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“Don’t get fucking cocky with me! I’m done playing games with you, Baas. Now I don’t want to break you before Laychee gets here and has his fun, but I’ll be damned if I am going to listen to you run your lips and throw your position in my face. Whatever power you had is gone. You’d do well to remember that.”
So Laychee was going to show his face after all. It didn’t surprise him. Revenge was a very personal thing. Still, that little bit of information was something he might be able to use to his advantage. Lifting his head, he forced an icy smile.
“Is that so?” he rasped. The throbbing in his midsection made it difficult to speak, but he spoke as evenly as he could. “Do you know what the problem with men like you is, Dominic? You let your egos get in the way. You underestimate other people while overestimating yourselves. Todd made the same mistake once. Look where it landed him.”
A heavy blow rocked his face to the side. Pain exploded above his right eye, and for a moment, the room spun. Sinister warmth traced his temple and soaked his vision red.
“Look where it landed you,” Dominic stated.
“Exactly,” Sebastian managed to choke. “Did you really think I wouldn’t know this was a set up? Come on. You’ve had it in for me since Todd went off the grid and everyone knows it. Everyone,” he added in a low whisper. “You’re a problem, just like your partner. Why do you think we paired the two of you up?”
“Shut up!”
Sebastian ignored him. “What do we do with problems, Agent Chase? We let them dig their own hole and we bury them in it. You don’t find it the slightest bit suspicious that Laychee wanted nothing to do with his brother until after his expulsion from SKALS? Their rift was mended just like that? His brother, your partner, turns up missing and all of a sudden, the guy is your best friend? Nothing about that raises any red flags to you?”
“What the hell are you getting at, Sebastian?” he snapped. Despite his gruff tone, worried lines were starting to inch across his forehead.
“Maybe you’re not as smart as you think, Agent Chase. How do you know this whole Laychee thing wasn’t some elaborate scheme to test your loyalty and to see where your mindset was after losing your partner? Do you think they don’t track us?” he asked with a skeptical look. “’Did you really think no one would notice what you were up to?”
“Bullshit!”
His teammate spun on him with an enraged snarl. This time, the chair teetered onto its hind legs, and his chest quaked with the force of the blow. Groaning, Sebastian coughed and slumped forward as much as his restraints would allow. He wondered if it had been an hour yet. He sincerely hoped it had. Josh needed to hurry the hell up. The punching bag routine was already starting to take a toll, and he had no doubt things would only get worse when Laychee arrived. As numbing as the thought was, he knew this was just a warm-up.
“It doesn’t matter what they know. You’re going to give me your passwords, Baas, or things are going to get very nasty very quick. Not just for you, but for Taylor as well. See, you’ve had the mental and physical preparation for situations like these, but I’m willing to bet she hasn’t had the same.”
His jaw steeled, but he said nothing.
“Have you put her through any training? Does she know how to resist extreme interrogation or will she cave? I bet she’ll cave. I bet she’ll cave quickly.”
He met the calculating gleam in his teammate’s eyes with an expressionless shrug. “Do what you want. She doesn’t know anything.”
“We’ll see soon enough, won’t we? You can spare her though. Tell me what I want to know and I’ll have Laychee’s men put her down quick.”
Letting his head fall back, Sebastian focused on the yellowed lights dangling from the ceiling and gave a soft grunt.
“Fuck you.”
He didn’t move when he heard the side doors open and a cold blast of fresh air swept through the warehouse. It hit his sweat-soaked skin in a frigid blast. He knew, without looking, Laychee had just arrived and hell was hot on the man’s heels. Sebastian stiffened and nodded to himself with a sigh. As difficult as it was, it was time to shut down. Physically, mentally, emotionally—it was the only way he was going to survive.
Taylor’s heart hammered so hard and so fast, the furious pounding threatened to make her sick. She glanced between two of Laychee’s men as they entered the room. Both of them hardened with weather beaten faces and dark fatigues. The thought was almost laughable. Men like them didn’t deserve the clothes they were wearing. They belonged in prison jumpsuits with numbers stamped across their back. Not knockoffs of civil service uniforms with patches on their arms bearing the illusions of grandeur they’d conjured within their own ranks.
Biting her cheek, she turned her face away as the smaller of the two crouched in front of her. He was a wiry man with reddened skin and a bulbous, inflamed nose that spoke of too much booze. She winced when the smell of stale beer assaulted her, riding on the hot torrent of his breath.
“Aren’t you a cute little thing?” he asked, running his calloused palm up the outside of her leg.
Her stomach churned, and Taylor bucked against her restraints, fury flashing in her eyes as she struggled to shake his touch.
“Get your hands off of me!”
Using the only weapon she had, she spit in his face. The thin man reared back, shock flickering across his pinched features. Her gratitude was short lived. He struck out, hitting her with a heavy backhand that snapped her head around and left her dazed. It hurt. It hurt like hell, and Taylor blinked against the tears building in her eyes.
“Someone needs to teach you some manners, little girl,” he said. “You might’ve broken Jeffrey’s nose, but you aren’t pulling that shit with me. You’re gonna play nice, or I’m going to let my friend here break your ass in half. You got that?”
Her gaze darted to the “friend” in question and her heart drummed a little faster. He was a huge bull of a man, with the flat features of a gorilla. His thin lips pursed in a tight line of displeasure. She shrank back, watching his heavy muscles strain against his uniform as he stepped toward her. One corner of his mouth quirked in amusement.
“I think she’s starting to get the point, Serge.”
Taylor scoffed at the title, despite herself. She wished she hadn’t. The larger man’s pale hazel eyes swung her way and pinned her with a cold stare. She shivered. Set against his bronze skin, they appeared more yellow than green, lending him an almost serpentine glare. It was certainly as empty and ruthless, like a predator sizing up its prey.
“Is something funny, princess?” he asked, leaning over to brace his hands on the arms of her chair.
Swallowing against a thick knot of fear, Taylor lifted her chin. “Do you really think I would be more afraid of you than someone like Sebastian?”
His smile was cold and condescending. “I would hope so. Daddy’s not here right now, sweet cheeks. We are.”
“Yeah well apparently hope doesn’t get us far. I went to bed hoping for a good night’s sleep, too,” she said sadly. “I guess neither of us is going to get what we want.”
He studied her for a long moment then straightened with a humorless laugh. “Give us the password for the computer system then we’ll talk.”
“It’s too late,” Taylor whispered. “I wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway.”
“If you don’t start talking, sweetheart, you and your lover will be going to sleep for good,” he said, pressing closer with a sneer.
She winced at the term of endearment. All it did was make her think of Sebastian. Her chest ached with longing and dread. It didn’t matter what she said—what she did. The chances of seeing him again were slim to none. As strong and smart as he was, there was a possibility he could find his way out of whatever mess he was in, but she wouldn’t be as lucky. Sooner or later, these men were going to kill her. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt him or let him down. If Sebastian ever did find his way home again, it wouldn’t be to discover her last act on e
arth had been one of cowardice and betrayal. She wouldn’t do that to herself or him.
Pain exploded through her ribs, slicing through her thoughts like a razor. She couldn’t steady herself, couldn’t even cry out as the chair capsized and sent her sprawling across the floor as it shattered. Her insides rattled from the blow, the force threatening to stop her heart in her chest. It skidded then pounded erratically. Her breath came in whooping gasps. She tried to raise up to her knees to run, but fell back to the floor in a helpless coughing fit.
“Well, well, what do we have here?” the large man asked, his thick fingers brushing her thigh.
Taylor curled in on herself, jerking away from the inquisitive brush of his hand as it trailed over the marks from Sebastian’s belt. The scrawny one snickered, and she opened her eyes to see him standing over her with his phone. The screen illuminated his hollowed features making them appear even more skeletal.
“Looks like the little viper is used to pain,” the brawny one said. “Not surprising given her attitude, but we might have to amp things up a bit. We wouldn’t want her to mistake our actions for foreplay.”
Chapter 12 ~
