Colter's Revenge (21 page)

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Colter’s Revenge

If Cheri gave Ashley the cure…she wouldn’t have to be dependant on drugs. He could take her anywhere and not worry about the enormous medical costs of keeping her from being a submissive.

“Do you see how easily she can be persuaded to do anything you wish?” Cheri addressed the doctors who all nodded their heads eagerly. “And if I decided not to give her the cure she would remain submissive, her brain fried by the virus.”

Cheri had said she had the cure, but could he trust her? He’d noticed the friction between the two women the first time they’d met. They detested each other. Yet here was Cheri offering to cure Ashley.

Why? And why the hell hadn’t he thought to ask Ashley about why she’d feared Cheri when she’d first shown up at Pleasure Palace? While he’d been busy fucking her with sexual revenge on his mind, he’d been fucking up by not asking questions he should have been asking. Like why would the general allow her to come here with only one bodyguard? No man in his right mind would permit his woman out of his sight during these insane times. How the hell had he even been stupid enough to leave her in her room unprotected while he’d gone off to argue with Blade?

They had taken her against her will. She hadn’t written that note just as he’d thought.

Maybe he was freaking-out for nothing. Maybe he was reading too much into this. Ashley was just convenient for them. There couldn’t be anything sinister going on, could there? Cheri wouldn’t be stupid enough to put her demonstration and the trust of these doctors into jeopardy. Not if she wanted to get those high bids from them. He held his breath as Cheri produced a syringe from a pocket, flipped off a cap and jabbed it into the vial containing the pinkish fluid.

Instincts told him to swat the filled needle out of her hand. But what if Cheri were telling the truth? What if she held the cure in her hand?

Dammit! He had no other choice but to trust her.

Clamping down on his fear, he held himself steady. Prepared himself to rush to Ashley’s side at the first sign of distress.

Ashley didn’t even wince as the glittering needle penetrated the skin of her upper arm. She just kept playing with her clit as Cheri had instructed her to do. The pink liquid disappeared quickly from the hypo needle as it entered Ashley’s bloodstream. When the hypo was empty, Cheri withdrew the needle. For several minutes he remained poised on edge, ready to come to Ashley’s aid while the rest of the people in the room watched in silent fascination as she continued to play with her clit and massage her breasts.

Her eyes remained closed but the sounds of her arousal tore through him like sharp blades. Although she seemed oblivious of any shame, he felt the humiliation for her. Felt the fear rip through him that maybe this cure wouldn’t work. 117

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Then suddenly her finger stopped fraying against her clitoris. She frowned. Blinked in disbelief as she looked around at the doctors watching her. A rosy flush blossomed across her face. She was embarrassed and rightly so.

“Keep playing with yourself, Ashley,” Cheri cooed. She took a step back and dropped the vial containing the rest of the cure into her lab coat. Ashley shook her head, a defiant look slamming onto her face, her eyes suddenly sparkled with rage.

She bolted upright into a seated position.

Relief sliced through Colter and he quickly peeled off his suit jacket and stepped beside Ashley, tossing the jacket over her naked back. He grabbed her wrist, checking her pulse. It was a bit fast, but understandable under the circumstances.

“How do you feel?” Colter asked. Inwardly his gut twisted as he awaited her answer.

“I feel—” her eyes widened “—I feel different. Confident. Sure of myself. My God, what did she give me?”

“Play with your nipples, Ashley,” Cheri ordered rather harshly.

“Go to hell!” Ashley spat as she shrugged her arms into the coat Colter had just draped over her shoulders. Her fingers trembled as she did up a couple of the buttons.

“What the hell did you give me?”

“The cure, my dear Ashley. Only because you will be…family.”

Apprehension swept through him as Ashley’s face paled. Family? What the hell was she talking about? For a moment he feared Ashley might collapse, and then she surprised him by reaching out and quickly ripping a gun from the shoulder holster of the nearest husband of Cheri’s. Within a blink of an eye she’d rammed the barrel of the gun against the woman’s temple, reached into Cheri’s pocket and withdrew the vial containing the cure.

It all happened so fast Colter couldn’t believe it.

Obviously neither did Cheri. She let out a blood-curdling scream. Her husbands moved in on Ashley, but she pressed the gun harder against Cheri’s temple in a threatening manner.

“No one moves! Or she’s dead!”

Everyone froze.

“Jesus, Colter what the hell is going on down there?” Blade’s voice echoed through the earpiece.

“Just relax. Everything is under control,” he whispered it so lowly he wondered if Blade heard him, and he sure as hell wondered if everything were indeed under control.

“Have you gone insane?” Cheri cried out, her eyes wide with horror. “You wouldn’t dare kill me.”

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“Try me,” Ashley ground out as she dropped the vial into the pocket of her coat.

“Now that I have everyone’s attention…place your weapons on the metal table and sit down on the floor, cross your legs, foreheads against that wall…except you, Dr. Van Dusen. You’ll be my hostage out of here.”

Him as her hostage? He liked the sound of that.

“You won’t get away with this,” Cheri spat as she stood her ground. Oh shit!

Ashley’s lips twisted into a sneer as she eased off the table, not allowing the gun to move from Cheri’s temple. “Get her toward that wall or I drop her.”

“You’ll lose your daughter.”

Shock zipped through Colter. Ashley had a daughter?

“I’ll hunt you down until I find you both and I’ll make you and her sorry for the rest of your lives.”

He noticed the flash of fear in Ashley’s eyes. Oh come on, Starry Eyes, now is not the time to back down. He resisted the urge to move. To help her. Any movement on his part might spook her. Might make her actually shoot Cheri and eliminate their way out of there.

On top of that, it was imperative he keep what was left of his cover in case she fucked up. Besides he was still reeling about the news she had a daughter. She’d never mentioned she’d had a kid with the general. Christ! He really didn’t know her at all.

“Who is the one with the key to this dungeon?” she yelled as she pushed Cheri away from her yet kept the gun aimed at the woman’s head. Ashley’s eyes were now wide with anguish, desperation. The fingers holding the gun trembled just a little too much for his comfort.

No one spoke up.

She made a threatening gesture with the gun at Cheri’s head.

“Give her the key,” Cheri said shakily. “She won’t get away with this.”

“And the research papers and the disc for the cure,” Ashley demanded.

“No, absolutely not,” Cheri spat.

Cheri winced as Ashley’s lips thinned with determination and her finger tightened on the trigger. “The file is in my inner lab pocket,” Cheri said quickly.

“Don’t move until I tell you,” Ashley hissed as she grabbed one of the guns off the metal table, zipped off the safety catch and now aimed two guns at Cheri’s head.

“One wrong move and your head is gone. Now get that file out of your pocket nice and easy. Give it to Dr. Van Dusen.”

A moment later Colter had the file in his hand. Opening it, he noted a disc and papers then shut the file again.

“It’s all there,” he said.

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“Now, Dr. Van Dusen, please grab all those guns and toss them out the door. Follow them out.”

He didn’t hesitate doing what he was told. Clutching the ends of the sheet closed, he hoisted the heavy linen clad with weapons over his shoulder. Once he cleared the doorway, he dropped the sheet and grabbed a gun.

Ashley was right behind him.

A quick jab of the electronic key into the slot of the dungeon door and it was locked. He didn’t think her face could get any paler but it did. She wavered weakly. Colter wasted no time in grabbing onto her and steadying her.

“You okay?”

She nodded shakily. “God, Colter, I was scared shitless. I kept thinking something was going to go wrong.”

“Do you want us to come in?” Blade’s desperate yell tore painfully through Colter’s ear.

“Hold on for a minute, Blade.”

Ashley blinked at him with a mixture of fear and curiosity. “Blade? Where is he?”

“I’ll explain later. Blade, tell S.K.U.L.L. we’ve got the cure and we’re on our way out.”

“Will do,” came Blade’s tense reply.

“Skull?” Ashley whispered. “What the hell is—?”

The harsh, ear-splitting sound of an alarm sliced through the hallway.

“There’s the security alarm,” Colter hissed. “I guess we forgot to get their cell phones.”

“Shit! I can’t think of everything.” Ashley shook her head. Sliding one of the extra guns into the opposite jacket of where she’d shoved the vial, she headed for the stairs at the end of the hallway. “I got us the cure, now the rest is up to you, Outlaw.”

“Damn woman, she’s still never satisfied,” Blade’s calm voice chuckled into Colter’s earpiece, and Colter didn’t miss the sexual innuendo in his friend’s voice.

“Shut up, Blade! We’re coming out! Cover our asses.”

“Will do…oh, and tell Ashley she’s still got the cutest ass I’ve ever seen, will you?”

“Tell her yourself,” Colter hissed, and then he swore softly as his friend chuckled into his earpiece. A split second later, the sound of gunfire erupted in the general direction of the exit.

“The welcoming committee?” Ashley grumbled as she jammed her other gun into the suit jacket pocket and began doing up the rest of the buttons on the coat he’d given her.

“You look hot in my jacket. Even hotter out of it.” Colter grinned as he grabbed her hand and led her up the stairs.

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“You’ll get plenty an eyeful if you can get us out of here…alive.”

“Ask her if I’m included in this eyeful, will you?” Blade chuckled into the earpiece.

“I won’t ask her a damn thing for you, Blade. At least not until she explains a whole hell of a lot,” Colter grumbled. “We’re nearing the doorway to the lobby.”

“Ask me what?” Ashley whispered as she pulled both guns back out of the jacket pockets.

“I think he’s thinking of our ménage à trois,” Colter grumbled as he carefully rolled up the folder, making sure the disc didn’t get damaged then shoved the file into his jeans against the small of his back.

“Oh…” A pretty pink blush rushed to her face.

“She blushing by any chance?” Blade chuckled.

“Yes, she’s blushing up quite a nice storm.”

“She hasn’t changed at all. Sorry I was so hard on her and you earlier.”

“You can apologize later, Blade. We’re at the doorway.”

“Stay there a minute ‘til we get in. They’re putting up a hell of a resistance.”

From behind them, they heard a loud crashing sound. The heavy sound of the dungeon door splintering quickly followed by shouts and running feet headed toward them.

“They’re through, Blade. We don’t have a minute.” He turned to Ashley. “I hope you know how to use those guns because we’re going to need them.”

“I had a couple of older cousins who took a lot of survival trips into the wilderness. Sometimes they took me with them. They taught me everything they knew about guns. Said it would come in handy one day. Looks like they were right.”

Colter nodded. “Smart cousins. Okay, Blade, we’re making our move at the count of three.”

Blade cursed wickedly then said, “Affirmative.”

“Stick to me like glue, Ash. We’re going out at the count of three. Okay?”

She nodded and pointed her guns at the door.

“Just don’t shoot any of the S.K.U.L.L. men. They’ll be wearing camouflage.”

She nodded again and worried her lower lip with her white teeth while he snuck in one last look at her. Tangled black hair shrouded her cute face, perspiration scooted across her forehead, her face was pale and her blue eyes were wide as saucers and filled with fear. Her hands filled with guns. She looked like a regular warrior. His gut clenched wonderfully as it always did when he looked at her. Without doubt, she was the most beautiful woman in the world to him. He resisted the urge to kiss her and began the count.

At three he nodded to Ashley who returned his nod, her knuckles whitened as she tightened the grip around her guns.

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Blowing out a breath, he pushed open the door.

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Colter’s Revenge

Chapter Nine

Ashley had no time to think. Only react. Before she knew what she’d done she’d plugged two guards with bullets before they could get off a shot at her then they burst into the lobby.

Damn! Her reflexes were fantastic. Energy roared through her and she’d never felt so scared or so healthy in her life. Whatever Cheri had given her was working better than she’d ever expected.

While Colter locked the door behind them, keeping Cheri and her crew from coming through, they crouched behind a nearby marble lobby desk and Colter fired off another round of bullets into the door. A man screamed and then another—and then—

silence.

“Blade, get your ass in here,” Colter hissed coolly as he kept firing at the shadowy figures of security guards hovering around various points in the lobby. God! They were everywhere!

From the corner of her eye she spotted movement at the lobby entrance and shot off another round. The entire glass door and window shattered with an ear-piercing splinter. A guard slumped to the ground.

Colter was busy firing at a couple of men who’d taken up residence in a side foyer.

“We’ll go out the back way,” he hissed, and nodded to his left. “You go first, I’ll cover you.”

“Not without you.”