Page 79 of Lacey's Fight

What she saw as her body betraying her by orgasming against her will had been viewed very differently by Merv. He’d seen it as her way of thanking him for all the horror he had put her through.

“That is why you are the one I have chosen to marry. My mother is getting old, she’s sick, dying, won’t be around much longer. She won’t be able to take care of the next generation like she took care of you and your sisters. But you will. She will teach you everything you need to know and then together we will raise my army.”

Still on about the army.

What on earth did this twisted man need his own army for?

It didn’t seem that he particularly cared about money, he’d been perfectly happy living in their off-the-grid Alaskan compound. Nor did it seem like he was in it for power. Never once had he mentioned anything about the government, wanting to destroy them or take over.

So, what did he want?

And how did having his own tiny army of well-trained killing machine girls factor into it?

His grip on her wrist was still much too tight, and Merv was breathing heavily, still clearly being controlled by his anger. Her question could push him over the edge, but then again what could he do to her that he hadn’t already?

If she had survived eighteen years with him then she could survive this too.

“Why do you need an army? What were my sisters and I supposed to do for you if we hadn’t been taken away?”

Evil danced in his dark blue eyes and the smile he gave her was anything but pleasant as his hand gripped her tighter, almost to the point of snapping bones. “Revenge.”

* * *

August 15th

6:12 A.M.

“Wow.”

Ben looked over toward the small table where the Delta team were sitting. After researching everything there was to know about Mable Matthewson down to the tiniest detail, they’d eventually come up with two possible locations for where The Master, aka Mervin Matthewson, might be hiding out.

One was in Australia, a property where his mother Mable had lived for a while as a child after her mother’s death. Mable had been two at the time, and her father, not wanting to be stuck tied down to raising a child as he enjoyed his truck driver lifestyle, had sent her to stay with his parents.

Living on the remote cattle station deep in the Australian outback had been difficult for young Mable. There had been no other children to play with, no contact with anyone other than her grandparents and the people who worked for them.

At sixteen her father, forced to retire after a bad accident, had decided it was time for his daughter to return home to care for him. Which Mable did until he passed away six years later.

Even though she had inherited the ranch from her grandparents as their only living relative following her father’s death, she had never returned to it. They could only assume that whatever happened there shaped the woman into the person she had become.

Since Mable hadn’t been back to the cattle station, and to the best of their knowledge never taken her only son there, they believed the second location was the more probable one. While Eagle, Lacey’s sisters, and Prey’s Bravo were checking it out, he along with Ghost’s Delta team were moving in on the second location.

After her father’s death, with no real education and no means of supporting herself except for returning to her grandparents’ ranch, Mable had married within six months. Their only son Mervin was born less than a year later. For a while, things seemed to be going fine, until Mable’s husband decided to move the family to New Zealand for a business opportunity when Mervin was seven.

Three years later, he ditched his family leaving them alone in the tiny New Zealand town. From there, things appeared to go downhill.

And fast.

“What?” he asked, shifting his attention from aimlessly staring out the private jet’s window and worrying about Lacey, to Ghost who had just received some sort of intel if the way he was staring at the laptop screen was anything to go by.

“Olivia sent us more information on Mervin,” Ghost replied.

Standing, Ben moved from the seat he’d taken at the back of the plane, away from the others, to join them at the table. Taking a seat next to Ford “Truck” Laughlin, he readied himself for whatever he was about to hear.

Whatever it was he’d listen and process, use it to make sure he got his girl back.

“Looks like life for little Mervin was rough,” Ghost said.

“Abuse?” Hollywood asked.

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