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  She sat there, totally helpless as they set off again. From her view through the mesh, it looked like Brian was driving with Max in the passenger seat. Rex and Col were in the middle seats. Chase was at the back just in front of her. She could have whispered to him if it wasn’t for the gag.

  This wasn’t safe. She didn’t have a seatbelt. If they crashed, she was fucked. She made a mental note to tear strips off them once they stopped. Not just for the seatbelt. That was kind of minor in the grand scheme of kidnapping. Satisfied that she was going to at least do something about her situation, she settled down and glared at the backs of their heads as they turned off the main road and started heading down a gravel track.

  Chapter Five

  Chase

  It took several hours for them to reach safety. It was a long drive, but long drives were good drives when it came to losing tails. They had taken a very long roundabout way to ensure that they didn’t have one—although not seeing one wasn’t the same as not having one.

  Their safe house sat on the border with Virginia. It was a small cabin set in rural forest farmland that hid a lot of the high-tech surveillance equipment that kept it secure. It was one of a dozen such houses they had across the country. They’d be secure there, with any luck, though Brian was going to have to monitor traffic and chatter around the area for a while to make sure.

  As soon as they pulled up outside the cabin, Chase jumped out of the van and went to the back. He wanted to take care of Lacey. He owed her that much. This was already well out of hand. Rex’s conditions for helping her were extreme, but in Chase’s view, necessary. Lacey was in a desperately dangerous situation, and that meant everyone near her would be in danger too. For the second time in three years, she’d been minutes away from death. They couldn’t keep bailing her out of these situations. She needed supervision of the closest kind, and she’d get it with them.

  He threw open the back door and saw her sitting curled up in the corner. She looked so pitiful with the black cloth wrapped around her mouth. Pitiful, helpless, and hot.

  Truth was, Chase hadn’t given it a second thought when she called asking for help. Lacey had been on his mind since Venezuela. Yeah, she’d gotten them fired, but she hadn’t been the one to fire them and he didn’t blame her entirely. That had been a shitty chain of command that didn’t want to take responsibility for their own ops.

  A case could be made that it wasn’t actually Lacey’s fault. In fact, she’d probably saved their lives. Mercenary work was dangerous, but they could choose their assignments and ameliorate much more of the risk. Nobody sent them running into gunfire, or used them as meat puppets. And they made a hell of a lot more money now than they ever had in the service. Money wasn’t everything, but mixed with freedom and safety, it added up.

  “C’mere,” he said, reaching for her. Easiest way to carry her was over his shoulder so he scooped her neat little body up that way and took her into the house, grinning to himself as he took her shapely form over the threshold. Lacey was looking good. She’d cleaned up really nicely after being a Venezuelan prisoner. She had definitely not been at her best when he found her three years ago. It was nice to see her again. Really nice. He was looking forward to her settling in and starting to enjoy their company. The prospect of sharing her with the others was a bit of a challenge though. Ideally, he’d have her for himself, but Lacey was far too much for any one man to handle. You left her alone for a few minutes and she organized a revolution. Five men sounded about right. Four maybe, if Col kept up his sniping.

  The cabin was set out more or less open plan. There was a kitchen / dining / lounge area that contained the usual furniture. Nothing fancy. It hadn’t been interior designed. It had just been filled with what they needed. Bedrooms ran off down a hall adjacent. He was tempted to take her there, but Rex was already tapping him on the shoulder.

  “Chase, I need you. Get her in a chair.”

  Chase lowered Lacey into a simple wood chair near the couch and leaned down. “Don’t worry,” he said, hoping he was being comforting. “We’ll get you settled soon.”

  She made muffled noises. He knew what she wanted. There was no need for her to be gagged now, and hell, the restraints were probably overkill too. He crouched down in front of her, pulled the plastic from her legs, and moved up her body.

  “Keep her secure,” Col said. “I’m not chasing her all over the woods if she makes a break for it.”

  Chase cut him a dark look. “She’s been bound for hours. Ease up.”

  Col shot a dirty glower right back at him. “No.”

  Chase undid her hands as well, snapping through the plastic with his knife. Lacey made a sound of relief and rubbed her wrists. There were red marks on her skin where the ties had been a little tight.

  “I said, secure her,” Col growled. “Or I will.”

  “Get her tied up, Chase!” Rex called out from across the room. He was setting up tactical charts on the kitchen table. “I need you.”

  “Got rope? Cable ties are too harsh.”

  Lacey was watching him with silent judgment, her pretty brown eyes filled with palpable betrayal. He couldn’t blame her for hating him. She hadn’t expected this. She’d thought he’d come alone, a knight in shining armor. But one knight wasn’t going to cut it. A damsel in this much distress needed a whole platoon.

  Chase put his fingers to his lips indicating she should be quiet as he reached up and removed the gag. She managed to stay silent, and he nodded in approval. Good girl. She could follow instructions.

  Col went off to the back somewhere. When he returned, he handed Chase a length of hemp and Chase used it to bind Lacey securely to the chair. She squirmed beneath his hands, her curves reluctantly accepting the bindings. She was in good shape, which made sense given the amount of running for her life she had to do. He could only imagine how much trouble she’d managed to get into in the last three years.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” she complained as he secured her.

  “Stay quiet,” he said. “You don’t want the gag again, do you?”

  She fell silent, but it was not a happy silence. It was a barely compliant silence. Chase was starting to think that the rope was probably a good idea. She looked like she was about to bolt, even with the black hemp wrapped around her arms and waist and looping under her breasts. She had a nice chest. Chase tried not to stare, but there was just something about a bound woman that made his blood run hotter.

  “Chase?” Rex called him again. “Now.”

  “Coming.”

  Chapter Six

  Lacey

  Lacey sat in the chair they’d tied her to and tried to work out if she was any safer here than she would have been with the people looking to kill her. Col was prowling the room like a caged beast, Brian was on his laptop. Rex and Chase and Max were in deep conversation in the far corner. Something important was happening over there, apparently. She would have liked to have been a part of it, but obviously they had no intention of including her.

  She was uncomfortable. Being tied up wasn’t nice, and after having been bound in the vehicle she had been looking forward to stretching her legs and being able to work some of her nerves off. Tied to a chair, she was left to basically vibrate, her knee bouncing as she tapped her feet.

  “Stay still,” Col said as he walked past. He seemed irritated by her mere presence. She shot him a dirty look and kept doing what she was doing as he orbited around her. He was telling her off for doing the same thing he was trying to do, burning off excess energy.

  “I need to pee,” she said as he came past on yet another unnecessary patrol.

  He shot her a cold look. “Hold it.”

  “I have been,” she protested. “I can’t anymore.”

  “Then go in the chair.”

  She glared at him. Fuck this guy. Unlike her, nobody had forced him to come.

  “You can just leave,” she said. “I don’t need you if you’re going to be like this.”


  She saw rage flash in his eyes, as if he couldn’t believe she had the nerve to say that to him. Lacey didn’t care. He didn’t look like he was interested in helping. He didn’t even look like he was interested in Rex’s weirdly perverse idea of them all owning her somehow. She saw his hand flex, as if he was thinking of hitting her, and a bolt of nerves went through her belly. She wouldn’t be able to protect herself if he did. She was tied up tight, totally defenseless.

  “You are damn lucky you and I aren’t alone,” he told her before stalking off to the other side of the room.

  “Uhm, Chase!” she called out.

  “What is it?” Chase lifted his head from the little conference on the other side of the cabin.

  “I need to use the bathroom.”

  “Take her, Col.”

  Col glanced over at her and Lacey blanched.

  “Not him. Anyone but him.”

  “Brian. Can you take her?”

  “I’m working out coordinates for hundreds of cars to make sure we weren’t followed,” Brian said without lifting his eyes from the screen of his laptop. “You really want me to stop for a potty break?”

  “Col or hold it,” Chase said.

  She elected to hold it.

  Col watched as she squirmed in the chair. She didn’t know how long she could hold it, but she was going to as long as possible. There was no way she was going to ask Col to take her to the bathroom. She’d rather wet herself.

  As it turned out, the choice was taken out of her hands. After another couple minutes of her increasingly desperate squirming, Col lost patience.

  “Come on,” he growled, yanking the ropes partially off her. He pulled her up and out of the chair and marched her to the bathroom. Her hands were still bound, so he grabbed her pants for her and pulled them down in a swift motion before seating her on the toilet.

  “What the hell!”

  “You need to go. So go.”

  The door was open. He was watching. He’d just gotten her half naked like it wasn’t anything at all, and now he expected her to pee on command like a dog. Worst thing was, she really needed to go, and she didn’t know if she could hold it.

  She felt her face flush with pure humiliation.

  “Shut the door.”

  “Nope.”

  “Why?”

  “Someone could come in the window if we don’t have eyes on you. Eyes on at all times.”

  “You want to watch me take a dump?”

  “I don’t want to watch you at all,” he said, his lip curling in derision. “But I’m going to anyway.”

  She couldn’t hold it anymore. A few drops escaped her and then once she started she couldn’t stop, the sound of the hot stream hitting the water making her blush furiously. Worse still, she’d needed to go to the toilet so bad it took what felt like forever to empty her bladder. On and on she peed, Col’s brows rising as the never-ending trickle carried on.

  “Undo my hands,” she said when she was finally done. “I need to wipe.”

  He grabbed the toilet paper. She recoiled as best she could.

  “No! Not you!”

  “Chase!” Col called out. “Come wipe your princess’ precious butt!”

  She burned with embarrassment as Chase came over and saw her in the position Col had put her in.

  “What did you want me to do? Let her go unsecured just to pee?” Col defended himself before any questions had been asked.

  “Just undo my hands,” she begged. “I’m not going to do anything stupid.”

  Chase hesitated, then got behind her and yanked the rope off.

  “Get yourself cleaned up,” he said. “Quickly.”

  He didn’t close the door either, but he did at least turn his back so she had some privacy as she wiped and pulled her pants up and flushed the toilet.

  She hated Col with a passion.

  “Thanks,” she said after washing her hands. She cupped some water and splashed it onto her face to refresh herself. The bathroom mirror showed Chase watching her, an inscrutable expression on his handsome face.

  “Why does Col have to be here?”

  “Because there’s five of us and a lot more of them. We need every man we can get. Just don’t antagonize him, okay?”

  “I didn’t! He was antagonizing me!” she protested as Chase took her by the arm and escorted her out of the bathroom.

  “Sit down next to Brains and keep quiet,” he said, pushing her down on the soft couch. He walked back to Rex and Max, returning to whatever work they were doing. Col had retired to the kitchen and seemed to be making a sandwich. Good. At least he was out of her face.

  “Hey,” she murmured to Brian.

  “Hey,” he replied, a dimpled smile on his lips. He didn’t actually look at her, but he didn’t seem to be unhappy that she was there.

  If this was a wolf pack, Brian would be the omega. But oh, what an omega he was. Elegant, that was the word that sprang to mind, closely followed by deadly. He was the closest to her age, and she liked to think they could have been friends.

  She sat in silence for a few minutes as he tapped away, absorbed in his work. As she looked around the room, she realized someone was missing.

  “Wasn’t there another one?”

  “Fraser died last year.” Brains said it without inflection. Just a piece of information.

  Oh, shit. She felt guilty right away.

  “I’m sorry.”

  Brian didn’t say anything, just kept typing.

  Was it her fault? Had she already gotten one of them killed somehow?

  She sat there, running her palms over her thighs nervously. This was getting out of hand. She had to do something. Say something. She had to fix this, somehow.

  Lacey stood up and cleared her throat. “Uhm, guys?”

  Five pairs of eyes turned toward her. She felt her entire body hum with nervousness. She barely knew these men. The rescue mission had taken three days and they’d been too busy escaping militia groups to really get to know one another beyond the superficial.

  “I’m sorry I brought you all into this,” she said. “I should have kept my mouth shut and just…”

  “Died today?” Max spoke up, his scruffy wild brows drawing down over his eyes.

  “Well…”

  “That’s what would have happened,” Max said bluntly. “You’d be dead. Bullet to the brain. Done.”

  “Well, uhm…”

  She fell silent for a second, feeling stupid for having opened her mouth. She should probably sit down, but she couldn’t leave it at that.

  “Brian told me about Fraser and… I’m sorry. I didn’t know I’d lead to someone’s death. You got me out of danger. I can take it from here. Thank you for everything, and I’m sorry for everything I did. I wish I could go back, but it’s too late. I can never make it up to you. I know that. I should never have called…”

  Their expressions ranged from confused, to compassionate, to steadily more annoyed.

  “Fraser had cancer,” Chase said. “That wasn’t your fault.”

  “One of the very few things that isn’t,” Col snorted. His derision oddly made her feel better. She had been getting pretty sure she was responsible for everything from the Suez crisis to the impending heat death of the universe in Col’s eyes.

  “Oh. I’m so sorry,” she said, the corners of her mouth turning down. “I owe him my life as much as I owe the rest of you. But the rest of what I said applies. Just leave me. I’ll get by somehow.” She forced what she hoped was a brave smile.

  “No.” It was Rex who spoke decisively. “There’s no going back now, Lacey.”

  “You said it,” Max chimed in. “Can’t undo what’s done. You can’t undo selling that story, and we won’t leave you to die. You’re stuck with us.”

  She smiled a little. She thought she could probably handle being stuck with Chase and Max and Brian. It was Rex and Col who gave her serious reservations.

  “Well, not all of you need to stay here,” she said. “I m
ean, you must have actual work to do.”

  “We do,” Rex said. “You’ll have to be put somewhere safe when we’re doing that.”

  Somewhere safe. That sounded nice, but she was sure that it wouldn’t be.

  Brian reached up, grabbed her shirt, and tugged her back down next to him. “Let them work.”

  It was a simple order, one that showed he was not as omega as she had imagined him to be. He just had a different, quieter, absolutely confident style of dominance.

  She sat down, feeling embarrassed and somehow small. These were serious men with serious jobs and she had just become a tag-along, an inconvenience in their lives.

  “We should put her away,” Col said in between bites of sandwich. “Don’t want her hearing or seeing anything she can report on.”

  “I’m not going to do that! I would never do that… again,” she added lamely.

  Brian snorted next to her. Okay, so maybe none of them had really forgiven her or were okay with her. Maybe some of them were just quieter about it than others.

  “Okay, you know what? I don’t have to sit here and take this,” she said, standing up and moving toward the door. “I’m leaving. Thanks for everything…”

  The floor went out from under her as she was tackled by not one, but two large men. Col and Brian both had her, their arms under her shoulders. She started to kick and scream, but Col’s hard hand was slapped over her mouth as they pinned her down on the couch and started trussing her again, tape over her mouth, rope around her arms and legs.

  She panicked, utterly terrified, a high-pitched sound escaping her in spite of the tape as her heart hammered in her chest. The bindings were even tighter than they had been before and she couldn’t take it. Not again. She’d barely been able to tolerate being in the back of the van, and then in the chair. She was fast reaching the end of her personal tether for being tied up.