Oh lookie, another chapter to read! Any thoughts on this would be much loved! It's been a little quiet in the review box, but it seems that this story is getting a fair number of hits! Let me know what your thoughts are as I progress! I know it seems rather rushed into the action section but I do have plans for future chapters and lots of emotional drama will be coming your way!

Chapter Six

The dying light inside the room told her that the sun was beginning to set. There was now less than twelve hours for her to figure out a plan of action before she knew Barney would likely be boarding a plan and heading to the coordinates that Church was going to send him in order to try and save her. But he was a damn fool in doing so, she thought bitterly. The instant Church had his sights on him Barney would be just as dead as she was going to be. He wasn't interested in just getting his money back, he wanted revenge on Barney for some slight that he had apparently suffered at the hands of the Expendable. And though ordinarily she might have been inclined to believe that Barney had indeed been in the wrong she wasn't willing to watch him sacrifice his life in an effort to save her own.

Mickey continued to wiggle about in her bonds as she pulled her wrists in each direction, hoping to loosen the ropes just enough that she might be able to pull her body free of their restrictive hold. They had knocked her unconscious before they had taken her into their holding room and tied her up, which had meant that there was no opportunity for the girl to employ her own tactics in creating slack on the ropes. And there were no sharp objects around her that she might somehow get hold of either. Evidently Church was quite the pro at holding hostages and didn't want to give her any opportunity to escape before he could use her as bait.

The brunette growled as she strained against the ropes, feeling her irritated skin cry out in protest at being used so roughly. Her head was still sore from where they had hit her earlier, her face numb from the slap that she had gotten when Church was busy filming his little video for Barney. But above all other things Mickey felt her anger bubbling in the pit of her stomach as she thought about the events that had lead up to her capture and the way in which she was being used as some sort of damsel in distress.

She had signed on for this mission without a second thought when she had been contact about it, despite the fact that her natural talents of disguise were a much better skill set that were not required. It hadn't fazed her at all to think that she was going to be working with two older men on this mission, for apparently her marksmanship was what they wanted. That and someone who was small and fast enough to rival Yang so that they could get in, get the job done and get out as quickly as possible. She hadn't noticed the holes in the plan, which should have jumped out like red flags. The whole thing had been one damn mess and because she was still seething mad at Barney she hadn't been paying any attention to what she had agreed to.

The whole thing had been a set up. Church had lured her into a trap for this exact purpose.

"You can stop struggling sweetheart. You're not going anywhere."

Dark eyes flashed upward as soon as she heard the voice and snarled, watching as Church leered at her from the doorway as he leaned heavily against the frame. The way he folded his arms across his chest and placed his weight on a single foot clearly showed how little of a threat he perceived her to be. After all, she was tied up tightly to a chair, a woman who was half his age and size, who therefore had to have less than half of the experience that he did in these situations. What possible harm could she do him even if she wanted to?

"I'd be counting my blessings if I were you," she hissed at him, pulling her body forward a little more to place some more strain on the ropes. "If I were able to move, you'd be a dead man."

Church laughed darkly at the defiance that flickered in the depths of her eyes, watching as the fires continued to burn. She was feisty, he'd certainly give her that. He had expected there to be much less of a fight in order to subdue her when he had initially planted all of the information for the mission and ensured that her resume was placed on top of the pile for Bonaparte to look at. But she'd given them quite the issue with taking her down, killing five of his men and injuring a sixth before they had finally managed to remove her weapon from her hands and knock her unconscious.

Pulling himself away from the door Church slowly began to wander into the room, looking down at Mikayla with the same lecherous grin that he had worn from the moment she had been conscious enough to make him out. Her natural feminine instinct told her to pull away and put as much space between herself and this man as possible. But her own stubborn nature refused to allow such a show of submissiveness while he was standing there, and so she maintained where she was. Her face, however, began to contort itself in a look of disgust.

"You've got spirit," Church told her as he took another step toward her. "I like spirit."

"Good for you. Go find it somewhere else."

He shook his head and clicked his tongue lightly at her. "Now, is that anyway to talk to the guy holding your life in his hands? You should really be more appreciative that I haven't snapped that pretty neck of yours already."

Despite herself, Mikayla rolled her eyes. "Threaten all you want, asshole. You and I both know that you won't kill me until Barney's somewhere close by and you can make him watch. You're not interested in me, just him."

"Do I sense a little bitterness in that tone of yours?" Church mocked, circling the chair as he observed the tension in her body grow at his taunt. "What's the matter? Wasn't the old man ever there for your dance recitals? Did he forget your birthday party when you were five?"

Her breathing was deep and deliberate as she attempted to push his words away from her, keeping her focus solely on making him talk. It was ridiculous, the amount of information this man had already given her when he thought he was just playing mind games. Even when she had been coming to, Mikayla had overheard him speaking to several of the men who were currently working under him about the plan that they were to engage as soon as they had radio contact with Barney. She wasn't stupid…but she was certainly angry, and Church wasn't helping the situation by attempting to egg her on.

"I'm an orphan," she told him firmly as her head snapped around to look at him with a growl. "My mother is dead and my father never existed. So like I said before, if you think that you're smart in picking me up and using me as bait for Barney Ross then I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed."

Church chuckled again, evidently amused by the show of resistance that he was earning from the brunette that sat before him. "Somehow, I think you might be wrong about that," he told her as he lowered his face until it hovered just in front of her own. "Very, very wrong."

But the amusement didn't spread to Mikayla. "I'm either going to spit in your eye or break your nose. Your choice."

His gaze seemed to harden a little as he continued to stare at her, clearly beginning to grow weary of her defiance. There was no denying the fact that he was really beginning to see the bits that she had inherited from her father now, for Barney Ross was just as stubborn and troublesome as his daughter was proving herself to be. Part of him was rather glad that she was female though, since she had been that much easier to subdue in the initial attack. Had she been a man then she might have put up a stronger defense and gotten away…though he couldn't forget the men that he had lost at her hand. She was just as deadly as her father was, albeit younger, but there was no team of Expendables standing behind her in defense.

Oh, how he was going to love making Barney suffer for all of the shit that he had been through, Church thought to himself as he pulled his face back from that of his captive and stuffed a hand into the pocket of his pants. There was something very sweet about the idea of revenge like that, especially since he knew that he was likely going to end up getting more than one bird with the proverbial stone that he planned to throw. As soon as he had Barney in his grip he was going to force the father to watch his child die, there was absolutely no question about that. But perhaps he might make death slow and agonizing for the both of them, forcing each to watch as the other began to slip away without being able to save them. Yes, this was an idea to consider, he thought.

"You've got guts, kid," he said to her, giving a bit of a shrug. "No brains, but guts."

"I've got brains enough to know that this little plan of yours is going to backfire."

Church frowned a little. "And what makes you think that, sweetheart?"

"You might have told Barney that he was supposed to come alone," she said, the corner of her lip curling slightly. "But you seem to have forgotten that you set me up to work with Trench and Yang. That means that Bonaparte still has me on file…and I happen to know that his list of clientele is quite extensive."

The bald man rolled his eyes a little, beginning to turn away. "You say that like it's something I should be concerned about."

"Oh, but it is."

He had taken all of three steps toward the door again when his travel came to a stop. Against his better judgement, Church felt draw into her words, his attentions almost captivated to the point of being forced to listen when she spoke.

"Bonaparte has been helping Barney with his team for years," Mikayla continued, her voice dropping slightly as her tone took a darker sound. "He knows the new recruits and the old ones, knows what they can do. Do you honestly think that guys like Yang and Trench are just going to let it go like that? The instant they find out that you've taken me as a hostage they'll be on their way to kick your bald ass into the furthest pit of hell that they can manage."

The tension rose in his shoulders as he stood there, absorbing the thought that he might perhaps have created more of a conflict for himself than he previously thought. It was true, Trench and Yang were a pair who had proven themselves to be fairly lethal in the past as well, but like everyone else they were beginning to show signs of aging. And why would they bother to come after her when that ambush should leave little room to think that she might have somehow survived? A brand new member of their team was someone they hadn't formed any sort of comradery with and so they would be fine to just leave her as it was.

His head turned slowly to glance over his shoulder. Even at that angle he could still make out the bruise that had begun to form over her eye from where she had been struck by one of his men during the making of the video that he had sent off. And in seeing the bruise, he could see the flames that danced wickedly in the depths of her eyes in an almost unnerving manner. But the ropes were still in place. She could not physically move. And her words were nothing more than that – words.

"You think you're pretty tough, huh?"

Mikayla smirked. "I've got you worried, haven't I?"

Church didn't respond. Instead he turned his head around and quickly marched out of the room and back into the dark tunnel that would lead him away from his captive. This time there were no more words shouted at his retreating form or sounds of struggle to accompany his exit. Instead there was only a stony silence as he contemplated the plan that he had already set in motion. Were their holes that he had not foreseen? But why would she be stupid enough to tell him about those holes when it would only make him consider fixing the problem?

Damn it, the little minx is playing mind games with me.

Church gave his head a bit of a shake and picked up the pace of his steps. There were a million things that required his attention before the radio went live in the morning, and only so much time in which he could accomplish them all. And now that these other issues had been brought to his attention he knew that he would not be able to avoid going over the entire plan once more to ensure that there were no holes in which other rats might slip through. If Barney thought that he was somehow going to get help from an outside source after the instructions Church had left him, he was going to have another thing coming.

And that brat of his would soon realize just how wrong she was.