Ramie flinched again and then clapped her hands over her ears and began rocking back and forth, her eyes wide open, fixed and unblinking.
“Fuck,” Dane said, rubbing both hands over his face in supreme agitation. “Jesus fuck, he just shot someone else and he’s going to torture her by making her watch him die when he damn well knows she can heal him and it’s her nature to want to heal even when the person is undeserving. She doesn’t judge.”
“She doesn’t feel it’s her right,” Isaac said, sorrow heavy in his voice. “She believes her gift is from God, no matter that the cult leaders tried to make her rebuke that belief her entire life. They tried to brainwash her into believing she was Satan’s instrument and that only God decided life or death and that she was evil, her gift was evil. They even beat her until she spoke the words they wanted to hear, but they never broke her spirit or her belief that her gift was bestowed upon her by a merciful and loving God, and so she doesn’t feel she has a choice in whether she uses it or not, nor is she qualified to pass judgment on someone or deem them worthy or unworthy of being saved.”
“This isn’t good,” Wade muttered. “This isn’t good at all. He’s physically and psychologically torturing her, for fuck’s sake. We need a fucking location!”
“I hope someone shoots you,” Jenna said, devastation in her voice. “I vow on my life I won’t lift a single hand to save you. Kill me, torture me. I don’t care. I got what I wanted and you? You’re a monster who got nothing in the end but the promise of a very short life.”
“Oh no. No no no, Jenna!” Isaac bellowed. “Oh God, baby. Don’t give him any reason to believe you won’t heal him, god damn it!”
Once again, Ramie went flying across the floor, and spittle flew from her mouth as Jaysus’s words spilled out.
“Take that back!” he screamed. “Take it back or I swear I’ll make you pray for death with every breath.”
“This is fucking enough!” Isaac roared. “We need a goddamn location and we need it now!”
Caleb, no longer able to withstand watching the horror his wife was being subjected to, bent over her and immediately began the process of trying to bring her back as Isaac prayed with every part of his being that it had been enough. That Ramie had been in Jaysus’s mind long enough to be able to tell them where to find Jenna.
“Ramie, please, come back to me,” Caleb pleaded, as he alternately rocked and shook her in an effort to bring her back from the dark, evil place she seemed to be drowning in.
After five long minutes, Ramie gasped and jerked upright, her eyes clear and no longer lost in another time and place. She yanked her head around as if confused by her surroundings. Then she locked onto Isaac and frantically began begging him to hurry.
Isaac knelt by Ramie and eased his hand over hers, squeezing to give her as much comfort as he was capable of when he was eaten alive by grief and terror for Jenna’s life.
“Hurry where, Ramie? Tell us where. Do you know where he has her?”
Ramie nodded even as tears welled in her eyes. “You have to hurry or there’ll be no hope. He took her to a place a few hours away because his pride was hurt and he got sloppy, thank God. He wanted the chance to discipline her and reprimand her, to bend her to his will before he disappears into the heart of the cartel-controlled district of Mexico. Once he’s there, you’ll never be able to find her, much less get her back.”
“Then where is he now, Ramie?” Dane asked her urgently. “How much time do we have left before he moves her?”
“You have four hours, and the place he’s holding her is three hours away,” she said in defeat.
“Fuck that!” Dane said, fury blasting from every nuance of his body. He was trembling with anger and clenching and unclenching his fists with so much agitation that he looked precariously close to losing his shit.
Isaac was right there beside him.
“We’ll get there in two hours and not a minute later,” Dane vowed. “On my fucking life! Now let’s get the fuck out of here. Go, go, go, god damn it!”
THIRTY-ONE
THE two black ops groups met with Dane and the DSS agents as Wade’s and Gavin’s men took position at the only other two entry points, while they waited for the report from Shadow’s stealthy recon on where Jenna was located in the building and exactly what they were up against. Mere minutes after Shadow had disappeared, he reappeared to give the results of his surveillance.
“Jesus, this is going to be like taking candy from a baby,” Zeke snorted as he listened to Shadow’s unimpressive rundown of the security he’d evaluated. “The bastard’s ego is a hell of a lot bigger than the size of his army or his strength. We should be in and out in twenty minutes tops.”
Enraged, Isaac curled his fingers into the Kevlar vest Zeke was wearing and slammed him against a tree just behind him. “Shut the fuck up,” he snarled. “When your entire world is being held by a torturing, abusive sick fuck, then let me hear you stand here and brag about taking candy from a baby. Until that day comes, shut your fucking mouth and keep it shut and follow goddamn orders. When I need or want your commentary, I’ll damn well ask for it.”
Not a single man called Isaac down or even attempted to get between him and Zeke. They knew Zeke was way out of line and they didn’t appear to be any happier about it than Isaac was.
Zeke closed his eyes. “I’m sorry, man. That was a shitty thing for me to say. My only defense is that this has to be just any other mission for me or I lose perspective and I don’t do the job I need to do because it becomes personal. My dumb-as-shit remarks were stupid and uncalled for, but it’s what I’d say in any other situation where such a brainless fuck has left himself virtually undefended. Hell, he’s taken out a good portion of his men just so he can force Jenna to watch them die, and from what Shadow is reporting, the rest of his oh-so-loyal followers are having some serious second thoughts, and some are even now sneaking away and abandoning ship before they become his next casualty.”
Isaac let Zeke go and blew out his breath. “I get it. I do. But I don’t have any fucking perspective and as long as Jenna is in there and not here in my arms where I know she’s finally fucking safe, then I’m not going to have any damn perspective.”