Chapter 11
11
CADEN
“ W ould you stop fucking grinning!” Every time she glanced sideways at him, he was smiling that crooked ‘pleased-with-himself-I’m-so-hot-and-look-at-these-great-abs’ smile. It took a concentrated effort on her part to keep her own lips in a firm line.
They were strolling down the halls of the hospital-turned-makeshift prison, waltzing into an almost certain doom, and there he was, grinning like they were skipping down the rainbow bridge headed for Middle Earth.
Or no, she was getting her Hobbits and Norse gods mixed up, but it was understandable seeing as how high school had been a long time ago, and even then she barely even attended before she’d dropped out. The point was, he had to stop grinning like an idiot. It was doing weird things to her stomach, weird fluttery things she refused to acknowledge as butterflies—because they weren’t fucking butterflies.
“What?” He only smiled wider as his eyes strayed down to her lips.
“You know what . Stop!” She mentally shook herself, about-faced, and strode further down the hall before she gave into the insane urge to kiss him again.
The first part of the plan had gone off without a hitch. Now they only had to make it outside, commandeer a vehicle, and drive off into the sunset. All the while remaining undetected and hoping like hell a firefight didn’t break out because they were woefully outnumbered and laughably outgunned.
“Do you like Mexican food?” He caught up in two strides and was once again at her elbow, still grinning. Caden decided her best defense was to not look at him and concentrate on the escape at hand.
Savage had the AK-47 slung over his shoulder. An automatic that was unreliable, at best, taking into consideration the frequent jamming of the model. The smaller handgun she’d pilfered off the guard only had one extra clip, good for close range, and that was about it. She kept that tucked into her baggy jeans. The pen knife she found on the bigger man’s body was in her left hand and making her all kinds of wistful for her own weapons.
“I can’t even look at a burrito without getting queasy—not since that mishap in Mexico.” Maybe ‘mishap’ wasn’t the right word for the six months she’d spent in the sweltering heat that was the Yuma, and the scant seven minutes it took for it all to go to hell.
“How ‘bout Italian?”
Briefly, she entertained the possibility of her captors having her gear. And shit, if she was going to go down that road, maybe they’d even catch themselves a leprechaun. It was using its magical rainbow abilities to clean the assortment of knives and guns she kept on her person when she wasn’t imprisoned. Wasn’t that a nice thought? Maybe she’d get a unicorn with built-in GPS, too.
Drugs left over from the last torture session had to be the reason she was feeling all light-headed and weirdly giddy. Or maybe Savage just brought out her whimsical rainbows and fucking daisies side.
In any case, it was not her current captors who had her weapons. It was the shit-buckets who’d sold her in the first place. They would have already either pawned them off or pocketed them. Not an altogether pleasant thought. In fact, it was kind of sickening. Her Karambit was most likely being used as a nail file in the sweaty fist of some idiot who didn’t know his ass from his hat.
“Eh?” Discomfited at the proximity of the man and the way his heat was soaking into her skin, she shuffled to the left and tried not to scowl. “Sure.”
A door opened up at the end of the hall. A short, uniformed man stepped out. They’d passed a few already, but the others had been too occupied in conversation or on their phones to notice. This guy was a loner and already glancing down the hallway at them.
“Do you like dancing?” Nathan leaned over and got all up in her personal bubble again with his body heat and his intense stare.
It was unnerving and frustrating.
The man at the end of the hall zipped up his fly and started towards them.
They were in a situation and he was busy picking out curtains and naming their nonexistent children.
“Savage.” Caden made sure to keep her face pleasant and her tone light—the man was three feet from them now and squinting as if he was trying to place their faces. Fuck. “Focus.”
“I’m multitasking.” Lopsided grin on megawatt, he lunged, with more grace than a man of his size should have, clipped the side of the guard’s head, and the man was down for the count.
Boxing one-o-one: hit them hard on a pressure point, the blood flow to the brain is momentarily cut off, and the body responds by shutting down.
“What are you doing!?” Caden resisted the urge to swat the annoying ex-agent upside the head. “Now we have to hide another fucking body!”
For a second, the mercenary was struck by her own words and just how incredibly... standard they were. How much different would her life be if she never had to say those words? It was a normal occurrence for her to be standing over a body looking for a nook or cranny to stuff it into, but did other people—normal people—have to hide bodies or ever voice that sentence? Probably not.
“I’m getting you shoes.” He shoved the body over and started tugging off his laced-up combat boots. “He’s small, like you, so I figured...”
“I’m not small,” was all Caden could work up in response, seeing as how all her mental efforts were focused on battling the sheen of tears that’d sprung up in her eyes.
What the actual fuck?
The fact that he took out some random asshole to get her shoes should not be making her all emotional and crazy. What the hell was wrong with her?
Lack of sleep and malnutrition.
That’s what it was.
“You are small. Small and lethal—and sexy as hell.” He was grinning again and holding out the combat boots.
“Would you stop—you’re just embarrassing yourself.” Caden tried hard not to smile at the giant, but it was difficult when he was smirking at her and trying to be all charming.
“Ya know.” The boots were a wee bit too big for her, but they’d work. “I’m starting to think I was wrong about this being a prison.” It almost felt weird to wear shoes again.
“I’m starting to think so, too.” Nathan was frowning and staring down at the body, now bound, gagged, and stuffed in the bathroom he’d come out of.
Everything she’d predicted so far was off. They’d been on two floors now and there was the random guard or two. They’d found no holding cells or even rooms that remotely resembled the one they’d been in. Then there was the lack of torture sounds coming from other jailees. Which only led to the assumption that there were no other prisoners.
She had been right about the CCTV, though. The concerning thing about that was there were no patrols to make up for it. Sure, they’d passed the odd guard or two, but they hadn’t looked like they’d been actually guarding.
“All right, fuck, let’s go.” There was no turning back now, and she was sure as hell getting Savage out.
Another flight of stairs and two corridors later, they finally found an out. Double doors with big square windows cut into them that shone in the sunlight like the holy fucking grail. Between them and the doors were guards. There were three of them, standing around a computer laughing at something on the screen. They were all wearing the same thing, all armed, and all looked capable.
“Okay.” Caden stepped back into the stairwell. “I say we try walking right past ‘em. Hell, they probably won’t even look up.”
“I think.” His face was torn between concentrating on the making of a plan and his mounting concern for her well-being. Caden could see the internal war he was waging with himself whenever she breathed too shallowly or leaned too far over for his liking. She tried to suck it up and blank her expression so the man wouldn’t throw her over his shoulder and try to escape all by himself. “Okay, how ‘bout you stay here and I’ll take care of it?”
“Pfft.” Was he joking? “And how exactly are you gonna take care of it? You don’t speak the language and you have no money to do any kind of bribing. I mean sexual favors, maybe, but I can hardly see you getting on your knees.”
“Well, that all depends on who I’m kneeling for.” He paused to arch a suggestive eyebrow at her and Caden willed her face not to flush. “Don’t worry, I’ve got it.”
“What are you gonna do? Question ‘em to death?”
“Caden, I feel like—and this is just a vibe that I’m getting—that you underestimate me.”
“If you shoot at them or start a shoot-out, you’ll bring the whole damn house down on us.” What was he not understanding? Was it a man thing where he had to prove his macho-ness?
“I understand and I won’t. Don’t worry.”
“Nathan!” Caden was snarling and pissed. “There are three of them, three . You, mister macho man, are gonna need this woman’s help. Now shut up and?—”
“Ya know, I’ve noticed that you only call me Nathan when you’re concerned for me.”
“Shut up.” God, she could punch him.
“Look, you stay right here and be impressed.” He grinned and stepped out into the lobby.
“If you get yourself killed, I’m not even gonna bury your ass. I’m gonna fucking write, ‘TOLD YOU SO’ on your dead damn forehead and everyone’s gonna laugh at your ass.”
“I can live with that.”
“You wouldn’t be living in that scenario, dumbass! You’d be fucking dead.”
“Kiss for luck?”
Caden only glared when he bent down and offered his lips. After she made no move to kiss him, he only grinned, took her hand, and pressed his lips to it.
The thief leaned the AK-47 against the wall for support and lined up the head of the meanest-looking asshat. Stupid Savage. He was thinking she was some dainty female who needed protecting. Fuck that.
They didn’t notice him, which was hard to believe because the man was huge, until he was right on them. They looked up in unison, amused grins dissolving, replaced with confusion, and they almost had time to be suspicious, but then Savage was taking them apart.
Guard one went down first with a hit to the balls and then a quick and efficient snapping of his neck. Guard two went for his gun about the same time Nathan’s hand slammed into his throat. He sputtered and gasped and reached for his neck like he was trying to hold it together. Guard three had his gun out of its holster by the time Nathan rounded on him. Savage stepped in close, grabbed the gun hand, disarmed him by yanking the Glock out of his hold, and proceeded to bash the same gun against his temple. Number three went down without a sound.
“Show off.” Caden could do nothing but smirk at the man who’d just downed three guards, unarmed and tortured. It wouldn’t be entirely truthful if she said she wasn’t turned on by his obvious skill.
Okay, a lot turned on.
Hell, if he’d done it shirtless, she’d have probably thrown him down and had her way with him on the spot.
Nathan grinned and righted, looking all too pleased with himself.
“So...” He grabbed the biggest guy’s feet and pulled the dead weight behind the desk. “Now, do you wanna have my babies?”
“Oh my god—shut up.” Well, at least he hadn’t done it because he was some kind of sexist asshole. He’d wanted to impress her. Which, maybe, would have been kind of sweet if they weren’t in such a horrible-high-stakes-one-mistake-and-die kind of situation.
She left the hiding of the bodies to him and moved towards the far side of the room. The mercenary peered out the slit in the concrete that passed for a window and memorized the layout of the ridiculously expansive courtyard. A football field-sized courtyard that had absolutely nothing for cover. No big rocks or trees or dilapidated vehicles or even a goddamn outhouse.
They were fucked.
What the fuck was Kyott into nowadays? This was not his usual MO.
They had to get by a small army undetected and that was all before the gate entrance, where three armed guards stood at their posts checking the IDs of the passengers coming in and out of the compound.
Completely fucking fucked there as well.
“Okay...” Nathan joined her and looked rather discouraged after a quick scan of the courtyard. “Well...”
“We’re fucked,” Caden supplied helpfully.
He turned his attention back to her and smiled that crooked, playful smile of his.
“Look at that, we’re already finishing each others sentences.”
“Savage.” She should never have kissed his dumbass.
“Hey, you opened this can of worms and it just so happens to be a can of worms I like.”
“Ew.”
“But maybe pretend I didn’t equate our would-be love to worms.”
Caden couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of his cringing face.
“Okay, Casanova.” Caden turned back towards the window. “Here’s what I’m thinking. You see those SUVs over there?”
Three black SUVs were parked on the left side of the building.
“Yeah?”
“Well, let’s get to one without getting caught and hijack it.”
“Okay, but what about the three armed guards on patrol at the gate, and then there’s a shit load of men that will rain fire on our asses when we get stopped and spotted at the gate.”
“I don’t know. I’m fucking making this up as I go along. I’ll happily take any suggestions.” He shook his head and motioned for her to continue. “We can make a new door in the walls. Hopefully, it’s not reinforced steel. Or run them over and hope those SUVs are bulletproof.”
“Suddenly,” he went back to the three downed bodies and went through pockets and wallets, “I’m not feeling so confident.”
A slightly muffled voice came out of a radio on one of the bodies.
Caden’s blood started to race. They were so fucking dead. She reached over, ripped a radio from the pile of bodies and dragged Savage, as much as she could drag the two-hundred-some odd pounds of man flesh, towards the door.
“Yeah, join the fucking club.” She checked her handgun and made sure the AK-47 was loaded and strapped to her back. “They just found us out. We’ve gotta do this now.”
The radio blared again.
“Okay, this might be your last chance to get another smooch.” His eyes were concentrated on their surroundings and he was checking his weapons at the same time. “Thought I should make ya aware of that.”
“How ‘bout we make it past that gate—not sporting body bags or toe tags and I’ll kiss ya ‘til you’re blue in the face.” She would do a whole helluva lot more than just kiss him if they survived, but he didn’t need to know that.
“Promise?” He checked his clip, glanced up, and touched her shoulder. Like he was trying to convey something. Like he was saying goodbye. Like he was saying good luck. Like he was trying to put a lifetime’s worth of words into one touch.
Which was so much more intimate than a kiss. And had the effect of pissing her off, scaring the shit out of her, and confusing her all at once. So she did the only thing she could do in defense: turned away and pushed through the double doors.
The sunlight was almost overwhelming. Grass was crunching under her stolen boots. The fresh air was in her lungs. For a moment, she felt... alive. She felt a surge of sun-fueled adrenaline and had to repress the sudden urge to giggle and go off skipping through the green green grass.
But then all hell broke loose and the giddy feeling building in her gut was effectively snuffed.