Armed Response

by Janie Crouch

“You’re here.” Her words were weak, but her breathing slowed just enough that he stopped worrying that she would pass out again. He nodded at her, keeping their eyes locked.

  A roar erupted from him as Daryl reached down and snatched her up by her hair, yanking her face back. “Guess what, I’m here, too, bitch!” Daryl backhanded her and she fell hard to the floor.

  This time, she didn’t pass out. This time her small hand tightened into a fist.

  That’s right, sweetheart. Find your fight.

  Daryl was weak, pudgy. Lillian was capable of taking him down in under ten seconds. Her mind just had to believe that she could. She sat back up, her eyes finding Jace’s again. They were still laced with fear, but her breathing was more under control. If Daryl kept pushing, he was eventually going to find that Lillian could now push back.

  Much, much harder.

  “That’s right, Tiger Lily. You just take a minute and remember who you are. What you can do.”

  “Stop talking to her!” Daryl screamed, shoving her again.

  Her other hand was clenching into a fist now, too. Jace tensed his muscles, trying to balance himself more fully, ready to throw himself backward at Freihof when Lillian completely woke up and made her move. It wouldn’t be long.

  But then Daryl stopped yelling. Stopped the violence. He dropped behind Lillian, wrapping his arm around her shoulder, pulling her back up against his chest.

  Eyes so much like Jace’s own looked back at him as Daryl trailed his fingers up and down Lillian’s throat and cheek from behind. “You two were so inseparable when you were kids. Like she was your family instead of me. Like I hadn’t raised you and given you everything.”

  “You raised me in a gang and had me performing illegal activities before I was a teenager.”

  “You got to go to school. Got to eat three square meals a day. Had clothes and money when you needed it. And then you met Lillian and everything changed. Everything became about her. All I wanted was my brother back.”

  Lillian was frozen in Daryl’s embrace.

  “Let her go, Daryl. You can have me back. We can do whatever you want, we’ll make it work.”

  Daryl snuggled in closer to Lillian’s neck, breathing in her scent. “Did I ever tell you how sweetly she begged? Begged me to spare your life? Begged me not to put her back in the closet where I kept her. Begged me not to hurt her. She was so good at it.”

  Daryl nuzzled her neck, then forced her head back and kissed her.

  Jace prayed she would come out swinging, that she would use one of the hundreds of ways she knew to break out of Daryl’s embrace.

  But as soon as Daryl moved away from her, Jace recognized that blank stare. Pain and violence had scared her but kept her present. She would eventually have fought back.

  But not from this. Just like the other night, Lillian had completely shut down. Her brain had disassociated, was keeping her conscious mind at a distance.

  She wasn’t feeling any fear, but this Lillian was helpless. Not able to fight, not able to provide any tactical assistance to help get them out of here. There was no way Jace could fight both Daryl with his knife and Freihof with his gun, especially bound like he was.

  “I think I’d like to hear you beg again.” Daryl leaned away from her, pushing at her, obviously expecting hysteria and fear like before. But Lillian just looked at him with wide eyes, almost like she was a child.

  No fear. No pain. But also no fight.

  Daryl didn’t have the insight to realize what was going on with Lillian, but Freihof did. “Interesting,” he said quietly from behind Jace. “Disassociation.”

  “What are you looking at?” Daryl finally said when Lillian just continued to stare at him blankly. He slapped her, and her head fell to the side. She blinked but then looked back up at Daryl like she was waiting for him to tell her what to do.

  Jace began to struggle more frantically against the duct tape that bound his hands behind his back. Lillian frightened and shaking had been nauseating to watch.

  Lillian utterly defenseless was beyond terrifying.

  Daryl stood and yanked her up by her tactical vest. At her continued blank stare he pulled her right up to his face. “Not scared anymore?”

  His mouth covered hers in what would’ve technically been described as a kiss, but was really meant to be a device of pain and dominance. On any other given day, under other circumstances, Lillian would’ve kicked him on his ass.

  Now her hands just came up and weakly rested on Daryl’s shoulders. Just like they had on Jace’s in bed when she blanked out. She wasn’t kissing him, but she wasn’t pushing Daryl away, either.

  “Lily! Come on, baby. Come back to me,” Jace called out.

  Daryl stepped back, smirking at Jace, keeping an arm wrapped around her limp shoulders. “I’ve been waiting a lot of years to find sweet Lillian here. To remind her whom she belongs to. When Damien found me a few days ago and told me he knew where she was—where both of you were—I knew I couldn’t miss the chance. To get her back. To make her pay for this.” He gestured to the scars that ravaged most of his face.

  Jace ignored him. “Lillian, come on, sweetheart...” She just continued to stare blankly ahead.

  “I’ll admit I thought it would be a little harder. Thought I might have to kill you both outright.” Daryl pulled out a knife. “But now it looks like I’ll just take Lillian with me. I’ll find a nice cage to put her back in and take her out when I want to play with her.”

  Daryl held the knife right in front of Lillian’s face like it was a toy. “That okay with you, little pet? Ready to be my dog?”

  Jace lunged for Daryl again as he took the knife and made a shallow cut along the side of Lillian’s neck. Freihof grabbed him and pulled him back, but Jace immediately lunged again as Daryl made another small cut and Lillian didn’t move.

  Freihof’s pistol came down on the base of Jace’s skull again, making him sink to the floor. Through the haze he heard Freihof chuckling. “I realize this might be the pot calling the kettle black, but your brother is pretty sick. I never knew I’d be getting such entertainment when I brought him here.”

  Jace looked up, fighting back blackness, to look at Lillian again. “C’mon, baby. Fight for me, Tiger Lily. I love you.” Her blank brown eyes stared out at him.

  Daryl moved away from her and walked over to stand in front of him. “She’ll be coming with me. But you, baby brother, you’re just a loose end that needs to be tied up. I guess I’ll finally need to finish what I threatened to start twelve years ago.”

  No emotion crossed Daryl’s face as he stabbed the knife through Jace’s shoulder. The force threw him back, but Daryl grabbed him by the hair and twisted the knife. Agony flooded through Jace.

  “That’s for the fact that you would’ve chosen her over your own flesh and blood all those years ago.” He pulled out the knife and brought it to Jace’s throat. “And this is for the fact that you would still choose her today. Even as broken as she obviously is.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The fog was soft and cloudlike all around her. Gentle, yet permeating. Time moved differently here. More slowly. She didn’t have to worry about all the things waiting for her on the outside. She could just stay here, where no one could hurt her. Where there would be nothing left to remember when the fog finally lifted. Just blessed numbness.

  But even as she clung to the fog—the only darkness she’d ever known that wouldn’t hurt her—something beat against her mind. The knowledge that something was different.

  Lily.

  The voice penetrated the fog. A good voice. Strong. A voice that would never hurt her. But she pushed it away. That voice didn’t belong here. Nothing belonged here but the emptiness. The numbness.

  Come back to me.

  Lillian tried to melt further into the fog. Why wouldn’t this voice leave
her alone? There were things outside the fog that would hurt her. If she followed the voice she knew pain waited at the other end.

  Agony. Terror.

  Fight for me.

  She didn’t want to go. Didn’t want to face what was out there. Knew that the devil waited just beyond the fog. That if she faced him now, the fog would never protect her again.

  She couldn’t do it.

  She felt the prick of pain in her neck at a distance. It didn’t really hurt, not much. But she shouldn’t feel it at all. The fog had never let anything in before. When the prick at her neck came again, Lillian tried to pull herself back more fully into the blessed darkness.

  “Tiger Lily.”

  Jace. That voice was Jace’s.

  She didn’t move. Didn’t blink. Didn’t breathe.

  But the fog began to sink away in layers.

  Jace. Jace was here.

  “I love you.”

  More of the fog slid away and she could see as well as hear.

  Oh, God, it was Daryl. Daryl was here. He was alive. Her mind demanded that she go back into the fog. That if she stayed in the light, if she left the fog, she might never be whole again.

  She couldn’t risk it.

  The fog fell back around her as Daryl turned away and walked over to stand in front of Jace. He said something that didn’t penetrate her haze and then stabbed Jace in the shoulder.

  Jace didn’t yell, didn’t beg or scream. But she could see the blood pouring from the wound as Daryl twisted the knife and pulled it back out.

  And then he put the knife to Jace’s throat.

  No.

  With that one thought, the fog fell completely away. It couldn’t hold her if she wouldn’t let it. As it left, terror and pain rolled over her, threatening to drown her in their enormity.

  No.

  She would not stand here protecting herself in numbness while the man she loved lost his life to the monster who had stolen so much from her.

  She would not do nothing. Not now. Not ever again.

  She sprang.

  With all the rage of the eighteen-year-old who hadn’t been able to protect herself, she attacked.

  Neither Daryl nor Freihof was expecting any resistance from her. She was able to kick the knife out of Daryl’s hand and away from Jace’s throat, then used her momentum to propel herself around so her other leg swung out over Jace’s head and connected with Freihof’s gun, sending it flying across the room.

  Daryl roared as he tackled her from behind, arms coming around her torso. Lillian didn’t hesitate. She brought her head back full force against his face, breaking his nose, then swung her booted heel into his kneecap. Daryl screamed and released her.

  Never again.

  Freihof ran for his gun, but Jace threw himself at the other man, knocking them both onto the floor. She ran over to help Jace, who would never be able to defeat Freihof while wounded and without the use of his hands. Freihof quickly got back to his feet, about to kick Jace in the head, when Lillian leaped for him, knocking him away.

  She wasted no time, striking Freihof with a fierce uppercut, then with a heel to his face broke her third nose of the day.

  That’s for Grace, you bastard.

  As Freihof fell to the floor, Lillian leaped and spun, knowing Daryl would be back on her.

  He was, knife in hand.

  “Time to die, bitch. I should’ve done this a long time ago.”

  Daryl’s voice—the voice of her nightmares—sent a sliver of fear through Lillian, but she pushed it away. He jabbed at her with the knife and she quickly stepped to the side to evade. But Daryl was expecting that and caught her with a punch to the jaw. The blow spun her head around.

  “Remember my fist, sweetheart?” Daryl sneered. “Don’t worry, I’m going to make sure you remember every part of me before you—”

  Lillian didn’t let him finish. She stepped back so she was out of the reach of the knife and brought her leg around in a flying roundhouse kick that caught him in the head. She followed it with a side kick that barreled into his chest, propelling him backward half a dozen feet.

  She realized her mistake as soon as he hit the floor. He landed right where he’d taken her sidearm from her earlier. Daryl was going to have it in his hand before she could get to him.

  “Lil...”

  She heard the weak call from Jace on the other side of the room, then felt something hit her foot. He’d kicked Freihof’s gun over to her.

  Daryl swung his arm around with the gun in hand as she dropped and grabbed the weapon Jace had provided. She heard a gun fire, felt the recoil of her own. She waited for pain but felt none.

  Daryl groaned as he fell back, his weapon falling from his hand. She’d gotten off the shot. Hit him in the chest.

  She ran over, kicking the gun away, but she needn’t have bothered.

  Daryl was dead. For good this time. Checking his pulse confirmed it.

  Lillian brought her weapon back around to train it on Freihof. He was just as deadly. But he was no longer where she’d been fighting him, over by Jace. Instead he was at a back entrance to the room.

  “I reset the bomb. Hope that’s okay.” He gave her a small salute. “Another time, Agent Muir. Give my regards to your colleagues.”

  He slipped out the door.

  There was nothing Lillian wanted to do more than go after Freihof, but she couldn’t.

  Lillian ran over to Jace. He had lost a lot of blood from his shoulder wound. She grabbed the knife and cut through the tape binding his hands. “You’re bleeding bad, Jace.”

  He nodded. “I know. But we’ve got to stop that bomb. Get me over there. I stopped it once, I can do it again.”

  Jace was shaky on his feet. She put his good arm around her shoulder and, taking as much of his weight as she could, led him back over to the explosive device. She held him upright, and with shaky hands he once again dismantled the bomb, with just seconds to spare.

  “There,” he said to the bomb when he was finished. “Stay dead this time.”

  “Exactly my feelings about Daryl.” She kissed his shoulder as they both slid to the floor. “You got that gun to me just in time.”

  Jace gave her a smile, bringing his hand to her cheek. “You came back from where you were just in time.”

  “Because you called me back. It was you who got through the fog.”

  “I’ll always call you back, Tiger Lily. Just like you do for me.”

  Lillian reached up to kiss him, but before she could, he collapsed to the floor.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  It was touch-and-go for three days. The shoulder wound was bad enough, but it was the internal hemorrhaging from being clocked on the head that actually put Jace’s life in danger. The surgeon had to drill an emergency hole in his skull to allow release of the pressure. Then he had to be kept in a medically induced coma to give his brain every opportunity to heal.

  The time between Jace collapsing in her arms and when those blue eyes opened to look at her again were the longest three days of Lillian’s life.

  She hadn’t left his side. Teammates had brought her clean clothes and food and necessities. Lillian wasn’t leaving Jace alone.

  Because she knew if the roles were reversed, he wouldn’t leave her alone, either. She trusted that—trusted Jace—with every fiber of her being.

  On the third day of Jace’s coma, the day they began waking him up, she sat holding his hand, staring at his face. Willing him with every bit of energy she had to open those blue eyes. The doctor had explained that it took each person a different amount of time to wake up. To find his or her way back to consciousness.

  But, the doctor also had to warn, on rare occasions they never found their way back.

  Jace would. He would find his way out of the fog. She would lead him, the w
ay he’d led her.

  She reached over and planted a kiss on his unmoving lips. “I’m here, Eakin. Find your way back to me.”

  A few hours later Jace still wasn’t awake. The doctor had come by twice outside his usual rounds, and although she hadn’t said anything negative, Lillian knew she was concerned.

  Jace would find his way back to her. He had to.

  Molly Humphries-Waterman wheeled her husband through the door in a wheelchair an hour later. Derek was still recovering from his gunshot wounds, but the prognosis was good. It was going to take physical therapy, but Derek would eventually be back to full speed.

  But it was yet another member of the Omega Sector team down, thanks to Damien Freihof.

  “How’s he doing?” Derek asked as Molly went to get them coffee.

  “Nothing yet.” Lillian had Jace’s hand in hers. “The doc says it takes different people different amounts of time to wake up.”

  “It won’t be long. Eakin is strong. And even more, he has someone here waiting who is the most important thing in the world to him.”

  She reached over and brushed a small lock of hair off Jace’s forehead, willing him to open his eyes.

  “So you heard Saul Poniard made a full confession?”

  She looked over at Derek. “No. I’ve pretty much just been here. I don’t know what’s going on.”

  “I’m sure Steve Drackett will be providing an update to you soon. But yeah, Poniard gave up his whole Manifesto of Change, parts of which had been discovered within the Omega system a couple of weeks ago. Saul had nicknamed himself Guy Fawkes.”

  “As in the guy who tried to blow up the British parliament?”

  “The very same.”

  Lillian rolled her eyes. “I have to admit, I never saw it. Never really looked past his surfer-boy grin.”

  “Poniard was setting you up for the fall, Lillian. Making it look like you set up both the explosive device in the City and County Building and the biological weapon canisters that would’ve gone live with LESS.”

  “I never dreamed Poniard hated me that much.”

  Derek shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t think he did. I think you were an easy target. No family, no close friends. A loner.”