Page 111 of Hidden Agendas (Tempting SEALs 4)

“It’s too late to back out, Diego.”

“I did not make this deal with Sorrell, my friend,” Diego snapped. “Until I decide it is in my best interest, Sorrell can suck my dick. The girls stay. They will make me millions on the black market. The videos of their willing rapes will benefit the cartel. Giving them to a terrorist only benefits your pockets.”

“You’re pretty.” Nathan sighed then. “Prettier than the other girls they’ve brought here to torture me with.”

“What?” Emily stared back at him in confusion, seeing the glazed madness in his too-lean features, the agonizing pain in his eyes.

“Is Kell coming for you, do you think?” There was a strange vein of wistfulness in his voice as he asked the question.

Emily breathed out roughly. “If he can find me.”

“Clay tricked him. Clay tricks everyone, lass.” Irish. That was the accent she heard. It was faint, just a soft flavor of a tone.

“Yes, Clay tricked us all.” She leaned her head against the wall behind her, her breath hitching at the knowledge that Jansen could have very well won this time. The skin-tag on her back had limited range, Kell had warned her. How limited she wasn’t certain.

“Don’t discount him.” Thin shoulders shrugged wearily. “He’s a murderous son of a bitch, our Kell. He’ll find you. He’ll find me. He’ll gut Jansen like he gutted those bastards that killed his wife.”

“He’ll rescue us. He’ll leave Clay to justice. Father and Admiral Hollaran will make certain of it.” She had to believe that. Her father and the admiral and Captain Malone would be with them, there wasn’t a doubt in her mind.

“Don’t fool yourself, lass,” A flash of teeth in a mocking smile. “My uncle will hand him the knife. Jordan Malone is nothing if not bloodthirsty as hell. Trust me, Clay won’t make it out of here alive.”

And he was right. She knew he was right. Kell would cut a swath of death through this place.

“Why has Fuentes kept you like this?” she finally asked him. “The scientist was killed more than a month ago.”

“And there, darlin’, is the million-dollar question,” he grunted. “Welcome to my hell. Meet Nathan ‘Irish’ Malone, current guinea pig to Diego bastard Fuentes and Jansen son of a bitch Clay. I’m their Whore’s Dust experiment, darlin’. See how much it takes before the SEAL breaks. Have I broken yet?”

Bitterness and rage were reflected in the hoarse voice as he pondered that question. His eyes glittered in the semidarkness, filled with icy, brutal resolve.

“I don’t understand,” she whispered.

“Join the club.” His head tilted back, and as it did, Emily noticed he was naked. He sat on the dirt floor, his legs drawn to his chest, his arms wrapped around them to hide his nakedness.

Pulling at the thin blanket that had covered her when she awoke, she tossed it to him. His head snapped up, a partial snarl curling his lips before he realized what had touched him.

His hand reached out, pulling the narrow blanket over his legs as his fingers seemed to caress it.

“Won’t get to keep it long,” he said before staring back at her. “They’ll be back soon.”

There was an air of predatory awareness about him, a wildness contained that was frightening. Several of his words slurred, but she couldn’t tell if it was the accent or something else causing it. She was terribly afraid there was something else causing it. Something like that drug, if what he said was true.

“Kell will be here,” she whispered. She remembered whispering it before. When she had held Carrie against her, abs

orbing the other girl’s shudders when they had been locked in the shack alone, awaiting Diego Fuentes’s decision.

Kell will be here, Emily thought. He’ll save us. Hang on, Risa, just a little while. He’ll save us, I swear it. He’ll make sure Jansen can never hurt you again.

She had broken her promise. Emily forced back her tears, her sobs. For nineteen months Risa had been gone. Had Jansen given her to Sorrell after all? Was the institution merely a cover story?

Kell would kill Jansen and for once Emily couldn’t even feel regret for it. She wanted to kill him. If she could shove a knife in his heart and twist, it wouldn’t cause her to lose a second of sleep. Monsters needed to be destroyed, and Jansen Clay was a monster.

“He’ll come for you,” Nathan told her softly. “Kell will cut a path of blood through this place that no one will soon forget. I hope they’re ready for the beast they’ve just unleashed.”

So did she. She prayed Kell found her. How much of a head start did Clay have on him? It couldn’t be much.

“Was Ian on the team?” Nathan suddenly asked, blinking back at her, and for a moment, just a moment, sanity seemed to glitter in his eyes.

“Ian Richards?” She nodded. “He was there.”

---