Chapter Seventeen #3
She breathed her in. They’d been friends for long enough that now they were family. Lou was closer to Kala, but she’d always been there for Kenzie, too. “What I had to. Tell me how they hurt you.”
“She wasn’t raped.” Huisman’s eyes rolled as if that was so boring a punishment he wouldn’t dream of it.
“I told you I need her. She attempted to escape, and my men brought her back. It’s her fault because she fought them.
I assure you I didn’t want her arm injured, and I know how easy it is to mentally break a woman.
I need her working, not sitting around crying about a little sex. ”
“He’s not lying,” Lou whispered. “I did try to escape.”
“And now you will have reasons to focus on your work,” Huisman said. “Take her back.”
Lou was dragged from her arms, tears streaking down her face.
Kenzie kept her own expression blank, though she was caught between anger and terror. “She’ll do what you need her to do.”
Lou’s eyes went wide. “Kala…”
“She will,” Huisman agreed. “And she’ll do it quickly. You will be taken to the lab. We should continue our experiments. I didn’t get to look at your heart after our last session. I’m intrigued to find out how it handled my drugs.”
He nodded, and the other guards took Kenzie by the arms.
She wanted to fight but Lou was right there with guns trained on her. “I’ll be all right.”
Lou’s head shook, and she looked to Huisman. “I told you. I don’t know how Shannon did it.”
“You’re a smart girl. Or at least that’s what everyone tells me.
Kala will be having sessions with me. I can only focus on her when I’m not working on my main project,” Huisman explained as though it was all a normal academic process to torture someone for science.
“So how often and long our sessions are depends on you, Ms. Ward.”
“You can’t do this to her. She could die after what you already put her through,” Lou pleaded, terror plain in her eyes.
Because Lou thought she was Kala, and that might scare her into doing something she didn’t have to. Kenzie could handle the pain. She feared it, but she didn’t fear anything more than losing her family.
“I’ll be okay. It’s like Mrs. Stapleton’s class in high school. I hated it so much, but I survived,” she said. “It’s as boring as that was, but somehow I came through it.”
Lou stopped for the briefest moment.
Kenzie took that class for Kala while Kala took her chemistry class.
They would exchange clothes in the locker rooms after lunch.
Lou knew it. Lou’s eyes closed, tears dripping, and when she opened them again Kenzie saw the knowledge there.
The knowledge that she had time. That someone was coming. That their team wouldn’t let them down.
And then she was back on. “This isn’t some fucking lecture, Kala. It’s not boring. It’s pain. He wants to kill you.”
“Nah. I think he wants to play with my insides to see if I’m worthy to carry his demon spawn.
He might not have offered up rape as part of your torture, but it’s on the menu for me.
” She wasn’t stupid. He was a walking pile of misogyny and therefore would reduce any woman he found intriguing to a walking womb.
Although she probably wouldn’t be walking. He would ensure she couldn’t fight.
That was why she had her family.
They dragged Lou out and she was left with Huisman and a bunch of guards surrounding her.
“I’m glad we understand each other, Kala Taggart.
” Huisman came in close. He ran his fingers down her cheek as though tracing the red marks his own hand had left.
“I’m going to enjoy the next few hours, and you should understand that I recorded all of this and I’m going to send it to your sister.
I think she’ll love to hear how you speak of her. ”
Oh, he loved to cause pain. If she’d heard her sister talking about her that way…
Well, she would know her sister was playing a role.
It was there, actually. Now that she was at her bottom, facing something truly terrible, she knew nothing would shake her sister’s love.
Or her parents’ or her friends’. She was blessed beyond measure with love.
She just wished she’d been the one for Ben, but it was time to move on. “It won’t surprise her.”
“Well, let’s see if I can surprise you. Take her to my lab.”
Kenzie kept her mouth closed as they hauled her away. She figured she would need the energy to scream.
* * * *
Ben looked to Big Tag. “Come on, the sun’s down. Can we move now?”
It had been a vicious form of torture to sit in the forest outside of the castle waiting for the right time to move in. Hours. Four, to be exact. Four hours and twenty-two minutes he’d been sitting in this van while the rest of the team did recon.
He wasn’t allowed to leave the van because apparently he was a puppy who liked to lose his leash, and Big Tag wanted a disciplined pack today.
His future father-in-law was weird.
He kind of loved him.
Ben, it wasn’t your fault what Huisman did.
It certainly wasn’t your fault that he targeted your parents, and your father’s reaction was something he needs to examine himself.
But how you react is yours. You talk like Manny forces you to do things, but you have choices.
It’s time to accept that and find a way out, and you’re not going to do that by ignoring the situation.
Therapy. Big Tag wanted him in therapy, and Ben was starting to think that he wasn’t wrong.
He would do it for Kenzie because she mattered.
Because she was where his loyalty lay now.
Kenzie and her family. If he wanted to fit in, he could sit in a room and talk about his feelings for a couple of weeks. He could do it.
Or he could do it because he didn’t want to live this way anymore. He could do it because he wanted to be better for her and himself and the people around him.
Big Tag turned his way. “I’m waiting for shift change. If it’s anything like his Nepal operation, it should be in fifteen. That’s why I had you change into tactical gear.”
The van was borrowed from a man Tag worked with from time to time. He was State Intelligence Agency, and he’d opened a lot of doors for them. SIA was on the ground, though further back, and they would provide logistics and backup if they needed it, but only after they’d extracted Kenzie and Lou.
It was tight but built for remote work. He was in the first van, the one that had the satellite connection. He’d been studying Kenzie’s work. She’d actually pointed to this property as one for them to research.
“But I want the go-ahead from TJ and Cooper first,” Big Tag continued.
Charlotte moved in behind him, putting a hand on Ben’s shoulder. “I know how scared you are. I am, too, but we have to do this right and we have to be clear on our mission priorities.”
“She means she wants everyone to know who’s doing what.” Kala had been a peach. Well, if a peach felt like a walking grenade and someone had pulled her pin.
He knew what she was saying, but it might help to say it again. “I only care about Kenzie and Lou. I’m only going to interact with Manny if it means sparing her more pain. If I can trade myself for either one, I will.”
“And that’s why I want to bench you,” Tag admitted.
“Ian, we talked about this. If you bench him, he’ll do something even more dangerous,” Charlotte said.
“Or I can tranq him and ship his ass back to Canada,” Kala offered.
“Don’t start again.” Tasha had helped him work through all of Kenzie’s research, which pointed to this castle being an excellent place for him to launch his plans. She’d been at the airport with her mother and Sami and Lucy when they’d been ready to go.
He’d found out Oliver was pissed to be left behind, but his sister had told him those were the breaks and she’d brief him later.
Sami and Lucy were in a Jeep on the other side of the castle, and Tris, Cooper, and TJ were in a third vehicle, so they had a triangulated outlook on the eerie-looking castle.
“I’m not going to freak out, and I’m not going to martyr myself.
” He stood, closing the lid to the laptop.
“But according to Kenzie’s own research, there were several shipments that match the chemicals we believe are in both the drugs and support the bombs he’s building.
Obviously we can’t track the anthrax, but he has everything else he needs.
He’s got the drugs he used to damn near kill Kala. He’s had her for hours.”
“Yes, but Tris already found a way to cut into their feed,” Kala replied.
“Besides, we know she was talking shit only a couple of hours ago. He says Huisman didn’t show up until right before we received that video of her.
I think it’s safe to say he hasn’t figured out he has the wrong twin yet.
He sent it to hurt Kenzie, not realizing Kenzie was talking about herself, and we’re going to have a chat, my sister and I. ”
“It could be AI like the video of me and Deanna.” Who he’d discovered was absolutely dead.
Another of Manny’s tricks. He’d talked to his handler, and Tim had done some work from his hospital bed at The Garden.
After they’d been stabilized, both Tim and Sosa had been quietly brought back to The Garden via a set of tunnels Knight used from time to time.
Tim had verified that Deanna’s body was in a grave.
Ben didn’t like to think how they’d done that, and so quickly.
Kala’s head shook. “Nope, that was my sister and that was Lou, and at the end Lou knew it was Kenzie so she’ll hold up on making those bombs.
Hell, if I know my bestie, she’s planning some shit.
And TJ had to see her with her face all fucked up and he stayed calm.
His only focus is killing everyone who stands between him and Lou.
I want to believe that’s yours as well.”
The things Kenzie said about herself. “She doesn’t believe it, right? She knows everyone loves her.”