trick you. Your mother died at the hands of Bjorn Odell.”
Did he really believe that, or was he the one who was lying? Pris wondered.
“So you believe my father. He’s confided in you?”
“Da. As my father trusted him, I also trust Holic. I am loyal to his cause. I owe your father my life, and I will give it if necessary to protect both of you. But I would prefer to live. To go on as we have been.” He gave a curt nod. “We will go on, Miss Pris, as soon as I kill Madox and Fourtier.”
“Do you have the kill-file with you?”
“Da. I’ve been worried about you, and yet I…I tried to stay on schedule, hoping I would hear from you each day. I can’t shoot like you, but I managed to take out the next four targets on the list before…”
“Before what?”
“Before I was apprehended in Vienna and taken to Washington. I was interrogated at the Onyxx Agency. They asked me about the kill-file, and my relationship to your father. Of course, I disclosed nothing. Not even when they told me they had captured you. That’s when I escaped and followed Fourtier here. I checked my files, saw that Jacy Madox was living in these mountains and thought, what a perfect out-of-the-way place to hide you. It was a gamble, but it paid off. You can’t know the relief I felt when you sat up in bed and I saw it was you. Madox forced himself on you, didn’t he?”
Prisca looked away. She had expected the question would come up considering the way she was dressed when he found her.
“I’m sorry. It’s my fault. I’ll kill him for touching you. I’ll kill him for what he took from you. I make you that promise, Miss Pris.”
If she told Otto he was wrong, he would think she was lying, then wonder why. For now she had to play along. Make him believe she was glad to be back with him. Back where she belonged until she recovered the kill-file. Then she would turn herself and the file over to Merrick at Onyxx.
Suddenly Otto picked up the chair he’d been sitting on and threw it against the wall. She had never seen him lose control, though she had always been convinced that the physical power he possessed was beyond human.
“Otto…”
He spun around. “You have to know how I feel about you. If you don’t, then you’re blind, Miss Pris. I have loved you since the day I saw you. I would die for you, Miss Pris.”
“I’m not asking that of you.”
He stared at her, and she decided that’s not what he’d hoped to hear. He’d wanted her to declare her love as he had.
“We need to get back to work,” she said. “We’re off schedule. This vendetta against Jacy Madox only wastes more time.”
“I can’t dismiss what has happened, and you shouldn’t want me to. It is my duty as your protector to take his life.”
Prisca raised her chin. “I will handle my own revenge on those who have used me. When the time is right, I will strike, and justice will be mine. I am my father’s daughter, Otto. I have been taught to show no mercy to those who betray or use me for their own gain. Now where is the kill-file? We need to make plans.”
“It is right here.”
She waited, and when Otto pulled his phone from his pocket and set it on the table, she had her answer to at least one question. He must have downloaded the kill-file into his cell phone. How and when, she didn’t know, but it didn’t matter. Now all she had to do was take it from him and escape.
“I am in no hurry to leave just yet. I must rest, and consider what you’ve said. We will talk again when I wake up.”
Chapter 16
Otto had been sleeping a long half hour when Pris made her move. She stole his keys from his coat pocket, then his phone off the table. She still didn’t know where he stood in all of this. When they had talked earlier she had gotten the feeling that he knew more than he had admitted. That maybe he knew the truth about her mother.
She quietly opened the door, was halfway out.
“I wouldn’t want to shoot you in the back, but it is a just death for a traitor.”
Pris turned slowly. Otto sat on the edge of the bed, his SIG pointed at her.
“It was the shirt that gave you away. If Madox had taken you by force it would have been the first thing you would have wanted to get rid of, not the last. You have changed sides, Miss Pris. I do not know why, but it has happened. Ja?”
“My father lied, Otto. He tricked us. He’s not who he claims to be. He doesn’t work for the government. He’s a professional assassin.”
“Did Madox tell you that?”
“He offered proof.”
“It could have been fabricated.”
He was too calm. Otto knew what her father was about. He was part of it. Had been from the beginning.
“You’ve known all along, haven’t you?”
“My father gave his life for your father’s cause. He worked for Holic for years, and I supported him.”
“There is no cause, only greed. He works for money and sells his expertise to whoever will pay his price.”
“Come back inside and shut the door.”
“Or you’ll shoot me? I don’t think so.”
“Do not test my loyalty to your father.”
“What about your loyalty to me? You said you love me.”
“I do. It’s unfortunate that you do not return my love.”
“I do love you. I love you like a brother.”
“And Jacy Madox with your whole heart?”
Pris wasn’t sure how she should answer that, but she could see that her stalling had given Otto his answer.
“I know you, Miss Pris. I have watched you from afar since you were ten. You are wise beyond your years. If you went willingly to Madox’s bed, then you must love him.”
He spoke with sadness in his voice, but also with a reconciled finality.
Pris changed the subject. “I’ve killed two men, Otto. My father purposely turned me into an assassin. A criminal. He used me.”
“Those men deserved—”
“If those men deserved to die, let someone else do it, not me. I hate my father for what he’s turned me into, do you hear? I hate him for betraying me for his own personal gain.”
“You are his daughter. You have his hands, and—”
“I am not like him.”
“You are more like him than you know.”
“No, I’m not. I intend to face what I’ve done and own up to it. If that means an iron cell beside him, I’m resigned to it. I’m not going to make excuses, even though I believed what I was doing was the right thing.”
“You will not go to prison. We have a job to do and we will do it. You don’t have a choice in this, and I will not let Onyxx take you. I am bound to protect you one way or another.”
“Onyxx never kidnapped me in Vienna,” Pris confessed. “I left on my own. I realize now that it was destiny intervening, or I would have eight deaths on my conscience instead of two. I left with plans to hunt down Bjorn Odell and kill him for taking my mother from me, and when I couldn’t find him, I went after the controller, Jacy Madox. On my way here the plane crashed in the mountains. The pilot died, but I survived. Jacy Madox nursed me back to health. I spent weeks in his home, and during that time I got to know him. He is a good man.”
“I will thank Madox for his hospitality before I kill him.”
Pris shook her head. “You will not kill him.”
“There is no room for free will in this business. Because I understand what loyalty means, I am required to terminate the problem you created by following your heart.”
“I will not go back with you.”
He stood, laid the SIG on the nightstand. “You have no choice. Put my keys and phone on the table, then go take a shower. Scrub very hard, Miss Pris. I do not want to smell Madox on you anywhere when you are finished.”
It was as Jacy was on 49 headed for East Glacier that Pierce spied the white SUV with Otto behind the wheel.
“That’s him,” he said.
The vehicle was past before Jacy got a look at the driver. “You sure?”
“I’m sure. Big guy. Blond crew cut.”
“You see Pris?”
“No.”
Jacy slammed on the brakes and did a one-eighty in the middle of the road. The moment he did, the SUV took off, doubling its speed.
“He’s spotted us,” Pierce said.
Jacy increased his speed to keep from losing sight of the vehicle. “He was on his way back to the cabin,” he said.
“Makes sense. He’s probably stashed Pris somewhere.”
Highway 49 had been aptly named Looking Glass because it was a scenic, winding road, crowded by rugged high peaks and towering lodgepole and ponderosa pine. The snow that had been hitting the area for the past week had compacted the road and made it treacherous. It was snowing again, not heavily, but enough to compound the problem.
The pickup fishtailed as it hit a patch of snow-covered ice.
“Hell, this road is a suicide run,” Pierce said. “Give me a bayou full of snakes any day.”
Jacy ignored Pierce’s grumbling and increased his speed as Otto disappeared around the corner. “I’m going to try to run him off the road before we get too high.”
“Too high?”
“This is a mountain pass. There’s a narrow trail up ahead. If we cut him off, he’ll have to take it. He won’t be able to go far before he’s forced to stop. Maybe a quarter mile. He’ll have to stand and fight, or go on foot. He’s mine then.”
Jacy floored the pickup, and before long he was on Otto’s ass. With expert timing, he pulled out into the passing lane and turned into the SUV. Metal collided with metal and both vehicles jerked and bucked. Tires squealed.
Otto sped up and pulled away as Jacy’s pickup nearly went over the side. He swore, then put the pedal to the floor and rammed the SUV again, forcing it into the granite rocks.
Otto struggled to pull the vehicle back on the road, then turned on the narrow trail.
“He bit,” Pierce said.
“Like a nervous dog,” Jacy said just as his pickup hit a slippery patch on the road. They went into a skid, and he tried to hold the wheel, tried to keep them from going over the side. Momentum pulled him off the road and suddenly they were airborne just before they crashed into a tree.
The impact put Pierce into the windshield and split his head open. Jacy felt the steering wheel dig into his rib, and it knocked the air out of his lungs.
For a moment time stood still, then Jacy shook off the pain and looked over at Pierce. “You all right?”
“Do I look all right?” Pierce wiped the blood out of his eyes. “That sonofabitch is starting to piss me off. Let’s go get him.”
They got out of the pickup and climbed the rocky bank, crossed the highway and headed down the trail Otto had taken. Jacy saw Pierce glance more than once at his leg—his limp was always more obvious when he hurried—and he knew what his friend was thinking.
“I don’t walk pretty anymore, but I’m still an ornery sonofabitch either way. You worry about keeping up with me.”
Pierce grinned. “Now that’s the old Jacy I used to know. Welcome back, bro.”
Jacy pulled his gun from inside his sheepskin coat, then followed the tracks Otto’s SUV had left. They found the vehicle abandoned fifteen minutes later.
When he saw two sets of footprints leaving the vehicle, he said, “Pris is with him.”
“He must have had her tied up in the back,” Pierce agreed, examining the prints.
“Her prints are in the lead. Looks like he doesn’t have a willing partner any longer.”
“Then you were right. He took her from the cabin.”
That was no surprise to Jacy. Pris was no longer playing her father’s game. If she’d gone with Otto Breit it had been by force, or she’d had a damn good reason.
Pris stumbled and before she went down, Otto hauled her back up. Her hands were bound together at her wrists and it was hard to maintain her balance in the deep snow.
“Keep moving, or I will carry you like a sack over my shoulder.”
Pris said nothing. Otto had outsmarted her at the motel, and since then he’d been on a single-minded mission—kill Jacy Madox.
She’d showered as he had told her to do, and when she had come out of the bathroom, he had sniffed her hair, and the side of her neck. He’d nodded his approval, then handed her coat to her.
He’d packed their bags while she was in the shower, and shredded the sheet. Then he’d used a strip to tie her wrists together and walked her out to the SUV, demanding that she lie down in the back seat. He’d tied her ankles with another piece of the sheet so she couldn’t run away.
But he was the one on the run now. Jacy was not far behind—she believed that—even though Otto had smugly told her that his pickup had gone off the road and crashed.
Even if it had, Jacy wouldn’t give up—he’d told her that once. Otto had no idea who he was dealing with. The man, as Vic had called Jacy, was half Blackfeet Indian, and an ex-Hell’s Angel—and she was no longer stupid about what that meant. Jacy had been recruited into Onyxx because he knew how to survive. He had fought his way out of a wheelchair against the odds, to stand on his own two feet.
No, Otto had no idea who he would be facing very soon. It would be for the best if she could convince him to surrender.
“You need to give yourself up, Otto. I don’t want you to die.”
He snorted, and shoved her forward to keep moving. “Never. If today is my day to die I will not be a coward. I will embrace it. But I promise you, I will not die alone.”
He jerked her off the road and into the knee-deep snow. “This way.”
“Where are we going?”
“Back to the highway.”
Feeling braver, she said, “Running is just another form of surrender.”
He pulled her to a stop and spun her around. She thought he would hit her then; he looked angry enough to do it, but he didn’t.
“You have acquired a backbone these past weeks, Miss Pris. Maybe there is still hope for you in this business.”
“I will never shoot a gun again. I promise you my days as an assassin are over.”
“Not with your talent.” He pushed her to get moving again, and ten minutes later they were standing on a rocky cliff overlooking the road thirty feet below them.
Otto swore, then searched their surroundings, looking for a way down. He pointed to a number of rocks. “There is a footpath. We will go slow.” He pulled a knife from his pocket and cut her wrists free. “Don’t be foolish and think you can escape me.”
Pris turned, intending to do just that, but there was no need. Jacy and another man—it had to be Pierce Fourtier—stood twenty feet away, each with a handgun drawn. She froze—a mistake, she realized, the minute Otto grabbed her high around the chest and dragged her back against him. Using her as a shield, he pulled his SIG from his pocket and brought it to her temple.
“Throw down your weapon, Otto. This is the end of the road for you.”
“It appears to be true. Unfortunate for all of us.” Otto lowered his head while keeping his eyes on Jacy and Pierce. He whispered close to Pris’s ear, “I have always loved you. Whatever happens, know nothing has changed.”
“Otto, please put down the gun.”
“I do no
t know how to do that, Miss Pris. I am bound by loyalty. I gave my word to your father to keep the kill-file out of the hands of the enemy. I made a promise to protect you with my life, or be willing to take it should it come to that. My promise to you is that it will be quick and painless.”
Jacy didn’t know what Otto said to Pris, but it drained the color from her face.
Pierce asked, “What’s going on, Jacy?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t like it.”
“She can never be yours, Madox,” Otto called out. “To be labeled a traitor is worse than death. She goes with me. She dies loyal to her father. We die loyal together.”
Jacy saw Otto step back. “No! Don’t do it.”
But there was no reasoning with a man who had been brainwashed by Holic. Otto took another step and backed off the cliff, taking Pris with him.
Jacy heard Pris scream, and he raced forward expecting to see her dead, smashed among the rocks. He saw Otto’s lifeless body, contorted and twisted, but Pris was nowhere in sight.
He scanned the ledge, saw her clinging to a rock twenty feet below him. “Pris!”
“Jacy…help me.”
From behind him, Pierce said, “She’s alive.”
“And she’s going to stay that way.” Jacy started over the edge. “Don’t let go, honey. I’m coming.”
He had maneuvered the rocks like a mountain goat to save her. Pris clung to the image as she had clung to the rock ledge, remembering the moment he had pulled her to safety. It had felt so good to be in his arms, and she had known in that moment that everything was going to be all right. Jacy would make it all right.
She stood at the bedroom window at the cabin, still numb hours later. She wanted to forget the sight of Otto broken and bleeding among the rocks, but she would never forget him or the sacrifice he had made for his loyalty to her father—a man who deserved to rot in hell for the rest of his life.
When they got back to the highway, she’d told Jacy she wanted a moment alone with Otto. She had loved him in her own way—she hadn’t lied about that, she had loved him like a brother. She’d touched his cheek, and kissed his lifeless lips. Said a silent prayer in hopes that his soul would be set free, then removed his cell phone from his pocket and placed it in hers.
