Endurance (Heart of Stone) (6 page)

He was panting as I pulled back once more, my eyes
following the path of the knife with a cold excitement. His eyes screwed closed
and I knew I had him. “Fornos de Algodres, the old shelter.”

I dropped the knife and spun around. “Thank you, Estevo”
I muttered as I flew across the room.

I stared at the ceiling, focussing on the domed metal as
Hugh slipped the knife through the front of my bra and released my breasts to
the cool air. “Very nice” I heard him mumble as my foggy brain tried to keep up
with the frantic flow of blood supplying it.

My heart was racing but there wasn’t enough blood to fuel
the rocketing throb. My pulse couldn’t keep up as it strained to either slow
itself down and adapt to the weakness of my body or speed up and fight to push
the blood around my ailing system.

My mind was hazy and frenzied as visions of my family
laughing in the sunshine tormented my soul yet comforted my heart; George’s
happy smile as a young boy playing ball with his sister, Mason’s soft smile as
he watched me sway across the room and love him with my body and Kade’s beloved
arms holding me tight against him. They all laughed happily and waved to me as
I shuddered against the harsh touch of Hugh’s hand up my inner thigh.

Fight, baby.

“I can’t” I whispered back.

Hugh slapped at my face as my eyes closed wearily, “Keep
awake, bitch.”

Yes, you can, Ava. Fight!

“I…” I gulped at the dryness in my throat and then
shivered as harsh rough hands cupped my breasts and squeezed cruelly, “I want
to but….”

My face shot sideways as his palm struck me again, “I
aint fucking no dead slapper so you need to keep your eyes open. You hear me?”

Endurance, Ava. Fight the bastard.

His voice was strong and firm as he reprimanded me and I gazed
around groggily to see if he was actually here with me. A choked sob erupted
from me when I saw him stood in the corner of the room smiling softly at me as
he leaned against the wall with his thick arms crossed over his solid chest.
“Mason?”

I felt Hugh turn to scan the room, checking to see if
Mason was actually with us. He snorted and peered down at me, “You’re losing
your shit pretty quick; we need to do this now.”

His knee wedged between mine and pushed my legs apart. I
didn’t have the strength to struggle anymore. My body was giving up,
I
was giving up and I turned my head once more and stared lovingly at my husband.
“Help me,” I rasped but he shook his head.

No, fight him. You can do this Ava, you are strong.
You can take this prick.

Fury rippled through me with his refusal to help me and I
glared at him, “Fucking help me!”

No!

“Yes, damn you!”

“Shut the fuck up, you freak!” Hugh barked as his fingers
curled around the edge of my knickers and started to yank at them.

Ava!

It was the combination of the two sounds that did it, the
harsh rip of fabric and Mason’s firm growl of my name. My heart rate peaked
with my intense rage and slammed my brain with so much adrenaline I had to
scream to release the surge of emotion. Hugh stared at me in horror as I
launched my fist into the side of his face. He shot sideways but was quick to
get back to me, his hands curling around my throat but I was too far gone to
care.

Mason’s wrath had always astounded me; its force was both
manic and malevolent and I had often wondered how he thrived on it but now, in
the moment between death and existence, when I had no more to lose, when my
mind and my soul had accepted mortality and my spirit had given up, natural
instincts of survival swelled within me and produced a storm of hysteria and
passion.

I penetrated his stare as my throat burnt against his fingers
and my lungs squealed in torturous misery. Slowly and agonizingly I raised my
hands, placing one arm around the back of his neck and the other on his jaw as
my vision faded to a tunnel, a taunting light at the end which called to me
with so much power my ears started to hum at my reluctance to cave.

You know what to do, baby. Finish him.

I closed my eyes, summoning the small bubble deep within
me. The spark fused and ignited, its energy giving me the last threads of vitality
I needed. My breathing steadied as my panic calmed and my strength built, my
arms locked tight as my body reinforced its genetic shield. The scream caught
him off guard first but his eyes widened as I rammed upwards with my knee in a
quick harsh movement and butted his balls as I jerked and snapped my arms,
breaking his neck cleanly and efficiently. He flopped against me instantly, his
dead weight heavy as any remaining strength evaporated and I relished the
oblivion of unconsciousness.

***

“Ava…”

I smiled faintly as I heard his frantic voice, the
feverish tone of him nectar to my senses as I tried to call out but darkness
surrounded me once more and I fell down deep into the pit.

I felt lighter as the weight lifted and hands and fingers
probed at me. I winced as a sharp prick twinged the back of my hand and a warm
sensation curled up my arm and tickled my veins.

“Baby… Please…”

Everything was surreal and far away, too far away. I
needed to touch him but I was too exhausted to reach for him. The light was
still shimmering in the background, beckoning me into its breach but I dug my
heels in each time Mason’s voice would penetrate my mind.

“You’re a warrior baby, battle it. Don’t let it win.”

I was tired of fighting though. The temptation to give in
and rest was too intense. The promise of freedom and tranquillity too enticing
as the light guaranteed serenity.

“AVA!”

This time the scream jolted me and my eyes snapped open.
I couldn’t focus and I blinked rapidly to clear my vision. I heard a strangled
choke beside me and slowly turned my head. Mason’s wild eyes looked straight at
me; the deep hazel now blurred with bloody veins and yellowed sclera, his skin
nearly translucent and pale.

“Mason?”

He closed his eyes for a second and exhaled heavily.
“Listen to me, baby,” he whispered as he took my hand in his and ran his thumb
softly over the back of it. “I’ve got to leave you for a moment but Nate is
here. Okay?”

I nodded slowly, the effort of it aching the back of my
skull. “Okay” I managed to reply. He smiled with so much sadness I actually
wondered if I had died, “I’m okay, go.”

He struggled with himself as he turned his head to look
across the room then back to me. “Mason, I’m fine. Go.” He nodded resolutely,
kissed my forehead then stood and moved away.

Nate appeared beside me and shook his head in mock disgust,
“Don’t you ever get tired of causing trouble, sweetheart.”

I scoffed at him but moaned as fatigue once more took
over, “All the time, Nate. All the fucking time.”

She growled at me, literally growled at me with a curled
lip and spit as Greg and Sam held her firm. Three men were bleeding out beneath
her feet, their eyes open and staring at me as they watched their employer
struggle to keep her shit together.

I rubbed at the back of my neck, my relief in finding Ava
alive, albeit it in a mess but still alive, draining the last of my resources.

“Hello, Vickie.”

She scoffed and glared at me, “Find your bitch? Is she
still in one piece or has Hugh fucked her in two.”

The bile threatened to erupt with her words. I had pushed
that part aside for now; I couldn’t deal with it yet. The thought that someone
had… touched Ava, never mind hurt her that way again was too much for me to
take right then.

I smiled widely, “Oh you know Ava, Vickie, the cold
dead
stare of Hugh’s was quite satisfying. You underestimate my wife and her
capabilities.”

I relished in the furious expression that swept across
her face and tilted my head, regarding the bitch with an icy calmness, “In
fact, I think we’ll save you for Ava. It may take her a while to be up to the
job but I’m sure we can
accommodate
you somewhere.”

Her chest heaved angrily as she glared at me. “Why,
Mason. Why do this to us? Frank was your friend.”

My mouth dropped open and I shook my head with
incredulity, “You really have a problem finding what is wrong in this, don’t
you?” I took a step into her and grasped her chin harshly, tilting her head
back until she looked me in the eye. “I want you to picture Etta, cold and
shivering, naked and hurt in the corner of a cold damp room while men take her
harshly and cruelly. While animals train her to become a slave to some evil
bastard that wants to constantly tear her in two with his brutal and merciless
sick sexual tendencies.”

She stared at me and lifted a brow, “Most of these girls
were living on the streets with no food or care, and they were filthy and
starving. What Frank and I did for them should be respected and admired.”

“Jesus Christ!” Greg rumbled and I glanced at him. He
shook his head in despair but I just shrugged. There was obviously no guilt or remorse
in this woman.

“Get her out of here!”

I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair. What the
hell was wrong with people? I knew I wasn’t innocent in all this, my illegal
activities were somehow connected to these atrocities, not directly but someone
I had once sold a weapon to or been hired to maim or kill their enemy, one of
those thought they were above the laws of the land and presumed they were
entitled to have a slave to either train to use said weapon or to use as
payment for something else they desired that was out of reach on this planet,
or just to fuck sadistically when a deal they had been working on went wrong.

“It’s not your fault.” I turned and stared at Ava as she
leant worryingly against Nate; her beautiful face still stunning against the
dirt and pallor of her skin, her striking green eyes still gorgeous and
enthralling even though dullness and fatigue dampened their intensity and her
now covered body still alluring and perfect as her dress hung limply and
raggedly around her.

The seven strides it took to reach her took far too long.
I scooped her up and held her against my body, the frantic beat of her heart
jumping against my hand as I rested it under her breast. She hissed in pain and
I cursed under my breath when I felt the protrusion of a couple of ribs poking
through her soft skin.

“We need to get you to hospital, baby.”

She shook her head and gazed up at me with her eyes drooping,
“No, just call your Mom… and Paola.” She lifted an eyebrow when I frowned in
argument, “Mason, please. I just wanna go home. I want my own bath and my own
bed; I want you next to me, holding me and loving me. I want to hear Katie’s
laughter through the walls and George’s terrible singing through the house. I
want to go home.”

Nate passed me the bag of saline that fed the line Sam
had inserted into one of Ava’s veins as soon as we had found her. I looked at
him for support but he smiled softly and nodded, “Take her home. I’ll stay and
help the rest, we’ll sort this shit out. Go.”

“Okay, call me if you need anything.”

He nodded and pushed me gently, “Go.”

So I did, once again carrying my broken and equally
strong wife home.

***

“You’re so beautiful, Ava, not just your beauty but your
strength,” I breathed in her ear as I gently ran the wet sponge over her
bruised abdomen. Her body was wrecked, the beating she had taken had been
severe and ruthless, the evidence of it breaking my heart.

She pulled my legs further around her as if using them
for support as well as protection. “You made me strong and resilient, Mason.
Your love fuels my courage.”

I sighed and she turned her head until her eyes were
looking up at me. The bath water rippled around us, its faint slosh calming my
pain, “No baby, all I seem to do is put you in danger.”

I frowned when she rolled her lips with amusement. She
paused as if working out how to say what she wanted to say, “It’s our wedding
anniversary tomorrow, fourteen years.” I nodded and remained quiet. “Do you not
think that maybe by now, if danger and exposure worried me, I would be long
gone?”

I slipped the sponge down beside her thigh, letting it float
to the bottom of the bath as my hands took over the duty of washing her. “Yes,
but maybe by now I’m getting tired of putting you in that danger and exposure.”

Her face tightened as she pondered my statement but then
she shrugged and turned so her back was once again moulded against my chest,
“Well then you’re in the wrong job, baby, cos’ if you aren’t aware by now that
this is our life, this is what we do and what we were made to do, then I think
you need to find a nice quiet monastery on a secluded hill and hide away in the
corner with a bowl cut and a lovely brown tunic whilst you make straw baskets
and feed mountain goats.”

I laughed and growled playfully in her ear, “Are you
telling me you think I would look handsome with a bowl cut.”

“Baby, you’d look handsome with facial herpes and buck
teeth. You’re you Mason, fuck I have to fight damn Angel’s every morning to
keep you mine.”

Her hands settled over mine against her stomach and I
smirked when she pressed against me and manoeuvred them under the water until
they slid between her thighs, “I need you, Mason.”

“Ava?”

“No,” she answered without the question. “He didn’t touch
me, not for want of trying. I told you once that I would never let anyone
violate me that way again, and I meant it.”

The lump that had been resident in my throat slipped away
yet did nothing for the cold chill in my bones, “But the… the way I found you. He
was on top of you, Ava; your clothes were… please don’t lie just to save me
from the hurt.”