Covert Game (GhostWalkers #14)

She’s here. Be careful on the approach, Zeke. There are several guards on this side massed together and they’re bound to decide they need to do their jobs. Gino sent the warning and stood just outside the door the guard had obviously been watching.

He inhaled, taking the scent of blood and fear into his lungs. No, not fear. Terror. He’d been in enough hotspots and had caused men to feel petrified to know what terror smelled like. There was a taste to it. It was tangible. And it was coming from that room in violent waves. He pushed down the need to rush in and forced himself to get a feel for the energy in the room.

Hostility. So much fear beating at him. Zara was panicked, but she also was feeling extremely determined. He opened the door cautiously, sending in soothing energy to try to offset her fear. There was blood all over the bed. A trail on the floor leading presumably to the bathroom. His heart caught in his throat.

His body warned him and he stepped back automatically even before his brain fully registered the threat. An object whooshed toward his groin, just missing him by a scant inch. He caught at it and tugged hard. She came out from behind the door on her knees, falling toward the ground. Stark naked. Covered with dark, purple bruises just rising all over her swollen body. Her back, buttocks and thighs were a mass of purple and black stripes. Long. Ugly. Deep. He swore as he caught her, preventing her from hitting the ground.

Get the guard’s shirt. Screw that. He didn’t want anything touching her skin from this place. Not one thing. Forget I said that.

“Zara, my name is Gino Mazzo. I’m a GhostWalker, and we’ve come to get you out of here.”

The tension didn’t diminish at all. She pushed at him. He understood. If she could see him through the slits in her eyes, he wasn’t pretty. He tried again, keeping his voice low, afraid she would hurt herself more if she fought him, or alert the other guards.

“Bellisia sent us to get you out. She gave us the information on this place. We don’t have time for you to fight me. There are guards all over,” he whispered to her as he gently turned her over, cradling her to him.

Fuck. Fuck me, Zeke. I’m going to fuckin’ burn his house down. And rip whoever did this to her from limb to limb. He knew a lot of ways to kill a man. He knew even more to hurt one. If this was Zhu’s work, he deserved a taste of his own medicine.

The whip had torn her flesh, long stripes of open wounds from just above her breasts to the tops of her feet. He hadn’t looked at the soles of her feet. How she’d even managed to crawl in an effort to attack someone was beyond him. She’d had to drag those lacerations on her knees and shins over the tile. No wonder the floor was smeared with blood.

Her eyes were all but swollen shut. He thought she could see out of the slits, but both eyes were black, her nose was swollen and on one side of her face her cheek was ripped open; on the other, her temple. Her fingers bunched in his shirt.

“He’s coming back soon.”

The terror in her voice shook him. This whole fucked-up mess shook him. Who did this kind of damage to a woman? What kind of courage had it taken for her to crawl through the room, find a weapon—the cane the fucker used on her—and wait on her lacerated, bleeding knees for a try at her attacker? She had to know it would fail. What was she trying to do? Get herself killed? His heart stuttered. Of course that was what she was doing.

Rubin, get me warm water fast. There in the bathroom.

“Baby, I’m going to lay you down right here on the floor. I need to address these cuts and then I’ll get a shirt on you and get you out of here. You with me?” He kept his voice soft, pressing his mouth to her ear, trying to convey the sense of urgency and the need for silence.

She shook her head. “Go.”

“Two minutes, baby,” he whispered, already pulling out the antibacterial field dressings. Ignoring the way she shook her head, he began to wipe her down with one of the wet cloths Rubin handed him, hating that Rubin used a second one to start at the bottom of her feet and work his way up. Gino knew he was feeling far too proprietorial over her. Under the circumstances his reaction to her was inappropriate. They had to do whatever it took to get her out of there fast.

Gino kept the strokes as impersonal as possible, especially as he moved over her generous breasts, down her rib cage and belly to her sex. He was gritting his teeth by the time Rubin met him at her thighs. They tossed the cloths, and both started again with the antibacterial pads, cleaning the wounds. Next, he bandaged them lightly with gauze, having first put a salve on the field dressings.

Her body shuddered continuously while they worked. Gino found himself sweating. He ripped off his jacket, pulled his tee off one-handed, and shrugged back into his jacket almost all in one move. “Okay, Zara, you’re doing great. I’m going to put this shirt on you. I know it’s going to hurt, but as soon as it’s on, we can get you out of here.”

He was aware that Ezekiel and Draden had joined them. Along with Diego, they were guarding the hallway. Gino could feel the precious minutes ticking by. She tried. He could tell she wanted out of there, but she couldn’t lift her arms very well. The whip marks covered her entire front and arms, the cane marks her entire back, legs and feet.

“Sorry.”

The whisper broke his heart. “You’re doing great, princess. Let me dress you.” He even tried for impersonal when he spoke, but he knew he failed when he got a sharp look from Ezekiel. Like Gino, Ezekiel was a doctor, and he knew Zara was a mess. There would be no walking on her feet. Very gently he put her arms in the sleeves and pulled the shirt over her head. She whimpered, but immediately pressed her lips together to stop the sound. Her body never stopped trembling. The shaking had turned so violent he was afraid she might have a seizure.

“This might hurt a little, but we have to get you out of here. You can’t make a sound, understand?”

She nodded.

Gino shifted his medical pack and Ezekiel took it from him to shoulder it. Taking a deep breath, Gino reached for her, getting an arm behind her back and one under her knees. He lifted her, cradling her close, trying to shelter her with his body, trying to convey they would get her to freedom. He was up on his feet and nodding to Ezekiel.

Draden took the lead, Diego followed. Gino with their package was in the middle with Ezekiel and then Rubin in the rear. Draden could feel ahead for the guards. Rubin was still disrupting electricity and cameras, not enough to alarm the security personnel, just enough to alert them that glitches were happening throughout the building and the problem would have to be checked out in the morning.

Ordinarily, Gino would have packed out the wounded on his back to keep his hands free. He elected to give control over to Ezekiel and the others in order to keep Zara’s front from rubbing along his shoulder and making the lacerations worse while he took her out of there.

Halfway down the hall, a door slammed, and they froze. At the same time, the elevator began to climb from the parking garage toward their floor. Immediately, Zara stiffened in his arms. The shivers, running through her body indicating pain, turned to tremors so strong she nearly jumped out of his arms.

She began to struggle, making small mewling noises, her head turned toward the elevator. Gino didn’t understand how she even knew it was moving, or how she saw it through her swollen eyes, but she was beginning to lose it.

Shut her the hell up, Ezekiel snapped. They had to keep moving, and up ahead were guards. If she gave them away, they were all dead. I don’t care what you have to do.

“Stop it now,” Gino hissed, his mouth against her ear. When she didn’t stop, he took her earlobe between his teeth and bit down hard. It was that or knock her out, and that was coming next. He wasn’t going to let them all die, nor were Cheng and Zhu getting her back.