At the first shouts, Zack looked at the door and then me. "Any other way
out?" he asked quickly. I shook my head. There was no other way out. The
air duct was far too small to squeeze anyone through. And it was getting
louder, more frantic out there. Zack didn't have to say. There was only
one thing that he would have ruined his chances of taking Max away for.
Lydecker had come back to say hello.
"Up the stairs," I said quickly. We were right beside the dressing room and there was a small staircase going up. Zack knew where they were. "Through my office window, run like hell."
"Logan!" Max cried to Zack. Damn her. Was she willing to be caught in order to protect her little boyfriend? No need to ask that question. Stupid bitch had already done it before. She wouldn't consider thinking about herself first.
"You're getting out of here now soldier," Zack snarled. One protest out of her and he would have knocked her out cold and dragged her off. Logan spoke up first.
"I can go right out the front door with the rest of the people," he said. "I'll meet you right outside the east checkpoint and we can leave together." Please, someone get me a bucket so I wouldn't vomit on the floor. And a second one too for the look that Max gave him back.
It was pandemonium in the main room of my club and I knew right then that there was going to be no recovering from this. Girls were screaming, being hauled out. Ruby's lip was bleeding. Oh God. Oh, no. I was not going to allow this to happen. I didn't give a damn what else was to come, but I wasn't going to lose everything in this. If it took Max getting away with murder, then so be it, but I wasn't going to lose everything. However, I couldn't say the same about Lydecker. There were some very important parts of his body that he was going to be losing very, very soon.
Mostly because he was the one raiding my club. Again. For the second time, I had overlooked him as a factor in all of this and getting fucked hard over it. Bastard. There was no time to think about revenge and how to shut this down, only time to act. Max and Zack went for the stairs and I let them, heading to the main floor myself. They were going to get away; I had no doubts about that. But I had to try. For my girls, and myself, I had to try.
I caught a glimpse of Logan leaving with the last of the customers out the door. It was insane. Soldiers everywhere. Guns. Shots. Glass breaking. Crying. Screaming. Blood. And then I was grabbed. TAC team. The black Kevlar suits that just screamed "I'm the bad guy in the action flick" didn't give them away nearly as much as the cheap cologne they all seemed to wear. Maybe it was assigned to them in basic training. Something to cover the smell of what sacks of shit they were. I didn't fight and suddenly Lydecker was there in front of me.
"WHERE IS SHE?" he shouted, grabbing my hair ruthlessly, twisting it in his hand until it was at the point of ripping out.
"Go fuck yourself," I hissed. A vicious blow snapped my head to the right. Oh, he wanted to play rough did he?
"Last time, bitch," he growled.
"So you're one of those freaks that can only get off on slapping someone around, huh? I taunted. You know, had I thought about it then, I might have really gotten pissed over the fact that the whole world seemed to be looking for Max and revolving around her. What the hell was I then, chopped liver?
"My men have seen Max here," he snapped at me, ignoring my comments. He could afford to. I was willing to bet that none of his men even suspected our little moment in my office. "You've been protecting Ben's sister now that he's gone, haven't you? Tell me where she is and save yourself a lot of pain." Looks like we were going straight into a hard interrogation. Proper protocol to be expected? Denial first, followed by an admission. Why disappoint them with something they weren't expecting?
"I hired a new dancer, Simone," I said, letting something resembling desperation color my tone. "That's the only new person around here." Another harsh slap. I doubted if Lydecker could hear, but I could hear noises from upstairs, slams and glass breaking and a whole hell of a lot of other noises that I shouldn't be hearing. It should be damn quiet because Max and Zack were long gone.
I don't know what happened up there, I never asked and nobody ever volunteered an explanation. What I was willing to bet was that Max got tripped up in all of those layers of gauze and well, shit just happened from there. Zack wouldn't leave her. The TAC team got lucky for once and Zack wouldn't leave her. Godamn him. I would have thought that he of all of us would know to get rid of dead weight. But I couldn't say much. I was the one that had gone downstairs to give them the time to get away. I swear, try to be somewhat noble for once, and get fucked again. Ain't life just a bitch sometimes?
They were taken downstairs. And there we were, all of us in that room. For a moment, time seemed to freeze. Zack and Max, overpowered, TAC personnel everywhere. Two holding me, not understanding what they had. It hit me. Lydecker didn't want me. Didn't even want to consider the possibility that I was anything but a regular woman who helped out a few X- 5's. I could walk from this. Let it happen and when they tried to take me away to "question" me about other X-5's I might know, I could escape. It wouldn't be a problem. They didn't know. And it would just mean the loss of dead weight and an annoyance to my life.
Dead weight. Just dead weight. For a second, I suddenly understood how Max had felt that day in the woods with Ben. Manticore bearing down, no way to get them both out. Save yourself or die trying. There was just one tiny difference. I wasn't Max. As much as I hated her, as much as Zack annoyed me, I wasn't ever going to take the coward's way out. Max deserved to be miserable, but she didn't deserve Manticore. And Zack, for all his faults, he really did try to keep us safe. I couldn't do it. I couldn't just let them get taken. And I had a tiny spark of hope that could get Lydecker to simply walk away.
One second I was calm and complacent in their arms, and the next second I was moving with blinding speed. The two guards never had a chance. My right arm whipped the first guard into the second. I spun, my leg lashing out in a vicious kick that slammed into one of them hard enough to hear bones in his back shattering. The second one had stumbled back under the weight of the first one and I was on him in a second, his neck cracking loudly as I snapped it easily.
Other guards went to rush me, to subdue me, but I simply did a high back flip, landing on the bar and sitting down on it, crossing my legs playfully. I smiled, looking into Lydecker's shocked face. "Anyone want a drink?" I asked, my calm, arrogant words making the TAC team slow their approach. I smiled wider at Lydecker. "Well, 'Daddy'? I think you just might need one after this night. By the way, you want to smile for the camera over my shoulder? And in case you're wondering, *every* room in this building is under surveillance."
I couldn't tell if it was rage or fear making his hands shake like that. I don't think it was lust, but what the hell, it might have been a little of that too. I was wearing practically nothing. But there was something else there too. Fear. For the first time maybe since we had escaped he was afraid of one of us. At our utter unpredictability and knowing that we might never be able to be under his control again. The fear that our little escapade in the office might have been taped was nothing compared to the fear that if I could hide myself so well that he didn't even intuit what I was, how in the hell was he going to catch the rest of us?
Our eyes met and the battle of wills was on. The prize was in the middle: Max and Zack. And I was going to win. Had to win. I couldn't play to lose. Not this time. Please, one more time left for me, okay? For his part, Lydecker got his equilibrium back with frightening speed. Most men I knew would have been driven into a gibbering panic in a situation with this kind of intensity. Instead a thin pleasure lit his cold blue eyes. He was going to enjoy the game as much as I was. He might have been afraid, but he wasn't going to give himself away. Not now at any rate.
I casually reached behind the bar, ignoring how half the TAC people in the room drew down on me as soon as I twitched. Had to stay calm and collected. Not a twitch to indicate how hard my heart was pounding in my chest. I picked up the drink that Chris or Renee had abandoned when the raid began and took a sip of it. Gin and tonic with a twist of lemon. Not my favorite by far, but it gave the appearance that I was going for. Cool and casual.
"Sure nobody else wants something?" I asked pleasantly. "Bloody Mary's are the specialty of the house." I smiled charmingly. "Actually it's the only drink that I can make worth a damn." The TAC personnel were looking at me like I was nuts and I was willing to bet that only Lydecker and Zack got what I was doing. Just a twist on the psy-ops that we had been taught so very well.
"You're too far outnumbered and they're going to pay," Lydecker said calmly. I rolled my eyes and made a jerk-off gesture.
"My heart bleeds," I said dryly. "We both know that you're not going to touch me and since I have been spending the last few weeks trying to destroy precious Max's life, why should I give a fuck if you get her?" Max went pale at the confirmation of everything that Logan had told her. I normally didn't just casually reveal brilliant plans, as a matter of fact if this whole thing hadn't happened, I would still be denying it to her, but Lydecker had changed the rules. I had to seem like I didn't give a damn. If it had been just her, I might have been tempted to let her rot, but I wasn't going to get Zack killed as well. He was an asshole extraordinaire, but he had prevented us from getting killed at least. Besides, now that Ben was gone, he was the best lover around.
My smile became cruel. "It's a draw 'Deck. You can't take them and leave me and we both know that the last thing you ever want is to take me in. Your men are loyal to you. They'll forget whatever you tell them to. But the second I show up at Manticore, your whole life ends and we both know it. Because I can fill in the audio however I want. The video will speak for itself." I took another drink, grateful for the warmth of the liquor as it hit my stomach and blossomed outward.
There was a long moment of silence. It might have been five seconds; it might have been five minutes. I'll never know. What I did know was that Lydecker finally smiled. If I thought mine was cold and cruel, it didn't compare in the slightest to his. I wondered if he could see my hands start trembling. I wasn't bluffing; I would destroy him to his superiors. That's one thing about the military: you always have someone to answer to. But there was one little thing that I didn't know for sure. Did he want us back bad enough to destroy himself in the process? That smile alone made me think that he didn't. And for the first time, I was fucking terrified that I had really and truly lost it all.
"Let them go," he ordered. It was a good thing I was sitting. I would have fallen on my cute little ass. Not even Zack could contain a look of momentary shock that we had won. I could almost hear the story that Lydecker was going to tell his people. I was a turncoat and this was my way of showing that I could get to the others. But I was playing a game, teasing him a little. Maybe getting Zack to know that he could trust me that I was still part of the soldier game. Who knew? If we were creative in the lies we could tell, it was because the master had taught us well. I had no doubt that he was full of ass-covering skills.
One of the soldiers tentatively went up to Max and Zack and released them from the handcuffs. I slid off of the bar, still feeling unsteady under his cold blue gaze. He didn't like being tricked. I wasn't sure how he was going to do it, but I knew he had to be planning on a way to make me pay. I didn't see how since touching me would lead to his own destruction, but he wanted to anyways. Oh well. Too late to turn back the clock now.
They were free. And that was when we got the righteous fuck out of there.
"Up the stairs," I said quickly. We were right beside the dressing room and there was a small staircase going up. Zack knew where they were. "Through my office window, run like hell."
"Logan!" Max cried to Zack. Damn her. Was she willing to be caught in order to protect her little boyfriend? No need to ask that question. Stupid bitch had already done it before. She wouldn't consider thinking about herself first.
"You're getting out of here now soldier," Zack snarled. One protest out of her and he would have knocked her out cold and dragged her off. Logan spoke up first.
"I can go right out the front door with the rest of the people," he said. "I'll meet you right outside the east checkpoint and we can leave together." Please, someone get me a bucket so I wouldn't vomit on the floor. And a second one too for the look that Max gave him back.
It was pandemonium in the main room of my club and I knew right then that there was going to be no recovering from this. Girls were screaming, being hauled out. Ruby's lip was bleeding. Oh God. Oh, no. I was not going to allow this to happen. I didn't give a damn what else was to come, but I wasn't going to lose everything in this. If it took Max getting away with murder, then so be it, but I wasn't going to lose everything. However, I couldn't say the same about Lydecker. There were some very important parts of his body that he was going to be losing very, very soon.
Mostly because he was the one raiding my club. Again. For the second time, I had overlooked him as a factor in all of this and getting fucked hard over it. Bastard. There was no time to think about revenge and how to shut this down, only time to act. Max and Zack went for the stairs and I let them, heading to the main floor myself. They were going to get away; I had no doubts about that. But I had to try. For my girls, and myself, I had to try.
I caught a glimpse of Logan leaving with the last of the customers out the door. It was insane. Soldiers everywhere. Guns. Shots. Glass breaking. Crying. Screaming. Blood. And then I was grabbed. TAC team. The black Kevlar suits that just screamed "I'm the bad guy in the action flick" didn't give them away nearly as much as the cheap cologne they all seemed to wear. Maybe it was assigned to them in basic training. Something to cover the smell of what sacks of shit they were. I didn't fight and suddenly Lydecker was there in front of me.
"WHERE IS SHE?" he shouted, grabbing my hair ruthlessly, twisting it in his hand until it was at the point of ripping out.
"Go fuck yourself," I hissed. A vicious blow snapped my head to the right. Oh, he wanted to play rough did he?
"Last time, bitch," he growled.
"So you're one of those freaks that can only get off on slapping someone around, huh? I taunted. You know, had I thought about it then, I might have really gotten pissed over the fact that the whole world seemed to be looking for Max and revolving around her. What the hell was I then, chopped liver?
"My men have seen Max here," he snapped at me, ignoring my comments. He could afford to. I was willing to bet that none of his men even suspected our little moment in my office. "You've been protecting Ben's sister now that he's gone, haven't you? Tell me where she is and save yourself a lot of pain." Looks like we were going straight into a hard interrogation. Proper protocol to be expected? Denial first, followed by an admission. Why disappoint them with something they weren't expecting?
"I hired a new dancer, Simone," I said, letting something resembling desperation color my tone. "That's the only new person around here." Another harsh slap. I doubted if Lydecker could hear, but I could hear noises from upstairs, slams and glass breaking and a whole hell of a lot of other noises that I shouldn't be hearing. It should be damn quiet because Max and Zack were long gone.
I don't know what happened up there, I never asked and nobody ever volunteered an explanation. What I was willing to bet was that Max got tripped up in all of those layers of gauze and well, shit just happened from there. Zack wouldn't leave her. The TAC team got lucky for once and Zack wouldn't leave her. Godamn him. I would have thought that he of all of us would know to get rid of dead weight. But I couldn't say much. I was the one that had gone downstairs to give them the time to get away. I swear, try to be somewhat noble for once, and get fucked again. Ain't life just a bitch sometimes?
They were taken downstairs. And there we were, all of us in that room. For a moment, time seemed to freeze. Zack and Max, overpowered, TAC personnel everywhere. Two holding me, not understanding what they had. It hit me. Lydecker didn't want me. Didn't even want to consider the possibility that I was anything but a regular woman who helped out a few X- 5's. I could walk from this. Let it happen and when they tried to take me away to "question" me about other X-5's I might know, I could escape. It wouldn't be a problem. They didn't know. And it would just mean the loss of dead weight and an annoyance to my life.
Dead weight. Just dead weight. For a second, I suddenly understood how Max had felt that day in the woods with Ben. Manticore bearing down, no way to get them both out. Save yourself or die trying. There was just one tiny difference. I wasn't Max. As much as I hated her, as much as Zack annoyed me, I wasn't ever going to take the coward's way out. Max deserved to be miserable, but she didn't deserve Manticore. And Zack, for all his faults, he really did try to keep us safe. I couldn't do it. I couldn't just let them get taken. And I had a tiny spark of hope that could get Lydecker to simply walk away.
One second I was calm and complacent in their arms, and the next second I was moving with blinding speed. The two guards never had a chance. My right arm whipped the first guard into the second. I spun, my leg lashing out in a vicious kick that slammed into one of them hard enough to hear bones in his back shattering. The second one had stumbled back under the weight of the first one and I was on him in a second, his neck cracking loudly as I snapped it easily.
Other guards went to rush me, to subdue me, but I simply did a high back flip, landing on the bar and sitting down on it, crossing my legs playfully. I smiled, looking into Lydecker's shocked face. "Anyone want a drink?" I asked, my calm, arrogant words making the TAC team slow their approach. I smiled wider at Lydecker. "Well, 'Daddy'? I think you just might need one after this night. By the way, you want to smile for the camera over my shoulder? And in case you're wondering, *every* room in this building is under surveillance."
I couldn't tell if it was rage or fear making his hands shake like that. I don't think it was lust, but what the hell, it might have been a little of that too. I was wearing practically nothing. But there was something else there too. Fear. For the first time maybe since we had escaped he was afraid of one of us. At our utter unpredictability and knowing that we might never be able to be under his control again. The fear that our little escapade in the office might have been taped was nothing compared to the fear that if I could hide myself so well that he didn't even intuit what I was, how in the hell was he going to catch the rest of us?
Our eyes met and the battle of wills was on. The prize was in the middle: Max and Zack. And I was going to win. Had to win. I couldn't play to lose. Not this time. Please, one more time left for me, okay? For his part, Lydecker got his equilibrium back with frightening speed. Most men I knew would have been driven into a gibbering panic in a situation with this kind of intensity. Instead a thin pleasure lit his cold blue eyes. He was going to enjoy the game as much as I was. He might have been afraid, but he wasn't going to give himself away. Not now at any rate.
I casually reached behind the bar, ignoring how half the TAC people in the room drew down on me as soon as I twitched. Had to stay calm and collected. Not a twitch to indicate how hard my heart was pounding in my chest. I picked up the drink that Chris or Renee had abandoned when the raid began and took a sip of it. Gin and tonic with a twist of lemon. Not my favorite by far, but it gave the appearance that I was going for. Cool and casual.
"Sure nobody else wants something?" I asked pleasantly. "Bloody Mary's are the specialty of the house." I smiled charmingly. "Actually it's the only drink that I can make worth a damn." The TAC personnel were looking at me like I was nuts and I was willing to bet that only Lydecker and Zack got what I was doing. Just a twist on the psy-ops that we had been taught so very well.
"You're too far outnumbered and they're going to pay," Lydecker said calmly. I rolled my eyes and made a jerk-off gesture.
"My heart bleeds," I said dryly. "We both know that you're not going to touch me and since I have been spending the last few weeks trying to destroy precious Max's life, why should I give a fuck if you get her?" Max went pale at the confirmation of everything that Logan had told her. I normally didn't just casually reveal brilliant plans, as a matter of fact if this whole thing hadn't happened, I would still be denying it to her, but Lydecker had changed the rules. I had to seem like I didn't give a damn. If it had been just her, I might have been tempted to let her rot, but I wasn't going to get Zack killed as well. He was an asshole extraordinaire, but he had prevented us from getting killed at least. Besides, now that Ben was gone, he was the best lover around.
My smile became cruel. "It's a draw 'Deck. You can't take them and leave me and we both know that the last thing you ever want is to take me in. Your men are loyal to you. They'll forget whatever you tell them to. But the second I show up at Manticore, your whole life ends and we both know it. Because I can fill in the audio however I want. The video will speak for itself." I took another drink, grateful for the warmth of the liquor as it hit my stomach and blossomed outward.
There was a long moment of silence. It might have been five seconds; it might have been five minutes. I'll never know. What I did know was that Lydecker finally smiled. If I thought mine was cold and cruel, it didn't compare in the slightest to his. I wondered if he could see my hands start trembling. I wasn't bluffing; I would destroy him to his superiors. That's one thing about the military: you always have someone to answer to. But there was one little thing that I didn't know for sure. Did he want us back bad enough to destroy himself in the process? That smile alone made me think that he didn't. And for the first time, I was fucking terrified that I had really and truly lost it all.
"Let them go," he ordered. It was a good thing I was sitting. I would have fallen on my cute little ass. Not even Zack could contain a look of momentary shock that we had won. I could almost hear the story that Lydecker was going to tell his people. I was a turncoat and this was my way of showing that I could get to the others. But I was playing a game, teasing him a little. Maybe getting Zack to know that he could trust me that I was still part of the soldier game. Who knew? If we were creative in the lies we could tell, it was because the master had taught us well. I had no doubt that he was full of ass-covering skills.
One of the soldiers tentatively went up to Max and Zack and released them from the handcuffs. I slid off of the bar, still feeling unsteady under his cold blue gaze. He didn't like being tricked. I wasn't sure how he was going to do it, but I knew he had to be planning on a way to make me pay. I didn't see how since touching me would lead to his own destruction, but he wanted to anyways. Oh well. Too late to turn back the clock now.
They were free. And that was when we got the righteous fuck out of there.