She lay quietly, enduring the pain of the position of her arms and legs. Enduring the pain in her heart was worse and much more difficult. But she was a highly trained operative and no one, not even these men, could take that away from her.
It was Gino who lifted her up into his arms, cradling her close against his chest, his hands surprisingly gentle. She didn't lift her lashes, but she knew his scent. His body. The way he moved. She absorbed those things in the way her body absorbed water. Ezekiel was helped by his brother and Draden. She didn't need to see that to know; it was more instinctive.
She knew how many steps it took to go up to the house, and they didn't go that way. She didn't get the house. She wasn't going to be introduced to Nonny or the triplets or even the triplets' mother. She was going to be locked away, the dirty little secret kept from the women.
Doors creaked. Groaned. Big ones. The garage then. She smelled chemicals and nearly lost her composure. A laboratory. It took all she had not to inject Gino with the venom already beginning to pool in her saliva. She knew the faint blue rings were showing on her skin when he spoke. It said a lot about him that he didn't toss her away from him. She knew she wouldn't be able to hold out much longer; fear was overcoming her ability to think straight. Panic set in. She couldn't stand being an experiment again.
"I know this looks bad," Gino said. "I can tell you know where you are, but it's the only place we have that you can't escape from. Wyatt and Trap use this as a lab to try to find antidotes for . . . poisons."
That saved him when maybe nothing else could have. Of course they would search for antidotes for whatever venom the triplets injected when they bit anyone. They would have to. She turned her face away from him just to be certain she stayed in control.
She stayed that way while he cut the ties binding her and gently massaged her arms and legs until blood flowed freely. Then he left her there. Alone. In the dark. In a cage.
7
Bellisia stood up the moment she was alone and began to systematically examine the cell she was locked in. They'd left the lights off, and there was a small cot with a blanket. The night was warm and humid, but she found herself shivering. Desperately trying to keep her mind blank, she paced the length of her cell, counting the steps, feeling the flooring. It was definitely concrete. No way to escape under that. She kept pacing, counting each step forward and then across.
Reaching up with her hands, uncaring that a camera might be trained on her, she used the microscopic setae to climb to the top of the cell. With great care, she explored every wall, running her fingers through any crack she found. When all four walls were examined, she clung to the ceiling and did the same thing. Searching. Scrutinizing. Missing nothing. Inch by inch. Foot by foot.
She was patient. She relied only on herself, she always had. The idea that she'd been caught because of a fantasy was humiliating. Worse, she hadn't defended herself. She hadn't been afraid they would kill her, and she knew all of them would have if she'd injected venom into any of them. It wasn't fear that had stopped her, and that humiliated her even more.
She'd been trussed up and dumped on the floor of the boat as if she were nothing more than garbage. It was no different than she'd always been treated, but it hurt far more. She expected that sort of treatment from Whitney, but she'd convinced herself Ezekiel was different. He knew she wasn't part of Cheng's attack on him. He knew. Still, he'd forced her to become a prisoner, preventing her escape.
Patiently she continued her exploration of the cell. There was a small bathroom, crude, hidden by a partial wall. How many prisoners had they had? Gino had said they used this laboratory for researching antidotes. If that was the case, why the cell? What would they put in a cage that needed a bathroom? She began her exploration of that small space, paying particular attention to the plumbing. There had to be pipes that led outside.
The piping was very small. Even if she tore them loose from the wall, she doubted if she could make her body small enough to fit inside them. She needed the comfort of water so she ran her arms under the faucet, letting her skin absorb the moisture, giving her some relief. When she was stressed, more than ever, she wanted that connection.
The door to the laboratory opened and she swung around, her heart accelerating. Adrenaline poured into her body. She felt the venom rising and knew her skin was dotted with blue rings. Someone had come in alone and hadn't turned on the lights. That didn't bode well for her. She shrank to the back of the cage, making herself as small a target as possible.
His scent reached her first. Ezekiel's warm spice mixed with blood. The lacerations didn't like him moving around so much.
"You shouldn't be up," she reprimanded before she could stop herself.
"I couldn't stand the thought of you being out here all alone. I'm either going to spend the night locked in the cell with you or we're going to strike a deal." Ezekiel's voice was mesmerizing. A beautiful tone that sank into her skin the same way the water did.
He walked right up to the cell. She could see the keys in his hand in spite of the darkness in the room.
She moistened her dry lips with the tip of her tongue. "I'm pretty upset with you right now." She meant it as a warning, but she didn't know if she were secretly trying to convince herself she really would inject him with venom if he came near her.
"I'm well aware of that. I know you think I deserve it, that I betrayed you, but if you give me the chance to talk things out with you, you'll understand why I had to keep you with me."
"I'm not with you. I'm in a cage. Locked up like some animal." She rubbed at her wrists. They ached. Gino hadn't been gentle when he put the ties on her. She hated what her voice gave away. The note of hurt that just emerged when she didn't want it to.
"Deal, or I spend the night in the cage?" he prompted.
Could she rush him and slip past before he got the door closed? She doubted it. He was fast. Really, really fast. She didn't have a halfway venom. She couldn't just incapacitate him. If she bit him, he would die. She sighed.
"Tell me your deal." At least she would listen. She had all the time in the world. She drew her knees up to her chest and peered at him from across the cell.
"Come here."
She leaned her chin on the heel of her hand. "Why?"
"Because I asked. Nicely."
"That was nice?"
"It's about as nice as I get."
"Don't start off lying to me. I've heard you. When you were with the girls. I followed you when you took them exploring. The stories, the singing. I heard it all." She didn't care if she was condemning herself in his eyes. Just admitting to him that she followed him day after day made her vulnerable.
"Why did you follow us?" His voice was deceptively mild.
"I took a job for Whitney. You know him. Your buddy. He probably told you all this, so I don't know why I should." Bitterness ate her. That way led to mistakes. She couldn't feel bitter or angry, she had to make things impersonal again.
"Peter Whitney is no friend of ours. I know you're not going to believe that, I'll have to prove it to you, but for the sake of disclosure, keep talking. What job did you take for Whitney?"
"He sent me to China. He was worried that a U.S. senator was trading secrets for dark money for a campaign that was important to her. Cheng has money. Lots of it. He's a businessman in China with ties to nearly every terrorist cell around the world. No one has ever been able to bring him down. He wants the GhostWalkers' secrets to sell to the highest bidders. My guess is, that's where your blood and tissue samples were sent."
Ezekiel remained silent, just watching her. It was eerie to look across the room into the disconcerting, shiny eyes of a hunter. He was that and more. He didn't blink, staring at her the way a predator might. She thought of herself as lethal. She knew that she was, but the man on the other side of the bars made her very glad the bars were in place.
She sighed. "I was undercover for days and then she came. I had the information and started out of there, but C
heng locked the place down while she left. Someone must have found the wig I left behind and I was detained inside the building unexpectedly."
He was perfectly still. She was good. She could hold a position for long periods of time, blending in with her surroundings, but he was out in the open. Exposed. A big man. Because he didn't so much as move a muscle, he became harder and harder to see. Silence stretched out between them. She sighed. She might as well tell him everything. It wasn't as if she had a lot to lose.
"Whitney injected me with a virus specific to me. If I didn't get out when I was supposed to, the virus would kill me. That was how he assured I would return to the fold after each mission."
That revelation caused a stir. The slightest of movements.
"Bastard." His voice was low.
"When I was finally able to leave, and it was difficult, I was pretty beat-up and already running a high fever. For someone like me, a fever can be deadly. I made it to the van where the men waited. Instead of giving me the antidote right away, Whitney wanted them to get the information from me. I feigned unconsciousness, and when they gave me the injection, I didn't move. Whitney told them to get me water. They opened the van doors and I blew past them and jumped into the river. Once there . . ."
"It was impossible to find you."
"That's right."
"Why did you come here all the way from China?" Once again his tone was mild, but she knew how it looked. She had followed him. There were three little girls, all obviously loved, but Whitney must have engineered them somehow. She could be a threat to him. None of the GhostWalkers would tolerate a threat to those girls, and she liked them better for that.
"The senator told Cheng that a GhostWalker team made their home near Stennis and often trained soldiers from other countries for joint missions. I knew Cheng would try to get to one of you. I wanted to make certain you weren't with Whitney, or like his other supersoldiers, before I broke my promises to myself and disappeared for good." Her chin went up. "So I watched you. I followed Nonny and fell for her. Who wouldn't? She's lovely. Perfect. And then you with the girls. The way you are with them."
"If you were so certain we were in danger, why didn't you warn us?"
"I did. I dug up the plant Nonny wanted and I left the note under the plant where I knew she'd find it."
"You left a note?" He sounded skeptical.
"Ask her. She had to have found it by now."
"I will. So Cheng is told by a U.S. senator that my team trains foreign soldiers here and he arranged for a terrorist cell to attack UN workers and take them hostage just to get at us? That's insane."
"Cheng's insane, and in his world, it's so easy. He deals with terrorists all the time. All he had to do was reach out and ask a favor. Believe me, any one of the cells would be happy to have Cheng owe them a favor. They grab the workers, make certain one or two are injured and need medical aid and just as predicted, you are training at Stennis to rescue the hostages. They snatch you, take what they need--Cheng's cautious. He's not going to bring one alive to his lab until he knows what you can and can't do. Besides, if he doesn't have to actually deal with a live person, but can just sell the information, it's much easier, cheaper and less of a danger to him."
She rubbed her chin with her palm, a small sigh escaping. "I didn't get that at first. I thought he was luring your team members in to grab them, but he was blowing everyone up. Once they got everything they needed from you, they were going to kill you, so I had to get you out of there."
He didn't have to believe her, but she'd told him the truth. He would never know how difficult it was for her to tell anyone the truth, let alone him. She'd made up her mind to die tonight, or escape. Either way, she'd be gone and it wouldn't matter that she'd given him the facts. Maybe she'd whitewashed the details, but he didn't need to know how the hooks had bitten into her skin, that she still bore the scars on her back and thigh.
She lifted her chin and let him see her eyes. "And after I saved your worthless ass, you betrayed me. I could have escaped. You knew I had no part in what Cheng did, you knew I got you out of there, and you still put me in a cage."
"I had no choice."
"There's always a choice. Go away, Ezekiel. You mattered to me. I don't know why I let you in, but I did. I'll take the blame for that. You didn't give me any kind of false promises, but still, I don't forgive you for betraying me."
"Those hostages are going to lose their lives in a few days. No one knew about this. We've kept it under wraps, but you were there watching us. You followed the boat to the marsh. You took me to that island rather than back to Stennis."
"Yes, I watched you train. I felt like I was watching over you. I couldn't believe after the note I wrote to Nonny you still went through with it. It had to have put you on alert. You had to realize that Cheng did business with that very terrorist cell. You knew it had to be a setup, yet you still went through with it. That made you a hero, but it also meant someone needed to watch your back. I chose to do that. It was my decision, so again, I can't blame you for my own stupidity. Of course I followed the boat. They injected you with something and you were dead or unconscious. Everyone was so sick they weren't paying attention when the two soldiers walked you right into the swamp and out of sight. As for taking you to the island, that was my sacrifice. I knew I'd have to give up my home--which I love, by the way--but it was closer and you needed medical attention. I didn't know how bad your wounds were."
Suddenly she wanted to weep. She didn't cry. Whitney had drilled that into them from the time they were babies, but still, there was burning behind her eyes and a terrible lump in her throat. She detested Ezekiel all the more for that.
"Go away and leave me alone. I don't want to know your deal anymore and I don't want you in here with me. You may trust me, but I don't altogether trust myself right now." She laid her cheek on her knees and looked at him from under her lashes, weary of the entire conversation.
"The deal is this. You give me your word of honor that you'll stay with Nonny, Pepper and the girls and help protect them while we're gone, and I'll let you out of here. You'll come up to the main house and live there until I can get back. But I'll need your word."
She lifted her head, shocked that he would even consider such a thing. She couldn't believe he really meant it. "Are you crazy? What are your friends going to say? They can't be on board with this plan." Her skin hurt. Her arms and legs. As if the skin had shrunk and was pulled tight over muscle and bone.
"I don't give a damn what they have to say. This is between the two of us."
She held her breath, thinking it over, examining the offer from every side, looking for hidden traps. "Why did you keep me from escaping?"
"We couldn't compromise the mission. If it was known that you overheard and saw exactly what we were going to do and you're an unknown element, they might make the decision to pull our team. The hostages would die. No one would risk an entire team of SEALs, GhostWalkers and Indonesian elite."
She hated it, but his reasoning made sense. She was a soldier and she understood that what he was doing was important.
"Will they believe you, that I'm harmless?"
"You're anything but harmless."
She liked that he knew that about her. "Will they believe that I'm no threat to the mission?"
"You'll be under wraps here at the compound. They don't have to know you were in the water at Stennis watching everything we did and said."
That was huge. Huge. Enormous. She knew the GhostWalkers went their own way a lot of the time and made their own decisions. Like all the women at Whitney's training facility, she'd soaked up the stories of them, but she hadn't known they were so independent.
"What will happen when you come back?"
"We'll talk. I want you to stay. I have my own personal reasons for wanting you here that have nothing to do with GhostWalkers, Whitney or anyone else. Come here."
She was much more inclined to go to him, even though he was sounding a little
bossy. She thought over all the times he'd been with the girls and Nonny, the times she thought him wonderful and perfect. He'd sounded bossy then as well, but she wasn't the one on the receiving end.
"You know . . ." She got up and dusted off the seat of her pants. "I just got my first taste of freedom a few weeks ago and now you're using that bossy tone with me. I'm not certain I like it."
"I'll grow on you."
She noticed he didn't apologize or attempt to lie and say he wouldn't do it again. She sighed and walked across the small cell to stand in front of him.
"Tell me how the venom works."
She shrugged. "I can call it up at will."
"So if I kissed you, I wouldn't be poisoned?"
She tipped her head to one side and studied his face, her heart racing. "Not unless I wanted you to be poisoned."
"I'll risk it." He crooked his little finger at her.
"Maybe that wouldn't be a good idea. I'm still kind of upset with you." She took a step back instead of toward him. She didn't have the first idea how to kiss a man. She had full confidence in herself as a soldier, a warrior, even an assassin, but as a woman? Kissing him sounded far more frightening than remaining in the cell.
For the first time a faint smile softened the hard edge of his mouth and revealed his straight, white teeth. The effect was startling. It sent heat spiraling through her body, and rushing through her veins so that her blood pooled low. She didn't faint or anything, but she felt a little weak in the knees. She couldn't understand why he affected her that way when she'd been around men all of her life and found most of them disgusting. Certainly none of them had ever elicited a physical response from her.
She thought him gorgeous and heroic even in the face of him keeping her from escaping. He'd done it for all the right reasons--reasons she had to admit as a soldier made sense to her.
"Baby, stop fucking around and come over here." He pointed to the spot right in front of him. "I dream about kissing you. I can barely think about anything else."