Into the Lair fmg-2

by Maya Banks

  He smiled, flashing crooked teeth. “You don’t look very happy that I pulled you from the snow, Katie. I could have left you there, you know.”

  “I’m glad you pulled me out. I just wish you’d left me alone once you did,” she snapped. “Where the hell are you taking me, and why do you want me so badly? I can’t possibly have anything you want.”

  “Oh, but you do,” he said softly. “You have something I want very much. You are, in fact, key to my success. Perhaps the key.”

  She furrowed her brow in genuine confusion. He was utterly serious, and for a moment, he even seemed sane. Which was scary in its own way. She didn’t want to relate to this creep or even see him as half a human being.

  “You’ll have to forgive me if I’m not feeling too charitably toward you. You gassed my brother and his team. You made them what they are, and you’re responsible for my brother’s death. That makes you a son of a bitch, and I’d just as soon see you rot in hell than ever be the key to your anything.”

  “I regretted Gabe’s death very much,” Esteban said tightly. “It was senseless. He was vitally important to my program. He chose his path, and he chose to sacrifice himself for two failed prototypes.”

  “Prototypes? What the hell? They were men. Men you fucked over and made into unpredictable wild animals.”

  Esteban rubbed his face tiredly. “I don’t expect you to understand. You’re not a scientist.”

  “And you are?” she scoffed. “From what I heard, you own a pharmaceutical company, and you like to play God in your spare time. How the hell does that make you a scientist?”

  She leaned forward. “Why do you want me? What part could I possibly play in all of this, and how could I be of any importance to your program?”

  “You’re Gabe’s sister,” he said evenly. “That makes you extremely important. You share the same genetic material. He was one of my successes while the Thomas brothers were dismal failures. How do you explain the stability of one man and the instability of another when they were introduced to the same set of conditions?”

  She stared at him in shock. She opened her mouth to speak, but she honestly couldn’t formulate a single word.

  “You’re getting the picture,” he said with a small smile. “If Gabe was a success then chances are you will be too. And any children you have.”

  Nausea welled in her stomach. “You’re not changing me into some wild animal,” she whispered. “And I won’t be a breeding machine.”

  He shrugged. “There’s nothing to say you’ll turn out to be a wild animal. Gabe could become invisible. Part of what makes this so interesting is learning what your gift will be. If you’ll share the same traits as Gabe did or if all we’ll be guaranteed is your stability, your ability to control your shifts and retain human cognizance in shifted form. It will be a fascinating experiment. Your eggs will be harvested for breeding purposes, so you don’t have to worry about losing your figure to a pregnancy.”

  She was too horrified to protest, too dumbstruck to do anything but stare at him in absolute disbelief. Was he joking? He said it so flippantly, like he was doing her a grand favor by sparing her a pregnancy. And who the hell did he plan on fathering those babies?

  A shudder rolled over her shoulders, and bile rose in her throat. She’d never been more disgusted in her life, and Ricardo de la Cruz was plenty heave-worthy.

  “I’m not planning to hurt you, Katie,” he said in a cajoling voice. “You’re far too important to me. I plan to take very good care of you.”

  “Why?” she whispered. “Why on earth do you want people who can shift? Why would you force that on anyone?”

  “It’s merely a starting point,” he said idly. “If I can alter human DNA and make a man a hybrid between human and beast, what else can I create?”

  “You want to be God?”

  “No, I wouldn’t want his job,” he said seriously. “It’s not my place to judge, to make life or death decisions. Who gets to live, who gets to die. I’d rather offer humans choices.”

  “Oh, dear heaven,” she groaned. “I take it you don’t believe in the whole theory of free will? You believe in predestination? And if that’s the case, don’t you think God would have to be pretty stupid to preordain someone who could change all his rules?”

  She hugged her knees to her chest, ignoring the pain in her ribs and the raw wound that had partially reopened in her fall from the snowmobile.

  Esteban smiled ruefully. “You intrigue me, Katie. I hadn’t expected you to be so difficult. I think you’ll make a fascinating addition to my experiment.”

  “And what will you do once you’ve turned me into a trick pony?” she asked softly. “Are you just going to let me go? Let me go back to my life?”

  His lips pressed together in an expression of regret, and then he shook his head. “I’m sorry to say that your life as you know it is over. The sooner you accept it, the better off you’ll be.”

  She eyed him coldly, allowing the full force of her hatred and disdain to bleed into her expression. “You’ve made some ambitious plans,” she said in a mock congratulatory tone. “But you forgot to factor in one little variable. Make that two.”

  Esteban’s eyebrow went up. “Oh? And what’s that?”

  “Ian and Braden Thomas,” she said evenly.

  “You think they give a damn about you?”

  She smiled tightly. “I don’t have any illusions where they’re concerned, but I know how much they hate you. They’re not going to give up hunting you.”

  For a moment annoyance flickered across his face, and then he shrugged nonchalantly. “If they do, they’ll die.”

  “But I thought you didn’t make life or death decisions?” she taunted.

  “If they go after me, they choose death, I don’t choose it for them,” he said in a chilling voice. “Their deaths will be a consequence of their choices.”

  She stared at him calmly, confidence radiating. “And maybe your death will be the consequence of your choices.”

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  “The last time we went into a compound like this, I lost a man,” Eli said grimly as he looked at the gathered men. “I don’t want that to happen this time.”

  Jonah stood to the side, his arms crossed over his AK-47. He looked almost bored. Except for his eyes. They flickered alertly over the assembled group as if he were measuring each one.

  Mad Dog and Tits flanked Ian and Braden, and Tits slapped at another bug, real or imagined, Ian wasn’t sure.

  “Goddamn it,” Tits muttered. “The entire jungle is determined to have me for dinner.”

  “It’s the fresh blood,” Mad Dog drawled. “If you’re not careful, they’ll suck you dry. They grow ’em big here in South America.”

  “Hey, fuck you,” Tits said. But he pressed a hand to his wound as if to prevent any bugs from invading the bandage.

  “You boys done?” Jonah asked dryly. “We’ve got a job to do here. I’d just as soon quit fucking around and get it done.”

  Braden nodded his agreement. He was tense and edgy. Ian worried that he might be close to shifting, but neither of them wanted to risk taking a sedative and not being a hundred percent when they went in for Katie.

  Her signal had led them deep into the Venezuelan jungle to a compound undetected by satellite. Mostly underground, what was above the terrain was hidden by heavy growth and lush foliage. Thank God for the tracking device or they would’ve never found her.

  If Esteban had hurt her there would be no mercy. Obtaining a cure was no longer a priority, at least not for Ian and Braden. Ian knew that Falcon was still keenly interested in Esteban because of Damiano. All Ian cared about at this point was extracting Katie. Alive. Esteban could live or die.

  Jonah looked toward Eli, a concession to the fact that he led this mission. Ian wasn’t in the mood for a pissing match or a contest to see whose dick was bigger. The merger wasn’t his idea. He didn’t give a shit who called the shots as long as Katie got out alive.


  “Let’s go,” Braden growled.

  “I’ll shift and find a ventilation system to get in. Give me a ten-minute head start so I can take down the security system,” Eli said.

  Tits stepped forward with a glance sideways at Mad Dog. “Our recon points at four possible entrance and exit points. Could be more.”

  “Katie’s signal was pinpointed in the heart of the compound,” Ian said. “We’re going to need those exits secured and the paths clear. I don’t want to rely on only one way out. I want a plan, and then I want plans B, C and fucking D. We can’t afford to fuck this up.”

  Eli nodded. “If I fail to override the security, then those entrances will need to be blown. We lose some of the element of surprise which means you have to get in and move fast. Shoot first, sort bodies later. Esteban has proven what a complete and utter coward he is. He won’t stick around to get caught in the crossfire.”

  “Okay, enough with the chitchat,” Braden said. “Let’s do this.”

  Eli took quick stock of his gear and then dissolved into the thick, humid air. Jonah checked his watch and began the countdown.

  “I want the secondary manning those exits as soon as we gain access,” Jonah said. “Two will remain outside to provide cover and to make sure no one crawls up our backsides.” He looked at Mad Dog and Tits. “You two set the place to blow. I want this to be an in-and-out job. Our objectives are Katie, information and Esteban. In that order.”

  He pinned Ian and Braden with his hard stare. “Don’t make this personal. Get in, get your girl, get the hell out. You’ll take the central entrance and hone in on Katie’s location. The other half of the secondary will be moving ahead of you to clear a path. You’ll have back-up in front and behind you.”

  He glanced down at his watch. “Let’s move. We have three minutes to go time. Take your positions and get ready to kick some ass.”

  * * *

  Katie hunched down in the corner of the cold, sterile, glassed-in observation room, knees drawn up to her chest as she rocked back and forth in an effort to get warm.

  The thin hospital gown she wore offered little protection from the bone-aching chill. It was as though Esteban had stored her in the freezer.

  She laid her forehead on her arm and closed her eyes as she rocked harder. Her belly still cramped from the procedure performed just hours earlier. She’d been restrained on an exam table, her legs forced apart, and she’d lain there helpless as the first egg extraction had been performed.

  Esteban had been delighted to discover that she was at the perfect time in her cycle. The discovery of two mature eggs ready to be released during ovulation had been enough for him to go ahead with the procedure instead of putting her through a regimen of fertility drugs as he’d threatened. Why he hadn’t taken both at the same time, she didn’t know. An important piece of the puzzle was missing, but she couldn’t wrap her brain around what.

  She couldn’t feel more violated than if she’d been raped. This was worse. Much worse.

  She ignored the tapping on the glass wall. It would be Esteban. Asking once again how she was doing. As if it mattered.

  His voice filtered over the intercom system. “Prepare yourself, Katie. This next part…is not pleasant.”

  Her head came up, and she stared dully through the glass to see Esteban standing by the speaker, his hand on the button.

  “It will be over soon, though, and then you can rest,” he said in a soothing voice.

  What the hell could be worse than what she’d already been subjected to?

  A hissing sound, like an airlock being broken, sizzled over her ears. She yanked her gaze up in alarm to see a cloudy vapor seeping into the room from every vent. She scrambled up, panic beating at her mercilessly.

  The bastard was gassing her.

  She turned and began to pound at the glass. “No! You son of a bitch. You can’t do this!” she screamed. “This isn’t my choice. I don’t want this.”

  Esteban pressed his hand against the glass, mirroring hers. An expression of regret framed his face. He looked almost…sorry.

  Fire raced over her skin. She inhaled as she cried out in pain and then coughed and choked as the chemical entered her lungs. Oh God, she was on fire from the inside out. Burning.

  Her hands slapped and wiped frantically at her skin. She was melting. Her skin was going to slide right off her bones.

  Her eyes singed, and tears poured copiously down her cheeks. She fell, writhing, to the ground. Agony. She couldn’t take it.

  Razor blades scoured her flesh, marking her, but she didn’t bleed. She had no blood to give. It boiled in her veins. Burned like acid.

  She clawed frantically, trying to relieve the pressure, to give the poison somewhere to go, to escape. Her throat closed in. Her tongue swelled, and she tried in vain to draw a breath.

  She was going to die. She wanted to die.

  Numbly, she lay there, her entire body twitching as her nerve endings fired. The floor felt cool against her cheek and she rubbed, trying to infuse more of the blessed chill into her tormented body.

  Saliva pooled in her mouth, odd against her dry, cracked tongue. It leaked onto the floor as her eyes became fixed and unblinking, focused blindly on the opposite wall.

  Her hand. It wouldn’t quit moving. It jumped, her fingers extending and hopping. She curled them into a ball in an attempt to make it stop.

  Ants. She was covered in fire ants. They were eating her alive. A sob escaped her lips.

  “Let me die,” she whispered.

  Rain, sweet and refreshing, poured down on her. Water hit her with bruising force as it fell from the ceiling. She curled into a ball and held her hands over her face. After a moment it stopped and then quiet descended.

  She tried to move, but her body wouldn’t obey her commands. She was locked in the worst kind of hell. On the inside the pain still raced, surging through her veins like a brushfire. The bitter chill, made worse by the soaking she’d received, encased the outside of her body.

  But worse than the pain was the fear of what he’d turned her into.

  Chapter Forty

  Ian and Braden made fast tracks through the low-slung corridors that snaked toward the middle. Convoluted was apparently a favorite design of Esteban’s. This one mirrored the building in Switzerland almost exactly.

  Using the signal from Katie’s tracking device, they navigated the twists and turns. Halfway in, everything went dark. Braden slapped on night vision goggles with infrared sensors and continued forward, his gun up.

  A few seconds later, track lighting along the ceiling flickered and bathed the hallways with a dull glow.

  Ian stopped outside a closed doorway and held up a finger and pointed. Braden gripped his gun tighter and nodded for Ian to go in. According to the locator, Katie was in the next room.

  Ian slapped on the explosive, set the timer and then motioned for Braden to get down. Three seconds later, the door blew, and he and Ian rushed through the entry.

  Braden staggered back when brilliant white light accosted his vision. He put a hand up to ward it off before making a sweep of the room with his rifle. It was empty. Save for a cylindrical platform in the middle of the room. A red beam illuminated a tiny container resting on the surface.

  He and Ian exchanged glances. Where the fuck was Katie?

  Dread tightened his gut as he walked slowly toward the platform. He knew what he’d find before he ever got there.

  Almost invisible, sitting in what looked to be a Petri dish, was the thin, needle-like tracking device that Katie had worn.

  “Mother fuck!” Ian swore as he spun around.

  And then from the tiny holes that ringed the platform, smoke seeped upward, drifting higher and spreading out, faster and faster.

  “Get out of here!” Braden shouted as he bolted for the door.

  He was nearly there when rails slammed from the ceiling, barring his exit. He yanked around only to be enclosed by another set as they dropped like b
ricks, imprisoning him in a large square box.

  Ian fared no better.

  The two brothers stared at one another even as Braden felt every muscle go limp and unresisting. The room swam in his vision, and he felt himself fall. His head rolled to the side. His last conscious thought was of Katie and whether she’d died on the mountain after all.

  * * *

  Braden opened his eyes and saw only a blurred blob of vague color and slight movement. He blinked and blinked again, each time clearing some of the film from his vision.

  He saw Katie, lying on the floor inside a glass enclosure, her eyes glassy and unfocused, fixed on some distant object. She was soaked, the thin gown she wore plastered to her body. She shivered uncontrollably, her body jerking as she clutched her arms to her chest.

  Relief surged, sweet and soothing. She was alive.

  Then rage followed, replacing the calm. It curdled in his veins, whispering and calling to the killer inside him. To the predator.

  “What did you do to her?” he demanded as he saw Esteban step to the glass to stare at Katie.

  Esteban turned, a smile on his face. He looked oddly calm, not at all the demented, frantic man they’d confronted in Switzerland.

  “Ah, you’re awake.”

  “What did you do to her?” he bit out again.

  Esteban glanced back at Katie, his expression almost regretful and as strange as it seemed, tender.

  “I regret the pain I caused her, but that’s over with now. She won’t feel the second egg extraction.”

  “What?” Braden shouted. He tried to strain forward and only then did he realize that he was restrained standing up, his ankles secured to an iron plate with metal cuffs and his arms banded on either side of his head.

  “Getting worked up won’t help you,” Esteban said calmly. “You can’t shift. I’ve injected enough paralytic that I rather doubt you’ll do much more than drool occasionally once it takes effect. It should be hitting you any time now.”