She wanted to ask, yet she definitely didn’t want to. But she didn’t have to.
“And in case you’re wondering, no, I haven’t fucked your sister. The buyer wanted a virgin, so I couldn’t touch her. Although with the way she lit up for me when we kissed and how she sucked my cock, I regret that.”
Kassie felt the bile move up her throat, but resolutely swallowed it down. She really, really hoped Blake was telling the truth and he was taking her to her sister. She’d do whatever it took to make sure she escaped this hell. She’d trade places with Karina if it came to that. Kassie wasn’t a virgin, but whatever…
“What are you going to do with us?” she asked meekly, trying to get as much information from Blake as she could to come up with some sort of plan. She knew she’d texted Fish, but at this point she had no idea what he could do. She wasn’t even in Austin anymore. She was on her own.
“Sell you,” Blake said without pause. “Richard made friends with some guys up there in his fancy prison. They know people who know people who buy and sell pussy. He decided he was done with you, and arranged with Dean to get rid of you once and for all.”
“Why drag Karina into all this?” Kassie asked, sick to her stomach.
“Why not?” he replied. “You love her, and Richard wanted you to suffer. It was easy enough for Dean to pay a guy to alter my records and get me new identification saying I was twenty. I didn’t think anyone would buy it, but apparently people are stupid and go along with whatever they’re told, even if it’s obviously a fuckin’ lie.”
“I’ll pay you whatever you want if you let us go,” Kassie said in desperation.
“I don’t want your money, cunt,” Blake said, the disdain clear in his voice. “I’m doing this for my brother. For Richard. For men everywhere who get fucked over by women.”
“I’m sorry your dad got fucked over by your mom,” Kassie said softly, trying to get on his good side…if he had one.
“Shut the fuck up!” he ordered. “You don’t know anything about what I went through or about my mother. She’s a cunt. Just like you. Just like your sister. Just like your fucking mother. Weak. All women are weak. This world would be a better place if we could keep all women locked up. Their only purpose to breed. The boys would be taken away and raised to become strong men. The girls only kept alive if they were pretty and could be used to birth more boys.”
Kassie huddled against the door in shock. How in the hell had everyone missed the fact that Blake was absolutely insane?
“Fucking women. Good for one thing and one thing only,” Blake said under his breath.
Kassie didn’t ask him anything else after that. She sat in the seat, her head resting on the window, watching the Texas countryside go by. She thought about Hollywood, and how he’d probably woken up wondering where she was. She hadn’t even left him a note. He had to be worried by now.
Actually, he was probably out of his mind. Fish had to have contacted him about the text she’d sent. They were both trying to figure out where she was. Kassie had no idea if the rest of the team was still down at the refuge trying to deal with Dean and whatever he had planned for them.
Allowing herself a moment of self-pity, Kassie didn’t even bother to wipe away the tear that fell out of her eye. But as soon as it escaped, she scrunched her eyes shut as hard as she could, forcing the rest back. She couldn’t give in to despair. By the time the day was up, she’d either be the new fuck toy of a man south of the border or she’d be dead. But whatever happened, she would not sit back and merely take it.
A month ago, she might’ve. But Hollywood had changed all that. And learning about what Rayne, Emily, and Harley had been through. They hadn’t sat back and given up. No, they’d fought like hell. She might’ve let Richard and Dean mess with her for most of her life, but that was done.
Once she’d gotten control over her emotions, Kassie began to plot, thinking through different scenarios and what she could do to rescue her sister. She hadn’t seen anyone else with Blake as of yet, and if it was only him, then maybe she and Karina had a chance. Two against one was always a good thing, wasn’t it? Even if Blake was bat-shit crazy, they might be able to overpower him.
As they continued south, Kassie prayed that Dean was busy over in Galveston. That Blake didn’t have any other half-brothers out there in the world that he’d roped into this insane scheme. And that whoever was planning on buying her and her sister wouldn’t be showing up until later. When they were hopefully long gone.
She closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep as Blake continued to mutter about useless women, and she thought about Hollywood. What would he do in a situation like this? He’d wait until the perfect moment, then he’d make his move. So that’s exactly what she would do too.
Chapter 19
“Beth, it’s Hollywood. Any updates on the coordinates?”
“No. They’re the same as they were thirty minutes ago,” she told him. “You guys there?”
“Just landed. We’re a couple miles away, should be there in ten minutes or less,” he told her.
“Be careful,” Beth cautioned.
“Always,” Hollywood returned, then clicked off the phone.
He turned to his team. As it turned out, Ghost and the guys were close to Austin. They were in Austin, as a matter of fact. They’d driven up from the refuge and gotten a hotel room before heading home. Even though it was only another hour drive, something had made them all agree to stop there for the night and go home Sunday, showered and refreshed, rather than pushing through.
Thank God they had.
Even their commander was in Austin, and he’d quickly taken over and received permission for the chopper, which had been on standby at the refuge, to fly to Austin, pick up the team, and head to Laredo.
The way the commander had explained it to his superior officer was that it was an extension of the exercise. Because it was the Delta Force team, not many questions were asked, and they’d been able to meet at the airport and head south within an hour.
Coach had been in communication off and on with Beth, reporting back to the team what she’d learned about Blake Watson.
Turned out Dean was his half-brother. Unfortunately for them, their mother had an extreme mental illness and had committed suicide several years ago. It looked like both her sons had inherited that mental instability.
Blake was twenty-nine, close to Dean’s age, and had grown up in a small town down near Laredo. He’d been in trouble with the law since he was in his teens. He’d dropped out of high school, but he’d done it when he was fifteen. Dean had tracked him down and they’d apparently gotten close, with Blake going all-in on Dean and Richard’s schemes.
Beth seemed to think Blake was a loner and most likely was working by himself, but she wasn’t sure.
So now the team, Ghost, Fletch, Coach, Beatle, Blade, Truck, and Hollywood, were making their way through the desert toward where both Kassie and Karina’s phones were pinging. They hadn’t been turned off nor destroyed. Blake either didn’t know enough about electronics to realize he was broadcasting his location to anyone who knew how to look for it, or he was setting them up.
Regardless, the team had to check it out. If the sisters weren’t there, they could hopefully get their hands on Blake and make him confess what he’d done with them. The thought that Kassie might be dead was something Hollywood refused to consider. He couldn’t if he was going to still function.
No, she was fine. Maybe hurt, probably scared, but he could work with those. He couldn’t fix her if she was dead.
The team prowled silently through the hot morning desert, communicating through a series of clicks in their headphones, and hand gestures when they were close enough to see each other.
In ten minutes they gathered to discuss their approach of the small shack, which Beth had described from looking at satellite photos.
Kneeling down in the sand and dirt behind scrubby trees and tumbleweeds, they planned.
“Ghost, you and Blade g
o around this way,” Hollywood ordered, drawing a picture in the sand as he spoke. “Fletch, you and Beatle approach from the other direction. Coach, you go around to the back and cover any exits that way. Truck and I will move in from the front. We’ll listen to make sure no one else is there but the women and Watson. Beatle and Fletch, one of you guys throw a flash-bang in through the window on the side. It’ll fuck with all of them, but it’ll give me and Truck time to get in through the front door and take Watson down. Questions?”
The men all shook their heads. They’d done this often enough that Hollywood really didn’t even need to spell it out for them. They knew what they were doing. But they also knew their teammate needed to feel in control in this out-of-control situation. No one suggested he take watch on the back of the cabin. No one tried to convince him he’d be better off letting someone else take point. It was his woman in danger, and he’d be the one to face that danger head-on.
The men fanned out, ever alert for anything that would change the dynamics of the plan and make them switch to plan B, C, or D. One way or another, this would be done in minutes. They could then figure out if they had to sneak into Mexico to rescue Kassie and Karina from the sex-slave trade or if they could head home, with both women safe.
* * *
After traveling what seemed like forever, Blake stopped the car along the side of some road and forced her out. They walked across the dry and dusty landscape for quite a while until they reached a hut. Without a word, he opened the door and shoved her inside.
Kassie landed on her knees right next to her sister. Without waiting for permission, she ripped off the blindfold and started working on freeing Karina’s hands. Through it all, Blake stood with his back against the door, grinning at them.
“Aw…how cute. The sisters are reunited.”
Ignoring him, Kassie hugged Karina hard, then pulled back and asked, “Are you okay?”
The younger woman nodded, but looked a little shell-shocked.
Kassie turned to Blake. “Do you have any water? She needs to drink something.”
“Why in the fuck would I waste any water I do have on either of you?” he sneered.
“Because you don’t want to deliver us to whoever is coming half dead on our feet. You think someone wants to carry us out of here?”
“They wouldn’t carry either of you, sweetheart,” Blake told them. “They’d drag your asses instead.”
Kassie heard the small whimper come from Karina’s lips, and she turned to her sister. She gave her a fierce look. “Ignore him. He’s nothing. Understand? We got this.”
“What do you mean I’m nothing?” Blake asked, pushing off the door and stalking toward them.
Kassie pushed Karina behind her and held her arms out as if she could prevent the pissed-off man stomping toward them from getting behind her.
“I just meant that we have bigger things to worry about than water.” She tried to placate Blake. But he wasn’t having it.
Kassie saw it coming, but stood her ground, knowing if she ducked, her sister would be vulnerable. The back of Blake’s hand hit her cheek and Kassie almost fell over. She caught herself with a hand on the floor. She kept her head down, but resumed her place in front of Karina. Blake could hit her all he wanted, she wasn’t moving. It was obvious from the bruises already forming on Karina’s face that he’d hit her, but he wouldn’t do it again if she could prevent it.
When he bunched his hand into a fist and drew it back, Kassie whirled around and grabbed Karina. She tackled her to the ground and they huddled together on the floor.
Kassie waited for the blow to fall, but apparently her sudden movement surprised him enough that he pulled his punch. Instead he kicked her. Hard. Kassie grunted with the force of his foot on her back. It hurt. A lot. But she didn’t move. She curled farther over her sister, who cooperated by tucking herself into as small a ball as she could and huddling in her arms.
As Blake worked himself into a frenzy above them and took great delight in kicking Kassie everywhere he could reach, Kassie whispered into Karina’s ear.
“There’s a window above us.” She grunted with the pain of Blake’s foot hitting her thigh. “I’m going to distract him. There’s a—” She cried out as his foot landed on her ass. “A board right behind you. Use it to break the window and dive out. It’s gonna hurt, but,” she barely held back the whimper that tried to force its way up her throat when Blake cackled as if he was about to do something really horrific, but pushed on without looking back at her tormentor, “it doesn’t matter. Get out and run, Karina. Don’t s-stop no matter what you hear. Understand?”
Kassie felt her nod under her at the same time Blake reached down and wrenched her away from her sister. His arm went around her throat and he yanked her upward.
Kassie fought with everything she had. She had to keep him busy while Karina broke the window and escaped.
“Now, Kar! Now!” Kassie yelled as she reached back and grabbed ahold of Blake’s penis. She squeezed as hard as she could, thrilled when he screamed a high-pitched, painful sound that actually hurt her ears.
Kassie heard the sound of glass breaking and twisted her hand, wishing she had the strength to rip Blake’s dick right off. He let go of her neck and Kassie breathed a sigh of relief, but it immediately turned to a scream when he punched her as hard as he could.
The blow landed on the side of her head and Kassie went flying. Knowing she couldn’t lose consciousness now, she sprang upward and in the direction she thought Blake was. She couldn’t see with blood dripping in one of her eyes and black spots in front of the other, but she managed to grab hold of his arm.
“What are you doing, bitch? No, get back here!”
Blake lunged in the direction of Karina and the window, and Kassie used all her strength to punch him in the side, right over where she hoped his kidney was. It worked, sort of. Blake doubled over in pain, but didn’t go down.
Kassie looked up and saw her sister’s legs kicking in the air as she tried to get leverage to lift herself the rest of the way up and out the window. Throwing herself toward Karina, Kassie grabbed her legs and shoved.
She heard a roar from Blake and gave her sister one last thrust when she felt a pain like she never had before in her back. She screamed and threw herself sideways to try to get away from whatever it was. But Blake followed her down. She felt another horrific, sharp pain in her upper back and immediately gasped for air. It felt like she was suffocating.
“She’ll never get away,” Blake said above her. “You’ve only postponed the inevitable. She’s still gonna get sold, but now I’m gonna go get her and fuck her in every hole right in front of you before the buyer gets here. And you did that to her, cunt. I was gonna let her go with her buyer nice and easy like, but because of your interference, she’s gonna wish she was dead before he gets his hands on her and really makes her life hell.”
Kassie couldn’t get any air in her lungs, and whatever Blake had hurt her with was excruciating, but she couldn’t give up. Couldn’t let him get his hands on her baby sister.
With the last bit of strength she had, which Kassie knew came from adrenaline and not from anywhere else, she screamed once more and threw herself up toward Blake, twisting her body to face him as she moved. She saw his smirking face above hers for a second and she aimed right for it.
Just as she was thrusting her index finger toward his eye, an explosion rang through the small hut.
* * *
Hollywood made his way toward the hut as fast as he dared. He could hear voices from inside, but not what they were saying. He glanced over at Truck who nodded and held two fingers up then pointed to the right and left.
Hollywood nodded. It was almost time.
He knew he needed to wait for his team to be ready, but everything in him wanted to rush the hut.
Truck put a hand on his arm. “Ten seconds and they’ll be in place and ready to go,” he told him urgently.
Coach’s voice came over the hea
dset as he said, “Someone’s coming out the back window. It’s the sister.”
Hollywood held his breath as time literally seemed to stand still. He saw the ramshackle hut as if he was standing at one end of a really long tunnel and the building was at the other. All his focus was centered on the front door, his entire being straining toward it.
“She’s out,” Coach informed them. “Fuck, she’s running.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Hollywood saw a small figure running full out away from the cabin. He saw Coach quickly catch up to her and take her to the ground, making sure he took the brunt of the fall.
“We need to get in there,” Hollywood told his team through the headset.
“Karina’s good,” Coach informed them. “Banged up, but otherwise good.”
Hollywood was relieved, but it didn’t lessen his anxiety one iota.
Neither did the loud, terrified, pissed-off scream from Kassie that came from inside.
“Now!” Ghost ordered, and almost simultaneously, the flash-bang grenade went off inside the shack. It had been thrown into the building from the window on one side of the hut.
Hollywood was moving even as Ghost ordered the grenade to be thrown. Used to the noise and light from the devices meant to incapacitate rather than kill or maim, he kicked the flimsy door open and stepped inside.
Blake was on the ground, one hand over his face and the other covering one of his ears. Even as Hollywood watched, he dropped the hand by his ear and reached for the knife he’d obviously dropped when the grenade went off.
Hollywood pulled the trigger on his weapon at the same time Truck did. Both bullets hit their intended marks. Truck’s went into Blake’s hand, forcing him to drop the knife once again, and Hollywood’s into his temple.
Not caring that he’d just killed another human being, or that he’d purposely been aiming to kill, Hollywood holstered his weapon and went straight to Kassie, who lay unmoving on the ground. He went to gather her into his arms, but Truck stopped him with a firm hand.
Rescuing Kassie: Delta Force Heroes, Book 5 Page 23
