Gage’s Goal, page 15
“Nothing’s funny about any of this,” Gage replied. “That poor innocent woman is dead, and you’re after another one, plus you kidnapped one with a kid, for Christ’s sake. That’ll traumatize the kid for life.”
“And that’s why I shoot them,” he replied. “I mean, who wants to live with that kind of shit crawling up your ass every day and night? They are better off dead. I just put them out of their misery.”
Gage struggled to keep his cool, while hearing that. “Well, you don’t need to worry about them either. They’re gone too.”
At that, the man’s eyebrows raised. “You think you’ll just save everybody?”
“I’ll try,” he replied.
“Oh, there we go, that do-gooder attitude, even in the face of the fact that you’ve already lost.” He laughed.
“I haven’t lost anything yet,” Gage argued.
“Sure you have. According to the people I work for, you’ve already lost three-quarters of your team. But then I guess guys like you don’t really care about that. You’re all in it for that macho loyalty bullshit, but that won’t keep you warm at night.”
“If it did, what difference does it make to you?” Gage asked. “And you should be considering that yourself.”
“Why?” he asked. “They need me.”
“Do you know how many of your guys I’ve heard say that in the last few days?” Gage replied. “What kind of loyalty are they generating from you that you actually think you’re special?”
“I am special,” he snapped. “They don’t like killing.”
“And you do?” Gage asked him.
“Hey, why not? You’ll die sometime, so what difference does it make if I speed up the process?”
“Well, that’s just a shitty way to look at life,” Gage murmured quietly.
“Whatever, besides, if you’re going to shoot me, just shoot me now,” he murmured. “You know you can’t do what you really want to do. Which is torturing me.”
“Why can’t I?” He frowned.
“Because you’re far too honorable.” He gave an obvious eye roll, heavy sarcasm evident in his voice. “See? You guys are all the same. I’ve killed a lot of you too.”
“Yeah, so you want to tell me who?” he asked. Off to the side, Gage saw Tasha shifting and crawling, getting herself farther away from this guy. But she was close, paying attention.
The man shrugged. “Well, I killed the one down in DC who worked for the DOD. He was part of this special unit of yours, and they needed him taken out.” He paused. “Then there was the entire team.”
“Did you have anything to do with that?” Gage asked, clicking the revolver, so he could pull the trigger faster.
He laughed. “That would be way too easy for you, wouldn’t it?” he replied, with a headshake. “No, unfortunately I can’t claim that, as much as I’d like to. Besides, that’s hardly a success, since it’s not like they killed them.”
“No?”
“They said something about it being just as good, but I didn’t get it. Not to worry. They probably just had a different kind of torture in mind.”
“I’m sure that’s what they told you guys, but they’re all bullshitters. They aren’t strong enough to do the job.” Gage added, “I’d really like to know what this is all about.”
“I would too,” he said. “When you find out, you want to tell me?”
Gage was getting nowhere with this smart-ass. “Were you only contracted to kill this woman?”
“Well, and take care of the kid,” he added. “They were looking to keep the other woman, but I didn’t think that was a good idea. Keeping prisoners is bad news for everybody. Once you get caught having them, there’s really no way to prove that you didn’t have anything to do with it.” He shrugged. “But, hey, they didn’t want to listen to a pro.”
“But you’re not a pro, are you? You don’t have any experience.”
“I’ve got plenty of experience,” he replied in an ugly tone.
“Ah, so it matters to you that you have the experience that’s needed for the job.”
“Everybody needs the experience to prove that they can do the job,” he said in disgust. “Don’t try to fob me off and try to make it sound like I’m doing nothing but talking out my ass. I get it, but we’re hearing of other cases around the world. I’ve been stuck here in Manchester,” he added, “but there was talk about a job in Texas. Some loose thread they would have to tie up. I was thinking I might take them up on that one”—he smirked—“but I guess it depends on what you’re up to.”
“You mean, whether I’ll let you go or not.”
“Yeah, why not?” he asked. “You got your girl, plus the others, so what difference does it make?”
“Yeah, but you’ll come back and try again,” Gage replied.
“I might at that,” he said. “I just might.”
“So, why would I let you go?” Gage asked.
“Because that’s the kind of guys you are, according to them anyway. Plus all the intel we’ve gathered suggests that you’re sort of an honorable lot. Whereas we aren’t handicapped in the same way that you are.”
“Why, because you don’t have any morals or ethics?”
“Something like that.” He shrugged again. “It’s not like money is our king by any means, and there’s a certain number of people I wouldn’t kill, you know? My own family for one. And I know some of these guys have actually done that to their own kin, which, honestly, that’s just gross.”
“It is just gross,” Gage agreed quietly, hoping to keep this guy talking. The more they learned, the better. “And of course then there’s the war-torn countries,” Gage murmured, “and all that shit that they’re pulling.”
“Yeah, I heard something about that, but, when I asked about it, they denied anything to do with anything but in the European countries,” he noted. “I mean, that’s why I had to go take care of the guy in DC.”
“Ah, right, the DOD operative.”
“Yeah, you know he used to go to gay bars, and notice how I used past tense in a nice way.” He laughed. “That just makes people so easy to pick off and to take care of,” he murmured. “They’re so worried about anybody finding out that they try to do it all so secretly, which really delays identification. It’s all good though. I like shit like that. You know they think that it makes them special, but really it just makes them stupid.”
“He was a good man, you know,” Gage said.
“I don’t know if he was or not,” he admitted, “and I don’t really give a shit either way. He needed to go, so we took him out.”
“So who makes the decision as to who needs to go?” Gage asked.
“I don’t know who it is,” he stated. “And I’m not too bothered about finding out. The more I know, the more I can tell under torture. So, as you know, it’s much better if I don’t hear anything.”
“Because you like to talk, I presume.”
“I do tend to go a little bit overboard sometimes,” he replied, with an odd tone. “Which is another reason I don’t want to know anything.”
“And you think that you’ll be safe now, after they know that you’ve been here and have been caught?”
“They don’t know jack shit.” He laughed.
“You said you weren’t alone.”
“I’m not. They’re out there, waiting for me. And, when I don’t come out, they’ll assume I’m dead,” he explained, “because I won’t be taken alive, and they know it.”
“Really?” Gage asked, “so you plan on killing yourself right now or what?”
He looked around the room. “There’s just you and that girl who’s still half drugged, so that’s hardly anything worth me even fighting about. I can take you out in a couple minutes flat.”
Gage wasn’t sure if that was just bravado or if this guy had some secret weapon, but Gage wouldn’t get any closer and didn’t want to take the chance because he was still not at peak performance, which he really needed to be in order to handle something like this. He cursed himself for not being quite there yet. Because, damn it, he really wanted to just blow off this guy’s head, if not literally at least with a couple really solid punches.
He’d had the nerve to come back after poor Lorelei, who hadn’t done anything to anyone. “So tell me. Why all the repeated efforts to kill Lorelei?”
“She was connected to you guys, one of those loose threads. And I’m still trying to prove to the guys that I belong on the team,” he added. “So they were sending me off to do these outlying threads, just to make their life a little easier. They’d have gotten to her eventually, but I just sped up the process a bit.”
“Nice,” Gage replied. “Of course, if you’d waited, she wouldn’t have had any idea that somebody was after her.”
“Yeah, but you know? It’s nice when you have a bit of chase, and you get to have a little fun at the same time,” he chuckled. And then, with his arms crossed, he got more serious. “Shall we get on with this?”
“What is it you want me to do?” Gage asked.
“Well, shoot me, punch me, something,” he suggested. “I mean, this is boring right now. And you can’t handle everything from over there.”
Gage glanced at Tasha, who was sitting up a bit now, but looking pretty rough. “How are you doing?”
“I feel like shit.” She used the chair to pull herself up, then sagged into the seat.
“Yeah, you don’t look all that great. You think you can handle a gun on him?”
She brightened and looked at their intruder with interest. “Do I get to shoot him too?”
Gage laughed. “I don’t think anybody will argue about that, except for the guys who probably want to shoot him themselves.”
“Whatever. They can take their turn,” she murmured. She stepped forward and, still shaky, declined his gun and pulled her own from the holster at her back.
Gage silently thanked Damon for setting her up with a concealed weapon.
“I presume you’ll secure him?” she asked Gage.
“Absolutely,” Gage replied.
“Nice try,” said the guy, coming up off the ground, but Gage was waiting for him.
Gage stuck his jaw out, as his right fist came up in a sudden move. As the guy ducked to avoid the fist coming his way, Gage took him out with a high kick, and the fight was over before it ever really began.
With the gunman now unconscious, Gage walked over, grabbing zip straps from one of the tables of equipment that they had. He turned and quickly secured the man with several of them. Then Gage stepped back, and taking a deep breath, looked over at Tasha. “Thanks for the help,” he told her. “None of us are operating at 100 percent, and, as much as I hate to admit it, I wasn’t sure I could secure him without backup.”
“I get it,” she said. “Now, if he’s secure, I need to go check on Damon.”
He looked at her in surprise, and she shrugged. “Last I knew, he was watching the perimeter outside, but it is odd that he hasn’t checked in.”
“I haven’t seen hide nor hair of him,” she said.
Together, they raced back to their rooms, searching as they went. Inside, they found Damon sprawled on the floor, unconscious.
“Shit.” She bent down and felt for his vitals. “He’s alive, but he’s definitely not conscious.”
“I think this energy overload hit a lot of us,” he murmured. “He just might need some recovery time.” He helped Tasha get Damon up onto the bed.
She looked up at Gage. “I want to stay here with him for a bit. Are you okay with that?”
“Stay,” he agreed. “Keep me posted, especially if there is no change after a bit. I have to go after Lorelei, but I want to check on Sophia. You’ll need to watch her too.”
“Sure, I’ll come and help with that,” she stated, and together the two of them managed to get Sophia, who was also still unconscious, onto her bed. “Where’s Wade?” she asked.
“He’s out there guarding Calum’s kid and Calum’s wife.” Tasha looked at him in shock. Gage shrugged. “I know. Surprised me too. It’s the first I’ve heard about it. But these assholes kidnapped them and brought them here and stuck them in another room in this same damn building.”
“Jesus,” Tasha said. “Do you ever get the feeling they’re almost making fun of us?”
“Yet we keep picking them off,” he noted.
“Maybe so, but they keep getting to us.”
“Not after this,” he reassured her. “We’re getting closer. I promise.” She didn’t say anything but walked back to check on Damon and gently closed their bedroom door. Gage quickly called Terk. “Where’s Wade?”
“Is he not there?”
“No,” Gage replied. “Last I knew he was still with Calum’s family, but I need to find him. Sophia is unconscious, but we got her to her bed, but she’ll want Wade when she wakes up. And I want to get Calum’s family in here safely.”
“Wade should be here any moment,” Terk noted. “He got hung up with traffic. There’s a big accident between us.”
“Wait, but he was just outside this same damn building.”
“Yes, and then he took Mariana on a circular route to get them away, so nobody would know where she was. It was an attempt to stop people from following them, and then he got hung up in traffic.”
“Well, he needs to get here fast,” Gage snapped. “Damon must have come in at some point, and he ended up unconscious too. Tasha is awake now and is looking after both Damon and Sophia, and I need to go after Lorelei.”
“You go,” Terk motioned. “If everybody’s in their beds recuperating right now, nothing bad can happen. And don’t use just zip straps on that asshole. Make sure he’s out cold and will stay that way for a while. You know where the drugs are, if you need them.”
“Actually that’s a great idea.” Gage disconnected their call, and he headed back where his unconscious gunman lay. He checked out the drug supply in the medicine kit and found the one that he needed. He quickly administered an injection and then using rope, tied him up more securely in a hogtied position, so he shouldn’t get out.
He didn’t know what this guy’s skill set was. But, with Terk’s team not operating with any finesse these days, Gage didn’t want to take any chances. And, with one last glance around, he let Tasha know where he was going and how he’d left the gunman; then Gage hightailed it out of here. What he didn’t know was where the hell Lorelei had gone. He ran through the building, following her tracks. Dashing out the back door, he called out to her.
“Are you here, Lorelei? Where are you? It’s safe now.” But he heard nothing but an empty hollow stillness. With his stomach sinking, and hoping she had just continued to run as far and as fast as she could to get away, he contacted Terk telepathically this time. Any sign of her?
Nothing.
I’m not getting a good feeling about this.
Neither am I, Terk said, his tone heavy. I’m getting other energies.
You mean, she raced out of this damn building only to get caught again? Gage asked.
Yes, Terk said quietly. I think so. I’ll call my brother.
What’ll that do? Gage cried out in frustration.
So you can get satellite feeds. You really have no other help right now, Terk noted. You’ll have to go back inside, find her trail, and go after her.
Gage hesitated at that.
You can do this, Terk urged.
This is what you meant, isn’t it? Gage asked quietly.
Yes, I’m afraid so, damn it. Did you work on building that bond?
Sure, he confirmed, as much as I could. It’s not like I’ve had time to sit here and do nothing else.
I know, he murmured. It’s all right, just do what you can.
But it wasn’t all right, and they both knew it. I’ll find her, Gage promised Terk, and himself. Then Gage called out to the world around him. “You guys can run, but you can’t hide,” he shouted. “You hurt a hair on her head, and I’ll make sure you don’t live to see another day.” It sounded like laughter filled his head, but he knew it was just that same old voice mocking him, as always. That voice of his own insecurity, the voice that said he wasn’t as good as the rest on this team. That voice that said, “Hey, if you really could do this, Terk wouldn’t have to tell you what to do. You’d be doing it already.”
Gage had been fighting that same damn voice for a very long time and was getting damn pissed off at it.
Closing his eyes, he reached out with his heart. “Lorelei, where are you?” he murmured. He turned slowly in multiple directions, trying to find out which direction she might have gone in. He was trying to pick up the energy that she had left behind. All energy had a signature, and all energy left spores behind. He just had to lock on to the right one and to track it backward.
As he turned, slowly and carefully, all of a sudden, he felt something. He shifted back ever-so-slightly, then opened his eyes and stared at a parking lot down the block. He picked up his feet, and he ran. He didn’t know where he was going; he just knew he had to go, and he had to go now. He only hoped that he got there before it was too late.
Chapter 10
Lorelei woke up with something over her head, her hands and feet tied, and her body jolting from side to side. It took a few minutes for her brain to register the fact that she was in a moving vehicle. From the open area around her, it seemed either she was in a spacious trunk or she was in something like a van. She couldn’t move her hands or her feet, but at least she didn’t have something around her mouth, so she could breathe. There was complete darkness when she tried to peer through the fabric. She wasn’t sure what was going on, but, damn, she felt pretty rough. She wanted to cry out but was more intent on listening.
She heard one person breathe and snuffle every once in a while, but that was it. She wasn’t hearing a second person. Why would they have taken her? If the intent was to kill her, then why bother taking her like this? And the only thought that came to mind was that they wanted somebody to come after her. They would use her as bait.
