Saving Brigit (24 page)

He didn’t know she was the Claw, but somehow, some job he’d taken on had brought him into her lair. His being there couldn’t be a good omen. She wouldn’t take a chance on his leaving alive.

“Our plans have changed. We have to make the raid tonight.” Derek spoke into the satellite phone to Colonel Harrington who was in Afghanistan, as well as to Rashid who sat across the wooden table from him. A sketched-out map of what they knew about the Claw’s fortress was spread out between them. “Rashid has just come back with a little more information. We know exactly where to find the women now and have an idea of how to reach the Claw’s inner rooms, but something is fucked up. Security has been reinforced.”

“You won’t have time to brief the teams.” Worry sounded in the colonel’s voice.

“We’ll do that on the way. Instead of meeting them inside the compound, Rashid and I are going in through the air vents with them.”

“That’s a big fucking change.” Now Harrington sounded angry as well as concerned.

“We have it under control.” Derek hoped he sounded more confident than he felt. Even Rashid raised his brows. Derek wished like hell he knew what had sparked the increase of guards on the wall. Rashid indicated tension had settled over the place, but no one knew why.

The colonel spoke again. “Your team will meet you at 2200,” he said grudgingly. “Make sure I don’t lose any of my men.”

“I’ll do my best, sir.” Ten o’clock. The night would be moonless. The plan should be easy to execute with surprise on their side. “We’ll be in by 2300. Fireworks will be ready to go off by midnight if all goes well.”

“With the signal on—”

“There will be two signals.” Derek hurried to remind him. “One will be my agent and another American woman. I’ll kill that signal as soon as I have her and we’re on our way out.”

“You’ll only have about fifteen minutes before the planes arrive to drop their loads.”

They took a chance using an air strike to destroy the weapons. The plan was to vacate the area right after the raid, but Derek’s helicopter would be the last to leave. They’d hover at a safe distance to ensure the missiles were hit. If they didn’t have confirmation the strike had been successful, he and his team would have to go back in after the attack and set manual explosives. The chaos would cover their tracks, but he hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

“Roger that. Rashid will get the Claw and have him ready for extraction.”

If Derek had his way, they’d round up all the buyers who had been hanging around during the past weeks, too. They’d all been responsible for murder and mayhem around the globe. But the team had a focused mission. At least he’d been able to pick up information while he’d been there, and there were now photos of the buyers and guards and various other people working for the Claw. He’d have to be satisfied with that. The main prize was the Claw himself.

Derek smiled in grim satisfaction. After tonight, the Claw would be sheathed.

“Where are you taking me?” Thia demanded as the huge guard who had plagued her since her arrival half dragged her down a rock-lined corridor.

He said nothing,
had
said nothing since first barging into the room she shared with Fatima and, in effect, taking her into custody. She’d only been able to grab the hair comb Derek had given her because it lay on the bed beside her. While Fatima watched, horror-struck, the guard had gripped Thia’s arm and pulled her out of the room. She wore only a thin robe and slip-on sandals that kept threatening to fall off as she struggled to maintain his pace.

They went a short distance down winding hallways before meeting a second guard and Brigit. Brigit turned a terrified gaze on Thia, silently seeking reassurance. Or maybe she wanted an explanation. Thia wished she could give her either.

The guard knocked on the door of a room Thia didn’t recognize. He opened the door and thrust Thia inside. The Claw had been facing the bookshelves. Slowly he turned, focusing a burning gaze on her.

“You don’t look happy.” She should have kept her mouth shut, she knew it, but she couldn’t help herself.

Like a strike of lightning, the guard backhanded her. Brigit gasped. Thia stumbled and only kept from falling because he grabbed her arm and dragged her upright to slap again. Before his hand fell, the Claw raised his hand to stop him.

“What is this all about? Haven’t we done everything you’ve demanded?” Thia asked. She tasted blood, but ignored it.

“Not everything. You haven’t told me the truth. Who are you?” The Claw’s eyes shot fire, but his voice was no more aggravated than if he’d asked her what she wanted for dinner.

“I’m her aunt. I told you I came searching for her when she didn’t come home.”

“True?” The Claw shifted his gaze to Brigit, who visibly shrank under the heat.

“Yes, that’s right. She’s…she’s my aunt.”

“How do you know Rashid Salid?”

“Who?” Brigit wrinkled her forehead in thought.

Thia hoped worry didn’t show on her face. How did the Claw know about Rashid? Did he also know about Derek and their plans? Thia forced herself to stay calm and still.

“The man who visited you in a pleasure room day before yesterday.” The Claw fiddled with his beads.

Brigit actually laughed. “You’ve got to be kidding. You think I can remember one man out of all the guys I’ve fucked or who have fucked me? I might look at them, but I don’t see them, you know?”

He looked at Thia. “Do you know him? He would be a man hard to forget. Rather like a certain American I know.”

Thia’s nails dug into her palms. She wouldn’t give a reaction. She wouldn’t. Showing calm she didn’t feel, she said, “I guess you think he’s memorable, but obviously Brigit doesn’t. And why do you think I know either of these men?”

“Because the American is the same man who gave you that.” The Claw pointed to her comb. The guard snatched it from her hair and took it to the Claw.

“Please let me keep that,” she pled. “It’s the only pretty thing I’m likely to have here.”

“The women who work for me have no need for vanities like this.” The Claw watched as the guard examined the comb. He turned it over, prying his nail at the seam where the mother-of-pearl pieces met. He broke each of the three teeth, studying each. Finally, he shook his head at the Claw and tossed the pieces on the table.

“At any rate,” the Claw continued, “you won’t be around much longer, I’m sure.”

Thia’s heart sunk. He knew something, something bad for Derek and his plans. Thia said a quick prayer that he’d be kept safe. Then she drew herself up and stared at the man who held her fate in his gloved hands.

“We don’t know any more than what we’ve told you.”

“I don’t believe you. Take them,” the Claw directed the guards. Brigit’s man swiftly turned and opened the door.

“No!” she called out. “I’ve done nothing but what I was supposed to. This isn’t fair!”

The Claw laughed out loud. Not a deep rumbling laugh like Thia would have expected, but higher-pitched, almost feminine. She narrowed her eyes and really focused on the man. He had a beard, true. But his brows were neat, formed. The skin under his eyes looked smooth, and the lines she would have expected from a man who lived in a climate as harsh as this weren’t there. Did the man keep his hands gloved because he wasn’t a man at all?

Before she could wonder further, the Hulk, as she thought of the big guard, took her arm in a firm grip and led her out of the room. Fear clutched her throat. Was he taking her downstairs, where the Claw had threatened to send her? They traveled down a long corridor before she realized where she was.

“You will remember this, I think,” the Hulk said. “The guards have missed you.”

Thia couldn’t believe she could feel relief for being thrown back into the guards’ room, but compared to the alternative, she was grateful.

“You’ll make tasty tidbits until we throw you downstairs.” His grin was frightening. “And that will not be far off.” He opened the door and handed her off to the man who came to meet them. “Use them both. You have twenty-four hours, and then they’ll be fit for public punishment and going below stairs.”

Thia looked into the room and found Brigit. She couldn’t have arrived much ahead of Thia, but already the younger woman was naked, tied to the bed and blindfolded. A hairy, shirtless man was busy fucking her. Another standing near the bed was unfastening his pants and pulling out his stiffened cock, pointing it toward Brigit’s mouth.

“Come.” The new man dragged her to the bed across from Brigit. Her few clothes were ripped off, and her hands were quickly tied to the metal headboard. Before, she’d been able to see what was happening and had some freedom of movement. This time would be different.

The bed dipped. Someone straddled her shoulders. She scented a male’s arousal and then felt the smooth head of a cock leaking pre-cum onto her lips. The man took her chin between his finger and thumb and squeezed, forcing her mouth open. He filled her with his cock immediately. As he flexed his hips, his butt scraped her breasts. Her traitorous nipples pebbled.

At the same time, another man parted her legs and climbed between them. Whether either of them cared about Thia’s release or not, they brought about a burgeoning tension. The second man’s groin rubbed her clit with each thrust. The odor of sex, as well as the sound of squeaking beds, grunts, and groans filled the room. All of the sensory stimuli served to excite Thia’s body.

To avoid the realization of what was happening to her and Brigit and that Derek’s plans might face imminent failure, she tried to relax, tried to clear her mind and let whatever was going to happen, happen. Disengaging her mind allowed her body to respond the way nature intended, and she approached an orgasm. Thia’s hips pushed against the man drilling her pussy. Each action on her part pushed her head onto the first man’s cock. Her body had control. Thia followed where it led.

The first man came, his salty essence shot into her mouth and down her throat. She fell over the edge of the orgasm cliff just as the second man shot into her, but there was no joy in the release.

The men crawled off. Before another crawled on, she called out, “Brigit, hang on, honey.” She received no answer, and moments later, she had no chance to say more.

Someone shifted her onto her right side, painfully twisting her arms still tied to the headboard. Cold cream was smeared across her bumhole. Her left leg was pushed up and her knee bent high. One man breached her rosebud while another pressed into her pussy. If her head had been available, Thia knew someone else would be fucking her mouth. She thanked the stars for small favors.

Time passed. Men came and went. She heard the door open and close. Men talked and laughed in a way that made Thia think they talked about her and Brigit, but no English was spoken. For the first time since arriving in Tajikistan, depression settled over her. She’d come to save Brigit. She’d faced every doubt, every argument in order to accomplish that, and then persevered through hellish conditions, all to rescue her friend. But now, here she was, hours away from even worse horrors than before, and Brigit was right here with her.

And what about Derek and Rashid? Did the Claw know about her association with them? Maybe something she said or did tipped the bastard off. Perhaps because of an unknowing act of hers, Derek might be hurt or killed as he worked out his plan to rescue them.

Against her better judgment, Thia let herself sink into a trap of negative thinking, and tears began to coat her cheeks.

Then, a Klaxon sounded. Thia jumped at the sudden noise, which drowned out all thought and echoed off the walls of the room. The man who had been on top of her launched off. Men were yelling. The door slammed open, and soon, the only sound Thia heard was Brigit’s harsh breathing.

Twisting her hands, Thia found the knots had loosened over her period of being debauched. She slipped one hand free and then pulled off her blindfold. In no time, she had her other wrist free. She rushed to help Brigit.

“It’s me,” she said when Brigit flinched at her touch. “Hold still, and I’ll get this rope off you.”

“What’s happening?” Brigit’s voice was raspy, proof that her throat had been used.

“I don’t know, but I think it’s our ticket out of here. We have to find our way back to that hair comb.”

While Brigit rubbed life back into her wrists, Thia found them shirts in an open locker against the back wall. “Do you have any idea of how to get back to that room?” she asked.

“I’ve never been in this part of the joint. I don’t think we came very far, though. I might be able to figure out the path in reverse.”

“Good.” Thia tossed her a shirt. “We don’t have any time to waste. Can you walk?”

Brigit nodded. “I think so.” She stood and tested the strength of her legs, then slipped on the shirt and started for the door.

Brigit was as good as her word, leading them back the way they’d come, only having to backtrack once. The hallways were remarkably empty. The alarm kept on, deafening in the rock corridors.

When Thia opened the door of the room they’d been taken from, she stopped mid-stride when she saw the Claw standing inside.

The Claw spun around. “What…? How did you get here?”

“We used our brains,” Thia said, pulling Brigit into the room and closing the door. “Listen out for any trouble,” she told Brigit. She rushed to the table and swept the comb pieces into her palm. The Claw started forward. Without thinking, Thia took a step, turned aside, and gave him a kick to his stomach. He fell back, hitting his head against the wall. When he straightened, shaking his head, he glared at Thia.

“You will pay for that.” He shifted his gaze to Brigit and back to Thia. “You both will. Right now, the men you counted on to save you are being killed by my men.”

“You don’t know that.” Thia narrowed her eyes and stared. Something was off. “You’re wearing contacts!”

The Claw raised his hand to his eyes and then cast a quick glance to the floor.

“I want to kick the shit out of you,” Brigit bit out.

That brought a laugh. “You could try. Your aunt just caught a lucky break because I thought you’d be too weak from your…exertions to cause any harm. I assure you it won’t happen again.”