by Maya Banks
“They’re coming at us on our own turf. They’re mounting a major assault. They’ve already breached the perimeter and are just past outlying security and moving fast. I’ve already alerted the others but you need to get Ari to the safe room. Caleb is bringing Ramie there now.”
“Fuck!”
After securing all his weapons and adding some perfectly illegal C4 to one of the pouches on his fatigues in easy reach, he ran to the bed, not even bothering to wake Ari up or even try to explain the situation. Time was of the essence and his first priority was to ensure her safety.
He hauled her up more roughly than he’d like and Zack preceded him from the room, providing cover, though by all accounts, the intruders were still at least four minutes out. Four very precious minutes in which they had to stash the women and decide the best course of defense.
“Beau?” Ari asked in a sleepy puzzled voice.
“Shhh, honey. I don’t have time to explain. Just trust me.”
To her credit she went utterly still, though he could see the instant fright in her eyes. She closed her mouth, though he knew it had to be hard for her to just blindly accept his dictate without having at least a hint of what was happening.
He hit the hallway at a full run, covering the distance to the safe room in record time, even bearing Ari’s slight weight. Zack got there first, punched in the security code so the door swooshed open just as Beau arrived and rushed through the door.
Ramie was already there, huddled in one of the chairs, looking utterly terrified, eyes wide, all color leached from her face. But when she saw Ari, she seemed relieved not to be alone any longer.
Beau deposited Ari into the chair next to Ramie and then swiftly went to the gun cabinet housed inside the safe room. He grabbed four handguns and two extra clips for each, in addition to the clips already loaded in the pistols.
He thrust two in Ramie’s direction, ensuring she had a firm grip before he relinquished his. Then he did the same with Ari. A bewildered look crossed her face as she stared at the gun as though it were a completely alien object.
He cursed under his breath. She’d obviously never so much as touched a gun, which surprised him given her father’s overzealousness when it came to personal protection. He’d assumed when she’d so calmly taken the gun from Brent that very first day and climbed out of the wrecked vehicle and then later tossed it to him that she had knowledge of weapons. Now he realized she’d just acted on instinct, her driving force to protect others.
“Listen to me, Ari,” Beau said in a tone that brooked no interruption. “This is a Glock. It doesn’t have a safety so be damn careful about where you point it and keep your finger off the trigger unless you intend to shoot. If anyone and I mean anyone but one of us manages to gain access to this room, you just point and shoot and you keep shooting until you take the fucker out. Understand?”
He turned to Ramie to ensure she’d heard his curt instruction. She nodded her acknowledgment.
“Let’s go,” Beau barked at Zack. “Give me the rundown on where the others are and what positions they’ve taken and if we have any backup that will arrive in time to do us any good.”
TWENTY-EIGHT
“WHAT’S happening, Ramie?” Ari asked.
Terror had its unyielding grip around her neck, nearly choking her. She could barely draw breath and had to concentrate on every single inhale and exhale so she didn’t do something really stupid like faint.
“I don’t know,” Ramie said faintly, her eyes reflecting the same terror Ari felt. “We’re under attack. Caleb didn’t say more. There wasn’t time. He dumped me here and ran.”
“How safe are we here?” Ari asked fearfully.
“I don’t know all of the logistics,” Ramie admitted. “I do know it would take a bigger than normal dose of explosives to penetrate the door. The walls are triple-layered, reinforced steel, the middle being bulletproof and blastproof. But it’s never been tested. I always thought it overly paranoid for them to have a room like this, but right now I’m pretty damn grateful for it.”
Ari nodded her fervent agreement. And then voiced her other paralyzing fear.
“What about . . . them . . . though?” she asked in a shaky voice. “How do we know what’s happening? What if something happens to them? Why would they lock me in here when I could be of great use to them?”
Ramie looked down at the guns, her hands trembling, and she repositioned her finger so it was nowhere near the trigger. “Beau would never put you in the line of fire. It doesn’t matter what you can or can’t do. They’re trained for this. You aren’t. You would be a distraction, because Beau—all of them—would be more worried about you than protecting themselves and taking out any potential threat.”
“God, I hate just sitting here. Completely helpless,” Ari said fiercely.
“I know,” Ramie agreed in a low, trembling voice. “I’m scared too, Ari. I’m petrified. I don’t want to lose Caleb.”
Pain slashed wickedly through Ari’s chest and she was momentarily incapable of breathing. “They can’t die,” she said fiercely, when she regained the ability to speak. “They can’t. They won’t. They have to come back to us. They will come back to us. We can’t allow ourselves to entertain any other possibility.”
Silence fell between the two women as they both sat in contemplation, each tortured by their thoughts as they imagined everything that could go wrong.
Ari watched the digital clock on the wall, each minute changing seemingly in hours, not sixty seconds. The time dragged into eternity until Ari was on the verge of going mad with worry, fear and uncertainty. What was going on out there? Was Beau lying out there injured? Unable to protect himself?
She closed her eyes, biting hard into her lip, the next logical step in her stairway to doom hovering on the fringes of her mind.
Was he even alive?
Oh God, she couldn’t do this. She couldn’t simply sit still. The silence, the walls that seemed to close in around her, making the room smaller and smaller until she felt as though she’d suffocate. She was going to go crazy.
She carefully laid the guns aside and then dug her palms into her eyes, pressing inward, rocking back and forth as a vile ache began in her head.
“Ari, are you okay?” Ramie asked anxiously, breaking the silence for the first time in what seemed like hours.
Ari glanced at the clock to see, that in actuality, fifty-three minutes had elapsed. A lifetime. That had to be bad, right? If they’d gone out, kicked ass and eliminated the bad guys, they should be back by now, shouldn’t they?
Bullets were fast and efficient.
The room shook curiously and for a moment, Ari thought it was just her reaction to the claustrophobic sensation that was becoming more prevalent by the minute. Ramie must have felt it too, because her gaze immediately flew to the door and Ari’s breath caught.
Were they back? Were they coming in? Or was someone who shouldn’t be trying to gain access to the door? Maybe the room vibrated when an incorrect code has been entered. If an explosive had been attempted, they would have certainly felt more than the subtle vibration they felt.
“What was that?” Ari whispered.
“I don’t know,” Ramie whispered back. “Do you still hear it? I don’t.”
Ari strained her ears, wondering if they’d both imagined it, but surely they wouldn’t have both had the same delusion.
And suddenly a deafening explosion sounded, a light flashing that was so blinding that Ari was rendered just that. Blind. The force of the explosion hurled her across the room and she hit the wall with a resounding thud before sliding slowly down to a sagging, sitting position on the floor, only remaining upright because the wall was propping her up.
She couldn’t see or hear a damn thing. Her mind was in utter chaos and it had nothing to do with her powers, not that she could focus enough to use them, nor would she know how to direct them at an unseen attacker when she was utterly blinded. What the hell had just happened an
d how?
The door hadn’t opened. She and Ramie had both been staring at it when the explosion occurred.
Rough hands hauled her up, and she knew instantly that this was not Beau. Nor was it someone who was in any way protecting her. Fear and adrenaline jolted through her body, giving her a much-needed boost to ward off the effects of the stunning explosive.
Ramie cried out, a shrill sound of fear.
“Ramie!” Ari shouted. “Are you all right?”
A hand clamped over her mouth and a rough voice whispered next to her ear. “Shut up and keep quiet and listen up or your friend will suffer a very unpleasant death.”
Ari went completely still, terror forming ice in her veins. If the intruders had somehow gained access to the safe room, it meant they’d gone through the DSS operatives. No way, if Beau was alive, would he fail to protect her. Tears burned her eyelids and trailed down her cheeks, colliding with the hand still clamped over her mouth.
“Now, here’s how it’s going to play out,” he said against her ear that was still ringing from the deafening explosion. She realized with sudden clarity that he was, in fact, shouting the words.
“We only want you. We have no need for the others, nor do we want to kill unnecessarily, unless you force our hand.”
Her heart pounded furiously. Did that mean Beau and the others weren’t dead?
“You have two choices. You leave quietly with us, or we kill everyone, beginning with the female you’re currently sharing quarters with. Right now, my men are merely delaying the others, waiting for your extrication. So it’s up to you. You refuse and I issue the order to kill everyone and we still take you, so your fate is inevitable. It’s just a matter of whether you want to spare some lives in the process.”
“I’ll go,” she croaked. “Don’t kill them. I’ll go. I’ll cooperate. I swear. Just please don’t hurt her and don’t kill the others.”
Her vision had started to clear just enough to bring her fuzzy surroundings into focus. It was then she saw how the safe room had been breached. Through the roof, into the attic and then a wide hole, large enough for two people to fit through easily, had been cut out.
She instinctively jumped, startled when a drop-down ladder fell through the hole and into the room. She glanced Ramie’s way, wondering if the woman had heard the bargain Ari had just made for her life. For all their lives.
Judging by the tears in her eyes and the way she stared helplessly at Ari, she drew her own conclusion that Ramie was well aware of what was going on. She was being held in the not so gentle grasp of another man who looked military. Like a killer. His eyes were dead and cold. Like little mattered to him. She shivered, knowing that had she not complied with their wishes, they wouldn’t have hesitated to murder Ramie right in front of her.
She sent Ramie a look, a plea to understand. The man holding her maneuvered over to where the ladder dangled and Ari’s stomach plunged at the idea of having to climb the damn thing.
She needn’t have worried. She felt a sudden sting, like that of a wasp, in her neck and the room went even fuzzier. The last thing she registered were the tears streaking down Ramie’s face, and her utter look of devastation.
TWENTY-NINE
ADORNED with night vision goggles, protective gear and enough firepower to rival a small country’s military, Beau and Zack sprinted across the courtyard clearing, keeping low so they didn’t present an easy target.
They needed to catch up with the others fast because they stood a hell of a lot better chance of taking down the intruders together than if they were scattered over the entire perimeter.
Suddenly Dane and Eliza emerged from the shadows, blending seamlessly into the night. With a nod in Beau’s direction, Dane spoke quietly into his mic and instructed the others of their coordinates so they could group up and blow the hell out of everyone who didn’t belong here.
In a matter of seconds, they were joined by the remaining men, Caleb, Isaac and Capshaw, and they moved out, separating just enough that they didn’t present an easy target for someone seeking to take them out with a single blast.
There was a drop-off halfway between the house and the heavily wooded area surrounding the property on all sides. Here, the ground sloped sharply downward before leveling off again the farther they got from the house.
Beau was heading the group and was so focused on his immediate surroundings and keeping a watchful eye toward the woods and any other potential ambush spot that he tripped over something large and bulky, nearly sprawling to the ground.
What the fuck? That felt like . . . a body.
Beau scrambled for his footing before backing away and motioning the others to do the same. Zack and Dane leveled their weapons at the downed figure while Beau moved in closer.
The man lay perfectly still, no detectable respirations. Eliza knelt beside Beau and quickly shone her small flashlight over the man’s face and Beau recoiled. Holy hell. The man had been beaten to death.
“Shit,” Eliza breathed. “I’ve never seen anyone beaten this badly. Who the hell do you think it is?”
To their complete and utter shock, the man’s lips moved the barest of centimeters. But enough for them to realize he was alive. The entire group exchanged baffled looks. How someone this badly beaten was even semiconscious was flabbergasting.
“Ari,” the man said with a gasp, wincing in pain at just the one word that whispered past his lips.
Beau surged to attention and leaned down to stare in the man’s battered, swollen and bloodied face. God, he was utterly unrecognizable as a human being. He looked more a monster than a man.
“What about Ari?” Beau demanded. “What happened to you? Who did this to you? And what do you know about Ari?”
“Daughter,” he rasped out.
A chill went up Beau’s spine and he glanced back at the others in disbelief.
“Need . . . you . . . tell something.”
His voice was growing weaker by the second and Beau had to lean even farther down to hear what he was saying.
The man’s hand fluttered weakly upward, flailing, as if reaching for something to anchor himself with. Beau’s response was automatic. No matter who this man was or what he had done, no one deserved to be savaged this way.
Once Beau’s hand gripped his, his fingers tightened around Beau’s and his eyes slitted open, determination flagging in their depths.
“Tell Ari . . . I loved her. Mother loved too . . .” His voice trailed off and he suddenly choked and then coughed convulsively, blood dribbling profusely from his mouth.
Oh man, this was bad. This was really bad. There was no way an ambulance would reach him in time. And they had to take out the threat to Ramie and Ari as well as to themselves.
“P-p-promise me,” he stuttered, blood bubbling and foaming down his chin. “Loved her always. Tell her. Never forgot her. Wanted her to be . . . happy. Have . . . good life.”
Ari’s biological father closed his eyes and sagged heavily, seeming to wilt right into the ground. Beau followed him down so their faces weren’t far apart and so he could hear Beau’s vow.
“I promise,” he said, still gripping the man’s hand. “Do you hear me? I swear I’ll give her your message. Rest easy now.”
His eyes opened one last time and then a peaceful smile settled over his face, softening some of the brutality wrought by extreme violence.
“Thank you,” he whispered. “Means the world.”
And then his head lolled to the side and his hand went completely slack in Beau’s grasp.
“Son of a bitch,” Beau swore. “These people are animals and they want Ari!”
“Easy, brother,” Caleb said, putting his hand on Beau’s shoulder. “We’ll just have to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
“Jesus, they put a toe tag on him like they do at the fucking morgue,” Zack said in disgust.
And sure enough. When Eliza shone her light down the man’s legs, a notecard was affixed to his toe with a string.
“What does it say?” Dane demanded.
Zack shook his head, disgust evident in his features as he slipped the tag off and took out his own flashlight to shine on the words.
“Jesus,” Zack muttered. “This is goddamn unreal.”
“What for God’s sake?” Beau said through his teeth. “We don’t have time to be fucking around here.”
Zack’s voice trembled with anger as he read what was scrawled on the card in small lettering.
We were much more merciful with him than we were with his wife, but only because we were on a tight timeline. We won’t show you any mercy. This is what happens to people who interfere with our cause in any way. Arial Rochester is ours. We created her. We are her blood. Back off before your entire organization is wiped out. We have more resources and power than you can ever imagine.
“Oh hell no,” Eliza said in a rage-induced, pissed-off voice. “Those assholes are taunting us? I’d like to tell them exactly what they can do with their resources.”
Beau ran a hand over his face, closing his eyes, regret for Ari so strong. His heart ached for her. For all the hurt this would cause her. Her life would never be the same again. She’d know too much to ever live with the naïve innocence she once enjoyed. He didn’t normally advocate willful, ignorant bliss, but in this case, Ari would be so much better off if she had never known the truth. Because now that she had part of it—the most important part, that the Rochesters weren’t her biological parents—she’d want—demand—the rest of the story and she was entitled to it. She deserved the truth, no matter how much it hurt her. No matter how much it hurt him to have to be the one to give her all the damning evidence. But at the same time, he didn’t want it coming from anyone else. He wanted to tell her when he could hold her and offer comfort. Damn it. If he had his way he’d always be there to comfort her when she needed it.
Who the hell wanted to exist knowing they were merely an experiment? Meant to be a freak of nature. Molded and fashioned to be just that, so her powers could be utilized in a manner not of her choosing. Her life would have never been her own had her blood parents not reached out to his father in desperation.
