Nick responded right away, as if he'd been waiting the last several miles for his brother to ask him the question. He didn't know how EJ had managed to strangle his curiosity for so long.
"I'm fine. It's Slany I'm worried about. I have to get to her before that crazy bastard…before he hurts her." Nick heard the crack in his voice and slammed a fist down on the dashboard.
EJ reached out a hand and silently squeezed his shoulder.
"I can't lose her, EJ."
"You won't."
Nick appreciated his brother's optimism, but had to be realistic, and none of that New Age, positive-energy bullshit he and Angela liked to spout was going to help him get Slany back.
"It's not bullshit," EJ murmured. "It brought me to you."
"Stop doing that." Nick frowned.
EJ grinned, then briefly turned to Nick and asked, "You do realize you're barefoot?"
Nick burst out laughing. It was either that, or cry, and he knew his brother had been shooting for the former, was trying to calm him down the only way he knew how, with his effortless calm and sense of humor. "Does Tabitha know where you are?"
"I told her and Angie where I was going."
"But you didn't tell them what was going on?"
"Angie probably has some idea," EJ evaded.
"When we get there, I want you to stay in the car." He wouldn't be responsible for making Tabitha a widow, and her kids fatherless.
"We'll see."
"I mean it, EJ. This isn't your fight."
"You're a Vega. That makes it my fight."
209
Gracie C. McKeever
"Damn it, if I have to tie you to the steering wheel with your own shoelaces, you're staying in the car."
"Ooh, kinky. Remind me to ask you for some more pointers I can use on Tabby."
"Idiot," Nick grumbled, shaking his head.
"We're here."
Nick glanced around him as EJ pulled the car to a stop on the side of the road. There was no house in sight, just the dirt road for yards and yards in both directions. "Are you sure?"
"I recognize the area. The house is here somewhere. I saw…there it is!" EJ pointed out the driver's side window at a secluded farmhouse about a hundred yards from the main road.
Damn, when Wilcox had said it was isolated, he hadn't been kidding. And there were no other houses or structures in sight that he could use for cover. However, there were some scattered trees, and tall, overgrown grass and underbrush.
Nick sat back in his seat, formulating a plan and flashing back to his Marine boot camp days…
assholes and elbows, ladies!
"It'll work," EJ said.
That's all Nick needed to hear.
* * * *
She sat on the toilet and glanced up at him for only a second, in protest of him leaning against the doorjamb with his arms folded across his chest, before her bladder released itself in spite of both of them.
Fortunately, she really did have to go, the long stream giving her a little time to think and glance around for something she could use as a weapon against him. Unfortunately, the room was immaculate, lacking any extemporaneous items, outside of a dispenser of liquid soap, a toothbrush in a cup on the sink, a toilet brush in its holder, and a plunger by the toilet seat.
"I see that brain clicking a mile a minute, Slany, but what you don't realize is that I want you to try something. I need the sweat of a good workout, a nice warm-up before your boyfriend gets here." Jake came closer, stood astride her closed legs, taunting her.
He reached for the toilet paper roll, ripped off several sheets that he handed to her, spreading his legs just enough to allow her to wipe herself. "All done?"
"I'd like to wash my hands."
"I like cleanliness as well as the next guy. Be my guest." He stepped back, stance cocky and nonchalant as he leaned against the doorframe.
She couldn't count the number of times she’d been cooped up in a cubicle with him, brainstorming a design, fine-tuning ideas late into the evening, close as or closer than he was now, but never had she felt as threatened as she did now. Never had she felt as desperate.
She got some soap from the dispenser and washed her hands with some warm water, doing quick calculations of her height and weight compared to his.
210
Terms of Surrender
She knew she was big for a woman, sure, but he was still a man—tall, well-muscled, and in good condition, from what she could make out. He'd taken out Ron, kidnapped and killed him, and did the same to no telling how many women, but aside from the key to the cuffs, he was unarmed.
Slany grabbed the soap dispenser and whirled on him, aiming the bottle for his head.
Jake easily blocked the blow, laughing as he caught Slany's wrist. He twisted her arm up behind her back, the full plastic bottle clattering to the floor. "Bravo, Slany! I knew you wouldn't disappoint m—"
She shot her legs out in front of her, gasping at the pain in her shoulder and trying to ignore it as the soles of her feet smacked against the wood vanity and sent her and Jake tumbling back against the towel rack.
Jake grunted beneath her weight, but didn't release his hold on her wrist. When she tried to break for the door, he jerked her back into his arms, squeezing her against him in a suffocating bear hug. "That's it, honey, fight me! Make all these long months worth my while."
The sick creep had a hard-on. Slany felt it pressing against her opening, angry and hot.
"Let go of me," she croaked, swinging her legs to and fro, impacting nothing but air as he lifted her inches off the floor.
She heard the satisfying sound of him panting as he carried her out of the bathroom over to the bed, steeled herself right before she slammed her forehead against his.
She hadn't steeled herself enough, rockets blasting off in front of her eyes as she listened to him curse right before he flung her onto the bed.
Slany shook her head, stunned. She crawled away from him and felt him grab one of her ankles, jerking her towards him.
He flipped her onto her back. She kicked out with her free foot, her heel glancing off his chin right before he climbed up the bed to straddle her stomach and plant a forearm against her throat.
Slany gasped and frantically reached for his face with both hands, tearing flesh. She pulled her knees up with as much force as she could toward his center, but to no avail. His arm choked off her air.
He caught her wrists in one hand, holding her down with inhuman strength.
At least, it felt inhuman to Slany, who felt as if he had eight limbs instead of four, pinning her everywhere it counted.
"Give up yet, Breeze?"
Not while there was still life in her!
"Save your energy, and stop squirming, woman. There'll be plenty of time for this." Jake bared his teeth in a facsimile of a smile right before he slammed his forehead against hers with ten times as much power as she'd slammed his.
Slany blacked out as the sound of a blaring car horn pierced the air.
* * * *
211
Gracie C. McKeever
Jake glanced down at the little red nugget quickly sprouting on Slany's head. He pulled up each eyelid with a thumb for a quick survey and estimated he had at least twenty minutes before she started to come around again.
It was just enough time for him to finish his last-minute preparations.
Jake grinned as he meticulously opened the valves to several of the nitrous oxide tanks he had stored in the cellar before he jogged towards the stairs to the kitchen, ready to welcome the new arrivals with open arms and a full complement of laughing gas.
Granted, his time with Slany was coming to an end a little more prematurely than he had planned, but it was worth it just to sample her fire.
And it would be even more worth it when he made Vega watch him kill her right before he took Vega's life.
212
Terms of Surrender
Nick ran low to the ground, intermittently stopping to press back against a tree or crawl belly to the ground every several yards, before he finally reached the back of the house and spied the above-ground doors to the cellar. They were latched tight, of course.
He shot the lock—needed two bullets before it would pop open—at the same instant EJ's car smashed into the front porch of the house, car horn blaring.
Damn, his brother had perfect aim and timing! Maybe this
would
work.
If EJ's vision was accurate—and Nick so prayed it was—then Slany should be right—
Nick had to stop himself from rushing headlong across the floor to her supine form on the bed once he reached the bottom of the staircase.
Taking no chance of being surprised and taken by that crazy bastard again, he checked every corner before he progressed, sweeping the gun in front of him in first a wide, then tight arc. So far, so good.
When he was sure the basement was clear except for Slany, he tucked the gun in his back waistband again before running to the bed. He quickly took off his shirt just as she started to come around, sorry he didn't have something more to cover her with.
"It's me, honey," he murmured against her ear as he leaned close, wrapped her in his shirt, and picked her up in his arms.
She mumbled something unintelligible about explosions and escaping, but Nick could only focus on the fact that she was alive and breathing. He'd figure out the rest as soon as he got her out of here.
He made it up to the top step before he finally, simultaneously registered the hissing sound of escaping gas behind him and footsteps approaching from upstairs.
As gently as he could, Nick tossed Slany up onto the grassy knoll just outside the cellar doors right before Jake caught one of his ankles and jerked him down the stairs.
213
Gracie C. McKeever
Nick's chin bumped several steps on the way down, impact bursting bright stars before his eyes as he landed prone on the concrete floor.
Air whooshed out of his lungs, and his ears rang, but he didn't have time to wallow in the pain. He instantly sprang to his feet in time to get the bottom end of a fire extinguisher smashed into his face.
"Did you think it was going to be that easy, Vega?"
Blood spurted down his nose, and Nick fleetingly acknowledged it was broken as he staggered to one knee.
Jake lifted his foot to strike with that lethal boot, but Nick was ready this time. He caught it with both hands, twisted his wrists, and spun Jake to the floor on his butt.
He used the seconds Jake lay stunned to get to his feet and take his own swipe at the other man's head. His bare foot didn't have the same impact as Jake's boot. But Nick kept the man off-balance as he connected snapping thrusts to Jake's jaw and shoulder in rapid succession before catching him square in the chest with a blow that sent him sprawling across the room into the row of hissing tanks.
Jake landed with a clatter as Nick pulled the gun out of his waistband and froze at EJ's voice outside screaming what he already knew.
"Nick! Get out! He's got the house rigged!"
"See, you lost her anyway, and now, you're going to die."
"I might, but you're going with me."
"I hadn't planned it any other way."
Nick calculated the couple of feet where he stood from the cellar exit, pivoted, and sprinted for the stairs. He turned at the top step as Jake tried to right and untangle himself from the tanks, then raised the gun.
Jake froze with his hands in the air, smiling grimly as Nick took aim at the gas tanks behind him. "I just wanted you to see me."
"I see you just fine, Parish." Nick fired, eyes widening at the speed of the fireball that instantly engulfed the room and gained on him.
The blast sent him sprawling back several feet past the knoll near EJ's feet, eyebrows and the light hair on his chest singed.
EJ rushed forward, smothering the bottom of Nick's burning jeans beneath his leather jacket.
Nick rolled, sprang to his feet, and caught his brother by the shoulders, coughing spasmodically from the smoke and flames billowing from the cellar door. "Where's Slany?"
"She's okay, bro. I took her to my car."
"It's still intact?"
"Better than I can say for you." EJ nodded and smiled as the sound of approaching sirens penetrated the otherwise lazy summer afternoon. "C'mon. Let's get you to your woman. She's 214
Terms of Surrender
worried about you." He wrapped an arm around Nick's shoulders and led him away from the basement towards the front of the house, where Slany obediently sat in the front seat of EJ's car until she spotted them rounding the bend
Battered and bruised, limping slightly, with blood dried and caked on his face and chest beneath the carbon black from the smoke and fire, he felt like a soldier returning from the front.
He and Slany were alive, though, and all the mental anguish, physical aches, and pains of the last several days and hours evaporated at the sight of her opening the car door. The first of an army of state trooper cars and fire engines turned off the main road and headed for Jake's farmhouse.
A series of explosions rocked the inside of the house, sending glass and debris flying up and around them. Slany circled the car and ran towards him, flinging herself into Nick's open arms at the front of the car.
He gasped at the impact, but when she tried to pull back, he held her in place, not ready to let her go yet, not ready to let her out of his sight ever again.
"Don't ever leave me, Slany," he whispered against her ear.
She didn't speak, just nodded and held him tight, the only thing keeping him upright as a soft cloak of darkness slowly fell over him, and he passed out in her arms.
* * * *
"He'll be all right now," EJ said with such certainty, Slany stared at him, surprised by the serene, all-knowing, all-seeing look on his face.
"Now?"
EJ grinned, indigo eyes drawing her in as surely as the arm with which he hugged her.