Caught in Amber

by Pegau, Cathy

“Yes,” she whispered.

  Sterling’s heart sank. She’d only been with Christiansen for a short time and was as caught in amber as a veteran addict. Was it because of the new formula? His gut quivered when he thought about how close she had come to dying. It was pure luck she hadn’t had a reaction like some of the slags Hallowell mentioned.

  He laid his hands on her thin shoulders, not a CMA agent now but a big brother who wanted his baby sister back. “It’s all a lie. Ask Sasha—she’ll tell you what this world is really like.”

  Beside him, Sasha reached out for Kylie’s hand. “Come with us. We’ll get you the help you need.”

  Kylie stared down at her feet. “Mom and Dad will be so mad at me.” Her voice had held the same ashamed tone when she’d broken a lamp at ten years old.

  “I’ll talk to them with you,” he said, giving her shoulders a light squeeze. “Just come home.” She raised her head and met Sterling’s eyes. “Please.” Finally she nodded, and relief washed through him. “Good.” He leaned forward and kissed her cheek. “Both of you stay here for a second.”

  Sterling palmed his stunner again and checked the hall. No one. Maybe Christiansen’s body crashing into the table hadn’t been as loud as it seemed. And thankfully his staff was trained to leave him alone unless called. Except for Genevieve Caine, who seemed to have free run of the house. She and Delhomme were the ones he worried about the most. Too bad the dining room didn’t have a door that closed.

  “Fix the table and chairs best you can,” he told the women. “I’ll move Christiansen out of the line of sight.” Sterling grabbed the man under the arms and dragged him around the corner of the L so he wouldn’t be visible from the doorway, while Sasha and Kylie straightened the furniture and table setting. It was the best they could do in the time they had, which wasn’t much.

  Sterling put the stunner to Christiansen’s head, tempted to end him once and for all. The man was the worst of the worst, making millions of credits off of other people’s addictions and weaknesses. Dragging girls like Sasha and Kylie down a path of self-destruction. Taking no responsibility for the Rebecca Cornishes or Abby Reeses he discarded like trash, even if he wasn’t directly involved in their deaths. His finger hovered over the firing stud as he pressed the muzzle to Christiansen’s temple. A point-blank shot, even from a stunner, would likely kill him, or fry enough brain cells to make him as good as dead.

  He deserved to die, but Sterling wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he killed an unconscious man. Even if that man was Guy Christiansen.

  “Fuck,” he muttered softly then shifted the stunner to the drug dealer’s thigh and fired. He took grim satisfaction in the twitches that rattled Christiansen’s body. The bastard wouldn’t die, but he’d have a helluva headache when he woke up. That would have to do for now.

  Sasha joined him and dropped Christiansen’s jacket onto his still form.

  “Here.” Sterling took his comm from his pocket and handed it to Sasha. “My car’s right out front. Hit the remote start when we get to the foyer.” Checking one more time, he led Sasha and Kylie into the hall. “Walk normally. Let’s go.”

  Any other household would have been busy in the middle of the day, but lucky for them, Guy Christiansen did not run an ordinary house. If anyone did approach, Sterling’s stunner would have to suffice.

  He kept an eye on the women, assuring himself neither would panic. Sasha walked steadily, wincing every so often as if in pain, but not scared. Kylie’s blue eyes were wide, making her look much younger than her eighteen years. She was the unknown here. He reminded them to act normal, but they wasted no time getting to the foyer and the front door.

  Sasha fiddled with his comm and tapped the remote start as Sterling opened the door. More than likely a security alert went out when he did, but it couldn’t be helped. A gust of frigid wind blew snow into their faces. He ushered the women outside, regretting they couldn’t stop for their coats. Hopefully the car’s heater would be enough.

  “Get in,” he ordered as he rounded the car to the driver’s side.

  “How long do we have?” Sasha asked. They slammed the doors shut. She sat beside him, shivering, while Kylie settled in the back.

  “Christiansen will be out for a good hour,” he said, “but I don’t give it nearly that long before someone finds him.”

  “They’ll come after us.” There was no fear in Sasha’s voice; she merely stated the very real, potentially fatal fact.

  “Yep,” Sterling said. “Buckle up and hold on.”

  He gunned the engine and kicked the car up to 50 kph, as fast as he could take it without losing control on the winding path. Ice-rimmed trees flashed past the windows.

  “What about the gate?” Kylie asked from the rear seat.

  Shit. Sterling slowed down to forty. Would they have to abandon the car and jump the gate? They’d be caught by Christiansen before they got half a klick up the road. If they didn’t freeze to death first. Or could he ram the gate and bust through? This wasn’t one of the agency’s reinforced vehicles, so that would be dicey.

  “If they haven’t placed the grounds on lockdown,” Sasha said, “the gate should automatically open when a vehicle approaches. Sensors on either side of the drive trigger it.”

  Relief allowed Sterling to loosen his grip on the controls. “That would make things easier.”

  “Were you planning on ramming the gate?” Sasha asked. He didn’t have to look at her to tell she was wryly amused by the idea.

  “Maybe,” he said, his attention on the drive. “There it is.” A hundred meters ahead of them. He slowed, watching for movement. Come on come on come on. The gate started to slide open and he sped up again. “Hold on.”

  Less than fifty meters away, with the exit just wide enough to let them through, the gates stopped moving.

  Then began to close again.

  Shit. He pushed the accelerator. The car jumped forward.

  Sasha cursed, and Kylie yelped.

  “They found him,” Sasha said. She and Sterling glanced at each other. She had one hand on the dash and the other braced against the door. “He’ll kill us.”

  Sterling leaned over the controls, urging the shaking car to go faster. “He hasn’t caught us yet.”

  The proximity alarm sounded when they were within two meters of the gate. Sterling hit the temporary override that silenced the alarm midscreech. The front half of the car passed between the barriers with centis to spare. The gates scraped and screeched along the rear fenders, sending sparks into the air and the stench of hot metal through the interior. With a squeal and scream that sounded like demons were howling in the trunk, the car shuddered for a moment, slowed then leaped out of the gates’ hold.

  Sterling swerved onto the road, praying no one was coming, and turned the car toward Pandalus. It fishtailed as he regained control, throwing him against the driver’s door then Sasha’s shoulder. They’d all be bruised from head to toe, but better that than under Christiansen’s roof.

  “Oh my God, we’re out.” Kylie sounded close to tears.

  “We’re not safe yet, kiddo,” he reminded them. “Not until I get you two to CMA headquarters. Sasha, find Hallowell’s contact on my comm and call her.”

  Sasha didn’t ask who Hallowell was; she just searched the comm, trusting him. The thought would have made him smile if he wasn’t racing down the highway trying to keep them from getting killed.

  “Got it,” Sasha said as the proximity alarm sounded again.

  Something crashed down onto the roof, clacking his teeth together and rocking the vehicle sideways. An air car—and a good-sized one, he guessed—shoved the vehicle in the opposite direction of Sterling’s steering. Sasha rocked into the door then whiplashed against his shoulder.

  “Shit! Hold on.” He jerked the controls, sending them into the path of
an oncoming car. The other driver maneuvered to avoid Sterling, his horn blaring as the alarm screamed again inside Sterling’s car. Sterling yanked the controls the other way, managed to get back on their side of the road. “Keep an eye out for that air car. We’ll be in town in a few minutes. They won’t try anything there.”

  “You don’t know Christiansen,” Sasha said.

  “I know he’s not stupid.”

  “No,” Sasha agreed, “but he’ll be angry beyond anything you could imagine.”

  “Nathan, look out!” Kylie screamed.

  From his side window, Sterling caught the swift movement of the air car as it swept across the highway near ground level. The proximity alarms shrieked. He slammed on the brakes, attempting to cause the air car to shoot past their front end. That was the theory. It worked to a certain degree.

  The air car crashed into the front fender, silencing the alarm. Sterling’s car spun. He fought the controls that jumped in his hands like a living thing. Centrifugal force shoved them to the left, pinning him to the door. Sasha’s head thudded against his other shoulder. Out the front window, the view of trees-road-trees-road alternated in a dizzying cycle. The car careened off the road, tipped into the ditch and flipped over onto its roof with a deafening crunch of broken plasti-glass and metal.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “Sasha.”

  She heard her name as if it were being said from the depths of a mine shaft, faint yet echoing in her head. Who was calling for her? The echo turned into a painful, rhythmic thumping that made her wince.

  “Sweetness, time to wake up. You don’t want to miss this.”

  Guy.

  Sasha opened her eyes, blinked against the brightness of the room—the warmth told her they were inside—and tried to focus. Guy’s handsome face swam before her as her vision cleared. Crouched in front of her, he smiled, a cruel curl of the lips. Sasha leaned as far away from him as she could. The sudden movement made her dizzy. Only gripping the arms of the hard chair kept her upright.

  “There’s my girl,” he said. “Feeling better?”

  “Headache,” she managed to say around her dry throat. Why did it hurt? Bits of memory returned and icy fear shot through her. Fleeing Guy’s house. The car careening down the road. The horrible sound of crunching metal and glass. Screaming—her own and Kylie’s—then nothing.

  Where were they? Where were Nathan and his sister?

  “Yeah, I know the feeling.” Guy rubbed his temple. “Your friend Nate gave me quite the surprise back at the house.”

  Back at the house? Daring to take her eyes off Guy, Sasha realized they were in the warehouse at the Hub Station. Not in Guy’s office or on the main floor. Not in the repackaging area. The monitors along the wall told her they were in the security room. Images flickered on two of the screens, several people sitting or standing, but she couldn’t make out who they were.

  “Where is he?” she asked, squinting to see if Nathan was one of them.

  Guy rose, crossed to the first monitor and tapped it. “Right there, on his knees like the bastard dog he is.”

  A blurry image of Nathan with his head bowed and his hands behind his back flickered on the screen. Relief nearly made her dizzy again. Thank God, he was alive. Another person—Kylie, she guessed—lay on her side near him. Not moving. Shards of fear stabbed the length of her spine, diminishing her joy at seeing Nathan. Was Kylie dead? Would they all be dead soon?

  Guy turned to face her. “We’ll go see him in a minute. I wanted to talk to you alone.”

  “W-what about?”

  “Let’s start with how Nate knows little Kylie.”

  Sasha’s head throbbed in time with her racing heart. How much did he already know? If she lied and he caught her in it, it would just make him that much angrier. Silence seemed like the best option for the moment.

  Guy crouched beside the chair again. He laid a hand on her thigh. Heat radiated from his skin, through the material of her skirt and tights. “Not gonna say? I’d guess she was his girlfriend or wife, if she were older. Men do like the younger ladies, but Nate doesn’t strike me as a man who needs a little girl to assure his masculinity.” Guy squeezed her thigh, his fingers digging into her. “That’s what you’re for, isn’t it?”

  “No, I—”

  He struck her across the face, snapping her head sideways. She grabbed the arms of the chair as bright white stars exploded behind her eyelids and she tasted blood. Sasha blinked hard to clear her vision. Ironically, the slap cleared her head.

  Guy pointed a finger at her face. “That’s for lying to me.” He brushed his thumb along her swelling lip, wiping away the blood, and leaned closer.

  She sat perfectly still. Afraid to move.

  He touched his lips to hers with a gentleness that defied the last few moments. “And that,” he said, sitting back on his heels, “is to remind you I’m a forgiving man.”

  Sasha swallowed the lump of fear that lodged in her throat. She was still alive only because he wanted her that way. Why he hadn’t killed Nathan was a mystery. If any of them survived to the end of the day, it would be a miracle. “I’m sorry,” she said, her voice quivering.

  Guy stared at her for several seconds then nodded. “I just want the truth, Sasha. You and Nate, right?”

  “Once,” she said. God, was that just this morning?

  “Back when you were inside? You’re done with him.”

  There was no question in Guy’s mind. He assumed she’d meant they’d had something and it was over. It was safer if she let him think that way, even if she was lying to him.

  “Yes.” In a way, she was telling the truth. Whatever she and Nathan had was no more; Guy would see to that one way or another.

  He studied her face for a few seconds. Did he believe her? He smiled, but she couldn’t be sure. “Okay, next question. Why did you and Kylie run off with him?”

  Sasha took a breath and released it slowly. “He wanted to get her out. Get her away from the amber. I wanted to help.”

  Another half truth. Guy was going to kill her if he found out, but perhaps she could buy them all a little time.

  “He risked Kettrick, his life, for one little girl?” Guy leaned closer. “There’s more to it than that, sweetness, and I’m going to find out what.” He grabbed her upper arm and lifted her from the chair. In his other hand he held a black pulser.

  Sasha stood on watery legs. At least her head didn’t feel like it was about to implode.

  “Let’s go talk to your partner.”

  Guy took her from the security room, holding her steady as they descended the metal stairs. She heard only the sound of their feet on the risers, no machinery or voices from below. He led her through the towering containers filled with all manner of goods and who knew how much amber. This was only one of his distribution points. Thousands of kilos of the drug headed across the continent. Across the colony. Maybe as far as another planet in the system, if his business deals on Weaver came through. How could she and Nathan have even contemplated going against Guy and his empire?

  In the middle of the wider center aisle, Nathan kneeled beside Kylie. The girl was sitting up now with her arms wrapped around herself. Marco stood to one side, leaning against a container with a pulse rifle pointed at Nathan. In her black jumpsuit, Genevieve Caine stood behind Nathan and Kylie, arms crossed.

  Nathan raised his head, and Sasha winced. One eye was rimmed with a purple-black bruise and swollen shut. His nose, also swollen, oozed blood. From the car flipping, or had he been beaten? He said nothing as she and Guy approached.

  Kylie raised her tear-streaked face. Blood had trickled down her temple from a wound at her hairline. “Sasha—”

  Marco stepped forward and nudged her in the back with the butt of the pulse rifle. He had a thin cut across his lip and a br
uise under his eye. Maybe Nathan had gotten in a punch or two. “Shut up. No one wants to hear you whine.”

  Nathan glared up at him. “Leave her alone.”

  Marco barked a laugh. “Or what, boy-o?” He pointed the barrel of the rifle at Nathan’s face, and Sasha’s heart seemed to stop, sweat breaking out on her forehead. “Gonna try to fight me again?”

  “Back off, Marco,” Genevieve Caine said. The words weren’t loud, but her tone made it a command.

  Marco didn’t move the gun as he snarled at Genevieve. “Who the fuck do you think you are, giving me orders?”

  In the same composed, casual manner, she said, “Why don’t you put that gun down and we’ll find out.”

  “Enough,” Guy said. “Marco, just stand back. I’ll deal with you in a minute.”

  Marco narrowed his eyes at Guy, obviously confused about what he meant but smart enough to do what he was told.

  “That was quite the little surprise you pulled on me, Nate,” Guy said.

  Sterling looked up at him, the disgust clear on his face.

  “Needless to say, the Kettrick deal is off. I asked Sasha why you ran out with her and Kylie. Care to tell me your version?”

  “She’s my sister.”

  Guy’s eyes widened in surprise. He looked at Nathan and Kylie more closely then smiled. “Well, that explains it. Saving your little sister from the clutches of the big, bad drug dealer, were you? Very noble. You know, all you had to do was ask.”

  Sasha recognized his mocking tone. He was playing, and that was never good.

  Nathan quirked an eyebrow at Guy, not believing him either. “Really?”

  “No, not really,” Guy said with a chuckle. He pointed the pulser at Nathan, the nasty grin still on his face. “I think I’ll just get rid of you and sis right now. Make my life a helluva lot easier.”

  Sasha’s breath caught, and Kylie’s mouth dropped open. Nathan stared at the man, frustration burning in his eyes. She knew he’d do anything to keep her and Kylie safe but was in no position to save any of them.