“Shit!”
Sean groaned in pain, his feet dragging, his body almost a dead weight between them. Monster’s own injury was starting to pull, as though the stitches wanted to bust free, but he ignored it. The cars were parked down an alley at the back of the hospital and they needed to reach the vehicles and get away before the cops upstairs reached them, and gunshots started to be fired.
“I’ll drive Sean,” said Chapman, heading toward his car, stolen or not. “You follow with the woman.”
“My name is Sophia,” she said.
He nodded. “Nice to meet you, Sophia. Good job, by the way.”
She repressed a smile. “Thanks.”
The police would be right behind them. They couldn’t afford to waste any more time standing around chatting. It occurred to Monster that only Sophia knew where they were going.
“We need to move,” he said.
Chapman strapped Sean into the passenger seat and then ran around to the driver’s side. He hopped in, and the car was speeding away before the driver’s door had barely shut.
Monster exchanged a glance with Sophia, and then they both hurried to their spots in the car. Sophia started the vehicle and put her foot down to the floor, taking after Chapman and Sean. From somewhere behind them, the faint wail of police sirens could be heard over the growl of the car’s engine.
They weren’t going to hang around long enough to be caught. Even though Monster wanted to get to Rodriguez’s place and find Lily more than anything, right now they just needed to put distance between them and the hospital. He didn’t know if anyone had gotten a visual on the car they’d put Sean into, but if they had, there was a good possibility police helicopters would soon come after them.
They got onto the freeway and drove away from town.
Because Sophia was the only one who knew which direction they were supposed to be headed, Monster told her to overtake the car containing Chapman and Sean, so she could lead the way.
Making sure they didn’t lose sight of the vehicle Chapman was driving, they kept a fast but steady speed within the limit so as not to bring any unnecessary attention to themselves. Monster kept twisting in his seat, expecting at any moment to be chased by flashing lights and a wailing siren, but everything remained quiet. Gradually, his heart rate began to slow and he allowed himself to sit back in his seat and exhale a sigh of relief.
He wasn’t sure how they’d managed it, but it looked like they’d gotten away.
Monster (Present Day)
When they’d put enough distance between them and the hospital, and were confident the police weren’t following them, Monster told Sophia to pull up beneath an underpass. She signaled and Chapman did the same, pulling in behind them, both vehicles coming to a halt.
Monster needed to see how Sean was and decide what would happen next. He didn’t want to have to make a tough choice, but if Sean wasn’t going to be any use to them, sometimes hard decisions had to be made.
He opened the car door and stepped out onto the road. Sophia also got out, but she paused to get something from her purse, while he walked over to the vehicle behind them.
Chapman had climbed from the driver’s side, and made his way around to the other side of the car. He reached the passenger door at the same time as Monster.
“He’s awake and talking,” Chapman said.
Monster nodded. “Good.”
Sophia hurried over. “Here,” she said, handing him the second bottle of water she’d bought. “I’ve dissolved more of the pain medication in it for Sean. Hopefully it will help.”
“Thanks,” he said with a nod. He was still struggling to get the thought of Sophia’s lush body pressed up against his, while she looked up at him with those limpid blue eyes, out of his head. He’d done the right thing by rejecting her, but now he felt awkward being in such close proximity to her. It was hard to look at her and not think about the swell of her full breasts, or the scent of her golden hair.
Pushing thoughts of Sophia away, he opened the passenger door to reveal Sean sitting with his eyes open, his head leaned back against the headrest. His skin was pale, and he appeared thinner, his cheeks sunken and dark hollows beneath his eyes. Despite his appearance, he managed to smile at Monster.
“Good to see you alive, sir,” Sean said.
“You, too, Sean.”
Sean shifted in his seat and sucked air in over his teeth, as the movement had obviously caused him pain. “Thanks for getting me out of there.”
“You’re welcome. How are you feeling?”
“I’ve been better.”
“Where were you shot?”
Sean’s hand clamped to his abdominals. “In the stomach. I had surgery, but obviously I’ll survive.”
Monster hoped that was true. He was about to ask the man to get into another dangerous situation, and he’d only just gotten out of the hospital, and it wasn’t as though he’d been properly discharged. Right now, with the way he looked, Monster seriously doubted he was anywhere near up to the job.
“Here’s the situation,” he said, to both men, wanting to fill them in on any of the details they might have missed. “Rodriguez showed up and ambushed us at the airfield. He took Lily, and the other girl who the traffickers had been trying to move. I don’t care too much about the other girl, but I know Lily will. She feels responsible for these women, for some reason. Anyway, Sophia over there was one of the Gonzalez family’s captives for a long time. She knows where he keeps the women he takes, and is willing to help us.”
Chapman narrowed his eyes and looked toward Sophia. “Why are you helping?”
She straightened. “Because I knew Monst—Merrick—a long time ago, and he helped me. I believe in paying back good favors. Call it karma.”
Chapman nodded. “Okay. So do you think you can get us into this place?”
“Yes, but it’s going to take some trickery on our part. Rodriguez will let me in if he thinks I’ve got something for him.”
Monster tensed. “And what would that something be?”
“One of your men, but ideally you, Merrick. I’ll tell him I overheard you planning to kill him and I thought you were going to run, so I managed to take you down instead—perhaps I’ll say I dosed you up on something and you thought I was still treating the wound.”
He frowned. “So I’d need to pretend to be unconscious.”
She bit her lower lip, her eyes shifting away from his. “Yes … although the real thing would work better.”
“The real thing as in you actually want me to be unconscious?”
She nodded. “That way Rodriguez won’t think to doubt me.”
Monster pressed his lips together and shook his head. “Not going to happen.”
“We need this to look real. Rodriguez can smell a scam from a mile off.”
“I get that, but no way am I going in there completely defenseless.”
“You won’t be. You have your two men now, and you have me as well.”
“Even so, one of those men is injured, and you’re …”
“A woman?” she filled in, her head tilted to one side, her eyebrows raised.
“Exactly. Rodriguez always has people around him. Our chances of beating him are low.”
“So we need a plan he’s not going to be suspicious of. Remember, I’m putting my life at risk here, too. The minute he gets an inkling that I’ve betrayed him, he’s not going to hesitate to put a bullet in my head.”
Monster allowed her words to sink in. She had a valid point. She was risking her own life by helping him, but the idea of being unconscious while in Rodriguez’s presence unnerved him. Control was very much a part of who he was, and letting go of it completely while being in the presence of the man who had stolen the woman he loved was not something he took lightly.
“How would you suggest I end up unconscious?” he asked, willing at least to hear her out.
“My medical kit is in my purse,” she replied. “I can give you a dose of a short ac
ting sedative—enough to keep you down while we get you past the walls of the property. You’ll be a little woozy when you come around, but you won’t have any other side effects.”
“Apart from a hole in my head when Rodriguez sees me. I doubt I’ll come around from that quite so quickly.”
“You said yourself that he doesn’t want you dead.”
“That was different. He might not want me dead when he thinks I’m no threat to him, and assumes I’m still going to throw business his way. He’ll think a whole new way when he figures out I’ve manipulated my way past his walls and I plan on killing him.”
Her face paled. “I thought you just wanted your girlfriend back.”
“That, too, but I don’t intend to let him get away with killing my men, or with taking Lily.” His voice became a growl, rage spreading up through his body to clutch at his heart. “I don’t even want to think about what that son of a bitch has been doing with her over the last couple of days.”
“So let’s do this right,” she replied. “We’ll distract Rodriguez and his men by bringing you to him. Let your guys get in over the walls while no one is watching, and then you come around. We’ll hide a gun on your body—they won’t think to search you if they think you’re too out of it to use one—and as soon as you regain consciousness, you can shoot him.”
Monster looked to Sean and Chapman. “What are you thinking?”
Chapman shrugged. “It’s risky, but it just might work.”
Sean held his hand to his wounded stomach. “I might struggle to scale a wall.”
“We’ll figure something out,” said Chapman. “We’ll find a tank and drive straight through the wall if we need to.”
He nodded. “Okay. I’ll do what I can, but don’t expect miracles.”
“We don’t,” Chapman replied. “Even if you just stay in the car and cover me while I go in, it’ll be a help.”
Monster’s stomach roiled with nerves. Was he really going to allow himself to be put under, and just trust that he’d wake up inside Rodriguez’s house? He looked around at the small group. “Please tell me someone has a better idea?”
They all remained apologetically silent.
He wished he had a better idea himself, but how far had his plan stretched? Not much beyond finding the house and busting his way in and killing everyone he came across. If Sophia was right, and the place was walled and gated, as he’d expect it to be, with Rodriguez’s men watching the perimeter, her proposal won, hands down.
“Fuck,” he exhaled, realizing he didn’t have any other choices.
She risked a small smile. “Does that mean we’re doing it?”
“I guess there aren’t many other options. I hope you know what you’re doing, Sophia.”
“I do. I know exactly what I’m doing.”
He turned to the men. “How about you both? Are you on board?”
Sean nodded. “I don’t know how much help I’ll be, but I’ll do everything I can. That bastard ordered Mason and Evans dead. I don’t want to see him walking around anymore than you do.”
“Okay,” Monster relented. “Looks like I’m going to do this. Knock me out and serve me into the hands of the man I hate the most.”
Monster (Present Day)
They were on the road for another couple of hours before Sophia finally signaled for them to pull over. The landscape around them had grown scarce, lush greenery giving way to stubby, succulent plants. They passed through a couple of small towns, but even those had thinned out to the occasional homestead, until eventually there was nothing to see for miles around except the road and desert scenery.
The two cars stopped on the side of the road about forty minutes from where Sophia said Rodriguez’s property was located. The four people mingled between the two vehicles, planning and preparing themselves for the fight which would come next.
They took time to help Sean build up his strength, making sure he was taking regular sips of water and the pain medication Sophia had mixed in with it. The gunshot wound to his stomach was causing him pain, but he had no fresh bleeding, and he was one of the world’s tough guys. He wasn’t going to let a little something like being shot hold him back.
Monster couldn’t pretend he was comfortable with leaving Sean and Chapman behind, or allowing Sophia to knock him out. In fact, every part of this plan made him uncomfortable, but he couldn’t see any other way around it. Everything Sophia had said was true—they’d never get into the property without being seen as they approached—and no one had a better idea of how to rescue Lily. He refused to allow his fear for his own safety be the thing that held him back, the thing that abandoned Lily with Rodriguez. But he needed to take precautions, and while Sophia was busy getting various medications ready for them, he made sure he had a quiet word with Sean and Chapman, so they understood exactly what needed to be done.
Sophia stood with a map spread across the hood of one of the cars. “You’re going to need to give us enough time for Rodriguez’s men to take us inside before you can approach,” she called out to Chapman. “Hopefully, our arrival will be a big enough distraction that they’ll keep their eyes off the surrounding area long enough for you to both make it in and over the walls, or through the gate if the opportunity arises.”
Monster gave a nod. “Let’s hope so.”
“We’re well armed,” said Chapman. “They won’t be expecting us, so that will be our advantage. They’re never going to suspect this is a set-up. No one in their right mind would have the kind of balls it takes to be knocked out and delivered right to their enemy.”
Monster turned to him. “You’re making me want to shoot you myself.”
“Sorry, sir.”
Sophia opened her bag and removed a small glass vial and a syringe. “This sedative will knock you out for not much longer than an hour. I’ll only give you a small dose, so you will appear completely under, though you might find some awareness coming back pretty quickly. Just make sure you keep your eyes closed until the right moment, and until you feel completely back in control of yourself.”
Monster nodded. “I understand.”
“Don’t be alarmed if your legs or arms jerk while you’re going under or coming back out of it again, it’s just a side effect of the drug. It’ll happen when you’re fully under as well, but you won’t be aware of it. I’ll explain the movement to Rodriguez and his men so they won’t be suspicious.”
Monster inhaled a deep breath, trying to quell his nerves. He didn’t like going into a situation he wasn’t in control of, but he didn’t have any choice. He rolled up his sleeve. “Let’s just get this over with.”
“Oh, one more thing,” she said, pulling a scalpel out of her bag, the blade wickedly sharp, glinting in the bright sunlight.
Monster frowned at the item, and she quickly pulled open his jacket, and slit down the bandages, nicking the stitches of the wound she’d sewn up herself. He sucked air in over his teeth at the sting of pain. Immediately, blood trickled from the injury.
“Sorry,” she apologized. “We need to make it appear as realistic as possible. Can’t have Rodriguez thinking I did too good a job with you, or he’ll wonder how I managed to inject you.”
“As long as I don’t bleed to death on the way there.”
“You’ll be fine. The wound isn’t deep. This is just for show.”
Chapman stepped forward and handed him a gun and an ankle holster. “You’ll be needing these.”
“Thank you,” said Monster, taking the weapon and holster. He bent to secure them both to his leg. He felt better with the weight of them there, knowing all he needed to do in this was wake up, grab the gun, and shoot before anyone else did. If he killed Rodriguez, this whole thing would be over. He was sure Rodriguez would have someone down the line who would want to avenge his death, but for the moment he just needed to focus on taking one man out, and getting his Flower back.
Sophia’s hand on his shoulder drew his attention. “If you’re ready, I suggest you
sit on the back seat while I inject you. That way we won’t have to struggle to move you when you’re unconscious. You’re not exactly a lightweight guy.”
He did what she suggested and opened the rear door and sat on the edge of the seat. He rolled the sleeve of his jacket up, exposing the inside of his elbow and the network of blue and purple veins and capillaries which ran right beneath the almost translucent, pale skin. He flexed his hand, squeezing his fingers tight to make the veins pop.
Sophia removed the plastic casing from the end of the needle, and then shook the bottle containing the anesthetic and tipped it upside down. She pushed the syringe into the soft sponge which blocked the end of the bottle and pulled the end of the syringe to draw the clear fluid down.
“Aren’t you supposed to tourniquet my arm?” he asked, knowing he was delaying the moment, but wanting to speak to focus himself in the real world for a moment longer.
“Don’t worry,” she said with a smile. “I’ve always been good at finding a vein. It’s like my superpower.”
He didn’t have anything to say to that. Light banter wasn’t something Monster had ever needed to use before.
She tightened her hold on his wrist, keeping his arm held with the palm of his hand upward. “Now hold still.”
He wasn’t squeamish, so he stared down at the needle as it punctured his skin and entered his vein. His heart was beating harder than he wanted. He wished to remain cool and impassive, while every part of his brain wanted him to run. He didn’t want to think about where he would be when his eyes opened again, or what sort of fight he would be in, but he couldn’t risk not thinking about it. He needed it to be the first thing he thought about the very moment he became conscious again. Quite literally, it meant his life.
At the point of the injection, his arm grew suddenly cold, a rush of ice swooshing up his veins.
“Lie down and count backward for me from twenty,” Sophia said.
He lay back on the leather seat, staring up at the roof of the car. Already her voice was distant, and he had the strange feeling of panic rising up inside of him, wanting to fight what was taking over his body, together with an intense sleepiness.
Delivered (The Monster Trilogy Book 3) Page 10
