ZANE

 

Come on, girl. I need you to be brave.

I can see her contemplating what I am asking her to do. The calculation is written all over her face. She is weighing the odds of success, even though she doesn't even know the plan. She doesn't even know the beginning of the plan or how it's supposed to end. I am asking her to blindly trust me.

She swallows a nervous lump in her throat, wets her lips, prepares herself to move even though she wants to remain frozen in place. It's safer for her that way, but we are running out of time. I nod at her and now all that’s left is me waiting for her to make her move. Mitch's attention is focused on whatever conversation he is having on his phone. It's her job to press the button and I will handle whatever happens next. I know the risks associated with the maneuvers I'm about to make, but I wouldn't do something to put her in any more jeopardy than she already is in.

She lunges forward, throwing her fist against the button. As soon as she moves, Mitch twists on his feet and stares us dead in the eyes. I can hear the two men behind us moving into action. I throw an elbow backwards, colliding with one man's chest.

He cries out in pain and hunches over. I spin around on my feet, lock one arm around his throat and pull him backwards until he stumbles to the ground.

The other man raises his gun, points it square at my head. He's prepared to take my life at all costs and I'm prepared to take his if I must. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Mitch racing for the elevator but he's too late.

The doors close.

Now it's just the four of us inside this tiny claustrophobic box. Anna jumps into action on her own. She punches a finger against the top button, the button with the number seventy-four on it.

She is a smart woman.

A smart, beautiful, sexy, amazing woman. Even if she doesn't know that yet. My guess is today is going to be the day she finds out what she's really made of. There are times in all of our lives where we are tested. These are the times when we find out who we really are, and what we are capable of.

I'm looking that man dead in his eyes. He very well could be the person who does what nobody else so far has been able to do. He could be the person to put me in my casket.

The hand he's holding his gun in shakes and I get the curious feeling that he isn't as bad as he would like me to think. I'm no longer afraid of him, if I even ever was. Just when I'm about to make my move, just when I am about to take that gun out of his hands and disarm him, Anna once again surprises me.

She jumps into action again, diving sideways towards the man. She knocks the gun out of his hand and then throws the rest of her body against him so that he is thrown against the back of the elevator. He drops his fist and punches her in the gut.

She fumbles backwards, grunting in pain.

This man must have a death wish. I cut across the short distance between us and level one hand around his throat. I throw him backwards, holding him in the air with nothing more than the strength of my wrist. His fingers claw at my hands, almost digging underneath the flash of my skin, but I have no intention of letting go.

"Who the hell sent you?” I grit out under my breath, but I do not free him of my grip enough so that he can answer. He tries to choke words out of his throat but he can’t, so I finally loosen my grip, let go of his throat and drop an elbow against his chest to hold him in place. "I'm not going to ask you again!”

"I… I don't know."

"That's not good enough for me." I jab him in the stomach with a closed fist. He grunts out in pain and I'm not going to lie, I revel in being able to make him squeal. "Do you want to try that again, maybe?"

He shifts forward like he's about to do something, but I'm one step ahead of him. With the same arm holding him in place all ready, I push back harder against him so that he he’s pinned  between the weight of my arm and the elevator wall.

From behind me, I can hear the dinging of the elevator as we rise floor by floor. I call out to Anna, “What floor are we on?”

She hesitates answering my inquiry for a brief second before she grinds outs, “Nineteen.”

I chuckle under my breath as I crack a wide grin at the man before me. It's not that I find anything particularly funny, but I think it's in my best interest to make him believe that I am as crazy as Mitch, his boss. "You have about fifty floors left before I decide that you are no longer useful to me and I snap your neck like a pretzel."

He swallows a visible gulp in his throat. His eyes drop to the floor where his buddy is still lying down recovering from the rather gentle ass whipping I just gave him. I call out to Anna once more, "Why don't you do me a favor, Anna?”

“Already on it, Zane."

I glance back at Anna as she maneuvers free from her restraints and rolls the man onto his stomach. She makes quick work of tying his hands behind his back in the same way they had tied our hands earlier. I smile at her, more than proud at her quick learning. Hell, if someone had taken her out into the field before today, she would probably be able to more than defend herself. Maybe once this is all over, if she isn't too scarred, she'll begin to regularly work out in the field. Although I'm sure when this is all over, she won't ever want to do this again. Hell, she probably won't even want to work for Ford Security anymore.

And it’s not like I could blame her.

We continue rising floor-by-floor. Second by second we are climbing to the highest point of the building. I reaffirm my grip on the man in front of me and raise my arm until it is just beneath his chin. I thrust forward, cutting off his oxygen supply. He's either going to talk or he is going to be lights out.

Just then, the lights go out.

I'm not naïve enough to think it's a power failure. The power going out is purposeful, and I have a sneaking suspicion that Mitch or whomever he is working for is the person behind the outage.

The man before me cackles wildly as if I don't have the power to kill him right now. What is it about bad guys being so loyal to their wars that they are willing to die while the man at the top of the chain reaps all of the rewards?

A radio beeps from the man lying on the floor. There's a brief pause where nothing more than white noise can be heard until I hear a shuffle from behind me. Anna screams for help.

Without so much as thinking about it, I sock the man in the face. It takes just one punch for him to drop down to the floor unconscious. When he wakes up, he is going to have a hell of a headache. I twist around on my feet to find that the other man has risen to stand and he's holding Anna in front of him as a shield.

His arm is held firm around her neck, holding her in place. She's calmer than I would be in the same circumstance. She glares at me with ice cold eyes and it almost scares me to see her so stone cold in her resolve. He drags his arm around her neck, cutting off her oxygen supply as he reaches for his walkie-talkie attached to his belt.

Anna swallows harshly, looks at me in a certain way and I know just what she's about to do. I try to caution her, try to talk to her with nothing more than eye contact, but I remember that she is not used to being in these positions so she probably doesn't understand the signs.

She jabs the man in the stomach with the back of her elbow. His grip loosens just enough so that she is able to break free. She juts forward and twists to face him. With lightning reflexes, she draws her leg back and launches a kick against his privates. He hunches over in pain, giving her the opening to knee him in the face. He stumbles backwards, groaning out in pain.

I can't help but to smile again. This girl is making me prouder by the minute.

Static starts emitting from the walkie-talkie again. I lunge past Anna and rip the walkie-talkie from the man's belt before he can reach it. Swiftly, I deliver a knockout blow to his face using my knee.

I raise the walkie-talkie into the air and listen as Mitch begins to speak, “They are on the twenty-seventh floor. Do what you must. Use as much force as necessary, but we need both of them alive. The Grimm family has warned us that not only will we not be paid if Zane isn’t brought to them alive, but we will also face their long-reaching wrath.”

I freeze in place, my palms sweaty and my mind anxious. That's saying nothing of the racing of my heart. Somehow, I always knew it would come back to this. After what we did to Seth Grimm, I knew we wouldn't get away with it that easy. A fun-filled vacation to the Caribbean, for only six months, was never going to be enough distance and space or time to allow the heat to wear off of us. We were naïve, my brother and I, for thinking otherwise.

Anna passes me a knowing look, one torn between anxiety and fear, as if there is even a measurable difference between the two. Even though she wasn't a part of the operation all those months ago, she has heard enough to know what these people are capable of. And though Seth Grimm himself is long gone from this world, his legacy and his empire still remain standing. And that includes all of the money, resources and henchmen he left behind.

Something tells me this day is about to get a hell of a lot worse before it gets better.