One of the thugs snorted. “They can’t talk. They had accidents.”
Horror hit Lauren and she didn’t need to ask. They were dead. She wanted to scream but managed to stay on her feet, a real victory since her knees wanted to collapse under her.
“I’m a real bitch,” Mary admitted. “You’re going to tell me where my sister and her friends are or I’m going to have 140 start breaking your bones one at a time until you tell me what I want to know I have my sister back. You took that New Species out of there in a chair after he was shot with a tranquilizer dart. My sister said they had one of them out cold and two more captured. All the witnesses couldn’t be wrong and they know you. Kim and Gina were pawns who are no longer a threat.” Her gaze raked Lauren. “A chubby blonde was pushing him out of the office and down the street. Tell me now or you’re going to die a really slow, agonizing death. You are done lying to me.”
Lauren stared up at 140, decided she’d be honest, but only with him. “Why are you with them? You’re being called a number as though you weren’t freed. Is that it? I’ve seen two New Species fight and you could kick these humans’ asses. Your people have been freed and you don’t have to stay with these people.”
He growled. “They have my female.”
Shit.
Lauren swallowed. “Can’t you just kill them and get her back?”
Mary struck hard and fast, backhanding Lauren in the face, and the blow threw her back against the couch where she nearly flipped over the thing. Pain made her curse, grab her injured cheek, and glare at her.
“I guess you weren’t joking about being a bitch, were you?”
“Where is my sister and her men, Lauren?”
She figured out quickly it would be a death sentence the moment she confessed they’d been taken by the NSO. They’d already killed the other two innocent people who’d worked in her office. Kim and Gina hadn’t worked for Mercile but they’d been witnesses to what had happened inside that office. Her only hope would be to stall for an hour until Wrath and his team arrived. If they arrived at seven. Otherwise there’d be two hours to drag out to give her any hope of surviving.
“I might let you live if you just tell me.” Mary rubbed the hand she’d struck her with.
Lauren glanced at the New Species. He shook his head, telling her not to trust what she was told and she believed him. He was obviously being forced to be there but it didn’t mean he liked it if he was willing to give her that tiny signal of warning.
“Okay. I’ll tell you the truth.” She remembered the conversation she’d overheard from her office. “I didn’t know what he was until Mel told me. Brent and both Johns wanted to ransom the three guys for a lot of money.”
Mary glared at her.
“Mel didn’t want to cut you in on it. Brent said to throw you off the track and they’d just disappear after they got paid. Your sister doesn’t want to give you any of the money. I’m sorry but that’s the truth.”
Lauren hoped her plan would work. Mel’s sister should be mad, thinking Mel was trying to screw her out of a bunch of money. It might possibly make the woman buy the story enough to wait around for a nonexistent phone call.
“If I don’t answer, they are going to be in the wind. That’s what John T said.”
Mary hit Lauren again, harder, and the taste of blood filled her mouth as she spun hard and sprawled over the back of the couch. It was the only thing that kept her on her feet.
“You’re lying. My sister wouldn’t do that.”
“You didn’t find the courtesy van in the parking lot, did you? That’s what they used to transport the New Species. They don’t want whatever phone they are using traced to my phone since I’m calling the NSO. They are having some stranger call and I’m supposed to answer with a code word. You’re not getting that out of me because then I know you’ll kill me.” She watched her blood drip on the couch, stain it, and used her hand to wipe some of it from her chin. “It’s Mel you should be pissed at. I’m just the idiot who lost her job and desperately needed money enough to do whatever she said.”
“They wouldn’t run like that,” one of the men said. “Mel wouldn’t do that. You know that, Mary. She’s lying.”
“You have five minutes to tell me where my sister is before I have the animal start breaking your bones. Do you know he can snap them in seconds? I won’t have him kill you by breaking your neck. You’ll lie there bleeding on the inside, in the kind of excruciating pain you can’t even imagine, until you die of shock. It will be the longest minutes of your life. Tell me where to find my sister. You’re going to die but it’s up to you how painful you want your last moments to be.”
Lauren saw the truth in her eyes and one glance at the New Species’ grim expression assured her that he believed it too. She had to change tactics. Nothing was going to save her if she didn’t think of something fast.
She allowed the tears to well in her eyes, not something difficult to do since the inside of her mouth hurt.
“Fine. I do have a number for them. I was supposed to call it when the NSO has the cash ready for the exchange but I’ll let you talk to your sister. She will tell you not to kill me.”
“What’s the number?” Mary seemed to calm.
“I don’t know it by heart. John T wrote it down and I hid it in case the NSO showed up here. It’s in the top drawer of my desk.”
“Get it.” Mary jerked her head at one of the thugs.
The desk sat across the room by the hallway and Lauren’s mind tried to figure out her next move. It was hard to think around the fear that gripped her but she wanted to live. She purposely stumbled, held her head, and hoped she appeared more hurt than she really was. Her cheek throbbed, the taste of blood lingered in her mouth, and she knew the inside of it was torn up a bit. One of Mary’s men trailed closely behind her as she walked to her desk.
The desk was old, a hand-me-down from an uncle, and the drawer had to be wiggled to get it open. A stack of her bills were on top and she shifted papers. The thug moved to her side. She glanced at him, but he wasn’t watching what she was doing. Instead he peered around the room.
Her fingers brushed metal under the papers, gripped it, and Lauren allowed sheer panic to lead her actions. They were going to kill her, she wasn’t getting out of this mess alive, and there was only one thing to do. Her other hand gripped the small scrap of a fortune cookie message that had been funny enough to keep. She purposely dropped it on the floor.
“Sorry. I’m shaking. It’s on there.”
He bent to retrieve it and Lauren acted. It horrified her, she screamed inwardly, and knew her life changed forever in the instant that she plunged the letter opener as deep as she could into the back of the man’s neck. Her hand fisted the handle of the sharp implement, she twisted hard to do more damage and heard his gasp of pain.
His body dropped to the floor, she dodged in the opposite direction and hit the side of the wall in her haste to flee toward her bedroom. She screamed, hoping to draw attention from the neighbors. It might scare off the remaining people in her living room if they thought the police would be called.
“Get her, 140,” Mary yelled.
Lauren reached her room, spun around and grabbed the doorknob. She got a glimpse of the big, grim New Species coming at her as she slammed the door closed and locked it. The shelf full of paperback books next to it was only waist high but heavy as she had to strain to tip it over. It fell sideways to block the door. Another scream erupted as something big thumped against the door.
She spun and dashed for the bathroom, slammed that door too and locked it. She tore open the drawer that housed her makeup to block the door and scrambled to climb up on the sink. The window she always left halfway open for Tiger was her only escape.
The thing stuck, didn’t want to open all the way, but desperation drove her to find that extra amount of strength to jerk it up. A loud sound in the other room assured her that the New Species had just burst through her barricade and now had breached her bedroom.
It wasn’t easy to fit through the tight space and she silently swore to get on a treadmill as she wiggled and finally fell to the ground below the window. Pain shot up her arms as her hands braced the impact to protect her face from hitting the grass first. She fought to her feet and screamed again, sure some of her neighbors would hear her now that she was outside and ran for the front of the building.
Two strong arms grabbed her and tore her right off her feet. The body she hit was solid, big, and two thick, muscular arms were banded around her waist. Lauren twisted her head and stared up in horror at 140.
“Don’t fight me. I don’t want to hurt you,” he growled.
“I’m not your enemy,” she panted. “They are. Please let me go. You’re New Species.”
Confusion clouded his extremely blue eyes. “What does that mean?”
“It means they are bad people and you’re not. New Species are good.”
He refused to release her. “They have my female and will kill her if I allow you to escape. I’m sorry.”
Hot tears filled her eyes. “Please let me go.”
“I wish I could.” He hesitated. “I smelled unknown males in your home and again in your bedroom. Some of them are like me, aren’t they? Did you really help her sister kidnap others of my kind?”
“No. I rescued him and helped him get away from her sister. His name is Wrath and I love him.”
His eyes widened and he frowned. “You don’t scent as his mate.” He sniffed. “I can’t smell him on you. Where is her sister? Do you know? Tell me.”
“I showered but he’s coming for me. Please let me go. Her sister and the men with her were arrested by your people. They have them at the NSO. That stands for New Species Organization and they run it. A lot of your kind have been freed from Mercile. They’ll help you if we get out of here and call them. You’re one of them and they’ll do anything for you.”
“I can’t allow you to escape. If Mary doesn’t call the one who holds my female every hour, he’s been ordered to shoot her in the head.” He turned her in his arms, threw her over his shoulder as if she were as light as a body pillow and growled.
“Act as if I hit you hard enough to knock you out,” he ordered. “Don’t move or talk. I’m going to try to save you. I know you have no reason to trust me but I don’t wish you harm. I will treat you as if you are the mate of another one of my kind. I would hope someone would do the same for my female if ever given the chance.”
Lauren went limp over his shoulder, knew no amount of struggling would get her free of someone so strong, and closed her eyes. Regret swamped her over telling him the truth about her ex-coworkers’ whereabouts. She shouldn’t have trusted 140 but she wanted him to know how hopeless her situation was. She couldn’t help Mary get her sister back, that was a lost cause, and now she was useless. That meant they’d kill her.
He moved fast, her body swayed with each step, and she knew when they entered her home again because, even with her eyes closed, she felt it when they stepped out of the sunshine.
“I didn’t tell you to kill her,” Mary snapped. “Fucking stupid animal.”
“She’s not dead. I struck her and knocked her out.” Anger made his voice deepen. “The ‘fucking stupid animal’ will tell you how to get your sister back if you’ll allow me to speak. I know where she is. I made this one tell me by torturing her with pain.”
Lauren listened, confused over his lies, but willing to try to trust him. She was all for anything that would keep her breathing. The silence was long until Mary finally spoke.
“Where is Mel? What do you mean, get her back?”
“This one is mated to one of my kind. His scent is all over her and she told me that the NSO has taken your sister and her technicians. You can exchange her for them.” Bitterness laced his voice. “You are very aware of how far we will go to protect our mates. Hers will get your sister safely back to you if you return his female safely to him.”
“I don’t know about this,” one of the thugs grunted. “It sounds fishy.”
140 growled now. “You remember how protective we are of our mates. You have me leashed like a dog to protect mine. Otherwise I’d kill all of you. He’ll get your sister and her technicians to you, whatever it takes, to get his female back.” He turned his head, his hair brushed Lauren’s side where her shirt had ridden up and it tickled slightly.
“You keep your hands off her. Scent stays with a body for a long time and he won’t want her back if another male mounts her. He’ll insist on smelling her first before he accepts her back. I know your fondness for forcing females but leave this one alone. He’ll know and reject her.” His head turned again. “Order him to leave her alone if you want your sister and her technicians back.”
Lauren felt sick at hearing that last part. Her skin crawled thinking that one of those guys obviously was a rapist but 140 was trying to protect her from that too. The fingers gripping her thigh slightly squeezed, almost a reassuring gesture. She guessed he could figure out how terrified she felt.
“How do you know for sure that her mate has my sister?” Mary had moved closer.
“Her mate has them. She was so terrified she confessed everything to me. Trade her for them. It will be the only way you will ever get your sister back.”
The silence was lengthy. Mary sighed. “Fine. You better be right, 140. Since you’re so damn smart, how do we set up this exchange?”