"Well, well, she's pretty. I guess Slice'N'Dice knows how to pick 'em," an unfamiliar voice said, almost cooing at her. "Don't worry, honey. You're safe with us now. You just stay there like a good girl and we'll get you out in a minute, okay? Okay."
He didn't wait for an answer and as suddenly as he'd appeared, whoever he was as she hadn't seen a thing because of the light shining into her face, he was gone again, the heavy steps of surefooted men pounding over the roof once more. It made the car lurch threateningly and Meredith backed into the backseat, her insides twisting and roiling with good, honest fear.
"Who are you?" she called out tentatively, balling up in the corner of the seat as she felt something attach to the rear bumper and then the whole car started to move backwards, away from the precipice.
"Your fairy godmothers," another voice shot back, the one who must have laughed before.
Both of them had deep voices, rumbling and low, and Meredith wasn't entirely sure if she wanted to meet the faces behind those voices. But it wasn't like she was being given a choice again. About a minute later, the door was yanked open and before she could scoot away, two arms reached inside, scooped her up and took her out of the car.
She was placed down, kicking and screaming as she was, and the men simply chuckled.
"Feisty one, huh? Don't play, kitten, we don't have time. Hold up your hands," the man who'd picked her up said.
Looking up at him, she could make out his features now as his headlamp was not so glaring as the flashlight had been. He was a tall man, built like a wall, with a square face, brilliant, almost golden hazel eyes and a neatly trimmed reddish-blonde beard. He winked at her good-naturedly, behaving like this was all in good fun as she held up her hands and he cut through the binds with a hunting knife that would have looked comically oversized in Meredith's hands.
Then again, in the hands of a 5'6'', plump and curvy scientist, most weapons would have looked sort of funny. She had long mahogany brown hair and quiet blue eyes, which were the high-point of her small heart-shaped face as her button nose was rather plain and her lips were nothing to write home about.
Still, she was attractive enough, considering the way that the soldiers sometimes looked at her on the bases, but she hadn't really worn anything but research gear or sweats or khakis for five years, so honestly Meredith was just about the last person to really judge whether or not she was cute anymore.
"Who are you guys? And can I get a better answer this time? I don't believe in jungle fairytales," Meredith asked, her voice shaking as she looked around for the other guy.
They had a big camo-painted truck that had pulled the armored vehicle out of the ditch and at that very moment, the other half of the duo was hauling Thyne out of the space between the seats.
"Don't look now," the guy closest to Meredith said, but she wasn't fast enough, so she got a good eyeful of how the werewolf's brains were splattered all over the side of the car before he was dumped into the ditch.
She threw up immediately, narrowly missing the tall guy's boots.
"Aw, come on there, honey. That wasn't even bad. Ryker was being a real pussycat, clean shot and everything. Weren't you, Ryker?"
"Was I what?"
"Being a pussycat."
"Sure," Ryker confirmed with a snort. "I'll take this one, you take ours. Take the girl. We need to get back to base. Mark the location so we can do cleanup after the compound is swept."
"Don't we sound all official tonight," he said with a sigh, looping an arm around Meredith who was still trying to hack out her lunches from the last few days, it seemed.
She wiped at her mouth with her sleeve, the taste bitter and grimy in her mouth. She'd seen a man get shot before, one of the scientists who had openly defied The Arctics on a mission on the first year of her capture, but she'd forgotten just how much blood there could be. And how a person could go from being human to being wormfood in a split second.
I've gotten saved from psychos and handed over to motherfucking maniacs, she thought dizzily as she was led to the other car and helped in, the belt hooked up for her much the same was as Thyne had done.
"I'm Rio, by the way," her driver said, hopping into the driver's seat. "And you better hold on, Meredith, 'cuz we're sort of in a hurry and I don't play nice with jungle roads."
He flashed her a knowing grin before slamming the jeep in reverse and spinning it around like he was at a race, thumbing something in on the massive and complicated center console before kicking the car into gear and roaring down the road, in the same direction where Meredith had been coming from before.
"Where are you taking me?" she asked, her vision swimming a little.
She raised her hands up a little and saw that they were shaking violently. No wonder. While she'd become a rather seasoned hostage, her life had been rather steady lately. Sure, there was always a plethora of armed guards around, but they weren't openly trying to kill her. These guys? Well, she wasn't so sure that the same notion held with them.
"Oh, we're going to go see the show!" Rio said, grinning wide. "Tell me, do you think there's anyone back there in your little base worth keeping alive?"
"Uh, what do you mean?" Meredith asked, confused, staring at the man.
He looked even scarier now that her eyes had adjusted to the darkness. Not only was he big and sort of menacing, he had a kind of hardness to his facial features and wild flare in his eyes that she'd seen in a few people before, but none of them had been anything that she'd deem to call 'stable.'
"That place you've been hanging out at for the past half a year. Is there anyone there who isn't an Arctics' lackey? A lapdog for the werewolf regime, as it would be?" he asked, his tone so light you'd think they were discussing where to go for brunch on Sunday morning.
"I … Um, no? I don't think so? They're all official Arctics' people," she said, fumbling over her words while her brow furrowed. "Why?"
"Oh, you'll see," Rio said brimming with good humor.
It was sort of unsettling.
Then again, she hadn't seen anything yet that didn't completely freak her out.
And it was only going to get worse.
Everything always gets worse …
Three
Dice
"We've got her."
It's at that point that Dice's world seemed to both grind to a halt and come to life again all in one fell swoop. He heaved in a breath, steadying his voice before answering over the comm lines.
"Roger that, Lynx Two. Lynx Four through Six, mission is a go. I repeat, the mission is a go."
He couldn't see anything, but he knew that all over the jungle, his men were now bursting into action. Thor was already in position, waiting to take out the two guard towers closest to his nest, and Prowler must have been busy at work disabling the compound's communication grid, rerouting it through his tech. Price and Dice were slated to take care of the other two guard towers, one guard in each, before they could take on the rest of the compound.
I can't believe this is actually happening, he thought darkly, feeling a chill go down his spine as he ran through the thick underbrush, having tracked a path for himself days before.
They'd been staking out the area for nearly a week but he had yet to see Meredith even once. They had solid intel that the armored vehicle heading out that evening would be her transport, based on the communications they'd been tapping into with the squad – The Arctics had taken to calling her 'The Lark,' which he thought oddly fitting since he'd always found the sexy chemist a little bird-like with her glasses and curiosity – but he couldn't be sure. Not entirely.
It had killed him to allow anyone else but himself to go intercept the car, but he was needed where the action was going to be the hottest. As much as he was reluctant to trust Rio and Ryker yet, he knew he had to. They were trusting him, weren't they?
It hadn't been an easy journey. In fact, his ribs still fucking hurt from the throwdown he'd had with Ryker about a month ago – the fucker punched like a MAC truck – but things were slowly evening out. No thanks to Spade, of course.