Maverick (Elite Ops 2)

“Try to put another agent with her and we’ll all regret it,” he stated harshly.

Jordan’s lips parted to speak when a choked cry drew his and Micah’s gaze back to Risa.

Her eyes were open. Her face was sheet-white now, her body tense, her expression still dazed but bordering on complete horror.

Her gaze swung from Jordan to Micah. Micah had never seen such fear in anyone’s eyes in his life.

“I want to get out of this bed.”

Risa hadn’t known such complete horror since her incarceration at the clinic where Jansen Clay had placed her eight years before, after the SEALs had rescued her, Emily, and Carrie from Diego Fuentes’s cells. Risa had been unconscious during the rescue. But when she awoke, she’d been strapped to a bed, drugged, groggy. For nearly two years she had remained in a state of sedated hell.

She’d been sedated again. She could feel the grogginess, the inability to function as she wanted to, and it terrified her. Adrenaline began racing through her body, making the effects of the sedative worse. She felt the haze in her mind, the panic fighting to overcome it, and the knowledge that she couldn’t help herself. She couldn’t fight it. She had to get away from him, and she couldn’t make her body move.

The scent of disinfectant wrapped around her senses, threatening to force her to throw up. She could feel the cramps in her stomach, the fear that battled with her efforts to make sense of what was going on.

Micah was with her. He wouldn’t let her be harmed, she reminded herself. He’d promised to protect her.

“Risa?” Micah tucked a heavy strand of hair behind her ear as his thumb caressed her cheek. “Do you remember the wreck?”

She nodded quickly. She remembered it in that fuzzy, out-of-this-world way. “I remember it all. Now get me out of here.”

She saw the look he exchanged with Jordan. God, they were going to make her stay. They couldn’t make her stay.

His lips parted to speak.

“Micah, I can’t function here,” she rasped, breathing roughly. “Please don’t make me try. I know I was drugged. I remember the wreck and the man trying to force me into his vehicle. I remember the injection. I know I’m safe.” Her voice broke on a sob. “Don’t make me stay here.”

It was a hospital. It was filled with doctors who would lie to her and slide the needle into her arm no matter what she wanted. There were nurses who only followed orders, and who stepped away when they were told to.

She couldn’t separate the present from the past. Bleak, black memories of the sedated hell she had lived within for nearly two years washed over her again.

A hard hand gripping her arm. The flesh was soft, so soft, but the hand was thick and heavy. A male hand. A needle punching into her arm, anger in his voice.

You should kill her and have done with it, the voice whispered through her mind. A cultured voice, almost foreign. It resonated with superiority and condescending hatefulness. She’s a weakness we can’t afford.

A man doesn’t kill his own child. That had been Jansen’s reply. No matter how dismally ugly she is. For the moment she’s of use to me. And to you. We need to know if your drug works.

The drug was horrifying.

Risa shook her head, fighting against the memories as Micah’s voice drew her back to the present. Something about staying, about letting the doctors check her.

She shook her head desperately.

“I’ll be fine.” She had to get out of here before the past overcame her and left her screaming in horror. “Get me out of here, Micah. Now. I can’t bear it.”

She watched his expression tighten for a moment as he stared down at her. There was a battle waging in his eyes, and she was terrified she was going to come out on the losing end of whatever he was considering.

“Micah.” Her hand tightened on his wrist as she struggled to push away the fog wrapping around her senses. “I can’t…” Her voice caught on a sob, and she hated that. “Please, don’t make me stay.”

Fear clawed at her stomach, sucked the oxygen from her lungs, and made it hard to breathe.

“Jordan, have the car brought around,” he suddenly decided.

“Micah, she’s in no shape to leave,” Jordan protested quietly. “The doctor needs to examine her. We need to be certain she’s not going to have a reaction to the drug she was given.”

“Please,” she whispered. “Don’t make me stay.”

He had sworn he would protect her, that he wouldn’t let her be hurt. She trusted him. The very fact that she wasn’t locked in hysteria attested to her trust in him. But she knew if he didn’t take her out of here, she would never trust him again. The knowledge of it seared inside her brain. She couldn’t exist here, not even for another moment.