Chapter 14
There is no part of me that isn’t broken all over again as Jade walks toward me.
The strength she has humbles me to my marrow. If I wasn’t already madly in love with the woman, this would be the moment.
Head held high, hands bloodied from her restraints, visibly trembling, she crosses the concrete to come to me.
I love you. I try to tell her with my eyes. I’m so, so sorry.
But I’m not sure she will see past my anger.
Fury crackles under my skin. A lightning storm looking for an escape. Ready to burn this fucking place down.
Starting with Trevor.
Jade never takes her eyes off of mine. She’s breathing raggedly, a wheeze in her lungs as she climbs onto my lap, a yellow sundress she wasn’t wearing when they grabbed her, pools around my hips.
There’s nothing I want more than to wrap her in my arms and promise her it will be okay.
Fuck! With all my power, I jerk against the cuffs holding my wrists. Jolting hard enough to rattle my teeth.
I need to hold her.
Must protect her.
I failed her before. Let them take her from the car, didn’t anticipate the ambush.
Now she’s paying. The operative in me sees this situation for what it is. How the odds are stacked.
Things are going to be violent, ugly and very likely deadly. And I hate that with every cell of my being for her sake.
I’ve never craved blood. Until now. I’ll savor watching them bleed and beg for mercy as I gut them.
My thigh burns as I twist against the zip-tie holding my leg to the chair.
It will give. I can break it. But I stop when she reaches me.
Tears spill down her cheeks and she rests her hands against my face. “I’m so glad you’re alive. We made it. We’re together,” she whispers and her bravery ruptures my heart.
“Take the tape off of his mouth,” the bastard calls from the other side of his little theater of horror as the cameras in the corners record every gory scene.
Using her fingernails, she finds the edge of the tape and pulls slowly at first. “Oh god, I’m making it worse by going slow.”
I tell her with my eyes, do it.
She exhales hard and rips the tape free, tearing skin. I suck in a breath and immediately start whispering to her. “Do whatever he says. We get out there in the field and I can protect you.”
“Awww, listen to those hollow promises,” the dead mother fucker snorts.
I swivel my head his direction. “Wanna bet? You do know who I am, right?”
Jade fists my shirt. “Ryker,” she whimpers.
The man prowls around us. “Tough man, huh?”
I incinerate him with my eyes.
“All hard and badass.” He chuckles. “Let’s see if you can fuck your lady on camera with thousands of people watching.”
My right leg snaps the plastic cuff that was holding me to the chair.
Jade jumps in surprise and begins whispering frantically. “Please, please, don’t move.”
I continue to work the other ankle cuff.
“Alright, let’s see people.” The demented gameshow host motions toward the cameras. “Bets are open, you think he can get it up and give us a show.”
Fuck. No.
Jade’s fingers tremble against my cheek as she looks into my eyes. “Do whatever you have to do.”
I lean up to press my lips against her ear, in complete disbelief I have to do this, but more certain than I’ve ever been in my life.
I have to take control of this situation now.
“Trust me. I’m calling his bluff. It’s going to be ugly. You’re not expendable. Definitely not to me. Or him.”
I feel the moment she realizes what I’m going to do. “Whatever it takes.”
I shift back, putting space between us and find his weasel-eyed gaze. “I won’t fuck her for you or your online audience. Kill her. Kill me. She’s mine and I don’t share even with a gun to my head.”
Jade doesn’t flinch, but her pupils constrict sharply.
There’s a span of complete, stone-cold silence. This is when the playing field shifts, or the moment we die.
The hunters are staring, the ring-leader is twitching mad.
For a few seconds, I wonder if he’s going to put a bullet through both of us.
So be it. We go together.
“He’s thinking,” Jade whispers barely audible without moving her lips.
“She’s too valuable,” I tell the fucker. “You won’t have your show tonight. Isn’t this about the hours of desperation and survival?”
He’s silent, white knuckling his anger, so I go on.
“This is too blunt. She’d be done. And the rest of the game would be over too soon, because you put me in the field, I’ll eat your men alive. You hamper me with keeping her alive, you’ve got your show.”
She’s steady against me, her eyes becoming more focused.
I meet her gaze, my voice growing thicker while I speak loud enough for him and his audience to hear. “She knows I’m going to fight to keep her safe. Always.”
Jade swallows roughly, but her spine is straight. When she leans in and kisses my cheek she whispers, “You got him. Don’t let up.”
“So, when does your game begin?” I challenge him. “Or does it end right here?”
A cell phone rings somewhere off to the side and another man steps into the glaring lights to deliver it to the ringleader.
Vesuvius. What a fucking nickname.
The air seems to thicken with tension as he listens for a moment. “Yes. Yes,” he mutters, pacing.
Stabbing the end call button, he whirls on us.
“Untie him,” he orders his helper, a new kind of anger in his tone that tells me there’s a higher level boss.
Realizing that we’ve just been given a chance, Jade sags, the motion barely perceptible. But the softening in her stomach lets her draw a full breath.
“Someone called him off,” I whisper.
He isn’t the decision-maker of this crime ring.
A new truth settles inside of me. If we live through this fucking bullshit, I’m taking them all down. One decapitated body at a time. Around the world, if that’s what I need to do.
The helper moves toward me, grumbling as a knife blade slides below my cuffs, releasing my arms.
Bloody, mangled, I grab her close. “You’re so brave. So strong. I love you so fucking much.”
“I love you too, Ryker. Thank you for what you did.”
He cuts my other leg free and I stand up, cradling her into my body. The tranq is gone. I’m strong enough to carry her all night if I need to.
Vesuvius is staring, blinking up at me almost comically.
I’m a foot taller. A hundred-fifty pounds heavier than him.
That’s right. I let a cold grin slide into place as I lower Jade to the floor, keeping her close. “Take a good look so you’ll recognize me in your nightmares.”
He flinches.
It’s subtle, but it was there.
“Well, alright,” he redirects, clapping his hands together sharply. “This just keeps getting more interesting. Let’s get this party started. He might be big, but you know what they say… the bigger the tree, the harder it falls.”
I expect canned laughter to pour from a speaker, but there’s no sound.
Only a computer screen that I can see now that I’m standing.
It’s a betting platform. Avatars and usernames are along one side. Thousands of bets are moving up the screen on the other side.
Millions of dollars are being wagered.
We’re right in the middle of something big. And our only worth is the entertainment value.
Jesus.
The brutal facts fall into place. Six hunters will pursue us in the woods at night. It’s unfamiliar terrain. We’re not the first kidnapped participants.
Now everything about that list of names Jade found makes sense. Disappearances with cover ups or closed cases. Jade’s father, the Sheriff somehow involved.
“The game starts now.” He says with a flourish, regaining his haughty-ass attitude that I’m going to enjoy beating out of him. “You run. You hide. You try not to die.”
I’m going to enjoy the hell out of saying the same to him.
“And if we survive do we get to go free?” Jade asks, stepping closer to my side, her hand resting against my back making my throat constrict with emotion.
“No.”
He motions to the cameras, pointing to all corners of the patio room.
“They’re not betting on whether you live, it’s how long you live and who dies first. There’s no get out of jail card here.”
“There’s a first time for everything,” she mutters, turning and walking away, spine locked straight.
He stares at her back as she stalks toward the dark tree line and I want to thumb his eyeballs out for ever looking at her.
“What are the rules?” I demand.
His gaze flicks to mine, amused. “You might want to step on it. You get twenty minutes head start. Then you’re fair game.
No weapons for you. No cold-weather clothing.
And by the way, the tracking collars you’re both wearing have cameras in them and they’re explosive, so I don’t recommend trying to get them off. ”
I’m on him before he can react, my hand lashed around his pencil-dick throat.
“Anyone place bets on whether you get your trachea crushed?”
He gurgles, his feet kicking at my shins until I drop him to the floor and stalk away.
When I stride past the hunters, I look each in the eye. Letting them see the monster that’s been unleashed in their arena.
“Game on, motherfuckers.”