Bound by Vengeance (28 page)

The angry purple bruises mottling her face and sides broke his heart. That delectable bottom lip was going to need stitches, as was a tiny cut above her eye. His body trembled as he tried to keep his emotions in check. It was ha
rd. Too damn hard. All he wanted was to snatch her off the bed, hold her close, and beg her to open her eyes. He’d promise her the world if it meant having her back at his side.

“Taylor?” he asked, his voice coming in a choked whisper. His hand shook as he
trailed it over the bruised slope of her cheek.

“Come on, Baas. Get out of the way,” one of the medics urged.

“Taylor, baby, wake up. Please wake up,” he begged. “I’m here now, sweetheart. Everything is going to be okay. Don’t do this to me. Please don’t do this to me.”

“Baas, get
out
of the way!”

He whirled on the short, bearded doctor with a snarl. The man stumbled back only to collide with the solid wall of Marx’s chest. He fumbled with his wire rim glasses, panic stamping his owl-like face as he trie
d to decide which man was the bigger threat.

A soft whimper broke the silence and Sebastian spun, his attention swinging back to Taylor. Eyes wide and terrified, she struggled against the restraints as she came out of sedation. Her muffled sobs tore at wha
t was left of his heart.

“No, baby. Stop,” he pleaded hoarsely. “You’re going to hurt yourself.”

Her gaze swung up to his and the pleading on her face forced a lump to his throat. Reaching down, he smoothed the hair from her brow, fighting the tears that threatened. He fought to keep his emotions in check as her face crumpled with pity and a low moan broke past her lips.

Taylor shook her head. “Seb…”

“Shh. It’s okay. I’m fine. This is nothing,” he soothed. “Everything’s going to be okay. We need to focus on you.”

“Alright,” Marx interrupted. The deep thunder of his voice rolled through the room. “That’s enough. Do what needs to be done here.”

Taylor jerked as one of the doctors stuck her arm. Fear washed over her and she snapped against the restraints with a low howl. Sebastian swallowed hard, fighting to find his voice. His vision blurred.

“Taylor, shh, no. It’s okay,” he choked. “Don’t fight them.”

His pleas went unheeded in her panic. Understanding broke as he watched her buck and fight against the thick leather restraints holding her down. She didn’t understand where she was or what was happening. All she knew was she was strapped down and strange people were coming at her with needles and God knew what else. Unfortunately, her thrashing was unsettling Marx and putting the medical team on edge. Taylor’s panic intensified and the table nearly capsized as she bucked violently. One of the medical attendants fought to steady her and reach the IV.

Displeasure rode Marx’s craggy features as he approached. Sebast
ian planted himself between them and reached out, trying to ward the director off with one hand. He roared at the doctor as the little man tried to slip past.

“Just stop for a minute! You’re scaring her!”

“That’s enough, Baas!”

He stiffened at Marx’s curt
bellow. Josh reached for his arm, but he veered out of the way. The sudden shift in movement caused the room to pitch in a dangerous swirl. He backpedaled and stumbled to the side, still attempting to steady himself, but it was too late. Sebastian crashed into one of the medical trays. Before he could reach it, the stand tipped and the stainless steel instruments tumbled and scattered, clattering loudly against the linoleum floor. Once again, he found himself stumbling out of his partner’s reach.

“I’m okay,
” he said, shaking his head to clear his vision.

“Like hell you are,” Marx barked. “I’m not willing to risk losing you. Get in that bed.”

Sebastian squinted in the direction Marx pointed. He opened his mouth to argue, but the director cut him off with a sharp wave of his hand.

“I allowed you to see your little girlfriend. Either you get your ass in that bed or I’ll put you both in separate rooms until you leave,” Marx snapped. “End of discussion.”

Taylor was crying. He winced at the increasing tempo of her heart monitor. The high-pitched beeps seemed to echo and reverberate through his skull. His stomach churned at her panic and the concern riding the faces of the team around her.

“Please, Taylor. You have to calm down. It’s going to be okay. Everything will
be okay now. Trust me,” he begged, moving aside to give the doctor a clear path. As much as he wanted to stay with her, he knew Marx would make good on his threat.

At an adamant snap of his fingers and an emphatic point from the SKALS commander, he backe
d toward the other gurney. Annoyed and frustrated, he tried batting Josh away. His partner helped steady him, his dark brow gathering with worry. For the second time that day, he felt another man’s arm slip around him and shame suffused his core. Embarrassed heat stung his cheeks as Josh eased him onto the side of the bed.

Laying down, he craned his head to keep a close eye on what was happening to Taylor. Tight panic settled across his chest and squeezed the air from his lungs as he watched a small swarm o
f trained professionals scramble to assess and fix whatever was wrong. His eyes darted to Josh’s, almost begging the man to do something to make it right.

“Easy, Baas,” his partner coaxed.

“Stay with her.”

“You got it. Just take it easy. Let the staff do t
heir job.”

Sighing, he sagged back against the stretcher. His jaw clenched as one of the attendants moved to secure his wrists. Restraints were no longer optional in the infirmary. One too many men had come through those doors feral and crazed after recond
itioning, all too willing to lash out at the first thing that moved. Now, they were all considered armed and extremely dangerous. He clenched his teeth. While he was no longer the first, he was most certainly still the second.

Sebastian grunted as one of
the leather straps cinched a little too tight for comfort and a rubber tourniquet bit into his arm, pinching the flesh as someone sought to find a vein. His eyes remained locked on Taylor, as the evening spun through his head in a rapid, but agonizing, loop. Cool liquid seeped through his system, and he fought with all he had to stay awake as the sedatives started to kick in. He felt his breathing slow and his lids start to grow heavy. Much like everything else tonight, it was a battle he wasn’t going to win.

Rhythmic ticking pulled Sebastian from the blissful cocoon of his slumber. Blinking several times against the gloom, his vision slowly came back into focus and he stared at the steady progression of the second hand as it marched across the face of the
wall clock. He had no idea how much time had passed, but the cool, silent surroundings and the windowless metal door assured him he’d made it into recovery.

His throat felt dry and scratchy, his tongue thick and sticky in his mouth. Grimacing, he tried to
swallow as his gaze darted around the room in a frantic quest for Taylor. The pounding in his chest and head intensified as he found the room empty except for Josh, who sat in a silent vigil beside him.

“Hey,
Baas. How ya feeling?” his partner asked, leaning over him.

He forced a hard swallow and struggled to force the words past his lips. “Where…where’s Taylor…”

“She’s okay. They’re just cleaning her up. They’ll bring her in shortly.”

A quiet sigh of relief es
caped him. Giving a slow nod, he looked to his partner in question. “What…how is she?”

Josh shrugged. Leaning back, he scrubbed a hand through his dark hair. “She’s a tough one, Baas. It was a little touch and go at first. She had some sort of allergic rea
ction that kept messing up her heart. We’re not sure if it’s something the team gave her or if it was a side effect of the neurotoxins Laychee’s men injected her with, but she’s out of the woods now. Like you, she’s got a few cuts, a concussion, and some cracked ribs, but it’s not that bad.”

A soft snort escaped him. “Not that bad,” he repeated in a strained whisper.

The pain and reluctance on his partner’s face lent him pause. His stare bore into Josh for a long moment. Uncomfortable beneath its weight the other man squirmed, making the chair creak.

“What is it?” Sebastian asked. “What aren’t you telling me?” His heart sank and he clenched his jaw. “Did they rape her?”

“No. No, they didn’t rape her, but I…” Josh blew out a shaky breath.

“Spit it out.”

His partner shook his head. “They found traces of gunpowder. They think--”

Sebastian cut him off with a shake of his head. “Don’t,” he warned. “Stop. I’m capable of drawing my own conclusions. I don’t want to hear anymore.”

Gritting his teeth so hard his gums ached, he forced his attention back to the ceiling. Rage detonated like a bomb inside his chest, making his lean muscles quiver beneath the sheets. Shaking, he fought to keep a tenuous hold on his emotions. More than anything, he just wanted to be left alone.

“Baas, tell me what to do. How to fix this.”

“I want them dead,” he rasped. “All of them. Anyone who had anything to do with this. I want them buried. I don’t care what it takes or what you have to do. Find them. That includes whatever survivors are left on my pathetic excuse for a security team. Find a new one. They can’t be trusted.”

“Sebastian…”

“You asked what you could do,” he said coldly, turning his head to pin his partner with an icy glare. “Now do it.”

“What do you want me to do about Henderson
? The guy is barely holding on, but he saved her life, Baas.”

“
Saved her
?” he asked, his voice hitching with disbelief. “No, Josh. He didn’t save anything. If he had done his job in the first place, those men would have never set foot in my house. Someone should have called the authorities. Something. How do I know this wasn’t some ploy where he could come out looking like the hero? Those men infiltrated my security before. Why not now?”

“Sebastian…”

“No,” he said, cutting him off. His glare pierced the darkened shadows cloaking the room. “How do I really know?”

Josh lowered his head with a sorrowful shake. “You don’t, Baas.”

“One of my own teammates stuck a knife in my back and tried to kill me.”

“I know,” Josh said softly.

“Do you?” he asked. His shoulders jerked with feigned humor. “They put a plastic bag over my head. It’s not the first time we’ve experienced that, though, is it?” He turned his attention to the ceiling. “It’s just different somehow when it’s not an exercise. I know I have enemies. After all the things we’ve done, I’d be a fool to think people didn’t want me dead. I just never expected one of them to be a member of my own team—a man that I looked after and considered my family. Do you know why he did it, Josh?”

“No, Baas. I don’t.”

“He did it because I did my job. He did it because in the process of watching his back and looking out for every other member of this team, I had to put one sorry excuse for an agent down. And now,” he said, trailing off with a sorrowful laugh, “now I have to do it all over again. So you tell me, where does this end? At the end of the day, who can I
really
trust?”

A long, tense silence ensued.

“I’ll always have your back. You know that.”

He
stared at Josh for a long moment then nodded. “I sincerely hope so. Marx was right. Mercy and compassion have gotten me nowhere and brought me nothing but a world of pain. From now on, if someone so much as breathes in the wrong direction, I will have his head on a stick.”

“Okay.”

“Do you know what bothers me the most?”

“What’s that?” his partner asked, hanging his head.

“We tagged that son-of-a-bitch. Someone somewhere along the way had to know he was at my house. Even if just for a minute, yet no one made a move to stop him. Tell me why that is.”

“I don’t know, Sebastian,” Josh admitted quietly. “It was late. Maybe no one noticed. Maybe they did. Maybe they showed up, but it was too late. That would explain how Marx knew to search for her on the way to th
e hospital.”

His shoulders jerked with a humorless huff. “He knew this was coming. Marx wanted it to happen. The only reason Taylor is here is because he realized things went south and he was scrambling to cover his ass. He wanted her out of the way. Don’t
think I’ve forgotten what he said. I will
never
forgive him for this.”

Josh stood and patted his arm. “You’ve had a long night. I’ll take care of everything, Baas. You need to rest up and try to get some sleep.”

“Not until I see Taylor again. And Josh?”

T
urning from the door, his partner paused. Hesitancy flickered across his shadowy features.

“Yeah, Baas?”

“Thank you.”

Chapter 15 ~