Traitor (Killers Inc. #8)

Chapter One

Two hours after Commander Kuznetsov’s crew were killed by Clay…

The pain was unreal. He had been tortured endlessly for information on the Agafonov brothers.

Time lost all meaning. Since Jay had been trained by the same program that tried to break him, he had withstood a lot.

Still, everyone broke eventually. Anyone who said otherwise was a liar.

He had hoped the torment would end there.

Jay supposed it would. He just had to wait longer than he expected.

Commander Kuznetsov’s minions had cauterized his wounds as they went, ensuring he lived as long as possible.

Their final knife cut had been precise, leaving him to slowly bleed out beside the bodies surrounding him.

They were all dead. Every single member of Kuznetsov’s private crew.

If Kuznetsov wasn’t toast by now, he would be soon.

After Jay had broken and led the commander to the brothers, Kuznetsov had lured the Agafonov crew into a trap.

Jay had lain helpless on the floor and witnessed Beau Bosi’s arrival and Kuznetsov’s takedown.

There was no peace from knowing he outlived his onetime leader turned torturer.

After the life he had led, there would never be comfort for him.

Not even after death. Surely Hell would be waiting.

The chills had set in minutes earlier, and Jay’s eyes were heavy.

He had too many broken bones to try for help.

Even if he wasn’t a mangled mess, there still was no saving him.

His rescue in this country would only mean an eventual prison sentence.

No doubt swiftly followed by a shank, compliments of Mother Russia.

Warm fingers checked his pulse, sending Jay’s eyes flying open. An angel hovered over him. Blond locks that looked windblown surrounded a flawless face made even better by sparkling light green eyes.

“He’s alive.”

Jay opened his mouth not to beg for help but to plead for mercy. His eyes filled with tears at the thought of a merciful god sending this angel to carry him into forgiveness.

“Don’t try to speak.” The eyes moved from him and focused on something Jay couldn’t see. Funnily, he couldn’t make out a damn thing more than a foot from his face. “This is the one they tortured for information. It looks like he held out. Let’s get him in the van.”

Inside his head, he screamed as he was lifted. It didn’t seem his angel planned to save his soul after all. No sound would emerge from his bruised throat for him to inquire. He didn’t know how far he made it before the beautiful darkness took him.

His eyes shot open again. He heard his angel’s voice, but he couldn’t see a thing.

“Please, Austen. No one even needs to know. He was tortured for us. Thanks to him, Beau had time to plan our rescue. If he hadn’t managed to alert Beau of the commander’s presence here, we would be dead. Rain would be dead.”

“That’s not fair, Crisp. You can’t ask this of me. You know I can’t keep something like this from my husband.”

“I’m not asking you to keep this from Rain, as long as you two keep it between you. I’m begging you to help me save the person who was tortured for hours, buying us time. Please?”

“Maybe he’s right, Crisp. He’s programmed the same way we are. What if Austen helps him for this guy to turn on us?”

“Please don’t, Tidy. I need you on my side. Austen, please? I’ll keep him locked up here. In fact, I’ll stay with him every second. Just help me fix him, and then all of you can fly back to California and not ever think of this again.”

“I’m not going any damn where.” The growled promise sounded as if it had been spoken through clenched teeth.

A loud sigh rang out. “Fine. I’ll never forgive myself if I turn my back on someone in need. Fuck my life. Don’t get me murdered over this shit.”

“I won’t. I swear it.” The sudden happiness in his angel’s voice melted Jay a little. Then a sharp prick had his head spinning and his mind disappeared.

His eyes opened again. Jay blinked against the harsh light surrounding him.

He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment and tried again.

The pain wasn’t gone from his body, but it was definitely minimized.

The sensation of being drugged made it even harder to keep his eyes open.

But Jay forced his eyelids to lift once more.

He needed a quick peek at his surroundings to assess the situation.

Jay slowly turned his head, doing his best not to draw attention to himself from anyone who might be watching.

Everything was a blur except for the man who sat a foot from his head.

When his gaze landed on his angel, he forgot to pretend he was still sleeping.

Sitting next to him, reading a book, he found the blond rescuer.

His name was Crisp. He remembered now. People had argued.

They had definitely called him Crisp. Another detail clicked into place.

That was the name of one of the Agafonov brothers.

He’d been named for his specialty: making crime scenes vanish as crisp and new—like nothing ever happened.

Everything came into better focus. He opened his mouth and forced words past his parched and damaged throat. “What are you reading?”

Crisp sat forward and put the book aside. “You’re awake. How are you feeling? Do you need anything?”

He sounded genuinely concerned. Crisp had kept him alive. Surely it was safe to assume Crisp would continue to do so. “Water?”

Crisp slumped a little. “Unfortunately, I can’t do that.

Your stomach has a lot of healing to do.

However, I can feed you some ice chips. Is that okay?

” He seemed to turn inward. “Damn. I don’t have ice chips.

Surely, I can get some from the kitchen.

” He gave a sharp nod, obviously finishing his conversation with himself. “Yeah. You can have ice chips.”

“Okay.” Fuck, it was so hard to push words out. Everything felt as if tore inside his throat with each attempt.

Crisp stood. “Don’t go anywhere, okay?” He released a nervous laugh, as if realizing there was less than zero chance Jay was going anywhere.

Jay closed his eyes and tried to look as helpless as he was. “I won’t.”

Crisp stroked his shoulder and walked away.

Jay wanted to open his eyes, but he couldn’t.

He felt ridiculously weepy over that small caress.

He felt vulnerable in a way he hadn’t since he was a child.

Jay was too weak to function at all. That helplessness was disarming.

They hadn’t taught him how to survive this part.

Jay was supposed to choose death with dignity.

He had no clue why he didn’t want to pass from this life.

This world had nothing for him. With Kuznetsov dead, no one would hunt him.

The Russian government had to think he was dead as well.

That meant Jay was free, but to what end?

He had nowhere to go. Jay owned nothing.

He had several accounts under fake names set up for him by the program.

Those were all likely closed and redistributed to other agents.

If not, the second he touched them, the alarm would go off, alerting them he was still alive.

The more he thought about things, the more panicked he became.

He genuinely had nowhere to go. Jay didn’t exist any longer.

How did he handle that? Everything looked bigger than him.

He couldn’t return to the program. They would simply torture him again until he died.

Hell, maybe Jay would still die. He didn’t know.

All he knew was everything hurt, he was screwed, and that small goddamn touch had him ready to bawl like a baby. Jay couldn’t think clearly.

“Shhh. Calm down. Your heart is beating too fast.” Crisp stroked Jay’s chest in one of the few unbruised places.

A loud beeping penetrated his panic. It took Jay a moment to realize it was the sound of a machine keeping track of his heartbeat.

Crisp kept caressing him. “That’s it. Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. You’re fine. I’ve got you. No one can find you here. You’re safe.”

Jay listened to the sound of Crisp’s voice and the beeping slowed.

“Here.” Crisp ran a piece of ice across Jay’s cracked lips. “Chew on this. It’ll help.”

Jay opened and accepted the ice. Crisp was right. He calmed a little more.

“Take another.” In between feeding him ice chips, Crisp went back to rubbing his chest. Jay felt his body relax. “That’s better. Are you in pain? I can press a button and have more pain meds pushing through your IV in no time, if you need it.”

Jay couldn’t trust drugs right now. They fogged the mind. Jay needed to be alert and ready for anything. He had been taught to push through the pain. “No. I need my head clear in case they come for me.”

A sweet smile touched Crisp’s lips. “I promise you’re safe with me. You realize I’ve had the same training you have, right? I can protect you.”

Jay didn’t want to scoff and hurt any feelings. Not to mention, Crisp currently kept him alive. It would be dumb to antagonize his caretaker. The problem was Jay was already drugged, in pain, and his tongue unguarded.

His eyelids grew heavy as the ice and Crisp’s touch soothed him. “You are so small. I will protect you. You will see.” The Russian accent he had been trained to keep hidden thickened along with the heaviness pressing down on his body. He heard a soft chuckle and then nothing.

The book he had been dying to read sat face down on the bedside table, marking his spot.

Crisp didn’t go back to reading. He stared at his patient.

Jay was all muscle. Crisp wondered if Jay was the name he had chosen for himself, or—like them—he simply still went by his call name from the academy?

All Crisp knew about Jay came from Jay’s first abduction in their home.

He had been dressed like a leather daddy when he had shown up to take Scout back to Russia.

Kuznetsov had intended to use Scout to lure Rain back to him.

Not the program. Him. But once Jay had realized that if he wanted Scout, he had to go through Beau Bosi to get to any of them, his tone had changed quickly.

He had recognized the trap Kuznetsov had set for him.

It was actually a genius plan. Beau wasn’t in Hawaii at the time.

All he had to do was send Jay to grab one of them.

However, Kuznetsov had known something else about the situation Jay hadn’t: Jay had met Beau’s husband, Kylo, before.

He had stopped to rescue Kylo from the side of the road when his tire blew.

No way would sweet Kylo let anyone kill Jay.

So, it was simple: bring back a brother or get captured and released, bringing all the Agafonov running. Either way, Kuznetsov won.

Crisp wondered why Jay had forced Kuznetsov to torture all the info from him that he had gathered while in Beau’s hands.

Crisp didn’t understand. Jay was in bad shape.

Crisp couldn’t believe he had survived so far.

It was obvious Jay had held out for a very long time before breaking.

He had every toenail and fingernail pulled out except for one little toe and a pinky.

That was only because those appendages had been removed.

There was so much damage to his testicles he definitely wouldn’t be having kids.

Of course, most agents were given vasectomies before graduation from the program, but still.

Crisp cringed just thinking about it. He also couldn’t even tell the color of Jay’s eyes through all the blood vessels basically exploding in his eyes.

Austen had said he couldn’t guarantee Jay would regain all of his vision.

Then there were the broken bones. The non-fatal stab wounds that were perfectly placed and cauterized.

They had left him incapacitated with only one stab wound bleeding so he would suffer as long as possible before dying. It was hard to look at.

So, once again, why? That was the question that drove him.

Had Kuznetsov’s betrayal been the straw that broke him?

Maybe, like them, he wanted freedom. For whatever reason, his torture had bought Crisp’s family time.

Precious time they had needed to take down the commander for good.

No matter Jay’s reasoning, Crisp couldn’t let Jay die for them, even if his intentions had nothing to do with saving them.

He also wouldn’t let him be in pain for the sake of pride.

Crisp pressed the button, sending more pain meds through the IV.

He stood and swapped all the bags hanging above Jay to fresh ones.

Crisp had a lot of medical training for his role in Killers Inc.

There was a ton of science behind making people and evidence disappear.

Crisp was just putting that knowledge toward saving someone for once.

All Crisp had needed was for Austen to do the heavy lifting so he could take over the rest of Jay’s care.

A knocking sound caught his attention, freezing him.

Fuck. There was someone at the door. Crisp hurriedly closed off the section of his mini apartment inside Bosi’s ridiculously massive house.

He prayed Jay wouldn’t wake or make a sound.

After pulling himself together, he opened the door. Tracker stood on the other side.

“Hey.” Crisp hated how surprised he sounded, but Tracker never came to his room. He wore surgical gloves. Crisp focused on that. “Why are you wearing gloves? Have you decided to literally cut me loose?” He laughed at his own bad joke. “I don’t think Tidy would help you clean the scene.”

Tracker’s newscaster-worthy smile appeared. “Ha. No. I’m going around gathering the DNA samples we talked about.”

“Oh.” Yay. That was all he could think. Crisp was leery as hell about Tracker’s plan to find out their parentage.

They had already started to drift apart since Field had gotten married.

While Field was more than owed the peace Henry brought to him, he had been the glue.

Crisp hadn’t noticed that until Field chose to take a step back and heal.

Still, nothing good could come of this test.

“Just open up. I’ll swab your cheek and be out of your hair.”

Crisp wanted to reassure Tracker that he didn’t see him as an inconvenience.

Unfortunately, he had a secret patient in another room he couldn’t risk.

While Crisp didn’t think they would harm him, he was their brother after all, he couldn’t say what they would do to Jay.

He was a traitor among them. Dangerous to their new life and freedom.

As Tracker swabbed his cheek, Crisp realized there was no way this would end well.

That didn’t mean he intended to stop. Crisp had heard the humanity in Jay’s voice when he had sworn to keep Crisp safe.

He couldn’t pretend he hadn’t. He wouldn’t.