by CJ Snyder
“Not to come. You weren’t supposed to come.” She sounded hysterical and didn’t care. Why was he here? He had to know protecting Lizzie was the most important thing. The only thing. “You were supposed to stay with her. To keep her safe!”
“No. She didn’t tell me not to come.”
Whoever had the gun had moved to the wall right along with her. If she fell would the man with the gun fall, too?
“She needs to sit, Viper.” Max’s voice, from her left.
“Then tell her to sit.” Vic’s voice, that wasn’t Vic’s voice at all.
“This is insane,” Kat announced to the room at large.
Vic. . .Viper?. . .was the only one who laughed. “Insane. Just like your mother, Katherine.”
That was too much, but rough hands snagged her arms, dragging her back toward the chair. She didn’t have enough strength to resist and once they put her in that chair with the sawed-off legs, she’d never get out. Max had strength. Why wasn’t he fighting? “Leave my mother out of it.”
“Can’t, love. It all started with your family. That’s where it will end.”
Kat struggled to get back out of a chair that sat close to the floor. Max fought rage so intense he thought it would overpower him. She was hurt. Her lips were swollen from a blow, as was her right eye. Another wound matted her hair in the back–he had her blood on his chin, a token from when he’d held her still. A skimpy black shirt hung in tatters from her nearly-bare shoulders and an angry burn cruised her forearm. He watched an infrared dot appear on her forehead, even as Crater slapped her. Her cry of reaction pierced his heart. Frustration surged, demanding immediate action but Max didn’t move. The little red dot followed the recoil snap of her head with perfect accuracy. Blood flowed more freely from the gash next to her right eye, bright and red against her too-pale skin. Max found Viper’s cool smile and forced Ice to make the assessments necessary to get her out of this alive.
Engagement.
Diversion.
Control. Control was essential.
First himself, then the room, then Viper.
“End of the line, Ice.” The words were calm. Viper’s eyes were anything but.
Max heard the rip of duct tape. Kat was being secured in the low chair. He didn’t take his eyes from Viper. She’d married him?
And you fought for him. Killed for him. Watch and wait. He’s not as good as you, never has been.
Like a bullet loading snugly in a chamber, the pieces started to ratchet into place. Engagement. Control. Viper was close to losing his. Could he use that as a diversion? “Jealousy, Viper?”
“Competition.” Viper shrugged. “I win. You lose. Everything.”
Max couldn’t tell if his question had struck a blow or not, but the engagement was on. “Why?”
Viper made a single motion with his hand and the room cleared. Diversion. Control. Max didn’t look away from him, though his thoughts were with Kat, left alone in the corner. “I’ve got a plane to catch in six hours, so I figure you and your lady,” his sneer had Max’s hackles rising again, “have about five. You’ll be last, of course. And you’re here early, so you’ll have to pardon us while we get things ready. There’s a nice, quiet room they’re fixing up for us in one of the other buildings. You’ll be the only one who can hear her scream. Would you like to know exactly what I have planned?”
Not for a million bucks. But he had to play along, let Viper think he would win. Hell. This was Viper. He did have a chance of winning. “Sure.”
Viper slid behind Kat’s chair, framing her head almost lovingly between his hands. Max locked his knees to keep his legs still. In another life, he’d seen Viper break a terrorist’s neck, beginning with exactly that gesture. He didn’t need a weapon for what he now threatened. Sweat broke out along Max’s spine, but he didn’t move. An outburst was just what Viper wanted, a way to turn Kat’s death back on him, make it all his fault. So Max held still, and watched.
Kat’s eyes were focused on him, he realized suddenly. She knew exactly what was happening, the very immediate danger. She didn’t move either. Max relaxed the slightest bit.
Viper’s hands moved to her shoulders. Kat tensed, but stayed motionless. Scenarios flew through Max’s mind and were instantly discarded.
Diversion.
Control.
Only there wasn’t a damn thing he could do until Viper moved away from Kat.
“Tell me,” Max requested. “How is Kat’s family involved?”
“Her father, the esteemed Dr. Jannsen, was treating Joseph Kennedy Campbell.”
Joseph Campbell was a prominent Representative, head of the Ways and Means Committee. Some said he was next in line for Speaker of the House. Others believed that was just a stepping stone to the White House. Max hid the sudden knot in his stomach. Bigger than he’d thought. Higher than he’d imagined.
Viper’s fingers trailed down Kat’s cheek. Max kept his eyes locked on hers. “Campbell has a serious mental illness.” Viper dabbed at the blood trailing down Kat’s cheek, then smeared it over the swell of her breasts, visible over her bra. Max ignored the gesture and held on tight to Kat’s gaze. “He’d just started his career. If word got out, his political aspirations would be ruined. He needed a little help.”
“So you arranged for Kat’s father to be killed? In exchange for a lifetime of blackmail opportunities.”
Diversion.
Control.
Viper chuckled. “I didn’t arrange it. Why would I arrange it? Dr. Jannsen was my first mark.” Kat shuddered. Max sent her a silent warning and watched her struggle to tamp down the rage burning in her eyes.
“Besides, it was better than blackmail, Max.” The use of his first name was a slur Max didn’t even bother to acknowledge. “Better than a genie, really. More like a lifetime of whatever I want. Whenever I want.”
“Then what’s the problem? No one knew. Kat certainly didn’t.”
“No.” More blood. More red streaks on Kat’s pale skin and he could no longer watch. “No, Kat didn’t know. But you, you would have found out. As long as you stayed away from her, you had no reason to look. You stayed away from her for a good long time. Kept her alive. Then. . .” he cupped Kat’s head back to look into her eyes, “then you went to Bluff River Falls.” He kept her face pointed toward the ceiling, but he sought out Max with his eyes again. “And you went after her. Followed her home before you went back to your dear, dying sister. She wasn’t there, of course, she’d driven off to the airport, but you’d made the connection.”
“How did you know she went to Bluff River Falls?”
Viper laughed, obviously tickled. “I’ve known all along, everywhere she went, all the nights she cried for you.” Kat’s eyes slid shut and she began to tremble. Viper traced her eyes, her nose and then her lips. “I always knew,” he whispered, one hundred percent Vic now. “You always wondered, didn’t you, love? How I managed to have dinner waiting, even when you didn’t call? That I’d popped the cork out of the champagne just as you walked through the door? You didn’t have Max, love, but you were never, never alone.” Vic brushed away a tear that squeezed out of the corner of her tightly-shut eye. “Too late for tears, darling. I wasn’t good enough, remember? You wanted Max, but I was the one who watched you bathe.”
Kat’s trembling was full-fledged shudders now, and Viper could think what he wanted, but Max knew she wasn’t crying. Not really. Her fingers were claws and if weren’t for the tape holding her arms and legs still, she’d tear him to pieces. Her chest surged in waves, as though each breath hurt. Little gasps ripped themselves from her throat, out into the room through her bruised mouth. Blood still trickled from the wound next to her eye. It should have stopped bleeding by now. Max remembered her weak, trembling legs. Legs that had sent her to the wall for support, just minutes ago. How deep was the wound next to her eye? Behind her head?
Hang on, baby! Push it away. Reaction is what he’s after. He had to change the subject, but there wasn’t a s
afe one. “How did you know about Lizzie?”
Viper scowled, eyes narrowing slightly. “You reported back to work after your leave at the university and wanted to quit, remember? Of course you didn’t tell me you’d fallen in love, but your head was so far in the clouds you couldn’t see the ground. You delivered your resignation, grinning like a fool and you wouldn’t even tell me her name.”
Max remembered. He hadn’t wanted Kat touched by the awful reality he lived. Viper had accepted his resignation and shortly after that, team members had started to die. Once Viper’d explained about the mole, Max hadn’t had a choice. He owed it to the men who’d died. He still did.
Viper patted Kat’s cheek, smug. “She wasn’t hard to find. I’ll admit it was rather disconcerting when I found out her name. You went away on assignment and she moped and cried. Then she started to show. Imagine you having an affair with the daughter of my very first kill.”
“Bastard!” Kat muttered. Her eyes were open again, cold and shimmering with pain from deep inside, but she was too pale. Each time she struggled it sapped more of her strength. Max didn’t doubt if she erupted, Viper would kill her. Her head tipped back and she sought out the eyes of the man who’d killed her father. Max wished he could melt the tape on her arms with his own fury. “You set her up. You let my mother rot in jail, all these years.”
Viper’s arrogant smile flashed again. “Yeah, I did. I set her up. But you’re the one who’s let her rot, Kat. You believed she was guilty. Your own mother.” He made a tsking sound and touched the tip of her nose. “You never followed up on the missing chocolates, did you? No one requested a drug test–for either you or your mother. Such a good mother she was, limiting the amount you ate.” He laughed. “She saved your life that night, you know. If she’d shared the chocolates equally you’d have died.”
Kat’s shoulders sagged. Max clenched his fists. If Viper wanted to taunt him, that was one thing. Kat had been through enough. He glanced back at his former boss to find him waiting for just that. Control. “It’s the only kill I can ever be prosecuted for, Ice. Can’t have that, can we?”
“So it was Kat you were after. Not me.”
“Not hardly, chap.” Vic’s accent flashed out momentarily. Viper’s cold fury vanquished it. “Do you have any idea what it was like? To grow up, watching you with your father? You had everything I didn’t. Everything I should have had. Christmas, holidays at the beach, the vacations. My father had another family. His real family. One gift for Christmas. No vacations–ever. Just my weak, worthless mother who still hangs on every word that bastard utters.”
Viper’s words resurrected a string of long-forgotten memories for Max. Like a photo album, the pictures from his teen and college years flipped by. Trent Sinclair, Viper was then, and as the memories sped by, now it was very clear what Max had never seen before. Envy was obvious in young Trent’s eyes as he sat on the steps of the ancient military boy’s school, waiting for his single mother, a political secretary, watching Max leave with his father. Envy had turned to anger over the years and young Max hadn’t paid enough attention. That envy culminated in the rage he saw now, flashing madly in Viper’s eyes. More puzzle pieces clicked into place.
“Campbell’s your father, isn’t he?”
Viper chuckled. “Still the brightest bulb in the bunch, Ice. A part of me is going to miss you. You know you’re the only one who really challenged me, don’t you?”
“What about them?” Max tilted his head back, toward the front door, where he could hear Crater talking to another member of the team. Whatever they’d been ordered to do was finished. Max didn’t have much time. But if he had his team members on his side. . .. “They’re in on this?”
“They know I’ve been after you for years. Ever since you killed Blade. But Blade wasn’t the mole, Ice.”
A surge of rage started low in Max’s belly, flaring to white-hot fireworks in his brain as he somehow sensed what was coming.
“You are.” Viper’s voice was low, as soft as the fingers he settled around Kat’s throat. Only that vision kept Max still. “So, yes. The unit’s in on it.”
“The pictures—the men he killed.” Max kept his voice low, too, but it came out cold and hard.
“Ah, yes, the pictures. Blade’s handiwork, while he tried to find the mole threatening the team he loved. The team he would, ultimately die for.”
“How could you?”
“How could you?” Viper mimicked. “His wife was pregnant , I believe you said in your report? A sweet, little thing. So scared. So angry Blade hadn’t quit before his job got him killed. Wonder how she’s survived all these years without him.” His hands slid down to cup Kat’s breasts and she flinched. Panic flared in her eyes as she again, instinctively and uselessly, fought the restraints holding her arms to the chair. Max took an involuntary step forward and Viper’s hands slid back up, once again framing her face.
Control. Max fought for it. Ice wouldn’t feel any of this. . .this fury, this desperate need to stop the taunting. Max couldn’t afford to feel it any more either.
Chapter Eighteen
You’re better. You never lose. Max let Ice harden inside him. It would be over soon. He didn’t need his rifle. Didn’t need anything but two point three seconds alone with Viper.
A knock sounded at the door, polite and apologetic.
“To the wall, if you don’t mind, Ice.”
He retreated obediently, although the space between Viper and himself actually didn’t change. He now had a clear view of the room and the front door if he chose to look. He didn’t.
Viper glanced at the door. “What?”
“Ready when you are, sir.”
“Watch the walls. I don’t know who he’s working with–we could still have company.” Viper commanded. “Have you heard from Cap?”
“No, sir.”
“Notify him I’m tired of waiting.”
Kat looked suddenly more alert. More worried. Max wondered why. Who was Cap? Most importantly, when would Viper move out from behind Kat’s chair?
“Yes, sir.”
Viper’s hands began to roam again. Kat’s eyes stared hard into Max’s, betraying her fear. Anger churned wild, deep inside him. He didn’t let it show, just kept his eyes on Kat. When the time came, he’d need her focused. Ready.
“Shall I tell you what I have planned? Or just show you?”
Max sent Kat a warning and looked up at Viper. “Tell me.”
“Once Cap gets back, I’ll start with my lovely bride.”
Max barely listened, but Viper had Kat’s attention as he pulled out a knife and began to cut away what was left of her black shirt. Her eyes moved restlessly, following the knife’s progress, darting to his.
“I’ll taste. I’ll sample. Then I’ll cut.” He laid the flat blade of the knife along her arm.
Max heard one quick inhale as the cold metal touched her arm. Kat jerked once, then held completely still. When Viper moved the knife to her throat, she still didn’t move, barely didn’t breathe. She did close her eyes, but not before Max had seen her fierce determination.
Viper wasn’t waiting for Cap. The tip of the blade nicked into her skin. Kat jumped and Max watched a new path of blood wander down her throat, this one on her left. The knife moved on. Another prick, her shoulder this time, then further down her arm.
Max wanted to roar. It took everything he had to stay still, listening to Ice’s calm, quiet orders.
Don’t take your mind from the objective. When he moves away from the chair. Not until he moves. Nothing he’s doing is life threatening. You can’t save her if you don’t watch him.
With half a dozen little rivulets of her blood slowly but resolutely carrying her life away, Kat opened her eyes again. Max nearly groaned. Ice was wrong. She’d lost too much blood already. Her eyes were clouded. She looked dazed. For a moment, it looked as though she struggled just to keep her head upright, then it lolled back to the chair.
Viper didn’t seem
to notice. Two more pricks appeared.
“That’s enough!” Max growled.
Viper smiled. “She’s fainted, Max. Cap’s on his way with your daughter. We can begin.”
Max waited, but Viper still didn’t move away from the chair. He tested Kat, pressing on her arm, her limp fingers, rolling her chin between his hands before he slapped her. Kat never made a sound. Max felt despair creep around him like a smothering cloak.
Move, you bastard!
Control.
Viper maintained his post. “Crater!”
The soldier opened the front door immediately.
Viper kept his eyes on Max. He set the knife across Kat’s breasts and once again framed her face with his hands. “Cut her loose and prepare a blanket for transport.”
