Dominance Never Dies (Masters and Mercenaries Book 11) (47 page)

Kent was putting his career on the line.

“Or he’s doing secretive shit that will blow back in our faces,” Ian muttered.

His brother wasn’t a fan.

Ten slid the zipper on the duffel open and started to unload a seemingly endless supply of weapons. “I don’t think so. He was kind of legendary in the Agency. Very private dude. He was the agent you would send to study other agents and take care of them if they needed to be taken care of. I never met him but I knew his boss. Good man. Kent was a little like his Big Tag. The operative he could count on. I suspect that’s the only reason he didn’t get burned after the stunt he pulled with the general.”

The fact that Ten could call the assassination of a man a “stunt” made Case feel good about having gotten out when he had. “I feel comfortable with Kent. And if he steps out of line, I’ll feel comfortable murdering him.”

“That’s my baby brother.” Sean high-fived him. “If it means anything, I think Kent’s on the up and up. I was watching him on the ride over and he seems solid.”

“And like you said, if he’s not solid, we can turn him into a liquid,” Ian said with a nod as he looked to the door. “Speak of the devil. What do you have for us?”

Kent walked in, Lawless hard on his heels. The billionaire looked worse for the wear, but Case would give it to him. The man wasn’t about to stand down. He was willing to go to the ends of the earth to save his sister.

“Mia’s on the plane,” Lawless said, his eyes on the guns on the table.

Kent placed his laptop on the desk. “She was caught on a private airfield camera being carried onto the cargo plane. Chelsea used that big brain of hers to figure out where they would have taken off from and cut into their security feeds.” He turned the laptop toward them. “And look who’s carrying her onto the plane.”

Case breathed a deep sigh of relief. There was no way to mistake his brother’s familiar face. Theo was cradling Mia’s still form in his arms, holding her close to his chest. Theo had Mia.

“What the fuck happened to his face?” Sean had flushed a nice shade of red.

Case felt his heart twist a little. Kent had frozen the screen and magnified the image. There was a horrific scar splitting his twin’s left cheek. Someone had fileted his brother’s face, but it wouldn’t matter. Erin wouldn’t care. Nothing mattered except the fact that he was alive and he was watching over Mia. Case would bet that scar was there because Theo had protected Mia before. While Case had been watching over Theo’s son, Theo had taken pain for Case’s wife.

Why the hell was the world going blurry?

“He’s going to take care of her.” Ian put a hand on Case’s shoulder. “She’s going to be okay.”

“They couldn’t break him.” Sean stood at his other side.

His brothers, surrounding him with support. Why had he ever fought this? Why had he thought for a second that he didn’t need these men in his life, to mentor him, to fight beside him, to be his brothers? He’d fought them. He’d wanted to remain the leader. Years he’d spent being the leader of the two of them—him and Theo. He’d wanted that to stay the same, but god, it was so much better now. He wasn’t alone. He didn’t have to be perfect. He just had to be here.

He’d spent years struggling, years when it had only been him and Theo, but now any way he turned he saw someone who gave a shit about him. They were obnoxious and loud and insane and they were his freaking family. Every single one of them.

“His face doesn’t matter.” Case had never been more sure about anything in his life. “All that matters is Mia and Theo and Hutch.”

Sean nodded. “All that matters is getting our people back.”

Kent flipped the laptop back around and stared down at the screen, his hands moving on the keyboard. “They refueled in Morocco and according to satellite data they should be landing soon. But there’s some bad news. Dr. McDonald isn’t on the plane. We have no idea where she is and she’ll very likely figure out her whole operation has been compromised quickly. My boss wants to stand down and allow McDonald to join her crew before moving in.”

Ten sighed. “Damn it. Why isn’t she with them? We need that intel. We need to apprehend McDonald or she’ll just set up another clinic in another country and continue her research.”

Stephanie stepped up. “I’m ready. Brody and I have been working the last couple of weeks to make sure we can deal with this situation.”

Brody stood beside the doctor, his big frame looming over hers. “We’ve got the rooms ready and everything. You can monitor the situation while we wait for McDonald.”

“No.” Lawless faced the big Aussie. “I’m not going to let my sister stay here. If you won’t save her, I’ll walk away right fucking now and hire someone who will.” He turned to Case. “Come on. I’ll get you all the backing you could hope for, Case.”

He’d come a long way with that family. The fact that Drew Lawless just assumed immediately that Case’s first priority would be Mia meant he’d properly settled into his role as Mia’s future husband.

“We’re not going anywhere,” Ian said. “Stop slinging your big old wallet dick around. You should know that we’re backing Case and Case won’t allow his wife to be used as a pawn.”

“Or my brother.” It seemed like everyone knew him pretty well. It settled something deep inside him. Mia was almost here and she knew him, too. She would be waiting for him to save her. She wouldn’t be crying in a corner and praying. She would know damn straight that her man would come for her.

His only problem would be the fact that his Mia would try to look out for his brother and Hutch, too. She was fierce and she would be a warrior.

Kent looked at him. “You know what you’re giving up.”

Revenge on Hope McDonald. It was an easy choice to make. Revenge or his loved ones. He would choose them every single time. “I know that I’m getting my wife and brother and friend back. That’s a good fucking day in my books.”

Kent nodded. “Well, I’m sure I can figure out a way to explain it all to my boss. I’ll probably get stuck with babysitting duty for a few years, but I’ve gotten used to Dallas.”

Brody got a big smile on his face and he put a hand on Stephanie’s shoulder. “Told you we wouldn’t really be needed, luv.”

Stephanie grinned up at him. “He did. He got the report this morning and told me my time as a spy was almost done. It sucks. I was so ready to play Mata Hari. I was going to seduce someone.”

Kent frowned at her. “I don’t think you want to seduce any of those guys. One of them was in prison for murder, two of them probably qualify as mentally ill at this point, and Santos was a walking venereal disease when he was with the Agency. Now he’s a traitorous walking venereal disease.”

Stephanie sighed. “It seems so glamorous in the movies. Like that one about Pierce Craig.”

Everyone else groaned but Ian perked up. “I know. That dude’s awesome, right?”

Sean’s eyes rolled. “I curse the day Serena sold that book to Hollywood.”

Because that book had been loosely based on Ian’s life and Ian never let them forget it. Luckily that one had a happy ending.

“Let’s suit up. This is going down soon,” Case said.

He was going to make sure this op ended happily, too.

* * * *

Mia was shaking by the time the plane taxied toward the hanger. Cargo planes didn’t land quite the same way corporate jets did.

“You all right?” If Theo had been bothered by the landing, she couldn’t tell. He seemed perfectly steady.

She was fairly certain she’d gone a nice shade of green. She managed to nod his way. “I’m good. Do you think I could get some clothes soon?”

He grinned. “I was going to ask you why you were in a robe. Are you one of the girls Tony brings in? Robert’s going to love you, but you have to stay away from Victor. He’s my brother and I care about him, of course, but he’s not great with women.”

She bit back a groan. This was what it was like to talk to Theo. He seemed almost normal one minute and then he forgot what she’d told him not ten minutes before. The only thing he seemed to keep a firm grasp on were his orders. He hadn’t left her side once. She’d even tried to ask for things like a bottle of water to see if she could get a minute or two alone, but he wouldn’t move.

“Maybe you should stay close to me,” Theo said, his voice grim.

“I will.” She was definitely going to try.

The plane rolled to a stop and Mia’s stomach took a dive. They were here. She had no idea how long it would take Case to reevaluate and reorganize the operation, but she was sure he would be here as soon as he could. It was up to her to stay alive until then.

That’s all she had to do. Stay alive.

“Tony wants us to gather our gear and get ready,” a dark voice said.

She looked up and it seemed as though Victor had gotten over his motion sickness. He loomed over her, his eyes staring down.

Theo stood up. “I’ve got my bag. I’ll handle the girl. Why don’t you grab the computer equipment?”

“The geek’s getting that,” Victor said dismissively. “He’s going to take care of the plane and then grab all his crap. I don’t know why we haven’t killed him yet.”

“Because none of the rest of us can do what he does,” Theo replied simply. “Mother wants him alive. He stays alive.”

She saw Hutch move through the plane’s wide hold. He was thinner than she remembered and there was a hollow look to his eyes. He stared at her for a moment before grabbing a bag and turning his back.

What had he gone through? Something horrible, certainly. It was like his light had gone out and he was a husk of his old self, walking around.

She wanted to call out to him, to say something, but Victor was watching her like a rabid lion waiting to pounce.

“Stay away from the girl.” Santos strode from the front of the plane. He had a shoulder holster over his bulky body and Mia could see the big gun nestled in there. It looked like Santos was ready for a fight since he also had an AR-15 in his hands. “I told you she’s off limits. She’s worth more alive than dead. A lot more. If you touch her, I’ll cut off your balls and feed them to you.”

Victor’s body went rigid. “Yes, sir.”

Theo turned and offered her a hand up. “I’ll find something for you to wear.”

“But she’s so pretty like that.” Robert was armed to the teeth, too. He settled a light jacket over his torso, but she’d seen the guns he was wearing. “And I’ve heard it’s pretty hot where we’re going. Although it might be fun to dress her. I think she’d look good in blue.”

Dear lord, now she was going to be Robert’s Barbie doll. Still, she was surrounded by men with guns who might or might not know what they were doing. She gave him a smile. “Blue’s my favorite color.”

She was going to have to depend on Theo and Robert’s better natures. Victor didn’t have one and Santos would kill her the minute she wasn’t worth more alive than dead. And she wasn’t sure what was going on with Hutch. He seemed so different. She would do anything she could to save him, but she wasn’t going to count on him.

“Stop playing with the girl. We need to move. It looks like our contacts are here. Victor, finish securing the plane. We paid enough for it. It will be good to have a way out of here if we need it. Especially now that we have a pilot. I think Mr. Hutchins has been properly trained.”

“A few years of torture will do that to a guy,” Hutch muttered under his breath as he walked by.

So they’d done to him what they’d done to Tennessee Smith. The drug in small doses made hours seem like days, made the smallest pain into something monstrous. One of the potential future uses of the drug was in prison systems, to ensure criminals did their “time” but to keep crowding to a minimum. The prisoner would experience the time as if it was going by, but would come out of the drug’s influence to find only weeks had passed.

Hutch had gone through that. There was no telling how much pain he’d experienced.

“Let’s go and meet Dr. Gibson,” Santos said. “She’s off limits, too, but you can do what you like with the villagers around the clinic. I know you boys need to blow off some steam. Just wait until Mother gets here in a few days. She’ll wipe the girls’ memories so there won’t be trouble.”

Awesome. Now McDonald was wiping the memories of the victims of rape.

“I’ll make sure she has plenty of test subjects.” Victor winked Mia’s way, sending a shiver down her spine.

Theo put a hand on her arm. “Come on. Stay close to me or Robert and you’ll be all right. Don’t talk to the new guys. Tony won’t like it. We’ll have you in a room to yourself very soon. One of us will make sure to watch over you the whole time.”

Until they forgot to. She was going to figure out a way to defend herself. She silently thanked Ezra for all the training. After what happened in Colombia, she’d realized she’d panicked, and no amount of self-defense lessons could fix that. So Ezra trained her, made her stronger, more confident. If Victor thought she’d be an easy mark, he would find out she was a quick learner.

She followed Robert off the plane, her bare feet hitting the metal of the stairs that led to the concrete floor. She was in some sort of hanger, out of sight. Hutch was standing to the side, his gaze on the two people waiting to greet them. His eyes were wide and his shoulders had straightened.

He recognized them. Or at least one of them. Her heart started to pound. How far gone was Hutch? How much had they brainwashed him? She knew he hadn’t had the same protocols and memory wipes as Theo and the soldiers, but he was obviously complying with orders. Would he give up the game? Would he call out and tell Santos what was happening?

Hutch’s eyes averted, but he didn’t say anything.

Yet.

“Hello,” the brunette with the ponytail said. “I was surprised that you moved up our agreed upon date.”

She was frowning, her hands on her hips. It was probably easy to be aggressive when one had a massive, truly scary-looking dude by her side. The man standing next to the doctor was a mountain of muscle with what looked like a bad attitude. He had a gun on his hip and he wasn’t trying to hide it.

Santos shrugged and seemed to attempt to look charming. “You know how these things go. Sometimes opportunity knocks and we must answer the door. I explained that we would certainly be more than happy to give you a small percentage of our latest endeavor.”