The line went dead.
The others?
Mercer has more agents down here. They’ve been watching us. So that meant that backup would be coming their way. Even if those agents didn’t have eyes on them, Mercer could track Logan—the same way that Logan and Gunner had tracked Cale.
Logan shoved his phone aside, picked up his weapon and got ready for the battle that was waiting.
* * *
SHE HADN’T PLANNED to pull Cale into this mess. He wasn’t supposed to be a hostage.
If anything happened to him because of her, Cassidy knew she’d feel the aching guilt every day for the rest of her life.
No, Cale is strong. He’s probably been in and out of every hellhole on earth.
But he’d been shot moments before. He was weak. He couldn’t handle these men while he was hurt.
Despite what he might think, the man was only human.
“Stay behind me.” Cale’s words were the barest whisper.
He had a weapon, of sorts, clutched in his hand. A broken shard of glass. She’d grabbed a chunk of the glass, too. She wasn’t going to be defenseless, no matter what was coming her way.
She should have told Cale the full truth about herself—that there had been no need for him to be captured.
Not when the cavalry always had a direct linkup to her...and her location.
She’d had a plan in place. The minute she’d vanished from Cale’s sight, Mercer should have been alerted.
Her hand rose to her shoulder. The smallest spot of raised flesh was there, hiding her tracking device. Mercer had made sure she had the device implanted. When she’d vanished, he would have been notified immediately. He would have gotten a GPS lock on her—he would have sent in his men....
And then the Executioner could have been taken down.
The plan had seemed so perfect, mostly because the only threat had been to her.
But now Cale was a hostage with her. He was wounded, and he was about to launch himself at the men coming down the stairs.
Four men were rushing toward them. Cale just had that broken glass. He couldn’t defeat them all.
He doesn’t have to defeat them. Mercer will have learned about my abduction by now—the other agents who’d worked with Cale would have reported to him. So Mercer had probably already started tracking her.
Cale didn’t have to risk his life.
All they had to do was keep their captors distracted.
I have to keep Cale alive.
Because while the Executioner might be planning to use her, Cale would be disposable to him.
And if Cale came out of that darkness fighting...
His body was tense. Ready to spring out and attack.
Cassidy couldn’t let him do it. She couldn’t let him risk himself that way.
She ran away from him, racing toward the stairs.
“Cassidy!” Cale shouted.
But he hadn’t been prepared for her move. So he couldn’t stop her.
She nearly collided with a man in a black ski mask.
His hands flew out and locked around her.
The chunk of glass fell from her fingers. “Please don’t hurt him!”
The man’s fingers tightened around her, and he yanked her against him, spinning her so that her back pressed against his chest. “Why ever not?” His voice was deep, rumbling, terrifying. “I enjoy hurting people.”
But the Executioner had never taken a man hostage. In all the time that she’d been following him, he’d never picked a male for his prey.
Until now.
“It was a mistake. You wanted me, not him.” Her breath was ragged, and the trembling in her voice wasn’t an act. The fear was real. “You’ve got me. Let him go.”
Cale had lunged forward. He waited now, at the foot of the stairs, his hands clenched into fists. The light from the top of the stairs barely illuminated him.
“I’m not letting him go. Your hero nearly ruined everything for me.” Her captor’s breath blew over her ear. “So I’m going to make sure he suffers.”
“No!” Cale suffering wasn’t part of the plan. “You have me—let him go!”
“Get him,” the man said to the others as he climbed back up the stairs, pulling Cassidy with him.
The bodies of the other men shoved against her as they ran for Cale.
“No!” Cassidy yelled.
Only...
There was the thud of fists connecting with flesh. Three men had closed in on Cale. Three against one.
One of the Executioner’s guards fell down, groaning. A second joined him moments later.
Cassidy saw the flash of Cale’s weapon as he sliced out at the third attacker.
Vicious. Fast. Deadly. The fight happened in a matter of seconds, and all three of Cale’s attackers wound up on the floor, groaning and immobile.
“Now I’m coming for you,” Cale said as he started to make his way up the stairs. “So you need to get your hands off her.”
But her captor’s hands had tightened, and Cassidy felt the sharp slice of a blade on her neck.
“Can you see the knife in my right hand?” the man holding her demanded. “Because it’s at her throat. You take one more step, hero, and I’ll slice her from ear to ear.”
Cassidy wasn’t breathing.
She knew the man meant exactly what he said.
Cale stopped advancing. “You’re bluffing. If she’s dead, then you can’t use her. You can’t ransom her.”
“No, but there are others like her. Rich, useless women who can be taken and controlled. There are always more, just waiting to be taken.”
Waiting to be killed?
She heard the thud of footsteps behind them. More of the Executioner’s men, coming to help him.
Coming to hurt Cale? To kill him?
How much more time needed to pass before help came for her and Cale?
Cassidy licked her lips. “Was...Helen McDonough...so useless? So easy to control?”
She felt his start of surprise against her.
Cale advanced a step.
“Helen?” the man repeated. “I remember her so well. She was my first. You never forget your first.”
She wanted to sink that knife into his throat. “She was my friend!”
Cale crept up another step.
“She was a spoiled princess who begged while I sliced her.... Begged...” He jerked Cassidy back, yanking her up the stairs and away from Cale. They crossed the threshold and stumbled into another room. “Just like you’ll beg before I’m done with you.”
Chapter Five
And, with his cold, brutal words, Cassidy let the mask that she’d worn for so long fall away. Her fear was real—but so was her rage.