WITH half a dozen groups of men, including two military black ops groups, waiting nearby for the command to move out once Jenna’s location had been ascertained, the mood inside had gone silent and tense as all focus was directed on Ramie.
Knowing well how devastating the process was on her and how vulnerable she was during and in the aftermath, Caleb quietly conveyed his wishes to Dane that only he, Isaac and Dane be present during Ramie’s ordeal.
“I understand, Caleb, and normally you know I’d agree to keep the people around Ramie to a minimum, but in this case, I think we should include Gavin and Wade Sterling, as both men are familiar with the underworld where Jesus operates and it’s possible they would clue in on things Ramie says better than we would. I also think Eliza should be present in support of Ramie,” he concluded quietly.
Caleb nodded, closing his eyes. “I understand. I hate it but I get it. And Ramie will understand as well. Hell, she wouldn’t care if the whole room was present. It’s me who’s so protective of her and tries to shield her from as much scrutiny as possible when she’s at her most vulnerable.”
“Let’s get to it,” Dane said. “We don’t have any more time to waste if we’re going to get to Jenna in time.”
Everyone except those mentioned by Dane left the room to prepare to leave at a moment’s notice. The tension could be felt throughout the room and every single agent was armed to the teeth, determination etched into their expressions. Tonight, only Caleb and Beau would remain in Dane’s fortress to watch over Ari, Tori, Gracie and Ramie. The women had argued vehemently in favor of going but were shut down on all sides so forcefully, they’d had no choice but to give up the argument.
But after the showdown between Eliza and Wade, no one dared suggest she too remain behind. She would have had the balls of every single man who suggested it. In the end, it had been Gracie who’d gotten Eliza to agree to remain behind by telling her with complete sincerity that she would feel much safer if Eliza was here to help Beau and Caleb should anyone breach the safe house.
Wade had shot Gracie a look filled with gratitude and relief, but he’d made sure his wife hadn’t seen his silent thank you.
Ramie sank down on one of the now vacant couches and immediately locked eyes with Isaac. “I won’t stop until I have what we need to find her. I swear it.” Then she turned to her husband, whose face was a mask of agony. “Promise me you won’t stop me, that you won’t bring me back until we have what we need. Swear it, Caleb.” Her expression was identically tortured and her fear of not being able to provide the information they so desperately needed was tangible in the air.
Caleb merely nodded tersely and then positioned himself beside his wife. Isaac sat on her other side, while the remaining people gave her appropriate space, but remained close enough to hear and witness anything she said or experienced.
The rest of the room fell away, and there was only Isaac and Ramie and the quiet vow he read in her eyes as he tentatively held out the sweater Jenna had been wearing earlier that day. Ramie sucked in a deep breath, staring down at it for a moment before finally taking it and wrapping her hands in the material.
Isaac immediately moved back to give her space while Caleb closed in, hovering anxiously over his wife. Ramie’s eyes glowed brightly for a moment before she closed them and slumped forward, Caleb catching her and easing her to the floor, where she lay in a fetal position.
Isaac stared, unable to look away, studying every nuance of Ramie’s demeanor, seeking some sign she’d connected to Jenna. Then Ramie hunched inward, grunting in pain, her arms instantly surrounding her stomach. Tears burned Isaac’s eyes as helpless fury began to eat away at his very soul.
“You think you can so easily make a fool of me in front of my men and all those people you claim are so precious to you.”
It was a gruff voice that sounded eerily just like Jaysus. Coming from Ramie’s mouth, it was even stranger that it held nothing of her soft, feminine tone. It was as if she was channeling the very devil himself in that moment.
Then her head snapped back and a bruising handprint appeared on her face.
“What the fuck?” Isaac yelled.
He tried to lunge for Ramie, attempting in some way to protect both her and Jenna, who was miles away from the abuse being heaped upon them both. It took the combined strength of Dane, Sterling and Gavin to wrestle him away and pin him down, but he never moved his gaze from the horror that stared back at him from the floor.
“You’re a fool to even think I’d keep my promise, especially if you don’t do exactly as I tell you at all times,” Jaysus continued, taunting Jenna through the medium of Ramie.
“You’re the idiot,” Jenna gritted out, pain evident in her voice.
Oh God. Isaac choked, unable to form the words he wanted to scream. Don’t anger him. Give him no reason to continue hurting you, baby. I’m coming for you. I swear to God, I’ll never give up until I have you back. Please stay alive and safe for me.
“Do you honestly believe in your overinflated arrogance that you could ever just waltz back in and kill all those people?” Jenna said in a flat tone, devoid of emotion. “You got lucky and managed to manipulate a woman who already despised me into doing your dirty work for you. You would have never gotten within a mile of me otherwise. You’ll never be able to get to them, much less kill a single one of them. So maybe you should consider whether I’ll keep my promises, you bastard, because pissing me off isn’t the way to go about doing it.”
“That a girl,” Dane whispered.
Eliza’s expression was fierce with pride over Jenna’s statement, and it was echoed by her husband as well as Gavin Rochester.
“You have yourself one hell of a woman,” Gavin whispered to Isaac while still maintaining his tight hold on him to keep him from completely losing his shit.
Isaac just closed his eyes as tears leaked from the corners.
“Do what you want if it makes you feel more like a man,” Jenna said in a weary, pain-filled voice. “But remember this when someone shoots your ass off and you come wag it at me to heal it. I might decide to say ‘fuck you’ and let you die a long, slow, painful death.”
Isaac’s eyes shot open and went wide in shock. He’d never heard Jenna speak that way, but then he’d never really seen her angry, certainly not as furious as she appeared to be right now. He’d seen her confused by the world around her and desperately trying to take it all in. Maybe he’d even viewed her as weak and in need of constant protection, but in this moment, he was seeing a side of Jenna that made him so fucking proud that she was his yet at the same time worried out of his mind that she’d pay for every single one of her taunts.
Ramie was actually knocked from Caleb’s grasp and went sprawling on the floor several feet away, and Isaac growled, his fists swinging as he tried to hit something, anything.
“You won’t kill me, Jesus. You’re too chickenshit,” she taunted again, in a much weaker voice that scared the hell out of Isaac. How much more could she endure? “You need me, because the one thing you fear above all else is death. Your death. It’s why you went on this crazy pursuit for immortality and when you realized you were indeed as batshit crazy as everyone labeled you, then you settled for the next best thing. Some poor, naïve, easily manipulated girl who’d been abducted by a cult when she was four and spent the last twenty years as their prisoner. A woman who happened to possess the ability to heal. Did you think I would be grateful to you for taking me away from the cult?” she egged him on. “Did you imagine me falling at your feet, thanking you over and over and vowing to do your bidding forever in my gratitude? It seems to me you got one crappy bargain.”
“Shut up!” Jaysus screamed, his high-pitched voice sending chills up the spine of every person assembled. “I may not kill you, but by God, you’ll wish I had when I’m done with you.”
“For God’s sake, Caleb,” Isaac pleaded. “Do we have their location? Can we put an end to this?”
Caleb was faring no better and he shook his head. “God damn it, Ramie hasn’t said anything that identifies their location. We’ve gotten nothing from her at all! Only what she relays from Jenna and that goddamn son of a bitch who is abusing them both.”
Ramie flinched, but it didn’t appear that she, or rather Jenna, had been struck again. Instead, Ramie was suddenly dragged along the floor by invisible hands and made to sit upright against the wall.
“Why did you shoot him?” Jenna asked hysterically. “Are you insane? Why would you shoot one of your own men? Do you think the others are going to continue to give you such blind loyalty when they see that this is their reward? For God’s sake, let me heal him before it’s too late.”
“You aren’t to touch him,” Jesus said coldly. “You did this to him. You killed him, you stupid bitch. And now you get to sit there and watch him die when you could have saved him.”
“You’re out of your mind,” Jenna said, raising her voice, anger vibrating from Ramie’s entire body. “I didn’t kill this man. You shot him. And by not allowing me to do what you seemed so desperate to abduct me and have me do, his blood is on your hands. Not mine,” she spat. “Or do you only intend to keep my healing ability for yourself? I think you’ve sold your men a line of crap by making them feel invincible by telling them you have a miracle worker, that no matter what happens to them, I can fix them, but in reality, you don’t give a shit about them or if they die. You merely want the unwavering, unquestioning loyalty and the attitude of invincibility so they’ll carry out your commands, no matter that they’re as insane as you are.”
Ramie flinched again and then clapped her hands over her ears and began rocking back and forth, her eyes wide open, fixed and unblinking.
“Fuck,” Dane said, rubbing both hands over his face in supreme agitation. “Jesus fuck, he just shot someone else and he’s going to torture her by making her watch him die when he damn well knows she can heal him and it’s her nature to want to heal even when the person is undeserving. She doesn’t judge.”
“She doesn’t feel it’s her right,” Isaac said, sorrow heavy in his voice. “She believes her gift is from God, no matter that the cult leaders tried to make her rebuke that belief her entire life. They tried to brainwash her into believing she was Satan’s instrument and that only God decided life or death and that she was evil, her gift was evil. They even beat her until she spoke the words they wanted to hear, but they never broke her spirit or her belief that her gift was bestowed upon her by a merciful and loving God, and so she doesn’t feel she has a choice in whether she uses it or not, nor is she qualified to pass judgment on someone or deem them worthy or unworthy of being saved.”
“This isn’t good,” Wade muttered. “This isn’t good at all. He’s physically and psychologically torturing her, for fuck’s sake. We need a fucking location!”
“I hope someone shoots you,” Jenna said, devastation in her voice. “I vow on my life I won’t lift a single hand to save you. Kill me, torture me. I don’t care. I got what I wanted and you? You’re a monster who got nothing in the end but the promise of a very short life.”
“Oh no. No no no, Jenna!” Isaac bellowed. “Oh God, baby. Don’t give him any reason to believe you won’t heal him, god damn it!”
Once again, Ramie went flying across the floor, and spittle flew from her mouth as Jaysus’s words spilled out.
“Take that back!” he screamed. “Take it back or I swear I’ll make you pray for death with every breath.”
“This is fucking enough!” Isaac roared. “We need a goddamn location and we need it now!”
Caleb, no longer able to withstand watching the horror his wife was being subjected to, bent over her and immediately began the process of trying to bring her back as Isaac prayed with every part of his being that it had been enough. That Ramie had been in Jaysus’s mind long enough to be able to tell them where to find Jenna.
“Ramie, please, come back to me,” Caleb pleaded, as he alternately rocked and shook her in an effort to bring her back from the dark, evil place she seemed to be drowning in.
After five long minutes, Ramie gasped and jerked upright, her eyes clear and no longer lost in another time and place. She yanked her head around as if confused by her surroundings. Then she locked onto Isaac and frantically began begging him to hurry.
Isaac knelt by Ramie and eased his hand over hers, squeezing to give her as much comfort as he was capable of when he was eaten alive by grief and terror for Jenna’s life.
“Hurry where, Ramie? Tell us where. Do you know where he has her?”
Ramie nodded even as tears welled in her eyes. “You have to hurry or there’ll be no hope. He took her to a place a few hours away because his pride was hurt and he got sloppy, thank God. He wanted the chance to discipline her and reprimand her, to bend her to his will before he disappears into the heart of the cartel-controlled district of Mexico. Once he’s there, you’ll never be able to find her, much less get her back.”
“Then where is he now, Ramie?” Dane asked her urgently. “How much time do we have left before he moves her?”
“You have four hours, and the place he’s holding her is three hours away,” she said in defeat.
“Fuck that!” Dane said, fury blasting from every nuance of his body. He was trembling with anger and clenching and unclenching his fists with so much agitation that he looked precariously close to losing his shit.
Isaac was right there beside him.
“We’ll get there in two hours and not a minute later,” Dane vowed. “On my fucking life! Now let’s get the fuck out of here. Go, go, go, god damn it!”