Twice as Hot (Tales of an Extraordinary Girl #2)(65)
Author: Gena Showalter

"I’m sorry about this," the first said, and he sounded like he meant it.

Not as sorry as you’re going to be.

"We’ve got her." In a snap, all eleven brothers were crammed inside the room. Good. I wouldn’t have to chase any down. I heard the door shut, the lock turn.

A few of the brothers moved in front of me. They, too, looked remorseful.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked through gritted teeth, though I already knew the answer.

Two gazed down at his feet. "Money. We’ve got a lot of mouths to feed, and Desert Gall is paying one million dollars for your capture."

One mil? Wow. Who knew I was worth that much? Then again, as the head of a company like Big Rocky, Candace Bright must have billions at her disposal. Maybe I should be insulted the bounty on my head wasn’t higher.

"We never thought we’d be the ones to succeed," one of them said. "You’re always protected, always surrounded, and everyone who’s gone after you has failed. But your friend Cody was able to lure you here, and then an old friend of ours called and told us where and when you’d be hitting town. We simply followed you. It was easier than we’d ever dreamed."

"You really think you’ll be paid once you turn me over?"

All eleven nodded.

"Of course," Eight said. "Desert Gall would be known as a reneger if she didn’t." And pride was everything to Desert Gal. Jean-Luc hadn’t lied about that. "Why does she want me?" I tried to pull from their clasp but they held tight. "Why not just kill me?" Maybe she’d told them why her mystery dad liked me so much.

"Who knows? Desert Gal’s not exactly the type who likes to answer questions."

"Maybe she wants to recruit you to her team."

Wasn’t that always the case?

"Now, enough talking. Someone tie her down."

Time for me to do my thing. I prayed, again, that it worked. "Do you have my friend, too? The one who took me to the club?" Apparently, only the leader had hidden him, so only the leader knew where he was. A precaution they’d taken, and had needed, though they didn’t know it yet. They would.

"No need for you to worry about that. Someone get a gag, too."

"Just knock her out."

"Desert Gall won’t want to wait to talk to her."

I allowed fearful thoughts to play through my mind. Fearful thoughts that brought a sense of desperation with them, as well as love.

Rome – tortured. There was the fear. Lexis and Sherridan – killed if I couldn’t reach them. There was the desperation. All of us together – at my wedding. There was the love.

I was summoning the wind. Seemed like the wrong power to use right now, but I had a plan.

As they attempted to knot my wrists together, a breeze kicked up in the room, scattering the papers that had been sitting on the bed. I made a mental note to go through those later. To increase the velocity of the wind, I flashed a few pictures through my mind. Rome – bleeding, near death. Lexis and Sherridan – buried in a grave. Me – in the wedding dress of my dreams.

Usually I hated summoning the wind, hated how many emotions were needed. Today, I didn’t mind. As the breeze gusted left…right…I moved my head in little circles. The air followed my motions, swirling.

The bed rattled. The papers continued to dance. Clothes ripped from hangers.

"What the hell?" I heard.

"Did someone open the window?"

As the wind blustered harder, I didn’t stop directing it, careful to keep it away from me. The rope dangled from one wrist; they’d never quite managed to get to the other. Some of the men cried out; some screamed. And as it raged, now pulling my enemy in different directions, sometimes slamming them into the walls, each other, and preventing them from disappearing, I allowed my fear to eclipse every other emotion.

Rome, killed if this didn’t work.

Sherridan, killed if this didn’t work.

Sunny, orphaned and alone because her parents would be killed if this didn’t work.

Me, alone. Trying to go on without them but not wanting to.

Ice created a thin luster over my body, the wind whipping it off me and spraying it in every direction.

Whatever it hit, it completely surrounded. One at a time, the men were frozen in place. On the bed, against the wall, on the floor. With Matt Damon.

Focus, Jamison.Where was I? Oh, yeah. In the middle of icing my enemies. Seeing them like that caused satisfaction to fill me. Prematurely. Because, with the satisfaction, the wind died and the ice stopped.

One man was still at normal temperature, able to move.

He pushed to shaky legs, wagging his head to regain his bearings. "That hurt!" he growled.

"You think so? Well, just wait until I show you my next trick." I reached into my back pocket and withdrew my Taser. I had the clamps in his ni**les, volts of electricity zinging through his body, before he could take a single step in my direction. He trembled until his knees collapsed. I did not remove pressure from the trigger until he hit the floor face-first.

I knew that wouldn’t immobilize him for long, though, so I strode to him, flashing more of those terrible, fearful thoughts in my mind.

By the time I reached him, I had an ice ball in my palm. "Enjoy," I said. I threw it down at him and he was instantly encased in a thick layer of arctic fury. Sometimes I suspected the four elements I produced were alive. I think they sensed body heat or even the shape of people, objects, which was how they knew exactly how much of a mass to cover.

There. It was done.

Sighing, forcing my mind to blank and my emotions to numb, I gazed around the room. The men were scattered about, all frozen in different positions. This did not give me the satisfaction it had just a bit ago. I was actually a little…sad that it had come to this. I’d liked these men at one point. Had even compared them to my precious Tanner.

"It didn’t have to be this way," I muttered.

I continued my search until I found the stash of computer software under the bed. Bingo. I pulled out the laptop and shut it down, hoping that would be enough to stop the…whatever it was from buzzing Jean-Luc’s brain. There was also a tiny black box with multicolored buttons. Tense, expecting a boom, I pushed power on that, too, and it switched off.

Thankfully, I did not blow up.

I withdrew my cell and phoned Jean-Luc. Only took a single press of a button as he was now in my Fave Five. (He’d made sure of it.) He answered on the second ring.

"All clear," I said, removing the rope still dangling from my wrist and tossing it to the floor. "Room 618."

"I’ll be there in ten."

We hung up.

I phoned John next and let him know I had some scrims ready for pickup.