Cherry Adair - T-flac 03 (40 page)

Kyle gently pushed her hands out of the way and removed Lauren's necklace for her.

"Thanks." Her voice cracked. She picked up her sister's limp hand, holding it against her cheek as he checked Lauren's eyes, then felt for a pulse at her throat. She gave him a beseeching look.

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"We have to get her to a hospital. Now." He moved to detach the IV from the vein in her wrist.

Delanie stroked Lauren's gaunt cheek. The bastards had struggled to find one more place to insert the needle. Her entire arm was a mass of purple, yellow, and green bruises. She shot a loathing, venomous glare at the unconscious woman on the floor.

Tears burned the back of her eyes as Kyle wrapped her sister in the bedspread.

"Yo, Dare?" Kyle shouted over his shoulder.

The man loped down the stairs, taking in the scene at a glance. He studied Lauren. "She alive?" he asked no one in particular, crouching down beside Lauren, and touching a gentle finger to her face.

Delanie instinctively took a step forward.

"Unconscious." Kyle stepped over Isabella to come around the bed to stand beside them. "Predictably, drug-induced. You can see the bruising on her wrists where they bound her some time ago. Apparently she wouldn't cooperate, so the bitch drugged her to the gills."

Dare ran the back of a finger down her sister's cheek. "Poor little bit, had a hard time of it, haven't you?"

Delanie scowled at him.

Dare had insisted on carrying Lauren. Kyle bit back a grin. While his pal was Rhett Butler carrying Scarlett, he had Isabella slung over his shoulder like a sack of manure. Delanie walked beside him, a fierce glower on her face.

Midmorning, and hotter than a sauna. A haze hung over the treetops like mist; a combination of smoke from the fires on the compound and steam evaporating off the wet ground and foliage. Mosquitoes swarmed in clouds, attacking any exposed skin they found.

Kyle brushed a tiny red bug off Delanie's cheek, just for the sheer pleasure of touching her. She gave him a small, distracted smile before turning back to keep an eagle eye on Lauren.

She'd taken great pleasure snapping Lauren's discarded necklace around the older woman's throat before they'd left the shelter, and now walked with the control box gripped in her hand. God help Isabella if she so much as blinked.

"Where to now?" Delanie asked, voice raised over the noise of an ascending chopper as it cleared the trees.

"San Cristobal International, Miami. Then wherever you want to go."

She touched her sister's hair draped over Dare's arm. "Home, Sacramento, I guess. I have to find somewhere right away for—" She obviously caught the look he and Dare exchanged over her head. Her eyes narrowed. "What did I miss?"

"I'm taking your sister to T-FLAC's clinic in Montana," Dare said, making Delanie's head whip around in his direction. Kyle sighed. He'd tried to warn Darius.

"Like hell you are," Delanie snapped. "I don't know who you think you are to be making
any
decisions
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about her welfare. Lauren and I live in Sacramento. That's
California
. Not Montana. I'm taking her home."

Dare glanced over her head at Kyle, then back to her. "We have a facility in Montana. I've arranged for one of our people to meet us in Florida before transporting her there." The scar on his face whitened.

"She'll have the best of care. You have my word on it." The most words Kyle had ever heard his friend utter in one string.

"It's not only the drug addiction we have to worry about, jungle girl. Lauren must've been through hell and back psychologically. God only knows, Isabella gave you a taste of it. She drugged and sold Lauren.

And your sister was
returned
. She must have fought them tooth and nail, despite them pumping her full of drugs. She's going to need a hell of a lot more than a regular detox center. She'll need heavy-duty counseling—"

"PTSD," Dare inserted.

"Yeah, for posttraumatic stress, which dollars to donuts will be a major concern. The T-FLAC clinic is one the best of its kind in the world. They know what they're doing."

Several hummingbirds swooped overhead. The jungle closed in around them. They weren't far from the compound. Ten, fifteen more minutes tops.

Kyle relaxed somewhat when he saw a portion of the chain-link fence about two hundred feet ahead.

"And when that's done," Dare snarled, "I guarantee you, home will be the last place she'll want to be."

"Kyle, tell your friend to
shut up
. He doesn't even
know
my sister."

"Cease fire, you two."
Been there, done that
. Kyle knew what Dare's chances would be of getting Lauren anywhere more than two feet away from her sister.

Zero to none.

Were his chances stacking up to the same odds? Delanie's thoughts were exclusively on her sister. With no room for anything else. Would it always be that way?

The going was considerably easier here. Shorter vegetation had been flattened, matted by dozens of booted feet. Delanie immediately moved up parallel with her sister and Dare.

One moment Kyle was about to draw abreast of them to play referee, Isabella's head bouncing down his back, the next he had no load.

In a move so slick he had to admire it, Isabella levered herself off his shoulder and did a neat tuck and roll.

Before anyone knew what she was about, she had an arm wrapped around Delanie's neck in a stranglehold. She had to stand on her toes to do it, bending a startled Delanie back at an awkward angle.

The small knife in Isabella's hand reflected the greenery around them as she held it to Delanie's throat.

Kyle sighed and cocked the SIG. "Damn it, I'm too tired for this crap. How about you, Dare?"

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He heard the action click on Darius's weapon.

"Back off, Dr. Wright. I dipped the edge of this knife in poison. I would love to cut her for all the trouble she has caused." The paring knife stroked slowly up Delanie's throat, then lingered directly over her pulse point.

"Do it, and I'll shoot you." Frost chilled Kyle's voice, but this was one time in his life he was terrified to call someone's bluff. "Hell, I'm itching to do it."

Brown eyes held his. "Kyle,
please
." Delanie slid her hand into her pocket and stood perfectly still in Isabella's hold. "I can do this."

"Yeah. I know you
can."
His tone was grim. "But why should you? I know you're rabid about paying your own debts, sweetheart. But let me do this for you this once. I'd really enjoy it."

"My charge, my credit card."

Ah, shit, he should have anticipated this. "Sure?" There was no one in the world besides the two of them.

"Oh yes." Delanie's eyes glittered. "I want to do this."

Isabella laughed. And nicked her with the sharp paring knife. Kyle saw the frantic flutter of her heart there, like a trapped bird. Blood drained from his head. He could take the woman with one clean shot.

He stepped forward aggressively.

"Kyle, no!" Delanie stopped him. "Shooting her is too quick. She's lying, there's no poison on the knife."

He tried to see her pupils to ascertain how fast the poison would work. Knowing Isabella, he didn't consider her words a bluff. Delanie looked just fine. Pissed, but controlled. He stayed where he was and refocused on Isabella.

The older woman smiled. "Now you will have to wait and see if I am lying, or if the poison is slow-acting." She paused meaningfully. "How do you feel,
querida
?"

"Like I've got nothing to lose," Delanie snarled, slamming the butt of the Uzi she carried back, hard into Isabella's belly.

"Yes!" Kyle shouted, seeing her bright, determined eyes. "Play dirty," he instructed her, his chest tight, his fist clenched. Rage ate through his stomach like battery acid. It took every ounce of control he possessed to stay where he was.

"Jesus, Doc," Dare said incredulously, coming up beside him. "Surely to God you aren't going to let her
do
this?"

"It's a damn big debt." He captured Isabella's eyes. "If Delanie doesn't kill you, take it to the bank, I
will

."

Delanie swung her body around and came at Isabella like a raging bull. Her Uzi went flying. Kyle swore.

And then they were down. Yelling and screaming, kicking and biting, scratching and gouging. The knife flashed in Isabella's hand. Isabella drew blood. Kyle swore vilely, jaw tight.

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"Ditto," Dare agreed, protectively holding Lauren higher against his chest as he moved out of the way.

"Aren't you going to do something?"

"She needs to do this on her own." The hardest words he'd said in his life. His damn heart was in his throat as Delanie did a high graceful kick, hitting Isabella a solid whack in the middle of her chest, knocking her onto her back. Isabella rolled, but Delanie, a feral expression on her face, jumped on her and pinned her down, one knee on the woman's chest, the other on her knife arm. Grabbing two handfuls of black hair she smacked Isabella's head in the dirt.

"Hell when the boot's on the other foot, isn't it," Delanie told Isabella calmly. She wasn't even panting.

"I
like
you on top,
querida
."

Again, Delanie pounded the woman's head sharply against the ground.
Harder
, Kyle silently encouraged, teeth clenched.
Much harder
.

"Man, she's incredible," Darius said admiringly. "But I've gotta tell you, pal, this one's going to give you gray hairs before your time."

"That's the pla—keep that hold, jungle girl!—damn." He scowled as Isabella bucked Delanie off.

Delanie swung a punch. He winced with her as it connected. "Did you see that? Go, sweetheart, go!"

Women fought so damn differently than men, he thought impatiently. "Damn it," Kyle yelled as she tried again. "Stop hitting like a
girl
. Hit
harder
!"

The two women circled, feinted, and parried. His fingers twitched on the butt of his weapon.
Come on,
come on, come on
, he urged silently, mentally coaching Delanie from the sidelines.

Isabella lunged to her feet, knife flashing.

Delanie circled her like a wary cat. Whipping out the little black box she had stuffed in her pocket, Delanie looked calm and composed. "Let's see how you like some of your own medicine." She extended her arm and pressed her thumb down.

Isabella clutched her throat. "I like it,
mija
," she said, but with a small grimace. "Do it again."

Sick bitch.

"Okay," Delanie said obligingly, extending the box and pressing again. For considerably longer this time.

There was no way Isabella could pretend that didn't hurt. "Oh, hell, this is
too
easy!" She tossed the plastic control off into the shrubs, dancing from foot to foot like a prizefighter.

Delanie felt amazingly revitalized, so energetic she could leap buildings in a single bound. In the periphery of her vision she could just see the two men standing at the tree line. Kyle looked as though he was chewing glass—

Isabella threw herself forward. Delanie executed a grand jeté, one leg shooting out to strike Isabella's right hand. The knife flew through the air in a high arc. Isabella shrieked, stumbling backward into a tree trunk, staggering to maintain her balance. Eyes wild, she pushed herself upright and came at Delanie at a dead run.

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As soon as Isabella was close, Delanie stepped aside. Isabella kept going, screaming like a banshee.

Dragging in gulping drafts of sticky air, Delanie ran after her; she wasn't done with Isabella yet. Not by a long shot. Eight feet away, Isabella stopped as abruptly as if she'd slammed into an invisible wall. Her shriek cut off midoctave. Her body arched. Jerking, as if caught in a monsoon, she whipped around, held in an invisible grip. Her body convulsed, an expression of utter stupefaction on her face. Black eyes wild, she opened her mouth in a silent scream, grotesquely chilling to watch.

"Get the hell away from her!" Kyle yelled, running toward Delanie.

Delanie stopped on a dime, her unbelieving eyes going from Isabella's blanched face to the coarse filaments of the woman's black hair, standing straight up, and out, from her head. Sylvester the cat with his tail in a light socket. Steam rose from Isabella's skin and clothing. Her eyes bulged hideously.

Delanie slapped her hand over her mouth, gagging at the smell of superheated flesh. Transfixed, she couldn't take her eyes off Isabella, who'd finally been thrown to the ground. Her body contorted, bowed in an arc. Twitched, then lay still.

Dead
still.

Stunned, Delanie started running toward the fallen woman. Kyle grabbed her tightly, picking her up off her feet, his arm like a vise.

"Wh—"

"Electrocuted," Kyle managed hoarsely. He spun her around and gathered her to his chest, holding her so tightly she could barely breathe. He buried his face in her hair. Delanie wasn't sure which of them was shaking more. But she wasn't planning on letting go. Her knees were jelly.

"What the hell was
that
?" Dare came to stand beside them.

Kyle held her in a steely grip, her face pressed to his sweaty shirtfront. His heart drummed unevenly beneath her ear. "Underground electronic fence." He sounded shaken, his voice hollow.

He pressed Delanie's face against his shoulder. "By the look of her, I'd guess about a thousand volts.

Buried just beneath the soil. The very
wet
soil. Activated by the control in the necklace Isabella's wearing."

Delanie's body was plastered against his. Not even a sheet of paper could have passed between them.