He’d saved her and given her the tools she needed to escape.
A frantic sense of urgency rushed through her veins and she turned and faced her nightmare. A huge pile of jagged gray rock completely covered where the doorway had been moments before. Reaper was trapped inside.
Or worse—crushed…
Even as the pain ripped her apart, she ran to the wall, clawing at the giant boulders in hopeless despair. She couldn’t budge a single one—not even an inch—but that didn’t stop her from digging until her nails ripped away and her fingertips bled.
He’d given her back her hope and snatched it away in the same breath.
“Reaper, no,” she moaned still frantically digging through the impenetrable wall. “Please, don’t leave me. Please!”
Her words hitched on the sob, hopelessness took her to her knees. She couldn’t move a single one of those rocks. Even if he had survived, he’d suffocate.
She felt like her sternum was caving in on her heart. Caroline dropped to her hands, unable to hold herself upright.
Ranier had taken everything away from her. Her freedom. Her father. Reaper.
Why should she even try to keep living now? It wasn’t worth it, not without someone to love.
She should’ve known that Reaper didn’t really want to leave her before; she should have trusted him. And now… Oh God…
It was all she could do not to curl into a ball and sob.
“I couldn’t have planned that better myself,” a snide deep voice came from behind her.
Caroline didn’t bother getting up off her hands and knees; it wasn’t worth the effort.
“Lover boy just killed himself and delivered you up like a Christmas present wrapped in a bow.”
It wasn’t fair, dammit. She hadn’t even gotten to see her father’s funeral and now, she wouldn’t see Reaper’s either.
Just like it had when he left her in the hut, stabbing pains picked at her brain. She didn’t know how or why, but without Reaper there to soothe her, her environment crashed in. Cold, gnawing sweat formed on her arms, and down her back the pain descended. She knew what was coming—utter and complete agony.
“All right, princess, enough. Get to your feet; we’re going to find you a new home, one no one knows about. You will never see the light of day again.”
The man’s voice paused in her ears, like shards of glass ripping across her periphery. It was then that her awareness returned. Reaper’s belt was beneath her right hand, her fingers inches from the grenade. With her back turned, the man behind her wouldn’t have seen her weapons.
He wouldn’t know she was ready to die.
Pushing through the pain threatening to take her under, Caroline focused all on the minute task of sliding her hand over to hide the weapon.
“Did you hear me?! On your feet, princess!”
Caroline tore the grenade from the belt, jumped to her feet, and held it aloft. At least ten men formed a semi-circle around her, caging her against the collapsed wall that had just crushed Reaper.
She didn’t want to live without him.
A strange sort of peace blanketed her and she smiled. “I really don’t like being called Princess.”
One man stood in front of the others, obviously in charge. His gaze, once triumphant, slipped from hers to the weapon, anxiety spreading his eyes open wide. “I can put a bullet in your head before you pull that pin.”
The overwhelming screech of birds and animals was trying to break into her concentration but it was like a shield had formed around her, protecting her from the blackout pain that was sure to come. Caroline tilted her head to the side and studied the man. He was short, thin—at least thirty pounds lighter than the rest of his men. Little man syndrome practically oozed from his skin. “And what would the general have to say about that?”
He licked his lips and glanced nervously to his right and then left before answering. “He’s a military man; he’d understand I was defending my life.”
“And you really think your life is worth more to him than mine? I’m the key. Without me, Project Mayhem will vanish right along with his access to unlimited power. You really think a peon like you is worth that?”
No, it wasn’t. She could see the truth in his expression.
A tall brawny soldier elbowed his way in front of the would-be leader, his broad square jaw lifted with confidence. “The general said alive, not uninjured. Put the grenade down and I won’t put a bullet in your arm.” His rifle hung loosely at his side, he obviously thought he had a good bluff in.
And he might have if she actually wanted to live.
But right now, there was one feeling surging past the agony of losing her love and that was the fearless determination for revenge. The one thing that General Ranier couldn’t afford to lose was her, and she was about to take that option away permanently.
Caroline pulled the pin and chunked the grenade, her feet planted firmly. “Too bad I’m not worried about your bullets.”
30
“Come on, put your shoulder into it,” the brunette said from behind him.
Reaper strained with all his might against the heavy boulders blocking his path. “What the hell do you think I’m doing?”
“Not pushing hard enough. You forget that I’ve seen your test results. I know how strong you are.”
Reaper pushed with all his strength, willing the boulder to budge, shift, anything. It didn’t even move a centimeter.
Grunting, he pushed again and again, digging his boots into the stairs for leverage. Fuck it all, he couldn’t move the massive wall of granite trapping them inside.
“Push harder.”
Reaper snapped out, “Look, ma’am—”
The woman cut him off, “My name is Melissa.”
“I don’t care if your name is fucking Cleopatra. Unless you’ve got a magic wand hidden in your pocket, this wall isn’t moving.”
“So, you’re just going to give up?” Melissa’s tone was incredulous.
Reaper snapped, “Give up? You think I’m giving up? To be honest, I couldn’t give two shits about your life or mine for that matter. The only person that matters is Caroline and she’s safely outside.” Reaper shoved again, this time with a halfhearted effort and then collapsed to the ground, drawing a knee against his chest and slinging his arm over it.
He’d seen her disappear through the opening a millisecond before the rocks slammed together. She’d made it safely.
Caroline Cotter had proved to be smart and resourceful and caring. He had no doubt she’d make it back to the helicopter with the map he provided.
But would she know how to fly it?
A tinge of his hope disappeared. He knew that once she reached the states, and found his team she’d more than willingly offer herself to his men until they could find another solution besides shackling her to a cot and draining her dry. But she couldn’t reach the United States unless she got out of the jungle and in the short amount of time he’d had to make a decision he hadn’t even considered the fact that she’d probably never had lessons on flying stealth helicopters.
Which meant that ultimately, not only would Reaper give up his life, his men would die.
Dammit all to hell. They were freaks, altered things, no longer normal. They had to have Caroline and her blood to exist and Reaper was no longer willing to sacrifice her, no matter how steep the cost.
Melissa felt her way up the stairs and past Reaper, blindly searching in the darkness. He didn’t bother to try and get up or assist her, even though he knew she couldn’t see anything. What would she do anyway besides annoy him and remind him of his failures? Still, she began scratching and clawing around the edges of the rocks and the sound was annoying if nothing else. “Would you stop that?”
Her breaths came in short sharp pants. “Not until there isn’t enough oxygen in here for me to survive.”
Reaper let out a harsh bark of laughter. “I thought you were smart. There isn’t enough oxygen in here for you to su
rvive. We have 10 minutes maybe before hypoxia sets at which point you will lose consciousness and then—”
She cut him off, “I know what hypoxia is, and I also know that if I can find a weak point in this wall maybe I can give you enough leverage to use those genetically enhanced muscles of yours to get us out of this godforsaken cave alive.”
Melissa moved methodically along the floor, bumping into his hip when he didn’t move out of her way.
“You’re wasting your time. Besides, you and I both deserve to die for our part in Project Mayhem.”
She took a sharp intake of breath, “And your men? Do they deserve to die?
Reaper couldn’t even work up enough energy to cringe that he’d been so willing to sacrifice himself so that they may live. He’d completely lost sight of who he was, before Mayhem, when he joined up with the project to protect others, and instead all he’d done was kill and destroy.
As had his team.
“You saw what we did to the scientist?” He asked quietly.
“I did.” She answered without hesitation.
“And you still think we deserve to live?”
Melissa’s dark eyebrows dropped into a sharp V, as if she were choosing her words carefully, “Do you know why you and your men did those horrible things?”
“Because that’s who we are now. You, Winters, Mankel, and the general made sure of that. You turned us into cold-blooded killers. How can we ever go out on a mission not knowing if we are going to simply kill the bad guy or if all the innocent women and children may get in our paths?”
Melissa sat back on her haunches, less than a foot away from him. Despite knowing she’d taken part in Project Mayhem, a small part of him was glad she was in here at the end. At least he didn’t have to die alone.
“No, it’s because Winters implanted a trigger in your spinal cord that turns off the control centers of your brain. She activated the devices that day. The only reason you and your men lost control like that was because she made you.”
Reaper sucked in a large gulp of the precious little amount of oxygen left in their enclosure.
“That sound.” Melissa nodded. “The controlling device is triggered by a frequency beyond normal human hearing range. It turns off your inhibitions and stimulates the subcortical regions where violence is housed. You had no choice. You and your men were as much victims of this experiment as Caroline.”
Reaper should have felt some measure of comfort at being relieved from the burden of not knowing whether or not his men would snap for no reason. But he didn’t. In control or not, their blood was still staining his hands. “It doesn’t matter. Not anymore. My men and I will be put down like the animals we are.”
He closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the wall. At least he could die knowing he’d done everything he could to save Caroline.
Melissa kept quiet for so long he thought maybe she’d given up. And then, in a quiet calm tone, she said, “Your men aren’t animals. They still want to do good, just like you. An animal would’ve never come back for Caroline. It wouldn’t sacrifice its life for hers. You have no idea what Ranier has done, do you?”
Reaper’s lips stretched into a sardonic smile, even knowing Melissa couldn’t see it in the pitch black. “Believe me, I know exactly what he’s done, I am what he’s done.”
The air particles around them vibrated, Melissa was shaking her head. “No, there are others, others they picked because of their natural propensity for violence. I’ve seen what they can do, and what they have done without the auditory stimulation.”
Reaper heaved out an exhausted sigh. She was wasting air, but then again what did he care? The more she talked the faster the end would come. “Whatever they’ve done, it’s not worse than what we did.”
“You’re wrong.” Her whispered response made him open his eyes.
“Ranier and Winters personally selected men with a psychological profile bordering on psychotic. The drug not only enhances your strength and vision and hearing, it also enhances your natural propensities. You and your men are programmed for good, the general’s hand-selected team is wired for evil, and without other enhanced soldiers out there to stop them, they’ll be free to wreak havoc without restraint. If you’re looking for some sort of penance from inadvertently killing those scientist, I’d rededicate your life to hunting down those who would do harm to the innocent.”
Shock laced with rage sped through his veins and Reaper shot to his feet, his hands clenched and grinding fists. “I knew that bastard wouldn’t stop with my team.”
“You weren’t the first, and you won’t be the last. Just because you got Caroline out, doesn’t mean you saved her life. You and I both know the general probably has her surrounded right now and without someone like me on the inside to baby him as much as possible, he will be completely free to create as many murdering enhanced human being as possible.”
Reaper shook his head in denial although the ring of truth in her words could not be disputed. “I gave Caroline the tools to get away.
“Even if she does somehow manage to miraculously survive, the general has his own personal store of serum. It shouldn’t be too hard for him to find someone smart enough to clone the sequence and replicate a completely new strain,” Melissa paused, and then said, “and everything you and your men sacrificed would have been for nothing.”
His veins throbbed, his pulse thudded in his temples. “You can’t do that.”
Melissa shrugged, “Probably not. But I’m almost ninety-nine percent certain the general would have had men waiting at the exit to capture us. Face it, big boy, you probably just threw Caroline right back to the sharks.”
Reaper had absolutely no argument against the cold hard truth. Now, he was trapped. He couldn’t move this wall, there had to be tons of rock and granite pressing down the earth. He’d need a commercial grade jackhammer just to make a pinhole for air, and even then, if he did manage to somehow topple the rock, the rest of them might fall and crush them anyway.
“No!”
Images of Caroline like he’d found her, pale and unconscious strapped to a gurney with dozens of wires and lines going in and out of fragile body filled his mind. Without him, there would be no hope of ever finding her again. She’d spend the rest of her life a vegetable.
“Don’t give up on her, Reaper. Don’t give up on yourself. Move one of those damn rocks!” Melissa finished her order with a wheeze. Her oxygen had begun to reach its limit.
But he had to try. He couldn’t give up on her; he couldn’t give up on Caroline. Reaper searched the wall quickly, finding a rock just above his right shoulder that was pressed a few inches more outward than the rest. It was possible that if he were able to push hard enough, that rock would give way. He put his shoulder against the wall, bent his knees, and shoved with all his strength.
Suddenly, a loud explosion blasted and Reaper was thrown back, rubble and rocks falling over his legs and hips and chest. Dust clouded their precious shrinking storage of air. And then Reaper saw something he thought he’d never see again.
Daylight.
He tried to sit up, but there were too many rocks pinning him to the ground. With concentrated effort, he began to roll and rock his body, just barely at first, but after a few moments, he managed to shake some of the weight. Within minutes, he was sitting up and shoving the boulders from his legs. Blood saturated his pants, and he was pretty sure his left foot was shattered. But he shoved the pain to the back of his mind, got up on a knee, and surveyed his surroundings.
Severed legs and arms, split torsos and body parts were scattered just beyond the entrance. Someone had dropped a grenade.
Had one of his soldiers managed to find him? Or maybe there was someone else working from within to free Caroline.
Ranier wouldn’t risk the girl in an explosion. He would’ve sent men to subdue her quietly and take her back for more.
There was nothing stealthy or careful about the carnage spread out before him.
/>
And then Reaper caught a glint of sunlight on pale blonde hair fanned out on the ground 10 feet away and his entire world stopped turning.
“Caroline!”
Reaper hopped across the distance separating them and dropped to his knees beside her, running his hands over her body, searching for injuries. The only thing he could find was a small trickle of blood leaking from near her temple.
She didn’t move. He laid his head against her chest and strained to hear a heartbeat. And it was there. Strong and steady, the rhythmic thump, thump, thump. She was alive.
Reaper dropped his head against her chest, unable to hold himself up.
She was alive. He still had a chance.
But there could be more men coming.
There wasn’t time. Did he dare risk moving her when it was possible she had a broken neck or spine? “Caroline, baby, please open your eyes.”
She didn’t give so much as a flicker of her lashes against her dirt-smudged cheeks.
“Caroline, I order you to open your eyes right now!” He put force behind this command, willing her to awaken.
Shit, shit. He had enough field medical training to know that moving someone in her state was too much of a risk to permanent injury, but he had enough instinct to know there were more men on their way.
“Goddammit, Caroline, open those big blue eyes of yours.”
If Reaper had blinked, he would’ve missed it. Her eyes moved beneath her lids. Had she heard him? “Come on, baby, wake up. I can’t move you unless you wake up.”
A low groan escaped her lips, and she turned her head an inch to the left.
“That’s it. That’s it, come on, you can do it.”
She moaned again and it was sweet, heavenly music to his ears.
“Reaper?”
His hands quivered as he drew her hair back from her face, careful to avoid getting close to her injury. “I’m right here, baby.”
She kept her eyes closed, but her beautiful lips turned down into a small frown. “You came back.”
“I was a fool, an idiot; I never should’ve left you. I swear to God I’ll never leave your side again, even if you tell me to.”
Mayhem's Warrior: Operation Mayhem Page 23
