Chapter 22
Cam raced to the back of the tent and ripped at the zipper. A wave of déjà vu hit her. But this time, she’d escape. With Brooks.
Brooks’s fingers on the inside of her upper arm assured her he was present. Still, fear climbed up her spine as she stepped through the door. “Watch your head,” she whispered.
Brooks stepped out, ducking away from the branches.
“They went out the back!” Leonetti’s cry pierced the walls of the tent.
Cam grabbed his hand and towed him through the trees. “There’s a steep ravine ahead.” She picked up the pace, breaking into a run. Rocks cut at her wounded feet, but she didn’t care. She was too close to escaping. Brooks was here. Everything was okay now.
A flashlight’s beam lit up her body like a Christmas tree.
“There they are!” Men rushed through the trees.
Brooks cursed. He ushered her away. “Run! Nash will find you.”
She stopped, and her mouth dropped open. “I’m not leaving you!” The cry tore from her throat.
Brooks turned a ferocious scowl her way. “Now, dammit! Before you get us both killed!” He ran in the direction of the guards. Panic pulled at her body. A deep cold settled over her skin—she needed a weapon, a branch. Anything. She couldn’t leave him to be tortured and tested to death.
Brooks attacked the men as though he were a pit bull. Grabbing one of the guards by the neck, he threw him into the trunk of a tree. A sickening thunk followed. Next, he grabbed another guard’s gun, jabbing the handle of it into its owner’s face, then turned it and aimed it at the other men.
Three more guards came around the side of the tent, weapons trained on Brooks. “Hands in the air!” Bullets fired. Brooks cried out and staggered, one hand covering his leg.
No!
She yanked her feet from the muddy earth. “Br—”
A rough hand clapped over her mouth, cutting off the scream. She was lifted off her feet, her back pressed to a man’s thick, hefty chest. Her feet dangled in the air as he kept them backed against a tree. Her breath hissed out roughly. The scent of sweat—not hers—tickled her nose. They’d caught her. Again. They’d torture and kill them both. Her head swam in a thick mist, threatening to steal her consciousness.
“Don’t scream. It’s me—Nash.” His soft breath huffed against her ear. Immense relief took hold of her, and she went limp in his hold. Slowly, he peeled his fingers away, taking her breath with them. He lowered her toes to the ground but kept her secured against the front of his body. “Don’t move. We’re surrounded.”
She wet her lips and peered into the shadows as her eyes continued adjusting to the darkness. Movement twenty yards to her left caught her eye. She watched as a guard trekked through the foliage, swiping branches out of his way.
Her lips burned with the need to tell Nash to leave. But, call it selfish or just plain survival, she didn’t dare open her mouth. If he left her, she’d die. He was her—and Brooks’s—only chance. When the guard was out of sight, she blinked then turned her head a fraction of an inch to the side. “We need to get to Brooks. He’s been shot.”
Nash tensed. “They won’t let him die. They need him too badly.”
“That’s not reassuring,” she said, the words coming out clipped and harsh. Now wasn’t the time to rely on Leonetti’s desires. He was insane. He’d want Brooks to suffer at his hand.
“I’m going to get you to our vehicle and then go back for him.”
“No way.”
His hand tensed on her forearm. “Too bad.”
“I’m not leaving him.”
“I’ll knock you out if I have to. Not my first choice, but I promised Brooks I’d get you out of here. Do you want his efforts to be for nothing?”
A stinging sensation built behind her eyes, making moisture collect at her nose. She sniffed and pressed her lips together to slow the tremble. “No.”
“Then do as I say and you both might fucking live.”
She bit the sides of her tongue. Distaste filled her, but she couldn’t let her ego get in the way of saving Brooks’s life. If Nash was protecting her, he’d have a harder time getting to Brooks. “Do you have an extra gun?”
Nash peeked around her shoulder. “You can shoot?”
“Well enough.”
He sighed, reached behind him, and pulled out what looked like a Beretta. Pressing the cool metal into her palm, he scanned the trees. “Don’t shoot unless you have to. My brothers are around.”
Hope inflated her chest. “They are?”
He snorted. “Heck yeah. I don’t know what the hell they’re doing—probably having a pissing match somewhere. Idiots.” He let go of his hold on her. “The truck is on the road. Dare keeps a spare key in the console. If anything happens, get yourself out, got it?”
“Okay,” she mumbled.
He gripped her shoulder. “I need you to promise.”
She searched his face. His eyes were cold and hard.
“All right. I promise.”
“Good. Start moving.” He nodded to her left.
She peeked around the tree at the tent. The forest was eerily quiet. “They must have him.” She pressed her toes into the soft earth and winced as her foot caught a sharp rock. Nash came up beside her, ushering her through the trees.
“Shit, where are your shoes?”
She screwed up her face. “I didn’t have time to grab them before the asshole shocked me with a stun gun,” she said dryly.
He swept his arm around her waist, bearing most of her weight. “I’d carry you, but I need to be able to shoot.”
“I’m fine. Honest.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t need Brooks bitching at me for making you walk. Just a bit father, okay?”
She let him half-carry her through the trees. The soles of her feet throbbed. If it turned out that she needed to run, she’d probably be a goner.
A tree branch snapped. The sound echoed through the dense woods. Nash froze, his arm extending in front of them. She clenched her lips together to smother her gasp. Moving her finger on the trigger, she flitted her eyes around the shadows.
Please, God. Don’t let Nash get hurt because of me, too.
“Freeze! Drop your weapon! You’re surrounded.”
Nash’s body tensed against hers. Three guards moved out of the trees.
“On the ground! Now!”
Nash muttered a curse and lowered his gun, keeping her glued to his side. Cam’s heart beat frantically in her chest as she dropped her weapon to a pile of leaves.
They weren’t getting out of this now.
***
Slam!
Brooks’s back connected with the metal hospital bed, sending a shock through his spine. He swung a jab into a heavyset guard. Blood splattered from the man’s mouth as he went down.
“Tim!” shouted one of the men trying to restrain Brooks’s feet. A third guard wrestled Brooks’s left arm down, pressing his weight into Brooks’s shoulder.
Using all his strength, Brooks kicked the man at his feet in the chest, sending him barreling backward. The man at his side widened his eyes but didn’t let go. Brooks reached up, grabbed his head, and snapped it to the side. The sound of cracking bones bounced off the tent’s walls. The man’s lifeless body slithered to the floor.
He stared at the carnage around him. Tim was sprawled unconscious on the floor, and the man he’d kicked lay on his side, his hand pressed to his chest and a sharp wheeze coming from his lungs. “Y-You broke my ribs.”
Brooks swung his legs off the table. Bastards. A deep throb burned from the outside of his thigh, where he’d been shot. He didn’t look at it. No time to slow down, and it didn’t feel as though a bullet was lodged in it. Probably a graze.
Hands clapped. Brooks frowned and snapped his gaze to Leonetti, who was standing near the front of the tent, three more guards at his side.
“I’m impressed, thirty-six,” he said, still clapping. “It’s been days since you’ve had the Axalantheum injection and you’re still performing well. I believe you’re benefiting from permanent changes. I’m eager to see how you’ll be affected when we up your dosage.”
The muscles in Brooks’s neck threatened to snap. He took two steps forward. “Go to hell.”
One of the guard’s radio’s crackled. “It’s Olsen. We’ve found her and another man. On our way back to the tent now.”
Leonetti’s mouth stretched into a grin.
“Copy that,” the guard replied. “Over.”
“Well,” Leonetti said, slapping his palms together and rubbing them. “Let’s chat, shall we, Brooks?”
Just hearing his name on the sick doctor’s lips triggered his rage. For the entire time Brooks had been with Leonetti, the man had rarely used his name. Usually just the demeaning number—thirty-six. A constant reminder that he was nothing more than Leonetti’s property.
“Fuck you.” He stormed forward. The disgust he felt inside him was violent, and its branding heat spurred him on. This time he wouldn’t hold back. He’d rip Leonetti to shreds. The monster couldn’t hurt Cam if he was dead before she got here. She’d already endured too much because she’d helped him. She didn’t deserve all this, and he wouldn’t let Leonetti get within ten feet of her ever again.
Leonetti’s eyes darkened. “I have a bargaining tool you’ll want to meet. And your girlfriend isn’t going to want to miss this.”
Brooks slowed his pace. He stopped several feet from his target. Rage radiated from his head to his toes. Never in his life had he wanted to murder someone so badly—not even Conrad.
Leonetti’s eyes glimmered as if he held a royal flush.
A chill touched Brooks’s skin. “What the hell are you talking about?”
Leonetti swept his gaze from one guard to the next. “Should we give him a peek?”
Brooks blew his breath through his nose like a raging bull ready to charge.
Leonetti looked at the guard closest to the door. “Go get them, Ray.”
Ray turned and marched through the tent’s door.
Them?
Brooks’s blood blasted against his temples. His stomach plummeted to his feet. If Leonetti had Tess and Lexi, it was game over. None of them would get out in one piece.
***
Rough hands seizedCam, tethering her arms behind her back. She fought back as she was yanked away from Nash’s side. One of the men approached Nash and pressed the mouth of a gun to his skull.
“No!” Cam’s scream tore from her lips.
Crack!
The blast of gunfire echoed over the trees, sending birds fleeing from the branches. Cam squeezed her eyes shut and tucked her chin. She couldn’t look. Couldn’t bring herself to see Brooks’s newfound family murdered.
Crack! Crack!
Another blast of bullets dropped her to her knees. Her scream caught in her throat as she folded her body on the ground, covering her head. Sirens of warning blared in her skull, ordering her to get to her feet.
Run!
A heavy weight pressed down on her ankles, keeping her in place.
“Jesus! You morons. Where the fuck have you been? I almost got my brains blown out.”
With squeaky exhales, Cam lifted her face from the thicket of leaves. The scent of dirt and blood clung to her. She blinked at the men around her. Nash got to his feet, brushing off his legs, then held out a hand to her.
“What—”
Her brain worked at a snail’s pace, taking in the scene. The guard who’d held a gun to Nash lay in the dirt three feet away. Glancing over her shoulder at the weight pressing on her feet, she found the man who’d grabbed her moments ago. In the side of his head was a bullet hole.
The last man was slumped against a tree trunk, blood gushing from a wound on his chest.
“Cole? D-Dare?”
Dare came up behind her, grabbed the dead body off her ankles, and tossed it to the side. Then his hands swept under her armpits, hauling her to her feet. She winced as her weight touched her toes.
“She doesn’t have shoes,” Nash announced.
“How did you get here?” she gasped.
“We’ve been waiting for an opportunity to get you out, and taking out as many guards as we can,” Dare said, keeping a hand under her elbow, taking some of the weight off her feet. “We found some outside the perimeter of the tent, but I think we got all of them.”
“Brooks needs us,” she wailed.
“Yeah, yeah.” Cole bent down in front of her and hoisted her over his shoulder. “Let’s get you to the truck. You boys call if you need anything.” Cole turned on his heel and strode through the woods.
Cam hung stiffly on his back, her elbows pressed into his shoulder blades to keep herself upright. She combed her gaze through the darkness, expecting a shooter to pop out and gun them down at any second.
“You can relax,” Cole said, not even a little breathless. “I’ve done a head count. Leonetti had ten guards in his close circle. Three dead in the forest, three Nash just injured and killed, and the one whose throat you slashed also dead, then Leonetti has three left with him.”
“He had more in the woods?”
“Yup. They were guarding the perimeter. We found six and killed them—hopefully that’s the last of them.”
She winced every time his shoulder bounced into her stomach. “Did you guys see Brooks?”
“I had eyes on them through the back door of the tent, waiting to make a move. Dare called me through the mic and said you and Nash had been caught, so I hustled over here. Brooks is doing okay, though.”
Relief lowered her shoulders. She closed her eyes on a swallow, and the movement pulled at the gritty lining of her throat, threatening to choke her. Tears warmed her cheeks. A lot could have happened in the minutes since Cole left the tent. Brooks could have been tortured or injected by now. If Nash and Dare didn’t hurry—
The terrain suddenly became flat and the jostling lessened, easing some of the pressure on her abdomen. Cole rounded the vehicle, opened the passenger door, and lowered her into the seat. “You okay?”
She nodded, brushing the tears away. Of all the brothers to see her break, this was the last one she wanted.
He cursed. A heavy hand patted her shoulder. “It’s all right. It’ll all be over soon.”
“You need to go,” she said, holding back a sob. “Please, just leave me. They need you.”
He firmed his lips. “Can’t do that. The guys would kill me if something happened to you.”
She sat forward in her seat. “You said yourself there’s only three guards left and they’re in the tent. Please. Go.”
Cole swept his gaze down the road then back to her. The muscles in his jaw jumped as if his body craved the action he was missing. He locked his gaze on her. “Fine. But scoot over to the driver’s seat and get out of here. I’ll call you on Dare’s phone,” he said, nodding at the cell phone in the cupholder. “When we need to be picked up. Okay?”
She nodded wildly. If she was useless to help Brooks, the least she could do was make sure manpower wasn’t wasted babysitting her. “Got it.”
He waited as she clambered over to the driver’s seat. Opening the console, she pulled out the keys and held them up to show Cole.
He reached behind his back and placed a gun on the passenger’s seat. “You dropped this.” His dark glare sent a shiver over her bones—and to think he was one of the good ones. “I’d better not fucking regret this.” He shut the door then crossed in front of the vehicle and disappeared into the woods.
She stuck the key in the ignition and turned it. Circling her hands around the steering wheel, she stared at the road ahead. Every instinct resisted the orders she’d been given. If Brooks died here today, Cam wouldn’t be able to live with herself. She had a gun, and a vehicle.
I can’t do nothing.