Blacklisted: Blacklist Operations Book #1 (21 page)

Chapter Twenty-Six

“I think she’s dead, Oliver.”

“She’s not.” Oliver slapped Sophie across the face, watched her head loll to the side. “This girl here is better than you, soldier. I could skin her, real slow, and she’d live through it.”

“I don’t think—.”

“Right. You don’t think. Get me more adrenaline. I’ll pump her
full of it. There should be more on level three.”

The solider left.
Sophie wasn’t sure who this one was. They all looked alike in their little hats and boots. Boys playing war and this one had looked sick around the eyes every time Oliver hit her. There was a split in her chin the size of Idaho and he’d taught her that Aidan wasn’t kidding when he’d said he could hurt her without leaving a bruise.

For three hours—if she was right—that morning he’d tried to make her scream in synch with the video of Veronica. It required perfect timing and he endeavored to get it exactly right. When it worked, he’d light up like a Christmas tree, so bright that she believed the energy pumping off of him could have lit the whole complex.

“You really are pretty.” He dug his fingers into her upper arm, pinched the flesh there until she whimpered. “Veronica was gorgeous, of course. Makes sense you’d be attractive. I just didn’t realize how nicely filled out you are.” He touched her breasts again and, when he saw her wince, resolved to do it more often.

“I hate you.”

“That just makes this more fun.” He pushed her back and stood, started the tape again. Veronica’s eyes swam into view. “I don’t think she hated me. Not in the same way you do. But then, I hadn’t killed her twin—yet.”

“Will you kill me today?”

“Do you want me to?”

“I’d rather kill you.”

“I’m sure you would.” Oliver looked thoughtful, paced the room. “Where is that man with my adrenaline?”

“I figured it was my adrenaline.”

He walked over and raised his hand, but just softly touched her cheek. “I loved killing your sister. See, I’d have put her down before—.”

“Put her down?”

“Like a mutt. I’d have hired her or killed her.”

“
Hired her? I thought you blamed her for what happened to Izzy.”

“Veronica was a damn good operative either way.” He missed Isabella, but pushed her terrified last look
at him from his mind. “Perhaps I did take too much pleasure in what I did to her. Because of Isabella.”

“Isabella knew what was going to happen. She
protected Veronica.”

“And Veronica
let her.”

“You
took that shot.”

“I’d have never killed my daughter or ruined years of research.”

“Fuck you and your research. You killed my sister.”

The man who’d left for the adrenaline came back, syringe in hand. Administering the drug to her, he backed out of the room. Lyle turned up the volume on the
DVD player and crossed the room to stand behind Sophie. He leaned down and gently kissed the top of her head. The gesture reminded her of her father.

“You listen now,” he insisted. She felt something warm and soft slide over her skull and then she couldn’t see the video. “Listen and think about how your boss
didn’t care what happened to your sister once he was done fucking her.”

The sound was one hundred times worse when she couldn’t see what was happening on screen. Each silence between screams stretched forever and when Veronica begged for her sister to come save her, when she whimpered, Sophie cried. The bag over her head was soaked, itchy against her face whil
e she slumped in her restraints.

By the time Oliver walked back in, Sophie was broken.

The black cloth bag on her head was wet with tears and her head pounded after too many high-pitched screams that echoed through the room. When he pulled the bag from her head, she swallowed to soothe her raw throat, but it didn’t do any good. Marshalling her strength, she glared at him.

“Enjoying yourself?”

“I can’t wait to kill you,” she said, spitting blood onto the floor.

“I felt the same way,” Oliver explained, “but it looks like neither of us will get our wish.”

“What do you mean?”

“Synthesis is ready to go. I have to leave you here so I can make it to Rome in time to play the game. The problem is, I can’t let you stay alive long enough for me to come back and keep playing our little game. Aidan’s off the grid and if he’s coming for you—well, I don’t want to deal with that.”

“So you’re going to kill me?” Regret washed through her, cruel and acrid. She’d failed her sister and herself. Sophie closed her eyes and pictured Aidan’s face. His strength and fury were so at odds with his kindness. She remembered the shattered look in his eyes when he looked at the picture of her and her twin, realizing that everything he knew had been a lie.

She knew how that felt.

“I’m not going to kill you,” he said. “I owe Joey a bonus, and you’re it.”

“Oh, fuck you.”

Oliver crossed to the door, then turned back to look at her. “No, probably not. It’s a shame. Have fun with Joey.”

He opened the door and stepped passed the hulking figure. Once Oliver’s silhouette had disappeared up the stairway, Joey stepped through the door. He smiled and Sophie felt dread gather in her stomach at the sight of his thick yellow teeth.

Jerking in her bonds, her arms ached to kill him.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Luck was with them. Caleb’s security code still worked. The doors slid open silently and the three slipped through them. Without hesitation, Adele shot a guard in the chest and he went down hard.

“Fast,” Caleb said, looking at her with new respect.

“The guy’s just lucky that you gave me
tranqs,” she said.

“We don’t know who’s in on Synthesis and who’s just a pawn. I don’t want to kill people who might be doing good in the world.”

Adele turned and gave Aidan an arch look. “Surprising.”

The trio made their way down the hall, surprised that there were so few guards. Some researchers sat around a table in a break room, drinking coffee and going over presentation notes. Aidan
tranqed them while Adele and Caleb continued down the hall. As he hurried to catch up with his compatriots, he tried to ignore the sour dread churning in him.

Guarantees weren’t part of the job, and chances were that Sophie was already dead. He wasn’t sure how he’d react if he came upon her slender body, so full of power and will, pale and empty on the floor of Oliver’s torture room. Everything he’d learned about Synthesis in Paris had convinced him that Oliver was no innocent.

The worst was what Caleb had uncovered while Aidan and Adele made their way to Paris. Armed with the information Sophie had given him, he’d hacked into one of Oliver’s computer networks and ferreted out more information about Synthesis. About how the virus was weaponized by Oliver’s people—not by Lyle’s. The part that put a cold ball of horror in his throat was the notes on Izzy.

Oliver really had used her like a lab rat.

It was late and most of the agents were gone, which helped relieve some of the nastiness of breaking into a place with people he knew. Watching them hit the floor still wasn’t easy, but he consoled himself that they’d wake up.

Oliver, on the other hand, wasn’t going to wake up once Aidan was done with him.

They stepped into the secondary elevator and rode down deep into the Earth. Nerves were riding high on all of them—maybe the people who were already there were down for the count, but there was no guarantee that someone else wouldn’t show up and raise the alarm. Aidan and Caleb knew the back ways out, but they weren’t necessarily a path to freedom. He didn’t care about himself—he always knew he’d get killed on the job—but he wanted to make sure Sophie was free.

She’d already suffered enough at the hands of his boss.

Aidan could feel his breath seeping out in small bursts as they hurried down the icy corridor. At the base of a small stairway was the door where he knew Sophie would be if she was here at all. A light glowed from under it.

Signaling Caleb and Adele back, Aidan pushed through the door.

Everything hurt as the man laid heated metal against her leg, laughing when she jerked away from him. Oliver had spoken the truth: Joey really liked to hurt women.

While the metal warmed until it glowed, he’d spoken to her in a whispery voice about killing the young woman that Lyle sent to replace Venus. Determined not to let her rage show, Sophie had pressed her lips together and stared at the wall. Even when he went into vivid detail and pressed his lips so close she could feel his breath on her ear, she said nothing. Made no expression.

But she couldn’t help how her face changed as he burned her skin.

He pulled it back and grinned at her with his lizard mouth. “How does that feel?”

“Great, thanks.” She was choking on her own saliva, but still managed to meet his eyes.

“The second time will be better.”

She closed her eyes and braced herself, determined not to give him the satisfaction he was trying to find in what he was doing to her. She waited for the pain.

None came.

There was a thump, then a blast and the sound of something heavy hitting the floor.

“You’re going to be okay,” a feminine voice whispered, and Sophie didn’t open her eyes. She didn’t want to see whatever game Oliver had planned to torture her emotionally. By the time he’d left for Rome—and she prayed Adele wasn’t there yet—Sophie knew she wasn’t getting out.

Her binds were clipped and someone brushed her hair back from her face. Opening her eyes, she saw the last face she expected.

“Aidan?”

Behind him was an unknown man. Adele was on her knees next to Sophie, binding the cuts in her arm with gauze.

“Your hands,” Aidan said, his face harsh with sorrow. Sophie looked at him, confused.

“Why are you here?”

“I’m here for you. I told you that I’d never let you get away from me.”

“But, Oliver…”

“You were right about him. Let’s get the fuck out of here before he gets back.”

“I need to take care of her hands,” Adele said, her fingers gentle on Sophie’s wrists. “What did he do?”

“Nailed them to the table,” Caleb replied. Aidan turned to look at him, fury in his eyes.

“You knew he was going to do this?”

“No,” Caleb said, holding out a hand to forestall any argument. “But it’s obvious. Look at the gouges in the wood. Look at her hands.”

“We have stuff to help you get well,” Adele said. “Let’s get back to our place in Belgravia so we can take care of you.”

Sophie leaned into Aidan heavily when he pulled her from the chair after Adele finished dressing her wounds. Joey’s corpse on the ground was a welcome sight. She looked up at the man who’d brought others to save her and saw his eyes fixed on the television screen.

“That’s your sister?” he asked.

Adele’s eyes shot to the screen and her face pale. “Oh, no.” Oliver gouged a knife deeper into Veronica’s forearm and leaned in close to see her pupils dilate. Adele crossed to the television and put her hand on the screen, stroking Veronica’s cheek. “God, no.”

“Don’t watch it,” Sophie said weakly. Aidan and Adele were both transfixed by the screen, their eyes wide and unmoving.

When neither obeyed her, she crossed the room and turned off the television. Pressing the button on the DVD player was agony, but she opened the drive and pulled the disc out, handing it to Adele who tucked it into her jacket. “I don’t want him to have this,” she explained.

“He made you watch?”

“For hours.” The horror of the day hadn’t sunk into her yet. She felt numb.

“Let’s get home,” Adele said, wrapping an arm around Sophie.

“We can’t.” All three of them turned to look at her, but Sophie held firm. “We have to get to Rome.”

“You need treatment,” Caleb said, looking at her wounds.

“Synthesis is happening today. It’s a test to show people exactly what the power of the bomb is. They won’t even have the option to stop it.”

“How do you know?”

“Oliver got information and told me. He thought I was going to die soon, I guess.”

“What if he lied?”

“We still have to go.”

Caleb was the first to agree, nodding his head as Adele and
Aidan fought their obvious desire to see Sophie bound with bandages and drugged with painkillers. Finally, they gave in too.

“How are we going to get there?” Adele asked.

“Time is a factor,” Caleb said. “I can fly us.”

“Let’s go.”

Sophie took a step forward, intent on following Adele and Caleb as they walked out of the dungeon. Aidan came up behind her and lifted her into his arms, pulling her close against his chest.

“You can’t defend yourself if you’re holding me,” she said.

“I can do anything to keep you safe. Besides, I’m not letting you walk out of here in your condition. Adele and Caleb will clear any threats. All I need to do is take care of you.”

His muscled chest was warm against her face, and Sophie closed her eyes tight against him, letting the scent and heat of his body soothe her ragged mind. He carried her though the facility, not stopping as they passed bodies lying on the floor.

“Did you kill them?”

“They’re just knocked out.”

Once they were on the street, they walked briskly until they could find and stop a taxi, ordering it to take them to Heathrow. In the back, Aidan held Sophie close and for the first time in years, she honestly felt safe.