The Art of You

Five Minutes Before

I was stuck in limbo. Lost somewhere between reality and my past with no idea how long I’d been gone. The drugs were heavy, and I kept skipping back and forth between the bleak here and now and the happy but diaphanous walks down memory lane the drugs lulled me to.

I wasn’t here. No, I couldn’t be.

I was walking in Central Park, the crunch of leaves beneath my boots on a fall day.

Or texting Hudson while sipping coffee as the sun peeked over the buildings before work.

In the Hamptons in our garden with Bianca as she laughed at something funny I’d said.

Attempting to resist the drugs again and face hell, I opened my eyes, hoping Callie wasn’t there with me, and that the last time I glimpsed her during these sandman-like hours was a hallucination.

My eyes dropped closed the moment I laid eyes on her tied to a chair, the same as me. No, no, no. Why are you here? Alessandro will lose his mind even more, and . . .

The tears that should’ve come still didn’t spill.

What drugs did he dope me up with? Instead of fear and despair, I felt oddly numb.

Chancing one more look, I parted my eyes to catch Keith setting a camera up on a tripod inside the desolate, cold space.

“You’re awake.” Keith’s voice effectively snapped me free from the safe haven of my mind I’d been living in.

I now had to face what was happening, and the drugs lost their ability to dull my senses with every step he took my way.

He squatted before me so we were eye level. There was something dark and sinister in his eyes that had me choking back the words I wanted to hiss.

Keith cupped my chin, and a shiver bolted down my spine, winding into my arms to where my hands were cuffed behind my back. “If we had more time, I’d make you mine. Maybe you could even learn to love me.”

What. The. Fuck? My stomach protested and my words died on my tongue. I still couldn’t seem to find my voice. It was lost somewhere between that fall day in the park and summering in the Hamptons. The safe space of my past before my world had become dark when Bianca died.

“I’ve been watching you since June. I’ve been in your house a few times, actually. There was never a gas leak.” He spelled it out for me, the dark edge of his voice cutting me in half right along with the truth. He lowered his hand from my chin to my throat but didn’t squeeze. “You sleep with that bear every night, so I got a little worried when Calliope over here didn’t pack him for you when you were at the hospital.” He licked his lips slowly and deliberately while staring at me as I blinked, stunned and speechless.

He’d watched me? Been in my home? What did he do to my freaking bear? How had I not sensed this? My stomach roiled, realizing what else he’d have seen, then. Thank God I always covered myself in bed when I touched . . .

Now the tears broke through the haze of the drugs, encouraging a smile from the sick bastard.

“You could say I’ve developed a bit of an obsession with you. I guess that’s what happens when you watch someone as beautiful as you all the time.” With his free hand, he reached around and fisted my hair, tugging the strands and demanding my attention.

His eyes dipped to my mouth before ravaging a slow, sick path of destruction down my body to my lap.

“Let her go.” Callie’s throaty rasp had me trying to twist to look at her, but his hold of me was too strong, and my efforts were wasted. “Don’t touch her.”

“I’ll get to you in a moment, Miss . . . what does your husband like to call you again? Right, right.” He kept hold of me, smiling, while turning his head her way. “Little Miss Tennessee Whiskey.”

“You son of a bitch.” At least her voice was working, unlike mine, and her chair legs made thud-like noises against the concrete as if she were trying to physically hop her way to him.

I was as stuck in place as were the words behind my lips, though. Feeling trapped inside one of the world’s most disturbing paintings. Like a Francisco Goya mural. Not so much afraid right now, but sick to my stomach.

“Now, what was I saying?” He dismissed Callie’s continued pleas to leave me alone and found my eyes again while pulling my hair harder. “I thought I lost you Friday night in that crash, and I felt something I hadn’t in a long time.” He angled his head. “Fear.” A slow smile slipped across his lips. “Because you’re only allowed to die by my hand.” He narrowed his gaze on my mouth like it was his next target.

I jerked my head back when I realized what he was about to do. He covered my mouth with his in a sloppy, disgusting kiss, and I did the first thing that came to mind as Callie yelled for him to stop.

I sank my teeth into his bottom lip, hoping to draw blood.

He finally let go of my hair and throat to break free from the strong grip my teeth had. With his face hovering only inches from mine, he ran his tongue over his bloody lip, dragging it across his white teeth and following it up with a creepy-as-fuck smile.

And then the fear hit. My body had yet to catch up with my head, because I was still lacking the anxiety-driven chills I’d expected to have.

“They’re going to kill you for that. For all of this.” Callie’s words broke me free of my frozen-in-shock state.

“I’m certainly hoping they’ll try, or I’d be very disappointed,” the asshole said nonchalantly.

I was a second away from finally getting my voice to work when I clamped my teeth shut at the loud sound of a door banging closed and an angry voice echoing through the space. “What the hell is going on? I just saw your last Instagram post.”

Keith dragged his thumb along the line of his lips, catching more blood before standing tall to face off with whoever was there.

I looked over at Callie sitting next to me, only five or so feet away. No tears, just a look of defiance and anger simmering in her eyes. The drugs had to be losing their grip on her, too.

“Green,” Callie mouthed, and I followed her gaze to see Rose’s husband rounding our chairs to confront Keith.

“What in the hell is going on?” Green demanded as Keith went to the tripod. “You said the Instagram account was just to throw them off. That the cameras were to keep an eye on them. That photo you had me deliver, and the explosion . . . all of it was just to fuck with them and ensure we set them on the path we wanted, and . . .” Green’s voice trailed off and he tore both hands through his hair. “You promised no one innocent would get hurt. So, why are they here in the same factory your brother died, and why in God’s name did you post the location to Instagram? Why are there over twenty armed men here?”

“You forgot to ask about the C4 in the garage. You miss that when you came in?” Keith played the role of psychopath rather well. His voice may have displayed a casual arrogance, but he seemed even more unhinged than his brother—the man Enzo had killed here apparently.

I hadn’t recognized where we were before because of the drugs, but now it all made sense. Keith brought us back to where, in his mind, it all started.

“No one innocent gets hurt. You promised me.” Green stabbed the air in my direction.

“I didn’t take the pregnant one.” Standing behind the tripod, focused on the screen of the camera as if watching me through the lens, Keith shrugged. “That’s me being a good boy.” He lifted his chin and winked at Green.

Oh, the sick bastard. But that meant . . . Maria’s okay, thank God.

“You never told me you planned to kidnap these women.” Green’s voice cracked. “Do you have the AG tied up here somewhere, too?”

Jesus, was this really happening?

“No, I sent someone to his house to kill him.” Keith stepped around the camera, his hand going to the sidearm strapped to his outer thigh.

“Fuck. This is . . .” Green winced, shaking his head. “I can’t be involved in this. The plan was to use them to kill the terrorists for us. Share the results and consequences of the bad intel with the world that led to Rose dying.” He gripped his hair, pulling at it. “Then, and only then, we’d expose the truth that they killed your brother. But at no point, did we discuss murdering these women in the name of revenge.”

He was spiraling, and this could be good for us.

Green lifted his chin to the ceiling, breathing hard as his hands went to his hips. “I got you the money. The intel. I did everything you needed. Hid your real identities so deep not even God himself could find the truth until I wanted anyone to.”

“There is no God, or my family would be alive.” Keith shot an angry look at Green while removing his 9mm from the holster. “What’d you really expect me to do once you told me the truth about what you found out about my brother?” He gestured back and forth between me and Callie with his gun. “I read Lorenzo Costa’s statement he gave the CIA. He murdered my brother right here. Payback is a motherfucking bitch, and he’s about to find out the hard way. Everyone dies but him. Living with all that blood on his hands will be a fate much worse than death.”

At his words, I finally managed to speak. “Your brother was a killer. He wasn’t innocent. I know that’s what you think, but he killed innocent people, just not my sister.”

“You’re lying,” Keith snarled. “There was no evidence of that. I’d have known. Green would’ve found out.”

“There is evidence, just not at the DOD. My friends can prove it to you, though.” Falcon had the files, but I highly doubted this psychopath would hit pause on his plan and let me play the phone-a-friend game.

“You’re full of shit,” Keith barked out. “Green discovered your brothers took out Bianca’s real killer last year, and Rose joined the military to try and right our brother’s wrongs, the same as I did. It was all for nothing.”

“No, you joined the military because you wanted an excuse to kill people and you hid behind a uniform to do it. You’re sick. A disgrace to our country and to your sister’s memory.” My lack of filter rose from the dead. The drugs waned, and the words sailed hard, fast, and free.

Keith immediately crossed the room, shouldering past Green on his way to me. “Maybe you’re right.” His smile was bloody, only adding to the terrifying look. “Maybe I do enjoy killing. But I’m still going to make your family pay.” He turned toward Callie, raising his weapon, and Green doubled down on his feelings about the situation by jumping in front of her, spreading his arms wide.

Oh, God. “No,” I cried. “Please, don’t. She has nothing to do with this.”

“Rose would never be okay with you killing these women.” Green’s voice was shaking hard, and whatever his involvement in all of this, I was grateful he had a spine and clearly some morals. “I can’t let you do this.”

“Move, or I’ll shoot you.” Keith kept his arm straight, steadily aimed, only flinching when the lights flickered just before the power went out. A shot was fired, and Green screamed.

“Callie? Are you okay?” I rasped as gunfire exploded from outside the room.

“I’m okay. Not hit,” she let me know as Green moaned from somewhere in the pitch-black room.

“I’m going to strangle the life from you.” Keith’s breath scraped across my skin, and a moment later, I felt his hand around my throat.

I had to believe the current chaos was the cavalry coming; I needed to buy time until they could get to us.

Using all my weight, rocking the chair to the side, I fell over, and Keith lost his hold of me. Precious seconds were purchased with that maneuver before the bastard found me on the floor fast. Two hands encircled my throat this time, and the cry for help died on my tongue, never escaping.

Dizziness started to take over. Oxygen wasn’t making it to my brain. But then the distinct sound of a round being fired nearby made its way to my ears, and Keith hissed and let go of me.

The lights came back on a second later as I gasped for air.

“Calliope. Izzy.” Alessandro’s voice sent a flood of hope and relief to my ears.

I slowly parted my lids, twisting around to try and locate my brother.

Keith was on the ground by my feet, bleeding—shot in the arm from the looks of it—and as he scrambled to reach for his gun on the floor, he took another round in the shoulder. His body jolted from the contact.

I finally spotted two masked men on approach. NVGs on top of their helmets. Skeleton masks on, only their eyes visible.

“Hudson,” I mouthed as our eyes connected.

He had his rifle in hand as he came over and kicked Keith’s weapon away as Alessandro closed in on Green.

Hudson crouched alongside the chair and helped me upright off the floor. “Give me one moment.” And although I couldn’t see his mouth, I saw the I love you in his eyes.

Tears fell as I nodded, and he brushed a gentle caress along the side of my head.

Alessandro peered at his wife, giving her a hard nod I read as I love you, then locked on to Green as he tried to army-crawl away from him. At the same time, Hudson shifted his rifle to his back and faced his target—Keith.

“I have a remote to a bomb. You touch me, and I take us all down,” Keith warned, rolling to his back while holding something in his hand for everyone to see.

“Go ahead,” Alessandro told him. “It’s already been deactivated.” My brother swapped his rifle for some type of long chain he’d produced from some-freaking-where.

I suddenly realized the rest of the building was eerily quiet, which meant our guys had control of the situation. Down to two targets. Thank God.

My gaze volleyed back and forth between Alessandro and Hudson and their quick movements.

Hudson bent over and grabbed Keith by the ankle, stopping him from trying to get away, then jerked him backward.

Alessandro knelt forward and wrapped the chain around Green’s neck and tugged it. “You fuck with my family, you fuck with me.” He pulled him up off the ground as Green bled from where he’d been shot by Keith.

“No, wait, stop,” Callie cried out, beating me to the words I was about to say, but Alessandro was too focused on his own revenge to hear her. His rage was consuming him the way Hudson’s currently was as he railed on Keith with his fists.

So distracted by what was going down before me, I barely noticed we had company.

Constantine crouched before me, lowering his skeleton mask. “Are you two okay?” he asked us.

Distracted by my brother choking the life from Green, holding him off the ground like he had superhuman strength, I sputtered instead, “Stop him.”

Another masked man I didn’t recognize went around us to Callie as she continued to beg Alessandro to stop throttling the life from Green.

“Alessandro,” Callie implored again once freed from the chair. “Don’t.”

“Stop Alessandro,” I told Constantine as he uncuffed me.

“I can’t do that.” Constantine shook his head. “They deserve to die.”

I stole a look at Hudson mounted on top of Keith, striking him with severe intensity, blood covering his gloved hands. “Green tried to save us,” I let him know.

“He took a bullet for me,” Callie added, bolting to her husband.

Constantine helped me stand as Callie tugged Alessandro’s arm, urging him to look at her.

He slowly pivoted his head and whispered, “Calliope, please.”

“He doesn’t deserve to die.” Tears flew down her face. “I’m okay. Look at me. I’m—I’m okay.”

Alessandro bowed his head, finally relenting and letting go of Green to take Callie in his arms.

Green crumpled to the ground, quickly removing the chain from around his throat, gasping for air.

Constantine went over and secured his wrists with cuffs, not taking any chances, and I focused back on our last HVT, Keith.

“I need you.” I wasn’t sure who Hudson was calling for, and when I faced him, he was still on top of Keith but no longer punching him. The man was limp and lifeless beneath him. “Constantine, I need you to stop me before I kill him.” He lowered his mask below his chin. “If you don’t physically move me away, I’ll do it,” he gritted out as if it took all his energy to say that.

Constantine quickly helped Hudson up. “Go to her,” he told him, gesturing with his head toward me.

My legs were heavy from the drugs, but I refused to let them slow me down.

Hudson tossed his helmet to the ground, then hauled me against him. “I told you I’d come for you.” I felt the tears break free from him as he held me tightly, the emotional dam collapsing. “I’m sorry it took me so long to get to you, but I promise I’ll never lose you again.” He unwrapped his arms from my body to cup my cheeks, both of us crying. “Are you okay?”

“I am now,” I sputtered with a nod, flinching at the feel of something hitting my leg.

I peered down to find a dog’s paw on me.

“Fellow frogman,” Hudson murmured.

I swallowed the stuttery emotional breath catching in my throat. “Frog-dog, huh?” I reached down to pet him, sniffling as I met Hudson’s eyes again. “I didn’t realize that was a thing.”

“Pulled out all the stops to get to you two.” He blinked back more tears, dropping his forehead to mine, still holding my face.

“I’d expect nothing less.” I stopped petting the dog and wrapped my hand over Hudson’s arm. “You showed mercy.”

“No, that wasn’t mercy.” His brows tightened. “Keeping him alive without anyone here to love him, that’s torture. That’s hell.” His glossy blues held my eyes as he stared at me. “You saved me from the hell I’d been living in, and so help me, Bella, I never want to go back.”