There was no easy way to say it, so he just set the words loose. “You’re pregnant with my baby.”
He saw shock ricochet through her system, rocking her visibly. She blinked a couple of times, her jaw slack. The little boy began slipping from her grip before she shifted him back against her chest. “You had sex with me while I was unconscious?”
“No. I never touched you. I was asleep, too.”
“How . . . ?” Her eyes widened with understanding. “That was the DNA sample she took, the one in your file. She . . . violated you.”
“Not as much as she violated you. I’m sorry, Jordyn. I would have stopped it if I’d known.”
She shook her head. “There’s nothing you could have done. Mother always gets what she wants. Our child is just one more experiment to her.” She went still, then looked him in the eye. “Our child. The concept seems impossible.”
He’d had more time to digest it than she had, but even he still had trouble wrapping his head around it. The only thing he knew for sure was that he had to see Jordyn safely out of this place so that she could start making decisions for herself for the first time in her life.
One way or another, he would free her from Stynger’s grasp.
Another burst of gunfire cut off whatever he might have said. Not that he had any clue what to say in a situation like this. There were no words. All he could do was shield Jordyn, the boy and their unborn child with his body and pray for a miracle.
Bella came around the corner, hands full. She slid to a stop, holding out her findings.
Gage picked up a mask and fit it over Jordyn’s head. He opened the canister of sedative and tossed it around the corner.
More shots went off before falling silent.
Footsteps and voices sounded behind them.
“We have company,” Bella said. She pulled on a mask and darted out of sight toward the elevators. A second later, she came back with a pair of ARs taken off of fallen guards. “I’ll cover your exit,” she told Gage. “Take them and run.”
Gage knew that if he did that, Bella would die down here. He loved her too much to let it happen.
He picked up one of the ARs, using his free hand to push Jordyn toward the elevators. “Go. I’ll be on the next ride up.”
“You heard her. Come with me.”
“Not yet. Now go. I need you to live—both of you.”
The tears in her eyes told him that she understood what he meant—that he needed her to get their child to safety.
She nodded and kissed his cheek. “I’ll be waiting for you topside.”
“No. Go to the road. Hide. I’ll find you.”
Before she could hesitate more, he pushed her gently toward the elevators.
She cleared the corner just as a horde of Stynger’s soldiers came charging down the hall.
* * *
“There’s nothing here,” Victor said, scouring the landscape for some sign of an entrance to Stynger’s labs.
Mira sat in the back of the mobile command center—MCC—surrounded by computers and gadgets. “This is where the tracker on Randolph stopped dead. The trail is cold.”
Adam pulled the RV-turned-MCC over to the side of the road. It was loaded with instruments and weapons, along with a decent array of first aid supplies and tactical gear. If they could find where Randolph had gone, this vehicle had the resources to support a small war.
Payton was riding shotgun, talking quietly on a satellite phone to General Norwood. “We’re visible on satellite,” he said to the group, “but there’s nothing nearby to indicate where Randolph might have gone.”
Mira typed furiously on a keyboard, doing who-knew-what. Adam got out from behind the wheel and joined Victor in back. “We could set out on foot. Things look different from the ground than they do from above. Stynger is smart enough to hide her facility from the eyes in the sky.”
Victor shook his head. “We don’t have that kind of time. If we pick the wrong direction, Bella is as good as dead.”
“Not necessarily,” said Mira. “Stynger is far more likely to experiment on her for a while than she is to kill her outright. That would be wasteful.”
The idea made Victor’s heart lurch into his throat.
Adam patted Mira’s shoulder. “Not helpful, love.”
She looked up from her computer screen. “Maybe it’s not a warm, fuzzy thought, but I’d far rather find Bella alive and part cyborg than find her dead. We can fix cyborg.”
Payton rose from the front seat. “We have a live feed. Someone is on foot nearby.”
Mira switched computers and pulled up the image of someone headed their way with a large bundle held against their chest.
“Can you zoom in?” Victor asked.
She did, revealing a woman with long dark hair on the screen. She looked around like she was afraid of what might be on her heels.
“That’s Jordyn Stynger,” Payton said.
“What’s she carrying?” Mira asked.
“Who cares?” Victor said, who was already strapping on equipment. “She knows the way in. She can lead us to Bella.”
“You don’t know what’s going on,” Payton said. “We need a plan.”
Victor picked up several spare magazines of ammunition and headed for the door. “I make her lead me to Bella. That’s my plan.”
Before anyone else could argue, he was gone, jogging toward the woman.
He found her a few hundred yards away, stumbling toward the road. It wasn’t a bundle she carried, but a small child. Her pale face was streaked with tears, and some sort of gas mask dangled from her neck.
As soon as she saw him, she came to a dead stop. He could see a decision warring in her mind. Did she stand her ground or flee?
Victor really didn’t feel like chasing her. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he said. “All I need to know is how to get inside the labs.”
She cradled the child closer. “Who are you?”
“I’m looking for Bella Bayne. That’s all you need to know.”
“Are you going to hurt her?”
“No. I’m going to get her out of that place and bring her home.”
The woman nodded. Swallowed. “Is there a safe place I can leave him?”
“I have friends nearby.”
“They won’t hurt him?”
“They’ll keep him safe. I promise.”
“Okay, then. Show me your friends and I’ll show you the way in and give you the codes you need to get through the doors. Just promise me that you’ll get Gage out, too.”
“He’s one of ours. Of course I will.”
“Then we’d better hurry. He and Bella were taking fire when I left.”
Bella was alive. That was his first thought. But before any kind of relief could set in, he realized the rest of what she’d said.
Victor took the child from her arms and sprinted for the MCC. The woman he loved was under attack, and everything in him demanded that he save her. She might not like his old-fashioned sentiment, but that was just too damn bad. If she didn’t want to be saved, then she could just get a safer job. A man could only take so much.
* * *
Bella and Gage were pinned down. They couldn’t make it to the elevators, and they couldn’t move away from the doorway they currently used for cover.
She was trying to conserve ammunition, but they were still running out. Even worse, Gage’s bleeding hadn’t stopped, even after he’d put pressure on the wound. His skin was ashen, he was sweating, and she could see his pulse fluttering in his throat.
The man didn’t have much time.
The need to find the closest closet to burrow in nearly overwhelmed her. She was tired. Weak. All she wanted to do was hide until the danger went away, just like she used to do with Dan.
No! She wasn’t that person an
ymore. That was just Stynger’s fucked-up drugs talking. She was strong. She was a fighter. She didn’t need any damn closets.
“I’m not letting you die,” she told Gage, “so don’t even think about it. I’ve spent weeks looking for you. We are making it out of here.”
“Yes, ma’am,” was all he said, and even that sounded weak.
Randolph’s voice echoed down the long hallway. “You can’t make it out of here, Bella. You might as well give up before we have to kill you.”
Her voice shook, and she hoped it sounded more like fury than fear coming through. “I’d rather die than let you cut into my skull.”
“I can arrange that, but the good doctor has her heart set on playing with you for a while before she opens you up to see what makes you tick.”
“You want to know what makes me tick?” she shouted. “Beating the hell out of you. That’s what’s keeping me going, you fucking asshole.”
“Go for the exit,” Gage said, his voice quiet. “I’ll cover you.”
She wanted to run. Hide. She wanted it so bad her muscles began tensing in an effort to move her body in that direction. She had to fight the urge and stand her ground. “You can barely hold your own head up, much less a weapon. We go together or we don’t go at all.”
His head slumped back against the wall and he swallowed weakly. “Can’t walk.”
“Then I’ll carry you. Now stand up. That’s an order.”
She helped him to his feet, feeling just how much effort the move cost him. Gage was no lightweight, and between his blood loss and her own recent visit to concussionville, she wasn’t sure either one of them was going to be very steady on their feet.
“It’s ten yards to the end of the hall and the elevators,” Bella said. “Randolph has a handful of guys at the other end, another twenty yards away. If we can make it to the corner before his men blow holes in us, then we have a fighting chance at living until the elevator doors open.”
Gage lifted an eyebrow in disbelief. “Really? That’s your plan?”
“Do you have a better one?”
He shook his head and his eyes fluttered shut.
He was dying. She was too late. Too weak to save him.
No! She shook her head to ward off those negative thoughts and patted his cheek roughly. “None of that. You have to stay awake. You’re too damn heavy to carry.”
Gage opened his eyes wide, but she could see he was losing the battle fast. If she didn’t do something, he wasn’t going to make it out of here alive.
She eased him into a rolling office chair and peeked down the hallway toward Randolph and his men. “Stynger wants me alive, right?” she yelled.
“Those are my orders.”
“You let me put Gage on that elevator and she can have me. I won’t resist.”
“No!” Gage shouted. He tried to stand, but his feet fell out from under him and he sloshed back in the chair.
“Do we have a deal?” she asked Randolph.
“Sure. Why the hell not? He’s probably not going to survive anyway. And if he does, we’ll just collect him later.”
“No. You promise to leave him alone.”
He let out an exasperated sigh. “Fine. I promise. I’ll give you thirty seconds to load him up. After that, I’m having the men open fire. And if you try to go with him, I’ll kill you myself.”
Bella didn’t hesitate. She grabbed Gage’s chair and hauled ass for the elevators. With every step she half expected to have a hole blown in her back, but the bullet never came for her.
The elevator doors seemed to take forever to open. When they did, she could crawl inside the small space and hide.
Not going to happen, she reminded herself. If she tried to run, she was sure Randolph would make good on his threat to kill her.
“Ten more seconds,” he called, sounding more than ready to pounce.
Finally, the bell dinged and the doors slid open. Gage tried to stop her from rolling him inside, but he was far too weak to fight her. She pushed the button for the surface, and prayed that Jordyn was still up there, close enough to wheel him to safety.
As the doors slid shut, Randolph stepped out, rifle pointed right at her. “Drop the weapon.”
Fear scorched her veins, burning away all her oxygen. Gage wasn’t free yet. He hadn’t even had time to get more than a few yards away. She had to buy him more time.
With slow, methodical movements, she pulled the rifle strap over her head and laid the weapon on the ground.
“Kick it this way,” Randolph ordered.
She did as he said, obeying quickly, as she always had with Dan. One of the guards nearby picked it up.
Randolph motioned to the pair of men standing behind her at the elevator doors. “Go after him. Bring him and the others back.”
Fear blasted out of Bella. “You promised to leave him alone.”
“I lied, you idiot. Now let’s go. Stynger’s waiting to open that pretty head of yours.”
Chapter Forty-five
Victor, Payton and Adam took cover while they waited for the elevator doors to open. The code Jordyn had given them seemed to work, but there was no way to know if armed men might be waiting inside to ambush them.
The doors opened with a chime, revealing a bloody, limp Gage slumped on the floor in front of an office chair. His arm was extended as if he had been reaching for the control panel. Blood was smeared all over the stainless steel wall, indicating where his hand had slid down.
Victor rushed forward. Adam was at his side. They eased the man into the chair and rolled him outside.
The elevator doors started to close, but Payton’s heavy bag of gear caught them before they did. “We can’t wait. We have to go now, before they know we’re here.”
Bella was still down there. The fact that she hadn’t been the one to bring Gage to the surface meant she was incapable of it. For all Victor knew, some of the blood in the elevator was hers.
For all he knew, she could already be dead.
Before that kind of thought could take hold, he shoved it aside and looked at Adam. “Take him back to the MCC. Call for a medic. Catch up with us if you can.”
Adam picked up his brother and started to run. Victor stepped into the elevator car with Payton and let the doors close behind them as they descended into the belly of the beast.
* * *
If Randolph chose not to keep his word, that freed Bella of any guilt over breaking hers. She was no longer a willing captive; she was now a hostile. Very hostile.
Fear had carved out a summer home in her chest, settling in for a long stay. It didn’t matter that she knew the drugs were the cause, she still felt every quivering second of the terror that radiated out of her.
She wanted to be strong again. Brave. She wanted the real Bella to come and save her from this phantom creature that had taken over her body.
“The doc said you’d be scared, but I didn’t think the drugs would work this well. Poor little girl is about to piss her pants, isn’t she?”
She ignored his jab and took a deep breath. Two. Finally some of the panic receded enough that she could control her trembling limbs.
Before she lost her nerve again, she grabbed the weapon out of Randolph’s hands and opened fire in a wide arc. He was so surprised by her move, he was unable to stop her. He took a hit to his thigh and went down, screaming in rage and pain. Men dove for cover, scrambling to fire back.
She kept them pinned down with a steady stream of fire, while inching closer to Randolph.
He reached for his sidearm.
She moved behind him and settled the hot muzzle of her rifle against the back of his skull. “I will kill you,” she promised, her voice vibrating with more fear than confidence.
“Hold your fire!” he shouted.
“Hands in the air,” she ordered.
Randolph did as she asked. She bent down to relieve him of his pistol, but the move put her too close. She didn’t see the danger until it was too late.
He grabbed her head and arm and used them to flip her. Her finger squeezed the trigger unintentionally, firing off a round into his neck.
She landed on her back, half in his lap. He screamed and held his throat, but she could tell by the power of the blood spray that it was too late. The bullet had severed some major blood vessel, and he was only seconds from bleeding out.
He knew it too.
With one of the last breaths he’d ever take, he yelled to the surrounding men, “Kill the bitch!”
Chapter Forty-six
Victor heard gunfire on the opposite side of the elevator doors. Part of him was elated, because if someone was shooting, that meant Bella was still alive enough to piss them off. The other part of him was terrified, because she might even now be taking the bullet that ended her life.
Payton hit a button on the screamer riding his belt. A high-pitched whine revved up until it was no longer audible.
The elevator doors slid open. Bella was covered in blood, tucked into a low crouch against a narrow indentation in the wall. Bullets dug chips out of the concrete near her head, coming from a horde of guards stationed at the end of the hall. She looked terrified and vulnerable—two things that didn’t fit her well at all.
After less than a second, the gunfire stopped and men everywhere started to scream. Except the one lying in a pool of blood right outside the elevator doors. Randolph.
His scream had dimmed until it was only a weak puff of air. He struggled to regain his footing, but it was no use. The blood made everything slick, and he was too weak to support his own weight. He collapsed onto his side and went still, staring blindly in death.
Bella looked up in surprise. She saw Victor and Payton standing there, then pushed to her feet. She swayed, caught herself, but her balance was obviously precarious.
Someone had beaten her. Her face was a swollen, purple mass of bruises. Much of her long hair had been chopped off in back. What was left was caked with dried blood. Her entire body shook as though she was running on willpower alone. “I killed him. He’s dead. But there’s more. They’re coming for us. We have to hide.”
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