It was interesting that Chayle still hadn’t mentioned anything about the girl who had been in the cabin with her, but both he and Kayne had decided not to bring it up unless Chayle mentioned it. However, now it was unavoidable. Jollie had to come to the compound and the two women would be here together. A knock brought his attention back to present and he flipped his phone closed.
“Enter.” Rafe watched as Gabriel slipped into his office, closing the door quietly behind him. “What’s up, Gabe?”
“I’ve been monitoring the chatter after our meeting and your decision to bring in Derek. It’s worse than we thought.” Gabe watched his commander carefully, making sure to keep his thoughts sealed so as not to give anything away. He couldn’t afford for Rafe to find even a hint of the stress he was under right now.
“What did you find, Gabe? Something has you spooked, I can tell.” Rafe watched the young man carefully but tried not to push. “We know that there are more of them missing, and that someone high up is helping. That’s why I brought Derek into this.”
“It’s more than that, Rafe. It’s malicious intent, and very hard to cover up Missing Persons on such a large scale. It’s like I told you before, a few had families, but those were hidden and sifted to the bottom. And, from what I can find out, no one in any of the departments were ever contacted by interagency contacts to see if there were trafficking ties or major crimes involved. It’s as if these young people fell off the face of the earth.” Gabriel was clearly upset as he lowered his large body into the overstuffed chair in front of Rafe’s desk.
“What do you think?” Rafe watched him closely, knowing Gab’s instincts were screaming something, but wanting him to voice them. Needing them to be out in the open, just so they were made real.
“I think we have some higher-ups who may be covering up experiments. Maybe even government official involvement, or at least complicit. If not, then we have rogue agents and scientists from some of the facilities that were brought down who have reformed and doing some hideous research again.” Gabriel took a moment to swallow before he looked back up at Rafe. “We have to stop them, Boss.”
“I know, Gab,” he whispered, rubbing his temples as he tried to stop the pounding in his head as he felt the temper swell. Rafe knew his eyes had changed from the look on Gab’s face, but there wasn’t any way he could rein in his temper at the moment.
The thought of a splinter organization on the loose that was just as evil as the one who had damaged Kayne and his men, not to mention the nightmares he still battled, was just too much to comprehend. He turned toward the back wall of his office and before he could stop himself punched his fist through the wall, his fist going all the way to his elbow.
“Shit, are you alright?” he heard Gabriel’s cry before he felt the man’s hands on his shoulders. It took a moment for Rafe to realize what he had done.
“Ah crap,” Rafe whispered, slowly withdrawing his arm from the drywall. His knuckles stung and there was traces of blood along his wrist where the boards had cut him, but for the most part he was unharmed. “Yeah, I’m good. Better the wall than one of you.”
“I’d spar with you any day, Boss. You know that,” Gabriel countered, pulling a towel from a sidebar and handing it to Rafe.
“I know, man. But with things the way they have been lately, I can’t take a chance on hurting any of you, and it would kill me if that happened.” Rafe didn’t look at his friend and teammate but he could feel the emotions running hot in Gabriel.
Every team member had a form of telepathy at some level, and Gabriel’s was almost as strong as Rafe’s and his twin’s. At the moment, Rafe could sense Gab’s struggle to mask his emotions, trying to hide whatever was troubling him the most.
“What’s bothering you, buddy?” he whispered, reaching over to get Gab’s attention.
When Gabriel looked up from the floor, there were tears in his normally clear green eyes, and the emotions usually under strict control were rolling in waves like a Texas thunderstorm ready to blast the countryside in a fantastic spring show of heat and turmoil. It struck Rafe so hard his heart ached at his friend’s pain before it was suddenly gone. All but the bright moisture still in those beautiful eyes.
“You need to bring her here, man,” Gab finally whispered, looking away. “She needs you more than you know, and you need her like the air that we all breathe.” The huge warrior turned toward the door to leave, not turning when Rafe called out to him.
“What are you talking about,” Rafe tried to pull him back around to see his face again but Gab just shook his head.
“Just go get her, Boss. Hurry, or they’ll find her again,” was all Gabriel whispered, shaking his long hair before walking out of Rafe’s office, leaving behind an urgency that hadn’t been there before.
Gabriel stood outside his commander’s office door and took a deep breath, trying to rein in his emotions and all of the others bombarding him that churned around him. Classified as a “sensitive” by his superiors after being “genetically reengineered” for government use, Gabriel Sorrel was one of the few living human beings who could actually sense and telepathically link with every member of his team, not to mention almost every living creature on the planet. If they had a functioning brain, Gabe could connect with them on some level. Yet his one major failure was tracking down and eliminating the threat against the mates. His nightmares were filled with it, his nightmares reeked of it.
His hormones, intuition, and tactile sensations were all on overload, not to mention he wasn’t sleeping well, which didn’t make it easy for his brain to function. Every time he closed his eyes he saw darkness and heard screams of young men and women, begging for release from the pain. In the light of day, Gabe knew it wasn’t from any missions they had been on so it had to be something else, but so far he hadn’t worked out what or where. His enhanced gifts somehow hindered him from seeing anything too close to his team or those he considered family, adding to his frustrations. It was one of the many reasons the grand government experiment around his genetic enhancements was determined a failure and the decision was made to remedy the situation by termination. If Kayne and Rafael McIntyre hadn’t managed to free all of the men it was likely most of them would have met similar ends. Right now, Gabe needed to keep his suspicions to himself and try to get back into the game. If not, Rafe would ground him from future missions until he was fit for duty.
Cocking his head, Gabe couldn’t hear anything else from his commander’s office, which was a good thing, all things considering. Rafe was good at blocking his thoughts most of the time, as all of the men were, which helped each of them cope with their various “gifts.” But for Gabe, it was a curse and blessing in this case. He needed to make sure Rafe went to get Jollie Sanchez and brought her to the main compound because his dreams were telling him that things were going to get very, very bad. And she wouldn’t be safe anywhere but here, with Rafe.
Rafe just didn’t know it yet.
Shaking his head, Gabe took off down the hallway at a jog, heading for the shooting range. He needed to check something out with the guys and hoped Merc and Davy would be down in the Armory so he could run suggestions by them. He chuckled at the thought of what Merc would say when he told him about the weapons array he wanted to try on the compound perimeter. The big guy would probably cream himself just drooling over it.
Chapter 21
Stay alive -
Protect your heart-
Serve your country-
But Always Stay Alive
Safe Compound Two
The moon was rising over the trees and, and as usual she couldn’t sleep. Jollie Sanchez wrapped the light throw from her bed around her slender shoulders and moved to the chaise lounge tucked under the overhang. The balcony was a pretty extension of her bedroom off the second story building where she was imprisoned, but still not so bad. For a safe house, it was appointed with more luxury than she was used to, but it still felt like a prison. At least here there were no camer
as always watching her every move within her rooms, or constant bed checks to ensure she was taking her meds; no groping hands or smelly bodies to fight off in the deep of night. Growing up in foster homes, she had never had a real home. Then, moving around from one duty station to another the entire time she had been enlisted just continued the same feeling, leaving her unsettled when not on a mission. She couldn’t remember a time when she could call a place home other than her duffle bag.
At barely twenty-five years old Jollie felt old beyond her years. Six years in the marines, fighting every day to be treated as an equal, a female who was more intelligent than most of the males in her unit, Jollie had stupidly thought the last special undercover assignment her commander had offered her was finally something where she could prove her worth. Instead, it had been the beginning of a nightmare gone horribly wrong.
Now she had to find out who sold her out, putting her life in the hands of a madman. It didn’t matter that she wasn’t there of her own free will, the drugs they used made it impossible to stay lucid most of the time, not to mention the pain and the procedures she was forced to endure without being put under in most cases. She was never sure what they were doing or who else was in the breeding program, but Jollie knew she would hunt them down and put a stop to it if it was the last thing she ever did.
Jollie was told by superiors once she was extracted after the last mission gone wrong, that she had been honorably discharged, but she had yet to understand the how or why. No one had given her any information, not one detail as to the reasons why her military service had been cut short after she was pulled from a mission that nearly cost her life and limb.
Since leaving her unit and the nightmare of her last assignment, it had been difficult holding down a job. Her financial reserves were so slim now, and unemployment or public assistance was out of the question if she wanted to stay off the grid. All in all, Jollie made ends meet from jobs that others wouldn’t take, even if she were a warrior trained to kill in more ways than most people knew. Being a trained killing machine meant staying invisible, never calling attention to one’s self. Managing to stay off the grid for over a year, Jollie never allowed anyone to take blood samples, never used her real name or even stayed in one place longer than a couple of months. She was so tired of moving from place to place, waking up with the knowledge that this time, she may have to run again. Her go-bag was always packed, always ready. Until ..
She still wasn’t sure how it happened, how someone slipped the roofies into her food or drink, but Jollie had come to in a strange room with only a hospital gown on and handcuffed inside a large animal cage. The first thing she noticed was the young man hanging naked from a hook across the room, his head down, arms held high, legs spread wide. His eyes had been closed and Jollie still didn’t know what had happened to him. There was no telltale sign of his breathing, but it had been eerie to see the paleness of his body against the clinical backdrop of the room. In that instant, she knew that somehow, the very people she had been trying to hide from had found her, again!
Jollie shook herself, pushing memories away, locking them down before she started screaming. The nightmares were much too close and she knew if she went down that rabbit hole tonight it might be the last one she would fall down. Too much pain still reminded her that the body she had always depended on was weak and needed to mend. Time was what she needed, and then revenge was what she would seek.
She had spent her time here after finally healing from her many injuries honing her body back to fighting capabilities. Jollie knew she might not look like much, but at barely five foot six she could take down most large men if given the chance with her fighting skills. Give her something sharp and close range, and her opponent was bleeding out and hidden away before anyone saw it coming. Jollie spent days working at the punching bag or shadow boxing, since no one would work out with her. Each time she asked the only response given was it was against the rules. Finally, she asked for a six-foot pole and was given one, with the promise to relinquish it after each session. This she worked into her martial arts workouts, allowing her muscles to strengthen and regain the contours lost from weeks of torture and captivity. She had to be ready so she could find Chayle.
She still no idea who had come to talk to her at the hospital once the rescue team had extracted her and Chayle from the cabin, and she desperately needed to locate where they had taken the other woman. She needed to make sure the Chayle had survived.
No one had ever put themselves in danger for Jollie, ever!
A debt had to be repaid, and Jollie couldn’t rest until she was satisfied that the other woman was safe from Him. Their captors had beaten her to get Chayle’s attention, but she had already been there for a few days. Her body had been sore and starved, beaten and abused as badly as Chayle’s when the team had found them. If they hadn’t shown up when they did, Jollie wasn’t sure how much longer either of them could have lasted. She had tried to find anything to end her own life that last couple of days, but the screams coming from the cabin had kept her focused on trying to get to Chayle.
Jollie watched the dim rays of sunrise begin to slip over the horizon in the east and tried to relax back into the lounge chair, content for now to allow her benefactors to think she was willing to remain silent while on the mend. There wasn’t much she could do otherwise, and at least the food was good.
A slight noise from a dark corner inside her room had Jollie on her feet and fading into the shadows between one heartbeat and the next, the throw sliding silently to the chair. She watched as a large shadow soundless slip along the wall into her room to stand by her empty bed, then look around the room.
“Well, if you’re awake, would you like some company?” the stranger’s whisper stroked over her skin, like the caress of a lover, sending shivers cascading down her spine. For some reason her nipples pebbled and she felt her body flush from just the rasp of his whispers.
“Who are you?” she demanded, staying in the shadows, refusing to show herself.
“Rafael McIntyre but most people just call me Rafe,” he chuckled, then did the oddest thing. He stepped into a pool of light and bowed, almost formally, from the waist, as if he were in a grand ballroom rather than in a darkened bedroom where there was no way he could see her. Or could he?
She trembled at the strangeness of his eyes drilled her through the darkness, watching her in the shadows as if he literally tried to melt the obscurity of it away. Jollie’s skin tingled under his gaze, and she almost cringed at the fire she saw blazing in those blue eyes, which turned to a strange cobalt blue in depths.
“You’re the one who came to the hospital after the team extracted us, aren’t you?” She moved away from the shadows just a bit so he could see the knife she held at her side. “Where’s Chayle?”
Rafe took in her fighting stance, the easy breathing, and loose hands with the knife held expertly in her left hand. He nodded, letting her know he approved, yet frowned all the same.
“Chayle is with her mate, my twin. She’s safe. I came to check on you because the staff keeps reporting that you aren’t eating, and you rarely speak to anyone. Are you well?”
“I’m under arrest, why would I talk to anyone, fool?” she scoffed, backing up to where her back hit the wall by the window, giving her the opportunity to bolt if need be.
“This is a safe place, Jollie. I led the team that brought you out of the mountains. No one here will harm you. You have my word. If they so much as touch you wrong, you have my permission to protect yourself.” He said it so matter-of-factly, that it surprised her.
“You would let me hurt your men?” she whispered.
“If they hurt you and I cannot protect you, then you have the right to protect yourself - yes!” he growled.
Jollie relaxed a fraction, taking in his honesty, sensing it as an innate part of his very being. Those dark blue eyes had haunted her since she woke up at the hospital, remembering him sitting next to the bed. He had only stayed for the aft
ernoon until the drugs and sedation had worn off enough for her to focus, but she had felt safe while he had been near.
“When can I see Chayle?” It wasn’t a question so much as a demand, her pert chin lifting defiantly. If nothing else, she would track him back to where ever they held Chayle and find a way to get inside so she could see for herself that the other woman was safe. There was no way she was taking this stranger’s word for anything. Rafe must have realized something was up because a very masculine chuckle filled the gloom and caused her temper to rise.
“Are you laughing at me?” she growled, unable to believe he would be so bold.
“No little one, I’m just enjoying your moxie. There are few men who would stand up to me, much less a slip of a woman like you.” She watched him cross arms the size of small tree trunks across a huge chest and lean back against the wall in the gloom of the room. Reaching over she flipped on the light of the small lamp next to her bed and gasped.
“It is you!” She had known, but with the light it only confirmed her suspicions. The dreams from the hospital, the nightmares blending with so much more that Jollie still doubted what was real and what fantasy was.
“I didn’t think you would remember me,” he whispered, stiffening against the wall, obviously uncomfortable.
“You were there, in the infirmary or wherever they took me, when we got out of the cabin.” Jollie frowned, trying to remember more but her memories were hazy, and it had been several days before she could finally pull herself together enough to struggle to the shower on her own. “And then at the hospital. I remember your eyes. Why are you here, now?” However, she remembered those eyes, a soft voice whispering to her through the fog telling her to be strong and fight it, to not let the bastards win.
Promises (Blood Brothers #1) Page 12
