"I would quit breathing for her, if she asked it of me," he replied, surprising even himself with the depth of his devotion. He looked to Chase, who still owed him that second favor from last night. "What do you think? You got any pull left in the Boston Darkhaven to help me get a spot with the Agency?"
Chase smirked, lifting his shoulder in a casual shrug. "I might." He strode toward the weapons cabinet and took out a SIG Sauer. "But first things first, eh? We have to get your female back here in one piece so she can decide if she wants your sorry ass for a mate."
"We?" Dante said, watching the former Darkhaven agent suit up with the SIG and another semiauto. "Yeah, we. I'm going with you."
"What the--"
"Me too," Niko said, sauntering over and pulling out his own cache of weapons. The Russian grinned as he nodded toward Lucan, Gideon, and Tegan. "You're not going to leave me down here with these Gen One geezers, are you?"
"No one's coming with me. I wouldn't ask it--"
"You never have to," Niko said. "Like it or not, D, Chase and I are all you've got on this mission. You 're not doing this alone."
Dante swore, humbled and grateful for the show of support. "All right, then. Let's get moving."
Chapter Thirty-five
With the knife biting into her neck to keep her silent, Ben forced Tess out of her building and into a waiting car on the street. He smelled bad, like soured blood and sweat and a hint of decay. His clothes were filthy and wrinkled, his normally golden hair unkempt, hanging lank and unwashed into his brow. As he shoved her into the backseat of the car, Tess caught a glimpse of his eyes. They were dull and flat, staring at her with a cold detachment that made her skin crawl.
And Ben wasn't alone.
Two other men waited in the car, both seated in the front, both sharing the same vacant glint in their eyes.
"Where is it, Tess?" Ben asked as he closed the door and shut them inside the dark vehicle. "I left a little something at the clinic the other day, but now it's not there. What did you do with it?"
The flash drive he'd lied about concealing. Which was currently in Dante's possession. As much as she doubted Dante after all she had learned about him, what she felt for Ben now was even stronger. She met his disturbingly lifeless gaze and shook her head.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Wrong answer, Doc."
Tess wasn't at all prepared for the fist that shot out at her and connected with the side of her head. She cried out, falling hard against the seat and cradling the pain that was exploding in her face.
"Maybe you'll think more clearly at the clinic," Ben said. At his indication, the driver punched the gas and the car sped up the street. Tess's vision swam as they made the drive from the North End to her clinic in East Boston. Ben's van was parked around back, right next to Nora's vintage Beetle.
"Oh, God," Tess murmured, heartsick to see her assistant's car. "What have you done to her, Ben? Tell me you haven't hurt Nora--"
"Come along, Doc," he said, ignoring her question as he opened the door beside him and motioned to her with the knife to get moving.
Tess climbed out as directed, followed by Ben and the two goons who accompanied him. They brought her in through the back of the clinic, through the storeroom and into the empty kennel area. Ben shoved her forward, into the clinic's lobby. The place was trashed, file cabinets tossed over and emptied onto the floor, furniture smashed, chemicals and pharmaceuticals spilled all over the floor. The destruction was total, but it wasn't until Tess saw Nora that her breath caught on a sob.
She was lying on the floor behind the reception station, her head coming up as Tess was brought near. They had tied her hands and feet with a telephone cord and gagged her mouth with a length of gauze from the medical supplies. Nora was crying, her face ashen, her eyes puffed and red from what looked to have been hours of torment. But she was alive, and that alone kept Tess from losing it completely.
"Oh, Nora," she said brokenly. "I'm so sorry. I'll get you out of this, I promise."
Beside her, Ben chuckled. "I'm glad to hear you say that, Doc. Because little Nora's fate depends solely on you now."
"What? What do you mean?"
"You're going to help us find that flash drive, or you're going to watch as I slit the bitch's throat in front of you."
Behind the gag in her mouth, Nora screamed. She started struggling wildly against her bonds, all in vain. One of Ben's big companions went over and hauled her to her feet, holding Nora in a bruising grip. He dragged her closer, until no more than a couple of feet separated the women. Nora pleaded with her eyes, sheer panic making her tremble like a leaf in her captor's hard grasp.
"Let her go, Ben. Please."
"Hand over the flash drive, and I will let her go, Tess."
Nora moaned, the sound imploring, desperate. Tess knew real terror then, a bone-deep dread that only bore further into her as she looked into her friend's eyes and realized that Ben and these other men were deadly serious. They were going to kill Nora--probably Tess as well--if she didn't give them what they wanted. And she couldn't give it to them, because she didn't have it.