Undercover Attraction (26 page)

He pressed the button to read the update
then felt his skin grow cold and his heart stop beating.

Mr. Nichols, a weapon has been discharged
within the parameter. Two females have left the perimeter, and the
feline creature needs medical attention. Please submit orders.

He burst from the room in a dead run,
calling for any officers within hearing distance to go with
him.

He drove like a madman, sirens blazing, eyes
hard and dangerous, fear clutching his body and clogging his
throat.

The front door was open when he pulled into
his circle drive and slammed on the brakes. He palmed his glock,
and entered cautiously.

The house was quiet, and Chuckles lay
against the wall in the foyer, eerily still. He motioned for an
officer to come get Chuckles, ordering him to get the cat to the
vet ASAP. There was no way he would let Jenna loose her little
demon if he could help it.

He quickly went through the entire house,
his instincts already telling him she wasn't there.

He found a note on the bar, simply an
address, and one chilling line:
Bring the disc, come alone, or
she dies.

#

She was sobbing uncontrollably now,
terrified that Chuckles was dead, not daring to hope that he would
be okay. She didn't know how such a small creature like him could
survive a gunshot wound, and was absolutely certain she would never
see him again. It broke her heart. He had been her only comfort,
her only friend, over the past few years.

The woman had asked her repeatedly where the
disc was, but Jenna had set her jaw the entire ride. The gun had
been trained on her the whole time, in the woman's lap, aimed
towards her chest, but she studiously held her silence. As long as
Jenna had something the woman wanted, she wouldn't kill her.
Yet
.

They had arrived at a warehouse across town,
a mere twenty minutes ride in slow traffic from Jacob's house, and
Jenna had been marched into it with the gun at her back.

The warehouse was huge, with pale gray metal
siding, small one-foot square windows high on the sides, each
placed every fifteen feet or so, and a gaping maw of an entrance,
which made Jenna feel as if she was entering a doorway to Hell. And
she was.

The inside had been painted a dull red, and
she had shivered as it reminded her of dried blood. The front half
of the warehouse was open, with a series of rooms on either side of
the outer walls. Tables were lined up here, on which rested the
gift bears from the strip club, and various little baggies of what
she knew would be drugs. She was marched through a maze of hallways
and rooms, feeling lost in an immense labyrinth, to another series
of rooms along the back wall.

The interior walls were sheetrock, only half
the height of the building, studded with metal beams that left no
doubt that escape was impossible by busting through them.

Jenna guessed she should feel a bit happy
that they had only passed three huge men in the entire warehouse,
but she didn't. Those men were more than likely working for Jacob's
partner, which meant she couldn't expect any help from their
direction.

After being pushed into this tiny room, she
had abruptly explored it, looking for any way out, to no avail. The
one-foot square window in there was both too small and too high for
an escape, and she had nothing with which to mark it as the room
she was in.

The door was her only way out, and that had
proven unwise since she couldn't even make it out without alerting
the woman and whoever else was posted as guard around here.

Now, she sat alone in the room, furnished
only with pieces of newspaper scattered about, grieving for her
loveable pet, wondering with increasing worry about her sister.

She had repeatedly asked where her sister
was, but the woman had simply smiled her evil smile, replying that
she would see her all in
good time
.

When the hell was good time?
Jenna
thought, horrific scenes of what was being done to Amy flying
through her mind, making her even more terrified for her sister
than she had already been.

She'd been told that Amy had also been
kidnapped, and was here in one of the small rooms somewhere in the
warehouse.

They wouldn't let her talk to Amy, or even
give her proof that she was actually here, but Jenna figured that
it was better to believe she was than to think she wasn't and be
wrong. She would protect her sister.

Jacob would come. Even if he couldn't save
her, he would save her sister. He could do no less. They just had
to hold out until he could get to them. If he could even find
them.

Voices approached outside her door. She
stood up from the cold concrete floor and wiped her tears, refusing
to seem weak to these people, knowing that they preyed on weakness
like a drug.

The woman entered the room, as well as one
of the big men she had seen earlier, evil gleaming in his eyes, a
chair in his hands, guns at both their sides.

He placed the chair in front of her, and the
woman sat in it, looking down her nose at Jenna, even though she
had to look up at her from her seat.

"Now, let's see what you have to say.
Where's the disc?" She looked at her fingernails as if this were a
boring day in the park to her. In fact, if the woman was a cop,
this very well may be.

"I don't know," Jenna said, and the man
grinned dementedly.

The woman waved her hand. "Give it to her,
Don."

Don pulled out a long needle from his
pocket, and approached her. She tried to move away from him, but
there was nowhere she could hide in the room.

"Wait, wait." She held up a hand to fend him
off. "I really don't have it. They took it from me."

He continued stalking her.

Cop lady shrugged her shoulders. "I was told
you had a copy somewhere."

Jenna vehemently shook her head. Those
innocent children's stats on the disc ran through her head, and she
knew that no matter what happened to her, she could protect others
by keeping her mouth closed. There had been orders for more than
eighty more children, to be delivered as slaves, or who knows what
other purposes. She couldn't live with herself knowing that those
kids would pay for her being unable to keep her silence.

Don reached her, grabbing her arm in an
unbreakable, bruising grip, pulling her closer to him.

"Stop! I'll tell you. Please, I'll tell
you!"

The woman raised an eyebrow. "I'm
waiting."

The only thing Jenna could think to give
them was her Professor ID for their online website. They would find
various documents there with chemistry formulas that was much like
the data coded on the disc.

She heaved a sigh of relief when they left,
hoping they wouldn't know the difference when they saw the
documents. At the least, maybe it would buy Jacob some time to get
to her, if he even knew he had been betrayed yet.

She huddled in the corner of the room, her
arms wrapped around her knees, wondering how she could possibly get
herself out of this mess if Jacob didn't come. Or more
specifically, how she could get them to let Amy go, if they indeed
had her.

An hour later, Bitch Cop, Don, and another
goon returned. Don simply walked in and punched her, nearly
knocking her unconscious.

She slid down against the wall, her hands
spread out behind her as she tried to keep herself from toppling
over.

"You think you're clever. That was a good
move, trying to set us on chemistry documents to make us think that
we had the disc." The woman's voice broke through the haze in her
head, cold, relentless. "Where is the disc?"

Jenna struggled to see straight enough to
focus on the woman. She took a deep breath and stood straight,
using the wall at her back for support. "Let my sister go, and I
will give it to you."

The woman laughed. "You aren't in a position
to be bartering for anyone's life. Not your sister's, not even your
own. So where is it?"

"Let her go first." She made herself seem
every bit as cold and calculating as the woman before her.

"I don't think so. I don't know that we will
get it once your sister is out of here." A menacing smile curled
her lips. "But I can make sure her stay here is as- shall we say,
comfortable
- as possible if you only tell me where to find
the disc."

Jenna smiled back, as sweetly as she could.
"I don't think so, then."

The woman stood, kicking her chair out in
fury, her face a mask of cold hatred. "Fine. You and your sister
will both pay for this."

Don advanced on her as the woman walked out,
her back straight, rigid, dragging the chair behind her.

"No! Stop! Amy!" Jenna found herself
screaming as Don knocked her hard enough in the jaw to make her see
spots.

He began punching her, landing blows along
her head and neck, as Jenna tried to push through him, sobbing for
her sister.

She covered her head and ducked low, trying
to run towards the door, but he caught her hair, dragged her back
to him, and tossed her effortlessly against the wall. Her entire
body rattled in pain.

She fell to the floor in a heap and curled
herself up into the fetal position, trying to protect herself as
Don kicked at her violently. His sharp shoes landed everywhere she
couldn't protect. The back of her head, backside, legs, arms, any
body part she couldn't move away from him fast enough, sending
knifelike pain radiating out from each blow, barely giving her time
to block her mind to each new bout of pain before he inflicted
another.

She felt her ribs give way, cracking under
his vicious blows, making her gasp for air through the pain. Her
ears were ringing, her vision clouding. Her brain becoming murky
water filled with nothing but pain and the thought that she had
just signed both hers and her sister's death warrants.

She huddled against the wall, letting the
pain wash over her, praying it would end. The welcoming darkness
crept in on her, and she finally felt her consciousness receding as
she passed out into oblivion.

Just as she sank into the darkness, she
thought she heard Don say, "Strike two."

Jenna didn't know how long she was out. She only knew that she came
to slowly, as if her brain was allowing the pain to seep in with
slow increments to keep from overloading her.

And it was bad. She had blood dried on one
side of her chin, where she was bleeding out of her mouth. Her face
was a mass of bruises, and it hurt to even blink her eyes.

She was sure she had a concussion, her
vision was doubled and blurry, but the worst of her injuries had to
be her ribs. It hurt to breathe, each time her lungs filled, pain
shot through her side, causing her to gasp, making it worse.

And even though she didn't know how much
time had passed, she figured they would be back soon to inflict
more pain on her. Probably inject her with whatever poison was in
the syringe. Probably kill her.

Huddled on the floor, alone and in pain, she
waited, wondering if Jacob would miss her if she never made it
out.

She loved him. It was as clear to her now as
glass and the thought of never seeing him again saddened her to the
point of madness. The past few weeks had been the happiest of her
life, despite being a human target, and she had no regrets other
than realizing she loved him too late.

He would never be able to hear it. She
wouldn't know if he would say the words back to her and then carry
her upstairs to make love to her so intensely.

Loneliness had been wrapped around her for
so long, and she had thought herself immune to feeling alone after
being abused by her ex. But Jacob had never hurt her. Yeah, he had
made her question things about herself, but he had never laid a
hand on her in anger, and she felt that blanket of loneliness fall
from around her, just as he had broken through the walls around her
heart she had built in defense.

So much for holding herself at bay. He had
just as effectively seduced her heart as he had her body, and now,
knowing that she would never see his intense eyes again, feel his
rough touch on her skin, feel him sinking into her, have the taste
of his kiss in her mouth, each moment they had spent together was
precious to her. She wouldn't relinquish those precious seconds for
anything.

Jenna had learned something about the woman
the last time she had come. She didn't give a damn who she hurt as
long as she helped herself.

Let them torture her. Let them kill her. She
wouldn't go quietly into that good night. She would stubbornly hold
her tongue, protect those children who had no one else to do so,
and she would cling to the memories of Jacob she had locked tightly
within her heart.

So long as Amy was fine.

She wouldn't sacrifice her sister. Ever. No
matter the stakes. She already regretted that she could be to blame
for whatever had happened to Amy while she was knocked out. And she
knew if it came to choosing between Amy's life and that of eighty
children, she would choose Amy.

Heaven forgive her. She couldn't let them
kill her sister. Amy was too full of promise, of life. She knew Amy
well, had been there with her during every tragedy during their
lives, and Jenna knew she would easily trade a billion lives to
save her.

The door opened and she tensed, knowing what
was coming. Afraid she wouldn't be able to hold up in the face of
so much pain, and would disgrace herself and damn her soul by
blurting everything she knew.

"How are you feeling?" that voice she had
come to hate asked.

She clenched her teeth and forced herself to
sit up, sweat beading on her brow at the pain. "Peachy," she said,
staring at the bitch, shooting daggers at her with her eyes.