AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I nod.
“I could use one of those,” Gracie says.
“We have exactly one patch. Besides, if you do your job right, you won’t need anything but your gun.”
Internally, I replay her role. I see her inside the secret compartment, imagine her climbing out, racing across the compound, making her way to the control room, and taking out the electric fence, so that I can make my way inside. While Tony and Victor handle Walid, Gracie and I will meet up and fight our way to the underground area where Sandesh is being kept.
Gracie says, “What if I get found? Shouldn’t I have some kind of cover story?”
“Like what, Red?” Victor asks.
“Like maybe you wanted to try to add me to your show, broaden Walid’s experiences?”
It’s a great idea, except… Raising my hands, I look around the desolate plane hangar to emphasize my point. “We’re shit out of eight-hundred-dollar bras, and there’s no Agent Provocateur in sight.”
Gracie’s face heats. She bites her lip.
What’s that about? I crook my fingers in anout-with-itgesture.
“Well, I don’t think I’ll need a costume.” Before I can even process what that means, Gracie strips down to her skivvies, lacey and red and glittery as hell. That might be the sexiest underwear I’ve ever seen.Seriously?Rhinestones? Who wears that on the daily?
I can’t help it—despite my nerves and churning gut, I burst into laughter. She’s all business on top and party below. Tony sputters until he begins to cough.
Victor whistles long and loud. “Damn, Red, if I’d known you were hiding that, I would’ve been nicer to you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Gracie thrusts out a lavishly tattooed hip.
Great. The last thing this mission needs is for these two to be at each other’s throats.
I stab a finger into Victor’s chest. Like stabbing chiseled concrete. “Knock it off.”
“Joke.” Victor holds up his hands. “Getting involved with one of the Parish clan is as smart as hiring your own hit man.”
“That’s a job I’d be willing to consider for you,” Tony offers.
I roll my eyes like a fistful of dice. They come up snake eyes. “Enough! Let’s get going.”
51
SANDESH
I’ve been stripped of my shirt, have my hands handcuffed in front of me and my head forced down so that I’m looking at bricks and dirt as I’m marched down a damp, moldy corridor. One of the two guards on either side of me holds a Taser to my neck. Proof positive that Walid wants me alive.
“You’re going to scream for your mommy,” Taser Holder whispers in my ear, pressing the metal prongs deep into my skin.
I don’t reply, but the two begin to take bets on how long it’s going to take before Walid breaks me.
When that doesn’t get a reaction, they try to trip me. I keep my legs through a miracle of willpower and awareness that somehow overrides how thirsty, weak, and dizzy I am.
The floors we pass are pitted red brick with the memory of dark bloodstains from the bleeding victims dragged down this hall. The stains increase as we near the torture chamber. Dmitri might not have a lot still going for him, but he does have a rock-solid memory—it’s exactly as he described.
At the threshold to the chamber, the sour, defeated smell of shit, piss, and blood twists my gut. Apparently, Walid knows the most important thing about torture—fear.
I know that’s not where this experience ends. Dmitri was very specific, but if I’m able to rally, I won’t be sticking around long enough to experience Walid’s talents. Even with my head forced down and my hands bound behind my back, I’m preparing for the fight ahead.
According to Dmitri, the room is large, with several torture stations, a stone bath, and a wall of spikes. He said the guards will secure my feet before they unbind my hands. I would rather have waited for that moment to attack, but Dmitri’s account of the room and the element of surprise will force me to act long before I’m untied.
Just as Dmitri described, I see the edge of the stone bath, cracked and crumbling gray cement with blue spray paint markings. The moment I spy it, I plant my foot, twist the energy up and out. My foot slams into Taser Guard’s ankle and there’s an audiblecrack.
