Outcast (SEAL Team: Disavowed Book 2) Read online

  “Look, man,” he backed toward the door. “I’m in way over my head. Let’s grab Eden and hop in my ride. Once we’re back at McMurdo, we’ll report this to the authorities and figure out what to do from there.”

  “Sorry, pal. At the moment, I’m the closest thing to an authority you’ve got.” Jasper surveyed the mess even the brief struggle had made. “Unless you have an arsenal stashed on your ride, once this guy’s friends show up, we might be in a world of hurt.” He jogged for the hall, brushed past Doug, then shouted, “Eden! Babe, where are you?”

  Doug chased after him. “Have you considered the possibility that he killed her?”

  “No.” Through room after room, Jasper searched. “Eden!”

  “You should have asked why Leo had a gun.”

  “Eden! Answer me!” In the two-story dormitory pod, Jasper kicked in door after door. If something had happened to her. . .

  He didn’t like thinking of the violence he was capable of doing, but if he discovered that bastard had hurt Eden, he’d annihilate him.

  “Think about it,” Doug persisted. “Why would a world-renowned scientist who’s been studying in Antarctica practically longer than I’ve been alive be waving a gun around? And what did he mean about all those team members not feeling anything? You don’t think he killed them, do you? I mean, you hear about people going off the deep end down here, but that usually just means too much booze or sleeping around. I’ve never encountered anything like this.”

  “Eden!” His companion talked too damned much.

  Jasper tried the next door on the right and found it locked, so he kicked it in, only to freeze.

  Eden lay stretched across a twin bed with her neck crooked at an unnatural angle. Her wrists and ankles had been bound with zip ties. He felt like he was going to puke.

  Am I already too late?

  3

  “TALK TO ME, babe . . .”

  Eden was vaguely aware of Jasper’s take-charge tone, but it drifted to her on a foggy dream.

  “You still have that sat phone in your cat?”

  “Yeah . . .”

  “Then don’t just stand there—get outside and call McMurdo. She needs medical help, and God only knows what that sicko did with the rest of the crew.”

  “Right. Sure.”

  Who belonged to the second, unsure voice? She couldn’t place him.

  “Eden, talk to me. Did Leo do this to you?”

  Tugs at her feet and wrists told her the restraints that had forced her muscles to seize had finally been removed. She groaned in relief, only to wince when her limbs painfully tingled at the sudden movement.

  Her eyelids fluttered open, and she licked her dry lips. She took in her surroundings and then it all rushed back—screams. Chaos. Painful silence and uncertainty as she struggled to decide if she were dead or alive. “Jasper? W-what are you doing here?”

  “Isn’t that obvious?” He perched on the edge of the bed, cupping his hand to her cheek. “I’m here to rescue you, and from looks of it, not a moment too soon. What the hell happened? When your message ended so abruptly, I figured something had gone wrong, but this . . .” He whistled.

  He offered her a freshly opened bottled water. She drank it all.

  “Leo—he lost it.” Her breakup with Jasper had been hard enough, but what had happened since didn’t seem possible. Like she’d wake to realize it had all been a nightmare. “He’s been one of my father’s closest friends and coworkers forever. The day I called you, I’d wanted to explain why I broke things off, but then . . .” Crushing memories returned. “W-we found an entire pod of dead Orcas washed ashore. Penguins, too. My father was inconsolable. He wouldn’t eat or sleep for two days. Then he and Leo and Dane—his other partner—locked themselves in Leo’s lab, and there was arguing, but none of us could make out much of what they were saying.”

  “You said, ‘us’, as in you weren’t alone. How many people were you with, and where are they now? Leo mentioned something about them doing research on a nearby beach. Do they need help?”

  She shook her head, and then squeezed her stinging eyes closed. Blood. So much blood. As long as she lived, she’d never erase their screams from her heart.

  “Once my dad and Dane left the lab, the energy between them was tense. It was lunchtime, and everyone but them either stood in line for their meal or had already sat down to eat. I-I’m not sure where my dad and Dane went from there, but at the start of The Price is Right’s showcase—we watch a recorded feed every day to make us feel closer to home—six men came into the station. Hulking men. They were dressed all in white, and didn’t take off their winter gear—not even their boots. I remember thinking, Why are they wearing white? They’re just asking for trouble if they’re ever lost in a storm.” She took a deep breath. “At first when the men showed up, there was a general hum of excited chatter. We don’t get much company down here, you know? A few of our guys strolled over to greet them.” She wiped silent tears with the backs of her hands. “Leo strode in from his lab—whistling. He made eye contact with one of the new guys, and then nodded. And then . . .” Her inhalations quickened to the point that she had trouble catching her breath.

  “Take a break,” Jasper urged. “You don’t have to tell me everything now.”

  “I do,” she said with a firm nod. “I have to get it out of me. After Leo gave his men that nod, he scurried like the rat he is back to his lab. But the rest of us . . .” She shuddered. “We sat there like proverbial fish in a barrel while each one of those men withdrew handguns and started firing. It took a few seconds for those of us still alive to react. I mean, we were stunned. Then there was too much noise—screaming and shouting. The clang of chairs being knocked over. Firecracker pops from the guns. My friends who tried running were shot in their backs. I ducked under a table, holding my arms over my head.” Trapped in the memory, she adopted the same pose now. “Then it got quiet. The only sound over my pulse was the gameshow’s theme song playing during the closing credits.” She pressed her hand to her chest. “My heart beat so hard and fast I believed I’d die from fright. I’d never been so scared. I squeezed my eyes shut, pretending everything was going to be okay. Then I heard footsteps. I opened my eyes to find a pair of white boots stepping toward me—only they were splattered with blood. One of the shooters crouched, gesturing for me to come out. I shook my head. He said something in a language I didn’t understand. Maybe German? I tried scooting away, but another man shoved chairs away from the table, then grabbed me from behind. With his hands under my arms, he dragged me to the nearest chair. I fought him—kicking and clawing. But then another guy pointed a gun in my face and I stilled.”

  Jasper stroked her hair. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here for you. For all of you.”

  She sniffed and nodded, leaning against his warm, solid chest. “For what seemed like forever, I sat in that chair. Stone still. All around me, there was motion. Four men hauled my friends outside as if they were trash. More men had removed their winter gear to scrub blood from the chairs and tables and floor. More men clanged about in the kitchen—cooking a meal. I felt frozen. Locked in time and space. I once tried escaping, hoping to find my dad and Dane, but before I left the chair, the guy with the gun ground the barrel against my ear. Leo returned. By that time, the rec room once again looked normal. Leo pulled up a chair across from me—as if he expected a cozy chat.” She laughed and shook her head. “He fired off question after question about what my father was hiding. None of it made sense. I kept telling him I didn’t know, but then he started raving about it being his turn and how it was time to rewrite history. He insisted I tell him where my dad stashed it, and when I told him I didn’t have a clue what he was talking about, he screamed at me about my father’s secret source.”

  “And by source, you have no idea what he meant?”

  She shook her head. “If all I’d had to do to save dozens of lives was tell him, don’t you think I would have from the start? He’s crazy. The men he works w
ith are worse. Heartless.”

  Expression grim, he pulled her into his arms. She clung to him. What kind of man flew to Antarctica merely because he had a suspicion that a woman might be in trouble? Jasper was kind and considerate. Fearless. The first time he’d touched his lips to hers, she’d had the oddest sensation of having found home. But then she’d gotten her diagnosis and—she couldn’t bear thinking of what was to come.

  Why hadn’t Leo and his men shot her and gotten it over with?

  That’s why she’d ended things with Jasper. The disease’s inevitability.

  Even as a little girl, she’d been the practical one. When her mother had been sick and her father was desperately searching for a miracle cure, Eden had no choice but to grow up fast.

  “We’ll figure this out, okay?”

  She nodded.

  “Where are your father and Dane now?”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t seen either of them since the killing started. That was one—maybe two—days ago. I think at some point Leo drugged me. It’s all messed up in my mind.”

  “Speaking of the bastard,” Jasper pulled away. “I should check on him and Doug. Want to tag along or stay here?”

  “I’ll stay with you.” The idea of being away from him, if only briefly, left her feeling bereft. Way to stick to your convictions. How many times had she told herself that staying away from him was the kindest thing she could do? Yet, she never could have seen this coming.

  “Sure you’re feeling up to walking around?”

  “I think so. Regardless, I don’t want to be left alone.”

  “Fair enough.” He stood, then held out his hands to help her from the bed. “Take it slow.”

  She was dizzy at first, but a few deep breaths cleared her head.

  Outside, a storm raged.

  Beyond her postage stamp window, snow blew horizontally. Though her father had spared no expense in the station’s construction quality, the wind still howled. The whole pod shuddered with each gust.

  “Good to go?” he asked.

  She swallowed the knot of fear blocking her throat while tightening her grip on his hands. “I’m scared.”

  “Look at me . . .” He released her hands to cup her cheeks. “I can’t make any promises, but I’ll die before letting that crazy bastard hurt you again.”

  “That’s just it,” she said. “I don’t want you hurt. You have to understand that when I broke up with you, it was because—”

  “Don’t stop on my account.” Leo stood in the open door, flanked by three of his men who held mean-looking automatic rifles. “I’m a sucker for romance.”

  Heat drained from Eden’s cheeks, pooling in her belly. “Leo, please . . . You’re practically family. Why are you doing this?”

  Sighing, stepping deeper into the room, he said, “I love you like a daughter—really, I do. I abhor violence. But I also cannot stand injustice, and what your father’s kept from me for all these years is wrong. Criminal. The entire world deserves to know.”

  “I already told you, I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about.”

  “Liar.” He raised his hand to slap her, but Jasper lunged between them, landing a hard right to Leo’s face that resulted in blood spewing from his nose.

  Two of Leo’s henchman sprang into action, restraining Jasper by grabbing hold of his arms.

  Jasper went slack, slipping from their hold, only to bolt back up swinging.

  He got in a couple gut punches to the guy in front of him, but then the man behind him kneed him hard in the center of his lower back. The impact propelled Jasper forward. His attacker wrenched Jasper’s arms back, slamming his face against the nearest wall.

  Eden screamed, intent on getting to him. But before she’d moved more than a couple feet, one of Leo’s men grabbed her, too, jerking her arms back to clasp her wrists.

  While she fought for air, desperate to get to Jasper, Leo used the lap quilt at the foot of her bed to blot blood from his nose. Her mother had finished the quilt mere weeks before she’d died. For it to now be used as a rag turned Eden’s stomach.

  “That was a one-time mistake,” Leo said to Jasper. To his men, he added, “I want those two loaded on the sub within the hour.”

  “Yessir.”

  The sub? Eden felt trapped in a nightmare from which she couldn’t wake up. The station was her safe place. Leo had always been her friend. None of this made sense.

  “Get the hell off me!” Jasper struggled to free himself, but was overpowered when two additional men entered, manhandling him back up against the wall. Yet another man appeared, jabbing a syringe into Jasper’s upper arm. Jasper bucked and kicked to get free, but then faded. “I’ll fucking kiiillll . . .” His sudden slur followed by silence terrified her.

  “Did you kill him?” Eden escaped her captor’s hold to rush to him, but now Leo held her back.

  “Relax.” Leo’s voice was the same as it had always been, but all warmth was gone from his familiar blue gaze. “Why would I dream of hurting your sweetheart when he’s more valuable to me as leverage than as a corpse?”

  He nodded to the men holding Jasper upright. Gripping him under his arms, they dragged him out of her room and into the corridor.

  Panic swirled her thoughts, but for Jasper’s sake—her father’s and Dane’s too—she had to remain calm. She didn’t have the luxury of falling apart.

  “Leo, you’re a scientist. Think about what you’re doing. Where are my father and Dane? If you’d take me to them, I’m sure together we could figure this out.”

  “Later.” He motioned to the lone mercenary standing beside him. “I prefer to deal with our friends after dinner. If you’d be so kind, Chad, please administer Eden’s cocktail, then let’s be on our way.”

  “Yessir.” From a pocket on the right sleeve of his white parka, he withdrew another syringe. Before she had time to scream or even think, he’d plunged the contents into her arm.

  Seconds later, Eden’s world faded to black.

  4

  JASPER WAS INITALLY slow to wake, but once consciousness was within reach, he fought for it. The day’s events rushed at him like an angry wind.

  Eden. Where was she? Was she all right?

  He turned his head and found her beside him. She was out cold and like him, had her arms bound with zip ties. The faint rise and fall of her chest told him she was alive. Relief slowed his pulse.

  Judging by their jostling surroundings, they’d been stashed in a moving snowcat’s cargo hold. Angry rock music played over the howling wind. The two assholes who’d nailed him rode in front. Outside the vehicle’s thick windows, they traveled through whiteout conditions. This time of year, the sun never set, which meant without the watch they’d taken from him, he had no basis for even guessing how long he’d been out. Why couldn’t these guys have gone old school with a nice chloroform soaked rag? He could have detected the cloying sweetness and held his breath.

  The driver said, “We should’ve been there by now. Check it again.”

  Jasper tensed while eavesdropping on the conversation.

  “Already told you, GPS is offline. Satellite angle must be wrong.”

  “Fuck.” Judging by a loud thump, Jasper guessed the driver slammed the heel of his hand against the wheel. “I’m sick of this frozen nightmare. Nothing works. Ask me, Leo’s lost his shit. There’s no treasure—just some crazy, paranoid psycho chasing ghosts.”

  “Don’t kill the messenger, man. Trust me, no one’s more ready to get the hell out of here than I am. I’ve got a cousin in Hollywood who’s gonna get me on with a stunt crew.”

  “Cool story, bro.” That smart-assed comment ended the exchange.

  Jasper raised his wrists to his mouth, pulling the zip tie mechanism as tight as it would go. From there, he lifted his arms over his head, then brought them down fast like a pair of chicken wings. The tie snapped.

  Between the music and wind, his captors never heard a thing.

  It was no big surp
rise that the pocketknife he’d stashed in a front pocket was gone, which meant moving on to Plan B for freeing Eden.

  The vehicle’s layout served as a blessing. A high back bench seat hid most of the cargo area from casual view. Jasper used this fact to his advantage, rifling through the stacks of supplies and boxes until he found a large, hard plastic case loaded with weapons—everything from AK-47s to AR rifles to dozens of handguns and even a sweet RPG-7 shoulder rocket launcher. A second case held ammo. What were these guys anticipating? This amount of firepower struck him as serious overkill for overthrowing a scientific station on a continent where weapons of any kind were not allowed.

  There were food stores and jugs of water. Vodka and candy wrapped in an unreadable language—German if he had to guess. Sleeping bags, tents and a camp stove. Ice cleats, ropes and climbing gear. Whoever these guys were, they’d packed enough goodies to stay a while. But again—why? If their plan was to take over the station, mission accomplished. Why bring along an arsenal and an entire sporting goods store? Basic survival gear was a must in any situation, but this was overkill. There was even an array of head-mounted LED lights with dozens of back-up batteries.

  Jasper glanced at Eden. Her chest rose and fell steadily, but she was still out cold.

  The loud rock music blared on and the two goons up front seemed unaware of his movements, so he went on to the last box.

  Yahtzee. Not only was it loaded with the motherlode of first aid supplies and pill bottles ranging from antibiotics to painkillers, but there was also a zippered case holding prefilled syringes labeled Etorphine. Otherwise known as M99, it was an illegal opiate strong enough to bring down a freaking elephant. No wonder it had worked so fast on him and Eden.

  They were damned lucky they weren’t dead.

  Filled with rage for what these idiots had done, Jasper helped himself to a pair of syringes, then belly crawled behind the bench seat. He removed the plastic safety tips, then slowly rose to administer both doses simultaneously.