Page 42 of Sub Mission

“Just fucking try,” he answered and then went silent.

There was one guard near the middle of the hallway, probably standing in front of the door that would lead to Baker, and he jerked around to look at me the minute I stepped through the entrance. Plastering a friendly smile on my face, I said, “Hey, man. Do you happen to know where the maintenance department is? I’m new, first day and all, and I’ve gotten myself lost.” I looked down at my watch as I kept walking in his direction. “If I don’t find it in the next four minutes, I’m going to be late on my first day. That won’t look good, will it?”

By the time I’d finished my story, I stood in front of him and knocked him out before he could tell me to get the fuck out of there. The best move would be to hide his body, but I couldn’t risk opening a door that might set off alarms or barge into a room filled with people. I settled for taking his gun and smashing his cell. The door in front of me had a lock alarm on it as well, so I had to get Landon to give me the code. It opened quietly—finallysome luck— and I peered down the dark staircase. Unwilling to risk any type of light, I went into it dark and moved as carefully and silently as possible. Halfway down the stairs, the phone in my pocket vibrated, alerting me that the rest of the team was on site and right behind me. At the bottom of the stairs, there was yet another door with a lock alarm. When I pulled out my cell, the code flashed across my screen. If nothing else, Landon was efficient.

I might kill him when this was over, but at least we could add efficient to his headstone.

Drawing my gun, I punched in the code, and yanked the door open. The first thing I saw was Baker…suspended in the air by chains wrapped around his wrists. Welts and bruises already covered his torso, but he was goading them…laughing at them every time one of them punched him. For the briefest of seconds, his eyes locked with mine and the hugest smile spread across his face. After that, all hell broke loose because the rest of them saw me, too.

Oh well, these men taught about heaven and hell, at least their version of it, who was I to prevent one of them from getting there sooner than they’d expected? Paperwork, be damned.

“Jericho! It’s the other sodomite!” One of them screamed as I charged in his direction.

Seconds before I reached him, I noticed the taser he held in his right hand. Had he used that on Baker? When he thrust his arm in my direction, intent on trying to use his weapon on me, I caught his wrist in a tight grip and then used my body’s momentum to twist the motherfucker in a direction the bones weren’t supposed to go. His wail of pain and horror only lasted for the briefest of seconds because my other hand crashed against his skull, knocking him unconscious immediately.

Two more men, one being Jericho, remained in the room and they had their bodies positioned between me and Baker, their attention focused solely on me. Normally, I would have chosen Jericho to be the next to fall, since he was their “leader”, but the man standing next to him pulled a long, wicked blade from a holder attached to his belt. He waved it in front of him, a sinister smile on his face. Jericho might be their leader, but this man definitely enjoyed the job of hurting others.

“You sicken me!” he snarled in disgust and then spat in my direction.

“Well, you’re not doing a whole lot for me, either,” I answered. Yeah, Jericho would have to wait. I couldn’t risk that knife going anywhere near Baker’s body, so this man needed to be taken out.

“Don’t worry about me,” Baker said as blood oozed from a large cut to his upper lip. One eye was swollen shut, but he used the other to wink at me. “I’ll just hang here and babysit this one, so he doesn’t get in your way.” Before Jericho could even register what Baker had said, Baker grabbed his wounded hands around the chain that held him prisoner, and then lifted his legs to wrap tightly around Jericho’s neck. I watched in delight as the bastard responsible for hurting Baker struggled to escape…struggled to even breathe.

From the grimace of pain that crossed his face, I knew the movement had been difficult for Baker’s battered body. I needed to make short work of the fucker waving the knife in front of me. Delightful thoughts of just shooting him dead danced around in my head, but then that would be too fast and not nearly painful enough. When, without any fucking skill at all, he lunged in my direction, I twisted away at the last second, planted my elbow into his kidney, and then followed that motion with an uppercut that caused his head to snap back. While he was still trying to regain his footing, I grabbed the hand that held the deadly knife and raised my knee while lowering his arm, allowing them both to meet with enough momentum to snap his wrist. The knife dropped to the concrete floor, and I kicked it out of the way. After a quick look around to ensure that Baker was still clamped onto to Jericho but hadn’t killed him yet, I turned back to the man clutching his wrist as he tried to run toward the door. Fucking coward. Before he could get there, the door burst open, causing him to stumble backward and straight into my arms, as the rest of Landon’s men poured into the room.

Shit…cops were with them, too. I hated cops; they always wanted to go ‘by the book’. After seeing what they did to Baker, I wanted toplaywith them. “Take care of Baker!” I ordered our men. “I’ve got this one.”

I heard the cops say something about them having things under control, but pretended I didn’t. I jumped into making the fucker pay for hurting Baker and all the men taken before him, and I did it quickly and efficiently, knowing the cops wouldn’t stand aside for very long. I had no intentions of killing the man, but a part of me wanted to get as close to that point as I could before stepping over the line. I smashed his face with my fist and then raised my knee to connect to his balls…if he had any. When his blood sprayed across my face, there was no stopping me. I kept pounding into him, trying, even though I knew it to be impossible, to beat the hatred and prejudice out of him.

My fists and knees kept connecting until he no longer struggled, but lay in a fetal position on the floor, begging and sobbing for me to stop. I wasn’t sure I could have forced myself to stop even then, but Baker’s weak voice, halted every movement.

“Seth! Stop it; that’s enough,” he ordered. “Our jobs are done here.”

Two cops had to support Baker’s body, and his wrists dangled at an awkward angle. My heart broke in fucking two when I paused long enough to really see how much damage they’d done to him while I’d been running around like a chicken with its head cut off. I wanted to reach for him, to hold him against me and swear I’d never let another person touch him again, but guilt kept my feet planted to the floor.

“We’re finished,” he said softly.

Just when I finally gained control of my body again and started to reach for him, Landon stormed into the room, shouting orders and taking control of the scene. There were a couple of men with him and I assumed they were detectives with the local police department. My heart ached. I needed to feel Baker in my arms again just to assure myself he was fine…that they hadn’t hurt him too badly.

Landon strode forward. “Take over the scene, Agent Wilkinson. Ensure that the proper men are taken into custody and share all our credentials and information with these men.” He ushered the two detectives in my direction. He leaned closer to me and said, “Do your job, Agent. You know how this goes. The police need as much information as we can give them to assist with the case. I’ll make sure that Baker gets to the hospital.”

********

I tore through the doors of the hospital at the same time that Landon was exiting, knocking him flat on his ass when we collided. I paused to yank him off the floor and demand, “Where is he?”

I’d spent four hours trapped at the police station, showing them my credentials, answering questions, answering more questions, and, finally, answering even more fucking questions. My nerves were shot, my head exploding with worry for Baker, and furious because Landon hadn’t answered any of my texts, other than to tell me what hospital they’d taken Baker to. The way I saw things, they should be on their hands and knees, bowing down to me and my incredible display of strength for not killing the sons of bitches that had dared lay a violent hand on Baker. Instead, they were apparently trying to push me over the edge just for shits and giggles. When I’d finally escaped, no—walked out on them, I’d been shocked to find that Landon didn’t have a car waiting on me.

After calling him every bad name in my mental dictionary and flagging down a taxi, it had been a good five hours since I’d last seen Baker.My Baker. His face had already been bruising and blood trickled from his mouth. There’d been a cut on both corners of his lips, a gash on the top lip, and one eye was swollen shut. Burn marks, probably from the taser, mottled his chest. The way they had him hanging there had to have done damage to his wrists and shoulders. Through all that, though, he’d smiled at me. There wasn’t even a hint of surprise on his face—he’d known I’d get to him.

As soon as he was properly healed, I was going to throttle his pretty ass until he wouldn’t be capable of sitting for a week…or longer. How could he have left me behind like he did?

I knew why—it was because he’d been capable of doing his job…and he’d known I wouldn’t be. He’d known there was no way I would allow him to put himself in danger, even though it was part of our original plan.

He’d done the right thing, but I was still going to spank his pretty ass.

“Calm down, Agent Wilkinson,” Landon said, his voice sounding incredibly nervous. “We need to meet with our client, inform him of what happened and who was responsible. Javier needs an update before he’s surprised by the police or news agency. We need to do our job, Seth.”

“Where. Is. Baker?” I growled. Terror gripped my soul and began twisting it in one direction and then another, wringing the very life from me.

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