Page 134 of Death Wish

“Mostly soft tissue damage. My face is swelling. I’m having trouble catching my breath.” She paused. “My side injury has reopened.”

“How much are you bleeding?”

“Not as much as you were, but the bleeding hasn’t stopped.”

“Your blood type?”

“O positive. Why?”

Excellent. Three members of Texas Team had the same blood type, including Jesse. “In case you need an emergency transfusion.” Unfortunately, he wouldn’t be the one to donate. He wasn’t in good enough shape himself. If there were no other options, he’d do it anyway.

“I love you.”

“Love you, too, Simone.” She was fading on him. “Rest now, baby. I’ll stay with you.”

“Okay.” She fell silent.

Jesse watched the clock, willing Sawyer to drive faster. As it was, his friend was going over the speed limit. If he drove too much faster, they could get pulled over for speeding, and that would slow them down.

The connection remained quiet for 30 minutes. Simone gasped.

“What’s wrong?” Jesse asked.

“He’s coming.”

“Cooperate. We’re almost there.” Not close enough to stop whatever was about to happen but he wanted to give Simone hope to hold on to.

“Get up,” White demanded. “The cabin’s a mess. Get out here and clean it up. Now.”

Simone’s shallow breaths turned to panting.

Soon, the sounds of her shuffling things and tossing them into a bag came over the speaker interspersed with soft moans she tried to smother.

Ten minutes later, Jesse heard flesh hitting flesh.

Simone cried out.

“You’re taking too long,” White snapped. “Get moving or you’ll get a lot worse.”

Jesse had seen and heard almost everything in his time as a cop and an operative but hearing Simone beaten and abused gutted him.

Sawyer reached over and squeezed his shoulder, then pressed down on the accelerator.

The minutes ticked by in at a snail’s pace. He watched the clock and map while listening to everything going on in the cabin.

Fifteen miles from the target location, Sawyer disconnected his phone from the Bluetooth system and made a call. After a low-voiced conversation, he glanced at Jesse. “They’re on site,” he murmured. “Holding.”

He acknowledged the information with a nod. If things became dicey inside that cabin, he’d send his teammates in to pull Simone out. As much as he wanted to rescue Simone personally, Jesse refused to allow White to hurt her again.

When he and Sawyer reached the ten-mile mark, White said, “That’s good enough. Clean up the bathroom.”

More sounds of shuffling, then a hiss of pain from Simone. “Hurting me won’t get the job done faster, Trevor.”

“You’re moving too slow,” he yelled.

“Do you have cleaning supplies?”

“There’s a bar of soap and a washcloth in there. Everything better sparkle when you’re finished, Simone, and I want to see you on your hands and knees.” He laughed. “You’ll be spending a lot of time there from now on. Better get used to it.” More laughter. “After you finish the bathroom, we’ll go to the bedroom. You won’t be leaving there for a long time, baby. Remember all those times you told me no?” he crowed. “Those times are over. Now, it’s all about what I want, and you can’t stop me.”

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