Page 104 of Taken By the Convicts
Ivan and Reece followed, sticking to the shadows of the mountain. A sick feeling grabbed Reece by the throat and wouldn’t let go. Hawke and his men were taking Jayce toward the med-center.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
IVAN
“Fuck!” Ivan said when he spotted Melina standing at the med-center door. She’d cracked the door open enough to talk to Hawke, who stood only fifteen feet from her. He held a knife to Jayce’s throat. He’d cut Jayce deep enough to spill blood and gain Melina’s attention, but not enough to kill him. Yet.
Jayce wasn’t wearing a coat. From the look of him, he’d been beaten up as well, but he was alive. Hawke knew exactly how to lure Melina, playing at her natural need to care for and protect another, especially a man in her unit.
Huffing, Reece slipped into the greenhouse unseen by Hawke’s men across the compound. Reece nodded to Ivan, confirming that his part was done.
“Good job,” Ivan whispered.
“You promise to release Jayce unharmed?” Melina said from the safety of the doorway.
“You have my word,” Hawke replied with an even voice that would fool anyone who didn’t know him. Like Melina. She trusted too easily.
“Shit,” Ivan swore again. “Don’t do it, Melina,” he mumbled, not caring that Reece heard his every word.
“I know you’re out there watching me, Perilov,” Hawke said, rotating his body, talking in all directions. He had six men surrounding him, guarding him from all angles. “I’m no fool. I can smell a trap a mile away. You and Crusher show yourselves or I kill Jayce right now.”
Ivan’s arm swung out, barring Crusher from moving.
“Don’t do it,” Jayce yelled to Melina before Hawke stabbed him in his side.
“No!” Melina shouted as she flung the door open and ran out.
The moment the door clicked shut and locked, Hawke shoved Jayce to the ground.
“No, Melina! Go back inside!” Ivan shouted as he sprang out of the greenhouse and right into a wall of Hawke’s men.
“There you are. Hiding in the greenhouse,” Hawke said calmly from behind the safety of his unit. “I forgot Crusher has access.”
Another eight men surrounded the area. Fifteen to two.
“Release Jayce,” Melina demanded of Hawke from where she’d dropped beside Jayce. Blood flowed too rapidly between his fingers and down his side. More than a flesh wound.
“Run, Melina!” Ivan shouted in futility.
“Trust me, Ivan, please,” she begged with more than her words. Beautiful eyes held something he had never seen in her before. A need to fight, to stand up to Hawke. Ivan trusted her with his life, with the lives of his unit, but she was no match for Hawke.
Jayce let out a pained cry seconds before he lost consciousness and his hand slipped from his side. Nothing staunched the blood now.
Melina’s expression turned grim. “Get him inside, Ivan,” she said as Hawke pulled her away from Jayce.
Rage drove Ivan. Despite how hard he fought, he couldn’t reach Melina. Hawke was dragging her away with no one to stop him.
Ivan drove his fist into the first man and snapped the neck of a second while narrowly missing being knifed by a third. Crusher had already pummeled several of Hawke’s men, but they were outnumbered.
He and Crusher ended up fighting back to back, but the stream of men never ended. There were too many coming at them, and Hawke was getting farther away with Melina. The grunts and curses of men fighting expanded beyond the med-center where another fight had broken out.
“Stop fucking around, Perilov. Kill those fuckers already!” someone shouted at him.
Glasner!
Ivan dodged another punch. A knife sliced along his ribs, cutting through his coat but not reaching skin. He broke the man’s wrist and plunged the man’s knife in his belly. Ivan held the knife as the body dropped. He’d lost sight of Melina.
“Where is she?” he yelled to Crusher.
