Top Gun Tiger (Protection, Inc 7)

Ransom slowly looked up. Destiny hadn’t gotten a good look at him before, but now she saw that he had a lean and angular face, with auburn hair and high cheekbones. He was handsome, she supposed, or would be if not for the hollow-eyed stare that she remembered all too well from Shane and Justin.

“You’re too late,” he said.

“What do you mean?” Merlin asked. “What did they do to you?”

Ransom didn’t answer. His gaze drifted away from their faces, then sharpened as he seemed to track something moving across the room behind them. All three of them whipped around, snatching for their tranquilizer rifles. But nothing was there. Puzzled, Destiny turned back, and saw Ransom continuing to watch whatever invisible thing he was seeing until it apparently stopped right behind her.

“He’s coming closer,” he said.

The hairs on the back of her neck stood up. Crazy as it was, she couldn’t bear to stay there, feeling like a cold hand or slimy tentacle might grab her from behind at any second. She edged aside. Ransom continued to watch the space where she had been.

“What are you looking at?” she asked.

He gave her about the bleakest stare she’d ever seen. “Everything. Even when I close my eyes. I’ll never see darkness again.”

“You guys,” Merlin broke in. “He’s obviously been drugged.”

Destiny sure hoped that was all it was. But she couldn’t help looking at Ethan, who gave her the briefest head-shake: don’t say it.

“Yeah,” Ethan said. “That’s right. Ransom, whatever you’re feeling is temporary. It’ll go away once whatever they gave you wears off.”

“It’s not going to ‘go away.’” There was an edge of bitter mockery in his voice. “I was already standing on the edge of a cliff. They pushed me over. I’ll never stop falling.”

“There’s no point talking to him,” Merlin said impatiently. “He’s completely off his head. He probably won’t even remember any of this tomorrow. We’ll just have to cross our fingers he doesn’t say something weird to the first guard we meet.”

Ransom shot Merlin an irritated look. As if annoyance had broken through his haze of despair, he said in a much more normal tone, “You’re the compulsive talker, not me.”

“Guys,” Ethan broke in. “We have to get out of here. Now.”

“Wait,” Destiny said. “That collar. Is it going to set off an alarm or… something… if you walk out wearing it?”

Or explode, she thought. From the expression on Merlin’s face, she was pretty sure he was thinking the same thing.

“Or explode?” Ransom asked, as if he didn’t particularly care. He shrugged. “No idea.”

“I wonder why you have one and I don’t,” Merlin said.

Examining the collar, Ethan said, “Whatever it’s for, we’ll have to get it off later. I think it’ll take special tools.”

His expression didn’t betray anything, but Destiny knew him well enough to guess that he was thinking, And a bomb defuser, just in case.

He helped Ransom up and led him to the door. Ransom didn’t lean on Ethan, like a drugged or wounded man would do, but walked haltingly, using him as a guide like a blind person might. In fact, if she hadn’t seen him focusing on her face earlier, she might have thought he was blind.

He doesn’t need to say a thing to give us away, Destiny thought. The first guard we meet is going to take one look at him and raise the alarm.

Merlin, obviously thinking the same thing, said, “Maybe we should leave him here, find Pete, radio out, and collect him on the way back. I could stay with him.”

Destiny’s tiger put in, No beast should be left locked in a cage.

Destiny had to agree. “No. God knows what might happen to him—or you—if we do that.”

Ethan backed her up. “We all stay together. If anyone tries to stop us, we stop them.”

With a final dubious glance at Ransom, Merlin raised his ID and opened the door. To Destiny’s immense relief, the collar did not explode, no alarms went off, and the corridor was empty. They looked for more rooms with “Subject” labels, but found only offices, storage areas, and unmarked empty cells. The corridor ended in a heavy, reinforced door.

“He’s here,” Ransom said.

A tremendous roar shook the air. Something crashed into the door, denting it and cracking the wall around it.