Right Through Me (The Obsidian Files #1)(70)

Luke made a strangled sound.

“Yeah, I know, it’s crazy,” Mark agreed. “But you’re the decryption man. You and Zade and Sisko decrypted all the Midlands info before rebellion day. I know exactly how good you are. I have the files on the slave soldiers in a biometric safe, which I can’t get into. But you can.” Mark’s manic grin showed all his teeth as he leaned in and licked Luke’s neck. “I could have had so much fun with you. Too bad I’m not into boys.”

Luke gurgled painfully, dragging in a little air.

“Shut up. Don’t even try to move. You can’t until I give you the release code. I have six prototype slave soldiers all in the Wyoming-Utah area, and as soon as I get access to the frequency wands, I can pick them up and start practicing.”

Luke looked pale. Gray in the face, blue in the lips. Fighting Mark’s mind control was quickly draining his strength.

“By the way, as far as the police are concerned, you shot that rich *, took his eighty million and his f*cking fancy jewelry collection and left the country. I could tell them where to find you. Want to know?” He leaned closer, to Luke’s ear. “You’ll be six levels underground, at my secret place. Being my bitch.”

Luke jerked, helplessly.

Mark Olund pulled a small device out of the pocket of his sweatshirt. It looked like a wide, heavyweight elastic band that he put around Luke’s head, clamping a series of sleekly designed electronic devices against it. Mark adjusted the band carefully and peered down into his phone, syncing the device. He gazed at his own phone for a few moments, tapping and scrolling.

Apparently satisfied, Olund went to the door and opened it. Four huge men came in, carrying a case that looked like it was made for a big piece of sound equipment.

They upended Luke Ryan’s stiff, unyielding body into it like a corpse into a coffin, locked it and carried it out of the room.

Mark followed them. The door clicked shut. Minutes passed, in utter silence.

The video stopped. No one moved.

Caro had no reason to be surprised by any of this. She knew only too well how violent and disturbed Mark was. But she still couldn’t move or speak. It was so horrible.

Then she saw Hannah, sobbing into her hands. Sisko paced behind the couch. Zade sat, white-faced, fists clenched so hard his knuckles were white.

Noah just looked at the blue screen, his face a blank mask.

Her neck prickled, as Mark’s words in the video floated through her mind. You and Zade and Sisko decrypted all the Midlands info before rebellion day.

Oh, God. Zade and Sisko? “What the hell is going on?” she demanded.

No one answered. The tension in the room intensified as she stood up.

“You guys are not being straight with me. Especially you.” She pointed at Noah. “I don’t know what the f*ck happened in that video, or what connection Mark has to that poor guy, or why you even care. But none of it matters to me.”

Hannah’s wet eyes widened with outrage. “How can you say that?”

“Framing people for murder is what Mark does,” Caro said. “That’s all that’s relevant to me. This video will prove my innocence, or at least help me prove it. I have to take this to the police right away.”

Noah stood up, and removed the flash drive from the laptop. The TV went dark.

“No,” he said.

Caro braced herself. “Care to explain?” She knew he wouldn’t.

“I’m taking him down,” Zade said. “Nobody can stop me.”

“Zade.” Noah’s voice was flat. “Think. If what he says is true, and we have no reason not to believe him, then he has your codes. You can’t get near him. He’d take you just like he took Luke.”

“But Luke’s in the dungeon,” Zade insisted. “Mark’s hurting him now.”

Caro looked around at Zade. “So that’s why I saw you before Hannah called for me,” she said to Zade. “You guys know Luke Ryan personally. Mark Olund, too?”

Noah broke the silence. “Yes,” he admitted. “We have history with Mark.”

“So you’ve been stalking me?”

“Not exactly,” Noah said. “We’ve been stalking Mark. We only stalked you by reflex. You popped up on our radar when you made contact with Bea.”

Caro tried to wrap her mind around that, and drew a blank. As blank as Bea’s empty blue eyes. No mental flexibility was possible today. She felt fragile, brittle.

“Guess we all want to bring down Mark Olund,” she said. “Right? So why not go to the police? Why not help your friend?” She gazed around their shuttered faces, feeling the weight of their tense silence. Her heart sank.

Caro straightened her shoulders, and held out her hand for the flash drive. “Give me that,” she said. “It’s mine. I found it. I paid for it. And the price was very high.”

“I’m sorry,” Noah said. “I can’t let you take that file to the police.”

Caro drew her hand back. Her stomach roiled. So. There it was.

She’d had an awful, sinking sense that something like this might happen. Ever since Noah insisted on calling his own crew to view the footage they had found.

She’d been betrayed, f*cked over, deceived and used. Again.

This time, it was incredibly personal. Noah had made an absolute fool of her. She’d opened herself to him completely. He’d made her fall into something like love with him and then betrayed her trust. She was almost too shocked to be angry. But not quite.