Page 12 of Cheating the Devil

“I don’t know. Hell, I don’t even know what caused the accident.”

“As we came around the curve, that van that’d passed us was stopped, blocking the road. Our driver slammed on the brakes and lost control. Next thing I knew, we were being yanked out of the taxi.”

Avery had a vague recollection of being pulled through the taxi’s window, not that it mattered now. “Did you lose consciousness at any point? Any idea if we’re still in Aruba?”

“Yeah, we are. They drove about ... I don’t know ... twenty minutes, maybe longer. It was hard to tell. They handcuffed us to a bar in the van, then put hoods over our heads. When we got here, they didn’t take the hoods off until they’d moved us into this room. I barely got a look at it before they shut the door, and everything went dark. That was maybe ten or fifteen minutes ago. Like I said, it’s hard to tell.”

Pushing herself up into a sitting position, Avery took stock of her own injuries. She probably had a concussion since her head felt like it was split open down the center—having lost consciousness for a while wasn’t good either. She had some cuts and bruises, all which appeared to be non-life-threatening, but nothing seemed to be broken. She quickly became aware of the fact that the gun was gone from her lower back. A check of the front and back of her bra revealed that those weapons had been found and removed as well. Whoever their captors were, they were thorough.

“Which shoulder, Lori?” Avery asked as she unclasped her bra from beneath her shirt and pulled it out from the sleeves in a move practically every woman alive knew how to do.

“My left.”

As gently as she could, Avery used her hands to figure out how Lori was positioned. “I can probably pop it back in, but it’s going to hurt like a bitch.”

“Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. I know it’ll hurt, but once it’s back in it will hurt far less than it does now. How are you going to pop it in, though?”

“I’m going to put my bra under your armpit, then yank upward while using my foot to push down on your clavicle. It’s the best I can do under the circumstances. Think you can handle it?”

“Can I cuss like a sailor while you’re doing it?”

“Sure.” The corners of Avery’s mouth ticked upward despite the situation. Brad may not have been in the same state as his daughter for much of her life, but she’d definitely inherited his strength and grit. Maybe a few screams and curses would bring someone running, and Avery could get some answers—not that she was looking forward to hurting the other woman. “Hang tight for a minute. Let me make sure we have enough room.”

“Okay. I haven’t been able to move far with my shoulder like this, but I didn’t hit anything except the wall behind me and another to my left. I guess that doesn’t really help you, though, since you can’t see which direction that is.”

After getting to her knees, Avery blindly felt around. She didn’t know if anything or anyone else was in there with them. The concrete floor was rough and dirty. So were the four walls. The door was steel and locked from the outside, but it hadn’t been expertly hung since light emanated from the bottom and lower half of one side. By the time she’d circumnavigated the whole room, she guessed it was approximately twelve footsquare. Aside from Lori and Avery, the walls, one door, the floor, and, presumably, a ceiling, the only other thing in there with them was warm, muggy air, which was to be expected on an island.

Once she knew she had enough space to work in, she inched her way back to Lori, and found her foot. Since the injury was on her left side, Avery worked her way up the younger woman’s right until she was behind her. “Swivel to your right a little and then lie on your back as best as you can. I’ll support your back as you ease down.”

“Okay ... Oh, fuck, shit, damn, motherfucker!” Lori barked between growls as she got into position. By the time she was supine on the floor, she was panting from the pain. “Arrrghhh! Shit! Hurry!”

Carefully, Avery felt her way down Lori’s head, face, and chest, trying to avoid touching her arm or shoulder until she had too. “This is where it’s gonna start hurting—well, worse than it is. Take a deep breath.”

When she heard the ragged intake of air, followed by a second, she threaded her bra under Lori’s forearm, then shimmied the two ends of the garment upward until it was snug in her armpit. Muttered curses and gasps came from Lori’s mouth, but she was doing pretty well, considering. Sitting down, Avery brought her right knee to her chest and laid her left leg alongside Lori’s injured arm. She set her right foot on top of Lori’s shoulder, as close to her neck as possible, and wrapped both ends of her bra around her hands to make sure she didn’t lose them in the process. “All right, Lori. Here we go. I’m going to push down with my foot and pull up hard on your shoulder.”

“Just do it!”

Avery shoved down with her foot and yanked with her arms in one combined motion. Lori shrieked as her shoulder moved and popped back into place. Letting go of the bra, Averynever had a chance to ask the other woman if she was okay, because the door flew open, slamming against the wall, bright light filtering in, temporarily blinding them. A bald, Asian man, standing about six foot three, with broad shoulders and a semi-automatic in his hand, shouted at them in Chinese. Although it had been a few years since she’d last had a conversation, beyond a sentence or two, in the Mandarin dialect, she understood the curses and demand to know what the fuck was going on. She responded in the same language, uncertain if the man knew any English. “She’s injured,” she stated, as if that explained everything, but the resulting expression on the man’s face told her he didn’t care. “Where are we? Why are we here? Who’s in charge?”

“That would be me,” another voice said in Mandarin, as a man from her past rounded the door jamb.

Avery’s eyes and nostrils flared.Oh, shit on a stick. This isn’t good.

“Hello, Ms. McNamara. I never thought I’d say this, but it’s a pleasure to see you again.” His sneer said otherwise. It’d been over a decade since anyone had called her by her undercover name. It felt so surreal to hear it now. She’d met Lin Chao at several political functions during her time in China. Even if she hadn’t already known what an evil person he was, at the time, she still wouldn’t have liked the man. He was one of those narcissistic bastards who thought all women were beneath him unless they were on top, fucking or sucking him.

Standing, she channeled her old persona, her back straightening in defiance. The last person she’d ever expected to walk through the door was the father of the man she’d assassinated on her last op. Lin Chao and his eldest son had been on Deimos’s watch list in the months leading up to the moment Avery had ended the younger man’s life. Even though both men had been cunning and smart, Delan had had a cruel streakwith even loftier aspirations than his father. The US government had learned Delan had been making connections within several Middle Eastern facets—including Al Qaeda and ISIS, the latter still in its infancy but growing quickly. Where Chao had been greedy, Delan had been greedyanddeadly. His affiliation with known terrorist groups made him a threat to American troops and citizens and had sealed his fate. “Lin Chao. Well, well, well. I thought you were exiled to the South Pole.”

“Bitch.” He backhanded Avery, knocking her to the floor as Lori, who was still sitting, gasped.

Yeah, it probably hadn’t been a smart thing to antagonize the man. Despite the pain exploding throughout her face and head again, Avery got to her feet and put herself between Lori and Chao. So far, the latter hadn’t even acknowledged the other woman’s presence beyond a dismissive glance, and Avery wanted to keep it that way. She had to keep them both alive long enough for Brad to realize they were missing. Once that happened, he was sure to call Haven, who would know to activate the tracking device in Avery’s shoulder. She’d never been so happy for the tiny piece of technology that had been embedded under her skin. It’d been years since she’d thought about the foreign object she prayed was still operational.

“You’ll pay for your crimes. You’ll suffer until you beg for your death. Then you’ll suffer more until I finally grant your wish.” Chao snapped his fingers. “Take her to the other room.”

The tall, bald man stepped forward and snatched Avery’s upper arm, pulling her toward the door as if she weighed nothing, while Lori struggled to her feet. Tears rolled down her cheeks. Her loud voice was tinged with confusion and fear. “No! Leave her alone! Why are you doing this?”

Chao switched to English. “Shut up, and I may let you live. This doesn’t concern you, but I have no qualms about disposing of you along with this murdering cunt.”

He turned on his heel and followed his minion and Avery out the door. Glancing over her shoulder and seeing the disbelief and terror on Lori’s face, Avery raised her voice as she was dragged around the corner of the door jamb. “Lori, do everything they tell you! Stay strong! Don’t give them any reason to hurt you! It’ll be okay!” As she was led to God knew where, she prayed they’d both get out of this alive.

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