Code Name: Aries by Janie Crouch

39

Ian

There were too many of them.

I’d realized about half a mile ago and known we weren’t going to make it, not at the rate Wavy was slowing down. The rain wasn’t helping. What I’d told her was true. I had a much better shot at taking out those guards without having to keep her safe also.

But what I hadn’t told her was that there was no possible way I’d be able to take them all out. Still, as I circled back toward them, I would eliminate as many as I could, give Wavy as much of a fighting chance to escape as possible.

I did everything short of starting a game of Marco Polo to let the Mosaic soldiers know where I was. This plan only worked if they came after me. I took the silencer off my weapon and fired it, taking down a guard while letting the rest of them know where I was.

Come and get me, you bastards.

I headed toward the compound. There were at least four behind me, and two more were cutting around to the west side to head me off. That was probably almost everyone, and I could only hope that Wavy would be able to handle any that had followed her down to the river.

They were closing in. I was going to get taken. My only hope was that they wouldn’t kill me outright, that their instructions were to take me back to Erick. I was counting on his theatrics to buy Sarge time to follow my tracker and get me out.

I slowed a little more. Timing was imperative. I wanted them to call back anyone who might be chasing Wavy because they needed help apprehending me. It wouldn’t be long until they pressed in for the capture.

Sure enough, ten minutes later, one of the men who’d circled around to cut me off made his move in the form of a flying tackle. We both hit the ground hard and seconds afterward there were four other men on top of me.

I wasn’t dead outright, which told me all I needed to know about Erick wanting me alive. This plan was going to work.

I had to believe that.

Unhappy with the long chase, the Mosaic soldiers made their displeasure known with boots and fists. I struggled to hang on to consciousness as what now looked like seven men each got their blows in before dragging me back to the compound.

One eye was already swelling shut, and I had at least one cracked rib by the time they dropped me at Erick’s feet. The entire compound was in a great deal more chaos thanks to Sarge’s tactics. Everyone was vacating—computer systems and weapons were being shoved into vehicles and driven or flown off.

Erick crouched down so we were almost eye to eye. “I was wondering how my pretty little captive got out. With all the dead bodies, I thought maybe we’d been wrong and she could be molded into an assassin after all. Alas, nothing quite that exciting. Just you doing what you do best: killing.”

“You’ll never get your hands on her again.” My words were mushy from the blows I’d taken to the jaw.

Erick smiled. “Why would I need to get my hands on her when I have you?”

That at least reassured me that he wasn’t sending anyone else after Wavy. She was safe. That was all I needed to know. “You’re done. Law enforcement will be breaching any minute now.”

That wasn’t true, but I could only hope he didn’t know that.

His eyes narrowed. “How did you know we’d be here?”

“Wavy’s mind is stronger than you think.” I spit out a mouthful of blood. “She left us clues.”

He stood back up. “Honestly, I’m glad you’re here. This will allow me to quit playing these silly games and kill you here where it should’ve happened years ago. Because you murdered Grant.”

I forced myself to my feet, despite the world spinning around me. “Can I remind you that Grant killed me first multiple times? He put me in that casket, and you guys watched me die.”

“Because you betrayed him. You deserved it.”

I wasn’t going to convince Erick that wasn’t true, so I didn’t bother trying. I needed to stall as long as possible. “If there had been another way besides killing Grant, I would have done it. I know he was your best friend, but he was my brother. I didn’t want to kill him. Not until he started killing me.”

“He was more than my best friend,” Erick spat. “I loved Grant. He was my everything. We were in love with each other.”

My breath hissed out in surprise. My brother had been psychotic and sadistic, but the one thing he hadn’t been was gay.

“He didn’t feel the same about you, Erick.” Was this line of reasoning the best way to go? Too late now. “He was straight. He had women around him all the time. You know that. He was notorious for it.”

Erick shook his head rapidly—almost comically. “Deep inside, he did care about me. He would’ve figured that out if you hadn’t killed him.”

I wasn’t surprised that Erick had created yet another illusion for himself. There would be no convincing him that Grant would never have loved him. Erick had been smart enough to disguise his adoration as friendship, which was probably why Grant had kept him around. Grant loved to be the center of attention, loved to have others fawn over him.

I stared up at Erick with my good eye. “Grant was never going to love you, especially not in that way. Hell, I don’t think Grant was capable of loving anyone but himself.”

For a second I thought maybe Erick was seeing reason, but then he motioned to the guard next to me. I doubled over as I took a gun butt to the gut.

“You don’t get to say what Grant was. You walked away from him and only came back to betray him. Grant would’ve loved me eventually.”

“If that’s what you want to tell yourself. Sounds a little bit like you had a work crush and he didn’t feel the same.”

That got me another blow to the gut. And now Erick was pissed.

“You ruined everything, and now you’re going to die the way you died all the previous times.” Spittle flew out of his mouth. “Convenient that we already have the casket and the hole dug, although honestly, I hadn’t thought I’d be able to use it on you. This gift had been for Wavy, but I’m sure we can make you fit.” He stepped a little closer. “I dare say your friends aren’t going to make it up the mountain in time to find you.”

My eyes fell to the hole in the ground a few yards away from us. Sweat dripped down my back at the thought of being thrown into a casket again. It was everything my nightmares were made of.

“Not so smug now, are you?”

I couldn’t help it. This time when Erick’s men dragged me, I fought. My mind wouldn’t allow me to be thrown back into that death hole without fighting. I knew I was giving Erick the show he wanted, but it didn’t stop me.

Once again, there were too many of them to fight off. Erick stopped them right before we got to the hole I was all too familiar with.

“I’ll be watching as you die again like I watched all the other times. It’s what Grant would have wanted.” He crouched down in front of me. “No one is coming to help you this time, Ian. This time, when you die in that casket, you’re actually going to die. At least you can look forward to that.”

I looked down into that hole and a calmness fell over me. He was right. There was no way my team would make it to me in time, even if they followed the tracker.

But goddammit, if I was about to die, I’d make sure something came of it.

I stopped struggling, stood up a little straighter. I knew what I needed to do.

“I forgive you, Erick.”

Erick’s eyes narrowed. “That’s not going to stop what’s about to happen.”

“I’m not trying to stop what’s about to happen.” I just needed his men around me to relax their grip the slightest bit.

My words had confused him, that much was obvious. Erick stepped closer on the other side of the hole. “What is your end game then?”

“Call it religion. If I’m going to die, I don’t want to go with hatred in my heart.”

His eyes narrowed and he took another step closer. “What?”

“I forgive you. It’s okay.”

This time when he took another step forward, I lunged across the hole that would become my grave, ripping the tracker off my own wrist as I did so. Erick rocked back, but I grabbed his foot. That was all I needed to plant the small, clear sticker on the heel of his shoe. It wasn’t perfect, but it would be enough.

It would be enough to get Sarge and his team to Erick’s location, wherever he went.

He laughed as he scooted back away from me, and his men grabbed me once more. “I knew this was a ploy. I knew you hadn’t forgiven me.” He actually looked relieved, like he wouldn’t have known what to do if that had been the case.

It didn’t matter. I had no forgiveness for him, and if I burned for it, so be it.

“Time to die, Ian. For real this time.” He smiled at me as he said the words.

I met his eyes. “I’ll see you in hell, Erick.”

This time, as they dragged me back toward the hole, I didn’t fight. When they threw me in, I refused to give Erick the satisfaction of watching me panic. I didn’t know that I’d be able to keep this calm once the air started to run out. But right now, face-to-face, I was determined to give him absolutely fucking nothing.

He was right that the casket wasn’t meant for someone my size. It barely fit the span of my shoulders. My legs had to bend at the knees to squeeze in. A smaller box at least meant less air—a quicker death.

There was nothing I could do as the guards lowered the casket’s wooden lid, cutting off the sound of Erick’s laughter. There was nothing I could do at the sound of the dirt covering me once again. It wasn’t very deep, probably no more than a foot, but it was enough.

Enough weight so I couldn’t push the casket’s lid open. Enough mass so that there wouldn’t be air soon.

I did everything I could to fight off the panic. Used every method Rayne and I had come up with to get me through my claustrophobia.

Although the ones we’d worked on most—me re-envisioning myself as not being helpless while trapped in this box, being able to use my strength and SEAL training to get out successfully—had been based on the assumption that I’d never actually be trapped again. It was something I’d created in my mind to help past me.

It wasn’t going to help current me in any way.

Because fuck it was impossible to keep the panic at bay. My nostrils flared, and all I could hear was the rasp of my own breaths as they came faster and faster.

It was only the thought of Wavy, the fact that she would never know the horrors of being inside this damned hell, that comforted me.

I’d die a hundred times—even this way—to spare her this.

It didn’t take long before the air thinned. The tiny beam of light Erick had left so he could watch his sick footage was worse than complete darkness. I found my hands pushing at the lid, but I knew the weight of the dirt was more than any human could move.

I closed my eyes and tried to picture Wavy’s face over mine. She’d be safe. This was worth it. In the end, the panic would overwhelm me, but I would hold on to her as long as I could.

I heard sounds outside the box, the sounds of dirt moving, but that was just my mind playing tricks on me. It had done that when Grant and Erick had buried me the first time, my mind wanting to believe that someone was coming to rescue me.

It hadn’t happened then. It wasn’t happening now.

So I closed my eyes once more and concentrated on Wavy’s green ones, her smile, the light through the window bringing out the auburn tints in her hair when she’d looked back at me from her easel one day, wearing nothing but my T-shirt as I watched her from the doorway.

I focused on the rainbow paint on her wrist. My rainbow. She’d brought all the color into my life and changed me in ways I’d never known I’d wanted. Definitely hadn’t known I needed.

Her phantom voice filled my ears.

That would be enough . . . being able to hear her voice in my ears and see her rainbow as I died. Better than all the other times.

My body started to shake as the lack of air—real or imagined—wrapped its claws around me.

“. . . don’t you die on me, Ian. I’m coming.”

More sounds, more scratches.

“Hang on. Hang on, Ian. I’m almost there. Please, Ian. Please.”

Was that real? Wavy?

“Talk to me. Can you? I know it’s hard. Talk to me, my love. I’m coming.”

“Rainbow?” My voice was hoarse, too weak for her to hear me. I almost couldn’t bear to hope. I forced myself to try again, louder. “Wavy?”

“Ian?” A relieved sob. “Ian. I’m coming. Hold on.”

I could hear the dirt moving more clearly now. She was really here.

Wavy. I forced my mind to focus. She was here. Possibly in danger. She was injured but trying to get me out.

“I’ve almost got the dirt off. Hang on.”

Hanging on was hard as I realized the air really was almost gone in this tiny box. I was lightheaded.

“Talk to me, Ian.”

I tried. I couldn’t. My breaths growing louder, the box growing smaller.

More shifting of dirt. I coughed and knew what that meant. This was going to be close.

“Survive for me, love. Breathe for me. Remember what you worked on with Dr. Rayne. Find that strength.”

Strength. Training. Rely on the things engrained in me. Maybe all those sessions could help current me.

Because I’d be damned if I’d lie here and die when I was so close to survival. So close to Wavy.

First thing I did was inch myself up so my head covered the light and the camera. Erick was undoubtedly watching, and if he found out Wavy was here helping me, he might return to eliminate the problem.

I forced myself onto my side until I could wiggle up my elbow. With one sharp jab, the camera was of no more use to Erick.

He’d probably be throwing a hissy fit, but at least he wouldn’t know the truth. I should’ve done that way fucking earlier.

Without the tiny beam of light from the camera, the box fell into complete darkness. I’d been wrong. Some light had definitely been better than no light at all.

“Ian.” Wavy’s voice was clearer now, but much more frantic. “I can’t get the casket open. My fingers won’t . . .” Her words were cut off by her sob.

But I knew. She couldn’t get a grasp on the coffin lid because of her broken wrist.

“Move for me, Rainbow.” I used the last of my air to get the words out.

She scrambled away, and I wedged my hands up over my chest. Using every bit of strength—and oxygen—I had, I pushed.

I pushed to save myself.

I pushed because Wavy had risked everything to come back to save me.

I pushed because I was not going to die in this fucking box.

The rest of the dirt moved, and the lid finally creaked open, blessed air and light rushing in.

Wavy jumped down and helped with her good arm, getting her shoulder underneath and hefting the lid the rest of the way off.

I sat up, breathing deep, my eyes meeting hers. She was covered in mud, obviously in pain, but still smiling.

The rain had stopped, and over her shoulder at the end of the tree line—

A rainbow.

I reached out and touched Wavy’s cheek. I didn’t need a rainbow in the sky. I had one with me all the time.