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Trust me.
Jenna had done this. Jenna had changed the compound so it wasn’t permanent. That was what she’d been working on all day.
Callum’s eyes were clear too. They couldn’t show it yet, but they circled each other, seemingly fighting, but instead examining who else was in the room. Joaquin, Jenna, and three others.
As soon as they stopped fighting each other, Jenna would fight too. She wasn’t bound.
Mark lunged for Callum, landing two punches before grappling together. There was real force behind their struggle, but they turned, lining themselves up to get into position.
“Ready?” Mark gritted the word through his teeth.
Callum nodded and threw the punch at Mark’s gut that broke them apart. And together, they turned toward the real enemies.
Chapter 28
Jenna didn’t know when Joaquin had discovered that Callum was undercover, but the man looked awful. He needed a hospital. And now, he’d been injected with the compound. His eyes went glassy.
He and Mark would come out from under the effects of the compound at roughly the same time, if they survived that long. They needed to survive that long.
Mark stood in front of Callum, and neither man moved, staring into the space the other occupied without any kind of reaction.
Hang on.Hang on, and I’ll get us out of this.
She had to get them all out of this.
“Now, we wait,” Joaquin said. “To make sure they don’t have bad reactions before the second stage of the test.”
Dread pooled in her stomach. “Second stage?”
Joaquin looked at her, and it was clear in the look exactly what he thought of her and that reaction. “Of course. I’m sure it comes as no surprise that I don’t trust you, Jenna.”
“I haven’t given you any reason not to trust me,” she argued. Every minute that passed and every delay she could impose was a good thing.
“Forgive me if I need to be sure.” The terrorist’s tone was dripping with sarcasm.
The rest of the fifteen minutes were the longest minutes Jenna had ever experienced, apart from those nights she was forced to spend outside. Those had felt like an eternity too.
Joaquin’s phone rang. He left the room to take the call, and Jenna tried to pull away from the man holding her. He kept her arm firmly in his grasp. “There’s three of you. Do you really think holding on to me like a toddler who won’t share a toy is going to help?”
“Shut up,” the man said.
She rolled her eyes. “Yes, what a wonderfully well-thought-out response.”
The doors burst open, and Joaquin entered again. Something was different. His energy was even sharper than it had been, entirely focused on the two men frozen and held by the formula she created.
“Outlawson.” He called. “Webb.” Callum rose to his feet, though it was clear he wasn’t steady. “Fight. To the last man standing. Fight to kill.”
“What?” Jenna’s voice echoed through the room almost before she realized that she’d spoken. “You can’t. What does that prove?”
They were already moving, the drugs in their system forcing them to obey. From here on out, it would be degrading, and they would eventually fall out from under the compound’s control. But both men were lethal, and right now, they were about to go at each other without any remorse and without any mercy.
They could easily kill each other in a few minutes.
Joaquin didn’t respond to her outburst. He was watching Mark and Callum as they circled each other. Callum threw a punch, which Mark dodged easily. They were falling into their fighting instincts and were still assessing each other, but she’d sparred with Mark. Neuropathy aside, she knew he was good, and she also knew he would never forgive himself if he killed Callum while he was in a state he couldn’t control.
She’d never forgive herself either.
“This has to stop,” she said quietly. Again, she pulled away from the man holding her. “This needs to stop.”
