Page 9 of Now or Never
What was the point in praying? He hadn’t answered any of her pleas yet. She hadn’t felt the peace she was supposed to possess, or a sense He was with her. It felt more as ifDominatushad claimed this place for their purposes and He was not welcome. Like they had shut God out of their domain, andno matter how much she prayed, the requests didn’t even get through the shadow of darkness that hung over everything here.
Seconds later, the doors at the far end flung open. Two familiar faces whose eyes she wanted to scratch out. The retrieval team were two men she had met months ago. Researched. Hunted. Now they were here.
“We got it, Doc.” One of the men from that retirement home came over, lifting a tackle box to show them. Four—she had since learned his name was Linus.
The other was Five, but she didn’t know his real name. He had pale clammy skin and hung back behind his friend.
“Good,” Buzard said. “Take it to the lab. I want to get started with the tests this afternoon.”
She moved without thinking, aiming for the tackle box.
Linus swung it back out of reach, laughing. “Got your boyfriend’s juice right here. Shame we had to hurt him.” He cackled. “Actually, it was fun.”
Buzard pushed her back. “Give it to me. Take your friend to the infirmary and get him patched up before he keels over and makes a mess.”
Linus spun, shoving Five in front of him.
Buzard turned to the guards and motioned with his chin. “Section four.”
She inhaled a sharp breath through her nose.I don’t want to go there.
She could still taste the bile in her mouth as one of the men grabbed her arm and dragged her between two tables and their bench seats. She focused on keeping her feet, staying upright and not thinking about what she would be forced to watch for hours. Until her eyes stung and she could barely keep them open. They would inject her with something to keep her awake, push her past her limits, and then test the baby’s vital signs.
If you kill my baby…
She had no recourse. No power here. She couldn’t fight them off or defend herself.
There was no way out.
Buzard pushed out the double doors into the hallway. She’d tried to plead with the men who worked security. There weren’t many, and none had been sympathetic. Far as she’d been able to tell, there weren’t more than a couple of dozen people who lived and worked on this platform. Some kind of deep-sea research station, or it used to be an oil well. She had no idea, and all the signs on the walls were in Russian. At least it gave her an idea of the neighborhood they were in.
Focus on that.
At least until a scream echoed down the hall. A high sound that cut across her threadbare nerves and left her senses raw.
The tight grip of the guard’s hand on her arm got her attention. She stumbled along the hall, trying not to let go of what little control she had over her emotions, her thoughts, and her actions. It wouldn’t last. She knew that.
She also knew she had to fight until she couldn’t fight anymore.
A door swung open at the end of the hall, and a woman stumbled out of the room there, blood on the scrubs top over her torso. Blood on her hands. Her face. Stringy hair hung down either side of her head. She spotted them and froze.
“Brandon!”
Kenna jumped at the shout so close to her ear.
The man holding on to her yelled again. “Get her out of here.”
Another man appeared at the door, holding a knife with a three-inch blade.
“Take your toy somewhere else.”
The woman started to turn. Brandon grabbed her from behind, one hand over her mouth, and dragged her back into the room.
The door slammed shut.
Bile rose in Kenna’s throat, even though there was nothing in her stomach. The woman didn’t scream again, but as they passed, a puddle of blood seeped out from under the door.
“Guess that’s one case you don’t need to solve.”
