Resistance (21 page)

The guards’ eyes widened. They said nothing as one of them
undid the ropes around her ankles and the other continued to leer longingly at
her panties.

Oh yeah, she was going to puke. She swallowed bitter bile
and tried to figure out a way to escape. If she’d been in better shape, if she
could have moved her legs and they weren’t so useless and heavy and cold—or
maybe if she still didn’t suffer the aftereffects of the gas she’d inhaled—she
could have easily twined her legs around the guy’s neck, broken it and killed
him.

Unfortunately, she was too weak to do anything but curse as
he tugged her left shoulder and pushed her roughly onto her belly. Together
they grabbed her bound wrists and lifted her to her knees by the rope.

Pain sliced through her shoulders as they yanked, but she
refused to scream. She wouldn’t give these sons of bitches the satisfaction. In
moments, they had her standing on her wobbly legs and stuffed their hands under
her armpits, forcing her to keep her balance. She bit her bottom lip as the
circulation began to move in her arms and legs. Fire burned painfully and she
still refused to cry out. Refused to give them the pleasure of seeing her in
pain.

They dragged her out of the cell. Ahead, an endless row of
metal-barred cell doors lined both sides of the hallway. They stopped her right
in front of the cell immediately beside hers.

“The man says to stop for now. He’ll give further orders
later,” one guard said into the dark cell.

The woman sobbed and cried out as someone slapped her.

“I said no more!” the guard called.

Shadows moved inside the room and a moment later the barred
door creaked open and two burly guards came out. Reena gasped as she spied the
woman standing against the back wall. She was naked. Blood dribbled along her
inner thighs. Tangled long black hair hung over her face.

Reena didn’t recognize her.

“You two want a go at her? We can take over and deliver this
bitch for you.” One of the new guards leered at her and she knew exactly what
he wanted to do to her.

Creep.

Oh, this was great. These men were just as bad, if not
worse, than the ones they’d replaced in this new so-called government. The
women of this country would get nowhere trying to negotiate with this new
regime.

“We’ll take her,” the guard who held her by the left armpit
said. “You stay and watch that one. The man said she has a reprieve.”

The two burly guards frowned. One closed the cell door with
a brutal clang as if he was quite pissed off, and each man took a spot on the
opposite sides of the door.

Inside the cell, the woman began to wail. The intense sobs
made Reena shake again as the two guards practically dragged her down the
hallway and up the stairs. Down several more hallways, up more stairs and they
finally entered an elevator.

As she stood between the two men, she kept her gaze moving,
searching for any clue to her whereabouts or for any way out of this mess.

Cade and Will kept entering her mind. They had rescued her
and she wished like hell she hadn’t ordered them to be locked up until her
return. She shouldn’t have treated them so badly. Would she ever see them again
so she could apologize?

Tears stung her eyes. She closed them and saw her father’s
sightless gaze as he slumped to the ground. Her fault. His death was her fault.
If she hadn’t come here, he’d still be alive. His death was her fault.

Another sob built in her chest and she choked it down.

She had to get a fucking grip! This
wasn’t
her fault.
She wasn’t the one who’d pulled the trigger. The man in black had. She had to
forget the dead and figure a way out of here and rescue her people. Then she
needed to get back to the Resistance. Back to Cade and Will.

The Resistance would continue their plans to take out the
government. She would not stop until all women were free and horrors like what
had happened to that woman in the cell were squashed.

Reena pressed away her fear for her own safety and fought to
steady her breathing. One thing was certain. If she died today, she would take
the man with her. She smiled inwardly. Yeah, killing him would certainly make
her day.

* * * * *

“Someone’s coming,” Blade muttered from his perch on the top
bunk of the cell they’d been languishing in for hours.

Cade tumbled out of his bed, the familiar anger roaring
through him like a damn cannonball. To his surprise, the door swung inward and
Maggie stepped inside. Her face was pale, she visibly shook and she’d left the
door wide open behind her. No one else followed.

Escape time.

Blade must’ve realized her mistake because he flew out of
bed. They tackled Maggie at the same time, rushing her to the ground, pinning
her beneath them. She squirmed helplessly for a few precious seconds before she
finally gave up the fight.

“You fucking idiots,” she breathed as Cade snatched her
pistol from her shoulder holster. Blade moved off of her and patted her down
for any other weapons she might have. He removed the knife strapped to her
inner right ankle.

Maggie groaned in frustration. “Come on! If I wanted you
guys to stay here, do you think I’d be stupid enough to leave the bloody door
open?”

Cade and Blade looked at each other.

“She has a point,” Cade acknowledged.

“Or she’s the fucking idiot and forgot she shouldn’t come into
a cell with a couple of really pissed-off men,” Blade replied coolly as he
pressed the point of her knife against her jugular. “I bet she’ll look nice in
a red necktie. Want to find out?”

Maggie’s eyes widened and Cade detected an instant of fear
before she quickly concealed it behind a cold, defiant mask.

“Something has happened to Reena. We need your help.”

Cade’s finger tightened on the trigger of the gun and
Blade’s hand twitched ever so slightly. A thin trickle of blood appeared at the
point of the knife where he’d pressed it against her neck.

“You better not be lying,” Blade whispered in a voice so icy
cold shivers even traveled down Cade’s spine.

“Hell, you better be lying. If something happened to her,
I’ll fucking kill you right now,” he growled as a nasty kind of fear took hold
of him.

Maggie frowned. “She was double-crossed at the meeting. None
of the entourage returned.”

Blade cursed and removed the knife from against Maggie’s
neck.

“Details. Everything you know,” Cade snapped. He kept the
gun trained on her head. “If you leave anything out, you’re dead.”

* * * * *

A man’s laughter erupted down the hallway the moment Reena
and the two guards stepped off the elevator. Actually,
they
stepped off
the elevator and she was hauled off. Her damn legs still weren’t working right
and she spent almost all her concentration stumbling along the plush white
carpet.

It was different here than in that stinking cell. Fresh air
and mild scents of disinfectant hung in hallways which were lined with framed
erotic pictures—women in bondage, some being flogged and others being caned,
while still others were in restraints and ropes.

She swore the floor was heated beneath her bare feet. By the
time they stopped her at the end of the hallway, wonderful warm air had embraced
her and her legs moved with much more fluidity.

Her hopes soared. Maybe she could get out of here after all.
Her hope died when one guard knocked on the door and the man in black
instructed them to enter.

One guard slid an electronic key into the door lock and
pressed an awfully long password into a nearby keypad, keeping his body in
front of it to make sure she couldn’t see. Despite not wanting to, she began to
tremble as the door opened and the guards pushed her into the room.

It didn’t take long to figure out the room was one of a
suite. Several open doors led to other rooms and she counted at least five
bedrooms, all lavishly appointed. The main room where she stood was intricately
decorated with crystal chandeliers, flushed pink carpeting and white furniture.

There was nothing she could use as a weapon. The man stood
beside a couch, leering at her. He wasn’t wearing a gun.

Her gaze flew back to the bedrooms, past the open doorways.
Beautiful women dressed in gorgeous, sexy gowns sat on the beds and stared out
at her with glazed, curious stares.

Her blood froze. She recognized those stares. She knew what
this place was.

A brothel. Damn!

The man in black swept his hands in a large semicircle.
“Welcome to my personal lair, Ms. Wilde. This will be your new home.”

Reena ignored the wild adrenaline roaring through her and
gazed around, pretending she’d expected something like this and wasn’t pleased.

“I’ve seen better,” she said coolly, putting on airs,
tilting her nose in a snobby fashion in hopes her attitude would irritate him.

He grunted, akin to that of displeasure, and then snapped
his fingers. The two guards quickly left.

Well, there goes your only possibility of grabbing a gun
and shooting your way out.

The stakes were one on one now. All she needed was her hands
untied and she would kill the bastard who murdered her father.

“Ah yes, your short stay at the Pleasure Palace,” he
murmured.

“I guess you’ve seen my resume, but you must not have read
the part about my performing better with my hands untied.”

The man chuckled lightly at her wry comment and she tensed
as he circled her like a vulture. His breath came faster and was raspy by the
time he rounded her front. Thankfully he didn’t touch her. If he had, she
wouldn’t have been able to handle it.

“Your hands won’t be freed until you’re under my full
control, Ms. Wilde.” He pointed to a syringe filled with blue fluid set on a
nearby glass table.

Shit! Sex drugs.

“Being under your control will be boring for both of us.”
She forced herself to smile at him as sweetly as she could under the
circumstances.

He smiled back, once again the smile not reaching his eyes.

Okay, so he was getting the picture. It encouraged her to
plod ahead with her quickly formulated plan. She gazed at the open doors that
led to the bedrooms occupied by the women.

“The women in those rooms. They look very pretty. They also
appear quite bored. I could teach them a thing or two, things they could do to
make you happy.”

Like putting a bullet right between your eyes.

His eyes widened. She noted his irritation when he shifted
uneasily.

“I heard your laughter as we came off the elevator. A bored
laugh. I can make you groan instead of laugh. You’d prefer that, wouldn’t you?”

She lowered her voice to the sexy whisper she reserved for
getting information out of men. Those assignments were necessary, yet quite
distasteful.

But this one, by far, was the worst. And if she had to
seduce her way out of these restraints, then so be it. It was the only way to
break free and get back to Cade and Will.

Just thinking about the two of them made her heart leap with
hope. Surely she wouldn’t end up in here for the rest of her life? Never see
Will and Cade again? She wouldn’t live long here. She knew that. Once the man
in black tired of her, he’d have her killed or dumped back into that cell as
fodder for those guards, just like the other woman she’d seen down there.

“So you have sympathy for my girls. You wish for them to
please me?” His eyes snapped with a deadly fire.

She had his interest. “Yes, of course. If you’re pleased,
then we’re pleased. Everybody is happy.”

He backhanded her across her face. The pain seared into her
flesh, making her stumble backward. She collapsed onto a sofa.

She tried to get up, but thought better of it when he moved
in front of her, standing with his legs pressed against her knees, blocking her
way. Her gut churned at the satisfied smirk on his face. She resisted like hell
the opportunity to slam her foot against the tender area between his thighs.
He’d kill her for sure.

She wasn’t ready to die. Not until he was dead first. She
owed her dad at least that. She squashed another well of emotions when she
thought of her father. He was gone. She had to deal with her loss another time.

“Don’t even consider whatever you are thinking, my beautiful
red-haired slut.” He grinned as he began to unbuckle his pants.

Oh God.

“You’ll lie on the couch and enjoy your first lesson in
submission.” His eyes were darkening with lust as he lowered his zipper.

Reena could barely breathe as she quickly went through her
options. She could either do what he said or die trying to escape. She decided
on the latter.

Pistoning her legs, she smashed her heels directly into his
groin. He sharply inhaled as surprise and pain sliced through his eyes.

The man gurgled and dropped to his knees like a stone.

Perfect.

In a flash, she circled his neck with her shins.

“I don’t like guys who scream like girls, asshole.” She
twisted her legs and grimaced at the gut-wrenching crack. Broken neck. The
man’s body went limp. She shuddered and let go and he flopped over like a rag
doll.

Clapping hands made her lift her gaze toward the door where
several men stood, all dressed in dark clothing like the guards who’d brought
her to this room. Her stomach twisted in a sickening lurch, but then she
recognized Tyler and Mac Outlaw.

They stepped inside.

“It’s about time you showed up,” she managed to say. Relief
made her entire body go into tremble mode. She opted to remain sitting on the
couch until she could slow her pounding heart at surviving such a close call.

“Couldn’t have done it any better myself, Red.” Blade smiled
as he stepped into the room.

“That’s our girl. She knows how to take care of herself. I
don’t know why we were worried.” Cade chuckled as he also stepped inside.