“Perhaps I had commitment issues,” she said, not seeing even a stapler on the desk. He was bigger and definitely stronger, but she was a survivor and could fight. There had to be a weapon close by.
“I don’t appreciate the sarcasm.” He leaned toward her, almost casually, and backhanded her across the face.
Her head jerked, and pain shattered through her cheek. She turned back toward him, gasping for breath. “What is wrong with you?”
He looked down at his pants, which were tenting. “Apparently nothing, now.”
Acid burned the back of her throat, and she tried to swallow. Okay. Talk. Get him out of his head. Maybe ridicule would work. “Why? Have you had problems getting it up?”
He hissed and kicked her in the calf.
Agony spread down to her ankle, and she bit back a groan.
His eyes glittered, and he smiled. “The more I hurt you, the harder I get.”
She had to stop reacting. No matter what he did, she couldn’t show pain. Would that get him to back off or try harder? Either way, the asshole was feeding off fear, so she rolled her eyes. “Did your dad hit your mom? I’ve seen her picture. So much makeup over her pretty face. Hiding something?”
His face contorted. “Shut up. Don’t talk about my mother.”
Lynne leaned back and tried to appear relaxed. “Okay. Why are you broadcasting that I’m carrying a new strain of Scorpius?”
He rubbed his hands down his slacks. “I figured somebody would turn you in.”
Good plan. She glanced at a sprawling world map on the wall containing a smattering of colorful pins, searching for anything to draw his attention. “Are you in touch with the rest of the world?” If she could keep him talking, then hopefully he wouldn’t keep trying to hurt her.
He frowned and looked up. “Not really. I’m afraid there’s a chance Scorpius didn’t spread across the world the way it did here, and at some point, we could face attack. Which is why our military is so important.”
She stiffened. “Speaking of military, where’s the Brigade?”
“Up north dealing with NORAD.”
Thank God. Nora and Deke McDougall were still alive. Lynne kept her face stoic.
A woman’s scream rent the night.
Lynne jumped. “What the hell?”
He shrugged. “That’s Vivienne. She’s in a storage room off the kitchen.”
Lynne’s head jerked toward what looked like a small kitchen. “Why is she yelling?”
“She’s a complete bitch. Wouldn’t help me to find you.” He sighed. “Now that you’re here, I can finally kill her.”
“Who’s Vivienne, and why would she know where I am?” Lynne asked, shivering. The scream had been tortured.
Bret absently rubbed his arm. “She was a top-level FBI profiler, and now she’s a psychic, but she just refused to help me. So I’ve pumped her full of drugs from the CIA.” His eyes glazed. “She survived Scorpius, and it gave her strength, like me. Otherwise, how the hell could she beat the drugs? She’s half-crazy now, and yet, she still won’t break.”
Lynne tried to breathe, but her lungs had seized. Somehow, she had to save the woman as well as herself. “Now that I’m here, if she’s so strong, maybe you should let her go.” How crazy had Bret gone?
“No. I’ve wanted to slice her open like a trout for about a week now, and I’m going to do it. You can watch, if you make me happy.” He reached out and clamped a hand over her knee to squeeze. “First, I have to know the truth. Have you been fucking Jax Mercury?”
Lynne flinched. “No.”
Rage darkened Bret’s eyes. “You lying whore. I can see the truth on your face. You fucked him.”
Lynne bit her lip. The truth would get her hit, but it also might screw with Bret’s head. How in the world had she thought herself in love with him at one time? Was Scorpius to blame for all of this, or had Bret somehow been deficient before? “You and I broke up when you murdered the president, and my love life is none of your business.”
He threw back his head and laughed. “You said love. Do you really think a soldier, a cold-blooded killer like Jax Mercury, is capable of love?”
“Yes,” she spat out.
Bret chuckled. “I always did think you were cute. Do you know, I’ve had the most interesting fantasies about you since you ran from me?”
She twitched. “You are totally grossing me out.”
He snatched her up, one hand in her hair. “Then you might dislike what I have planned next.”
She threw a shoulder back into him, fighting, her knee hitting the corner of the table and nearly tripping her.
“I’d forgotten what a klutz you are,” Bret said, shoving her in front of him toward the door.
Her mind fuzzed, and she shot her elbows back. “Jax will come for me, and he’ll kill you,” she yelled.
Bret yanked her back into him, his mouth at her ear. “I’m counting on Mercury coming for you.”
She stilled. “How so?”
“Twenty,” Bret whispered. “We’re surrounded by Twenty members, all ready to kill your lover. That’s what took so long to arrange today. I have forces heading this way right now, in addition to having ten of my own men, the best trained members of the Elite Force, ready to defend me. Master Sergeant Mercury won’t know what he’s walked into when he tries to find you.”
Fear dropped like acid and burned her stomach. “Fine. You have me. Let’s get out of here.” If there was a way to save Jax, no matter what it cost, she’d do it.
“I’ve been planning this moment for so long. Just wait until you see what I have arranged for you. It’s lesson time.” He opened the door and propelled her stiff body in front of him.
Oh God. All heat deserted her body, and she shivered. Candles and lanterns lit a pool that shone in the moonlight. She couldn’t help a soft sob, her eyes locked on the water.
Bret leaned in, his breath heating her cheek. “I remembered how much you like the water.”
Terror chilled through her, and her knees locked. Water. She couldn’t go near a body of it like this. It was so deep. He’d actually gone to the trouble to truck water in to mess with her head. How crazy he must be to find water and have it brought to the mansion just to terrorize her. To waste water and fuel to transport it in such a manner. Bat-shit crazy. “Bret—”
“No.” He pushed her forward. “When you told me of your fear, how you’d almost drowned as a girl and couldn’t go near water, I thought it was sweet. Driven and successful Lynne Harmony couldn’t swim.” Without losing a step, he jumped into the shallow end and pulled her along.
She cried out when her feet hit and water splashed up her legs. It smelled like chlorine, brine, and algae. Then she took several deep breaths, but her lungs wouldn’t work. “I’m not scared of the water anymore. Not at all.”
Bret smiled and dragged her toward the deep end. “Let’s test that theory.”
Panic seared through her, and she bucked against him, trying to kick through the water.
He laughed and grabbed her shirt to haul her against him. “I’ve dreamed of this. Of screwing you in the water while you drowned.” His sharp teeth sank into her lip. “Don’t worry. I’ll bring you back so I can do it again.”
Her lips ached and blood dribbled down her chin, but only the deep water filled her mind. “Bret, please,” she whispered.
He sighed and pushed her down.
She went under, the water overtaking her and sliding down her throat. Her mind sparked in pure terror, and she fought back, her lungs compressing.
He lifted her by her hair, and she rose, coughing out water. The chlorine burned her throat, but she gulped in air, trying to breathe. He grabbed her close, his body tight. “Don’t worry, you’re not going to die. This is a short lesson, and you’ll learn it well. Then you’ll live with me and continue your work on Scorpius.”
Fire lit her, and she clutched his dick through his pants, squeezing as hard as she could.
He yelped and re
leased her.
Sucking air, spitting out water, she shoved for the other side of the pool.
“You bitch,” he shouted, tackling her from behind. She fell again, his weight on top of her, her face smashing against the tiled bottom of the shallow end. Her mouth closed, trying to keep the water out, and her lungs started to burst. Her last thought was a picture of Jax Mercury running a knuckle down the side of her face, his expression so gentle her blue heart hurt.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
I’ll follow you into the depths of hell, and if I can’t get you out, I’ll quash the fires.
—Jax Mercury
Jax waited until Raze, Tace, and Sami ditched their bikes and met him by the side of the too-quiet road. “We’re ten minutes out from the subdivision. Something feels off.”
Sami nodded. “Moonlight is good, but there’s no sound in the desert. No wildlife. It’s as if everything is on alert.”
The woman had good instincts. “Raze?” Jax asked.
“My guess is that Atherton called his forces in, and they’ve spread out. Waiting for us.” Raze rolled his shoulders. “Feels like we’re walking into it.”
Yeah. The three trucks lumbered to a stop, and soldiers jumped to the ground. Some trained in combat, some just trained since Scorpius, all serious and carrying weapons. Fifteen men and nine women in addition to Jax’s central four.
He gestured everyone around and started drawing in the sand. “If this is the house where Atherton is, I’d expect resistance here, here, here.” He continued marking spots. “We don’t know how many soldiers are here, but we have to prepare for the worst.” Then he set up contingents of four to spread out and infiltrate from every direction. “Raze and I will infiltrate behind enemy lines and reach Lynne.”
The soldiers fell into step and headed through the subdivision, all fairly quietly.
“They’ve been trained well,” Raze said.
But well enough? Not against real military, if that was what the president had amassed.
Five minutes in, and the night lit up. Explosions echoed all around.
A blur of purple sprinted out from behind a stucco wall, and Jax reacted instantly, slicing his knife into the gang member’s gut before dropping him to the ground. Holy fuck.
Raze took down the guy’s partner, snapping his neck.
Jax turned, breathing heavily, his gut burning. “Twenty is here.”
Raze stood, his lips forming a grim line. “Smart. Atherton recruited Twenty to increase his forces against us. We don’t have enough people.”
No, they didn’t. “Grab everyone and head back. I’m going in,” Jax said.
Raze clasped his arm. “No. Your people made the choice to enter this fight, and it’s one they believe in.”
Jax whirled until they were nose to nose. “If I let them go into an ambush like this, I’m no better than Cruz.” Cruz had been willing to sacrifice any member of the gang, any brother, to follow his own agenda. Jax wasn’t that guy.
“No. They followed you willingly, and they’re fighting for Lynne. Let’s do this and trust the training.” Raze released him.
Jax swallowed as fires began to burn around them, the smoke turning the moon a dingy yellow. Raze was right. They needed to find Lynne and end this. “Stay on my six.” He broke into a jog, watching the shadows. Around them battles raged, and cries of pain filled the night. Jax flashed back to a battle years ago, one across the world, and his body shook with each boom.
The blood across Frankie’s face, the wound in his neck just spitting more blood. The scent of death, more powerful than the stench of fear. The sound of Frankie’s breathing, which somehow drowned out the patter of gunfire erupting around them.
His short dark hair burned with embers, and his too-pale face seemed devoid of any life.
Jax’s arms shook with the remembered pain of punching through heated glass and trying to pull his dying buddy’s body free. His one real friend in the world. A guy who’d never asked for anything but friendship.
Jax had failed so completely, even his gut hurt.
He jerked back to the present, trying to fuzz the past. And he kept on running, even as his arm ached with remembered pain. He couldn’t fail again. Not Lynne.
Now that he knew Twenty was near, he knew what to look for and avoid. He and Raze made it inside the subdivision and to the center as the fighting went on around them. He attacked on the way in, noting Raze doing the same, while their forces disabled vehicles and fought around them.
Jax smoothly sliced the neck of the third soldier and waited for the telltale thump of a body from a few yards away. There it was. Man, Raze was good. They’d taken out four sentries already, which left eight soldiers as well as Atherton on the property—if the intel was good, and he’d bet his life the soldier Tace had tortured had given him everything. Of course, they had no idea how many Twenty members were fighting as well.
He hustled around the other side of the mansion, ready to go in the back at the signal. He’d given Sami a gas-filled bomb, rag, and matches. Taking a deep breath, he counted in his head.
An explosion rippled through the night, and then the sound of gunfire took him back to the service.
A splash behind him caught his attention, and he turned. Rapid water sounded, and then running footsteps. Somebody had been in a fucking pool? He bulldozed through a bunch of overgrown bushes to the pool and then stopped dead. Lanterns and candlelight complemented the moonlight around a large pool. Lynne floated in the middle, facedown, her hair billowing out.
The smell of chlorine burned the air. He stopped breathing. God. Lynne! He leaped across the concrete and jumped in, grabbing her and hauling her to the side.
Raze was instantly there, while the firefight continued on the other side of the mansion. He yanked her up and laid her flat.
Jax jumped from the pool and shook her. “Lynne?”
Her face was whiter than the concrete, and she was still. Too still. He pressed his ear to her chest.
Nothing.
Raze pivoted and fired into the bushes, but Jax could only see Lynne.
He set her down and blew into her mouth before starting chest compressions. He counted them out, then breathed into her mouth, and then counted again. Raze fired three more times.
Tears filled Jax’s eyes. He thumped hard on her chest, noting the vibrancy of the blue had died down. “Lynne, wake up.” He grabbed her in a hug, his face collapsing into her neck. She lay limply in his arms. Gone.
The pain cut sharper than any blade ever forged.
Heat rushed through him. “God, no.” He set her back down and thumped her chest, then breathed into her mouth. “You wake up right now. You’re not leaving me.” She couldn’t leave. Not after she’d taught him to feel again. Not now. He sobbed and hit her chest again. “Damn it, Lynne. Fucking wake up.” He pinched her nose and breathed everything he was into her mouth.
She jerked. Her eyelids flew open. Water spurted from her mouth, and she coughed, panic lighting her eyes.
He shuddered and turned her on her side. “It’s okay, baby.” His butt hit the concrete, and he patted her back. “Let it out. You’re okay.” Thank God. His damn hands shook.
Raze dropped to a knee, shooting him a look of pure relief.
Lynne stopped coughing, and Jax turned her to pull her up and into him. “You okay?” he whispered.
She spit out more water. “Atherton.”
“I know.” The wet footsteps. Jax gently laid her down. “Raze is going to cover you, sweetheart. I’ll be right back.”
She nodded, her chest moving.
“You got this?” Raze asked.
“Yeah.” Jax stood and jogged around the pool, following the footsteps. Atherton wouldn’t ever stop coming, and with his resources, he would always be a threat to Lynne. Jax tracked him around the pool house, through a neighbor’s yard, and onto an overgrown golf course.
A bullet whizzed by his head.
He ducked and rolled, coming up
just as a boot connected with his cheek. He dropped and then looked up.
Atherton stood in the weeds, the moon shining brightly down on him, his gun pointed at Jax’s head. “She’s dead, you know,” Atherton said.
Jax wiped blood from his cheek. “No, she’s not. Mouth-to-mouth saved her. My mouth.”
Atherton’s hand shook. “My mouth was on her first.”
Jax met his gaze directly, calculating the distance between them. Not good. “My mouth will be on her last.”
“You lughead,” Atherton spat out. “She’s not worth it. Not even close.”
Jax arched his foot to pull the weight off his knee. “We disagree there.”
Atherton rose to his full height. “You’d really die for her?”
Jax smiled. “Die for her? That’s the easy part, pal. I’m willing to kill the president of the United States for her.” He pushed off his back foot, rising and lunging, catching Atherton around the waist.
The gun went off, and a piercing pain ripped through Jax’s shoulder. He punched out and sent the gun whipping through the weeds. Atherton punched him in the wound.
Shock waves scorched Jax’s shoulder, and a roaring filled his ears. His hold weakened. Atherton flipped them over, drawing a silver letter opener from his back pocket. He lifted his hands high.
Jax gasped for breath, his body going numb. Then he thought of Lynne. Of the people waiting at home for him. Of his life.
Atherton struck.
Jax caught his wrist at the last moment, the letter opener pricking his larynx. Digging deep, filled with resolve, he punched up hard.
Atherton rolled off him, holding his throat.
Jax staggered to his feet, struggling to focus. Arms grabbed him from behind, holding tight, stealing his air. Pain lanced through the bullet wound in his shoulder, making him gasp. His vision hazed.
“Hello, brother,” Cruz whispered into his ear.
Lynne coughed out more water and sat up with Raze’s help. Burning cinders wafted around them, and smoke billowed up into the sky to turn the moon blood orange. The sound of gunfire pattered intermittently through the night. She wiped off her lips. “Thanks.”