Cynthia Eden - Undercover Captor

After a tense moment Drew gave a curt nod and rose to his feet. There was a tiny window in the room and sunlight spilled inside that window. The light fell on Drew as he passed it.

“Told you she was pretty,” the one he’d called Carl mumbled.

Drew leaped at the other man. In an instant Drew’s lower arm was under the guy’s chin and Drew had him pinned against the wall. “And I’m telling you...keep your hands off her.”

The other man blinked. Then Carl smiled. “Like that, huh? Calling her yours already?”

I am in a nightmare. And Drew wasn’t calling her anything.

But he was leaning in even closer to the blond male. “If you hurt her, if you so much as bruise her, I’ll make you pay.” A deadly promise.

The blond man gulped. “No worries, man. I’m just watchin’ her.”

Drew stepped back. “See that you do.” He fired one more glance at Tina.

She had to press her lips together so she wouldn’t cry out and basically beg him to stay.

He was undercover. He had a job to do. But she knew that he’d get her out of there.

She just had to hold on long enough for the rescue to work.

Drew turned and left the room without another word.

Carl eased toward her. “Guess you two got cozy, huh? Figured old Stone was a secret ladies’ man.”

He dropped into the chair near her. His hand went to the hilt of his knife.

Tina tensed, but he made no move to pull out the weapon.

His gaze swept over her face. “Such a pity,” he murmured. “I hate it when pretty girls have to die.”

* * *

HEWASTAKINGa risk. A huge one, Drew knew it, but he had to make the call. He slipped away from the others at the compound and headed toward the old fence on the right side of the property. He’d scouted before, and this was the weak spot in security. No cameras could see this location, but, thank goodness, there was actually cell service here.

Sydney Ortez had been the one to tell him about this sweet spot. Before Drew had gone in undercover, Sydney had used her satellites and her computer magic to try to find him a safe contact zone.

Safe, but not one hundred percent secure. Because in a situation such as this one, you never knew when the enemy might decide to take a stroll and blow your plans to hell.

Drew fired a quick glance over his shoulder. The phone was clutched tightly to his ear. One ring...

“I know about your problem,” the voice on the other end of the line said. No identification was necessary. Drew instantly recognized the voice of his team leader, Dylan Foxx. The former SEAL had been the one to convince Drew to join the EOD in the first place. The two men had become old friends on the battlefield, on missions that they’d never discuss. So many years—so many missions. Through them all, Dylan always had Drew’s back.

“Yeah?” Drew surveyed the area around him, trying to make sure no one was close enough to hear him. “So what the hell are we going to do?”

“Keep her alive,” Dylan responded instantly. “Mercer knows what’s happening. He says that Dr. Jamison’s survival is priority.”

Mercer knew. Right. The guy had eyes and ears everywhere.

I’m a set of eyes and ears for him now. “Does he realize I’m the one undercover here?”

“He does, and he said that you should make certain you stick to the doctor.”

“They think she’s his daughter,” Drew stressed. How long would they keep working under that wrong assumption? How long until someone figured out they’d screwed up?

There was silence from Dylan, then he asked, “Is she?”

No. But Drew didn’t give that immediate response. He trusted Dylan, of course he did, but there were some secrets he couldn’t share.

Drew was one of the few people in the world who knew that, yes, Bruce Mercer actually did have a daughter. But that daughter wasn’t Tina. “Hell if I know,” he said.

It was a good thing Dylan wasn’t there to see him. The guy had always said that he could read any lie on Drew’s face. Lucky for Drew, the bad guys didn’t have such an easy time of seeing past his deception.

“Tina Jamison wasn’t supposed to be involved in this case,” Drew growled. “No way. Who messed up? How did this happen?” Tina wasn’t the bait for the trap they needed.

“I don’t know.” He could hear the frustration in Dylan’s voice. “That’s why I asked if she actually is his daughter, because that’s the only thing making sense on my end. We gave Devast’s men the false trail. They were supposed to follow it to our operative, not to Dr. Jamison.”

Something had gone wrong. Very wrong. Now Drew had to stop the train wreck before Tina was killed.

There was a murmur in the background then Dylan said, “Get back to her. Word just came down that someone is about to send proof of life to the EOD.”

Drew ended the call and started back toward the main house. Proof of life could be anything. Providing proof was the standard deal in an abduction case. That proof could be a video of the prisoner. A phone call from the captive.

It could be a severed finger. An ear that had been sliced off. That kind of physical evidence was actually often needed. High-profile prisoners were valuable and, before they were ransomed, their DNA had to be confirmed.

He couldn’t let anyone cut into Tina.

He checked his weapon. Fully loaded.

Then he kicked up his speed and raced frantically back to Tina.

* * *

THEREDHEADWASBACK. Tina stared up at him—no, she stared into the guy’s phone. He’d turned the phone sideways; he was video-taping her.

“This is what we call proof of life,” he murmured. “We need you to prove to your dear old dad that you’re still alive.”

They weren’t proving anything to her father. Her father was dead. So was her mother. They’d both died shortly after Tina’s eighteenth birthday.

Their blood had soaked her fingers. She hadn’t known how to save them.

I do now.

“Look into the camera,” he ordered her. “Say your name.”

The door opened behind him. Drew. Drew was back.

It got easier for her to breathe then.

She stared toward the redhead and his phone. “My name is Tina Jamison.”

“Good girl,” the redhead murmured. Lee. That was his name. She’d heard one of the other men call him that earlier. “Now tell us the date.”

She did. Her voice didn’t tremble. Tina was proud of that fact.

“Bruce Mercer, we have your daughter,” the redhead said. His voice was cold and flat. “She’s alive right now, but, if you don’t follow our orders exactly, she won’t be alive for long.”

Tina kept staring at him.

“We want an exchange,” Lee continued. “Her life for yours.”

That wasn’t going to happen. Not ever. Mercer was too important. He had ties to too many governments, too many agents, too many secrets.

She was just the doctor who patched up the team members.

I’m expendable.

Bruce Mercer wasn’t.

“For every day that you delay, we will hurt her.”

Oh, wait. What?

“We gave you proof of life,” he continued. Her eyes narrowed. Was he recording these images of her? Or streaming them live to Mercer? If the fool was streaming them, the EOD would be on top of this group in hours. Sydney would trace the signal back to this location.

His hold tightened on the phone. “Now it’s time for proof of pain.”

He’d barely even got the words out before the other guy—the blond who’d kept her terrified for the past hour—came at her with his knife.

Tina tensed, but the knife just went to the ropes that bound her. Carl cut through the ropes that circled her right hand.

“What the hell...” Drew began.

“Slice off her finger,” was the order that followed.