“Vaughnne.”
She didn’t even slow down.
“Esta chingadera,” he muttered, grabbing the vest he’d found among her belongings and heading off after her. He caught her arm right before she started down the hill. The scraggly, low-lying bushes would offer them some concealment, but she was not barreling toward that house without some sort of protection. What had he been thinking, bringing her here . . .
Abruptly, Vaughnne stopped and looked at him. “Whatever happens, you didn’t make me come, got it?” She caught the vest from his fist and pulled it on.
“I thought you didn’t read minds.”
She shrugged. “I don’t. But what you’re thinking, for once, is actually written all over your face. I’m here because I gave my word I’d watch over that boy. And I know too much about Ignacio Reyes. People have been chasing after him, trying to shut him down for years, and they are no closer to doing it now than they were a decade ago. If we’re going to make Alex safe, then we have to do it the hard way.”
He lifted a hand and touched her face. “It’s my problem, Vaughnne. My responsibility, and I’ll accept the risks. If you cross this line, there may be no turning back for you. You don’t need to do this.”
A sharp scream, female and full of pain, rang out from the house.
Vaughnne swore and turned. “Yeah. I do.”
FEAR was a strange thing.
Sometimes it was like an icy tickle down the spine.
Other times, it was a dragon screaming inside her brain.
And it could hit on so many things in between.
Right now, her fear was a nasty little twist in her gut, and in the back of her mind, there was a voice, almost like she was talking to herself. Hurry, Vaughnne. Have to hurry. Have to hurry!
There was another scream and everything in her wanted to run, barrel into that house.
But she couldn’t. Had to be smart. Had to creep across the ground, following Gus’s oddly reluctant lead. All along, he’d been warning her, making her very aware of just how far he’d go, what lines he’d be willing to cross—just about all of them. And now they were here, and he wanted her to . . . what? Leave? Let it go?
While he went on ahead and probably got himself killed, she knew.
He was ready for it. She wasn’t stupid. She knew the look on a man’s face when he was ready to face down death. She’d seen it more than once. There had been a time or two when she had worn that look.
But she hadn’t come down here to walk away now.
Another scream rang out, and they were close enough now that she could hear a voice as the scream faded—it had come from the building ahead, set apart from the big house. So close. It was so close.
Where is everybody? she asked, searching the perimeter.
He’d already done a check for the guards and hadn’t seen a damn soul. That bothered her. A lot.
He looked at her and shook his head minutely, but she didn’t know how to take that. Did that mean he didn’t know? There wasn’t anybody? What?
They inched forward another few feet, following the sound of that voice.
Low and smooth, it sounded like the voice of an educated male, the accent all but gone. “Come now, Nala . . . there’s no reason for this. If you answer my questions, I will not hurt you . . .”
Nala—
That name sounded an alarm in Vaughnne’s mind.
But then she heard the voice. A woman’s. Ragged and hoarse, but familiar, all the same. “Why . . . don’t . . . you go fuck . . . yourself?” she panted.
Nalini—
Shit . . .
She looked at Gus. He’s got one of the agents in there, Gus. I know her.
Gus didn’t respond.
At all.
The sound of Nalini’s next scream was almost enough to freeze the blood in Vaughnne’s veins.
Desperate and so full of pain.
Her muscles bunched, tensed. Gus must have sensed what she wanted to do, because his hand came up and gripped her arm, his fingers squeezing with deliberate strength.
She let him guide her over to the building, all but hugging it as she listened to Nalini inside. Begging now . . . She was begging, whimpering, and crying.
Where the hell is everybody? You acted like he’d have a small army here, Vaughnne said, searching the night-dark terrain, but she saw nothing. The buildings were there, but there were no people. Save for those they could hear behind them.
The screaming had stopped, dying away into low, soft sobs.
“Do I start cutting off fingers now, señor? Cutting up her pretty face didn’t do much,” somebody said.
Reyes? Vaughnne wondered. She had to see him. If she saw him, she could get a link in on his mind. That was all it would take.
“Nala, you are so foolishly stubborn. Talk to me, and this can end. Here, we can do something easy; it will not hurt the boy. Just tell me this. How did you manage to send my men away?”
Next to her, Vaughnne felt Gus tense. She was terrified now. Nalini had monsters in there with her, but if Gus thought she’d endanger that boy . . . She won’t say anything, Gus. She won’t.
His long, lean body vibrated next to hers and she could feel him readying himself.
I have to see inside, damn it. I can’t work if I can’t see in there. Her ability was limited that way; the first time she used it, she had to see somebody. And once she saw whoever was torturing Nalini, the bastard was going to hurt.
Slowly, Gus’s fingers uncurled from her arm and she crept forward. Mentally, she reached out to the other woman. Man, Nalini, you landed yourself in a shitload of trouble. How did you manage that?
She didn’t know if Nalini recognized her, and she wouldn’t get much of a response, either. Nalini’s gifts didn’t work like that.
But she couldn’t let the woman think she was in there, alone and left to die, either.
A harsh, low groan left the woman, still hidden by the walls that separated them. The window was a few feet ahead and Vaughnne had to inch forward every damn millimeter, watching where she placed her feet, watching everything around her. Her skin crawled.
Nalini, where is everybody?
“You . . . moron,” Nalini said. There was so much pain crowding her voice it hurt to even hear it. “Haven’t you . . . figured out what I do? I made you send them away. They wouldn’t . . . listen to me.” She broke off for a minute, panting.
There was a whisper of sound and then the man’s voice. “Hold off, Jorge. I want to hear this. This . . . this could be useful.”
Nalini laughed. “Oh, I’m not going to be useful . . . to you. At all. Trust me. Anybody who touches me does it . . . at his own risk. You had your hands . . . all over . . . me. I made you . . . send . . . them all away. They are too scared not to listen. Except Jorge, apparently. He came running . . . back, the jackass. Like a little . . . puppy. I bet . . . if you asked him to suck you off, he’d . . . do it.”
“Puta.”
Ah. That must be Jorge . . . Vaughnne eyed the distance to the window. A foot. She was going to be in range soon. Very soon.