Lover Mine (Blood Brothers 1) (3 page)

She had fought them, dared them to do their
worse, and prayed. God, she had prayed that someone would find them
before she lost the battle and those monsters started on the other
girl. In the end, it had been too much. Her body had shut down and
her mind drifted to a place where she could rest without the pain
as the last session with a lunatic had taken everything she had to
stay semiconscious.

"Oh God!" she choked out, curling into a
fetal position away from him so he couldn't see her, couldn't know.
Chayle couldn't give them what they wanted so they had kept hurting
her, they wouldn't stop. She had known it was only a matter of time
before they killed her.

She felt the giant of a man reach for her
and instinct had her recoiling before she could stop it. Chayle's
hands flashed out with lightning speed in spite of her injuries,
slapping the hand coming at her so hard a crack could be heard in
the quiet room. The man who called himself Kayne cursed, his frown
turning stormy.

"What the hell are you doing to her?"
another male voice cut the silence as Kayne stared at the fighting
spitfire in the bed.

"Shut up, Rafe, and get in here. You're
better at soothing females than I am. Do it!" Kayne growled,
rubbing his wrist where it still smarted, lucky he had gotten it in
place before her foot had landed on his cock.

He shook his head, his lips twitching
slightly. Damn, she was barely awake and still fighting. "And watch
out. She's as mean as a snake with those hands and feet."

Rafe moved to the side of the bed slowly,
raising both hands so Chayle could see them. He kept an eye on her
hands and feet, watching her face to make sure she understood his
non-aggressive movements.

It took everything in her to remain
motionless and watch both men. There had to be brain damage, a
concussion, or at least drugs still in her system. Because there
was no God in the universe that could have made two men that looked
so much alike, so handsome and so dangerous looking as the two who
stood next to her bed. Chayle shook her head, trying to clear it of
whatever was messing with her brain.

Long raven black hair and devilish blue eyes
twinkling with a sense of amusement as this new stranger stood
watching her while the other looked like he wanted to kill someone.
The hint of anger and danger surrounded him like armor.

Both men sported wide shoulders and massive
chests sitting atop trim hips and thick thighs the size of tree
trunks that didn't come from working out in a gym. No, Chayle
recognized military when she saw it and that physique came from
long hours of hard dangerous work.

Both men had to be well over six and a half
feet tall if an inch. Chayle wasn't short by any means coming in at
almost five eight, but next to the two giants she felt tiny.

"You'll have to excuse my twin for his
manners, but most of the time he doesn't have to deal with the
opposite sex. I'm afraid he's lost his touch!" The smiling giant
with the amused eyes was trying to soothe her. How ridiculous was
that?

Chayle looked at the two men as if they had
lost their ever-loving minds!

However, for some reason Chayle could
suddenly feel the tension easing from her muscles, the fear, and
pain pushing back to barriers where she could deal with it for now.
Her heart rate slowed and the trembling in her chest and body
slowly began to ease.

"Now," the nicer of the two men whispered,
"breathe for me and tell us what you can remember."

Chayle took a deep breath, not even
realizing she was holding it. She kept her gaze on the smiling one
because the other man's eyes did something to her stomach. She
didn't want to look at him; she didn't want to think about him. It
was too much, it ached somewhere she didn't want to think
about.

She had never met him before she opened her
eyes a few minutes ago, but all she could think about was not
looking at him. Licking dry lips, she closed her eyes and tried to
think, tried to understand what had happened and when. He had asked
what was the last thing she remembered?

Leaving work, walking outside into the late
afternoon heat outside the small research center in Denver thinking
she just wanted to get home to her nice quiet little house, change
clothes, and relax for the weekend. Chayle remembered walking
across the street to the employee's covered parking area, past the
guard posted there and waving to him, entering the cool underground
area where her car was always parked. It wasn't that late for a
Friday but no one had been around, no one heard her scream when
someone grabbed her from behind.

She had fought, God she fought them. All of
the self-defense training over the last few years kick boxing to
stay in shape and taekwondo as a means of self-defense with
meditation had been useless against rough hands grabbing her mouth,
others twisting her breasts to hold her still while someone else
knocked her feet out from under her and picked her up.

Panic raced through her bloodstream, her
heartbeat loud in her own ears as Chayle tried to focus on anything
other than the terror as she remembered the snickers behind the
blindfold that had fallen over her head, or felt the sharp stick to
her neck shortly before darkness had fallen over her mind. The true
nightmare had begun once they pulled her out of the Humvee and
pushed her into the cabin with the younger woman. Their captors
graphically explaining just how they would be used as guinea pigs
for some new drug their bosses were developing for their
"merchandise."

Her eyes popped open, a silent scream
forming on her lips before the giant standing next to the bed,
Rafe, touched her. Chayle jumped, but his strong hand pulled both
of hers' into his large one and held on.

"What did you see, Chayle? Who was it and
what do you remember?" he whispered.

"Everything!" she whispered.

"Tell us." Rafe's thumb gently stroked her
wrist, calming her as her panic still rose at the nightmares inside
her head.

"They came at me from behind," panting, she
stared into those bottomless blue eyes the color of a dark
Caribbean ocean and felt the fear dissolve leaving only the
tightness in her chest. "They . . . someone put a cloth over my
nose and mouth."

Chayle swallowed, forcing back the bile
rising from her stomach at the thoughts raging in her mind.
"Someone grabbed my feet when I started fighting; I think another
had my waist." The words were mere whispers as she relived the
nightmare for the men, trying to describe the kidnappers the best
she could but knowing she wasn't doing a very good job of it no
matter how hard she tried.

Tears stung her chapped cheeks, her lips dry
and leathery from dehydration as she fought back tight sobs that
hurt her chest. Frantically she forced her eyes to look anywhere so
she couldn't see the pity, feel the shame, but her wild eyes
continued to lock with the silent twin standing in the shadows. She
was mesmerized by haunted eyes that reminded her of a savage animal
who was caged and unable to find its freedom, his face ridged as he
stood with huge arms crossed over a massive chest like a dark
guardian, reminding her of a kind of dark fallen angel.

The dark guardian suddenly moved, reaching
up to touch his ear, his eyes never leaving hers. "Rafe, we need to
book. We've got to debrief in twenty, and Merc wants the Intel on
our girl ASAP."

"Where are you going?" she whispered as they
moved toward the door but received no answer. They turned to leave,
moving out the door so quietly they could have been a figment of
her imagination if not for the fact that she could still feel the
fallen angel's touch on her cheek.

She might not have known who they were or
why they were there, but something deep in her subconscious
remembered. Her body remembered even if her conscious mind did not
and they were the only known safety she had, and now they were
walking away.

"No. . . ," A scream echoed down the hallway
and into the corridor, causing Kayne to freeze and his twin to turn
in shock. "Don't leave me!"

She moved faster than either of them could
anticipate, especially in her present condition. Bolting from the
bed, taking IV and sheet with her as she moved, Chayle used what
little strength she had left to stumble past either of them before
they realized she could move that fast. Granted, she only made it a
few paces before her legs gave out and her eyesight began to turn
gray, but she fought. Hands, teeth, feet kicking out at anything
that came close . . . everything to keep anyone from taking her
again.

"No, not going back . . . not again you
bastards! Never again!" she continued to scream as darkness
consumed her. The last thing Chayle saw as she slipped into
oblivion were angry blue eyes and a savage mouth reaching for her
as her screams echoed throughout the building.

"Sir, we've found one of the subjects."

The man stood just inside the study with
hands barely trembling in the presence of his master, eyes on the
floor as he waited for further instructions. This room had always
made him nervous but lately it was even worse due to the heavy
sense of foreboding that hung in the air.

"Well, don't just stand there, dumbass. What
have you found out?" The low voice did nothing to hide the contempt
his master held for most of his employees as he watched the man
fidget.

"Sources have tracked them to a private
hospital in the Dallas area. We aren't sure how they managed to get
them out of the mountains so quickly. However, with that type of
equipment it means they must have had military resources."

"Of course they do, you moron. This is a
war, haven't you been listening?" Master tapped long fingers on the
tablet on his desk, absorbing the news. "Observe and nothing else
for now unless they start to move, I don't want to scare them out
of there or they will go to ground. I need those test subjects
eliminated, not walking around in daylight!"

"Yes sir."

"Then what are you standing there for? You
have your orders!" He watched the man leave, smug in the knowledge
that a hardened military man was so uncomfortable around him. It
had taken a long time to ensure those around him were loyal,
conditioned, and willing to do whatever he ordered. Now his small
army was almost invincible.

Almost!

He just needed the next components and they
would realize just what it meant to be a leader. Never again would
they take his projects away from him and call him crazy. They would
learn who was the true leader and strategist, and who held all of
the power.

It had been three days since Chayle had last
seen the breathing taking twins. It had only taken one day to
realize she had bodyguards outside her room after her embarrassing
episode, and she still wasn't sure if they were actually bodyguards
or guards. The hospital staff came to check on her, watching her
with wary eyes and refused to offer much information when she tried
to ask simple questions like where she was and who were the men who
had brought her to the hospital. It was as if she was under arrest
and it was starting to seriously piss her off.

Her mood actually lightened once and caused
her to chuckle after the last episode when the young nurse
basically told her to stop asking questions. Chayle's natural
curiosity and sense of humor had finally resurfaced, which meant
she must be feeling somewhat better. Those bastards couldn't keep
her down no matter the circumstances. However, if she didn't get
some answers soon someone was going to have some serious trouble
once she was able to move again.

The smaller of the two men said his name was
David or Davey, she wasn't sure which, because he mumbled every
time he came into the room with anyone other than a nurse. She
could tell he was shy but he wouldn't meet her eyes, wouldn't even
look directly at her when she tried to thank him for being on duty.
He was cute in a silent, cuddly way but there was a sadness about
him that made Chayle want to hug him for some reason, which really
was out of the norm for her.

When the other giant appeared the afternoon
of the third day Chayle was shocked at not only his size but his
eyes. They were the strangest green she had ever seen, dark depths
that spoke of pain and an inner strength of steel. Davey had said
the other man's name was Mercury and that he was their team leader,
but other than those few comments she knew nothing of her
guards.

Suddenly memories came flooding back at the
thought of how easily she had been taken and why the men were even
necessary, and Chayle cringed. No one was truly safe anymore.

Wasn't that what her father use to tell her
before he was killed? She missed him now, missed his strength and
stubbornness even if he had tried to protect her too often in his
own way. What else could be expected from a Sergeant Major in the
Marines? God, if he were alive now what would he do in this
situation?

Even with two years of intensive
self-defensive courses and working out three days a week she
couldn't have taken any of the men who kidnapped her. Her father
had been right, it was impossible to know who she could trust
anymore.

She still couldn't fathom why she was taken
since at twenty-eight years old Chayle knew she didn't fit the
profile for human trafficking. She was a military analyst for a
defense contractor with nothing important to offer a group like
this. Those who were usually targets were younger, beautiful,
usually blonde or close to it, especially blue or green eyes and
highly marketable were higher on the list. Chayle's chocolate and
gold eyes were nothing special and her chestnut curls were long and
unruly most of the time but nothing to draw anyone's attention.