Relentless (Option Zero 2)

He’d been right about the cell. It was newer and in better condition than the other one. Something else he noticed was the camera. There had been an obvious microphone in his other cell, but this one had both a mic and a camera in the corner. They could see and hear everything.

The reason they’d brought him to this one was easy to figure out. At that realization, his gut twisted. They wanted him to make a connection with Cat. Once he had, they would use her to make him talk. There was no other reason to bring them together. And he’d fallen right in with their plan.

He had taken an oath to protect and defend his country. He would do that to his last breath. The secrets he held were substantial and deadly serious. A lot of people would die if he spilled his guts. Weighing that against what would happen to Cat wasn’t easy, but he knew one irrefutable truth. No matter if he spilled his secrets—told every single thing he knew—Cat would not be spared. Yeah, they’d use her to get to him, but once they were through with her, then what? There was another reason she’d been grabbed from a Paris marketplace and brought here to Syria. The fact that there were other women here, too, was a good indicator of what would happen once they’d finished with her.

He was going to have to do some quick thinking if he and Cat were going to survive what lay ahead for them.

Chapter Three

The sound of harsh coughing jerked Liam awake. Cat’s breathing sounded more labored than it had earlier. If she didn’t get medical care soon, she wasn’t going to survive. The infection had set up in her lungs and sounded like severe bronchitis. If left untreated, she’d develop pneumonia, if she hadn’t already.

“Cat?”

“Lion?” She hacked another cough and then added, “Are you awake?”

“Yeah, I’m awake. How you

doing?”

“Okay, I guess.”

He didn’t believe it for a moment. She sounded awful, but one of the many things he’d learned in their long conversations with each other—Cat was not a complainer.

“You get any sleep?”

“A little. It’s awfully quiet. I’m used to city noises.”

“Caldoria has big cities?”

“Cal…?” She gave a little laugh and then coughed again. After several seconds of coughing, she finally caught her breath and answered, “Yes, we have several large cities.”

“Bet it gets confusing to keep naming children with names that start with a C.”

“It does. In fact, I have decided to make a change. Upon a royal decree, we are going to allow another letter into our kingdom.”

“Oh really. What is it?”

“L.”

Liam grinned. “Then I’ll just have to come for a visit.”

“When we get out of here, I’ll send you an official invitation.” She paused for a second and then added, all humor gone, “Will we get out of here?”

“Yes, we will. I promise you, Cat.”

“How can you be sure?”

“Because we’re still alive. If they’d wanted us dead, they would have killed us already.”

“I’m not sure that’s much of a comfort.”

Probably not, but the fairy tales could last only so long. One eventually had to face the harsh reality of life. And this was about as harsh as it could get.

“Can I ask you something…something personal?”

“You can ask me anything, Cat.”

“Okay, thanks. Umm. What do you look like?”