by Cindy Dees
A squeak from above announced the return of Ruala and his men. Mac jumped into position and grabbed onto the pipe behind him with both hands. He leaned against the cold steel. Hopefully his body would hide the fact that his handcuffs were unhooked. Now the key was to stay conscious for as long as humanly possible and hang on to that pipe.
The punishment resumed, along with suggestions this time from Ruala on how to inflict maximum pain. He was vaguely grateful Carlos wasn’t trained in true torture, but brute force was managing to deliver enough pain that it was becoming almost more than he could stand.
Finally there came a point when his body just turned off. No matter how hard he willed himself not to, he felt himself slipping into unconsciousness. With every ounce of his remaining strength he controlled his fall to the floor, managing to collapse with his back still plastered against the pipe and his hands gripped around it.
He’d done his best. Hopefully it was enough.
The darkness was cool and soothing. Reluctantly he let it overwhelm him.
Susan lurched against her bonds when Mac collapsed, sobbing her relief that his agony was over.
Carlos kicked Mac’s prone body.
“Stop it!” she screamed. “You’ve already killed him!”
Through her tears, she saw all three men’s heads swivel in her direction. She gulped. Now it was up to her to buy time for Mac. Time for him to regain consciousness and maybe muster up a little strength. Time for Charlie Squad to find them before these animals killed them both.
A calm clarity came over her. Mac had been willing to die for her. To stand there, uncuffed, and take a brutal beating rather than break a promise to her. He’d sworn she wouldn’t ever be alone again. The least she could do was honor his choice and return the favor to him. If he had to die here, tonight, he was going to do so with her at his side. And with that knowledge came peace.
“So, the little woman speaks,” Ruala snarled. “Perhaps she would like to join the fun.”
She remembered Mac’s advice. “Maybe I would at that.”
Ruala gave her a startled look before he glared and stepped forward. She held his gaze gamely.
“Do you want to suffer the same fate as your boyfriend?”
She glanced over at Mac’s crumpled form and shrugged. “Guys like him are a dime a dozen,” she said scornfully. Please, please, please, let them buy her act.
“You were all concerned about him a couple minutes ago,” Carlos piped up suspiciously.
She snapped, “A couple minutes ago he was alive and could have helped me. Now he’s not.” She thought she saw Mac’s rib cage rise, and she prayed with all her strength that she’d seen the slight movement. “I’d like to offer you a deal.”
Ruala took another step closer. “What kind of deal?” he demanded. “Tell me or I’ll kill you.”
She gave him a long, steady look and said slowly, “A deal concerning my testimony to the grand jury. Why kill me when I can clear your name and save you a world of hassles with building a new identity from scratch and going through more reconstructive surgery?”
Ruala blinked. In his artificially smooth face, the gesture looked downright reptilian. “Indeed? You bring up an interesting possibility. Did the boyfriend think that one up?”
She glanced down at Mac’s battered form and snorted. “You honestly think he had enough brain cells underneath all those muscles to come up with something that intelligent?”
Ruala blinked a couple more times. Lord, that was creepy. She restrained a shudder as he said slowly, “I think my employer and I may have underestimated you. Wait here. I’ll be back.”
Duh. Like she was going anywhere handcuffed to a chair. He and his flunkies left the room once more.
She waited in an agony of suspense until the door closed behind them at the top of the stairs. Then frantically she slid her chair in jerky lurches over near Mac’s body.
“Mac,” she whispered frantically. “Mac, can you hear me? Oh God. Please be alive.”
He exhaled. A bare thread of rattling breath escaped him, but at least he was breathing. She had no idea if he was remotely conscious or not, though. She tried to get through to him anyway. “I’m going to try to convince Ruala you’re dead and to leave your body here. So don’t wake up on me when he comes back. Okay? Did you hear me?”
“Yeah.” It was so faint she could barely hear it.
“Oh, Mac, why didn’t you leave when you could have? I can’t believe you let them do this to you. What were you thinking?”
His voice was weak, but clear. “I love you, Susan. I was thinking about buying you time and keeping you alive.”
He loved her? After all the horrible things she’d said to him? And still he’d sacrificed himself like this for her? Her composure threatened to shatter completely.
Not yet. She couldn’t let down yet. She had to do her best to protect him, to give him a fighting chance to survive. She drew in a wobbly breath. “Well, good grief, Mac Conlon, you’ve got a strange way of showing you love me,” she quipped gently.
His painful, bloody smile tore her heart in two and made it whole again, all at the same time. “I’d kiss you if I could get to you to do it,” she said softly.
“I’d let you if…wouldn’t make me…pass out,” he mumbled, his strength starting to fade.
“Any bright ideas to share with me before that jerk comes back?” she asked.
“I heard you… Did good. Stick…with offer. Bargain for as long as possible. Leave me…for dead…” His voice trailed off.
“Don’t talk if it hurts,” she murmured to him. “I’ll buy us however much time it takes for Charlie Squad to find us.”
He took several careful breaths and visibly gathered his strength to speak one more time. “I doubt you’ll get…chance, but in my right boot…under liner…homing device in heel. If they move you, take it…”
A homing device? No wonder he’d been so sure Charlie Squad would find them. A brief spark of hope lit in her heart. Maybe, just maybe, they would get out of this alive.
And then, in the very next second, the lights went out. The room plunged into total blackness.
Chapter 16
M ac heard Susan’s gasp of alarm in the dark. “’Bout damn time,” he murmured in a flood of relief.
“What are you talking about?” Susan whispered tautly out of the darkness.
“Charlie Squad…here.”
“How do you know?” she asked.
“Who else…take lights out?” God, it hurt to talk. “We like…work in dark.”
If Ruala had wanted the lights out, he’d have taken them out when he got here. It had to be Charlie Squad. And he was feeling stronger by the second. Apparently, knowing a rescue was on the way did that to a guy.
“Thank God,” Susan murmured.
She sounded close to tears. Damn. He needed her to hold up just a little while longer. He gathered his strength to talk some more. “Susan, we’re not out…yet. Don’t let down.” He took as deep a breath as his busted rib would allow. “I need you…be strong…li’l while longer. Okay?”
He wished he could see her face to read her emotional state more precisely. Her voice sounded reasonably steady, though, when she answered, “I’ll try.”
“Good girl.”
There was something about knowing he might actually live that made the pain more tolerable. He eased his arms from underneath his body and pushed carefully to a sitting position. He felt nauseous. By sitting very still until the dizziness passed, he managed not to hurl the contents of his stomach across the room. Barely. After a few more minutes, his stomach settled enough for him to move. Gingerly he tested his limbs. Sharp pain shot through his left forearm, but otherwise he was functional.
“So what do we do now?” Susan asked quietly.
Even his broken mouth was feeling better. “Sit tight and wait for the cavalry to charge in to the rescue,” he replied.
“Shouldn’t we try to get out of here?” she suggest
ed nervously.
“And go where? We don’t know where we are, what the layout of this place is, where the good guys and bad guys are and we’ve got no weapons.”
“Good point,” she answered dryly.
“What we can do is take cover. Ruala will probably sweep through here to kill us.”
“Ohmigosh.”
He rolled over onto his hands and knees and dragged himself up the very pipe that had held him captive earlier. He was glad Susan couldn’t see his clumsy movements in the dark.
“Sit tight, Suzie. I’ll move a few boxes and make us a hiding spot.” He tried to envision the room as it had looked with the lights on. He picked a spot out of the line of fire from the top of the stairs and felt his way slowly in that direction. His outstretched hands encountered cardboard.
He groaned when he tried to lift the box and was appalled that he actually lacked the strength to do it. He settled for pushing that box and the one it was stacked upon aside. As quickly as he could in his wrecked state, he rearranged boxes until he’d made them a child-size fort behind the boxes.
“Talk to me, Suzie. So I can find you again.”
“I’m over here, Mac.”
He stumbled into her and moaned at the jolt.
“Mac, are you all right?”
“I’ve been better.”
“There was a moment earlier when I thought you were dead.”
He snorted and then bit back a groan of pain. “There were a couple moments when I thought I was done, too.” He moved around behind her chair. “I’ll push and you scoot. Let’s get you and your throne over behind those boxes.”
“Some throne,” she grunted a minute later as they struggled to move her across the room quickly and quietly.
“We’re almost there, I think,” he replied. Normally his orientation was flawless in total darkness, but he wasn’t doing anything in top form at the moment. His breath was short and he was getting dizzy again. Just a little bit farther.
“Ouch!” Susan yelped.
“Whoops. I guess we found the boxes.”
“Yeah, with my shins.” Good. He heard a smile in her voice. Her morale was better already.
He managed to stay upright long enough to help slide her chair into the makeshift fort. Gritting his teeth, he pulled a stack of boxes across the entrance to their hiding spot. Then, gratefully, he slid to the floor. “This could take a while. If Charlie Squad’s engaging Ruala and his men out there, the team may have to finish off all of them before they come in looking for us.”
“You rest a bit, then. I’ll keep watch,” Susan announced.
“Do you know what to keep watch for?” he asked skeptically.
“Nope,” she replied cheerfully, “but I’ll figure it out.”
“Getting cocky, are we?” he joked weakly.
“Should I keep you awake? Do you have a concussion?”
He managed a chuckle for her benefit. It was probably just as well she couldn’t see him right now. He could feel swelling setting in all over his face. “I don’t think I have a choice. I think I’m going to pass out again.”
“Go ahead and pass out. I’ll guard you.”
She sounded as fierce as a she lion with her cub. He smiled and then winced in pain as his split lips protested. “Yes, ma’am,” he sighed before he slipped into unconsciousness.
Susan sat in the dark for a long time, listening to the labored quality of Mac’s breathing. He moaned now and then. She realized just how badly he was hurt when he couldn’t stay lucid in the middle of a crisis. He needed medical care, and soon.
Frantic to help him and terrified of what might come out of the dark and the silence, she sat there, reliving the horror of watching Mac get beaten within an inch of his life. She’d never forget it, nor forget the raging guilt screaming through every cell of her being. This was all her fault. If she’d stayed put in the house, everything would have been fine. Her foolishness had led to this.
A faint rumble came to her. She wasn’t sure if she felt it or she heard it. She froze, listening. There it was again.
“Mac,” she whispered, reaching out with her foot to nudge him.
“Hmm?” he answered groggily.
“I heard something. A low rumble of some kind.”
She felt him snap to full consciousness beside her, listening as hard as she. Another sound. Louder this time.
“Machine-gun fire,” he commented. “Sixty caliber.”
“Ours or theirs?” Susan asked.
“Theirs.”
“How can you tell?”
“The rounds aren’t firing evenly. That gun’s mechanism is fouled. It won’t fire too much longer before it jams.”
“So how do you know it’s theirs?”
“We keep our weapons in perfect operating condition.”
She smiled in the darkness.
A creak sounded. She froze, choking on abrupt terror. Oh, Lord. The door at the top of the stairs.
Her insides turned to water. It was either a rescue or a death squad. Mac’s hand came to rest on her thigh. He squeezed her leg reassuringly while she held her breath.
A male voice spoke very quietly in the darkness. “Mac, check off.”
Mac spoke quietly from beside her. “Check.”
Silence.
What in the heck was going on? Obviously, that had been one of the good guys or Mac wouldn’t have said anything. So where did the guy go? A hand slapped over her mouth and she about jumped out of her skin. Man! She hated it when these guys did that!
A man’s voice whispered in her ear. “Don’t make a sound. Understood?”
She nodded under his hand. She was surprised when the hand didn’t move away from her mouth.
“Hi, sis.”
Tex! She’d have squealed for sure if his hand weren’t over her mouth. She shook his hand off and demanded in a whisper, “Where did you come from? How long have you been back in Texas? Thank God you’re here! I’ve been so scared—”
Mac’s low murmur cut her off. “Not now, Susan.”
She stopped babbling abruptly. He was right. They weren’t out of here, yet.
Mac continued in a whisper, “Good to see you, Tex. What’s up?”
Her brother answered, “It’s a mess out there. Quite a fireworks show. The hostiles are armed to the gills. And this building’s laid out like a plate of spaghetti.”
“The building’s not secure?” Mac murmured in surprise.
“Not even close.”
Susan’s heart dropped to her feet. Great. Now her brother’s neck was on the line, too. “So what are you doing down here, then?” she interjected.
“I heard a rumor that my sister and my best buddy were prisoners in here somewhere. That was reason enough to invite myself in.”
“I’m going to kick your butt when we get out of here for taking such a foolish risk,” Mac growled under his breath.
“I’ll let you,” Tex murmured back, “after we get out of here. What’s your status? You look like death warmed over through these IR goggles.”
“I feel worse. Susan’s cuffed to a chair. Have you got your picks on you?”
“You bet,” Tex answered. “I’ll have her loose in a sec.”
Susan waited impatiently while Tex worked on her handcuffs. It took under a minute for the metal bracelets to fall away from her wrists. “I didn’t know you could pick locks,” she commented.
Tex chuckled quietly. “I can do all sorts of things you don’t know about.”
“So I gather from talking to Mac.”
“I know you two are glad to see each other, but we need to get out of here,” Mac reminded them.
“Right,” Tex answered. “One escape coming up. I’ve got two sets of night-vision goggles for you guys. They’ll work once we get out of this dungeon. There’s a little ambient light in the halls upstairs.”
What felt like a set of heavy binoculars was thrust into Susan’s hands. She felt for the head strap and pulled the goggles on over he
r head. She didn’t see anything until she looked up at the exit. But then she made out a faint line of green coming from under the door.
“I’ve also got throat mikes for you guys.”
“Great.” Mac’s relief was audible.
Susan took the jumble of wires Tex handed her and managed to sort it out and don the microphone all by herself. She was getting pretty good at this special-ops stuff.
“I see you’ve been playing with Mac’s toys,” Tex remarked.
She sputtered and couldn’t come up with a response to that one. She truly hoped blushes didn’t show up through his infrared goggles.
Mac covered up his abrupt cough by asking Tex, “Have you got any heat to spare?”
“Of course,” Tex answered casually.
Susan heard several metallic clicks. “What’s that noise?”
Mac answered. “I’m checking to make sure there are bullets chambered in the pistols your brother just handed me.”
“Oh.” She gulped. “Are we going to have to shoot our way out of here?”
“Let’s hope not,” Mac replied. “But you know us. We plan for the worst and…”
“…hope for the best,” she finished for him.
“Exactly. Tex, if you don’t mind taking point, I’m not at a hundred percent.”
“You got it. Susan, stay right on my heels, and Mac will follow you. Okay?”
“Okay.”
She heard the frown in Tex’s voice. “It could get sporty out there. Do exactly what I say as soon as I tell you to do it. Got that, sis?”
“Yeah, yeah. I’ve crawled around with Mac, avoiding these guys before. I know the drill.”
They eased up the stairs and Susan held her breath while Tex pushed the squeaky door open slowly. Silence. Nobody shot at them. They moved out into the hallway on their hands and knees, and it jumped into dim, green focus. Doors and signs came into view. She put all her weight on her arms and her good leg, and Tex remembered to set a slow enough pace for her to keep up.
Tex whispered into his throat mike, “We can’t go back the way I came. Too much company for the three of us.”
Especially since she was a noisy amateur with a bum knee, and Mac was badly hurt. She made the mistake of glancing back over her shoulder in his direction. She felt physically ill at the sight of him. He was covered in black, which had to be dried blood. What she could see of his face around his goggles was monstrously swollen and misshapen. If she ever got the chance, she was going to kill the guy who’d done that to Mac. Painfully.
