by Maya Banks
“It’s going to get interesting now. Keep your eyes peeled. Shoot first and don’t get your ass shot.”
“You have such a knack for stating the obvious,” Joe muttered as he broke into a run down the hall.
They passed the downed men, and Donovan stopped long enough to snag a security badge from one of them.
“Oh, come on,” Joe said. “You’re telling me the king nerd can’t get anywhere without a security clearance card?”
“Eat me,” Donovan growled. “This’ll take less time. Provided it works. If it doesn’t, we’ll just blow our way in.”
Joe grinned. “I like the way you think when you don’t have your head stuck in a computer.”
“I’m so kicking your ass when this is over.”
They ran down the corridor until they came to an open door. Donovan held up one hand then kicked in the door and went in, gun up as he swept the room.
“Clear here,” Donovan said.
They continued their path down the hall, finding evidence of hasty exits. There were overturned equipment, papers scattered everywhere, even a running faucet.
When they came out of the current room, a shot sounded and Donovan went down. Joe turned, laying down a heavy spray of bullets as he hit the ground to cover his brother.
Joe nailed one in the chest and he fell heavily. The other, Joe got in the leg and he disappeared around the corner before Joe could get off another shot. He turned his attention to his brother.
“Van, goddamn it, talk to me. Are you hit?”
“Get the fuck off me. I can’t breathe,” Donovan growled. “Fucker just winged me. I’m all right. Let’s clear the rest of the hall.”
Joe carefully pushed himself off his brother but kept careful watch as Donovan picked himself up from the floor. When Joe glanced down, he saw blood smeared on the white tiles.
“You’re bleeding, goddamn it. Where did you take the hit?”
Donovan put a hand to the tear in his sleeve. “It’s just a graze. Few inches over he’d have hit the Kevlar and then we wouldn’t be having this stupid conversation about blood.”
They moved more slowly down the hall, each facing a different direction. Donovan walked forward and Joe backed his way after his brother. At each open doorway, they stopped to clear the room but left frustrated each time.
“This is bullshit,” Donovan said into his receiver. “We’re coming up empty. What about the rest of you?”
“Steele and company are engaged. Phillips is helping round up everyone running from the building. They haven’t been able to clear their section. We’re making our way back as fast as we can,” Sam said.
“Us too,” Nathan relayed.
Joe could hear the frustration in his twin’s voice and the ache. He was afraid for Shea. Afraid he wouldn’t find her but also afraid of what he’d find if they came across her.
“We have to find her,” Joe said in a low voice to Donovan.
Donovan nodded and continued their path through the maze of rooms.
They burst into a room and quickly scanned the interior. Joe frowned, and for a moment it felt like someone had punched him in the stomach. He lurched forward, ignoring Donovan’s order to be cautious.
He turned in a circle, staring, remembering what he’d seen during his brief connection to Shea. “This is it, Van. This is where they had her!”
Donovan hopped over a chair on its side and turned the corner of the L-shaped room. Joe came up beside him and froze as he stared at the cylindrical cage. And it was a cage. There were no bars but it was no less a prison.
“Dear God,” Donovan whispered.
Joe bolted forward, his hand running along the top of the enclosure where Shea lay, her eyes glassy and fixed on the ceiling. Electrodes were attached to her head, though one had fallen off and lay by her ear. The monitor that he’d seen was to her left.
“Son of a bitch! We have to get her out of here, Van.”
Joe dropped his rifle and clawed frantically at the lid, trying to figure out how it opened. “Damn it, Van, how do I get her out?”
Donovan hurried around to the work station where the computers were and began tapping furiously at the keys. Joe stalked around to the other side and cut the lines that fed from the electrodes to the machine monitoring her brain activity. Then he leaned over the enclosure, pressed his hands to the plastic and put his face over hers.
Shea, can you hear me. Talk to me, sweetheart. They can’t hurt you now.
She didn’t move. Didn’t acknowledge him in any way. He felt nothing through their pathway. Just silence and nothingness. Calm. Eerie calm.
“Goddamn it, hurry, Van! She’s not doing good. Not at all. We have to get her out of here.”
“I’m doing the best I can. I’m flying blind here. It’s a complicated system. I’ll get it. I’ll get it.”
Joe continued to stare down at Shea, his fingers splayed out, pressed to the cool surface. He only thanked God that it wasn’t Nathan who’d found her. He’d have gone ballistic and there would have been no controlling him.
Suddenly the top lifted and started to open toward him. He backed off and ran around to the other side. The locks around her neck, wrists and ankles popped open, but she didn’t react.
Gently, Joe reached in and lifted her from the enclosure. She was limp against him and her head lolled onto his shoulder. Shit, this was scaring him.
“We have Shea,” Donovan said tersely. “I repeat, we have Shea. Give us your status.”
“Go out the front,” Sam barked. “We’re engaged in heavy fire. Back is not secure. P.J. will be covering your exit. Take one of the SUVs and meet us at the rendezvous point. Once we’re clear, we’ll meet you as scheduled.”
It fried Joe’s ass to even think about leaving his brothers behind, but they couldn’t carry Shea into the line of fire. And he couldn’t send Donovan because he was Joe’s only cover, since Joe was carrying Shea out.
“You heard the man. Let’s go,” Donovan bit out.
AS Nathan listened to the exchange between Donovan and Sam, he nearly went to his knees in relief. They hadn’t said anything about Shea’s condition, but they had her and that was all that was important. She was safe. His brothers wouldn’t let any harm come to her.
“Throw a fucking grenade and let’s be done with this shit,” Garrett snarled from across the wide-open area that was at the heart of the facility. All hallways led from the huge epicenter, and it was at the center where the security forces for the lab had taken a stand.
What the fuck they had to fight for was beyond Nathan, but maybe they feared certain death if they simply surrendered. While Nathan would love to accommodate them, Resnick wanted to do it by the book. Maybe he was still angling to keep his job.
Steele and his team, along with Resnick, were closing the gap and they’d soon have the holdouts between them. Sam, Garrett, Nathan and Ethan had taken position while bullets zinged by them and kicked up plaster from the walls.
“I’m coming in behind you.”
Swanny’s voice came over the radio, and Sam frowned. “What the fuck are you doing out of position? You were supposed to be with Steele.”
“I got a little sidelined with an issue,” Swanny drawled. “It’s all better now.”
Nathan grinned.
“Fall back then,” Sam directed. “Rendezvous with Joe and Donovan. They’re going out the front with Shea. They’ll need cover. P.J. is manning the front. We have it here.”
“Roger that.” There was a long pause, and then Swanny said, “Don’t worry, Nate. I’ll take good care of your girl.”
“I know you will,” Nathan murmured.
“Coming your way, Sam,” Steele barked. “Waded through the riffraff. Phillips is rounding them up. Let’s finish this one and head to the house.”
“That gets a hooyah from me,” Ethan piped in.
“Hooyah, baby,” Cole echoed. “This is like ducks in a row at the fair. Too easy, drill sergeant. Too easy.”
“Move in,” Sam ordered.
Garrett lobbed a flash grenade and then they swarmed.
“Stay low! Stay low!” Sam yelled.
Some of the combatants had already given up and lay flat on the floor, hands over their heads. Others stumbled unsteadily and attempted to raise their guns to shoot.
Nathan dropped to one knee and laid down a round of fire, taking down two targets as they took aim at Garrett. He did a quick scan of the room as his brothers pushed through.
“Hold your fire! Hold your fire!” Sam ordered. “Targets are down. I repeat, targets are down.”
Nathan could see that Steele and his team had pushed through and now stood across the center of the complex. As he started to rise, pain seared through his side, knocking him sideways.
He stared down in disbelief to see that one of the fallen security forces had plunged a knife into his side. It was reflex to yank the knife back out. It hadn’t gone to the hilt.
He let out a guttural cry but threw aside the knife before leaping forward onto the man who’d downed him. He grasped the man’s head and wrenched sideways, until he heard the snap of the other man’s neck.
He threw the man down and then put his hand to his side, feeling sticky warmth spread over his palm.
Shit.
He glanced up in time to see his brothers rushing forward, uncharacteristic fear on their faces. He tried to push himself upward but started to tilt forward instead.
Garrett got to him first and caught him before he could pitch forward.
Nathan pulled his hand away and stared down at the dark red that coated his entire palm.
“That son of a bitch stabbed me!”
CHAPTER 41
JOE and Donovan were just about to the front entrance when Swanny caught up to them from behind.
“Want me to take her?” Swanny asked.
“No, you go ahead with Donovan. Cover me and make damn sure P.J. knows we’re coming out,” Joe said tersely.
He hadn’t said a word about Shea’s condition, but the truth was, he was scared shitless. It was obvious she’d checked out. Her eyes were still open, but they were vacant and lifeless. Her vitals seemed normal. The lights were on but nobody was at home. Who the hell knew what all she’d endured this time?
“Get your asses into the trees,” P.J. said in an impatient voice. “My orders are to get you to the truck so you can haul ass out of here.”
They broke into a run, and Joe held Shea tighter against him so she didn’t flop like a rag doll. When they burst through the trees, P.J. rolled from her perch atop the rise where she’d taken position and fell in behind Joe to cover the rear.
“What’s her condition?” P.J. asked as they hurried back the way they’d come in.
“I don’t know,” Joe said shortly. “It’s not…good.”
“I’ll take a look when we get back to the SUV,” Donovan called back. “The important thing is she’s alive.”
Yeah, she was alive, but Joe wasn’t at all sure what that meant anymore. The longer she lay in his arms unmoving and unresponsive, the more dread gathered in his stomach. He didn’t want to think of what this would do to Nathan.
Nathan was finally coming around. He had fire in his gut again. He had purpose. The Nathan who’d come home from the hospital after recovering for weeks had been a stranger to Joe, and he hadn’t like it one bit.
He wanted his best friend back, and this could change everything.
Please, Shea. Come back to us. Nathan needs you. Show me you’re still in there somewhere. You’re safe now. They can’t hurt you anymore. I understand why you’ve gone away. But you can come back now. Come back for Nathan. He’s lost without you.
They broke into the small clearing where the SUVs were parked and still Shea hadn’t stirred in his arms. Donovan jerked open the back and motioned for Joe to lay her down. Joe was about to do just that when she went completely stiff in his arms.
She let out a cry of pain and seemed to ball in even tighter. Her breathing changed from the shallow, light respirations to fast, jerky bursts that seemed to tear out of her throat.
Joe sat her on the edge of the SUV, careful not to bump her head on the upright door.
“Oh Jesus,” Donovan breathed.
Joe followed Donovan’s gaze to see blood spreading rapidly over her side. “What the fuck? Van, she wasn’t hurt! I examined her myself. She wasn’t bleeding. I would have damn sure noticed that amount of blood.”
Shea’s eyes lost their glassy dullness. Her pupils dilated and sweat formed on her brow. Her fingers curled into tight little balls, and she bent over as if in unimaginable pain.
Joe caught her and then laid her gently on her uninjured side. He crawled over her, into the truck, and pushed at her shirt, looking for the source of the bleeding.
“Holy shit. She’s got a wound in her side, but I swear to you, Donovan, this wasn’t here before!”
Donovan pushed in beside him and then swore. “I can’t even move in here. Get her down. Lay her on the ground so I can see what I’m doing.”
Joe pulled her out. P.J. hurried in and helped him ease her down onto the ground. Swanny knelt beside Shea and gently pushed aside her hair in a gentle gesture that Joe found irritating. What the fuck was the man doing? She was going to bleed to death and he was worried about her hair?
“What’s happened to Nathan?” Swanny asked. “Talk to me, Shea. And listen. He wouldn’t want you to do this. He has people to help him. You can’t take this for him this time. Do you understand me? You’ll hurt him far more by doing this. You’re too weak to take this from him. Let him bear his own pain this time. I swear to you we’ll get him out. Do you hear me? Snap the fuck out of it and look at me, damn it!”
“Swanny, what the fuck?” P.J. demanded. “Get the hell away from her before I do it for you.”
Swanny ignored her and turned to Donovan. “Ask Sam what the hell just happened to Nathan. Do it. She’s taking his pain. She’s absorbing it just like she did before when he was being tortured. Only this time she doesn’t have the strength to do it.”
Fear grabbed Joe by the throat. Donovan went pale and he cupped his hand over the mouthpiece so the wind wouldn’t interfere.
“Sam, what the hell is happening in there? I need to know what’s going on with Nathan and I need to know yesterday. Our situation is critical.”
“Nathan’s down,” came Sam’s grim reply. “Took a knife to the side. Garrett’s trying to stop the bleeding now. We’re on our way with him now. What the fuck is going on with you?”
“Oh Christ,” Joe whispered. “How bad, Van? We need to know how bad.” He glanced at Shea as fear took a firmer hold. She’d give her life for Nathan. He knew it like he knew his own name. But Nathan’s life wouldn’t be worth shit without her, and her sacrifice wouldn’t mean a damn thing in the end. He couldn’t let this happen.
Instead of waiting for Donovan, Joe broke in. “You be honest with me, Sam. Tell me how bad it is. Shea’s in a bad way because she’s taking his pain and she’s bleeding heavily. It’s his injury that’s causing her bleeding. She’ll die because they’re connected and she thinks she has to save him. So you tell him to find his way to her and you make him tell her that he’s going to be goddamn fine. I don’t care if he’s lying or not. If we lose her, he’s lost to us anyway.”
“He’s not going to die,” Sam snarled. “You tell her that. You connect with her. Don’t you dare let her die. I’ll make sure Nathan knows what’s going on, but don’t you let her go in the meantime. You do whatever you have to do to keep her alive. Lie to her. I don’t care. Just get the job done.”
Joe dropped to his knees beside Shea and shoved Swanny aside. He lifted her head, holding her close, while P.J. put both hands over Shea’s side in an attempt to stop the bleeding. Donovan moved in with a med kit, and he and P.J. began to work on a pressure bandage while Joe focused his entire being on forging a connection with Shea.
NATHAN could tell whatever was bei
ng relayed to Sam wasn’t good and he cursed the fact that he’d lost his earpiece when Garrett converged on him to stop the bleeding. He knew he was right when his brothers and even the members of Steele’s team and Resnick regarded him with a mixture of fear and dread.
But what worried him more was that his pain was easing. The warmth he’d long ago associated with Shea spread through his veins, replacing the burn with soothing comfort.
And yet he couldn’t feel her. Not in the way he’d always been able to in the past. He could feel what she was doing for him and it made him furious. But it was as if there was some giant roadblock to Shea.
His stomach churned and his hands began to shake.
“Tell me, goddamn it,” he bit out. He wanted answers and he wanted them now.
He threw off Garrett’s hand and tried to get up, but Garrett hauled him back down and forcibly kept pressure on his wound. Dread mounted in Nathan’s chest until he could barely draw a breath.
“You go, Sam,” Resnick said hurriedly. “My men and I will stay behind to do cleanup. I’m going to have to call this in and let the chips fall where they may. I may be out of a job, but until they tell me otherwise, this is hugely classified and I can’t just leave things here for anyone to stumble over. But I promise you this. I’ll get answers before I call it in. We’ll make these fuckers talk so we know what the hell we’re dealing with.”
“And if they decide to silence you?” Sam asked.
Resnick’s face hardened. “My team is loyal to me. They take orders from me. I won’t go down without a fight, and if that’s the way this is going to play out, then I won’t remain silent. I’ll go public in a big way. I won’t let this happen to Shea again. Grace is still out there. I won’t let this happen to her.”
“I don’t like leaving you,” Sam said.
“You’re wasting time,” Resnick said impatiently. “You heard what Joe had to say. Your priority needs to be her and Nathan. Now get the hell out of here.”
“Someone tell me what the fuck is going on,” Nathan snarled. “Where’s Shea? What happened?”
“She’s taking your pain,” Garrett said quietly.
