Whatever It Takes

by Dixie Lee Brown

  Alex gasped, and her gaze flew to the man who still hung back by the door. Nate turned slowly and followed her gaze.

  Daniels laughed. “It turns out I can supply him with something he wants very badly—­drugs to continue his . . . um . . . research. He was very anxious to see you again. You remember Hu Sun, don’t you?”

  Alex’s heart dropped like a stone as the man stepped into the light. Lifeless gray eyes surveyed her from head to toe, and a shudder of revulsion crawled along her skin. She’d heard the story of his Asian mother and American father at least a dozen times during her captivity. He’d be wasted on opium and rant about how he’d been ostracized because of it. As a result, Hu Sun had strived to fit in the only place he could—­in the seamy underside of Hong Kong. What was he doing in Portland, Oregon?

  “I’ve missed you, Alexandria. I put a lot of work into you, and you disappeared without a trace.” An arrogant smirk twisted his lips, just like in her nightmares. “I’d love to take you home and get reacquainted. Unfortunately, these gentlemen have a different agenda, and, sadly, your next job will be your last.”

  “You son of a bitch!” Nate roared, slammed his shoulder into the man beside him, and lunged toward Hu Sun. He swung a powerful fist into the smaller man’s chin that sent him lurching backward. Hu Sun tripped and rolled, coming back to his feet in a fighting stance that Alex was far too familiar with. Nate moved in, rage apparently overcoming caution.

  “Nate, look out!” Alex’s cry of warning went unheeded as one of Daniels’s muscle-­bound gorillas struck the butt of his gun into Nate’s head, and he collapsed.

  Alex wanted to scream and rush to him, but her legs gave out, and she crashed to her knees. The horror of Hu Sun, past and present, constricted her throat. For three long years, she’d hoped to come face to face with this man. She’d dreamed of what she would do to him, but she’d been caught off guard. She wasn’t ready. Fear was a living thing, so powerful she couldn’t see or hear anyone but Hu Sun, and, once again, she waited for him to tell her what he wanted her to do.

  Chapter 21

  NATE GRITTED HIS teeth against the pounding in his skull. A dull ache spread outward from the gash in his forehead. In fact, he hurt everywhere from the beating he’d taken.

  Daniels and his goons had ambushed him on his way home from the precinct as he opened the gate to his property. Fuck! He should have been paying more attention, but the only thing on his mind had been getting home to Alex. Instead, he’d led them right to her, unaware that one of them was her worst enemy—­Hu Sun. The fear in her eyes when she recognized that bastard would haunt Nate forever—­but forever would be a fairly short time unless he figured out a way to get them out of this.

  He drew in a deep breath and released it slowly in an effort to keep his rage in check. Forcing himself to remain still, he listened. Men conversed in low voices from the vicinity of the table. A chair scraped across the floor. The sound that he wanted to hear eluded him. Where was Alex?

  He was still at his uncle’s house. Seated, his forearms and legs were secured to one of the wooden kitchen chairs. Gradually, he raised his head and opened his eyes.

  Alex sat in another chair six feet away, facing him, her wrists bound to the arms. She stared at him, but if she realized he was awake, she gave no indication. He got the distinct impression she wasn’t completely there. The fear was gone, her eyes lifeless. No emotion played across her face.

  “Alex.” He whispered her name and received the slightest twitch in response. Was she hurt? He swept his gaze over her, but saw no obvious wounds.

  Suddenly, his breath left him in a rush. An empty syringe lay on the table behind her.

  What the hell had they given her? His heart pounded and he yanked futilely on his bonds. “Stay with me, Alex. Don’t let him win.”

  Alex’s gaze fixed on him with a heartbeat of recognition and then it was gone.

  “Oh good. Our hero is awake.” Hu Sun strolled over, raised Alex’s eyelids, and peered within. “Looks like our girl is ready too. Are you sure they both have to die, Daniels? She’s the best assistant I’ve ever had.”

  Daniels laughed. “Assistant? That’s an odd title for someone who killed for you. In any case, the assortment of drugs I’m delivering to you, at your request, will make you forget all about her.”

  “Yes. I’ll be able to expand my research . . . and that will keep me occupied for quite some time.” Hu Sun laughed and turned away.

  Alex flinched. Nate watched for any other signs that she was in there, but she focused on a spot over his head, and it was like she wasn’t even in the room.

  “Daniels, how is this going to get back whatever it is you think Uncle Leo took?” Nate was positive he wouldn’t be able to talk Daniels out of the plan he’d hatched with Hu Sun, but maybe he could buy them some time—­for what, he wasn’t sure. If he could keep talking, maybe he’d be able to reach Alex in whatever place she’d retreated.

  “If I can’t have it, I’ll be happy if nobody else finds it either. Your uncle liked to play poker. We had a regular table at one of the clubs downtown. One of our game nights, Leo stumbled on a notebook I’d misplaced. When he realized what he had, he decided that he suddenly knew too much, and the notebook put him in a dangerous position.”

  “And what did he have, exactly?”

  “Names, dates, events—­stuff like that. Ironically, I was keeping the notebook as insurance that certain other parties wouldn’t go after me or my family. Leo thought the only way he’d be safe was to hold the damn thing over my head. I humored him while he was alive. We had a gentlemen’s agreement of sorts. But now he’s dead. Certain business associates of mine are pressuring me to locate the item. They don’t want Leo’s cop nephew getting his hands on the book. You see my problem?”

  “I couldn’t care less what’s in your little book, Daniels. Anyway, I told you it’s not here.”

  “It has to be here, but once I burn the place down it won’t matter.” Daniels glanced toward his goons and smirked.

  Nate wrenched on his bindings. “You bastard!”

  Something flashed in Alex’s eyes, but then her gaze drifted away from his again.

  “Don’t worry. You’ll both be dead before the place goes up. It has to be murder/suicide to make everything look right. Thanks to Hu Sun here, I’ve got the perfect answer. Your girlfriend is going to kill you, but first she’s going to kill herself.” Daniels tipped back his head and laughed.

  What the hell was he talking about? Kill herself first?

  Nate tensed as Hu Sun strolled toward Alex with her dagger in his hand, and sliced through the ropes securing her.

  “It’s not personal, Detective. She won’t know she’s pulling the trigger, and she won’t remember. Have you heard of scopolamine?”

  “It’s a date-­rape drug.” Nate concentrated on Alex, willing her to look at him.

  “You Americans have such one-­track minds. Scopolamine has been used for years in China for its mind-­control characteristics. Alexandria was one of my most successful experiments.”

  “If your experiments were so successful, how did she get away?” Keep him talking. That’s all Nate had left.

  “Without the subject of the experiment at hand, it was impossible to know. A bad batch . . . the dose too low . . . inaccurate measurements . . . it could’ve been anything.” Hu Sun touched her shoulder possessively. “I guess I’ll never know.”

  “You make me sick,” Nate growled.

  “Enough! Let’s finish this.” Daniels barged in between them and leveled his weapon at Nate’s head. His two bodyguards milled around near the back door, obviously unnerved by the scene playing out before them.

  “Alex, fight the drug, darlin’. You’re stronger than he is. He can’t control you anymore.” Nate whispered the words and was rewarded with a direct glance before she focused on Hu Sun.

&n
bsp; “Don’t waste your time, Detective. The only voice she hears is mine.” Hu Sun reached for her hand and pulled her to her feet. “Alexandria, we have work to do. See the weapon that Mr. Daniels is holding? You’re going to take that gun and shoot Detective Sanders.”

  A tremor coursed through her, and she lifted her hand to her forehead. Then her gaze shifted to the weapon, and she took a step forward.

  Hu Sun caught her arm to stop her and spoke close to her ear. “I need you to do something for me first, to prove where your loyalties lie.” He opened her hand and laid the dagger on her palm. “I want you to slit your wrists.”

  “No! Alex, don’t! Look at me, Alex. Don’t listen to him. He doesn’t care about you. I do. Alex, please . . . Fuck!” Nate watched in horror as she positioned the tip of the dagger on her left wrist and drew it slowly upward in a vertical cut. She didn’t flinch or hesitate when blood spewed out, but moved the blade to her left hand and awkwardly sliced her right wrist.

  Watching her cut herself was like having all the skin torn off his body. She was his life, and all he could do was strain against his bonds, horrified at the blood pulsing from her wounds in time with her heartbeats. He’d never been so helpless before, and rage boiled in his veins to the point where he surely would explode. Alex was bleeding to death right in front of him, and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do.

  Hu Sun nodded. “Good girl, Alexandria. Now, you may take the gun and kill the detective.”

  Alex strode toward Daniels and stopped directly in front of Nate. Their eyes met.

  For a split second, consciousness flickered somewhere deep inside, but it disappeared just as quickly. “I love you, Alex. Don’t forget.” In that moment, he was glad she wouldn’t remember—­that she’d never suffer a moment of regret because of him.

  His gaze swept her face, then suddenly darted back to lock on her eyes. Shit! He must be seeing things now. He could have sworn she winked at him.

  Obviously deep in her drug-­induced trance, she thrust her dagger into its scabbard and accepted the weapon Daniels held out to her. As though following some kind of preset routine, she yanked the clip out and checked the ammo. One bullet. Did she let him see it on purpose?

  She slammed the clip home and maneuvered the slide to inject the lone shell into the chamber. That sound—­the one Nate lived with every day—­had never seemed quite so loud. The hair was standing up on Nate’s neck, and whether by experience, instinct, or premonition, he was now watching her every move.

  Alex stepped between Daniels and the arm of Nate’s chair, turning her back on the slimy hood. With barely a movement, the dagger appeared in her hand, and she sliced through the bindings holding Nate’s right hand. In a blur of motion, she whirled to face Daniels, whose only warning was the knife coming toward him in a swift arc. Off balance, he backed away, but not fast enough. She slammed the blade home in his sternum, then jerked it free as he started to fall. Before he hit the floor, she handed the gun off to Nate, swapped the dagger into her right hand, and advanced toward Hu Sun.

  The two musclemen at the door hesitated, obviously taken by surprise, but they soon recovered, drew their weapons, and stalked toward Alex. Bad choice. Nate took his one shot, hitting the man in front in the middle of his forehead and alarming his cohort enough to instill a bit more caution. He hit the floor and started crawling.

  Great. Nate was out of bullets and a very big bad guy was getting ready to throw lead his way . . . and he was still tied to a chair by two legs and an arm. He smirked. Hell, yeah. He was a damn sight better off than he was two minutes ago.

  Nate rocked his chair until it tipped over on top of Daniels’s body. Rummaging under the man’s jacket, he jammed his fingers against cold steel and pulled out a .357 Magnum.

  All right! Now we’re talkin’.

  From the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of Hu Sun as he pulled a gun from under his coat, holding it alongside his leg. “Alexandria, you were always my best student. I knew Daniels couldn’t fool you.”

  “What are you talking about?” Uncertainty rang in her voice.

  “He threatened to kill me if I didn’t help him, but you saw through his lies. Now we can be together again.” Hu Sun spoke in a strangely rhythmic cadence while keeping constant eye contact with Alex.

  She trembled violently, stumbled backward a step, and pressed her fingers to her forehead. An anguished moan escaped her as the hand clutching the dagger dropped to her side. “My family—­where are they?”

  “I wondered when you would ask. Come with me, Alexandria, and I’ll take you to them.” Hu Sun held out his free hand.

  Alex teetered on the soles of her feet, whether from the offer or the blood loss, Nate wasn’t sure. “I don’t buy it, Hu Sun. After all the years you held her captive and never once offered to return Alex to her family, why are you suddenly willing to take her home now?”

  Hu Sun’s gaze slowly drifted to him, then swept back to Alex as though Nate were a mere annoyance. “We mustn’t forget Detective Sanders. You have one more mission to complete to make up for the one you walked away from the last time we were together.”

  “You finished the only mission that mattered, Alex. You set Marco free. Remember?” Nate wished she would turn and look at him.

  Alex straightened and faced her enemy, strength in her stance and the tilt of her chin. “You’re wasting your breath, Hu Sun. You don’t control me anymore. I’m not that scared little girl you stole. I’m all grown up. I can take care of myself, and I’m taking my life back.”

  Hu Sun laughed derisively, “Only one thing wrong with that. If you don’t finish your mission, I’ll have to finish it for you.” He leveled his weapon at Nate.

  Hu Sun should have known better. Before Nate could even raise the .357 Magnum, Alex brought her dagger up, flipped the blade over in her hand, and flung it, leaving a very surprised Hu Sun to grab for the hilt that suddenly protruded from his throat.

  “Go to hell, Hu Sun,” Alex said as he collapsed to his knees.

  At that moment, the remaining bodyguard jumped from cover, firing several shots at Alex. She ducked and stumbled toward the door leading to the laundry room and disappeared.

  Nate opened fire, red-­hot hatred in his blood. After the man went down, three bullets in his chest, Nate still clutched the gun, his finger curled around the trigger, until the utter silence finally reminded him he wasn’t alone.

  “Alex? Alex?” He scooted his chair toward the counter where the knives sat, hauled himself off the floor to grab one, and made short work of the rest of his bindings. Then he followed her into the laundry room, sliding to a stop on his knees in the blood that surrounded her.

  He rolled her over, and she gave him a weak smile. “How’d I do, Detective?”

  “You were amazing, darlin’, except for the part where you cut your own wrists.” He retrieved a kitchen towel, ripped it into strips, and tied a tourniquet above each wrist.

  She sighed as though bone weary. “I wasn’t thrilled about that part either, but they’d never have given me the gun if I hadn’t. I had to make them think I was under the influence of the drug.”

  “Why weren’t you?”

  “It was the same drug I’d grown immune to—­the one I was on when I was able to escape. I guess I’m still immune. Or maybe your influence is stronger.” The breath of a smile brought some color to her chalky white face.

  That was a conversation he intended to continue later, after she was safe, comfortable, and definitely not under the influence of anything . . . but him. “You really are certifiably crazy, aren’t you?” He brushed the hair back from her face.

  She wrinkled her nose. “Told you.”

  He hefted her limp form into his arms. She was listless and cold—­losing too much blood. They were at least forty-­five minutes from a hospital. He’d call for an ambulance in the car and hope it w
ould meet them halfway.

  “Do you still have the car keys?” The Mustang would get them there faster.

  “My pocket.” She was drifting in and out.

  He held her tighter and raced to the garage. The keys were in her front pants pocket where she said they’d be, and the car roared to life. She was on the edge of consciousness, so it startled him when she suddenly gripped his arm with determined strength.

  “Do you . . . hear that?” Alex craned to look out the window as he backed from the garage.

  “What?” Dread filled his stomach. Was she hearing angels singing or something?

  “It’s a . . . chopper. Hear it?”

  Nate couldn’t hear anything except his heart beating in his ears, but to satisfy her, he slowed the car and rolled the window down. At first, he heard nothing, but a moment later, the sound reached his ears, and he tried to determine where it was coming from. He skidded to a stop, jumped out, and scanned the sky. When he spotted the Huey, it was the most beautiful sight he’d ever seen.

  He scrambled back in the seat, turned the car around, and raced for the field behind the house. “Stay with me, Alex. You hang in there. I need you, damn it.” Her eyes were closed, but Nate squeezed her hand. “I’m right here. Don’t leave me, Alex.”

  She twisted to look at him, her eyes clouded with pain. “Not going anywhere . . . without you. I’m staying.”

  “Yes, you are. You hear me?” She wasn’t going to die. He wouldn’t let her. She’d finally found her reason for living. What kind of God would take her now?

  The chopper landed in the field, and when the Mustang came careening toward them, lights flashing and horn honking, it couldn’t have been a big leap for them to recognize something was wrong.

  Jim and Walker sprinted toward them. Nate lifted Alex out of the car and raced across the field. He didn’t need to say a word. The sheer volume of blood covering Alex said it all. If Jim, or anyone else, wanted to kick the crap out of him for his role in nearly getting her killed . . . he’d take his punishment like a man. He’d have to tell them how he’d failed to keep her safe, and he wasn’t looking forward to that, but with the chopper, they’d get her to a hospital in time.