Dark and Damaged: Eight Tortured Heroes of Paranormal Romance: Paranormal Romance Boxed Set

by Colleen Gleason

  “Toryn is disabling the yacht.”

  She frowned. “And Becca’s with him?”

  There was a pained expression on Asher’s face, and for a split second, she thought he might be getting ready to tell her something terrible.

  “We don’t have her yet, but we know where she is,” he added hastily. “We needed to get these girls to safety, but Toryn was concerned that Reaux and a few others would escape—with Becca—before we could get back and take them out. They’d barricaded themselves in some sort of underground bunker, and we weren’t sure if there were other exits.”

  The bunkers. Damn. She’d forgotten all about them.

  The island had originally been used as a military fort to guard the Puget Sound, but it had been decommissioned many years ago. One of the few remaining vestiges of its original purpose was the underground bunkers.

  “So you left Toryn there to disable the yacht’s engines on his own?” She felt the anger inside her rising.

  “Relax, Keely. He’s using his telekinetic Talent from a distance to rip out all the moving parts.”

  She still didn’t like the fact that he was on the other side of the island by himself. In fact, she hated it.

  After the girls were safely loaded into the dingy, Asher put a hand on Keely’s elbow to help her inside as well, but she stepped away. “That’s okay. The boat’s too full.”

  He glanced at the dingy and frowned. “There’s plenty of room. Come on.”

  “No, I’m good. I’ll wait.” She turned back toward the beach but Asher shot a hand out and stopped her. “What the hell!” she protested. “I’m not leaving without Toryn or my sister.”

  She tried to jerk away from him, but his grip was like iron.

  ***

  Toryn almost didn’t see them.

  He’d been crouching beside one of the seaside cabins, making sure the coast was clear before sprinting toward the dock, when movement to the right caught his attention.

  Davin Reaux was emerging from the thick forest, hurriedly escorting a group of people. The wind was strong, but Toryn could hear him. “Come on. Let’s go.”

  Six…seven…eight... Toryn counted them as they hit the beach, recognizing some of them from the video feed at the club. The tenth and final man to come out of the woods was the man who’d been with Becca. And he was leading her by the collar.

  Shit. So that’s where she’d been. In the bunker with these vile men. He’d searched everywhere in the lodge and cabins for Keely’s sister, and when he couldn’t find her, he’d feared the worst. She looked cold and scared—the asshole hadn’t even given her a coat to wear over that skimpy outfit—but at least she was alive.

  He would do whatever it took to get Keely’s sister back. He couldn’t bear the thought of telling her that he’d seen Becca but hadn’t been able to save her. It simply was not an option. There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, including risking his life for her sister.

  From what Toryn could tell, there were only two security guards with the group. One on each side. Guns drawn. Heads swiveling, looking for threats. That made ten men total, plus Becca.

  Thank the Fates Reaux hadn’t brought a large security detail with him to the island. Probably felt it was too remote and thus fairly safe. Or maybe there wasn’t room for them on the boat. Whatever the reason, the Iron Guild warriors had taken out most of them in the lodge when they’d rescued the young women.

  He shot a glance over his shoulder. Where the hell was his backup? He hadn’t disabled the boat yet. If he didn’t act now, Reaux would get away and Keely’s sister would be gone. Time had officially run out.

  He touched the hilt of his knife and considered throwing it. It was a long shot, and he’d have to be deadly accurate. No, Becca was too close. He couldn’t take the chance. But even if she weren’t and he was lucky enough to hit one of the guards, Reaux would be alerted to his presence. One man against nine, some of them armed, were not good odds.

  The group was making its way across the narrow, rocky beach now, heading straight for the tiny marina. Toryn cursed that he hadn’t disabled the boat’s engines yet. Could he get close enough without them seeing?

  Staying low, he sprinted behind the row of cabins to the other side of the cove and stopped inside a thick thatch of trees hanging over the rocky beach. From here, his view of the group was blocked, but the wind brought snippets of their conversation.

  “Freezing my nuts off.”

  “…never to do this again.”

  “...fun, though, right?”

  The boat moored at the end of the dock dwarfed everything around it. Toryn guessed it was close to a hundred feet long. Closing his eyes, he stretched out his mind in the direction of the watercraft, trying to hone in on the engine room, looking for anything mechanical, but he was having trouble finding it.

  Damn it. He needed to be closer than this. He was too far away for his Talent to work.

  Just as he was about to move, the hairs on the back of his neck prickled and he went for his knife.

  “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

  He spun around to find a large, bald man pointing a gun at him. Becca’s captor.

  Toryn didn’t wait to find out if the guy was going to shoot or ask questions. Operating on pure instinct, he focused all his kinetic energy on the weapon, and it flew from the man’s hands.

  Surprise flashed in the large man’s eyes before he growled, lowered his head and charged. He wasn’t sure if this man was a Shifter-Talent or not, but he certainly looked as if he were capable of shifting into a bear or a bull.

  Toryn tried to sidestep out of his way, but his attacker was surprisingly fast and agile for his size. His fist clipped Toryn’s shoulder and landed with a dull thud, knocking him to the ground. He jumped to his feet like a cat and palmed his blade.

  “You are Iron Guild warrior from Cascadia, yes?” the bald man sneered in an accent Toryn had never heard before. “You do not look so tough to me.”

  Toryn doubted anyone looked tough to a seven-foot-tall, four-hundred-pound man.

  “I went on raid there once. Beautiful women. Brought one back for myself.”

  “You kidnapped a Cascadian woman?” He’d only heard of raiding parties taking children. As if that weren’t horrible enough.

  “Yes, but she not make it. Come home one day and she was dead. Hung herself from neck.”

  White-hot anger surged through him. This man, and men like him, were exactly why he’d joined the Iron Guild. They came to his world to inflict pain and suffering upon innocent people. But those days were over. Toryn lunged at the guy, slashing and stabbing. This man would never step through a portal and onto Cascadian soil again.

  One of Toryn’s jabs made contact, slicing across the man’s cheek. Seething with rage, the man roared out in pain and charged again.

  Toryn stood his ground until the very last second. Stepping to the side, he thrust his blade upward, burying it in the man’s abdomen. As the big man’s momentum carried him forward, Toryn pulled out his blade and let the body tumble to the rocks below.

  A slow clap sounded behind him. “Very nicely done.”

  Toryn stiffened. But before he could turn around, a sharp pain sliced through his forehead, right between the eyes, and he fell to the ground.

  CHAPTER 16

  Keely clamped a hand over her mouth as she watched Toryn collapse. With his hands clutching his head, he curled into a fetal position and rolled back and forth. He was in agony.

  The man with Reaux was a Mind-Talent. She was sure of it. A Mind-Talent could reach into your head and cause excruciating pain. Or worse. They could leave you permanently damaged. She needed to get to Toryn and shield him before it was too late. If it wasn’t too late already.

  She sprang into action. Asher and Konal would be here any moment. She’d left them to right the dingy that had overturned and thrown all the girls into the icy water of the Puget Sound. They
’d be pissed that she left, but she’d deal with their wrath later.

  She raced across the beach, almost losing her footing a few times on the rocks and crushed oyster shells.

  “Keely? Oh my God.” Becca was on the dock, heading toward the large white yacht moored at the end.

  Keely didn’t hesitate and kept going. Her sister was standing on her own two feet, while Toryn on the other hand was dying. The choice between who needed her most was easy.

  She didn’t care if anyone in the group had guns or knives. They’d need to be good at hitting a moving target, because she was stopping for no one.

  She’d have to get close in order for her Talent to have a chance to work. During their practice sessions, the Grey One had recommended that she have physical contact with the person she was trying to shield. Her Talent wasn’t reliable otherwise. She didn’t have that luxury now.

  She scrambled up the rocky bank where Reaux and another man watched her approach. Toryn was on the ground about twenty feet away with his hands pressed to his temples. Seeing him in pain like this nearly incapacitated her, but she couldn’t let herself get distracted. She was here to do a job. Using calming exercises that the Grey One had taught her, she took a deep breath, centered herself and stretched out her mind-shield. Almost instantly she noticed Toryn’s shoulders relaxing. And then he stopped writhing. Was it working?

  “Well, who do we have here?”

  Mr. Reaux was a dark-haired man about the same age as her father, with a bulbous nose and bags under his eyes that indicated he was probably a heavy drinker. The Mind-Talent next to him, a thin, young man, not much older than she was, had a sadistic smile as if he were enjoying himself.

  She needed to keep them talking and distracted just long enough for Asher and Konal to get here. Which had to be at any moment.

  “I’m Keely Weber. Becca is my sister. You need to let her go.” Not that she expected him to do so, but she was trying to buy a little more time.

  “Well, well, well. The sister.” Reaux looked her up and down, making her feel filthy. “So we have you to thank for the arrival of these barbarians.”

  Keely gritted her teeth, trying to stay focused on the task at hand. Despite the brisk wind, sweat broke out on her forehead.

  “Becca told me all about you. You’re the famous Reverend Weber’s girls.”

  Jeez, Becca. What didn’t you tell him?

  “Yes, that’s true,” she said while continuing to hold the shield steady. She needed to be careful not to give any indication to the Mind-Talent what she was doing. As far as he knew, he was still having an effect on Toryn.

  “Your sister was the one who told us about this place when we decided to move our little soiree off-site. It’s surprising what you can learn from an addict. Dangle a couple of pills in front of them, and they’ll tell you anything.”

  It occurred to her that after Reaux found out who Becca was, he’d purposely gotten her using again. A quick Internet search would no doubt turn up all sorts of articles about Reverend Weber’s druggie daughter. Reaux had to know it was her Achilles heel.

  “One quick call to your father and we ironed out all the details.”

  Keely’s mouth dropped open. She didn’t believe it. “My father knows you’re here? And he’s okay with that?”

  “I didn’t tell him about your sister, of course. I didn’t want to push things too far.” Reaux laughed. “Your father is a smart man. He knows you can’t have virtue without vice. That’s impossible. And when selling virtue makes you a bunch of money, vice becomes even more important.”

  It felt as if a bomb had been dropped on all she knew to be true, exploding on her past, present and future. Her father, her goddamn father, was involved in this? How was that even possible?

  Reaux moved closer. “Let’s go.” He grabbed her elbow and started to lead her down to the dock.

  Something thudded behind them. She turned to see the Mind-Talent crumple to the ground, a knife sticking out of his back. Toryn pulled it out and looked up. Pushing himself to his feet with great effort, his gaze locked onto Reaux’s as if he were a shark and the older man was his next meal.

  “What the fuck?” Reaux swung her around to use her as an actual shield, but she stumbled over a rock and fell to his feet.

  She saw the gun in Reaux’s hand and heard the shot a split second before she saw a knife plunge into his chest.

  She wheeled around to see Toryn on the ground, blood everywhere.

  “Oh my God, no!”

  And for the second time tonight, she thought he was dying.

  CHAPTER 17

  Keely!

  Toryn bolted upright but there was only darkness.

  Where was she? Was she okay?

  Muffled voices, talking gibberish. A weight pressing in on him, forcing him back. Every muscle in his body ached, every damn inch.

  Shadows danced on the backs of his eyelids now. Green and blue. It didn’t make sense, though. Shadows were supposed to be shades of black and grey.

  Keely! Keely!

  He couldn’t tell if he was screaming out loud or in his head.

  He remembered the searing pain in his shoulder, then…

  running…

  running…

  and emptiness.

  A festering ball of emptiness in his gut.

  He’d been left somewhere cold. Somewhere hurting and alone.

  Time passed.

  An hour, maybe. A day. A lifetime.

  And then he heard a groan. It took him a moment to realize he’d made the sound.

  “Hey, man.” It was Konal’s voice. “You doing okay?”

  He cracked open his eyes and saw that he was in his room back at the Iron Haven.

  “What happened?” he rasped, his throat dry and parched. “How long have I been out?”

  “All night and most of the day. You got shot and a Mind-Talent messed with your head, but you’re home now.”

  Home.

  He glanced around the room, expecting to see Keely hovering nearby, but she wasn’t here. Nor was there any evidence of her being here either. No chair by the bedside. No book. No knitting project.

  “Where’s Keely?”

  Konal shrugged. “I don’t know. Haven’t seen her. She didn’t come back to the Iron Haven with us.”

  Didn’t come back.

  The words rattled in his gut like shards of glass.

  “But to be honest with you,” Konal continued, “after we got you in the boat and knew you were going to be okay, I didn’t pay much attention. Olivia made sure you were healed enough but then had to stop because she was also helping the girls. Hanna was in really bad shape. And Janie—” He shook his head, unable to finish what he was going to say.

  Didn’t come back.

  Those three words haunted him. They’d been the story of his life for as long as he could remember. His mother, then Lucinda, and now Keely? He’d thought she was different. Thought he could trust her, but what the hell did he know?

  “So when we got to the marina, she left?” Toryn knew he shouldn’t be upset that she’d chosen to be with her sister instead of him. But it wounded his male pride that she left without a word or explanation.

  “Yeah,” Konal answered.

  When he made a move to sit up, a thousand hammers pounded on the inside of his skull. “Bloody hell!”

  “No, mate.” His friend pushed him back down. “Olivia said you should be resting. In fact, I’m not even supposed to be in here right now. Given what that Mind-Talent did, she said you may feel confused and disorientated at first but that it shouldn’t last.”

  “I’d feel a shit-ton better if this goddamn headache would stop.” A general sense of anger gnawed at Toryn, but he couldn’t put his finger on why.

  “Oh, I almost forgot.” Konal set a bottle of pills on the nightstand next to a glass of water. “Sean said those should help. There aren’t many, but he can get more if you need them.”

  “Fine,” he growled. At le
ast his friends cared about him.

  After Konal left, Toryn rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. Had Keely used him to get what she wanted—just like Lucinda had? Was that it? She didn’t need him anymore? Despite her claims, maybe she’d never had any intention of spending her life with a barbarian soldier. He was just a means to an end.

  He pushed himself into a sitting position, grabbed the bottle of pills and washed two of them down with a big swig of water.

  One thing was certain. He was done acting like a love-struck fool.

  ***

  Keely stepped through the doors of the Iron Haven, feeling as if a thousand pounds had been lifted from her shoulders. Sean, who’d driven her, was right behind her.

  “You’re back!” Olivia pushed herself up from where she sat on a sofa in the game room doing a puzzle. She looked tired. Healing people was hard work.

  “Oh, don’t get up,” Keely said. “I just wanted to pop my head in before I head upstairs.”

  “How did everything go?” Olivia asked, a wary expression on her face.

  “Better than I expected, actually. Hard, really hard, but in the end, it was worth it.” She swallowed around the lump in her throat. “I’ll tell you all about it later. So, how are the patients?”

  “Becca is sleeping now,” Olivia explained, “but she’s doing much better. As are the other girls. Although, I’m afraid, they’ve got a long way ahead of them.”

  “Thanks for everything you did to help them. I know it must’ve taken a lot out of you.”

  Olivia yawned. “No problem. I’m glad I could help. By the way, Zara said to tell you goodbye. She and Vince headed back to Cascadia this morning. They came over to help with the Iron Havens, but they needed to get back to their son. She really wants you to go over there. I do, too. I think you’d like it.”

  Warmth blossomed in her chest. It was nice to have female friends who cared about her. “I…I hope I can.” She cleared her throat. “So…how’s Toryn?”

  Olivia gave her a sly smile. “He’s a little grumpy.”

  Keely laughed. “Thanks for the heads-up.”

  When she got to Toryn’s room, she opened the door quietly so as not to disturb him in case he was sleeping.