A soldier jumped out of the van behind Nate. “He’s not armed, and we searched him for visual or audio devices. There are none.”
The commander took strong, measured steps from the building to stand before Nate. “You came in the front door,” he said, frowning.
Nate cocked an eyebrow. “You invited me.”
Audrey measured the two men. The commander had always seemed too large to be real, but now, in the murky rain, she realized Nate stood at least two inches taller. Maybe three. His chest stretched wider, and his muscles cut a sharper image. “My boyfriend can beat up yours,” she whispered to her mother.
“What?” Isobel asked, her gaze wide on the action.
“Nothing.” Audrey fought down instant panic at the sheer number of guns pointed at Nate.
Nathan’s body didn’t move, but his head tilted just enough that he could meet her gaze. “What the hell happened to your face?” he asked quietly. Too quietly.
She gingerly touched her still-aching cheekbone. “Rough night. Before I arrived here.”
The commander glanced at her over his shoulder before turning back to Nathan. “I wouldn’t hit a woman, as you know. Anybody who harmed her is now dead, I assure you.”
“That’s nice to hear.” Nathan glanced at the myriad of guns pointed at him. “This is overkill, don’t you think?”
“Maybe.” The commander’s stance widened. “When is the surprise attack coming from your brothers?”
Nate smiled, challenge filling his eyes. “They’re not coming.”
“Bullshit.” The commander stepped toward Nate in an intimidating move. “They wouldn’t let you come in here by yourself. That much I know.”
Nate didn’t look intimidated in the slightest. He looked… triumphant. “That’s true. If they’d known I was coming here, they would’ve either tried to stop me or they would’ve joined me. But. I. Didn’t. Tell. Them.” He kept the commander’s gaze, sardonic humor twisting his lip.
“The kill chips will end them,” the commander said.
Nate’s smile widened, and he shook his head. “We have the computer program and can hack the codes.”
“You do not,” the commander scoffed.
Nate held out his hands and then gingerly reached into his back pocket.
Soldiers tensed on either side of him.
He sighed and extracted a piece of paper to hand to the commander. “The program.”
A deep red flushed across the commander’s cheekbones. “Where did you get this?”
“Who cares? We have it.” Nate’s lids half lowered, and his smile disappeared. “You lose.”
The commander took a deep breath and crumpled up the paper. “Do I?” He smiled. “I have you, and I have your progeny. That’s a win, as far as I’m concerned.”
Nate shrugged. “I have mere weeks to live.”
“I can fix that.” The commander turned and nodded at Isobel. “Please post on all crucial Internet sites that we have Nate Dean, and his brothers have one day to show up and save him or I’ll cut him up to study for years.”
Isobel nodded, already moving for the door. “Standard encryption and multiple codes?”
“Yes. We don’t want anybody but the brothers to know we have Nate.” The commander clasped his hands behind his back as Isobel disappeared into the building. “Do you think they’ll discover the message before I torture you enough to find their location?”
Nate shrugged. “Why don’t we find out?”
Audrey’s knees weakened. Torture?
The commander gestured for Nate to turn around.
Nate lifted his chin, amusement lighting his eyes before he complied, hands behind his back. “Afraid of me, Commander?”
“No, but I trained you and know what you’re capable of.” The commander nodded to a soldier hovering by the building to come forward.
“You have no clue what I’m capable of,” Nate said softly.
The soldier held restraints and approached gingerly, looking ready to sprint away at any second. After he’d wound Nate’s wrists tight with chained-together cuffs, he bent and followed suit with Nate’s ankles. Then he slowly backed away.
When Nate pivoted back around, he looked… bored.
This was all so wrong. Audrey took in the soldiers, trying to make sense of how everybody could be so wrong. They looked… scared. Very alert. She shook her head. Why would they be frightened of Nate? “Nathan’s the good guy.” Her voice sounded shrill, even to her ears.
Nobody looked her way. They all kept their focus on Nate.
Why wasn’t the world exploding? Where were Shane and Matt? Audrey swallowed. They had to be coming, right? But only the sound of rain falling on concrete filled the air.
The commander smiled. “Let’s get started, shall we?”
* * *
Exactly seven hours after arriving at the commander’s Virginia facility, Nate sat, battered and bleeding, on an examination table in a lab. Thick cuffs secured his wrists to a post behind his ass, which wasn’t helping his broken ribs in the slightest. He’d spent his first hour having blood drawn and medical tests conducted—all while being bound. Every doctor and scientist had approached him cautiously, and he’d held still for each, amusement keeping him from going insane.
Then he’d fought for six hours straight.
In a training field much like the ones he’d grown up on, he’d fought highly trained soldiers. With knives, with poles, even with guns, they’d come at him—often two or three at a time.
The commander had watched while several others had filmed him and taken copious notes. After the fights, they’d brought him here. He glanced down at his bare chest and already purpling ribs. Blood and mud covered his ripped jeans and combat boots. He smelled like blood, death, and dirt.
Some doctor had taken more blood and made notations of Nate’s breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure before disappearing.
High heels clicked outside the door, and every muscle in Nate’s body stiffened.
Dr. Madison entered the room, her dark hair up in a bun, a tablet in her hands.
Great. Nate lifted an eyebrow. “Seems like old times.” Except for the tablet—she used to scribble in notebooks. Score one for technology. The woman had tended to his wounds many times through the years, although she wasn’t a medical doctor. Not once had she offered sympathy or kindness. Just Band-Aids and medical jargon.
She smiled and eyed his bare chest, interest gleaming. “You’ve filled out even more in the last five years.”
He swallowed down nausea. “I’ve made it all day without puking. Let’s keep it that way.”
She giggled.
The sound assaulted every muscle in his gut. For years, he’d heard that giggle—unnatural and weird from such a brilliant scientist. “I’ve always thought you might be crazy,” he said conversationally.
She shrugged and moved forward to tap her fingers along his ribs. “You’ve broken a couple.”
No shit, lady. “They’ll heal.” He tested the ties at his wrist—solid.
“Yes, they will.” She hummed to herself. “Do you still heal quickly?”
Faster than ever, actually. “Not as fast as Jory. Where is he?”
Madison giggled again. “I’m asking the questions today. You fought well—kept up the training, have you?”
“Did you think I’d get fat and slow after I escaped you?” he asked lazily.
“No.” Madison shook her head, reaching for disinfectant and a cotton ball. “I figured you’d prepare to come back and try to take the commander out.”
Nate gave a short nod. The woman had studied him since birth, and she was an expert in psychology and all of that crap. “I considered it. Planned it, in fact. But things change.”
“I’ve noticed. Where are your bothers, anyway? They should be mounting a rescue by now.” She dabbed the cotton along a cut above his right pec.
Pain bit into him, and he kept his expression bored and his body relaxed. “Like I s
aid, things change.”
She leaned into him, wiping blood off his shoulder. “Don’t be silly. There’s no way you and your bothers have had a falling out bad enough that they wouldn’t save your sweet ass.”
He swallowed and turned his head so they were eye to eye. “We’re as solid as ever, but now they have something else to protect.”
Madison breathed out, her gaze dropping to his mouth.
He levered back.
She sighed and stepped away. “You don’t mean those silly women, do you? I met Josie once, and I’ve read all about Laney. Those twits wouldn’t come between you.”
Nate chuckled and shook his head, ignoring the strained muscles in his neck. For once, he could give her the truth. “My sisters-in-law haven’t come between us. But they’ve given my brothers a reason to keep living, and nothing, not even me, will keep my brothers from protecting them.” Nate tugged on the restraints. “You don’t know either one of them if you think they’re sacrificing those women for me, and you don’t know me if you think I’d let them.”
Madison clucked her tongue. “I taught you all better than that.” She studied a cut above his right eye that was still bleeding. “When you’re fighting, when such pain is inflicted on you, I figured you’d be thinking about your brothers. Or escape. Or some beach in Cabo. Is that true?”
“No.”
“Then, what?” she asked, reaching for the tablet, fingers poised to type.
“Fuck you.” The woman would never understand. When he fought, when pain tried to trap him, he thought of nothing. It was a trick Mattie had taught him early on, and it had saved his life more times than he could count. Think nothing, feel nothing, and just fight back.
His childhood had shaped him into a survivor, into a predator, and those lessons had taken hold and dug deep.
Madison reached over and jabbed a bruise along his jaw. “Not nice, Nathan. Considering we’re going to share a little boy, you might want to be nicer to me.”
Rage ripped through Nate, and only a tight rein on his control kept him from showing it. “Audrey and I are going to share a little boy. He won’t need nutty granny, you bitch.”
Madison barked out laughter. “Did I hit a nerve? Sweet boy.”
Nate shook his head. “I really don’t get it. How can you not care a whit about the baby? Or Audrey? She’s your daughter.”
Madison gave him a blank look. “I do. Audrey is safe, and we’re going to train that boy to be even better than you.”
No way was his kid going to be a cold-blooded killer. No fucking way. “How could you impregnate her like that? Without even asking her?”
Madison smiled. “Why ask her? The girl has loved you since day one. She would’ve said yes. And the baby is yours, Nathan. I promise.”
She was telling the truth, but he’d already known the kid was his. Regardless of the sperm donor. “Don’t make me kill you, Madison.” His voice became hoarse.
She blinked and then scoffed. “You couldn’t kill me, Nathan. Not only did I raise you, but I’m also Audrey’s mother. She might not understand me, but like any child, she wants to love me. She does. No matter how much you might dislike me, she’d never forgive you for killing me.” Dr. Madison patted him on the top of the head. “You sweet boy. Think.”
Nate jerked his head away. As much as he hated it, the woman was right. Audrey wouldn’t be able to deal with him killing her mother. Plus, he wasn’t quite sure he could handle killing the woman, as horrible as she’d been to him through the years. Unless—“Did you shoot Jory?” he asked.
Madison stepped back. “How did you know Jory had been shot?”
“I saw a video.” Nate watched her closely.
Her eyebrows rose. “Interesting.” She reached out and brushed a finger over his tattoo. “Freedom.”
“Yes.” He kept his face stoic, wanting nothing more than to kick her away from him.
“I don’t understand you.” Dr. Madison frowned. “We could give you the world. A freedom you can’t even imagine.”
“That’s not freedom. That’s fear.” Nate shook his head. “No matter how smart you are, you’ll never understand.” The way the commander and Madison had controlled them, with threatening harm to their brothers, guaranteed no other outcome but escape. “We will never want what you have to offer.”
She scratched her chin, frowning as if trying to solve an impossible puzzle. “You and everybody you love are going to die in slightly more than two weeks if you don’t come back.”
He lifted his chin. “I’ll take freedom and death over the life you’re offering.”
“For your brothers, too?” she asked, her painted lips coy.
“Yes.” He kept her gaze, allowing no expression to cross his face. The thought of his brothers dying hurt deep inside him, but the thought of them being subjected to the commander’s whims again sliced deep beyond the here and now.
Her head jerked up, and her frown deepened.
The door opened, and Audrey rushed inside and toward him. “Nate!” Her eyes widened when she eyed the damage marring his chest. She touched a bruise under his eye. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.” He glanced at Dr. Madison as she turned to furiously type on her tablet. “Taking notes, are you?”
“Yes.” Madison didn’t lift her head. “The emotion in your relationship intrigues me. It’ll be interesting to see how it changes when the baby arrives.”
Audrey went pale.
“Audrey,” Nate said softly. “Look at me.”
Her tear-filled eyes lifted to meet his.
He forced a smile through battered lips. “We’re going to be fine. I need you to stay calm.”
“What should I do?” Her brow furrowed as she leaned around to look at his restraints.
“Nothing.” He wished he could hold her. “Trust me. Please.”
Dr. Madison leaned against the counter. “I’m sure he has an escape plan. Don’t worry.” The scientist didn’t seem too concerned with the possibility.
Nate gave a short nod that hopefully only Audrey caught.
The door opened again, and two soldiers stomped inside. “The commander is ready for him,” the taller one said.
Dr. Madison nodded and slid her tablet onto the granite counter. “Very well.”
One of the soldiers reached behind Nate and released him from the table. Unfortunately, his wrists remained bound. He jumped off, smiling when both men tensed.
Audrey backed toward her mother. “Where is he going now?”
Dr. Madison rubbed her neck. “The tests have just begun. Next we’re going to see how well Nate handles pain. A lot of it. Plus, we do need to show other soldiers what happens when the commander is betrayed. Nate will make a good example.”
“No.” Audrey darted toward him, and one of the soldiers snatched her away.
Nate growled low.
Audrey furiously struggled, tears sliding down her pale face.
“Audrey.” Nate put enough bite into his voice to halt her movements before she got hurt. “Stop it. Now.”
She paused, confusion clouding her eyes.
He kept her gaze. “Stay calm and take care of the baby. I’ll be fine.”
“But—”
“Now.” This time his voice cut hard.
Audrey blinked and stilled.
“It’ll be okay,” he murmured as the soldiers shoved him out of the room to head toward pain.
Chapter 31
Whips and electricity hurt less than simple needles pumping drugs into his veins. Nathan spit out blood, aiming for the commander’s boots. Chains held his arms high above his head while cold concrete bit into his bare feet. Blood and other fluids slid across the floor and into a drain in the despondent cell.
The commander threw an electric prod across the room to smash against a table holding all sorts of interesting devices. “How’s the head?”
Cloudy as fog. “Fine.” Nathan concentrated on the concrete beneath his toes. Cold. Hard. Re
al.
“I doubt it. There’s enough sodium barbital in your veins to make a priest confess.” The commander eyed a grate in a far corner of the ceiling. Through the night, rain had poured down the grate, and a couple of trucks had passed over it, sending down leaves and water. “Dawn is breaking.”
So dawn had broken before he did. Nathan eyed the locks on the one door and smiled with cracked lips.
The commander nodded, an odd pride glowing in his black eyes. “I made you tough.”
“No, you didn’t.” Nate tried to roll his bellowing shoulder to snap it back into place. “Matt made me tough.” Nate tried to bite back his comment, but the words flowed freely. Stupid drugs.
“Yes, he did.” The commander twisted his wrist, frowning at a growing bruise from one of Nate’s early kicks. “Mathew’s obsession with training, with learning, with becoming so deadly—I was impressed. Not once did I see his true motivation.”
“Which was?” Nate fought to keep his head from lolling forward.
“Escaping me.” Injured ego and bewilderment glimmered in the man’s eyes for the briefest of seconds. “Training you. Training Shane and Jory to survive. To someday leave.”
“Yes. Leaving was always our plan.” Nate couldn’t stop the truth.
The commander’s gaze hardened. “But your duty, your role, differed from your older brother’s, didn’t it?”
“What role?” Nate’s words slurred on the end.
“Oh, don’t think I don’t know you, Nathan.” The commander chuckled, low and deep. “Matt taught Shane and Jory to avoid death. You taught them to embrace life.”
Nate shook his head. He’d never embraced shit. “You’re crazy.”
“Am I?” The commander scraped blood and tissue off one boot with the heel of the other. “You tried to give them a childhood. A sense of normalcy, of being wanted and protected in this environment.”
Nate spit out another clot of blood. “You’ve been reading too many of Madison’s psychology journals.”
“You gave them the one thing you wanted more than anything else in the world. To belong. To have a family.” The commander smirked.
A slow smile lifted Nate’s bruised lips, the feeling malicious. “I succeeded, you prick.”