Adam (14 page)

Chapter 17

Jill heard the commotion and cursed the damn thing on her head
, preventing her from seeing. “Adam!” she screamed, knowing that whatever was happening was bad. Trying to break the bindings that had her wrists tied behind her, she struggled with everything she had. It cut into her wrists, but she didn’t care. All she cared about was getting free to help Adam and Steve. She could hear Steve yelling out a warning to Adam.

“Stop!” A familiar voice shouted above her as firm hands grabbed her shoulders. “I said stop!”

“Slade?” Jill felt relief, but something didn’t feel right. The canvas bag that had been placed over her head was pulled free and her arms were untied. Her eyes shot around the room, and shock blasted through her body. They were in the warehouse, and every Warrior but Slade was on Adam. Without thought, she shot off the floor flinging herself into the middle of chaos not knowing what the hell was going on.

“Son of a bitch!” Jared yelled from the pile. “Get her the fuck off me before she gets hurt!”

Slade snatched her around the waist, throwing her over his shoulder. She pushed herself up so she could see Adam; what she saw she couldn’t understand. Kicking her legs, she fought again to be released. Rearing her head back, she bared her fangs, and then immediately regretted it when Slade howled and her teeth hit nothing but hard muscles. The smack on her ass was hard.

“You little hellcat!” Slade roared smacking her ass one more time
almost dropping her, but set her down on her feet.

“You need help with that.”
The voice behind the man who threatened to rape her came from beside them.

“Shut the hell up
, Jax!” Slade stopped Jill from running for Adam. Taking her face into his large hands, he made her focus on him. “They are not hurting him. They are trying to calm him down and get him under control.”

Jill didn
’t understand what the hell was going on. Everything she thought she knew was in total shambles. She felt betrayed by the ones who she felt she could trust the most, and she was pissed beyond anything she had ever felt before. Pulling her face from his hands, she jerked her head to the side to look past him. Damon was taking the bag off Steve as Jared spoke to Adam, who lay flat on his back no longer struggling.

Turning back to Slade
, she frowned. “What is going on?”

“Have a seat and we
’ll explain.” The man Slade called Jax dismissed her as he walked by.

Glaring at the man
, Jill felt her hands itch to plaster him to the wall. If he made one move toward her, she would do just that. He was as tall as Slade, but leaner. He had a dark, exotic look about him and she thought of Sam Elliott when she heard his voice. “You ripped my shirt, asshole.” Was out of Jill’s mouth before she could pull it back, but man, she had to do something to let some of the anger out and plastering him against a wall may be a bad move.

He stopped
, turning slowly. His dark eyes glinting in the overhead lights. Ripping his shirt off, he walked toward her. “Take mine.”

Jill
’s eyes stayed on his; they didn’t even waver toward his naked torso. She knew his type. He thought he was God’s gift to women, and oh, he was handsome all right, but not her type at all.

Before she could toss it back
at him, Slade grabbed it out of her hands and slammed it into the man’s chest hard. “You went too far, Jax,” Slade growled, taking an aggressive step forward.

Jax laughed deep
ly. “So it’s true, ah.” His eyes went from Slade to Jill, his eyes running over her. “Nice, real nice.”

Jill wasn
’t exactly sure what all that meant, but at the moment, she didn’t care. Pulling her shirt closed, she headed toward Steve and Adam, who were sitting in the chairs. Adam looked exhausted, his head hung down, his arms on his knees.

“You guys okay?” Jill asked
, kneeling between them.

“Yeah,
but I think I shit myself.” Steve whispered, glancing up at all the Warriors who were huddled with Sloan.

“When did Sloan get here?” Jill also watched
, looking over her shoulder.

Adam finally looked up, his fangs still enlarged. “This was part of our training
.”

Jill looked back surprised. “What?”

Steve nodded. “Yeah, this was all part of our training.” He snorted, rubbing his eyes. “What the fuck did we sign up for?”

Sloan walked up
, stopping them from talking further. “Jill, take a seat,” he said and waited for her to follow his orders, which she did quickly. “This was your first test, and I have to say I’m impressed. It was a little chaotic, but not bad.”

All the Warriors, who had lined up behind Sloan, nodded their approval. Jill
’s eyes roamed each of them stopping on Slade who was staring directly at her with a pissed expression on his face. She wondered what the hell he was pissed at now; she was the one who was almost gang raped. She was getting sick of his mood swings. Hell, he had more mood swings than a premenstrual teen girl. A smile tugged her lips at that thought, but she quickly wiped it from her mouth when Slade snarled at her. Turning her attention back to Sloan was the safest thing she could do at the moment.

“You have a lot of work ahead of you, but what we saw so far is that you have what it takes to train further without wasting our time.” Sloan
glanced over at the new man. “This is Jax Wheeler, one of the best and toughest interrogators with the VC Warriors.”

Jax nodded his head at them. “Nice to meet you
, guys, but I’m sure you’re not feeling the same at the moment.” His eyes landed on Jill with a wink.

Jill glared at him
, not liking him very much. He seemed way too sure of himself, and well, he ripped her favorite damn shirt. He just grinned at her before looking away.

“I
’m going to let Jax and Slade take over for now.” With that, Sloan turned and walked out of the room, as was his nature to always do: say his peace and leave.

Slade stepped forward. “Each Warrior here has had their first true start of training for initiation. Today was that day for you.” He eyed them each before continuing. “You actually did very well, but there were things that could have gone different
ly in the situation you were placed in.”

Jill waited to see if Adam or Steve
were going to say anything, but a sideways glance at them showed her they were keeping their mouths shut, so maybe she should follow suit and do the same.

“Let
’s start from the beginning. Did any of you, once placed inside the vehicle at the start of the drive, keep track of turns, time and noises so if you could contact anyone you would be able to give them some type of location?”

Jill knew she had, but also knew she had screwed it up halfway and lost track. Her mind right now was still on what happened and she still wasn
’t thinking straight.

“You need to block out what just happened to you right now.” Jax stepped in
, his eyes narrowed on them. “Get over being pissed, frightened or whatever emotion you had, and answer the fucking questions. In order to be a Warrior, you have to be able to adjust from one issue to the next without thought or emotion.”

“
No, I lost track,” Adam replied, his voice hoarse, but firm.

“So did I
,” Jill replied, not looking at Jax. “I lost it halfway through.”

“Left for a block then left again for another two blocks, right for maybe a mile then left for maybe a half a mile and then right before we stopped.” Steve replied with confidence.

“You drove, Damon. Is he right?” Slade asked, still looking at Steve.

It was a second before Damon nodded. “Yeah, he got it.”

“Good job, Steve.” Slade nodded his approval. “That is important, but as you get more comfortable, it will be easier. As a Warrior, you are going to have to be aware of your surroundings at all times. You are going to have enemies. A seasoned Warrior would never have been taken like you were tonight. Three seasoned Warriors would have killed double the enemies it took to get you inside the van.”

“So since we aren
’t seasoned Warriors, how did we do?” Steve asked, and then his face clearly stated he wished he’d kept his damn mouth shut.

Jill glanced over at Steve
as if he was crazy, but her head snapped to Slade, because she really wanted to hear what he thought.

“Well
, since you all ended up hooded, tied up and almost raped,” his eyes burned into Jill’s, “I’d say it could have been better, but not bad.” Slade wore a deep scowl.

“I got a profile
on each of you to study before I even got here,” Jax stated, crossing his arms. “What I’d like to know is why none of you used your powers?”

“
Well, I don’t have any?” Steve replied first. “At least not that I know of.”

“Your memory is your power as of now.” Jax eyed Steve. “And sometimes that will save your ass more than anything else would
, so hone that skill.”

“Yes, sir.” Steve looked pleased.

Jax looked at Adam and then Jill. “What about you, Jill? You could have had our asses scattered across the parking lot from what I hear.”

“I
’m not used to being able to do something like that,” Jill sighed, feeling like an idiot. “At least not until…” Jill stopped, glancing at Slade.

“Until what?” When she didn
’t answer, Jax took a step forward. “I asked you a question. Until what?”

“You pissed me off.” Jill met his stare with narrowed eyes. “Then I wanted to plaster you to the wall.”

Jax smiled. “Good. That’s what I want to hear. So next time, and there will be a next time, remember to use that power because it could be your life or the lives of your partners on the line.”

Adam looked up. “What was I supposed to do, read them to death?”

“No.” Slade’s tone turned instantly irritated. “But we all touched you, and with your ability, even with us being blocked, you should have picked up who we were and what we were about. Our fake attack could have ended before it even began by you calling us out.”

“Obviously
, that didn’t work very well the last time I used it,” Adam replied, sounding just as irritated.

Jill knew he was talking about reading Angelina wrong.

“Yeah, well you don’t want to fuck any of us now, do you?” Slade responded point blank. “That could be a whole different issue with Angelina and something we will work on later.”

Jill sucked in her breath
, waiting to see if she needed to jump on Adam before he went after Slade, but to her surprise, all he did was narrow his eyes at Slade without moving a muscle or saying a word.

“If women are involved
, then yeah, things get fucked up.” Jax chuckled and then looked at Jill. “No offense.”

“None taken.” Jill tried not to growl the response, but didn
’t quite achieve it.

“Want to plaster me to the wall again?”
he challenged.

“Definitely.” Jill
’s response made every Warrior smile, but Slade.

“Are you two done?” Slade glared at them both. “Because I got shit to do and would like to get the hell out of here sometime today.”

Jill looked at Slade in surprise. “Hey, don’t glare at me. He asked and I answered.”

“I like you.” Jax nodded at her
; his eyes assessed her critically. “You’ve got what it takes.”

Jill didn
’t know what to say to that so she decided to keep her mouth shut, but deep inside she felt pleased by his words.

“Adam, we had special bindings to bind you with. It
’s what we use for half-breeds since silver doesn’t work.” Jax’s attention was back on Adam. “That is impressive since we put it on Jared and he couldn’t break out of them.”

“
But don’t get a big head,” Jared warned Adam. “I can still kick your ass. I was just having an off day.”

“You are going to be put into many different situations
. This morning is just an example of what could happen. We wanted to see what we needed to work on right away and I think we know your powers need to be perfected to the point you don’t even have to think about using them.” Jax turned to look at each Warrior. “Does anyone have anything to add?”

When they all declined
, Steve cleared his throat. “So what are we supposed to do if something like that really happens?” He nodded down toward Jill.

“Not sure I follow you.” Jax looked at Jill then back to Steve.

“You know.” Steve shifted uncomfortable. “What if that happens, and unless we give up information, someone threatens to rape her. I really don’t think I can stay quiet.”

“If you cave and give confidential information
, then she becomes a liability and will be let go,” Jax responded without blinking an eye.

“What?” Jill
’s head snapped back. “Why would I be let go if he can’t take it?” She pointed to Steve.