Deadly Target [IAD Agency 3] (Siren Publishing Classic) (24 page)

Robert flinched.

“Three that I know of,” he whispered. He looked back at her, the shame clear on his face. “I’ve never been there, but I know they have somewhere right outside of Boulder and two separate places in Denver somewhere. I’ve heard that the one outside of Boulder is small, like this one.”

“Where are we now?”

“About fifteen miles outside of Colorado Springs.”

Mikayla was relieved when he confirmed that they were still in Colorado. In fact, based on their current location, they would be closer to Serenity then she had originally thought.

“I know you must think I’m a monster, but I swear to you, I never knew what they were doing. See, a colleague contacted me about a hypothetical—”

“I heard you.”

Robert smiled at her. “I thought you might have. You really have remarkable recovery capabilities. Even with the cryo-fix, you should have been under for at least—”

“I got it, Doc. Cryo-fix is good. The other shit is bad. Get to the part about the bad.”

He sobered. “Right. It started out as just a theory. Something to think about, not actually create. The short of it is we discovered a way to create a phenomenon in humans that is similar to animals in heat. LDX31, or lust dust as they’ve started calling it, is a debilitating drug that steals the mind and heightens the senses so that the only thing the user thinks about is…well, sex. And lots of it.”

“Fuck.”

“Basically, yes. That is exactly what it makes people do. David Henley created an earlier version of the drug from our conversations. I found out later that he had been testing it on homeless people. They all died, and that’s when he had me kidnapped. I was…with a friend when David’s thugs came for us. They wanted to kidnap both of us, but my friend died when they crashed into us. They’ve kept me down here and made me work on perfecting the drug. At first I said no, but I didn’t want anyone else to die. Instead I helped create something far worse.”

Robert’s eyes filled with tears. “When the drug worked on the people they tested it on, they started kidnapping young girls. I never…I couldn’t believe what they were doing. I tried to fight them, but there was nothing I could do. The lust dust is highly addictive and bonds to the cells.”

“What exactly does that mean?”

He sighed. “It means that prolonged use will create an effect that will last even if the user stops taking the drug. When a subject gets umm…aroused, it will give that person the same high as if they are still on the drug, and it makes arousal easier to achieve.”

“Shit. So, what you’re saying is that this drug turns people into sex slaves?”

“Yes. David works for someone that has sold the drug to a couple of buyers already. Worse than that, they’ve sold the girls. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry this happened and I couldn’t stop it,” Robert said, wiping a tear from his cheek. “Your friend is next door. She hasn’t been touched, but she was given the drug. David wanted to test her reaction to it.”

“Son of a bitch,” Mikayla spat out as she tried to jerk up. Robert held her in place easily, showing her just how weak she still was.

“You need to rest a little more. Save your strength for when you are strong enough to escape. I’ll try to unlock both of your doors and distract the guards. If you turn right, follow the hallway to a staircase that will lead you up out of here.”

Mikayla stared hard at him. “Are you serious about being sorry?”

Robert looked startled by her question. “Of course I am. I swear to you, I’ll help you get out of here if it is the last thing I do.”

“I believe you. I don’t need a martyr, Doc. I need you to help me so we all get out of this alive. Can you do that?”

“Yes, but I don’t understand. How—”

“I have a question for you,” Mikayla said, cutting him off. She slowly sat up, holding the sheet over her breasts, pleased that it was getting easier to move. “That guy said that I’m older than the other girls. Why me? Why was I taken?”

“The boss wanted you, so he had you taken.”

That was definitely something to think about. “Who is he?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never met him before. I’ve never even heard his name. They just all call him the boss. All I know is that he said to take you, so they did.”

It didn't make sense, but she'd figure that shit out later. "Doc, can you get out of here? Go for help?"

Robert shook his head. "No. We're locked in and the guards have the keys."

“Fine. Can you get me a weapon? Something I can use?”

“No, they won’t give me access to anything sharp except needles, and those won’t do us much good.”

Mikayla thought for a moment. “When they brought me in, do you know if I had a cane with me?”

“Yes,” Robert replied. “I remember seeing it. They put it with your clothes and other stuff in one of the boxes.”

Elation filled her. Things were finally looking up. “Can you get it for me? And my cell phone and clothes?”

Robert nodded slowly. “I can try to get your cane, but I think they left your phones when they kidnapped you.”

Damn.

Robert hesitated before speaking again. “I can’t get your clothes. None of the women are allowed clothes here. The guards will know something is going on if I try to bring them to you.”

Fuck. Okay, so she was going to have to plan to escape naked.

Awesome.

She sighed. “Fine. Bring me the cane. Go now.”

“I still don’t understand how that’s going do any good when there are two of them. They have guns and you're still very weak.”

Mikayla smiled. “Doc, just get me the cane.”

He left the room after cautiously checking the corridor outside. Mikayla heard the lock click into place again. She knew he had to do it, but it still bothered her to be locked inside the room. Pulling the sheet around her, she got up slowly, cursing the fact that her legs were still weak with fatigue from being stationary for so long.

She knew they must have gotten rid of their phones. If not, IAD would have already found her. She had been missing long enough that the boys were bound to be looking for her by now. And just knowing that allowed her to fight off the last of her fear and man up to do the job. She had to escape, and she was taking the Doc and Katie with her.

Failure was not an option.

She made her way across the dirt floor to the far end of the room where she saw a break in the wall between the stones and a sheet of plywood and was panting by the time she got there. Leaning forward, she peered into the small hole but couldn’t see anything on the other side.

“Katie?” she whispered then repeated it again a little louder. There was a faint sound of movement on the other side of the wall.

“Mi…Mikayla? Is that you?”

Mikayla sagged against the wall with relief when she heard Katie’s voice. “It’s me. Honey, are you okay? Did they hurt you?”

“They…they gave me drugs. It hurt so bad, Mikayla. I still hurt, but it’s better now.” Katie began to weep softly.

“I’m sorry, Katie. Don’t worry, sweetie. I’ll get us out of here. Hold on, okay? Just hold on a little longer for me.”

“Okay, I…I’ll try. Mikayla?”

“Yes, Katie?”

“I wanna go home.”

Mikayla’s heart ached as Katie’s voice broke. “Just hold on, sweetie. Give me a few more hours and I’ll get us out of here.”

She didn’t know exactly how she was going to do it since she could barely walk across the room without feeling like she wanted to pass out or throw up. She only knew that she was determined to try. She would not be held here, waiting for the others to come back to do god knows what to her.

“Stay quiet and wait for me to come for you.” Mikayla waited until she heard Katie agree then made her way back across the room to the bed. She unwound the sheet and shook out her arms. If she was going to do this, she’d need to get more of her strength back.

And fast.

Mikayla did a quick set of jumping jacks to get the blood flowing through her system then dropped down to the floor to do some push-ups. It really was amazing just how well the cryo-fix had worked repairing her leg. There was still a scar there, but it looked months old instead of weeks now. It truly was a miracle drug and showed the genius that Dr. Robert Ellis was capable of. The lust dust was another example, but this time also showed how a brilliant idea could be corrupted in the wrong hands.

She paused in her workout when she heard sounds coming from outside the closed door. Quickly hopping back on the bed she covered herself with the sheet and lay back, pretending to sleep. Thought slitted eyes she watched as Robert opened the door. She smiled at him as he hurried toward her with her cane. Her smile faded to a frown as she took in the sight of his busted lip.

“Mikayla? I got it.” he whispered.

“What happened to you?”

“It’s nothing. The guards like to hit me if I get in their way.” He placed the cane in her hands and stepped back. “I still don’t see…” His voice trailed off as she twisted the top of the cane off and pulled out the sharp stiletto blade hidden within. “Oh, wow! What are you going—”

She smiled back at him. “Don’t worry about it. Just go back out there and act normal. Let me handle it when the time comes.”

* * * *

That time came when Mikayla heard the guards unlocking her door about an hour later. She quickly took her place back on the bed, covered herself with the sheet and closed her eyes. She waited with the stiletto hidden in her hand, shielded by her forearm from view.

She was ready to get the hell out of Dodge.

She opened her eyes a fraction of an inch and watched as both guards came into the room. They closed the door, sealing her inside with them.

“Is she awake?” Paul asked. “Dr. Ellis said she’d be sleeping for a few more hours at least.”

“Who cares,” Carl snorted. “I’m gonna fuck this bitch whether she knows it or not.”

“I guess you’re right,” Paul agreed. “It will only make it sweeter if she comes to when one of us is already doing her. I like it when they cry and beg me to stop.”

Oh yeah, it was going to be a pleasure to kill these assholes.
Mikayla watched as the idiots placed their guns and the keys to the room on the table. They took their shirts off before stepping closer to the bed. Just a little closer…

“No. I want this bitch begging for more when she comes to. But this first round she’ll just have to spread ‘em and take it like the little whore she is,” Carl said, his voice filled with malicious glee.

Mikayla noticed the syringe in his hand a second too late. He jabbed it into her thigh at the same time she levered up and swiped the blade across his throat. Blood rained down on the sheet like a waterfall. Carl let out a gurgling sound as his hands flew up to his neck, but it was too late for him. He was dead before his body hit the ground.

She felt the sting of the needle and a tingling sensation at the point of entry but ignored it as she focused on the other guard.

“What the…?” Paul gasped as Mikayla switched her grip on the blade and threw it hard so it embedded itself into the fucker’s black heart.

Two guards down.

Now to get gone.

She looked down and cursed as she saw the syringe still sticking out of her leg. Fuck. That was so not good. She pulled the needle free and saw about a half a centimeter of purple liquid still in the depressor. At the brief glance she had gotten of it before he had injected it into her she knew he had gotten almost the entire dose into her before she killed him.

This was certainly going to make the escape more interesting.

Ignoring the blood-soaked sheet, she opted for the temporary use of one of the guard’s discarded shirts and pulled it over her head. She quickly searched them, finding a cell phone on each of them. She turned one of the phones on and saw there was no signal. She tried the other one and got the same result before picking up the guns, keys and the staff of the cane. She placed one of the guns, the syringe, the phones, and the keys in the center of the other shirt and gathered it up, using it as a makeshift bag. She stopped briefly to extract the stiletto blade from the guard, wiped off the blood on his jeans and replaced it into the shaft of the cane.

Armed and ready, she opened the door and made her way out of the room, ignoring the uncomfortable tingling that seemed to be spreading throughout her body. At this point she had a chemical stew flowing through her body and she knew she was going to be in trouble PDQ. She had to get gone before she crashed or became too incapacitated by whatever they gave her to be of any use.

Looking around, she saw she had been right. The corridor was that of an underground mineshaft, held up by beams of old wood strategically positioned to hold the structure in place. Hurrying to the locked door next to the one she had been held in, she used the keys to unlock the door. It clicked opened and she pushed through it, holding the gun up as she stared into the pitch-black room.

“Katie?”

Mikayla saw movement coming from the dark and she stepped into the room to get a better look. She pushed the door open wider, allowing the light from the hallway to filter in and her eyes narrowed in rage as she saw Katie tied to the bed in the corner, covered with a sheet.