Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 91452 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91452 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
“And you have no clue who’s behind all this?”
“It could be a lot of people, and that’s sad, but I’ll bet you this is old CIA business.”
He took a breath. “How much more of this can your body take?”
“As much as I have to. I didn’t come in here without a plan. I have reinforcements ready to charge in over the hill,” I said for Owen’s benefit. Because yes, my friends would come for us, but the question of me being alive or dead when they reached us was a real one.
“Oh yeah? Any idea of their timeline?” He was worried about me. I could hear it in the cracks in his voice.
“Well, normally, if you weren’t in the mix, the way we did it in the past was no one intervened unless death was imminent. We gave ourselves over to torture by an enemy to extract information, so we had to hold on as long as possible.”
“Uh-huh,” Owen choked out, clearly horrified.
“That’s how we figured out who was behind something, and why.”
“But this time is different.”
“Because of you, yeah. So as soon as Dante and Darius figure out where I am—and how to breach this place and not get themselves or us killed in the process—they’ll be here. My guess is that they know where we are, but given the remote location, and that we’re underground with lots of guys outside, they’re having trouble figuring out how to get to us. It’s also possible they need more people with them. I mean, there’s only five of them here. Darius is in Ankara.”
“What else did Suwan say to you?”
I was not about to share that his plan was to slowly kill me. That information was not designed to put Owen at ease. “Just that he was going to torture me a bit.”
“Don’t lie,” he warned me. “I know every nuance in your voice.”
I turned my head to see his face. “Fine. He said his objective was to make me suffer until I was dead. That’s his entire agenda when it comes to me.”
Owen sucked in his breath and doubled over, head between his knees.
Gently, I rubbed his back. “We’re gonna get out of here,” I promised him. “And you know I can take a beating. You’ve heard all those stories.”
He sat up sharply. “I know you have a high tolerance for pain, but—”
“I’ve been captured behind enemy lines more than once in my career with the Army and found myself in the hands of sadistic assholes. Suwan and Fang are not going to be the guys who break me. That’s not gonna happen.”
“Yes, but we’re running out of time. Your cavalry…how sure are you they’re coming?”
“I’m betting our lives on it.”
“I’m just so scared that between the fever and the infection—”
He was interrupted by the click of the door lock. My adrenaline kicked in as it opened and Fang entered, two men flanking him, both carrying guns. Fang held a strip of heavy-gauge industrial hose, a couple of feet long. In the hands of a sadist like Fang, it was a cruelty tool.
“It’s time we resume our game, Colonel.”
“Leave him alone,” Owen said, standing up and taking a step toward the men.
Reaching out, I took hold of his wrist. “Don’t provoke them. It will only make things worse for you.”
Fang had been nothing but brutal and cruel. Perhaps in other areas of his life he was different, not so callous and unfeeling, but I was betting not. He was likely the kind of guy who drowned kittens and kicked puppies, just an absolute waste of a human being. I couldn’t imagine how many atrocities he’d committed. I didn’t want him, even for a second, to have Owen in his sights ever again.
“No tricks left?” Fang said, crossing the room to me, only a foot away, the two guards trailing behind him.
I stared into his smug face and thought of a way to keep his focus on me and off Owen. “Only one,” I answered.
Rising fast, lashing out with a quick forward jerk of my head, I slammed the hard bone of my skull into the center of Fang’s face. I followed it up with a savage right hook to the jaw, and the second to his nose. Both blows landed hard, but the second caused the crunch I knew well. Fang was stunned for a moment, his nose bleeding profusely.
But that was all I had, my adrenaline gone in seconds, my strength sapped. I was grabbed roughly, and one of the guards put me in an arm lock and marched me out of the room. I heard Owen pleading behind me, and then the door closed loudly. My legs gave out as they dragged me down the corridor.
“Stand him up,” Fang snarled, and once I was, he lashed the hose across my chest.