Pressing forward only to step to the side, Brogan caught the other man in midswipe with the knife before striking out himself. With the flat of his hand he slapped Donny again, laughing as the other man’s nose started to bleed.
“Motherfucker!” Sandi screamed out as Donny growled like an enraged bull.
Dancing back from the blade, Brogan waited, feigning one way, then dancing back, staying on the move as Donny let rage and fear drive him.
Donny jabbed the knife toward his belly.
Brogan jabbed his fist into Donny’s face, busting both lips and laughing as Donny spit out pieces of his teeth.
He swiped at Brogan’s arm, and the blade actually managed to skim the material of the black shirt he wore. The long sleeve covered his arm to the wrist, the protective weave of the material holding out against the glancing brush of the blade.
Donny snarled, enraged.
Brogan grinned, waited, then boxed both Donny’s ears as the other man took his next swipe before Brogan spun away.
This was fun and all, but he was getting bored. Donny was actually shedding tears and snot, he was so pissed at being unable to shed blood.
Besides, Brogan wanted to get at least a few hours’ sleep tonight. If he kept fucking around with this little weasel, then there was no way he would have time for it.
Brogan waited.
When Donny moved to slice out at his midsection again, Brogan caught his fist and twisted it hard as he angled the hand back forcefully and collected the knife from Donny’s suddenly numb fingers.
Donny emitted a screech that would have done Sandi proud if she had made it herself.
Before he could struggle or attempt to get away, Brogan thrust his arm behind his back and laid the razor-sharp blade at Donny’s throat.
“I like the sight of blood, too,” Brogan rasped, his voice well disguised by the electronic box secured at his throat. “Tonight I want your blood.”
“Please don’t. Oh, God, please don’t hurt him!” Sandi cried out, real tears filling her voice and falling from her eyes.
Hell, she might really love the bastard, Brogan thought as she sobbed out Donny’s name and pleaded for his life.
“Muzzle that shit,” he ordered Eli as he stroked the knife against Donny’s throat warningly.
Glancing in the mirror across the room, he saw Donny as he watched Eli’s black-clad form tear a strip of duct tape from the roll he’d pulled out of the mission pack on his back.
Rage burned in Donny’s eyes as Eli taped his lover’s mouth, then patted her cheek with gentle mockery.
“Shall I have him slice her throat, or do I slice yours?” Brogan asked softly at Donny’s ear, still watching the other man’s face in the mirror.
Donny swallowed tightly, and Brogan was certain what his answer would be.
The regret, the seeming apology as he stared back at his lover was all a dead giveaway that Donny would save himself.
Sandi was shaking her head desperately, sobbing through the tape, no doubt certain she was going to die.
“Answer me, Donny,” he demanded, rubbing the blade against his throat in whispery strokes, “One of you is going to die. You or her?”
Tears fell from Donny’s eyes as Sandi became almost hysterical.
“Me,” he answered.
Sandi’s chair almost tipped over before Eli could catch it as hysteria overtook her.
“I don’t think I heard you, Donny.” He held the knife motionless against the man’s throat. “Say it again.”
Donny was staring at his lover in misery as she screamed through the tape again, still sobbing uncontrollably. He hadn’t even noticed that Brogan was watching him through the mirror.
“Me,” Donny answered, his voice louder, strangely devoid of fear. “Kill me; don’t hurt her.”
Sandi bent forward, sobbing, screaming through the tape, jerking hysterically against the ropes that held her as jagged cries tore from her chest.
Brogan looked at Eli, the other man’s eyes reflecting the same shock Brogan felt. Sandi was protesting so hysterically Eli actually had to hold the chair in place.
“You’re going to sacrifice yourself for her?” Brogan asked in mocking disbelief. “Why? She’s not faithful. She whores around on you—”
“Don’t call her that,” Donny protested raggedly as Brogan watched his expression thoughtfully while watching Sandi from the corner of his eye.
Hell, they loved each other.
“Tell me why,” Brogan demanded again.
“Because I’ll die anyway if you kill her,” he stated, confusing Brogan with his suddenly calm demeanor. “I couldn’t live without her.”
“So you risk her life thieving? You pimp her out and keep her in harm’s way here while committing treason?” he probed while he had the chance. “That’s not love, Donny.”
“I love her.” It wasn’t a protest or an argument. It was a statement. Then he frowned, confused. “I ain’t no traitor, man.”
“So you love the woman you let other men screw for money?” Brogan ignored the protest.
“I love her,” Donny snapped, meeting his gaze directly. “And she’s no whore. Sandi screws no man but me. I know what she does. She flirts and she teases a little. Then she gives them a few sleeping pills while I steal their money. She doesn’t screw them.”
“You endanger her in whatever moneymaking schemes you can come up with. That’s not love.”
“I love her.”
Brogan whispered the next accusation sneeringly. “You use her; you don’t want to die for her.”
“I love her.” Donny’s voice cracked in misery. “I love her.”
Son of a bitch, go figure.
“Donny?”
“What?” He sniffed, swallowing tightly.
“Do you want to live another day with the woman you love?”
Donny nodded slowly. “Yes.”
“Then listen to me carefully.” Brogan hardened his voice. “If either of you, at any time—tomorrow, next week, next year, fucking next lifetime,” he snarled, “should verbally or physically or through someone else strike out at Eve Mackay again, I won’t give you a choice; I’ll just come after your woman.”
Donny’s eyes widened in shock.
“If you so much as breathe Eve’s air, brush against her, or even think to insult her, her family, her friends, hell, her fucking enemies, then I’ll come after your lover. When I do, I’ll make what happened to those rabbits seem humane. You read me, asshole?”
“I hear.” He snarled as Brogan nicked his neck with the blade.
“If Eve Mackay or Brogan Campbell learns anyone was here tonight, learns you were threatened in any way, coerced to act decent, then I’ll come for her,” he whispered insidiously. “And if I hear so much as a breath that you have information concerning thieves and traitors and didn’t tell me, then I’m coming after her. Read me.”
“I hear you.” Donny’s voice was barely a whisper now.
“If I find out you heard any of the above and you didn’t contact me, I’ll bathe in her blood. You got it?”
“How?” Donny swallowed tightly. “Contact you how?”
“You left your cell phone in the kitchen,” Brogan reminded him. “There’s a new number in it. Now I’ll ask you one more time: Do you know anything?”
Donny and Sandi stared at each other for long moments. Nodding to Eli, Brogan watched as he pulled the long, wickedly sharp knife from the sheath at his thigh and laid it against Sandi’s neck.
“Wait. Wait,” Donny whispered.
Eli lifted the knife marginally from Sandi’s throat—just enough that it wasn’t touching her skin.
“Come on, Donny,” Brogan urged him. “What do you know?”
“The thieves are part of the touring club,” he revealed. “Some say it’s Brogan Campbell.”
“Is it?” Brogan asked.
Fear flickered in Donny’s eyes. “I don’t think so. I think it’s someone else, but I don’t know who. Someone who used to be in that group with Chandler and Dayle Mackay.”
“The Freedom League?” Brogan asked, his gaze flickering to Eli. This was the first they had heard this.
“Yeah, that Freedom League.” Donny swallowed again, obviously terrified, but more terrified of losing his lover.
Luck was with him tonight, Brogan thought. He’d never imagined that coming here to beat the shit out of the little bastard over some rabbits would end up with information on the very investigation he’d been working for two and a half years now.
“You know something else, Donny,” Brogan stated smoothly, confidently.
He could see it in the other man’s eyes every time his gaze met his lover’s.
“Just talk, that’s all,” Donny wheezed. “There’s talk that the files Brogan Campbell stole are really important. They have coordinates in them for something. Something that the League wants.”
“And where did you hear this talk?”
“I was outside at the bar one night, snortin’ a little somethin’—somethin’,” he said nervously.
“I don’t care what you were doing,” Brogan stated softly. “What did you hear?”
“Some dude was takin’ a call.” Donny’s voice lowered as though he were afraid others might hear him. “I don’t know who it was. He was pissed; he said Brogan had to be behind it because they were searching for the same thing. He said he knew it was Brogan Campbell. That only Campbell had a reason to want those files or the information in them.”
Sandi was still crying, though not as hard.
“What’s Brogan Campbell searching for?” he asked as though he didn’t know.
Desperation filled Donny’s gaze now. “I don’t know,” he rasped. “I swear to God, I don’t know.”
“What have you heard, then?” Brogan asked.
Donny licked his lips nervously, his gaze seeking Sandi’s again. Sandi gave the barest nod.
“Come on, Donny; don’t make my friend over there hurt her, okay? Neither you nor Sandi would like it.”
Donny’s gaze flickered nervously. “When Brogan showed up he got real interested in this motorcycle touring club we have. The dude said who they were lookin’ for was there. They just don’t know who he is. But he can read some files they have, and they think Brogan has the other files. He said Brogan was the only one with the background and experience to steal them, too. He said this dude they want can read them. Then, when I was in Fort Knox a few weeks later, there were these dudes at the bar I went to, they was talkin’ ’bout Dawg and Eve’s daddy. They said there was talk circulatin’ heavy that there were files their daddy worked on while he was in some federal agency he worked for that hid the location on somethin’, and those files were stolen. Talk was maybe Dawg would know what that somethin’ was, and the only way to find out would be to use his sisters to scare him, but no one can go after a Mackay, ’cause if they did, then whoever that dude is that can read those files also has lots of information on that Freedom League and if any Mackay, or anyone that any Mackay loves is threatened, then he’s gonna talk. And he’s gonna tell all these secrets he has on that Freedom League. And they don’t want him talkin’ ’cause word is, he knows everything. Who wasn’t caught, who’s still hidin’, and lots of other stuff.”
Bingo. So that’s why Doogan wants Eve.
“Anything else, Donny?” he questioned softly. “Come on, anything else?”
“I swear that’s all.” He whimpered. “I swear that’s all. I swear.”
Brogan lifted the knife from Donny’s neck and released him slowly.
Donny stepped back quickly, his gaze seeking his lover’s.
“You hear anything else, Donny, use the number,” Brogan growled. “Don’t make me come back.”
Donny gave a quick, short nod.
Hell, Brogan expected both of them to be gone within hours.
“One more thing, Donny.”
“No one will know you were here,” he promised, then gave a bitter, mirthless laugh. “Trust me; I don’t want anyone to know.”
Brogan strode quickly from the room, Eli and Jed following close behind as they left the house and disappeared into the trees.
The four-wheelers they’d used to get into the mountains were still waiting where they’d left them. Brogan mounted the rugged machine as Eli and Jed did the same, and they started the engines and headed for the enclosed trailer several miles down the mountain and the pickup it was attached to.
The night—or morning, he should say—had yielded far more information than he had ever expected.
Pulling the four-wheeler into the covered trailer as Eli and Jed pulled in behind him, Brogan knew he finally had a direction to move in. Something other than just a list of files currently under review by the military for destruction. Brogan hadn’t seen a location for anything when he’d gone through the files, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t there. It meant he was going to have to go over them much more closely. According to the information Donny had, the files were evidently encrypted, if whoever he’d overheard talking that night, was right. So it made sense Brogan hadn’t found it. What he needed was someone with the ability to read and crack military code.
Otherwise, there would be no keeping Eve out of this.
His director thought they had one asset no one else could touch.
That asset was Eve.
Because whoever cared enough for Eve that they would only come out if Eve needed them or would only trust whoever she was with, evidently had the ability to not just decode the encryption, but also had information on a militia that Homeland Security believed had been disbanded more than five years before.
He’d been trying to find someone Eve was close to in his search for this informant. Maybe the way to go about this was to see whom Eve and her father, Chandler Mackay, now had in common.
That was where the answers lay.
To get those answers he would have to make Eve break a promise and betray the brother she loved.
He would be risking his soul, but he knew the plans the Freedom League had when it had been disbanded. They had been only months away from assassinating the president and ensuring the vice president, who had been a part of the militia, took his place. From there, they would have ensured the government officials they’d been amassing information on, would fall in with their plans. If they succeeded, the world as he knew it would be over forever. The Freedom League’s ultimate plan was the destruction of free enterprise, freedom of speech, and race equality. The nation would have been broken apart from the inside out, and before the American citizens even realized the danger they were in, it would have been too late.
According to Donny, the League was still in place, and that meant their plans were still in place as well.
And that, he couldn’t accept.