“Adie? What the fuck are you doing here?” I whispered incredulously.
"I hate to break up this touching little reunion party, but I need to get to a hospital, James. Lois pumped me full of something nasty before we left and I figure I've got approximately eight minutes to live if I'm lucky."
James snorted. "We've got no time for hospitals, asshole. We've got a three-strong tail of Range Rovers on our ass, and unless you'd rather die from an assault of automatic weapon fire, I'd sit tight if I were you."
Rubbing my eyes and making a choked little sound of frustration in my throat, I said, “Why the hell is that man in the back of this car?”
“Long story. Right now, you two need to grab the guns stashed on the back seat and get ready to fire the things. I appreciate that both of you can barely see, but the distraction of weapon fire should be enough. Think you can do that?”
“Are either of you bothered by the fact that I’m about to die?” Adie sounded a little put out in the backseat, but he rummaged around for the guns obediently.
“Not particularly,” said James. “If we live through this next hurdle, then maybe we can worry about whether you get to live or die, assuming we’re not already dead,” said James.
“I can’t believe you are even asking me that question," I said tightly. "You were about to kill me a couple of hours ago, and that was after you'd tortured me for a day with just about everything you could throw at me. You absolutely deserve to die, bastard, so sit back and get comfortable." I could see James's lips twitch as he stared into the rearview mirror.
“It appears we’re all out of sympathy today, sweetheart,” James said unapologetically, as he watched Adie pass me an AK-47. “Try to focus on the job at hand and don’t fall asleep on us, okay?”
“Do you trust him?” I hissed furiously at James, as I wound my window down and stuck my head out of it.
“No, but I don’t need to. You two are going to have to sort out your issues, though. Sharkey has plans for all of us to get together on our next assignment, and judging by the status quo at the moment, it’s going to be rather entertaining watching the pair of you.”
“You are not funny, James,” I said, giving him no chance to answer, as I unleashed a round of bullets at the armoured vehicle behind us. They sprayed everywhere as the car swerved on to the other side of the road, but I didn’t make a dent in anything that mattered.
Meanwhile, Adie was also poking his head out of the window, but he was struggling to hold his gun in position. The effects of the drug were taking hold.
“Come on, Adie. Be a big boy and fight through it. It’s the least you can do after the hell you’ve just put Lois through.” I didn’t miss the amusement in James’s voice. He was obviously enjoying watching Adie suffer. Come to think about it, so was I.
Letting out a stream of bullets from his rifle, he did a tolerable job of trying to hit the car in front but came up a few yards short. James wasn’t about to let the matter rest.
"Come on Adie, at least Lois managed to hit something. Get with the plan." I could see James rolling his eyes in the mirror. Damn bastard didn't look at all ruffled, even though we had at least twelve mercenaries on our tail. What did he know that I didn't?
"For fuck's sake." Adie rubbed at his eyes as if somehow that would make things better. I knew for a fact that it wouldn't. "Is your vision still blurry, Lois?" he whined.
"No. Mine is nearly back to normal. Give me another minute or two, and my aim should be back to normal as well," I said cheerfully. "Blurry vision is just one of the side effects you've got to look forward to in your remaining eight minutes. It probably won't be long before you lose your eyesight completely," I remarked rather casually. Was it wrong that I was enjoying myself? The bastard deserved all that I could dish out and more.
“You bitch,” Adie ground out, releasing another string of bullets that did little more than aggravate tarmac. I ignored him.
“Lois, if we don’t get these bastards off our tail soon, there is not going to be any happy-ever-after for us,” James warned sweetly.
“Since when was there a happy-ever-after for anyone in our line of business, darling?” I said, giving him a friendly punch on the arm.
I then swung out of the window as far as I could and aimed for the tyres in front of me. Puncturing both front tyres, the Range Rover in front swerved violently to the right, and the car behind T-boned right into it. Score two for me.
“Nice work, Lois. Two down, one more to go.” It was my turn to roll my eyes. I was more than capable of counting to three. The reason my head was now stuck inside the vehicle was because there were a whole load of bullets coming my way.
"For Christ sakes sit back down Adie, and die quietly." Yanking him away from his spot by the right window in the rear, I crawled over James's arm and into the back, dragging Adie's body away from the window as I did so. "I've got this. Sit tight." Aiming again for the tyres, I let loose with the AK, and I caught one. It was enough. The last Range Rover began slowing down behind us, and before we knew it, they were nothing more than a speck of scenery in the back windscreen. Removing the empty mag from the AK, I put it on the floor, and crawled back up front. At the moment I could barely look at Adie, and I had a feeling I'd do something stupid if I thought too hard about it – like finish the job I'd started.
"Now can we go to a hospital?" Adie said, and as my head turned around, I could see his hands shaking.
“I think today is a good day to die,” I said, looking pointedly at him.
"Who do you think got you out of that place?" he hissed at me. "I didn't accidentally leave your hands out of that chair rung, nor did I accidentally turn the lights off, or leave a briefcase full of drugs in there. That escape was planned all along, and James said you were clever enough to take the bait."
"Did he now?" Clearly, I was missing a large chunk of the backstory here, but it had been a long day, and I'd had enough. "Well, then, you should also know that James sent me into Carte Blanche to kill you." I think Adie then figured he wasn't going to get much out of me, so rather than waste his remaining five minutes trying to sweet-talk me, he switched his focus to James.
"Are we driving to the nearest hospital?" he barked in panic. "Jesus Christ, I have five minutes to live here. Tell me there is one close by."
"No, no can do," said James, whose eyes were twinkling. "The nearest hospital is a good thirty miles away, and you'd be dead long before we got there."
There was a lengthy silence then, as Adie digested that. He’d gone very pale by the time he finally said, “So you two are just going to sit there and watch me die?”
At that point, James decided to put him out of his misery. If it had been left up to me, I’d have let him count the seconds down to his death, but at the moment it was James’s show, and as he’d rescued me, I was happy to let him run it how he liked.
"Adie, if Lois had wanted you dead, believe me, you'd be dead by now," he shook his head and looked in the rearview mirror. "While I'm certain she shot you up with something unpleasant, it's not deadly. Fifty bucks says its probably Scopolamine."
"Fucking hell," I cursed out loud. "How do you do that?" There'd been a lot of drugs in that briefcase. How had James managed to narrow it down to precisely the one I'd used? Wherever he'd received his training, they'd done a better job of it than mine, and I was beginning to feel wholly inadequate while around him. It was annoying because I was a damn good agent in my own right, but James had some kind of background that I didn't know about. Military, special ops, secret service – it was something like that.
"The same way I know you've got a shed load of amphetamines in your system, Lois. It's all about signs and symptoms. Good call, by the way. You'd never had got through that maze without something to counteract the heroin." James turned my way then, and he smiled at me - a proud kind of smile that did funny things to my insides. Dammit. My hormones were off the charts with these two monsters in the car, which made entirely no sense, but there it was anyway.
Distracting me from my thoughts, Adie began whining in the back.
“Let me get this right, you’ve happily led me to believe I was about to die for the past hour when in reality all I’ve been dosed with is a bit of truth serum?” he asked, clearly horrified.
I whipped my head around to address this misconception. "Actually you were about to die – either by me overdosing you or shooting you. The fact that I've let you live is more down to pressing recent events than anything else, so I wouldn't get too comfortable," I growled, "and you should know I bear grudges for a very long time.”
Adie ignored my rant and then put his hand to his head. “So I’m about to spill all my secrets and tell you my life story now? Fuck. James, you need to knock me out." He didn't look quite so stricken, now that he'd realised he wasn't about to die, but his face still looked rather green. Obviously, he had plenty of things he didn't want to share with us — poor baby.
Opening the glove compartment in front of me, I rummaged around until I found what I was looking for, which was a pistol. A Sig Sauer P226 pistol to be precise, and I had to admire James's choice of weapon. It was a nice, clean, sturdy beast. Turning around to Adie, who immediately shoved his head back when he saw what I held in my arms, he found he had timed his manoeuvre a little too late. The gun was already smashing its way into the side of his head, and less than a second later, his limp body turned sideways as his head hit the door. He'd better have a nasty bruise when he woke up, I thought darkly. Looking down at my body, which was still naked, I saw that I was covered in congealed blood and cuts, some of which were still weeping. My body was never going to be the same again. I had Adie to thank for that. Clamping my jaw together, I made a growling sound.
“Did that make you feel better?” James turned his head to look at me, but I refused to meet his gaze. There was too much emotion swimming through me at the moment, and I didn’t want anyone to see it.
Taking a couple of seconds to get my breath back, I finally said, “Well, I solved his dilemma, didn’t I? He’s not going to spill any naughty secrets. He can thank me later.” Continuing to stare straight ahead, I tried not to look down at myself. I knew the effects of the amphetamines would wear off soon, and when they did, my body was going to go into meltdown.
"Lois, are you okay?" James's voice was a soft whisper, one that caressed me from the inside out, but I still couldn't look at him. My eyes were now swimming with unshed tears, and it was all I could do to hold them inside me.
Shaking my head slowly from side to side, I then placed my head against the doorframe and closed my eyes. I didn’t need any more questions for the time being. All I wanted was to shut the world out, and drift away somewhere dark and peaceful, but that wasn’t going to happen while my heart rate was still racing like Lewis Hamilton’s F1 Mercedes. At least James took the hint. From that point on, we rode in complete silence.
Chapter Eight - Lois
When we finally arrived at the safe house, exhaustion had settled in. The magnitude of the past few days had finally taken its toll on me, and I felt weak as a kitten. Struggling to open the car door, I can’t tell you the relief I felt when James came around to pluck me out of my seat and carry me indoors.
“I’m not an invalid,” I whispered contrarily, even though I was absurdly grateful for his actions.
"Actually, you are, and you're going to be feeling a whole lot worse before you feel better. Suck it up and get used to being taken care of for a while," James murmured in my ear. There was a warning tone there, and I knew from experience that no amount of arguing on my part would change his mind on the subject. It was just as well.
“What are you going to do with Adie?” I whispered, snuggling into the warm heat of James’s body, uncaring that I’d just plastered blood all over his arms. God, the man smelled good. Citrusy and fresh. I had missed that smell.
"Adie can take care of himself. I'm more worried about you at the moment," he said, reaching into his pocket to grab a key. It was then inserted into a panel by the door where James tapped a few numbers into the keypad beside it. The sound of a lock releasing could then be heard, and the door opened inwards. James then began striding forwards, which was when I started feeling awkward in his arms. I don't know why, it certainly wasn't because I was naked. We'd spent a lot of time together like that, but something felt as if it had changed between us. There was some underlying current that sat there, and it didn't feel right.
"Put me down, James," I said, as he proceeded to take me into the building. "I'm more than capable of walking, and you'll do your back in." My tone may have been a little exasperated.
Of course, James was having none of it. “It would take a girl five times your size for that, and even then my back would probably cope,” he said, grinning. “Besides, I like carrying naked women around.” If he was trying to lighten the mood, it wasn’t working.
“I would think the colossal amount of gunk all over me isn’t much of a turn on,” I said wryly.
“I’ve become anaesthetised to it over the years,” James confessed. “I barely bat an eyelid these days. Some people actually get turned on by it, and I’ve done a few sessions at Elite Encounters involving…” he paused for a second as if searching for the right word, “blood.”
"It's all right," I said, as we rounded the top of the stairs and headed straight for the bathroom, "you can say ‘knife play.' I won't dissolve into a fit of hysterics. I'm a big girl, honest." James was entirely too careful around me, and I didn't like it. This was not the James I remembered.
"Damn it, Lois. The tough girl persona won't wash with me. Yes, I know you can handle yourself, but you've just been through the wringer in spectacular style, and you're about to suffer the consequences – and let me tell you it won't be pretty." He settled me down on his lap while he reached over to put the plug in the bath. Then he turned the taps on full power and waited for the tub to fill. "Right now, we need to get you cleaned up and in bed as quickly as possible."
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not china. I won’t break.”
“You’re already broken,” he murmured quietly, “but I won’t hold that against you.” We were both quiet after that.
When the bath was half full, he tested the temperature, and when he was satisfied it was okay, he picked me up and gently set me down inside it. The water was warm and soothing, and I immediately felt better.
“God, that feels good,” I said, picking up a sponge and covering it generously with lemon-scented shower gel.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” said James, shaking his head. Touching the sponge to my stomach without thinking, I then screeched and plunged under the water to wash the stuff off. The burning sensation slowly faded, thankfully, but the lesson had been learnt. James then snatched the offending item out of my hands and rinsed it off in the sink.
"Just use water for a couple of days, until the cuts have scabbed over," he advised, handing me back the newly cleaned sponge. "The trouble with knife cuts is that they are so clean, they take longer to heal. Still, you'll be in bed for the next few days, whether you like it or not, so that should sort them out." He nodded to himself and then frowned as I began to scrub myself. "Here, give me that."
He held his hand out for the sponge, but I glowered at him. “No. I am more than capable of washing myself.” Sitting up straighter in the bath, I prepared to do battle.
"You're going to make things worse if you scrub at yourself like that. Besides, it wasn't a question, it was an order, so do as you're told. I'm still your superior if I remember correctly."
My glower deepened. “Are you really going to pull that card?”
“Absolutely. Give it to me now, or I’ll make sure you’re sedated for the next three days and completely catatonic. I’ll also recommend three weeks of psychological evaluation in our debrief before you can return to work.”
My jaw dropped. “You wouldn’t,” I whispered. Three weeks with a psychiatrist was my idea of a nightmare. Give me torture any day.
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“Try me,” he barked. I handed over the sponge.
James was exceedingly gentle with the sponge, as I knew he would be, and as the water went pink beneath me, my face turned just as red above. Against all of my best efforts to remain impervious to his hands, this was turning me on, and there was nothing I could do about it. Desire crept through my body, heating my nerve endings one by one, and I swear if that man decided to wash anywhere even slightly intimate, I was going to slap him.
“Fuck, Lois. I can’t even begin to imagine what that must have felt like,” James said, clearing his throat as his voice got stuck on the second syllable. I watched his hand tighten around the sponge reflexively, but his touch upon my body was as light as a feather.
“Are you going to say, ‘I told you so?’’ I remarked dryly.
He shook his head. “I don’t think that will help matters, do you?” He had a point.
Bend forwards, Lois, and I’ll do your back. Obediently bending over, I waited for the sting of the sponge on my back, although, surprisingly, it wasn’t anywhere near the pain that was now consuming the front of me. How odd.
"Why doesn't it feel so bad there? Did he not do as much damage as I thought?" Reaching my hand around to feel for the cuts and scars that I knew would be there, I was shocked to find my flesh mostly smooth and unscathed. "What the hell," I whispered.
He didn't cut your back. The cameras couldn't see what he was doing back there, so he just grazed you with an ice-cold, blunt knife. It's an old trick. It still hurts like hell, but it won't leave any permanent scarring. I'll do what I can to prevent marks on your front, but I can't promise anything. It's all down to you now, and how well your body can heal itself."
Thoughts were swimming in my head after that. So Adie had been looking out for me. It wasn't my imagination – he had helped me to escape. Maybe my monster wasn't the bad guy, after all. That suddenly put a new slant on my feelings towards him, although he still wasn't my best pal at the moment.
Flames (A Special Agent Novel Book 3) Page 8
