“I am.” Savage gestured to the tiny earpiece in his ear that was attached to a portable radio in his pocket. “But what the fuck are you doing?”
Hunt moved past him toward the table covered in computer equipment. “I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”
“Don’t play with me, man.” Savage followed close enough that he nearly barreled into Hunt when he stopped at the table. “If you get to mess with the girl’s head then I can too. Let me make her scream.”
“Negative.” Hunt knew exactly what would happen if he let Savage at the girl, and he had no desire to clean up the mess. “Nobody is messing with her.”
“That’s not what it looked like to me. Just give me an hour. We’ll send her back to the senator broken and bleeding. It’ll serve the bastard right.”
And Savage would act out all of his hatred for Reynolds on the defenseless girl shackled to a piece of rebar in a windowless room with no escape.
“Nobody is touching her.”
“Except you, right, sir?” Savage spit out the title like it was a curse, his voice little more than a growl.
“You need to get the fuck out of my face, soldier.”
They squared off with each other like two rutting bulls about to lock horns.
“I saw you all over her in there.” Savage pressed close, glaring with eyes that had gone nearly black with rage. If he didn’t regain control of himself soon all hell was going to break loose. “You gonna snap a few pieces off for yourself before we send her back?”
Hunt shoved the other man back so that he crashed hard into the table. “You need to take a walk.”
Savage looked as if he was going to argue, fingers twitching like he was already imagining what it would feel like to have something breaking in his hands.
And Hunt had his own fists balled up in preparation for a fight. Both of them wanted it; their beasts were ready to rip and tear until blood was spilled. But after a tense moment of them glaring each other down, Savage finally relented, biting off a curse as he stomped away, likely to take that walk.
Whoever ran into him on the street was in for a world of hurt.
Savage annoyed the hell out of him, but Hunt had to admit to himself that there was some truth to the accusations. He didn’t have any idea what he was doing with that girl. He’d scared her on purpose in the beginning because they needed something good for the video they planned to send to the senator. Something that would make the old fuck realize just how serious they were, and that it didn’t need to progress to them cutting off the girl’s finger.
And he’d been nice afterward because he didn’t see the point of keeping an innocent girl terrified for her life without reason, even as his beast wanted to tear into that sweetly scented flesh. The dark part of him liked seeing her scared and off-balance. The fear in her voice, all of that tension coiled up in her hot little body… it had him hard as a rock.
Sex was another way to soothe the beast, almost as good as violence. But it was riskier, too easy to lose control and do someone permanent damage. Back at the compound of Project Alpha, some of the scientists seemed to derive sick pleasure from setting the subjects on each other, watching the weaker ones becoming literal meat for the rest. Since escaping, they hadn’t exactly been living like monks, but it was a close thing.
Maybe that was why he’d felt so drawn to the girl. It’d been too long since he’d gotten his rocks off. When he had pressed up against her to handcuff her back to the girder, none of the thoughts running through his head had been innocent. He’d been thinking about how vulnerable she was, wondering if all of her skin was as soft as the little bit he’d had his hands on.
He needed a fucking distraction.
Chase was at the computer in the room with the television, hunched over as he sat on a crate.
“Did you get the video out?” Hunt asked as he approached.
“A little bit ago.” Chase didn’t look up from the scrolling text on the screen. “It should show up a message on his phone, along with our demands.”
“Untraceable?”
The ghost of a smile twists his lips. “Obviously.”
“How will we get his response?”
“If he replies to the message, it should root to the computer here. I’ve set up as many security protocols as I can, but we’re still taking a huge risk here.”
Hunt glared down at the computer screen. The lines of code might as well have been gibberish for as much sense as they made to him. “What do you mean...if?”
“Remember what we’re talking about here—illegal experiments on decorated soldiers, diverting government funds without authorization, a massive cover-up. Are we sure the senator is willing to implicate himself in all of that, even to save his daughter?”
“If he’s not then we’re in trouble.” Hunt crossed his burly arms over his chest and leaned against the table. “And so is she.”
Chase turned away from the computer, his solemn gaze contemplative. “We have to be prepared for whatever comes next.”
“We are.”
“What I mean is that we have to be prepared to do whatever it takes.” Chase paused and the silence was heavy with meaning. “Would you kill that girl in there if you had to?”
“Of course,” Hunt replied without hesitation, although his hands curled into involuntary fists. “But how would killing the senator’s daughter get us any closer to finding what we need about Project Alpha?”
“I’m not saying that it would. But just for the sake of argument, if killing this girl is the only way forward, would you take care of it?”
Hunt couldn’t stop the thought that Chase was starting to sound just like Savage. “I thought we’d already gone over this.”
Chase just watched him silently.
“I’ll kill the girl if need be, and even more than that if I have to.” Hunt knew his tone was exasperated, but he didn’t like the implication that he’d gone soft. “Satisfied?”
Chase responded with a shrug. “I’m just getting this feeling.”
Him and his fucking feelings. “What kind of feeling?”
“That it would be real easy for this all to go sideways. I know the kind of thoughts that go through your head, because they’re in mine too. How are we going to stay focused on the mission?”
He was a man of few words at the best of times, but Chase seemed to really be wrapping himself in a knot over this girl. That was more words at one time than he would normally string together in a month.
“Let’s give Reynolds a chance to respond before we start jumping to worst-case scenarios.”
“It’s been almost an hour.” Chase’s gaze returned to the computer as he hunched over the screen. “Nothing yet.”
They’d sent the senator a video of his daughter tied up and begging for her life, accompanied by a demand for all of the information that he had on Project Alpha. If he’d notified the authorities, they weren’t discussing it on the police band. Hunt had anticipated any number of responses, but silence had been the absolute least of them.
Savage suddenly appeared at his shoulder, interrupting Hunt’s rumination. His expression was on the far side from calm. It looked like he was ready to breathe fire.
“You need to fucking see this.”
Hunt followed Savage upstairs to his room where a flat-screen television had been set up on a crate. Wiring the place for electricity hadn’t been difficult—just a few generators with some piggybacking off of the grid. But somehow, Savage had figured out how to get cable in here without it being traceable. They only had broadcast channels on the televisions down in the main room.
But the TV up here was turned to some late-night talk show. An overly-coiffed comedian was yukking it up behind a desk with an American flag billowing behind him. It was impossible to tell what he was saying because the volume was muted.
“Are you going to turn it up?” he snapped at Savage. “Seeing as you dragged me up here.”
Savage picked up the remot
e and hit a button.
“—Tennessee senator John Reynolds announced today at a press conference on Capitol Hill that he is officially announcing his candidacy for president in the upcoming election next year. He has been seen continuously on the campaign trail in recent months raising money for his senatorial campaign so this announcement comes as a surprise to some. The Republican senator is a strong proponent of right-to-life legislation and is well-known for supporting funding cuts for Planned Parenthood and other clinics that provide abortion services.
“In a statement, he describes his intent as president is to return this country to one of ‘strong family values and an unerring moral compass.’ Senator Reynolds also announced that his first campaign rally will take place later this week in his home state of Tennessee. In attendance at the press conference was the senator’s wife. His daughter, who has been a fixture at fundraising events over the last several weeks, was notably absent.”
Hunt stayed frozen in place as Savage clicked off the volume again. His mind was trying to logic through a puzzle that only had one solution, even it didn’t make any sense.
“That motherfucker.” He glared at Chase, who had come up silently behind them. “You’re sure that video was delivered, not quarantined or caught up by virus software?”
“One hundred percent. I even got a notification that it’s been viewed at least once.”
The look on Savage’s face matched his name and it was obvious to all of them what would happen next. He rampaged around the room, flipping the mattress that was on the floor so hard that it struck the wall and several springs broke through the fabric. The TV hit the wall with a crash, sending pieces of plastic and metal flying through the air like tiny projectiles. ”Don’t you fuckers get it? The senator knows we have his daughter! And he’s deliberately keeping it quiet.”
Chase frowned. “Just because he isn’t announcing it on television doesn’t mean the police weren’t notified.”
“If the cops were involved, there’d be chatter on the police band. And I’ve been listening to this shit all day.” Savage ripped the earpiece out of his ear and tossed the handheld radio onto the bare mattress. “And we haven’t been contacted, not by the police and not by the senator. What does that say to you?”
“He doesn’t believe we’ll hurt her.” Hunt’s voice sounded dead and cold, even to his own years. “Or he thinks he can handle it himself.”
“This is a man who let unspeakable things occur to further his own agenda and to cash in,” Savage growled, the sound a precursor to violence. “They were going to sell us off to the highest bidder as mindless mercenaries, ready to fight and kill on order. Is that the sort of man who’s going to give everything up because something might happen to his kid?”
“What are you saying?” Chase’s gaze was still trained on the television where footage of the senator at a press conference played on the screen. His gaze moved briefly to Savage and then away. “Obviously, there’s something you think we should do.”
“Plan A is a bust so we go with Plan B.” Savage glared at Hunt, the dark expression on his face daring the other man to argue. “Reynolds isn’t going to give us what we need because something might happen to his daughter. He needs to see that we’re serious.”
The beast inside of him uncoiled, testing the bars of the cage that just barely contained it. It wanted to inflict pain, daring him to go to the girl and unleash. “No.”
“And what if this is the only way? Reynolds is our only lead; everyone else is either dead or too far underground to reach.” Savage lowered his voice, almost wheedling, although the light in his eyes was purely manic. “You gonna let more good soldiers bleed and die because you didn’t have the balls to see this through?”
Chase’s expression had completely shuttered. He was usually the one who could be trusted to be the counterbalance to Savage’s desire for chaos. But his unblinking gaze held no trace of warmth, likely from the reminder of all the men that they’d had to leave behind. “What if it is the only way?”
But Hunt couldn’t even trust himself to keep his urges in check with the girl looking so delectable and defenseless. If he let the others get their hands on her, it wasn’t likely that she would survive. “It hasn’t even been a day. We need to give the senator more time to respond.”
“More time?” Savage’s voice was mocking. “You want to give Reynolds more time to find us and end this before it’s even begun. He is just the tip of the spear and you know it. Let’s get in there and start ripping pieces off the girl. I guarantee Reynolds will respond before we cut off anything really important.”
Hunt growled, the sound low and threatening. “The girl is innocent.”
“Nobody is innocent,” Savage snarled. He stalked across the room to press his face up to Hunt’s, close enough that their noses practically touched. “You’d get that if you weren’t spending so much time thinking with your dick.”
Hunt backhanded him, the blow strong enough to launch Savage into the air and send him crashing into the far wall. His hands clenched into fists while he waited for Savage to struggle to his feet, expecting the other man to launch them into a knock-down drag-out fight.
But Savage merely rubbed his jaw, a look of triumph on his face. “See. That girl has you all fucked up in the head. You’re not thinking straight.”
Chase watched the spectacle, making no move to intervene. “I don’t think we have a choice.”
Hunt turned back to the TV lying on the floor, a frozen image of the senator still glowing on the cracked screen. Reynolds was smiling confidently into the camera from a podium in front of a large crowd. a hawk-faced woman in a pantsuit stood sedately behind him. His lips were frozen midsentence while Hunt assumed he made promises to screw over children on welfare or declare another useless war overseas. He seemed like that kind of guy.
But the girl they had shackled in a dark room, the one with eyes that were a little too big for her face and lips shaped like a cupid’s bow, didn’t ask to be born to a monster. She was innocent.
Except that this was war. And war always leaves casualties.
“What did you have in mind?” Hunt finally asked, voice devoid of inflection.
Savage pulled out the Bowie knife that he always carried on his hip. Light reflected off of the razor-sharp point. “I think you know.”
“I’ll do it.” Hunt reached for the knife, holding his hand out until Savage reluctantly handed it over. If the girl had to be cut up, he was at least man enough to take care of it himself.
He ignored the slathering beast that remained just on the edges of his control. It wanted the blood and the violence. It wanted to feast while swimming in a pool of her blood.
And it laughed in delight as he strode from the room, both of them in agreement of what had to be done.
Chapter Six
Wind lightly caressed Sophia’s skin, but it was hot like the breath of an angry god.
Which only made her think that perhaps she had not survived the attack in her bedroom. This wasn’t far off from what she imagined hell to be. It would be a fitting punishment to spend the rest of eternity in endless fear.
Even though she recognized that her thoughts were irrational, it was difficult to rationalize her situation with any sort of recognizable reality. The building they were in had clearly been abandoned long before air-conditioning vents were installed. The air was thick and muggy like DC in the summer without even the relief of a breeze.
If she was even still in DC, Sophia thought with dismay. Who knew how far away from the townhouse her kidnappers had managed to take her before she woke up here. They’d clearly drugged her, so she could have been unconscious for hours, perhaps even a whole day. She could be hundreds of miles from home.
How was anyone going to find her?
What bothered her most was that she hadn’t even gotten the chance to fight. She’d always heard that you should never go to a new location with a potential kidnapper because the odds of survival b
asically disappeared at that point, but it wasn’t as if she’d had the opportunity to refuse.
She remembered those assemblies they would have in grade school when a major child kidnapping hit the news. They’d all gather in the gymnasium and get a lecture about stranger danger. Never get into a car with someone you don’t know, even if they swear they know your parents. No, that strange man doesn’t really have a litter of puppies and buckets of candy in the back of his panel van.
But nobody had ever covered what to do when an army of well-trained men broke into your house in the middle of the night and already have you unconscious and kidnapped before you know what’s going on.
Where was the assembly for that?
Fear wasn’t even really a problem anymore as she lay on the rough stone floor that was damp with her own sweat and tears. Her neck and shoulders had been a fiery ache for so long that she’d forgotten what it felt like to not be in physical pain.
What she had to fight off most was the despair.
Because she couldn’t help but think that if she did die like this, alone in the dark, that it would be after accomplishing practically nothing with her life. All of the times that she had made the safe choice to placate her father and ignored what she really wanted, always with the assurance that she was too young to make real decisions, haunted her now.
Most people imagined themselves as the hero of their own stories. Everyone thinks that they would be the one to make a daring escape, subdue the terrorists who tried to hijack the plane, or outsmart the kidnappers. They would be the ones to save the day and return home a hero.
But nothing prepared you for the numbness, the overwhelming despair that tempted you to just crawl into yourself and die so it would all end.
They had left the little worklamp on so she lay bathed in the circle of yellow light, too bright to allow sleep and making the shadows beyond seem even darker. She was reminded of that famous quote by Terence McKenna:
The bigger you build the bonfire, the more darkness is revealed.
She had taken a long, hard look at the darkness now. And there was way more of it than the light.
Hunted by the Feral Alpha Page 5
