Captivated (21 page)

At last Vincenz stepped back. “Done. This system is on a completely different network. Interesting, isn’t it?”

She’d been thinking the same thing. What were they hiding up here that they weren’t already hiding with the Liberiam and the production of the portal-collapsing device?

She shook it off. Stupid to make her situation more than an anomaly. There was no reason to imagine this had any link to the lab where she’d been.

Still, the fear made her belly leaden. Her skin cold and clammy even as she sweated.

One foot and then another, she kept moving, kept following them as they grabbed the data sticks and headed out.

“We need to head across this floor to the far southern stairwell. Andrei and Piper are waiting on the roof.” Julian looked her over carefully but thankfully didn’t ask if she was all right.

Because she wasn’t and it was only sheer force of will that kept her upright and not hyperventilating.

Working quickly, everyone wanting to be done, she didn’t notice the soldier until he was on her, knocking her to the ground.

The fight-or-flight impulse took over and the fear broke through as she clawed at his face and kneed him in the balls. He tried to hit her with his weapon but she dodged and sank her teeth into his wrist. The animal who had lived in her for so long surfaced, snarling, snapping, fighting for its life.

She heard them nearby, knew somewhere that they were also fighting with soldiers and that she was on her own.

On her own. The memories of the helplessness came back, threatening to suck her under. But she held on, fighting.

Then she heard Wilhelm Ellis in her ear.

“His weapon should be on your right side, Hannah. Make sure the safety is off and end this. You can do it.”

Some part of her heard and registered, her fingers scrabbling through the blood to grab the weapon he’d dropped when she’d bitten him. It was him or her and it sure wasn’t going to be her.

Vincenz managed to toss the soldier off and snap his neck, his every thought on Hannah. Julian could handle himself, but …

He found her then, on her back, covered in blood with a man nearly twice her size beating at her with a closed fist.

He wasn’t even aware he had started growling until he’d propelled himself across the hallway and was nearly on them.

And then he heard weapon fire and time seemed to stop until she shoved the limp body of the soldier off, gasping and still kicking. Still caught in the nightmare.

He reached her then, on his knees, and pulled her to sit. “I’m here. It’s over. It’s over, beautiful Hannah.”

She blinked quickly and he used his shirtsleeve to wipe the blood off her face. “Are you hurt?”

She swallowed and shook all over. “We have to go.”

He helped her to her feet, keeping an arm around her waist until she took a shoring breath and straightened. “We have to go,” she repeated.

Julian stalked over to them both, looking her over carefully. Long enough that she got vexed and Vincenz felt a little better to see it on her face.

“Most of it isn’t my blood.”

Julian tightened his jaw until Vincenz heard the click.

“Let’s move.”

She nodded once and straightened her shirt.

At the opposite end of the hall lay their exit. And as Vincenz also noted with a snarl, more labs.

He thought quite seriously about picking her up, tossing her over his shoulder and getting her out of there.

In fact he’d already begun to turn around to do it when she saw him and read his intent and shook her head. “
No
. Not like last time.”

He was confused by her for long moments until Julian spoke. “Not like last time at all, Hannah. Look behind you on the floor. He tried to hurt you but you fought back. You’re no one’s victim.”

The rage rolled from Julian in waves. Vincenz hadn’t seen him this bad since the early days after Marame had died. His chest heaved with the effort to stay under control and idly Vincenz wondered what they thought of this back on Ravena as they watched.

She shook her head as if to clear it and with a great deal of effort, made herself walk through the doorway of the lab.

Vincenz wanted to save her, but Julian had the right of it. She was no one’s victim, and if he carried her out, especially before he gave her the chance to do it herself, he’d be robbing her of the opportunity to rise above what happened to her.

Locked cells.

Julian stormed to each one and looked inside. “Nothing in here, baby. I promise.”

She continued to walk, her gaze on the door to the stairwell.

And then she stopped and moved to the comm station, pulling out the data stick and getting to work with hands so shaky it took her three tries to get it in.

Tears streamed down her face but she kept working. Vincenz realized then that the burning in his chest wasn’t just anger, but it was admiration and love.

Seven hells she undid him.

Her movements were jerky but she clamped her lips together and continued. Julian paced like a caged animal, keeping close to her.

Vincenz took up the station next to her, knowing she had to do this, hating that she did. Knowing his father made this happen.

And even so upset, her work was perfect. He followed her and did what he needed to, fighting the need to protect and comfort, knowing the quicker they finished, the quicker they could leave.

“There’s a lot of encrypted data here,” he murmured. So much he was sure they’d stumbled onto something important.

Her fingers weren’t as confident on the keys as they had been before, but she finally stepped back, her job completed.

Julian glanced at Vincenz before approaching her slowly. She jerked her attention to him, eyes wide.

Julian paused, not moving any further but to take her hand, which she allowed.

“Nearly done.” Vincenz ripped out the chip from inside the sheath of the comm unit. She’d already extracted the data from the system in there, but there was no harm in taking the chips, she’d argued back at their camp. He agreed.

The command now embedded in the system, he hit execute, and they headed to the stairs to get the seven hells out of there.

Andrei and Piper waited for them on the roof with an ultraquiet zipper. Vincenz had never been more relieved to see Andrei as they hustled inside and strapped in.

Hannah’s gaze was glassy, her hands still trembling as Julian simply buckled her in and then himself. She didn’t even shoot him an annoyed look.

Vincenz sat on her other side, pressing against her as they lifted off and moved away so very silently.

Andrei handed Hannah a little black square. “If you press that switch, the explosives will go off.”

Her eyes cleared as she took him in, understanding he was letting her do the final work on destroying the plant and those labs.

“Now?” She swallowed hard.

Andrei nodded and squeezed her knee as he sat back.

With her gaze intent on the structure just out of shock wave range of the zipper, she flipped the switch.

At first nothing happened that they could see, but as Vincenz knew, it would be just a short time and then … ah, there it was, the
first round of explosions and fire. The building shook and began to fall as more explosive packs went off.

“We can get you closer to the portal this time. That ridge was a bitch to climb,” Piper said as she piloted away from the site once they were sure everything had been destroyed.

J
ulian’s head ached from having to control himself so tightly. They managed to get Hannah off the zipper. Andrei had indicated they’d meet again soon as Piper had hugged Hannah, speaking to her quietly.

Oh his sweet Hannah.

They were far closer to the portal and their transport, but would still have to spend another several minutes to get to it, skirting the Imperialist authorities, who’d been involved in clashes with Federated soldiers who’d landed just a few days before.

Vincenz had taken her pack, though she’d protested. He’d also paused to pull the shirt of Julian’s she wore so often from it and hand it her way. Tears had brimmed in her eyes, the sight of it, and of the way she hugged his shirt around herself had torn through him.

Her hair was down, around her face, a face drawn with deep lines of concentration, and she’d most likely have a riot of bruises around her cheek and right eye from the beating she’d taken. But he knew
she needed to get to the transport on her own steam. Needed to do it for herself. But he wanted to do it for her anyway.

He and Vincenz moved as quickly as they could, both needing to get her inside and safe.

The small clearing was empty and the security they’d set was still in place so they hadn’t been discovered. In his earpiece he heard the chatter from the local authorities who’d discovered the processing plant had been burning and were on their way out to the site.

It was a good thing to have trouble in the opposite direction, keep their focus away from them until they were well and away from there.

Though, he thought as he prepared the transport while Vincenz fed data into the uplink, he wouldn’t have turned his back on the opportunity to kill some Imperialist assholes.

It wasn’t until sometime later, once he’d gotten the transport through the portal and on a set route, that he was able to step away and go to her.

Vincenz was still on the comm with Daniel so Julian passed, squeezed his shoulder and kept moving to her.

When he found her she had wrapped herself in a blanket and wedged her body between the bed and the wall. Her head rested on her knees, her hair obscuring her face.

Rage coursed through him. His hands fisted, wanting to punch someone, wanting to hear the crunch of bone. Wanted retribution for what they’d done to her. To Marame. To Vincenz, whose face so often bore guilty lines over what his father had done.

“Hey there, baby. Can I take a look at you? You took some hits in the hallway back there.”

She looked up and as he’d suspected, bore the beginnings of quite a spectacular black eye. He pushed his anger back and opened up the first-aid kit.

“That your first black eye?”

“No. Before … just once. And then they didn’t hit me in the face anymore.”

He dragged a breath into his lungs and let it out slowly. “That doesn’t count. You were abused. This time you got it brawling.”

Her bottom lip trembled.

“Is it that you killed a man?” He tried to remain calm as he took a wet cloth to her face to clean off the remains of the blood spatter. He needed to be sure it wasn’t her blood. And to focus on something other than wanting to go back to Silesia and take on the entirety of Fardelle’s army.

She shook her head, allowing him to tip her chin and get the cut above her eyebrow cleaned and bandaged.

“I don’t feel bad that I killed him.” She winced as he unbuttoned her shirt and he found an abrasion on her neck. “Don’t get mad that I took the vest off.”

He paused, brushing the pad of his thumb over the curve of that trembling lip. “Can’t be mad at you. It’s impossible. As for not feeling bad? Guilt is wasted on doing what you have to do.”

“Does it get easier?”

He helped her to her feet. “I need to take the shirt off.” He’d learned early on to part her with his shirt and other things he’d given her with a careful approach. And her permission.

She held still while he looked her over, running his hands over her ribs to check for anything broken. He couldn’t resist leaning down to kiss her shoulder, over the yellowy purple bloom of a bruise.

“To answer your question … it should never be easy to kill anyone. In that way, no, it doesn’t. But over time I’ve become better at letting the parts that make sense matter to me more than the parts that don’t.”

She nodded, thinking over what he’d said.

Something he’d never said to anyone before.

“Sometimes we have to do things because they need doing and no one else is willing.” He held up the small patch of pain medication. “I’m going to put this on. You’re going to be very sore. Not just from the fight back at the plant, but the hike too. Just a standard pain blocker.”

She held her arm out and he applied it.

“Thank you.” She took his hand and kissed his knuckles, keeping hold. “My turn to check you over.”

She dealt quickly and efficiently with the abrasions on his knuckles before she moved to the cuts on his face.

He allowed her to take his shirt off. “That’s what you did on Ceres, isn’t it? The hard thing no one else would do. The right thing.” She cleaned the gash on the back of his right arm. “This needs some sealant.” She reached past him to rustle through the kit until she found what she needed.

Yes, he supposed, it was exactly what he did in Ceres. Sometimes he’d felt so alone, but now he had Vincenz and Hannah. Hannah, who watched him with those big, startled eyes and understood everything. Vincenz who walked the path with him, knew the same demons and loved him anyway.

She cleaned his wounds quickly and efficiently as they both forgave themselves a little bit.

“Do you promise to always treat my gashes and bruises without a shirt on? It hurts far less when your breasts are part of the package.”

She smiled a little, which had been his intent. “It might be simpler if you stopped getting injured.”

“Wrong line of work for that. Still, might come in handy, having my own personal doctor.”

“At some point I’m going to need a job again. I’ll take a wild guess and say there would probably always be a need for one around you and Vincenz.”

He bent to retrieve his shirt, drawing it around her body again to keep her warm. The deeper they went into the portal, the colder it would be, especially in such a small transport.

“Don’t want you getting a chill. Come lay in the bed with me?” he asked, gently sliding his palm over her hair.

Her gaze met his and he wanted to growl at the shadows of anguish there. He wanted to ask if she’d like to sleep. If she needed a sedative. Anything at all that would soften what she was feeling. But he knew she wouldn’t do it.

So he shook the blanket she’d been using out and pulled the bedding back so she could slide in. And he slid in after, pulling her close as he buried his face in her neck. She sighed, the sound catching slightly, as she snuggled back into his body.