Page 60 of The B-Team

Rage turned her eyes black. “I’ll make you pay for this, Michael Carter, mark my w—” Pain struck again, and the shouting stopped.

He held her tight as another strangled cry escaped her.

And then a warm, wet sensation seeped through his jeans and over his thighs.

Rachel’s head snapped up, and she stared at him in shock. “I think my water just broke,” she whispered.

“It’s okay,” he cooed. “We’re on our way to the hospital.”

Panic swept over her face. “No, we can’t. This is humiliating. Take me home so we can change. I can’t go to the hospital like this.” She lowered her voice and hissed urgently, “We’re both wet.”

“Rachel, we’re going to the hospital now. You’re having a baby, and there isn’t time to get clean clothes.”

She took a deep breath, faced the roof of the car, and shouted, “This is not happening. I won’t allow it!”

Their car picked up speed.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

“Can’t sleep?” Dimitri said into the darkness of the cell, lit by a faint blue glow that was the equivalent of a prisoner’s night-light.

“Worried about Julia,” Joe answered. “And wondering what the hell’s going on here.”

They’d arm wrestled over who got the thin plastic-covered mattress on the tiled platform and who got the one on the tiled floor. Dimitri lost. His head was now inches from the stainless-steel toilet, and his back ached.

“Julia has her family; she’ll be okay for the night.” Dimitri sounded more confident than he felt. “Belinda won’t let anyone upset her.”

“She’ll try, but the fact I’m in a holding cell is enough to bump up her blood pressure.”

“If there’s a problem, someone will contact our lawyers. You haven’t heard anything, and no news is good news.”

“None of this is good news.” Joe sighed loudly. “We’ve been here all day, and they still haven’t questioned us. Who knows when we’ll get out of here, and Julia’s due any minute. I’ll be really pissed if I miss the birth.”

“Not gonna happen, bro,” Dimitri said. “We’ll talk to the lawyers in the morning and see if we can hurry this up some.”

“Yeah.” But Joe didn’t sound too convinced. “Who’s still out there? They didn’t bring Ryan in for questioning. Beast and Belinda are at my house. Sarah was at home. Callum fought to have Isobel stay with their kids. Who does that leave?”

“I heard they set Rachel and Harvard free this morning.”

“Typical. Rachel probably pissed off the commander, and he was happy to see the back of her.” Joe sounded amused. “There’s Claire too. Grunt said she planned to go shopping today. What about Katrina? I don’t remember seeing her when the conference started.”

Dimitri’s stomach clenched at the mention of his younger sister. “I saw her at breakfast, and she headed to the office early to get in a walk first, but I didn’t see her in the building. I don’t think the cops lifted her either.”

“Good,” Joe said firmly.

“Yeah.” Dimitri wasn’t sure how his sister would cope with being locked up against her will—again.

“She’s not the same woman we rescued,” Joe said, as though reading his mind. “She’s stronger now. Grunt told me she ran self-defense classes at the women’s refuge in Invertary before she took the job in the States. He reckons she’s got some serious skills.”

Dimitri felt that ache of loss that always reared its head whenever he remembered who Katrina could have been. Who she’d wanted to be. Before some monster stole it from her.

“My sister’s not the same woman she was when we rescued her; she’s not even the same person she was before she was taken. She was destined for a life in academia, writing papers that would influence governments and change how the world treats refugees. Now she’s practicing martial arts, running a security office, and spending her downtime at the gun range.”

“But she’s alive,” Joe said softly. “And she’s thriving. Lot of women in her place wouldn’t have made it.”

They’d both seen the evidence of her captivity, and they both knew exactly what she’d endured. But Dimitri couldn’t think about it without an icy rage stirring in his belly, making him want to lash out, to make someone pay. It didn’t matter that Katrina’s abuser was dead. There was always another monster out there awaiting justice.

“At least with Julia and Katrina,” Joe said, “there are two level heads in the mix.”