The Law of Nines

16

THERE WAS A DEAD MAN lying next to him, there was another big man glaring murderously down at him, and there were two barbed steel Taser probes stuck in the flesh of his chest and abdomen. Alex couldn’t imagine anything less conducive to romance.

“Bethany, you can’t possibly be serious.”

“Oh, but I am,” she said with a wicked little grin. “Now, as I said, if you’d like I can keep pulling this trigger until you wish you were dead, even if it won’t actually kill you. Sooner or later, though, the agony will be too much and you’ll give in. Your other choice is to forgo the drama, accept what is going to happen one way or another, and just lay back and enjoy yourself.”

She arched an eyebrow again. “What’s it going to be, lover boy?”

Alex didn’t want to agree, but he was sure that he didn’t want her to pull that trigger again. When she lifted the stun gun, making a display of waggling it in front of him as she cocked her head in a questioning manner, he reluctantly nodded.

“Good boy.” She rose up. “Get him in the bedroom,” she told the man.

He reached down with a big hand, seized Alex’s arm, and hauled him to his feet. The man spun Alex around, careful not to get tangled in the wires, and shoved him in the direction of the bedroom. Bethany warned Alex to keep his hands up and well away from the wires. He didn’t try to stall or protest as they made their way down the dark hall. He was sure that any pleas would fall on deaf ears. She’d already proven that she could pull the trigger faster than he could snatch the wires.

Brief but bright lightning flashes made his two captives seem to be nothing more than a procession of garishly lit statues. Whenever the lightning died out they turned into unseen ghosts pursuing him.

As Bethany followed Alex through the bedroom doorway, lightning flickered again. Rain beat against the two windows like a thing alive wanting in.

“Nice,” she said, glancing around in the sporadic fits of illumination. “Not what I’m used to, but nice.”

More distant flashes of lightning lit her again, but less harshly. She reached out and ran a finger along the metal bedpost as she smiled. “I especially like the iron bed.”

She gestured to the man. He shoved Alex to topple him backward onto the bed. The wicked steel barbs, still solidly lodged in the meat of his muscles and connected to the Taser by fine wires, were starting to hurt in earnest.

The man pounced on him, straddling his hips, using his weight to hold Alex down. He pulled out some beefy nylon zip ties, pressed one against Alex’s wrist, and then looped it around a stout piece of the iron headboard. He stuck the loose end through the little ratchet block and pulled it tight enough to cut painfully into the flesh. Alex had used such ties before. He knew they could be cut without a great deal of difficulty, but pulling on them to try to break them would accomplish nothing except to cut his wrists down to the bone.

The man zip-tied Alex’s other hand to the headboard, then bound both ankles together and fastened them to the footboard.

“Double them up,” Bethany said to the man as she watched Alex’s eyes, “just to be sure.”

Alex fought back rising panic as the man added more ties to both wrists and his ankles. One tie would be impossible to break; more than one was meant to reinforce the message that not only did he have no chance to get away, but that Bethany was the one who dictated his fate.

Alex imagined that Bethany intended to torture him in some fashion before killing him. He fought back gnawing dread.

He could hardly believe that he had just killed a man. He wished he could kill the other one as well. He wished he could get his hands around Bethany’s throat.

“That should do it,” the man said. “There’s no way he can break those.”

Bethany again waggled her Taser as Alex watched. “Well, just in case he gives me any trouble, I’ll leave the barbs in him. If he doesn’t cooperate. .” She shrugged as she flashed him a meaningful smile.

The man stood at ease behind her and folded his arms.

Bethany tilted her head, indicating the door. “Why don’t you go wait outside. This is rather private business. I don’t think having you as an audience will help him get it up.”

Alex wasn’t sure that he’d heard her correctly.

“All right,” the man grumbled. “Just don’t be long.”

Bethany turned a glare on him in a way that seemed to cause him to shrink an inch. “Who do you think you’re talking to?” she growled through gritted teeth. “How long have I planned, have I worked, have I waited? How dare you presume to tell me to rush through it? It takes as long as it takes.

“It only matters that I get what I came for. To that end I intend on staying here the whole night to be sure that when I leave I leave pregnant.”

She planted her fists on her hips and leaned toward the man. “Got it?”

“Got it,” the man answered in a contrite tone.

“Now, get out. I’ll let you know when I’m done, then you can have your fun with him. You just wait outside until then.”

The man nodded and then pulled a knife from a sheath behind his back. After he licked the blade he gave Alex a grim grin.

“When she’s finished with you, then I settle the score for what you did out there in the other room.”

As he left he turned once to glare back over his shoulder at Alex. Bethany watched through the doorway until the front door slammed behind the man.

She turned back, her tone becoming airy again. “Better, lover?”

“Why is it better? I still have to look forward to having my throat cut.”

“Well,” she said with a shrug, “at least you get me first. You should be thankful that it’s me who found you and not Jax.”

Alex’s breath caught with the shock of that name. His mind reeled. Regaining his senses, he hoped that the flickers of lightning had hidden his reaction. He thought he ought to help cover his surprise by sending her off topic.

“Who’s Jack?”

“Not Jack, Jax. Lucky for you I’m the one who found you first — I’ll at least make sure you die with a smile. Jax would simply have bled you out.”

“Why? Who is she?”

Bethany’s smile ghosted away. “Jax is a diplomatic assassin.”

Alex’s brow tightened. “Diplomats are the opposite of assassins.”

“No, no, dear boy, she’s an assassin.” Her gaze focused a million miles off. “A very special assassin, for very special targets.”

Alex didn’t want to believe her. But he remembered all too well the way Jax had pulled a knife on him, remembered how fast she had gotten it to his throat, though she’d had just cause at the time. He had, after all, just slammed her up against the wall and had his arm against her throat. He couldn’t really fault her reaction. Still, Bethany’s words gave him pause.

“Special targets. What do you mean?” he asked. “What kind of special targets?”

“Jax kills those who seek peace.”

He finally grasped her meaning. “Like diplomats.”

“Among others. She’s a specialist. She is sent after only the most exceptional individuals, individuals, like diplomats, who are seeking unity, order, and prefer peaceful resolution to conflict.”

In the softer flickers of lightning, Alex could see the distant look in Bethany’s eyes, as if she were looking into another world. Dark animus colored her expression. “She’d love nothing more than to get her blade into me.”

Alex said nothing.

Bethany’s gaze, along with her smile, returned, almost as if to reassure him. “But she never will. I’m too well protected, even for Jax.”

“Why would this very special assassin want to kill you?”

What he really wanted to know was what made her think she was so special, but considering his circumstances he thought better of phrasing it that way.

All the things Jax had told him about being from another world raced around in his mind, trying to find a proper fit with what Bethany was saying.

Bethany ran her fingers through his hair. It almost seemed a deliberate attempt to distract herself from what were obviously troubling thoughts of Jax. “Let’s not worry about such unpleasantness. Let’s just worry about you and me. This is a special night for both of us.”

She leaned even closer, trailing a finger along his cheek. Her seductive tone returned. “Time for what Bethany promised you.”

Alex couldn’t see that he had any choice in the matter. He tried to think of a way he could get a hand free, but there wasn’t anything within reach of his fingers. He knew that twisting his hands would accomplish nothing. Even if he tried she would use the Taser to take the fight out of him.

A thought he’d had before returned. If she was touching the steel darts when she pulled the trigger, the Taser would do the same to her as it did to him. He wondered if she knew that. He wondered how he could manage such a thing. He wondered what it would accomplish even if he could. Nothing, probably.

She had it all planned out. She was in control of the situation. When she was finished, the man with the knife would have his turn.

Bethany unbuckled his belt, then unzipped his pants and started tugging them down. When she had them down to his knees she smiled wickedly and slunk on all fours up the length of him.

Straddling him, she reached around with one hand and unzipped the back of her dress before pulling it off over her head. She wasn’t wearing anything underneath. Everything the dress had advertised about what lay beneath the silver sheath was true.

“You spoiled this on your birthday, Alex, and caused me a great deal of trouble. I had to wait another whole moon until the correct time in my cycle came around again.”

Things were starting to make sense to him. Crazy sense, but sense.

She leaned down to kiss him on the mouth. When he turned his face away she lightly kissed his cheek instead. “But now I’m told that I’m as ready as ready can be. I’ve had experts confirm that tonight’s the night, lucky boy.

“Time to make an heir.”