Cover Fire (Valiant Knox)

by Anastasi, Jess

  A rising surge of anxiety swelled, but he locked down his muscles. Whatever came next, it would all come down to his mind, no matter what happened to his body. He had to hold on to whatever strength he had, hold on to the notion that he would die before uttering a word about Jenna. Because the alternative was her death, and that was something he couldn’t live with, no matter how short a time he had left in this universe.

  The now-familiar black-clad figure moved up on his right side and stood in front of him.

  “Hello, Sub-Lieutenant.” Carrie sent him a cutting smile, tapping a medical dosing gun she held in her right hand against her left palm.

  Hell, did she plan on knocking him out again, or worse, was there some kind of truth serum in that doser?

  “Oh, no need to worry about this.” She stopped the tapping and held the dosing gun up. “It’s only got a stimulant in it, just in case you hadn’t woken up yet. You see, I’m a bit short on time, so I really need you to start talking.”

  She closed the remaining steps between them and jammed the doser against his neck. A quick stinging puncture and then cold flooded into his veins, followed by a shuddering contraction of muscles as the drug inundated his system and lit him up like a damn sun going supernova, raking burns under his skin.

  His lungs seized, cutting off his breath as he rode out the painful convulsion. When the initial effect wore off and he could gasp, his brain felt like it was taking in too much information on superspeed.

  “What the hell did you do that for?” His voice came out gravelly and he cleared his dry throat.

  She carelessly tossed the dosing gun aside. “Just expediting matters, in case you were still a bit fuzzy. I need you to be crystal clear when we have our little conversation.”

  “I didn’t need that stimulant to give you the only answer you’ll be hearing from me. Screw you.”

  Carrie grinned, but the expression was spiteful. She leaned in closer, threading her fingers through his short hair, then grabbing a handful and wrenching his head back.

  “Now, now, Sub-Lieutenant, there’s no need to be rude.” She yanked harder, and he gritted his teeth against making any noise. This was child’s play. She would do a lot worse to him once she got frustrated at his lack of cooperation. “Tell me one tiny thing, and then this can all be over.”

  “Oh yeah, and what might that be?” He hadn’t failed to notice she’d said nothing about letting him go. This can all be over sounded more like code for I’m going to kill you.

  She let his head go with a hard shove, leaving him with an aching neck.

  “The data drive you gave Stanton was empty. At first, I thought nothing of it, but then you went back behind enemy lines. So, now I think you know more. This is simple. Tell me where the information is, and we can call it a day.”

  The data drive again? If he’d known the damn thing was going to cause him this much trouble, he’d never have agreed to go back for it. Of course, then he wouldn’t have found Jenna alive and offered to help her… Okay, so he’d go back for it a million times over so long as Jenna was waiting for him every time.

  The smile he sent Carrie came easily, because Jenna was worth more to him than his own life. So yeah, that made things simple, just like Carrie had said.

  “Like I told Stanton, I don’t know. I got told to retrieve a dead body, but with a CSS patrol on the ground, it was too risky, so I searched the corpse and found the drive. Whether or not it had any information on it has nothing to do with me, I was just the messenger boy. And as for my recent trip, that was all about making sure a scum CSS traitor was good and dead.”

  “Cute.” Carrie crossed her arms and sent him another malicious grin. “But Stanton thinks you’re hiding something, and so do I.”

  She sashayed forward, and perched on his knee. Her fingers crept up his chest, skimmed his neck, and then latched onto his chin, nails digging into his flesh. “You want to know what I think?”

  “Not really,” he muttered around the hold she had on him.

  “The drive was meant to be encrypted, and even though you’re just a brain-dead stick jockey, I think somehow you got a glimpse of what was on it. Maybe you thought you could use the intel, turn a profit by blackmailing a few people. Not very smart, because any of the agents on that list would track you down and slit your throat before you saw a dime.”

  Not very smart, huh? Carrie had brought him here to rip whatever information she could from him, yet so far, he hadn’t told her anything she didn’t already know, while he had garnered a few interesting facts. So the information on the drive was a list of agents. But what kind of list, and how did that tie in with Jenna getting scrubbed?

  “That’s some interesting theory you’ve come up with, but I’m afraid it’s way off the mark. Being the dumb grunt that I am, I couldn’t have come up with such a smart plan, even if I had seen what was on the drive.” He sent her a bland smile, and she responded by backhanding him across the face.

  Blood welled into his mouth, and he spat some out before she grabbed his face again.

  “I’ve been watching you, flyboy, and I know you’re up to something. I found that jamming device you put on doors to the command center, so explain to me what that was all about?”

  The cold running through his veins turned icy and brittle. He locked his jaw, refusing to say anything when the conversation was straying so close to Jenna.

  “Now you’ve got nothing to say? But you were so chatty up until now. And I thought we were starting to understand each other.”

  Something pricked into his chest, and he looked down as far as her hold on him would allow to see a knife poised high in the middle of his pecs. The blade slit his shirt and lightly scored his skin with a shallow sting as she traced the tip downward. His shirt split apart and small rivulets of blood had started dripping down his abdomen by the time the knife reached his belt buckle.

  “I have to admit, the prospect of playing with you intrigues me, so by all means, hang on to the pretense that you don’t know where that drive of CI double agents is. I like to take things slow.”

  CI double agents? Goddamn. No wonder Stanton and Carrie here were so hot to get their hands on the device. That kind of information had the power to change Command Intelligence from the inside out.

  Carrie used the bloodied tip of her knife to push his shirt open, her gaze riveted on his chest, an intense light in her slightly unhinged gaze. And the truth struck him like a shot to the head—she actually was enjoying this.

  “You’re one twisted bitch, you know that?”

  She flicked the knife up to rest against the bottom of his chin. “This is just foreplay. You’ll find out exactly how twisted I can be if you don’t start talking.”

  “If you’re looking for someone to talk to, they’ve got these trained professionals who get paid to sit around and listen to your brand of crazy all day long.”

  She gave a short, toneless laugh and put a little more pressure on the blade against his skin.

  He clamped his jaw, staring her down as she traced the edge of the knife along his jaw, and then nicked the bottom of his earlobe, sending a rivulet of blood dripping down his neck. Yeah, he could see in the flash of her gaze that her words had been true—this was the fun stuff before the real torture began.

  The stakes were much higher than he could have ever guessed, with he and Jenna stuck in the middle of a shit storm. If the drive she’d given him was empty, what had happened to the real information on it? Did she still have it on her and hadn’t told him, or had it been lost between all the killing and subterfuge?

  Carrie titled her head as she trailed the knife in a light arc across his neck, not breaking the skin, but scoring it, leaving a burning trail.

  “Skin is really interesting you know.” Her eyes were on the weapon as she traced the sharp edge downward again.

  “Is it? I can’t say I’ve ever thought about it too closely.”

  The blade skipped over his belly button and she hooked it
under his belt. “It’s the only thing keeping all our insides together, yet it’s so fragile. It comes off so easily.”

  Hell, this chick really was buckets full of crazy. She slashed upward, cutting through the thick leather of his belt like it was butter on a hot day, then grabbed the buckle and yanked the belt free.

  “I mean, really, people think they’re invincible, yet we’re all walking around in these bodies that can’t survive without a simple thing like skin.”

  The tip went into the top fastening of his pants, and popped the clasp free, slicing it clean off the material.

  Seb swallowed, not letting himself even glance downward. If she took that any farther south, he was in some serious trouble. There were all kinds of torture he could imagine taking like a man, but if she was going to threaten his masculinity, death definitely looked like the better option.

  Carrie dropped the knife away from him, and he let out a quick exhale. She slid forward a little in his lap, her free hand slipping to the back of his neck, where she dug her nails into the base of his skull.

  She leaned in, her lips brushing his ear. “Are you starting to get the picture, now, Sebastian? You’re going to talk, there’s no doubt about that. But it can either be pleasant”—her nails raked his chest, through the trails of blood—“or it can be rather unpleasant. Either way, I’ll still be having fun.”

  “If I tell you in no uncertain terms that I can’t help you and I don’t have the information you need, I don’t suppose you’ll take me at my word and end this before it gets any messier.” His breath was jagged over the words.

  Carrie shook her head, half smiling with an almost-indulgent expression crossing her features. “I’d have to be pretty dumb to fall for that one. We both know how this game works, so buck up, cowboy.”

  “Actually, I have no idea how this game works. Maybe there’s like a manual you could go get for me. ‘Cause I’m pretty sure there’s some serious personal-space lines being crossed right now and the military has rules about that sort of thing.”

  And the knife was back, levered under his jawline where she’d just had her mouth. “Your smart tongue is only going to be amusing for so long.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  If Jenna didn’t stop pacing, she’d end up wearing a track in the floor of the empty barracks, but she couldn’t sit still. She’d told Alpha that she needed to speak with Stanton before the CI agent started to interrogate Seb.

  Alpha had given a typical military nonanswer before advising her not to go anywhere, even though she technically wasn’t being held like Seb was. Sure, she wouldn’t go anywhere, as long as Stanton got his ass over here so she could clear Seb’s involvement.

  Maybe she hadn’t considered too closely how she was going to do that exactly. More than likely, she was going to have to reveal her true identity. Whatever happened after that… Well, she could face it knowing she’d taken care of things for Seb.

  Nearly an hour crawled by before she heard voices in the corridor. Finally. They’d taken long enough to bring Stanton. She only hoped the agent hadn’t talked to Seb yet. Though considering how long she’d been waiting, it was a possibility.

  But it wasn’t Stanton who came into the room, it was Bren, followed by Alpha and Colonel McAllister, all of them looking far from impressed. While Bren stopped in front of her, Alpha and the colonel fanned out and started searching the bunks and the few concealed corners.

  “Where is he?” Bren demanded, no small amount of razor-sharp steel in her voice. “I didn’t think he’d be dumb enough to try it second time, but apparently, I was wrong. He’s only digging himself a deeper hole.”

  The last words were said loudly, as if Bren was addressing someone else. A tiny swell of ice pushed through Jenna’s already tense body.

  “What are you talking about?” She glanced over her shoulder as Alpha and the colonel returned, shaking their heads.

  “He’s not in here. Maybe he didn’t make it this far yet?” Alpha returned to Bren’s side, crossing his arms and looking more inconvenienced than pissed off.

  “But where else would he go?” Bren addressed the two men like Jenna wasn’t even standing there. “Surely she is the only reason he’d pull another stunt like this.”

  “You didn’t tell him which barracks, right?” the colonel put in. “Maybe he got unlucky and checked the other couple first.”

  “What are you talking about?” Her unmistakable demand came out at not much below an outright yell, leaving Bren, Alpha, and McAllister staring at her like she’d sprouted a few extra limbs.

  “Seb.” Bren’s voice suggested she thought this fact should be obvious. “He escaped the security annex.”

  A surge of apprehension sent her stepping toward the other woman. “What do you mean he escaped?”

  “I went to talk to him, see if he wanted backup when Stanton started the grilling,” Alpha replied. “But when I walked in, I found both his MP guards knocked out and Seb nowhere to be found.”

  “Obviously, he chose to disregard all of our warnings about how much trouble he’d put himself in,” McAllister muttered with a sliced glare at Bren, like maybe he thought it was somehow her fault.

  A burst of pure panic stormed Jenna in an arctic rush, like getting hit by a wave of ice. No. He wouldn’t escape now. He had no reason to. Which meant CI had finally gotten to him. He might already be—

  She couldn’t finish the thought, not because she didn’t want to, but because for a too-long second, the freezing dread completely engulfed her, blanking her mind and leaving her body reeling with shock.

  With a staggered half step to the side, she grabbed on to the nearest bunk, keeping herself upright by sheer will alone.

  “Jenna, are you okay?” Alpha had stepped over, catching her upper arm like he thought she was about to go down.

  “I’m fine.” She shrugged out of his hold, forcing her emotion to disconnect, to be the unfeeling, undaunted CI agent she’d been trained to be. “Where’s Stanton?”

  “We don’t know,” Bren replied, the annoyance in her voice gone. “I looked, but I couldn’t find him.”

  Because Stanton was too busy taking out Seb, like he’d been trying to do all along? God, she should have never let them get separated. If CI wanted him dead, eventually they’d find a way to get him. But she’d assumed here, on the base and away from the ship with Bren, Alpha, the colonel, and hundreds of other soldiers around, the risk would be minimized.

  She’d gambled and lost everything. She had to find Seb, even if she couldn’t save him. She had to see for herself what Stanton had done to him. And then she would get vengeance. For herself, and for Seb, who hadn’t deserved to get tangled up in this, let alone suffer the consequences. A cold fury sufficed her, one that would sustain her until she could see this through.

  “Show me where you think he escaped from.”

  Alpha and Bren shared a quick look, while McAllister simply sent her a glare that said he wouldn’t be putting himself in the path of any more trouble on his base.

  “You’re not exactly in a position to be making demands.” The hard note had returned to Bren’s tone. She could see why the woman had made it to becoming the Captain of the Fight Force. Once she made up her mind, people followed her orders or else.

  “I don’t think Seb escaped. I just need to see the room, and then I need to find Stanton.”

  Bren crossed her arms. “Fine, I’ll take you to see the room. But in return, you’re going to tell me everything—whatever it is that you and Seb have been hiding.”

  The colonel’s expression was swiftly heading into downright pissed-off territory. “Brenner, that’s not a call—”

  “Deal,” she replied to Bren, right over the colonel’s words.

  If Seb was already lost, she didn’t have anything to forfeit by hiding her identity any longer. Did her own life really matter, when she’d failed the one vow she’d made to Seb?

  “I’m going to check in with the search teams.” T
he colonel addressed Alpha, as though he’d had enough of dealing with Bren and her. “Keep me in the loop. I want to know everything that happens, before it happens.”

  “We’ll get this taken care of, Cam, don’t worry.”

  The colonel muttered an agreement, then hurried out of the room.

  Bren indicated for Jenna to come along, while Alpha fell into step beside her. They left the barracks and crossed the base, heading for the security annex. As she walked, she cataloged soldiers, cameras, vehicles, fence patrols, even where the sun was in the sky—any information she might need when things got critical. And they would. Once she found Stanton and discovered Seb’s fate, hell was going to rain down—mostly from her hand.

  They entered the building the MPs worked out of and walked down a short passageway. The room was easy to spot, since half a dozen MPs were swarming the scene. Bren used her rank to order her way past a few of the soldiers until Jenna was able to step inside.

  One of the chairs was tipped over, a fine spray of blood across one of the walls. A dribble of red stained the table, while even more blood spattered the floor. Not enough to indicate a critical injury, but someone had definitely been wounded when they left this room.

  “This is how I found it,” Alpha said on her left side. “Except one of the MPs was down just here, and the other was over there.”

  She created a picture in her head of where Seb was likely standing, where the attacker had come in, and what had gone down.

  “You said you didn’t think he escaped,” Bren said after Jenna had recreated the scene in her mind.

  “And you told us he was in danger, that he needed protection,” Alpha continued.

  Without saying anything, Jenna stepped outside, taking a few quick breaths and shoving down the low swell of nausea that’d risen as she’d imagined Seb fighting a well-trained CI and coming out on the losing side.