Whispers in the Dark (35 page)

Much like the onslaught Nathan and Shea had suffered when they’d gone to her parents’ house, KGI went in with the sole intention of overpowering the occupants. Several flash grenades went off. It looked like a staccato of strobe lighting going off throughout the house.

There were three men in the kitchen surrounding another man sitting in a chair. Resnick. Nathan stared at the blood smeared down Resnick’s arm and felt his stomach bottom out.

Swanny, Ethan and Joe broke away to clear the rest of the house, while the others blew into the kitchen like a hurricane.

“Down! Down! Down! Get down!” Garrett yelled.

The three men hit the floor while Resnick merely raised his arms toward the ceiling. A sound from behind Garrett alerted Sam and he leveled his rifle over Garrett’s shoulder. Garrett and Donovan kept their rifles trained on the men on the floor.

“Don’t even think about it, Phillips,” Sam growled. “Stand down. This isn’t worth getting your ass shot over.”

The young Marine’s lips thinned but he lowered his weapon and Sam went to collect it.

“What the fuck, Phillips? Who the hell are you taking orders from these days?”

“From me,” Resnick said wearily. “Goddamn it, I need a cigarette.”

Donovan motioned for the three men on the floor to stay down while Sam went around behind Phillips and patted him down. He then directed him to put his hands behind his head and leave them up where they could be seen.

Swanny, Joe and Ethan burst into the kitchen just then.

“Rest of the house is clear,” Ethan said.

Sam directed him over to cover Phillips and then Sam stalked toward Resnick.

But Nathan was there first, fury boiling in his veins. Sam stepped in between him and Resnick and shot Nathan a meaningful glance. Yeah, it meant calm his ass down, but it was easy for Sam to think that. If it was Sophie in danger, Sam would be batshit insane.

“What the fuck, Resnick?” Sam thundered when he turned back to the other man. “Nathan wants your ass on his wall and I’m tempted to let him have at you. I’d be very careful what you do and say over the next little while because he wants to kill you. I want to let him.”

“Where’s Shea?” Nathan demanded. “Tell me where she is, and if you’ve hurt her in any way, so help me God, you’re a dead man.”

“She’s not here,” Phillips said from behind them.

Nathan whirled around, his gaze finding the younger man. “Where the hell is she then? It was you who tossed her over your shoulder and made that dumb-ass jump into the helicopter. You could have killed her!”

“If my orders were to kill her, she’d be dead,” Phillips said evenly. “My orders were to deliver her safely. I did that. There was never a question of her safety.”

“Fucking Marines always think they’re such bad-asses,” Ethan muttered.

Garrett raised his eyebrows at his younger brother but let the insult pass.

“Where is she?” Nathan bit out again. “I don’t give a shit what your orders were. I only care about where she is now.”

To Nathan’s surprise, Phillip’s cheeks colored and he fidgeted. Suddenly he didn’t look like the supercomposed, always-follow-orders badass. He looked…embarrassed.

“She escaped.”

Seven mouths fell open. Joe stepped forward and stared at Phillips. Then he smirked. “She kicked your ass, didn’t she?”

“Fuck you,” Phillips muttered.

“Look, she freaked out when she came around,” Resnick interjected. “I thought we had more time. She came to, Phillips was supposed to see to her, and she escaped.”

Sam quirked up his eyebrow as sudden understanding flashed across his face. “Is she what happened to your arm?”

Resnick nodded, his expression still tight with pain. “She shot me when I tried to prevent her escape. Hell, she jumped out of a second-story window. I was worried she was hurt. She basically told me to fuck off and then shot me before she ran like a damn jackrabbit.”

“Fierce!” Garrett crowed. “I knew I loved that girl. You deserved everything you got, Resnick.”

“Did you send someone after her?” Nathan asked in a deadly quiet voice.

Resnick shook his head. “Look, it just happened. I was just sending the men out to find her.”

Nathan moved in close and stroked the barrel of his rifle down the column of Resnick’s neck until Resnick broke into a sweat. “Your next move is to back the fuck off. Then you’re going to tell us what the fuck you were doing in Shea’s parents’ house. You’re also going to tell us why you’re so goddamn interested in Shea and Grace Peterson. And then you’re going to forget you ever knew anything about either of them.”

Resnick shook his head, his eyes determined. “I can’t do that.”

“Why the fuck not?” Nathan snarled.

Resnick’s head dropped and he let out a weary sigh. “Look, Donovan, can you patch me up here? This arm’s hurting like a son of a bitch and I need to be able to use it. I’ll tell you everything I know while you work.”

Nathan shook his head. “Hell no. You don’t get shit from us until you tell us what the fuck is going on. I don’t give a fuck if your arm rots off. Shea is out there scared to death and unable to communicate with me. I’m not leaving her a minute longer than necessary. I’m going after her and you’re going to arm me with everything I need to know about what I’m walking into.”

“Christ. At least give me a goddamn cigarette.”

Garrett reached for the crumpled pack on the kitchen counter and tossed it along with a lighter in Resnick’s direction. Resnick tore half the packing off as he dug out a cigarette. Using his good arm, he shoved the end of the cigarette into his mouth and then raised his hand to light it.

A moment later, he inhaled deeply and then exhaled a long plume of smoke.

“So Shea can communicate with you?” Resnick asked Nathan. There was intense interest in his usually inscrutable gaze. “Can you talk to her or does she have to open the channel?”

His curiosity only served to piss Nathan off more. And Resnick knew it.

“Fuck you,” Nathan said in a deadly voice. “She isn’t some goddamn lab rat for you to poke and prod on.”

Something dark flickered in Resnick’s eyes, giving him a haunted look. “Shea was never in any danger from me. Not me.”

“Really?” Nathan asked coolly. “You could have fooled me.”

“Why weren’t you straight with us?” Donovan demanded. “You clammed up the minute I asked about Shea. And you knew, goddamn it. You knew about her and you used the info I gave you to move in and snatch her. That’s bullshit and you know it. Is this how it’s going to work from now on? We can’t trust anything that comes from you?”

“It’s a goddamn different situation!” Resnick seethed. “This is personal. I was protecting her, okay? I knew you guys had no idea what you were dealing with. How could you? I was doing what was best for Shea. There are people after her who don’t give a damn who lives or dies as long as they get what they want, and they want her and Grace. Suddenly she surfaces on your radar? What the hell? You have no idea what we’re dealing with here.”

“And you damn sure didn’t do anything to change that fact,” Sam growled.

“What people and why are you so involved?” Garrett barked at Resnick. “What’s your stake in this? It’s not like you to get personal about anything. You’d hang your own mother out to dry if it furthered your purpose.”

Resnick’s lip curled back into a snarl and he glared Garrett down. “You don’t know anything about me, so back the fuck off. Just because we work together or I throw you a job here and there doesn’t mean you know shit about me or what matters to me.”

“So explain it to us,” Donovan said impatiently. “We’re wasting time here, Resnick. Spill it or I’ll goddamn shoot you in the other arm, and you know I’m just pissed off enough to do it. What you did was bullshit and you know it.”

“Fuck him,” Nathan spit out. “Let’s go. I don’t have time for this shit.” Then he turned to Resnick and got into his face until they were nose to nose. “Don’t you ever come near Shea again. You don’t even say her name. You forget she ever existed.”

“Fuck
you
,” Resnick snarled back. “There’s a goddamn possibility that she’s my sister. I’m not leaving her safety to chance and definitely not to KGI. You guys are good. I get that. I wouldn’t have you do work for me if I didn’t think you were the best. But you don’t know what you’re dealing with here, and I didn’t have time to debrief you. I had to move and move fast because Shea and Grace were running out of time. As it is, Grace has dropped off the map. But I could save Shea and I did what I had to do.”

“She’s your what?” Nathan demanded. What the fuck? This just got more twisted by the minute. “Wait a goddamn minute. Shea told me how she was born. Or rather how she was created. You’re full of shit, Resnick.”

Resnick’s eyes grew shadowed and suddenly he looked so much older than he was. “I’m not full of shit. I was born in that same goddamn lab. Shea and Grace could both be my sisters. And even if they aren’t my blood, I feel a kinship to them that can’t be removed just because of genetics. I have to make this right for them once and for all. I don’t give a damn what it takes.”

CHAPTER 36

 
EVERYONE
stared at Resnick like he’d just admitted to being a terrorist. Maybe that wasn’t far off the mark. Nathan glanced sideways at his brothers to gauge their reactions. They didn’t have time for this shit. Evidently Resnick agreed.

“Look, we don’t have time for this right now, but I swear to you, I’ll explain everything. I won’t leave out anything. But you have to go after Shea. Bring her back.”

“Oh, so now you trust us to track her down after she kicked your guy’s balls in,” Sam drawled. “How ironic.”

“What the fuck did you do to her?” Nathan demanded. “Why can’t she communicate with me? Why would you take that away from her? I’d know where she is right now if you hadn’t fucked with her.”

“It’s only temporary,” Resnick said warily. “I did it so she wouldn’t have you on our asses.”

Ethan cleared his throat. “And how’s that working out for
you?”

“You better hope it’s temporary,” Nathan seethed. “And you better hope I find her quick and that she’s okay. I’ll hunt you down, Resnick. There isn’t a place you can hide from me.”

Joe put his hand on Nathan’s shoulder. “Come on, bro. I’m with you. Let’s go find Shea. We can take Steele and company, leave everyone else here to sit on the trash so we can take it out later.”

Nathan turned to stare into his twin’s eyes, saw answering resolve there. Always looking out for each other. It was as it should be. Nathan hadn’t been the best at guarding Joe’s back over the last months, but Joe had never stopped standing at Nathan’s. Not even when Nathan was doing everything he could to push his twin away.

Nathan held up his hand and Joe grasped it. Then they started for the door.

“Now wait just a goddamn minute,” Sam said in exasperation. “I don’t know who you two knuckleheads think you are or what you’re doing, but you don’t run this operation. And Steele damn sure won’t take orders from either one of you infants.”

Donovan lowered his rifle and then glanced toward Ethan, Garrett and Sam. “You stay here. Swanny and I will go with them.”

Garrett didn’t look happy, but then he never was happy about anything that kept him out of the know.

“Steele, fall back. Have P.J. and Cole stand down. We’re out of here,” Donovan said into the radio. “Shea escaped and is on her own. It’s imperative we find her before things get any worse.”

HER
head hurt. Not just headache hurt. It felt like someone had hit her with a sledgehammer and half her skull was caved in. She was so overwhelmed with nausea that even breathing was a chore.

And she was pissed.

She was tired of all the crazies in her life. The dude whose house she had been taken to gave her the creeps. Like in a stalkerish “I’m not going to hurt you but I’ll confine you to my dungeon for the next ten years and never let you come out” kind of way.

She shivered and trudged down another alleyway that reeked of garbage and God only knew what else. She had a good imagination. She didn’t really need to know.

At least she knew where she was now, thanks to her flight through the streets. The problem? It was several states away from Tennessee. Charleston, South Carolina, was a beautiful city. It really was. Just not so much right now when she had no money, no ID, no idea how to communicate with Nathan—it wasn’t as if she had his phone number.

Lord, but she was getting loopy, and if she didn’t get rid of the headache soon, she was going to vomit everywhere.

She was afraid even to think about reaching out to Nathan. The pain was already so overwhelming that anything else she did to intensify her agony would send her straight over the edge.

Still, she had to try. What other options did she have?

She stepped from the alleyway and then hurriedly crossed the street. She’d been in this situation before. Nothing had changed. She’d been running for a year. She could do this without freaking out. Or at least that’s what she kept telling herself.

Focus, Shea. Just focus, damn it.

The problem was that before she only had to run. It didn’t matter where she went as long as she was able to melt in a crowd somewhere, disappear, lie low. Now? It wasn’t that easy. She didn’t want to go off alone again. She wanted to be back with Nathan and his horde of overprotective brothers and all their hulking team members.