Maybe she was losing her mind? Maybe he’d finally broken her?
“I have to admit, Neeka, you surprised me. Although, I must tell you, poor Jaxon will be bruised for some time.”
She assumed Jaxon was the young man she’d knocked out.
“Good,” she said in a calm voice, one calmer than she thought she was even capable of given the situation. “I’ll keep trying to get out of this shithole.”
He shrugged and smiled. “I’m sure you will. You were a very stubborn child, and now a woman.”
He smiled at her, and she hated the chill that went through her.
“Although the police have given up, I’ve been informed he’s contracted a less than upstanding citizen to help in finding you.”
My father hasn’t given up on me.
“But, your father is on his deathbed, Neeka, and sooner rather than later he’ll be gone. He’s all you have in this world, and when he’s no longer on this earth I’ll be the only one you have.”
Dread settled into her. She didn’t want to think of her father passing, but Rye spoke the truth. Edward McCarthy was on his deathbed. She held his gaze, refusing to look away before he finally rose and gestured for the men to follow him.
“You will be kept in these quarters until you have learned to cooperate. You need to learn how to behave. Once you do, I will be more than happy to switch you to more lush accommodations, once more.” Rye stared at her, his look brooding.
She watched the three men leave, and when they were gone she took a deep breath and folded her hands in her lap. Sorrow and hatred made a slow, nauseous boil in the pit of her stomach. Her heart clenched painfully at the thought of never seeing her father again.
Just more reason to get out of here, and kill Rye if you get the chance.
Chapter
Eleven
Gage scoped out the facility. The place looked deserted, but the slight movement he saw by the entrance told him this place wasn’t as void of life as everyone might think. Thistle was sporadically scattered around, thorns from the offending bush scraping against his fatigues as if they were alive and sought to draw blood.
He’d parked his SUV a mile away from the compound, navigating the vehicle into a trench and off the road. His night vision goggles were in place, and he turned on the infrared, seeing the heat patterns of at least two bodies.
The clouds shrouded the moon, shadows creeping across the ground like tentacles of darkness. A dilapidated chain link fence at least twenty feet high surrounded the massive structure, the barbed wire secured along the top of it as if to warn spectators that hidden dangers lurked on the inside.
There were weathered and aged areas of the fence , which would make getting in a hell of a lot easier. But even if everything had been intact he would have still found a way to get in. Nothing would stop him from getting Neeka back.
Lifting his hand and adjusting the scope range on the goggles, Gage zoomed in, taking note that although no lights were on around the perimeter, the faint trickle of light could be seen through one of the boarded up windows.
He scanned the outer perimeter of the compound again, not seeing any movement now, but not being fooled into thinking it wasn’t still being watched. He switched his goggles back to night vision only and checked his weapons.
Standing, he kept to the shadows, weaving his way between the thick shrubs until he was almost right next to an opening in the fence. He kept close to the Joshua tree as he scanned his surroundings.
He swiftly moved toward the fence and crouched behind a creosote bush. The opening of the fence wasn’t big enough to allow him in, so he grabbed a pair of wire cutters and deftly cut an area through the chain link for him to fit through.
Movement at the corner of the building caught his eyes, and he stopped working, giving his attention to the guard that was making his way around the building. He held a rifle cradled in his arms, his eyes scanning the area but clearly oblivious to Gage’s presence.
Gage reached behind him and pulled out a handgun with a silencer attached. Death would be certain for these assholes, because no way would Gage just wound them.
Gage waited for the guard to make his way closer. The guard stopped not more than twenty feet from where Gage was stationed, head moving back and forth across the terrain. Training his gun right between the asshole’s eyes, Gage pulled the trigger.
Even from the distance, Gage could hear the distinct sound of the bullet slamming into the fucker’s skull. He fell to the ground, and Gage slipped the gun at the small of his back and slipped through the opening in the fence.