The Naughty Nine: Where Danger and Passion Collide

by Nina Bruhns

  They made the drive in silence other than when necessary for Manning to provide directions. Once Gage was on the mountain’s access road, he no longer needed Manning to guide him. Despite the distance, he could see the cabin, bathed in the glow of a full moon. It was an impressive structure. Built near the edge of the mountain, the view of the snow-capped landscape below was spectacular.

  Gage stopped the SUV on the access road. He wanted to drive up to the front door of the cabin. Fuck, he wanted to drive right into the cabin and get Mallory, but the snow in front was too deep for the vehicle.

  Here was where things got tricky. Where Gage could be overpowered. He took out his gun and aimed at Manning. “Call the cabin. Put your phone on speaker. Tell them to bring Agent Burke out.”

  “What about me?”

  “Make the call.”

  Manning did as Gage instructed. “This is the Don.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “I want you to bring Agent Burke out to the porch.”

  “Sir, did I hear you right? You want me to take her outside?”

  “Do it. Now.”

  As Manning gave the order, Gage closed his eyes briefly in relief. She was alive.

  Gage kept his gun trained on Manning and divided his gaze between Manning and the cabin’s front door. The temperature was near freezing but sweat broke out on his brow.

  A light came on outside. The door opened. A burly man stepped onto the porch. An automatic weapon hung from a shoulder strap and an arsenal was strapped to his chest. Two more men, both as heavily armed as the first, exited the cabin. Mallory came out last. Gage wanted to go to her, but held himself back.

  He lowered the truck’s windows and put the gun to Manning’s head. “Tell them to ask Agent Burke to come to the truck. She comes alone. They wait on the porch.”

  The congressman stuck his head out the window and relayed the order. The man who’d brought Mallory outside replied that she was injured. She wouldn’t be able to get to the vehicle on her own and Gage was forced to give the go ahead for her to be escorted.

  Gage watched without blinking as Mallory staggered off the porch. She was leaning heavily on the man with her and Gage’s stomach clenched that she was hurt so badly, she was unable to walk unaided. His hand tightened on the grip of the gun he held on Manning, but he put the fear and rage that bubbled up inside him aside for the moment and focused on her halting progress. Come on, baby.

  When Mallory and her escort were about half way between the porch and the SUV she struck the man and broke free. Her fingers closed around the automatic but her captor broke her grip. He snagged a fistful of her hair. Her head snapped back and she cried out with pain.

  Gage saw red and was out of the SUV intent on doing grave bodily harm to the one who’d hurt her when Mallory managed to break free again. “Mallory!”

  She turned to him and her eyes went wide. She mouthed his name. His throat tightened.

  Gage still had the gun locked on the congressman. He glanced away from Mallory to Manning then back to Mallory. “Come to me. We’re getting out of here.”

  As she started toward him, it was all he could do not to carry her out of there. But he forced himself to hold his ground and keep his gun trained on Manning.

  She stepped into the beam from the SUV’s headlights. A few feet from Gage, her step faltered and her knees buckled. He moved then, and caught her against him, preventing her from landing face down in the snow. In that instant, Manning bolted out of the truck, taking cover below the passenger door.

  “I’m out!” Manning shouted. Stop them! Don’t let them get away!”

  Gage had just lost his leverage. He swept Mallory up in his arms.

  She clung to him. “Gage! The women are here!”

  He set her down on the front seat. “We’ll get them.”

  He’d find a place to secure Mallory first, then come back for the women on his own. He gave Mallory a nudge and she crawled over the console. As she reached the passenger side, the man who’d led her from the porch reached in and hauled her out. Mallory landed a hit to the man’s face but he stood her against his body and pressed the barrel of a gun to her head.

  “Drop your weapon, Broderick, and put your hands behind your head,” Manning shouted. “Or my man will drop her.”

  To drive home Manning’s words, the man who held Mallory ground the gun against her temple. She bit her lip in an attempt to keep from crying out, Gage thought, but he didn’t need the added inducement. From the instant the man had Mallory, Gage’s course of action was set. He would not risk her life. He let his gun fall to the snow and linked his fingers behind his head.

  Manning waved a hand at the two men on the porch and they ran toward him. The congressman was a tall, imposing man, but between the two other men he looked like a small child. Bolstered by his bodyguards he went to stand in front of Gage. His lip curled in a sneer and the look in his eyes was of pure malice.

  “You dared to put your hands on me.” Manning’s eyes glittered with hatred. He turned to one of the giants beside him and nodded.

  The man drove his ham-sized fist into Gage’s gut. Mallory screamed. Gage’s breath whooshed out. On the heels of that blow, another connected with Gage’s face. He staggered but glared at the man who’d hit him and remained on his feet.

  Mallory screamed again. “No!”

  If not for the gun to Mallory’s head, Gage would have given as well as he got, but his hands were tied, figuratively, if not literally, and everyone there knew that.

  A third blow landed again on Gage’s face and this time he dropped to one knee. Eyeing Manning, he spat blood on the congressman’s polished shoe.

  Manning’s face and neck turned crimson. A vein on his brow began to pulse. “Wrap this up. I need to get back to my party.”

  Two blows hit Gage in rapid succession, then a third powerful hit struck the side of his head. Gage fell forward. He never knew when his face landed in the snow.

  * * *

  One of Manning’s men lifted Gage’s unconscious body from the snow and hoisted him over his shoulder. Gage didn’t even groan and Mallory’s heart lurched.

  With one heavy hand on her shoulder and another squeezing her arm, Big Brute marched Mallory back to the cellar. Gage was dumped on the concrete floor.

  Mallory kneeled beside him. Patting his cheeks, she called out his name, but he didn’t respond. She didn’t know what good being conscious would do him at the moment. No doubt he was better off not being awake to feel the pain of the beating he’d sustained. It was a purely selfish move on her part that she wanted him awake.

  She wanted his head, at least, off the cold, damp floor. She sat against the wall and ignoring her own hurts, put her hands under his shoulders to lift him onto her lap. She heaved, but he was too heavy and fell back. She tried again with the same result.

  “Let me help you.”

  In the darkness, Mallory could not make out the features of the woman who came forward. She crouched beside Gage and added her strength to Mallory’s. Between the two of them, they lifted him.

  “Thank you,” Mallory said.

  “Who is he?”

  The woman had a soft Caribbean accent.

  “He’s—” The man I love. Mallory held the words back and said instead, “Police Captain Gage Broderick. We’ve been working together to find all of you.”

  “It’s been so long since I was caught, I thought no one was still looking. That no one cared.”

  Mallory clasped the other woman’s hand. “We care. What is your name?”

  “Lucinda.”

  “How long ago were you abducted, Lucinda?”

  “I’ve lost count of the weeks.”

  It sounded like Lucinda was among the first taken for this latest shipment and Manning had been keeping her while he took the necessary time to capture the others. “How did it happen?”

  “I was on my way home from school. I attend evening classes at the university. I was studying to be a nurse.
” Her voice broke. “A man asked me for the time. That was all. I looked to my watch and I don’t know what happened after that. When I woke up, I was in a moving vehicle.” Her voice trailed off.

  One by one, the other women came forward and told their stories. Mallory’s heart wrenched as she listened but also, her anger built that these women had been torn from their lives at the whim of one man. Her anger built, and her resolve to see them home safely.

  Gage groaned. “Mallory?”

  She put her hand on his cheek. “I’m here. How are you feeling?”

  “I’ll live.” He grunted. “Where are we?”

  “Manning’s cabin. In the cellar. Not Considine.” She shook her head. “It’s been Manning all along. Now that I know that, it’s no mystery how my cover was blown.”

  “Yeah. He covered his tracks.” Gage’s muscles tensed. “Who’s in here with us?”

  “The women we’ve been looking for.”

  “I am Lucinda, Captain Broderick.”

  Gage turned his head in the direction of the voice coming out of the darkness. The others spoke their names. Their spirits had been battered but not broken.

  “Ladies,” Gage said.

  He raised his head from Mallory’s lap, groaned again, but didn’t lay back down. He turned to his side, went still for a moment, then braced his arms on the cement and pushed himself up off the floor.

  “Easy.” Mallory put her hands on his shoulders in an attempt to steady him “Take it slow.” She kept her hands on him until he sat back against the wall. “How did you find me?”

  “We got a hit on one of your profiles. You were right about those dating sites.”

  He filled in the details for her. Mallory told him what went down at her apartment on the day she was brought here.

  “How badly did they hurt you?” Gage’s voice was low and harsh with concern.

  “Not as badly as they hurt you.” She shook her head, though he couldn’t see that. “I’m so sorry, Gage.”

  “For what?”

  “If I had kept my feet under me, we would all have been long away from here.”

  “Not your fault. That son of a bitch hurt you.” His voice was hard. “Will you be able to walk out of here?”

  “This time I’ll do what needs doing.”

  Gage raised his voice. “Ladies, are any of you hurt?”

  All responded that they were not which made sense since Manning would not want them damaged for the sale.

  “Manning is transporting the women in a few hours,” Mallory said.

  Gage was silent for a moment then said, “I counted three men when we were outside. Are there more?”

  “None that I saw. Gage, they’re mercenaries. They know how to fight and aren’t afraid to.”

  “Yeah, and they’ll fight to the death since defeat would mean their death anyway. Were you conscious to see the cellar in the light?”

  “Yes.”

  “Where are the exits?”

  “There’s only one,” Mallory said. “The door at the top of the stairs.”

  “Okay. Then that’s going to have to be it. A few hours you said?”

  “Yes.”

  Gage addressed the women again. “Ladies, we’re getting out of here. When they come for you, we’ll make our move.”

  * * *

  Gage had been in tenuous situations in his years on the job. He’d known fear, certainly, but never the kind of fear that he was feeling now. They’d heard footsteps outside the cellar door a moment ago. The hour to transport the women was at hand. It was time they all got out of there.

  The lives of the women Manning planned to sell depended on what he did in the next moments. Mallory’s life depended on it. A moment from his past flashed across his mind. Another setting. Another circumstance. Two precious others who’d depended on him.

  And he’d failed.

  He was scared shitless of failing again. Battling a fear for Mallory that threatened to paralyze him. If anything went wrong, if he went wrong, Manning would kill her and do so with relish.

  There were three mercenaries that he knew of at the cabin. All with enough firepower to blow this place and everyone in it into the next millennium.

  The footsteps stopped. Gage got into position. He braced. The door opened and the man Mallory had named Big Brute stepped onto the landing. Gage raised his arm. He chopped the hulk on the back of the neck. Big Brute crumpled in on himself and fell in a heap at Gage’s feet. He disarmed the mercenary, then secured him to the metal railing with a pair of handcuffs he found on the man’s belt.

  Mallory joined him on the stairs and took one of Big Brute’s hand guns for herself. The women crowded on the stairs behind her. Mallory had told him of a rear exit in the cabin and would now lead the women to safety while he stayed back and took out the remaining mercenaries. The keys to the SUV had been left in the ignition when Gage was caught. He’d told her where the vehicle was parked, but they’d decided she’d drive the women out in whatever vehicle Manning had sent for their transport if possible, in case the keys were no longer there or the SUV had been disabled.

  With a nod to Mallory, Gage led them out of the cellar. They moved in silence. He was hoping to get them safely away then make his own way out without firing one round. Once gun fire erupted, the mercenaries he knew about and any more Manning had sent for the transport would come on the run.

  He peered around a corner, checking the hall that held the rear door. It was clear. He kept his gaze and the automatic weapon trained, keeping himself between Mallory and the other women as they made their way down the corridor. A couple of other rooms branched off this hall. The women had to pass by them on their way to the exit and his shoulders tensed as he envisioned one of the mercs leaping out at them. No doubt Manning’s men were under orders not to hurt the twelve women and compromise the sale, but they would have no such compunction when it came to Mallory.

  The women were almost to the door when Gage heard laughter. One of the mercenaries entered the hall. His gaze locked on Gage and his brows arched in surprise. He went for his gun. Gage opened fire.

  “Go!” He shouted to Mallory.

  * * *

  Mallory watched one of the mercenaries fall. Another came running. Her stomach knotted. There were more than three of them here now. Gage let loose with the automatic, and the man leaped back and took cover behind a wall. Gage fired another few rounds. Mallory knew he wanted to bring anyone else in the cabin to him. He would keep Manning’s men pinned down and focused on him so she and the women could make their escape.

  The cat was out of the bag as far as their escape went and with no further reason for stealth, Mallory and the women ran out the door. She needed to see the women to safety, but she could not leave Gage to fight off an untold number of mercenaries indefinitely by himself. As good as he was, he was just one man and eventually they would overpower him and he would be killed. Her heart stuttered and a cold fear coursed through her.

  Outside, the sky was pink with early morning. The cold penetrated to the bones. Mallory wore only the blouse and skirt she’d worn to work on the day she was taken from her apartment and the other women were similarly dressed. As they made their way from the cabin in knee deep snow, they shivered.

  They reached the front of the cabin. A luxury sedan was parked on the access road, beside Gage’s rented SUV and behind that, a van. The engine of the van was running. A plume of smoke from the rear tail pipe rose into the air. No one was behind the steering wheel. They appeared to be alone on the road. Still, when the women would have raced to the vehicle, Mallory held them back. When she was sure they were alone, she led the way to the van, threw open the rear doors and the women climbed in.

  As Lucinda was about to join the other women in the back, Mallory caught her by the arm. “Can you drive?”

  Lucinda nodded.

  “Then drive out of here. Straight ahead. You’ll come to a main road that will take you into town. Call York at the FBI office in Brad
ley. Tell him everything.”

  Lucinda blinked quickly. “What about you?”

  Another barrage of gunfire shattered the quiet.

  “I’ll be fine.” Mallory squeezed Lucinda’s fingers in a desperate plea. “Please. Just go now.”

  Lucinda nodded, then got behind the steering wheel and floored the accelerator. The van disappeared down the mountain.

  The gunfire stopped. In the near-absolute quiet, Mallory heard a block of ice fall from the roof.

  Gage.

  She whirled and ran back to the cabin. Five men lay on the floor and one of them was Gage. Mallory dropped to her knees beside him. “Gage!”

  Blood coated one side of his head. She felt as if her heart stopped. She dropped her gun on the floor and took his face between her palms. “Gage!” But he was alive. She could feel his pulse beating beneath her fingers.

  “Remarkable. He killed all of my men before dying himself.”

  Manning’s voice came from behind Mallory. He drew back his foot and kicked her gun across the room.

  Mallory’s pulse pounded and she rose to her feet slowly to put herself between Manning and Gage so the congressman wouldn’t see that Gage was alive. She needed to get Manning away from Gage and where an instant earlier she prayed for him to open his eyes, now she prayed for him to keep them closed until she’d led the congressman away. To that end, she began inching to the exit.

  Manning stalked her. “You’ve led me on a merry chase, but that’s over now.” He closed the distance between them and seized her by the throat. He pressed the barrel of the gun to the back of her neck and shoved her the rest of the way to the door.

  He pushed her outside, to the back of the cabin where the view of the mountains stretched out before them. The mountains rose against a clear blue sky. Sunlight glinted off the pristine snow.

  “Breathtaking isn’t it?” Manning said. “This mountain attests to the presence of a higher power. Man has attempted to imitate but has never been able to recreate such perfection. I’m going to have to leave here and not return. It saddens me to think I will never see this again.” His tone was wistful, then became menacing. “I owe you for that as well, Agent Burke.”