Touching Darkness (30 page)

O
livia had been demanding to see her father for hours. Finally, after her dinner had been delivered and the sun had set, he agreed. The guard escorted her, his hand gripped around her arm again.

“Do you have to manhandle me?”

“It's either that or cuffs. Darkwell said he didn't want you to be cuffed unless it became necessary.”

“Wasn't that sweet of him.”

He knocked on the door, and Gerard called for him to enter.

She flung the guard's arm away but looked at her father. “You're having me guarded like a prisoner!”

He swiveled in his chair. “Because you're acting like an outlaw. Since you made a phone call, presumably to Braden, we have to be ready when he comes barging in to rescue the fair maiden.” He smiled. “Like the fairy tales I used to read you. The harsh father out to save his lovely daughter by locking her in a tower.”

“Nicholas is not the bad guy.”

“And I suppose I am.” When she didn't answer, his expression hardened. “I will not discuss Braden or the Rogues with you.”

She walked to the front edge of his desk. “Then talk to me about my mother.”

He took a deep breath, as though he were losing his patience with his recalcitrant little girl. “And they also told you what a bad guy I am.”

“Did you kill her?”

He stood and walked around the desk. “I suppose I shall have to tell you the sordid truth now that you've got something even worse in your head. Your mother was a lying, manipulative woman. I'm sorry to say that, but you want the truth, and the truth you shall have. She lied about who she was and where she came from. When I warn you about falling in love and letting your emotions rule your mind, I speak from experience. I admit she swept me away, and I ignored the signs. When I discovered the truth, she announced she was pregnant. The news softened me. I thought maybe, when I saw her being a good mother, I could forgive her.

“But she wasn't a good mother. She complained, even though I provided her with a nanny. She resented that she couldn't party or socialize. Then one day I walked in and caught her screaming and shaking you. When I saw her harming my beautiful baby girl, I went crazy. I tried to take you out of her arms, but she fought me. I wrapped my hands around her throat and squeezed, my only thought to save you. She collapsed to the floor, and I grabbed you before you fell. When I checked her pulse, she was dead.”

She thought her chest would be crushed under the pressure of her shock. “You strangled her.”

He nodded, not a shred of remorse on his face. “I am willing to do what is necessary to protect my own, and that includes you, my program, and our country.”

She didn't know if she could believe his story, but she did know he was telling the truth on that last statement. He would kill without a second thought. Maybe even kill her. She saw that now, saw everything she'd been blind to all these years.

“Where did you leave her body?”

“Where no one will find her.”

She wasn't about to tell him someone had found her. “You're no better than Sayre.”

“I'm nothing like that man.”

Shouting floated from outside. A gunshot pierced the air. With a fearful gasp, she ran to the French doors, but her father grabbed her by the shoulders. “Don't go near the windows!”

The guard stepped into the room and closed the door. “They've spotted an intruder.”

Please don't let Nicholas have come!

The guard listened to the earpiece. All she could hear was the buzzing sound of someone's voice.

“They've got him.”

Him.

“Who?” she couldn't help but ask.

Her father ignored her question. “Watch her.” He walked out.

She raced to the door.

The guard lifted his jacket to reveal handcuffs and his taunting expression:
Make me use them, honey.

It had to be Nicholas. No one else would come to rescue her.

“Don't you dare hurt him!” she screamed after her father.

Agonizing minutes dragged by after everything went quiet outside. The guard shadowed her as she walked as close to the French doors as he allowed and tried to look out. She heard voices, saw the landscaping lights on. She tried to make a run for it, but the guard grabbed her arm and yanked her back.

“I want to see what's going on!”

Everything inside her was tight and brittle. She heard sounds in the hallway and rushed to the door, but again, the guard stepped in front of her.

She strained to listen but couldn't hear anything definitive.

A few minutes later her father returned, a triumphant smile on his face. “As it turned out, your involvement with Braden worked in my favor. He came for you. Now he's dead.”

He dropped those last words like bombs, and each one exploded in her chest. She slid to the floor, sobs tearing from her chest.

“How?” The word tore from her.

“Shot by one of the outside guards.”

Through her tears she saw the guard leave, and her father sat in the chair next to her. “Cry it out, sweetheart. When it's over, you'll see that it had to be. Your vision will clear, and you'll understand. And I'll be here, just as I've always been.”

 

Nicholas tried to pull out of the grip of the three men dragging him down the hall where he'd once worked and lived. Darkwell stepped out of his office. Behind him, he heard Olivia's voice: “I want to see what's going on!”

He tried to call out to her, but all he could get out from behind the gag they'd tied on him was a muffled cry. His hands were cuffed.

Darkwell smiled. “Nice of you to come back.” To the guards he said, “Bring him this way.”

A guard stationed at the end of the hallway unlocked the door, and Darkwell preceded the guards. “I have a gift for you,” he said to someone upstairs. “Take care of him any way you'd like.”

Nicholas was pushed up the stairs, and when he reached the top, he came face-to-face with Lucas's twin: the son of a bitch who'd tried to rape and kill Olivia.

“Keep the gag on him,” Darkwell said as he turned to go back down the stairs. “We don't want anyone to hear screaming.”

Darkwell was giving him to Sayre as a
gift
? Sayre's eyes flared in recognition, and his mouth broke out into a broad smile. His face twitched. When the door downstairs closed, he said, “You really pissed me off, you know that?”

Nicholas rammed him, sending Sayre to the floor. He spit out an expletive as his head hit the wood floor and Nicholas landed on top of him. He had one chance, the advantage of surprise, to put the son of a bitch out. For Olivia.

He rolled off and kicked Sayre in the gut. Sayre sprang to his feet, out of Nicholas's range, and jumped over him. Before Nicholas could spin around, Sayre had kicked him in the back. Pain flashed through his body. Nicholas rammed his foot into Sayre's knee, sending him stumbling back with a grunt. It didn't keep him from striking again with his other leg, nailing Nicholas in the kidneys. Black spots floated in front of his eyes. Nicholas punched, cracking Sayre's nose. Blood spurted everywhere. Nicholas aimed again, but the punch wasn't as powerful. The pain sapped his strength. Sayre dodged it and caught the blow to his cheek.

Sayre spun around and slammed another kick into Nicholas's stomach. Nicholas tried to strike out, but the blows kept coming. The spots pooled together, becoming one large dark mass, obliterating his vision.

“I'm gonna take care of your friends tonight,” Sayre said. He aimed at Nicholas's solar plexus.

Nicholas couldn't hold on. He dropped to the floor.

Sayre kept beating him. “Soon as they go to sleep, Lucas is gonna take 'em out.” He knelt, and whispered, “Then I'm gonna take care of your girlfriend. I'm gonna torment her dreams until she can't stand it no more, then I'm gonna find her and rape her until she begs me to kill her.”

Nicholas tried to move, spurred on by rage, but even a slight motion sent spasms of pain through him. No one would save her. Not the Rogues, if they survived. Not her
father, who wouldn't believe her. Not him, unless he could get out of here alive. Even his desperation couldn't overcome the pain immobilizing him.

“I'm not done with you yet,” Sayre said in a gravelly, low voice next to his ear. Blood dripped down his face and neck. “Before long, you'll be begging me to kill you, too.”

 

“Hell.” Eric, lying on the floor, remote-viewed Nicholas. “Sayre's beating the bejeezus out of him. He isn't going to take that much longer.”

“Sayre?” Lucas asked. “How the hell did that happen?”

“I can't watch.” As mad as he was at Nicholas, his stomach clenched at the sight of him getting pummeled. “I'm getting the block in Darkwell's office, but I can see the hallway and hear a woman sobbing. Has to be Olivia. She's giving him hell for killing Nicholas.” He came out of the vision. “She thinks he's already dead.”

Lucas rubbed his temples, still recovering from the storm that had revealed Nicholas's capture. “Dammit, we shouldn't have let him go alone.”

Eric continued to troll the estate. “I see three guards outside.” He pulled himself off the couch, shaking his head. “I can't do any more remote viewing and risk losing my strength, not if we're going in tonight.” And they would go in. No way could he leave Nicholas to die like that, not if he could help it.

He joined the others gathered around the table and studied the surroundings of the estate they'd printed from the Internet maps. With a red marker, he designated positions. “I saw outside guards here. We come in over the wall here, between these two guys, and take them by surprise. We have to take them out, understand? If we have any hope of doing this, we've got to eliminate as many as we can. And quietly.”

Amy jumped to her feet. “I'll contact Magnus.”

Lucas said, “One of the guns Nicholas took from Darkwell's men has a silencer. And we've got Steele's gun and the one Rand nabbed from the guy at Nicholas's house.”

Eric clenched his fist. “I'll take a knife.”

Zoe said, “Remember, these are just hired men who don't know what's really going on. Only kill when necessary.”

Eric rolled his eyes. “Yes, Mother. You and Rand can handle your guard as you see fit. Just make sure he's incapacitated.”

Amy returned to the living room. “We meet them in Bowie as fast as we can get there.”

“Do Wallace's sons have guns?” Eric asked.

“I don't know, but they have swords.” She gave them a crooked smile. “And they're damned good with them.”

O
livia's voice was hoarse, her face wet with tears. She had avoided looking at the man responsible for Nicholas's death. Now her anguish turned to anger.

“You're as bad as the terrorists.”

It amazed her, his calm expression. “You will change your mind once you come to your senses.”

“You think I'm going to
come to my senses
? Forget that you killed the man I love?” She stood in front of that damned massive desk, her fingers pressed against the top, her voice pitched in anger. “You think that's going to just go away? Is that what happened with my mother? You killed her, dumped her body, then went on with your life as if nothing had happened? Only a sociopath could do that.”

He seemed unmoved by her tirade and accusations. No, not unmoved completely. His eyes darkened, hard as onyx. “I want you to see that you have twice gone against my wishes to fall for a man who was wrong. Twice you have caused his death. Have you learned yet? Nicholas was already a target because of his betrayal, but his feelings for you brought him here. I wouldn't have had to send your boyfriend and his father out into the storm that night if it weren't for your disobedience.”

Her mouth dropped open. “You sent them? You said they left…don't you dare lay this on me! Coward! Take responsibility for what you've done.
You
are the murderer! The cold-blooded murderer. You destroyed our family, and so many other families. But you won't destroy me.”

She stalked to the door and opened it. The guard stood there, blocking the way. She body-checked him. He knocked her to the floor.

Her father was standing now, his face a cold mask. “Don't be afraid to hurt her if necessary. She's tougher than she looks.”

She got to her feet, facing him. Did he know her secret? “What are you going to do, keep me here forever? Lock me in a tower like Rapunzel? Because I'm never going to change my mind about Nicholas, or about you.”

“I'm afraid you can't leave here.” Only then did she see a flicker of emotion on his face. Regret. She had seen the same thing when he'd talked about her mother…about having to kill her.

 

The Rogues met Lachlan and Magnus in an empty parking lot. The brothers stepped out, wearing their Scottish regalia, though thankfully they'd left the swords in their truck. Both men had their hair bound in leather-covered ponytails. Amy had to admit, they looked freaking hot, like something right off the cover of one of those historical romances.

“What the hell?” Eric said, taking them in with disbelief.

Amy gave him a quelling look. “Guess I forgot to mention the attire.”

Lachlan was the first to march over, pointing at her. “You brought this.”

Lucas stepped between them. “Get your finger out of her face.”

Amy held up her hands as the rest of the Rogues took
defensive positions around her. “Hold it. Right now we're on the same team. We have one goal: We get in, cover each other's backs, and carry out our tasks.” She met both of the MacLeod gazes. “We have to work together.”

Lachlan didn't exactly agree, but he stopped accusing her, at least. They went over the estate's layout, making their plan.

Lucas marked four points between the guards on the estate's layout. “We go in two by two.”

Magnus said, “I'll go in first, assess the guards' movement. They won't see me.” That got all of their attention. “I can make myself invisible.”

“Not really invisible,” Lachlan added, his jealousy clear.

“I just change the way people see me. The energy around me changes.”

Amy said, “That's how you snuck up on me.”

Magnus nodded and pointed to a far corner of the property. “I'll go in and recon here.”

They synced their phones so each person had another's number on speed dial. Eric pointed to the sketch of the mansion. “Darkwell's office is here. I'm going there first to take him out. Lucas, find Nicholas, take care of Sayre. When I'm done, I'll meet you.”

Petra said, “I'll go with you, Lucas. It doesn't sound like Nicholas is going to walk out on his own.”

Amy put her arm around her. “But you've got to be careful.”

“I know. But what's the use of having this ability if I can't use it? I like Nicholas.”

Lucas looked at all of them. “If I drop, don't risk your lives trying to get me out.”

Eric gave him a sardonic smile. “Yeah, right, bro.”

Magnus said, “Let's move, mates. We're running out of time.”

They drove separately, Zoe and Rand on the bike, the rest of the Rogues in the 'Cuda with the MacLeod broth
ers following. As they neared Potomac, evil-looking clouds raced right to where they were going.

“What the hell?” Eric said from the driver's seat. “I checked the radar. There wasn't so much as a cloud.”

Lightning shattered the sky up ahead.

“Actually, it might help.” Lucas leaned forward for a better look from the passenger seat. “Rain could cover us, both visually and sound-wise.” He looked at Eric. “What, you afraid you're going to melt?”

“Yeah, 'cause I'm made of sugar.” He rolled his eyes. “I hate having to do this in the rain.”

“Probably not as much as Rand and Zoe will,” Lucas said, glancing to the right, where they rode on their bike.

Petra giggled from next to Amy. “No, I'm not laughing at them getting wet. I just got a message from Cheveyo. He sent the storm to do what Lucas said, help cover us.”

“He can manipulate the weather?
” they all asked in some variation at the same time.

She shrugged. “I guess so. You said it, Eric. There wasn't a cloud on the radar.”

When they reached the estate twenty minutes later, rain drove down in diagonal sheets. They parked their vehicles in different places.

Eric held out his hand for them to wait before getting out. “I want to check on Nicholas, see if he's still alive.” He sat back in the seat and closed his eyes. A minute later he turned around. “He is, but only because Sayre is having fun taunting him. But he sure doesn't look good.”

They met up to orient themselves. They had to talk over the rain and thunder. Magnus went over the wall, or at least she thought he did. As soon as he approached it, he disappeared.

They waited for his word. Several minutes later, Lachlan lifted his phone to his ear, shielding it from the rain. He called Amy. “The guards only walk a few yards in each direction.”

“Let's move,” Lucas said.

They got into their positions, and in the rain, they all seemed to disappear into the night. Lucas scaled the wall using the decorative light fixtures, then reached down and helped her up. They dropped, splashing down on the wet earth, and crept out from under the trees, scanning for the guards. They came up behind the man they were to drop. Lucas knocked him in the head with the butt of his gun, and Amy gagged him and tied his feet while Lucas tied his hands. The worst thing that might happen to him, other than a humongous headache, was he might drown in a puddle.

They ran to the front of the mansion, where they met Eric and Petra. They each gave a thumbs-up and went to the front entrance. Through the massive glass door they saw a guard. They needed to get his attention without his signaling to anyone that something might be up.

When he started to look in their direction, Petra leaned into his view and then out again. Just a glimpse of a beautiful blonde, enough to catch his eye but hopefully not create more than curiosity.

The man opened the door and leaned out. Petra stepped out of the bushes, her arms wrapped around herself. “Thank God someone's home.”

Before he could put together that the woman shouldn't be there, Eric came up from the side and knocked him in the back of the head. They pulled him into the bushes and tied him up. Eric gave them a derisive look, but he complied. Amy wasn't sure if he was really as bloodthirsty as he acted, at least most of the time.

They crept inside and closed the door, leaving puddles as they went up the stairs. Eric kept his gun aimed down in case someone walked in from below. Lucas kept his gun aimed up.

The most dangerous part was turning the corner to go down the hall where Darkwell's office was. Eric closed his
eyes and remote-viewed it. He held up a finger: one guard. This one they would have to incapacitate immediately. She hated this part. Petra did, too, by the nervous way she wrung her hands.

The men mouthed
one, two, three
and stepped into the hallway, guns aimed. She heard the
thwump
of the silenced guns and a
thump
as a body hit the floor. Lucas and Eric dashed down the hallway, Petra and Amy on their heels. They burst into the second door on the right and found Darkwell and Olivia.

“Freeze, you son of a bitch!” Eric aimed the gun at him. “Where's Nicholas?”

Darkwell's eyes were wide in shock as he stood. Lightning flashed into the room, followed by thunder.

Olivia shot to her feet, feeling both relief and fear that they'd come. “He's
dead
.” She could hardly utter the words.

Her father remained calm, his mind calculating behind his dark eyes. “How did you get in here?” He was buying time. Olivia saw Amy watching his hands.

“Where is Nicholas?” Lucas asked again. “He's not dead. You put him in with Sayre.”

Not dead.
Had she heard that right? Then the other words hit her. She looked at her father. “
You put him in with Sayre?
”

Amy's mouth tightened. “He's as much a monster as Sayre Andrus is. He killed our parents. Yes, we know you had them killed. I haven't had the chance to tell you yet.” She turned to Lucas. “Wallace told me not all the subjects' deaths were suicide or accident. Your father and mother were murdered, just like my dad.”

Darkwell took a step back, surprise on his expression. “I didn't have them killed. They held the keys to the future of our country.” His eyes shone with the truth of that. “Do you think I would destroy what I created?”

His hand slipped down behind the desk and came up with a gun. A flame erupted on his sleeve, and he re
leased the gun with a scream. Another flame started on the other sleeve and in seconds his arms were engulfed. Olivia couldn't believe what she was seeing. Flames, out of nowhere.

The smell of burning hair, then flesh filled the room. Darkwell threw off his jacket, sending it toward the French doors. The heavy drapes instantly caught fire. The flames on the drapes caught the carpet, and a trail moved across the room. The smoke alarm went off, pealing in ear-shattering waves. Round discs fell from the ceiling over the fire and sprinkler heads popped out. What looked like soap bubbles sprayed the fire and spit everywhere.

The foam stung Olivia's eyes, and she covered them. She looked when the sound of the sprinklers ceased a minute later. Her father was gone. The foam hadn't covered every surface, though. The fire still raged along the credenza behind the desk and the top of the drapes.

Eric wiped the foam from his eyes. “Where is he?”

Lucas looked around. “He must have stood beneath one of the sprinklers.”

Eric dashed after him. The flames raced across the desk and surrounded it.

Olivia shouted, “We have to find Nicholas! I know where Sayre is!”

She closed the door behind them to keep the flames in the room. A second later, though, it raced beneath the door, across the hall, and set that door aflame. They heard a
whoosh
inside as flame caught to fabric. Outside Darkwell's office, the sprinklers only sprayed water. It wasn't enough to quell the superhot flames Eric had created.

“Oh, my God.” Olivia looked to the ceiling, her heart imploding. “Sayre's above that room. And Nicholas…his nightmare. He's going to die in the fire.”

 

Nicholas could barely breathe. Sayre leaned over him, his breath washing over him. Rain pelted the window
in waves, and thunder made it rattle. The lightning made Sayre look more sinister, almost surreal, in the dimly lit room. He was thoroughly enjoying himself if his smile was any indication.

He lifted a knife. “This is my souvenir from my little foray with Olivia. How fitting that I get to use it on you.”

Between the gag and what he thought was a broken jaw, he couldn't talk.

A
thump
got his attention. “Don't know what they're doing down there.”

Blood poured out of Nicholas's nose, and his eye was swollen shut. From the excruciating pain, he knew his insides were a bloody pulp. Every breath was tight; he was sure his lung had collapsed.

He wasn't supposed to die like this. Had his fate changed?

For a second he thought the smell of smoke was his imagination. Sayre sniffed the air.

An alarm went off downstairs.

“
Again.
”

Smoke drifted beneath the door to the stairs. Sayre went to the window and twisted to see down. “Holy shit! There's flames coming out the window below this room.”

Nicholas didn't think he'd ever welcome the nightmare come to life, but now he did. Burning would be better than dying by Sayre's hand. He managed a smile, though he doubted it looked like one. Sayre would die, too.

They heard a sound below, like a door opening. Sayre turned. Darkwell stood there, gun pointed. With him came the sharp smell of smoke and…burnt flesh. His face was blackened on one side, his hair melted. The skin on his hands was blistered.

Sayre tucked the knife behind his back. “Hey, good thing you came to get me out of here!”

“You know too much. I'm afraid you're going to have to—”

Sayre didn't wait for him to finish. He tackled Darkwell, knife out. The gun fired, but the bullet went wild, hitting the wall. Sayre slashed Darkwell's leg, and the man screamed in agony. He kneed Sayre in the groin, and the knife dropped. The men struggled. Damn, if only Nicholas could get the hell out of there. He could hardly move, much less escape. But he could do something. The knife had dropped only a few inches away. He reached out, his fingers touching the handle. He couldn't get a grip on it without moving closer.