Perfect Ruin (Unyielding #2)

by Nashoda Rose

  My brother.

  Connor.

  “Georgie, no,” Deck shouted. “Fuck. Stop her.”

  “Jesus,” Tristan said.

  I hit the last stair when Kai stepped in front of me, grabbing my shoulders. “Chaos.”

  It was like a film in slow motion as I turned and looked over the railing, my eyes hitting my brother. Or a semblance of him.

  My heart stopped and bile rose in my throat. I had the urge to run back up the stairs as fast as I could, but I was frozen staring at…. I didn’t know what I was seeing. My mind reeled with memories of who he was and what I was staring at, unable to decipher that he was one and the same.

  “Connor. No.” The words ripped from my throat in a ragged whisper of devastation.

  He was chained to the rough cement-block wall, arms out to the sides, feet slightly parted, manacles around each limb.

  There were cuts on his wrists and ankles, the blood sprayed across his skin like a fine mist of red paint. His thigh and shoulder were bandaged, but I didn’t know why. His chest heaved and there was a wild look in his eyes, expression contorted as if the men were torturing him.

  But it was the absence of kindness in his eyes that destroyed me. It was why he’d joined the JTF2, an elite anti-terrorism unit. Why he was the most incredible brother. Why he visited schools and orphanages when he was on tour. Why he was Connor. He may have been cocky and full of himself, but his heart had been filled with compassion and love, helping kids like Tanner who had nothing. Tanner who had betrayed him. Betrayed us both.

  There was nothing left of that Connor. There were physically identifiable pieces of him, but what made up who my brother was had vanished.

  My gaze darted to Kai. “Get your hands off me,” I shouted. “This is your fault.” I didn’t recognize my own agonized voice as I tried to push past Kai, but his grip on me only tightened.

  I never thought I’d do it because despite knowing Kai for years, he still scared me. But so much rage surfaced that I couldn’t control it.

  I hauled off and punched him in the face. I knew he’d seen it coming by the way he tensed just before my fist made contact with his jaw. I also knew he could’ve avoided it, but he let me hit him.

  “You did this to him. This is your fault you son-of-a-bitch. You destroyed him.” I pounded on his chest while Kai stood unmoving. “He was good, damn it. He was good. He was good.” And now that was gone.

  My vision blurred from the tears and I no longer knew who I was punching and trying to hurt until I heard Deck’s whispered words against my ear, his arms wrapped around me.

  “Baby. Shh, we’ll get him back.”

  I shook my head back and forth against his chest. “He’ll never be the same.”

  “No. He won’t. But he’s still your brother. He’s alive and that means there’s a chance.”

  Deck had never lied to me. No matter if it hurt, he was honest, and that gave me a sliver of hope because he believed we’d find Connor within that cold, ravaged monster chained to the wall.

  “Kai,” Deck said. “Give him the sedative. We’re leaving.” He picked me up in his arms. I closed my eyes, my head against his chest and he carried me back up the stairs. Without stopping, we went to the car.

  WE TOOK TWO vehicles to the airport then boarded Tristan’s jet to fly to New York. Deck had spoken quietly to three customs officers and since he shook their hands and patted one on the back, I was guessing he knew them.

  Tristan’s private plane had wide leather seats that swiveled, a bar and a flat screen television. I sat beside Kai. Vic sat facing me with Deck beside him, two round tables separated us. Vic had already carried the sedated Connor onto the plane and Georgie stayed with him.

  Chess was about to sit across the aisle from me, but Tristan finished speaking with the pilot and walked toward her and he didn’t stop walking when he grabbed her hand.

  “We’ll be in the back room,” Tristan said. “Don’t disturb us even if the plane goes down.”

  “Tristan¸ what are you—?” Chess started.

  He leaned in to her and whispered something. I couldn’t see Chess’s face but did see her elbow him in the gut. He didn’t seem to notice and kept ushering her to the back of the plane.

  “I hear them moaning, we’re going to have a problem,” Kai said.

  I smiled. It was odd seeing Kai with a sister, but then it was odd seeing him with Deck and his men.

  Vic, who never smiled and was built like a tree trunk on steroids, had his eyes on me and I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. Finally, he said, “You’re different. Better.”

  Yeah, because he’d only seen me as Raven, a girl broken and numb. In a way, I’d been like Connor: a machine that did what I was supposed to except his was mostly drug induced, mine had been a way to protect my mind from what I’d endured.

  Once we were in the air it was all business.

  Deck placed what looked like a journal on the table and nodded to Kai who picked it up and flipped through the pages.

  “What’s this?” Kai asked.

  “Connor’s journal. There are pages ripped out. Looks like five of them in a row. He wrote in it sporadically, so no pattern to it. But according to Georgie the days missing were before they met Tanner. Need you to confirm this.”

  Kai opened the journal and flipped to the spot where it was obvious pages were torn out. “Looks about right. I was assigned to Georgie after Connor was taken, but Tanner was earlier to befriend them.”

  “Why Connor though?”

  Kai said, “Anything to do with Connor was confidential. I kept eyes on Georgie and Tanner.”

  Deck chin-lifted to the journal. “We’ve gone over it numerous times and found nothing useful or unusual. You read it. Might give us a new perspective, catch something we might not have. He talks about ordinary shit. Missing home. His family. Georgie. The deplorable conditions children lived in that we encountered on our missions. I’ve already looked in to all the places Connor was during the time frames where the pages were torn out,” Deck stated and I was getting that Deck was the type of guy who didn’t leave any stones unturned. “Most of which were overseas.”

  “Maybe you’re searching where there is nothing. Torn pages in a journal doesn’t necessarily mean anything.” Kai shrugged then tucked the small leather-bound book in his back pocket. “I’ll look.”

  “And maybe you haven’t told us everything we need to fuckin’ know.” Deck glared at Kai who merely leaned back in his seat, pushed his legs out and crossed his ankles. “Keeping secrets and lies are your specialty.”

  “The lies kept your girl out of Vault. How do you think it would’ve gone down if she were taken by them?” Kai said.

  I bit my lower lip nervously. Deck looked like he was going to leap out of his seat and throw Kai off the plane, yet Kai remained relaxed.

  Kai continued, “You’d search every single inch of this planet, use every means possible and maybe even resort to torturing innocent people.” Deck’s brows lowered and Kai smiled. “Don’t pretend you wouldn’t let your morals slip in order to find your girl.” He leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees and his voice lowering. “I think a couple of lies to keep Georgie safe was the better option.”

  “I think killing you would’ve been the best option,” Deck stated.

  Kai sat back, laughing. “Probably right.”

  I stiffened at Deck’s pissed-off face. I didn’t like the direction this was going. Kai must have noticed my discomfort because he reached over and took my hand. There was silence before Vic pulled out his laptop and brought up the blueprint of my father’s lab.

  Then it was all business again.

  I showed them the tunnel and where we had to go in. The tension eased as they quietly discussed the strategies. It was the only time they appeared agreeable with one another.

  An hour into the flight, I went and sat across from Georgie at the back of the plane. Connor was breathing heavily, eyes closed as he slept, probabl
y due to whatever they’d given him.

  I didn’t say anything at first because I didn’t know what to say to her. She’d been a pawn in this as well. Kai had told me everything including the cutting in the shed. Parts of me understood why Georgie needed the physical pain in order to try and dull the emotional pain.

  I couldn’t handle being around people who wanted to coddle me when I’d finally come home. I wanted to be alone. Run from everyone. From everything I cared about. Even from myself.

  But like Georgie’s cutting, my running didn’t help.

  Kai had done that.

  “I’m sorry. About Connor.” He was this way because of my father.

  She raised her head, Connor’s hand in hers, tears streaking her cheeks and there were mascara blotches underneath her eyes. “He was a great brother.” Georgie leaned her head back against the seat, staring straight ahead. “I’ve wanted nothing more in my life than to have him back.” She paused and repeated, “Nothing. And now… he’s here, but he isn’t.”

  I didn’t respond, my heart tearing at the broken bond between brother and sister.

  “I never wanted him to join the military. I begged him not to, but Connor… he told me it was what he was meant to do. It was who he was.” She sniffled and rubbed her nose with the back of her hand. “Every time he came back from a tour, he’d walk through the door and despite what hell he’d been in, what he’d seen or done, he’d still smile.”

  I glanced at her brother who had nothing but ravaged pain etched on his face. I knew the look because I’d suffered, too, and it changed me. You didn’t forget. You just learned to adapt with the horror and survive with the black shadows.

  I leaned forward and glanced up front. Kai was watching me, no smile and no anger, just watching with interest. There was a slight nod and then he went back to listening to whatever the men were talking about.

  “So, you and Kai?” Georgie said.

  I nodded.

  “Known him since I was a kid. He taught me a lot and he, in his own way, has protected me. Well, I know that now, but damn, he terrified me, too. Never known a man to be as fearless as him and I’ve been around Deck and his men my whole life. He hides it well. Fucker is as casual as they come.” She lowered her voice. “But when you disappeared and he called in his marker with Deck to try to find you…. Kai doesn’t use markers. Doesn’t need them. And he sure as hell has never been fond of Deck. Shit, Deck still doesn’t trust him.”

  “Do you?”

  Georgie shrugged. “Hard question to answer. Not really, and yeah, sort of.” She huffed. “I hate the bastard sometimes. For all of this, but a part of me knows this doesn’t stem from him. He’s a product of what they made him.”

  I trusted Kai, but I wasn’t sure of the lengths he would go to get exactly what he wanted, even if that meant hurting or killing someone on this plane.

  Georgie half-smiled. “Sugar, with the way that man watches you he’s one-hundred percent into you. Not something to take lightly with him.”

  “I love him.” Her brows rose. “But sometimes… the way he is, his morals, how dangerous he can be, it’s a little scary.”

  “Deck has some big-ass monsters hanging in his closet and I won’t even get into what I think delicious Vic has going on in that head of his, but you find the good and you hold onto that because it’s what will pull you both through the hell. I think Kai wants to be pulled out, London. I think he’s been trying to get unstuck for years and those bastards kept dragging him back down into the sludge. But you and him”—she nodded toward Kai—“you have the rope. Just don’t let it go, because my guess, if you do, that guy isn’t ever coming back from the darkness again.”

  I peered over at Kai again as he leaned forward and said something to Vic, that subtle smile barely visible as Vic glared back at him and I knew he’d said something to piss him off. Yeah, he definitely had no fear.

  “Prepare for landing,” the pilot announced as the seatbelt lights went on.

  “Georgie, what happened with Alfonzo at your house—”

  “Don’t go there. Not your fault. Alfonzo was the lowest of scum and there was nothing you could have done. Kai was handling it and you needed to do exactly what you did.”

  “Except I should’ve turned the gun on him,” I replied.

  She snorted. “Yeah, and then all those girls in that shipping container would be dead right now or worse, for Jacob to ship them off to God knows where.” She pushed back her pink strands behind her ear. “Besides, there was no way in hell you would’ve pulled the trigger.” She smiled. “You would now though.”

  “London.” Kai walked down the aisle toward me.

  Georgie smirked and leaned over to whisper, “You see… that man has it bad for you. He even wants to hold your hand during landing. You think your cupcake is scared?”

  I laughed, glancing up at Kai as he approached. No, he didn’t look scared or annoyed. He just looked delicious. I got up. “I don’t think Kai has that emotion in him.”

  Georgie sobered. “Yeah. I didn’t either—until you.”

  The tunnels were damp and cold with cracked cement walls, and I could hear the occasional squeak of mice or worse, rats, but I tried not to think of it as I closely followed Kai. We jogged most of the way with Kai’s hand in mine, his other holding a pencil-thin flashlight that gave off a blueish tinge.

  Deck took up the rear with Georgie behind me. I was completely out of my element, carrying a gun and wearing a bulletproof vest that Kai insisted on. Georgie and Deck had them on, too, but Kai didn’t. He’d said he’d never worn one and wasn’t starting now. It made me nervous because, despite Kai being as experienced as he was, I still wondered if he didn’t fear death because he didn’t care if he died.

  And that was the scariest of all because I cared. I loved him and I couldn’t bear the thought of being separated again.

  Kai’s light hit the steel door and we stopped. I was breathing heavily from the jog, but I was the only one. Now, I was kicking myself for not taking some kind of sport or doing an exercise program. But a few years ago, I never thought I’d be holding more than a test tube and sitting on a swivel stool, rolling across linoleum floors as I conducted experiments.

  “You good?” Kai asked.

  “Yeah.” I was as good as I could be breaking into a lab I’d spent more time in growing up than my own house. A lab that had dangerous men watching it. A lab that had developed a drug we knew nothing about, but my dad did. “My dad…” His car was in the parking lot and it was past eleven at night. I was terrified that maybe they’d already gotten to him. That his car was here but he was…. I couldn’t say it.

  “He’s here. We’ll get him out,” Kai said, knowing exactly what I was thinking.

  I nodded then gestured to the door. “There is another door at the top and it opens into a hallway where there are two labs.”

  “Deck.” Kai stepped back, taking my hand and urging Georgie back, too. Deck approached the door and shot the padlock off then unraveled the chain on the metal bar and pushed it open, his gun still drawn.

  “Clear.”

  We ran up the flight of stairs and Deck was already crouched and fiddling with the lock on the door handle. “Need me to do that?” I asked Deck.

  He snorted and shot me a scowl. I’d easily picked his lock in his penthouse.

  Deck stood. “We’re doing this in five minutes.” Deck looked at me then Georgie. “You got me, Georgie? No distractions. If London’s father isn’t there, you get in the computer, find what we need, copy, delete, and then get out.”

  Georgie sidled up to him. “I get it, baby. A quickie. In and out. You’re good at that.”

  Deck snorted and shook his head. Georgie laughed.

  I bit my lip to keep from smiling because Deck wasn’t laughing and neither was Kai. He handed me a white lab coat from his bag, which I put over my vest, and Georgie did the same.

  Kai put his hand on my hip and urged me toward him then looked down, b
rows raised. “Gun, London.”

  Shit. “Right.” I put it in my lab coat pocket. Although, if anyone looked close enough, they’d see it. With the weight of it, my coat was slightly skewed, but all of this didn’t concern me. My focus was on the possibility of seeing my father.

  Vic was on the roof of an adjacent building with a sniper rifle looking for anyone who might be Vault. Since it was so late, there were few people still in the buildings besides security.

  Tristan and Chess had stayed at his house to watch Connor. Josh and Tyler were flying in the following morning, which meant the microchips were now destroyed and anyone who had been tracking them knew it had been a false trail.

  “Ready?” Deck asked.

  I nodded, as did Kai, and Deck opened the door. There was one security guard to pass in order to get to my dad’s lab. Kai said he’d ‘deal with him.’ I didn’t know exactly what that meant, but innocent people getting hurt was something I wasn’t willing to sacrifice. Most of the people in this building I’d known since I was a kid.

  We decided on my plan instead, so Deck and Kai wore suits and ties, teamed with Kai carrying his black bag, which wasn’t holding any sort of business-related material, but security wouldn’t know that.

  We walked down the corridor…Kai beside me, Deck and Georgie behind us. When we rounded the corner a few steps away from my father’s lab, a security guard stopped us.

  Kai stiffened beside me and I saw the slight movement of his blazer lifting as his hand went to his knife.

  I stepped forward, smiling. “Daniel, hi. Nice to see you.”

  His frown slipped as he recognized me. “Miss Westbrook? Good to see you. It’s been—”

  “Years,” I finished, touching his forearm affectionately. He’d been employed at the lab since I was ten years old and yet he still refused to call me London. “School has been grueling and has kept me away,” I lied. “How’s your wife?”

  I heard Kai curse beneath his breath.

  “Great. Still can’t cook and still a pain in the ass, but the best, most beautiful, pain in the ass an old guy like me could have.” He nodded to Kai, then his eyes shifted to Georgie and Deck before coming back to me. “Your father just told us the bad news. Sorry to hear.”