Chapter Seventeen

Carys came awake slowly, the peaceful darkness peeling back in nausea-inducing strips. There was light—too much light—and she could hear the sound of boards creaking. Something was moving.

Her brain was heavy, filled with cobwebs she tried to push aside.

Something had happened. She’d been with Kala in the bar talking about Tris and then… Kala. Something had happened to Kala.

She forced her eyes open. Where was her cousin?

“It would be better if you went back to sleep, Carys,” a voice whispered from her left. “Pretend if you have to. I don’t want to get to the torture part of our day.”

They’d been in the bar at the hotel, and someone had drugged them. Except there was a problem with that scenario. Her head was so foggy she barely registered what that voice had told her.

She forced her eyes open because panic was starting to push all that fog to the side. She tried to move her legs but came up against some kind of resistance.

“Or you could ignore me.”

There was no way to mistake the sarcastic tone. Kala.

Carys forced herself to breathe, to take stock of where she was. On her back, staring up at a vaulted ceiling. There was a circle of light above her, bright light. Was that a surgical lamp? “What? Where?”

She heard the sound of someone speaking in French in the distance.

“And now he knows we’re both awake,” Kala said quietly. “Remember we’re on a mission, Ms. Taggart.”

Why the hell was her cousin calling her Ms. Taggart?

The night flooded back. The mission. They weren’t supposed to be cousins. Kala was supposed to be her bodyguard. She remembered right before the world had gone dark someone else had called her Ms. Taggart. “What happened?”

She heard the sound of a door opening, and terror threatened to overwhelm her. But she couldn’t seem to move her limbs with any precision. A light came on, brightening the room to a painful degree. That was when she realized she was on some sort of exam table.

“Well, turns out beyond researching new neurological therapies and drugs, the Huisman Foundation also dabbles in ways to make date rape easier,” came Kala’s reply.

A deep chuckle slithered through the room. “Ah, not true. We created these particular drugs to make it easier to take out the people I need taken out. Date rape is simply a secondary use, though I suspect I’ll make some money off of it. Welcome, Ms. Taggart.”

Carys felt her stomach roll but forced herself to focus. She knew that cultured voice. Aidan had listened to some of his lectures in preparation for the symposium that wasn’t going to happen now. At least not with them attending. “You’re making a mistake, Dr. Huisman.”

“Am I? Or am I fulfilling a long-term plan?”

He wasn’t looking down at her. She turned her head toward where the voice had come from and realized Huisman was standing over Kala, who was laid out on another exam table.

Carys tried to move her arms, but she felt the restraints around her wrists.

So like the ones Aidan and Tris had used on her, and for such utterly different reasons. It was odd how the same items could cause such various reactions based on who was using them. When Tris and Aidan tied her down, she felt safe, beloved, and worshipped. These scared the hell out of her. “I’m Ms. Taggart, by the way. She’s just my bodyguard. And she didn’t do a great job. Those test strips didn’t work. Someone should talk to your boss.”

Another chuckle and Huisman turned, unblocking the view of Kala’s body. Unlike Carys, she wasn’t tied down. Her arms were at her sides, her legs unrestrained.

Why wasn’t she killing this fucker?

Huisman took the three steps separating the tables and looked down at Carys. He was a handsome man in photos, with dark hair and seemingly intelligent eyes. His hair was slightly long, brushing the bottom of his earlobes. He had a full mouth, but his eyes held something Carys couldn’t explain. Something that scared the fuck out of her.

This was the real Huisman. The mask was gone, and his insanity was clear in those dark eyes. This was the man Parker had talked about, the one who wanted to burn the world down.

“Yeah, I’m probably going to get fired after this,” Kala said, only her mouth moving.

“I seriously doubt she’ll get fired. As for you, Ms. Taggart, you’re slow. The drugs are definitely harder on your system. We’ve already gone over this. The drugs I gave you aren’t covered by those test strips whores use,” Huisman said, the almost kindly smile on his face betrayed by his words. He slid two fingers under the restraint, pressing against her pulse. “I have some very intelligent people working for me. They’re also morally ambiguous, which I find helpful. Now that we have the explanations done, I can tell you how surprised I am to see you here, Ms. Taggart. I was expecting the other one.”

“Other one? I don’t have a sister. I have three brothers, and one of them has a particular set of skills.” She was starting to feel stronger.

“You’re fine,” he said with another chuckle. “And I scarcely think Kyle Hawthorne is the one I should be worried about. Like I said, you are not supposed to be here. I wanted the other Taggart. I wanted her sister.”

A chill snaked up Carys’s spine. “What are you talking about? She doesn’t have a sister.”

Kala stayed silent.

“Oh, she has two, and a pretty cousin who unfortunately got caught in my net,” Huisman said with a shake of his head.

“You were after Tasha.” The words seemed forced out of Kala’s throat.

“Yes. It’s precisely why I sent my men in when I did. I’ll be honest, I didn’t know if it would work. I thought I could get the whole team here, but I wasn’t sure who they would send in with the idiot residents,” Huisman admitted. “Though you should know some of Dr. O’Donnell’s ideas are interesting. I’ll probably steal them and pass them off as my own.”

“I don’t understand why you want Tasha.” Carys was confused.

“I don’t understand how he knows,” Kala added quietly. “I don’t exist. There’s nothing to tie me to Tasha.”

“Nothing if one only started looking a few years ago,” Huisman conceded. “I will admit the CIA does an excellent job. They scrubbed your existence clean. No social media. No government records. No birth certificate tying you to Ian Taggart. I often wonder how much it hurt your parents. Did they feel the ache when they realized playing spy was more important to you and your twin than being their child?”

“You should ask them,” Kala replied. “Bring them in. See what they say.”

“I think I’ll avoid being in the same room with your parents, though it will be interesting to see what they do.” Huisman sounded amused at the idea. “To answer your question about how I knew when all precautions were taken, well, it’s because my grandfather kept careful records. After Mr. Taggart set in motion the events that would lead to my father’s death, my grandfather made a careful study of everyone involved. I have all the real records, including what I feel is a well done but faked birth certificate for one Natasha Federova. I suppose they did that because if her Russian birth was known, the adoption wouldn’t have gone through. And Kenzie and Kala Taggart. You might no longer exist in the official records, but you are in my books.”

“You know my father wasn’t even there, asshole,” Kala managed.

“No, but he’s the reason everything happened. He gave those criminals the resources they needed to escape Interpol,” he explained, his tone going dark and stubborn. “If your father hadn’t helped those men he called The Lost Boys, they would have been in jail or dead, and then the man who shot my father wouldn’t have been in Canada. My father would be here today. I wouldn’t have been left with…” He seemed to shake something off. “The point is, your father interfered with the natural order of things, and now you will pay the price. The sins of your father will be visited upon you, the daughter he can’t claim on paper.”

“I assure you a piece of paper won’t mean anything to my uncle,” Carys promised. “And it won’t merely be him after you. My whole family will go to war for this. You have no idea what my father and uncles will do to you.”

“Don’t be a misogynist,” Kala quipped. “You know it’ll be my mom and Aunt Erin who take this dude’s balls.”

Huisman ignored them. “I wonder what your sister will do after you cease to be. Will she take over the role and Ms. Magenta will go on? A sad existence when you think about it. They won’t be able to bring you back. You consigned all those years to the void, and for what? So you could try to prop up a dying society.”

“Why would you trick us into coming here?” Carys asked. The last thing she wanted to do was lie here and listen to the rantings of a mad man. “I don’t understand why you would come after me and Aidan.”

She needed to figure out what the man knew, though it seemed like he knew everything.

“Because it’s time.” Huisman sat down on the tall, wheeled stool in between the exam beds. “Because Benjamin is closing in on me. He’ll have what he needs soon enough, so it’s time to play offense. I’m not about to allow him to smear my good name. I’d rather do it myself.”

“Why Tasha?” Kala said, the words sounding croaky.

“Oh, I like to keep a few things to myself. I wondered if you knew, but it seems there are secrets even in the team. But I can tell you she serves a different purpose than you will,” Huisman replied.

Kala still didn’t move. Carys’s brain was starting to work again. It wasn’t natural how still her cousin was. “What did you give her?”

“It’s an experimental paralytic. She’s got an IV, so don’t think it will wear off. I’m not foolish. I know my enemies well, and she would kill me in a heartbeat. It probably won’t stop her lungs from functioning. Most of the rats I’ve tried it on survived,” he said as though they were talking about the weather and not her cousin being experimented on. “She came out of the sedative very quickly. Likely she’s built up a resistance to all kinds of things. Interesting girl. I can see why she’s attractive to Benjamin. I wonder if he knows there are two of her? I think not. Don’t worry. I won’t tell him. Although after I’m done, there will be only one of you, so I’m saving you a difficult conversation.”

Carys felt her stomach turn. How were they here? She’d been happy and safe with her men and she’d left because she hadn’t been willing to tell them she was still worried. She hadn’t wanted to fight. “You can’t kill her.”

She hadn’t fought at all. She’d gotten her feelings hurt and locked herself in a corner rather than doing what she should have done and going after her man. Tris had been worried she would put herself in danger to try to “save” him. How had he felt when she’d stopped talking to him?

Huisman’s face was back to looming over Carys’s. “I assure you I can. It’s easy. Do you see this room? It’s my old room. This is the house I grew up in.”

“We’re in Toronto?” Kala asked, avoiding the whole I’m-going-to-kill-you portion of Huisman’s villain act.

“Yes, this is where it all began, so I think it’s a good place to start the next portion of my life. After today I’ll have what I need to make my statement.” Huisman crossed one leg over the other, looking casual. “I knew this time was coming when I realized who knows where the bombmaker is. Or at least how to find the bombmaker. I need that brilliance if I’m going to start to set the world right.”

“Right?” Kala asked, sounding a bit stronger. “Come on, man. If you’re going to murder me, you have to monologue better. It’s easy to see you’re going to have some great ‘burn the world down for the sake of humanity’ kind of bullshit to share.”

A look of disdain crossed Huisman’s face. “I don’t care about humanity. The world would be better without so much so-called humanity.”

“Oooo, cool. We’re going the Thanos route.” Even without use of her limbs, Kala’s whole being managed to convey sarcasm. “You going to snap those fingers and get rid of a percentage of the population?”

“Nothing so simple. I don’t merely want people to die. I want them to suffer. I want them to learn. When I’ve caused a sufficient amount of chaos to force society to fail, I’ll come in and offer a different way. My way.” Huisman stood. “Society is a bloated whale. You know what happens when a whale dies? They rot and explode and ruin everything around it. However, they also feed the smaller creatures. I’m going to make sure the whale explodes, and I’ll be the one to control what happens after. Starting with your family and Benjamin Parker. I’ve watched him. He’s obsessed with the woman he knows as Ms. Magenta. I’ve only seen him this way about one woman before. I killed her, too.”

Carys was starting to get the feeling back in her limbs just in time for a chill to cross her skin. “Won’t it be better to keep her alive? To torture her? It would kill her father knowing she’s alive and he can’t get to her.”

“Thanks, cousin,” Kala said. “It won’t work.”

“It won’t, because I have so many choices.” Huisman clapped his hands with apparent glee. “He has so many children. I’ll have fun going through them one by one. And a grandchild already. I’ll finish with his wife, and then I’ll leave him alive with only hate in his heart. As I’ve lived for years.”

There was a knock on the door, and Carys lifted her head to watch a big man in fatigues walk in.

“Ils sont éveillés,” he said.

“Emmenez-les dans la salle à manger,” Huisman replied. “Ladies, I will have to leave you here for now, though someone will come for Ms. Taggart in a moment. Carys, that is. I’ll keep Taggart’s pit bull where she is for now. I hope he wants you safe. You should hope he has some affection for your family.”

“Tristan loves me, but he doesn’t know anything,” Carys said.

“Tris knows everything,” Kala replied. “He’ll tell you what you want to know. He’ll do whatever you want as long as you don’t hurt Carys.”

“He’s not The Jester,” Carys insisted.

“Shut the fuck up, Car.” Kala had a single tear sliding from her eye. “You let Tris take whatever he has to. He said they’re awake. This is going down soon. Apparently in the dining room, unless this fucker is going to serve them a four-course meal before he kills us all.”

Huisman was behind her rather than following his guard out. She heard him moving around and then he was at Kala’s side, a needle in his hand. He pushed it into the injector cap. “I won’t kill you yet, but as long as you’re here you can let me know if this works.”

“What are you doing to her?” Carys felt panic well again. “What’s in that?”

He pulled the needle away, holding it up. “In this? Another experimental drug. This one should make her feel like her veins are on fire for…” He glanced down at his watch. “Well, I’m hoping for hours, but we’ll have to see. Watch the clock for me, Dr. Taggart. Though it pains me to call you a doctor when you’re nothing more than a glorified midwife. If you ask me, childbirth should be a test, and if a woman can’t fulfill her role, let her die. It’s one of the places we went wrong, putting all those resources into saving weak women.”

Kala’s eyes had closed. A paralytic would hold her in place but without a sedative…

Kala’s mouth came open, a scream shaking the room.

“Ah, there it is.” Huisman nodded as though satisfied. “Watch her for me. Don’t worry. Someone will come in and gag her. I wouldn’t leave you having to listen to a hysterical female. That would truly be torture.”

Kala was screaming as he walked through the door, and Carys tried not to give in to despair.

* * * *

“Where do you think we are?” Zach stood in the middle of the great room of what appeared to be a mansion of some kind. He whispered the words since they were surrounded by guards. “Whatever they gave us knocked me on my ass.”

Which meant they had no sense of time or even how they’d gotten where they were. At least they’d been released from the restraints he’d woken up in. Tristan had come to in the back of a van beside Zach. They’d both been led through a big garage and into this massive house. They’d passed through a living room with furniture still under dust covers and white drapes that let in enough light to let him know it was day. Likely morning.

When they’d made it to the elegant dining room, one of the guards had taken the cuffs off.

Unfortunately, they were up against heavily armed guards, and he had no idea where Carys was and who was guarding her. He didn’t know what the instructions were concerning her if he misbehaved. “No idea, man. But we have to play this cool.”

“We have to figure out what he wants and give it to him.” Zach glanced around, keeping his voice low. “I know you don’t trust me right now, but I swear I’m going to make you understand. When he asks if you’re The Jester, admit to it. I’ll back you up. We’ve been making money behind the Agency’s back. He’ll trust us more if he thinks we’re corrupt.”

It was the same plan he’d come up with, but he wasn’t sure if he could trust Zach. He was sure he didn’t have much of a choice. “I’ll do the talking. You back me up.” He prayed Zach was right and there was a reasonable explanation for what he’d learned back in the suite. “Do you have a count?”

“Four in here,” Zach whispered out of the side of his mouth. “But we had five on us at one point. I think he went to inform our host we’re here. No. He’s back. At your nine on the balcony.”

There was a balcony landing that ran from one side of the house to the other, looking over the great rooms. Sure enough, there was a guard standing there.

So they had five known guns on them.

There were rooms off the balcony, and one of the doors opened.

He heard a long scream before Huisman walked through and shut the door, the sound dulling.

“Was that Carys?” Tristan felt his heart threaten to seize.

“Stay fucking calm,” Zach hissed. “You make a move and we’ll be back in cuffs. We have to wait until the time is right. At least we know where she is.”

They would have to take out all the guards in order to get upstairs, and even then, he couldn’t be sure what they were going into.

Chaos. Huisman had plunged them into chaos. He’d known exactly what he was doing. He’d attacked before they’d thought a sane man would and given them absolutely no time to prepare. All their recon had been done on Huisman’s Montreal compound and the foundation building. Somehow he didn’t think they were close to either.

Huisman was saying something, and then the guard disappeared behind the door, that terrible scream threatening to shake the walls again. The door closed and Huisman started toward the stairs. “Welcome, Mr. Dean-Miles. Or should I call you The Jester?”

Good. They wouldn’t have to explain. “Call me pissed off. Is that Carys Taggart screaming?”

He needed control. He made every word cold as ice because showing how panicked he was at the thought of Carys in pain would give Huisman what he wanted.

“Not at all.” Huisman jogged down the steps. He was dressed in slacks and a black button-down, expensive loafers on his feet. He looked like an upscale doctor, not the fucking psychopath he obviously was. “I’m actually quite sorry she got caught up in this negotiation of ours. I know you will find this hard to believe, but I don’t have anything against her besides her last name. You plan on changing her name? Or did you actually move on? I rather thought I saw you at their wedding, though you weren’t dressed as a guest. I can’t be sure. The imbeciles I was forced to work with couldn’t cut into the security cameras, so I had to rely on the drone.” A grin hit his lips. “That was a spectacular crash, by the way. I’ve watched it at least fifty times.”

“So it was you who hired the mercenaries?” Tris tried to keep the question somewhat casual. If Huisman was going to be civil, he would keep it that way as long as possible. “I’m afraid I didn’t understand the logic behind that particular move.”

Had they found the trackers both he and Zach had in their arms? He hadn’t woken up with a gaping hole in his bicep, so he thought not. If he hadn’t, then all they needed was time because the team would come for them.

Who the hell was screaming? Had been screaming? It seemed to have stopped. That might scare him even more.

Kala. Had they taken her or Tasha? Had they gotten Aidan? He had no fucking idea, and it threatened to make him scream and try to fight his way up those stairs.

“Logic, like many things we think are a collective experience, is actually subjective.” Huisman walked into the dining room, his arms coming out. “Welcome to my childhood home. Sorry it’s not ready for company, but I had to move quickly. I thought it might take longer. So because I am a fair man, I’ll explain it all to you and then you can make your decision as to how we’re going to play out this scene we find ourselves in. I broke up the wedding because from what I could tell, Dr. O’Donnell hadn’t bothered to announce he was coming to Canada. I truly expected there to be a great outcry.”

Aidan hadn’t mentioned it because he’d been angry with Tristan. Liam hadn’t mentioned it to Big Tag because the man was preoccupied. The wall between the Agency team and McKay-Taggart had fucked them over this time.

“So you invited Aidan to get the team up here in Canada,” Zach posited.

Huisman’s hands went to the pockets of his slacks while his lips curled up in a secretive smile. “Yes, Captain Reed. I did. It was a calculated risk. I knew Mr. Taggart would either see the opportunities the chance offered or he would be frightened away and I would have to find another opportunity to get what I want.”

He would give it to the asshole. He was cool under pressure. “So we took the bait.”

“Don’t feel bad,” Huisman said with a sigh. “It was excellent bait, and I suppose Benjamin is involved now, too.”

Tris shrugged. It was too early to let the man in on everything. Maybe Zach could help him out, remind Huisman he was here, too. “Who’s Benjamin?”

Zach leaned in, playing his role to perfection. “I think he’s talking about the asshole CSIS sent.”

The smile on the doctor’s face faded. “You know well who I’m talking about. Benjamin Parker. You’ve met him many times. I’ve got the woman he’s obsessed with upstairs, and I’ll deal with her later. She was a gift since I can use the bitch for several different purposes. I’m going to give you some advice, both of you. Don’t lie to me. I know everything, and I won’t hesitate to hurt the women I have in custody. Carys Taggart lives and isn’t in pain for as long as everyone complies.”

“I want to see her,” Tristan said. “I’m not talking until I see her and Ms. Magenta. She’s the other woman you have, right? She was in the bar with Carys. She’s CIA, you know. They will come after her.”

Huisman’s eyes rolled, his head falling back as he groaned. “That’s one lie, Mr. Dean-Miles. I’ll give you one because I’m sure you’ve been trained to hide her identity, but the next lie will cost Dr. Taggart a finger. Personally, I don’t think what she does is really surgery, so I don’t think she needs all her fingers. She might have a different perspective. Bring her down now, please.”

“Wait,” Tristan began.

“No. I think it’s time she joined us,” Huisman insisted. “The other Ms. Taggart was also a bonus, though I figured one of the twins would be there. Tell me—and think before you lie—which one do I have?”

Tris felt his gut take a deep dive. He knew about the twins. He likely knew exactly who was screaming upstairs, and this was a test. It was a betrayal to say their names, but the door had come open and the guard was hauling Carys out.

“Kala. You have Kala,” he said, his eyes on Carys.

“Excellent. Now we understand each other.” Huisman pulled out a seat from the elegant table. It was long, with seating for at least sixteen people. “Bring her here, please.”

“You don’t need to do this.” Zach stood beside him, a hand on Tristan’s arm as he spoke to Huisman. “Tristan is ready to talk, and I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”

Huisman’s head pivoted, his eyes catching on Zach. “Yes, Captain. Yes, you will. One way or another. Jean-Marc, when you have her properly restrained, please join me.”

The big guard manhandled Carys in a way that made Tristan vow to kill the fucker. She looked terrified, but her eyes met his.

“I’m so sorry, baby,” he said. “I’m going to get you out of this. I promise.”

She nodded as the guard forced her into one of the ornate chairs. This particular one had arms they bound her wrists to. “Kala’s upstairs. Tris, they’re hurting her.”

“I know.” He would do whatever he had to do. They’d used zip ties on her wrists, and he could see the way they bit into her skin. Bile rose in his throat as the guard placed a straight cutter on the table in front of her. It was the type cigar aficionados used. He was certain her fingers would fit nicely. “You hold on.”

He couldn’t let them ruin Carys’s hands. He would rather die.

“Hold on?” Huisman asked. “For what? Oh, are you under the assumption those trackers of yours are still working? No, no, no. I accounted for them, of course. I used something to jam the signal until I could kill it entirely. They’re oddly delicate technology. I used a modified defibrillator to scramble your tracker. Think of it as a mild electromagnetic pulse. They don’t work anymore. No one’s going to save you. Well, perhaps Captain Reed will. Ah, Jean-Marc.”

Tris wasn’t sure why Zach would be the one to save him, but he watched as Huisman put a hand on his guard’s arm.

“Let me see your gun,” Huisman commanded. “I need to make a point to our guests.”

The guard handed Huisman his SIG Sauer without question.

Two other guards moved in behind Tris and Zach while the others were at attention.

“Please don’t hurt her,” Tris said quietly. “I’ll give you nothing if you hurt her.”

“She wasn’t the Taggart I wanted, you know,” Huisman admitted. “I honestly thought I would have to take my time. My plan was to monitor the so-called bodyguards coming in with Dr. O’Donnell and his fiancée so I could figure out where the safe house was. From there I was going to take the lovely Natasha and use her to get the intelligence I need.”

Zach went still beside him. “Tasha?”

Tris didn’t understand. He was missing something. “Why Tash? Don’t get me wrong, I would come in for her. I wouldn’t let you hurt her, but if you want me to…” Fuck. He’d been such an idiot. All along. Big Tag should fucking draw and quarter him. Not once in all of this discussion had Huisman mentioned Tristan as anything but someone he had to deal with. “You didn’t want me.”

Huisman ignored him, walking up to one of the other guards. “Gervais, how did this happen? You brought me the wrong Taggart.”

Gervais seemed to understand something had gone terribly wrong. “My team was supposed to pick up the women in the bar. Pierre told us…”

Huisman brought up the gun and put a bullet in Gervais’s head before he could finish his explanation. The sound shook the big room, and he watched as Carys jumped in her chair, tears in her eyes.

Gervais’s body hit the floor, and Huisman stepped over him like he was a bit of trash. “From what I can tell, it was bad timing. When I realized the captain and Natasha were at the hotel, I sent in a team to bring them in. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived, they had already gone upstairs, and then Tasha and Zach seemed to have split up. Like I said, poor timing, but that idiot on the floor thought he’d found Tasha because Pierre referred to Carys as Ms. Taggart. They thought they were bringing me what I wanted. Now they understand what happens when they fail.”

“Then you don’t need Kala,” Carys tried.

“Shut your mouth, woman.” Huisman sneered her way. “Your voice is not required here, so don’t make me take your tongue. I explained why Kala Taggart is a delightful surprise. It doesn’t mean the failure to bring in Tasha should go unpunished.”

“Baby, just do what he says,” Tristan begged, though he was starting to realize how bad the situation was. Huisman didn’t want him. Huisman wanted Zach.

Because Zach knew things Tristan didn’t. Because he was involved in a way Tristan hadn’t caught.

“Why Tasha?” Zach asked, his voice tense. “Like Tristan said, he would come for her, but he would come for anyone on the team.”

“He doesn’t want me.” He turned to Zach. Zach had become important to him, and now he felt the breadth of his betrayal. “Who are you working for?”

Zach’s eyes widened. “The United States Army and the Central Intelligence Agency. Tris, don’t let him do this.”

“I make a close study of my enemies,” Huisman explained. “The tech you work with…Tara something…she gets lonely and goes to bars where she happily talks to women she finds attractive. She hides her proclivities well, but it wasn’t hard to get her to talk. Not about classified items. She proved quite tight-lipped about those, but she was willing to gossip about her coworkers. Of course she said you all worked at a bank, but it didn’t matter. She gave me what I wanted, which was how to get to Captain Zachary Reed.”

Tristan thanked the universe Tara didn’t know anything about Devi Taggart.

Zach’s face flushed. “I don’t… You can’t know. You can’t fucking know.”

“I assure you I can, Captain Reid.” He snapped his fingers, and two of the guards stepped forward, taking Zach’s arms.

Zach started to pull away.

Tristan felt a gun to the back of his head, heard Carys cry out.

Zach went still.

“Now we find out exactly who you are, Captain,” Huisman said quietly, studying Zach. “I know everything now, things you don’t even know. Certainly things Taggart doesn’t. He had a snake in his midst, and he didn’t even realize it. My instinct is to tell him, but that’s ego talking. It’s more fun to think about Taggart worried about you, not knowing all the ways you betrayed his team.”

“I didn’t.” Zach stood still, his shoulders ramrod straight. “I never betrayed the team, Tristan. I didn’t tell you everything, but I had my reasons. Dr. Huisman, I’ll go with you if you’ll let everyone go.”

Huisman’s eyes narrowed and his voice went low, so low Tristan could barely hear him. “Tu m'emmèneras vers elle où tu mourras. Le reste n’a pas d’importance.”

“They’re important to me,” Zach replied.

Since fucking when did Zach speak French?

Huisman got in close, proving he wasn’t afraid of the man who had at least fifty pounds of muscle on him. “Then you’ll go quietly. I’m having you escorted to a remote site. My business with you is different than my business with the Taggarts. You might survive if you give me what I want. If you don’t want to go quietly, I can kill these two right now. As I said, they’re of no true importance. I have my Taggart daughter, and I intend to have such fun with her.”

“I’m going to kill you,” Zach said quietly.

Huisman patted his cheek, a condescending gesture. “I’m sure you’ll try. Are you going quietly or shall I start killing them now?”

Zach’s hands came up, and he threaded his fingers together behind his head, the action his reply. He stared stoically ahead as one of the guards brought down first his right and then his left hand behind his back, snapping cuffs on his wrists.

Whatever Zach had done, he wasn’t giving them up and he could have. Zach likely could have fought his way out or at least tried, but he hadn’t.

Because he wasn’t willing to put them in danger.

“We’ll come for you, brother,” Tristan called out as they led him away.

Zach’s head turned. “Tell Devi…fuck…tell her I’m so fucking sorry. And Coop…just tell them all I’m sorry.”

They carted Zach off, and he was left with Huisman.

“Now we can have fun,” Huisman said, clapping his hands. “I have some excellent wine. Let’s sit down, you and I, and discuss your boss. But first, would you like a tour?”

This man was insane. “Sure. Why not?”

“This is the house I lived in when I was young,” Huisman announced. “You’re standing right about where my father died. Our lovely doctor is sitting where Rebecca Walsh was sitting. My father hated her. Women in the workplace. They fuck everything up. That’s where we went wrong, you know. We gave up our biological roles in favor of this equality nonsense.”

He was down to two guards. Huisman had split his troops. There had been five, and one was dead on the floor and still had his gun in his holster. Huisman held the one he’d killed the man with, so the guard he’d taken it from was down a firearm. Not that the men left weren’t loaded up, but it could be the second or two difference he needed.

If he could figure out how to get Carys out of those fucking restraints.

Would she think to try to break the chair? It’s what he would do. Would she react quickly enough?

“Fuck them women,” Tristan said drolly. “Get back in the kitchen. That’s what I always say.”

“Somehow I think you don’t,” Huisman countered. “But then your mother wasn’t a whore. I actually admire her. She managed to make an enormous amount of money and didn’t have to leave her children behind.”

“Your mother didn’t leave you. She divorced your father.” He knew a little about Huisman, too. “At least that’s what you wrote in your biography.”

He would do or say anything to put off the moment when Huisman eventually decided to go for blood.

“I wrote what people want to hear. They like a pathetic man who allows the world to walk all over him. Kindness. It’s weakness. My father tried to teach me, and when he was taken too early, my grandfather took over my education. He never allowed me to forget what had been taken from me and what is owed to me by the man who started it all.”

“He blames the Taggarts for everything,” Carys said. “It’s why he’s got her upstairs. He gave her a paralytic and some kind of medicine… He’s torturing her, Tris.”

“Like her father tortured me,” Huisman replied.

“No, not like that,” Carys argued.

Huisman nodded, and suddenly the guards were on either side of Tristan.

Damn it. He knew what was coming. He knew it before Huisman set his gun down and picked up the straight cutter.

“Don’t,” Tristan shouted, fighting the hold he was in.

Huisman held it up, showing everyone how it would work. “I think your bitch needs to know to obey when I tell her to keep her mouth shut. Shall we start with your pinkie finger? I can take them off one at a time.”

Tristan tried to pull away again. This couldn’t fucking happen. It couldn’t.

“Carys,” he called out.

Huisman simply smiled and put her finger through that fucking thing. “You know I watched it. I watched him kill my father. I was sitting right up there.”

“You mean here, Manny?” a deep voice said.

Tristan looked up, and Ben Parker stood on the balcony above, a rifle in his hands and his enemy in his sights.

Tris began his fight.