Chapter 40 Sinister Flavor of Misery
sinister flavor of misery
Sariah
“Let’s go.” The hand attached to my upper arm yanks, the grip firm enough that it’ll leave bruises.
I want to scream “Don’t touch me” but I won’t expend the energy. I need every last ounce to save myself and to save Renée and Rosie. To help Emma escape. I need every ounce of focus on being ready to protect them.
I know the enemy inside. I know the lay of the land. I hate it, but I have the advantage if I can just keep my cool while my worst fears in life come to pass…
Watching my daughter turn gray in fear when I told her why I ran. Seeing the look on her face when I explained why I’d hovered and shielded her so much… It gutted me. All my running was for naught. All our “new beginnings” weren’t worth it.
I told her almost everything on the plane ride. I felt the blood like ice in my veins as I laid out what I never wanted her to know, my secrets, how Rosie became my mom. How I was younger than she was when I hitchhiked to freedom.
I didn’t want to tell her. I don’t want her scared. But I need her prepared.
To be an observer as she put the story together, knowing the man in the cockpit is that heinous and that the danger is this real and present, was glorious and terrifying.
She’s smart.
She’s calculating.
And she’s terrified.
Poor, sweet Emma, though. She whimpered. She fought. She panicked. It took everything I had to keep her quiet. She’s not at risk. She better not be at fucking risk.
We’re dragged from the car one by one. When Rosie—who is last—alights, they begin slowly marching us toward the compound. From here, it doesn’t look like much. Just a hunting cabin set far enough off the road that it doesn’t garner much attention.
But through the doors and out into the property behind lies hell on earth.
Three men are with us. Jonas, the leader and Renée’s biological donor, has her in his grip ahead of me. Another man I don’t recognize holds me. The last is with Rosie at the rear. He drove the car to pick us up.
Emma, unguarded and uncalculating, makes a run back for the road. None of the men look back. My daughter screams her name as the girl runs. Her scream is short-lived since she’s slapped across the face with a swift ferocity that has her face jolting to the side.
“Never,” I seethe. “You will never touch her again—” My words are cut off with a brutal punch to the cheek that puts me on my ass in the dirt.
“Mom!”
I tilt my face to Renée and smile through the tears. “Remember?”
She nods, all the while her chin quivers as she fights to not make a sound. She takes a deep breath, lifts her head, and pulls her shoulders back.
It’s an act. My girl is smart and brave, but no woman or child was ever made for this. And we haven’t even made it inside.
When we do, the first thing to assault me is the smell. I forgot it… forgot about it. It’s earthen mold, with the bitterness of rosemary and the powder of rose. I shut my eyes and take a deep breath, tasting the sinister flavor of misery.
I’m summarily stripped. I stand naked before their greedy eyes, Jonas studying me before turning to my daughter.
I move in front of her, blocking his line of vision. My eyes narrow on him in disgust. “You will not—”
I never finish the sentence.
Pain explodes through my head and blackness sucks me under.
Cian
“What do you mean ‘gone’?”
Liam lifts his head from his screen to simply stare at me, not dignifying my question with a response. He returns his gaze to the laptop, tapping keys with enough force to pop them off their stems.
Ayla extends a hand, grabbing mine and keeping it, squeezing occasionally.
Fitz and Ren speak in low rumbles, hardly audible even on this quiet aircraft. Finally, Ren turns to the group. “Phones on silent. Disable vibration except for the new app. Location services on.”
“It’s a risk,” Fitz puts in.
“One that’s worth it,” Ren trumps his thought.
“Leave no trace,” Liam interjects as Christian yanks up a pant leg and slides a gun from a holster at his ankle.
Liam opens his jacket and hands me one of two pistols inside and a knife from his pocket.
“You didn’t have these at—” I start.
“Nope.”
Ren and Fitz check their weapons as well before holstering them and settling back into the seats. I’ve never seen them in action. Why would I have? But to see the military training transform their faces into nothingness as our wheels touch down is unreal.
Liam drops the lid of his computer, slides it to Ayla, before reopening it and using a fingerprint to unlock it. “Just in case.” He pats his pockets and closes his eyes, taking one deep breath.
Then he speaks.
“Cian, you already decided. You get Renée. No matter what you hear or see, you get her. I’ve got your girl.”
I open my mouth to speak but I’m met with a meaty palm. “I’m in charge now.”
“Christian, find Rosie. Do what you need.” He turns to the two Army veterans. “You two do whatever it is you know to do to keep us safe. First the Ocoteas. After that, us. If it comes down to us or them, you save them. Understood?”
Both men look to Christian, their employer, and Ayla, but don’t wait for permission. “Understood,” echoes from their lips just as the plane slides to a halt.
“Love you, Princess. Do not move.” Christian says to his wife.
“Don’t tell me what to do.”
“My Ayla.” The words are meant only for her as he drops his mouth to hers.
I look away.
“Let’s go.” I stand and lead the charge out of the door, hoping like hell we all return and are four heavy on the flight home.
We pile into the car with Fitz driving and Liam riding shotgun. I won’t swear to it, but being sandwiched between my brother-in-law and an even-larger Ren Gallo seems like containment.
I’m tired of being corralled. I’m tired of being eliminated from deciding on my own mission. Why the hell do I allow people to make decisions for me?
“Li, what’s the layout of this compound?”
He hands his phone to me. Heat signatures move all around. There are hundreds of them.
“How are we supposed to find them? And are we walking into an ambush? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Does it matter?”
“That you didn’t tell me?” Yes, it matters.
“No. That we’re walking into that many people? That extraction is this complicated?”
No, it does not. Shaking my head side to side, I say simply, “No.”
“Exactly. You were going in either way. Which means so are we.”
I clench my fists. “The women will be unarmed and probably afraid. I suspect most of the men have no fire power, but we should expect them to be armed with rudimentary tools. Leadership might be different.”
It’s quiet for several long minutes. “We all come home,” Christian says solemnly as the car glides to a stop.
Liam shoots the compound’s layout to everyone with these final words to me. “I’ll get your girls if it kills me.”
Christian states again, this time with more authority, “We all come home.”
Liam shrugs as if it’s all the same to him as we see a lone figure running down the street. I’d say Emma looks no worse for wear except the terror written all over her.
Fitz pulls over and we exit the car, her panic escalating. “Emma. It’s me, Ci.” I gentle my tone. “We need to save the others and then we’ll head home. Wait in the car?”
She looks over her head back toward our destination before shaking her head and then nodding all in one movement.
She climbs in, trembling and staring wide-eyed at those of us from dinner and the new additions. “We’ll be back. Don’t leave, sweetheart. Finding you was hard enough, okay? I want to get you safely home tonight.”
And that’s not happening without my family.
We head much closer than Emma would like, if her trembling is anything to go by, and exit the car looking at the cabin before us. This is feeling more and more like a suicide mission.
The heaviness in my gut.
The lightness in my head.
The pure vacancy where my heart should be.
We can’t afford to fail. I can’t afford to lose my girl. Again. And losing her daughter would be the same for her.
And I won’t lose these men who stepped up in my most desperate time.
I open my mouth, ready to say something profound, only to watch Ren make a hand gesture to Fitz who returns it in kind just as they disappear into the trees without a sound.
Christian is less stealth. Hell, he’s in dress shoes.
Liam dissolves before my very eyes, the evil grin on his face one that chills me to the bone.
And I’m left…
Left with the biggest challenge of my life.
One I cannot fail.