Game of Fear (Montgomery Justice #3)(61)



Her leg bounced, but she knew better than to get up.

Footsteps sounded down the hallway, this time, not the rubber of combat boots, but the click of dress shoes.

She remembered that from the latest version of the game.

A loud click of metal sounded and the solid door swung open. Ashley’s heart thudded against her chest. Don’t pass out. Don’t pass out.

She blinked. Deb wouldn’t let these guys see her even break a sweat. Her sister was the most in-control person Ashley knew.

The Warden walked in, along with another man who didn’t look much older than her college friends. Both of them wore hospital clothes over street garb, evidently for protection.

From bloodstains? Ashley wondered.

Behind them came two guards who pushed Niko into the room in front of them. His left eye was swollen, his face bruised and bloody, but he didn’t look cowed. He wore the marks like badges of honor as he stood at the foot of the table.

The Warden took a file out and smiled. The grin made Ashley shiver.

Could blue eyes really be so dead that there appeared to be nothing behind them?

“So, Ashley Lansing, it seems we have a problem with your attitude. You insist on breaking the rules, no matter who gets hurt.”

“This time, Niko paid the price for talking to you too much. I have his word it won’t happen again. It better not. He’s out of chances. He was supposed to be monitoring your keystrokes, instead of giving you a guided tour of our facilities.”

A loud gulp sounded from her throat, and the man’s grin widened.

“So, you realize what you did.” He shook his head and clicked his tongue. “I don’t know why our most intelligent guests have to be taught the most difficult lessons. If you had just followed the rules . . .”

He slapped his hand against the door and a guard walked in with a tray of instruments.

Ashley’s eyes widened. Oh God. She’d watched enough television to know a scalpel when she saw it.

She swayed in her chair.

“Prepare her,” the man barked.

She jumped to her feet and headfirst barreled toward the open door. She shoved the cart out of her way, but Niko’s muscular arm grabbed her around the waist. She kicked and screamed, twisting her body against him, but he held her fast. His eyes indicating no emotion.

Tears streamed down her face. “No. Please, no!”

She yelled until her voice cracked, but it was no use. They stuffed a gag in her mouth and she bit around the sour-smelling cloth, nearly choking on it.

Moments later they wrestled her flat on the table, shackled her legs and arms to the frame, and cinched a leather strap across her waist.

The Warden and his medical assistant donned latex gloves and snapped the material against their skin. From behind him, an assistant walked in with a surgical gown.

The man slipped it on and a mask was tied over his mouth.

His ice-blue eyes stared down at her.

“Cut her gown off,” he barked.

They removed her top, leaving her breasts bare. He stared down at her nearly naked body. A tear squeezed out of the corner of her eye. Oh God. She wanted to curl up and die.

The assistant draped a blue cloth over her top half, a small hole cut in the side, then held up a syringe.

The Warden lifted his hand. “We won’t be needing anesthesia.”

He leaned over her, holding a scalpel that glittered under the lights. “You tried to leave the assigned area, Miss Lansing. You met with your little friend with the mop again. You thought you weren’t seen. Had you planned to meet him there? You two think you’re so very smart, but you’re actually only arrogant. Don’t you know we are always watching? Floyd didn’t escape and neither will you.”

He stabbed the scalpel into her side.

Ashley lurched up from the table, trying to get away from the knife, the searing pain. Blood ran down the side of her ribs. The gag muffled her screams, but tears ran down her cheeks.

“Hold her,” the man muttered. “I don’t want any mistakes. I want this buried deep.”

He pulled a small chip from inside a vial.

She couldn’t see what he did with it, but a moment later he held up a long pair of forceps.

No! She couldn’t yell around the gag, couldn’t get any air. In her panic, her breathing started to grow laborious.

Her eyes grew wide.

The Warden bent over her and jammed a probe into the gash.

Her chest heaved and bile rose in her throat.

They ignored her.

If she threw up, she was going to die.

The Warden poked and pulled. She couldn’t stop the tears running down her face.

Sour burning erupted from her throat and she lurched again.

One last painful tug. “Oh for God’s sake. Take the gag out before she asphyxiates.”

The Warden rubbed something on her skin and placed a bandage on her wound. Then he tore off his mask and pulled out a file.

He held out photos in front of Ashley.

Deb. Walking into a bar. Going to work. Unlocking her apartment door.

“We’ll know your location every minute of every day, Ashley. You make one move out of line, you try to escape or hack our system one more time, and your sister dies.” He snapped off his gloves.

She lay there, panting. In too much pain to talk.

“Niko, do you have any words of advice for your friend?”

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