The men didn’t answer. Nervous energy filled the house, mostly off her and Debi. The men—all of them—seemed impervious to emotion. There was an aura of cool resolve around the lot of them. “Upstairs,” the soldier ordered.
Lauren didn’t move too fast to get to the stairs. Once they setup the murder-suicide scene, she was pretty sure it was over. She looked at Ryder, but his face remained a mask. They climbed the stairs surrounded by assholes carrying weapons. Joe took the lead, then Lauren and Debi followed by the dead-eyed soldier who held a gun on her. Ryder was behind him with Callahan and Hedrick in the rear. The final soldier stayed to guard the door. There were five of them to one of Ryder, and he wasn’t operating on all cylinders.
Halfway up the stairs, he stumbled into the wall and dropped to his knees. He shook his head like he was having a hard time seeing straight. Dead Eyes stopped to lift Ryder to his feet.
Lauren finished climbing the stairs, her heart convulsing. They were climbing to their execution, and Ryder was walking like a drugged-out fool. Joe pushed open the master bedroom door, revealing a macabre scene. The room looked like a maniac had trashed it. Crazy red graffiti on the wall, holes in the sheetrock, black plastic over the sliding glass door. There was a pallet on the floor and drug needles and paraphernalia next to it. Lauren tried to back out, but Dead Eyes pushed her from behind.
Ryder roared. He shoved Dead Eyes into the doorframe, blocking the entry. A gun went flying. Joe turned, but before he could react, someone tackled him to the ground. Lauren fell to the carpet. Rose plowed into Debi, moving her out of the path and into a closet. The fight from the hall spilled into the room. Ryder pummeled Dead Eyes, and then turned to Baby Face like he couldn’t stay focused. A war waged around her, the sounds of bones breaking and grunts of pain. Each groan cut a hole in her lungs so she could barely breathe.
Rose intercepted Dead Eyes, literally protecting Ryder’s back, because her husband wasn’t focused. He slammed Baby Face across the room, but Joe didn’t go down easy. He took the beating with a grin before shoving Ryder off. Ryder wiped sweat from his eyes, and in that pause, that moment, Joe yanked Lauren up and shoved a knife at her throat. Ryder blocked, the knife cutting into his hand. Blood spewed, but Ryder didn’t blink. His bloodshot eyes threatened death, but Lauren wasn’t sure if he even knew who the target was. He’d lose his hand if he wasn’t careful, but he didn’t back down.
Lauren stomped a boot into Joe’s instep at the same time her fist slammed into the young man’s groin. Joe’s grip loosened enough for Lauren to break free. In a flurry of movement, Ryder grabbed Joe’s knife hand. Bones crunched before Joe relinquished his hold. He kicked, but Ryder came at him like a crazy man, impervious to the hits and kicks the other soldier landed. He swung forward with the knife, making minor cuts in Joe’s skin. Finally, Ryder hit the other man in the sternum, this time with the knife. Flesh oozed blood. Bones crushed.
Joe crashed to the ground like a felled tree. Ryder followed him to the ground. He pulled the knife free and sliced open Joe’s neck. Spurts of blood hit Ryder in the face, but he continued to slice even as the life left Joe’s eyes, until he’d severed the head from the body.
“Ryder?” Blood covered him. The wound on his hand dripped and the serrated knife looked like something from a horror movie. Lauren swallowed. “Are you okay?”
He turned to her, his eyes filled with the craziness he’d feared. No recognition crossed his features. He rose to his feet and fled the room.
Lauren’s brain was scrambled from the sudden attack and her body seemed to move in slow motion. She crawled to the closet and tried to open it. “Debi?” she croaked. Tears flowed down her cheeks. She needed to get to Ryder. The man was warrior strong, but they had altered him with drugs until he couldn’t think straight. He’d die for her, but she couldn’t live with that outcome. Her breath sounded like she’d just run twenty miles and her chest ached.
The house went silent, and somehow, the silence was more haunting than the sounds of brawling. “We need to get downstairs. I have to know.”
Debi squeezed her hand, and then let go. “This is quite possibly the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.”
They turned to the mostly empty room. Mostly, except for Joe on the floor with his head separated from his body and Dead Eyes crumpled in the doorway. His eyes were definitely dead now. Lauren crawled across the room and picked up a discarded gun. Not a single shot had been fired, but where was Ryder?
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
They passed two dead bodies on the way down the stairs. Lauren averted her eyes like she would when driving past road kill. She’d been up close and personal with too many dead bodies in the last twenty-four hours. The pulse pounding in her head sounded loud, so she couldn’t hear beyond it. Sweat slicked the fingers gripping the gun. Carrying it gave her a sense of security, but she’d feel better when she found Ryder.
Debi followed, her hand on Lauren’s back like when they’d gone through a haunted house. Like touch was a lifeline. Leading with the gun, Lauren turned to see an empty living room. Anticipating violence, she stiffened, her arms taut and the muscles along her back pulling painfully tight. The emptiness and the harsh rasp of her breath pushed her blood pressure into heart-attack territory.
A man rushed through the door, and Lauren swung the gun to aim at center mass, just as Ryder had taught her, although she didn’t have his steady hands. “Don’t move.” Tremors in her forearms stole the force from her threat, but she’d pull the trigger if he took a step towards them. They hadn’t survived all this to go down a few feet from the front door.
Ryder walked in the room and past the other man, his gaze assessing, and then he stepped closer to her. He put his bloody hand over hers and forced the barrel down. “This is Fowler. He’s one of the good guys.”
“Oh.” Lauren relinquished the gun. “What happened to handling shit on your own?”
Ryder snapped the safety in place before tucking the gun behind his back and pulling the t-shirt over it. “Sometimes, you need help from a friend.”
“The guard vanished.” Rose pushed through the entrance.
Craft came through and smacked Ryder on the back with a hearty clap. Ryder flinched. “Watch it. I have the worst fucking headache.”
“Disoriented?” Rose turned and pulled Ryder’s eyelids up.
“Fuck.” Ryder backed away. “I’m seeing fifteen of you, man. Give me a fucking break.”
“Fowler, close the door. Craft get me some light.”
The men followed orders, and when the light came on, Ryder shielded his eyes. “Jesus, are you trying to give me an aneurism?”
Rose flashed a penlight in Ryder’s eyes. “Pupils are dilated, pulse rapid, breathing erratic.”
Ryder pushed Rose away and walked to flip off the overhead light. “They dosed me, put something in a bottle of water. I woke up disoriented. Lost time, serious time, couldn’t remember shit.” His eyes fairly glowed with anger. “I was coming here, unarmed and without backup. I couldn’t think straight.” He paced like a caged animal. “If you hadn’t intercepted me, I would have—” He glanced at her, and then away. “How did you find me?”
“That was Lauren’s idea.” Craft winked at her from across the room.
“You put a tracker on his phone?” Lauren’s body shook so she could barely stand. The adrenaline letdown was a bitch. She leaned against Debi. “Seriously?”
“Sure, I added the same app he had on your phone. Thought I’d use it to screw with him, but when he didn’t respond after our near-death experience on the highway, we used it to track his ass. Stopped him a mile from here.” Craft shook his head at Ryder. “Brother, you fell off the crazy train.”
“Adrenaline overload had me shaking like a junkie. Hallucinations. Then the panic hit.” He rubbed his chest, smearing blood on his shirt. “Thought I’d have a coronary. What the hell did you give me?”
Rose followed Ryder across the room and checked his pulse. “Beta bloc
ker, but it’s a short-term fix. We need to isolate you until the drugs fully clear your blood. I wish I knew what they gave you.”
“I do.” Four pissed-off soldiers snapped laser focus in her direction. Lauren cleared her throat. “Would you do something about his hand?”
“Right after you tell me what they gave him,” Rose answered.
“Um, you know this wasn’t random, right? Those five guys were Team Echo.”
Across the room, Fowler started cursing like a sailor. When he finished he looked at Ryder. “Training accident my ass. The company cut us loose and then sent those psychotic bastards after us.”
“Joe said that they were the successful test, and the rest of the teams were failures. He, uh—” Lauren bit her lip. “They gave you a medical cocktail, he said, using… I don’t know what to call it, but the meds they used to make you fearless plus alcohol. God knows what else.”
Debi gasped, her response lost as the men started talking at once.
Rose spoke above the noise. “We need to strap your ass down for detox until your blood is clean.” He ripped a strip from Ryder’s t-shirt and wrapped it around the hand.
“Afraid I’m ate up?” Ryder applied pressure to the wound.
“I think they dosed you with the same crap they gave Madigan, which explains his symptoms. Disorientation, fear, headache, the shakes. He was detached and paranoid, and it wasn’t residual side effects like we originally believed. Fuckers gave him a nudge and he killed his wife before he knew who she was. Hell, probably before he knew who he was.”
Ryder’s gaze shot to Lauren, and then froze as if a shield fell in place.
“Not a chance.” Unsteady, Lauren disengaged from Debi and wound around the lab equipment to Ryder. He shook his head and backed into the wall, but Lauren wasn’t backing off. She wrapped her arms around him, and rested her head on his chest. The uncertain heartbeat was rapid beneath her cheek. “You would never hurt me.”
He stiffened and forced his arms rigidly at his side. “We don’t know that, baby.”
“To the pit of my soul, I know you’d never hurt me. Besides, Joe said they planned to kill me and frame you. The plan was never for you to do the deed.” She glanced up at his strong jaw. “You came in here like a force of nature and stood between me and danger like you were the last line of defense. That’s not the attitude of a madman.”
“Actually, it was crazy as hell,” Fowler corrected. “But it gave us time to climb in through an upper window and get into position.”
Ryder scrubbed a hand over his face, wiping away sweat. “We need to clear the scene. The soldier standing guard took off, did a good job of evading us, but they’re only one small part of the team. The rest could be close.”
Lauren tucked herself into Ryder’s side, even if he didn’t hug her back. “We can’t leave this here. Not just the drug lab, but the bodies. Six bodies. In our house.” It was incomprehensible.
“She’s right. We need to wipe this place down, clear away the evidence, and it would be a damn good thing if we did that before sunrise.” Rose glanced at his watch. “In thirty-seven minutes.”
The guys looked around with the same hang dog expression. Clearing the scene of evidence seemed insurmountable. Ryder’s blood was all the hell over the place. Lauren looked around, but instead of seeing the picket fence dreams from when they first bought, she saw dead bodies, a drug lab, and the six months without Ryder. “I have another idea. Why don’t you just blow it up like you did the meth house? Fewer questions that way.”
“Because this is your house,” Craft said.
Rose nodded in agreement. “We don’t want to hurt you, sweetheart, and blowing up your house is permanent.”
There would be no reclaiming the dreams they’d spent on the place, but Lauren was starting to see that she’d held back. She’d dreamed, but not big enough. She hadn’t embraced Ryder fully. He was a part of a team, but in all the time they were together, they never went out with the team or had them over. She’d been too afraid to share Ryder with the men who were so obviously his brothers. They were such an integral part of his life that she always figured he’d choose them over her.
Ryder finally placed an arm over her shoulder. “We’ll find another way.”
“It’s not the house.” The weight of his arm soothed the tremors and warmed the chill off her skin. “We never had you over,” she said to no one in particular. “Never had a barbeque.” Never extended the hospitality Texans were known for. She’d failed Ryder just as much as he’d failed her when he left. Selfish little heifer, she’d wanted to keep him to herself rather than join into the family he already had in his teammates.
“We’re here now,” Rose said. “Where are the beer and brats?”
“You can’t drink beer.”
“True, but I’m a meat eater, so anytime you want to cook, sweetheart, I’m there.”
Lauren smiled. The house was four walls and a roof, just as Ryder had said. She could find that anywhere, but an empty house wouldn’t mean a thing unless Ryder was by her side. He was the only home she needed. She turned to Rose with a shaky smile. “How about now?”
“For the barbeque? Not much food in the fridge.”
“Well, at least we could have the fire.” Lauren warmed to her sudden inspiration. “Light it up.”
“The grill?”
“No. The house. Light it up.”
For a moment, no one moved, and then next to her, Rose rubbed his hands together. “Burn, baby, burn.” He retrieved supplies from his truck. The team set the charges through the house, promising the blast would only take out their house and part of Callahan’s. No one else would be injured, but the evidence would be destroyed. The police would link the explosion to the meth lab supplies in the kitchen. They retreated to the trucks in less time than Lauren thought possible. Full dark was fading, but the sun had yet to rise. They pulled out single file, slow as though the world wasn’t changing. The explosion sounded before they made the turn out of the park lot. Debris flew. Flames burst through the roof. Unexpected tears stung her eyes. She had put so much hope into that dead building.
In the seat next to her, Ryder scrubbed his uninjured hand along her shoulders. “You okay?”
Tremors still shook her system. Lauren turned away from the flaming building. She curled into Ryder, tucking her head under his chin. “Everything hurts.”
Ryder squeezed her shoulder. “It’ll feel better tomorrow.”
“Promise?”
“What more could possibly go wrong?”
Ryder woke desperate to see Lauren, to know she was safe, but Rose wouldn’t give him clearance until he’d proven he was of sound mind. “Good luck with that.” He sat at the edge of a doughy mattress while Rose took his vitals.
“You were out for three days. Had to strap you down at one point. Sucked to watch. Last time during the detox, we were all in the same pyre.”
Ryder didn’t remember much after leaving the townhouse.
Rose clicked off the penlight and returned it to the first aid kit. “Remember the look on Madigan’s face before he pulled the trigger?”
Ryder scrubbed a hand over his whiskered jaw. “Hard to forget.”
“That look was in your eyes the other night.” Rose focused on organizing and reorganizing the kit, shifting boxes and bandages around before zipping it closed. The whole time, he didn’t meet Ryder’s gaze. “While you were detoxing, we were able to positively ID the soldiers from the townhouse. They’re all on the KIA list from Kandahar. Fowler identified two of the men following him. Definitely Team Echo. Definitely tracking us.”
Ryder twisted his neck until a knot popped, and then he simply stared at the water-stained ceiling. “Where are we?”
“Some crap motel in BFE Texas. The ranch isn’t safe at this point. The team after Fowler made an escape because we had to get back here and save your ass.”
It sucked to eat crow. “Thanks for that.”
“Did it hurt to say
?”
“Fuck you.” The weight of their situation pressed on Ryder’s chest until he felt dizzy with lack of oxygen. “The women locked down?”
“Yeah, but I don’t think they understand the ramifications of the situation.”
“Neither do we.” Ryder forced a deep breath until the panic that threatened had ebbed. For six months, Ryder had surreptitiously watched his teammates fall apart. He hadn’t found a way to protect them from the shit that followed them from Afghanistan. Fact was, he couldn’t. Not alone. “The company found a way to trigger a psychotic episode, using the crap they loaded us with and some unknown substance. I’m still not one hundred percent. Still feel the edge of panic.” He rubbed under his chest where his heart pounded. “It’s like an overdose causes the opposite effect. Too much fear. I couldn’t think straight or see straight. Shaking like a damn junkie and my heart felt ready to explode. If you hadn’t shown up…” Ryder couldn’t finish that sentence. “We have to assume they dosed Madigan and Gault both.”
“Madigan killed his wife, while Gault left the house loaded for bear and landed in a shootout with police.”
“Suicide by cop.”
“I never believed that shit. Gault was the most levelheaded of all of us.” Rose scrubbed the heel of his hand into his eyes. “If we hadn’t shown up, do you think you could have killed Lauren?”
Fear manacled his throat, so when he spoke, his voice was rough and low. “No.”
“Is that what you want to believe or what you know.”
There was no easy answer to that question. Lauren refused to believe he’d hurt her, but he had been seeing all kinds of crazy images in his head.
When Ryder didn’t answer, Rose cursed. “Jesus, Ry, we can’t go home. Ever. Hell, I’m not even sure we should be allowed to live.”
“Bag that.” Lauren kept him sane. She’d reached him when he’d become a monster. She didn’t back down, but more to the point, he hadn’t attacked her. Everything in his body went caveman protective over his woman. “I wouldn’t hurt Lauren. I’d end myself first.” Rose simply hung his head low. Ryder stood and shoved Rose across the room. “Quit buying into their mindfuck.”
Live By The Team (Team Fear Book 1) Page 24
