Colby Core Read online

  He was in…at least far enough to get a face-to-face with the boss.

  The first step. If he could convince the boss of his own usefulness, maybe—just maybe—he could get all the way into the organization.

  It was the only way to dismantle an operation this large and this sophisticated.

  From the inside.

  He would, as quickly as possible, learn the key players and then he would move on to step two. That was the most time sensitive and crucial step: take out one or more pivotal pieces of the foundation. Then the entire network collapsed.

  Step two would be easy as long as he stayed alive.

  Chapter Two

  11:05 p.m.

  The cold wind whistled through the cracks in the window frame. Tessa touched the wood frame, registering the roughness of the peeling paint that had once been white and the chunks of missing caulk that allowed the frigid air to seep into the room.

  Her gaze drifted past the wavy glass of the century-old window, past the intimidating black iron bars, to the snow that remained on the ground. She couldn’t remember the last time it had snowed for Christmas. Her lips ached with the need to smile. But smiling was forbidden.

  The Master did not allow his family to smile or to laugh.

  Holidays were difficult sometimes. Memories crept in…reminding her of how it used to be.

  Before…

  “Tessa.”

  A tremble slid through her, shaking her bones. She turned to face him. “Yes?”

  “Ensure the children and the patients remain in their rooms.”

  For a long moment she simply stared in response. Taller than most men, six-three or -four. He worked out religiously to keep his muscles big and hard. Used steroids liberally to be sure they stayed that way well after his youth had become a distant memory. Always dressed in elegant attire. Everything about him, except his skin, was black. Hair, eyes, clothing. He used his coloring, his size and even his clothes to inspire fear.

  It always worked.

  No one dared cross him.

  “Tessa?”

  The warning in his tone trapped the oxygen beneath her sternum for a moment more. “Yes.” She blinked, forced away all other thought save his order. “I’ll make sure.”

  He surveyed her room, no doubt noting that the covers of her bed had not as of yet been turned down. “I believe it’s past your bedtime, is it not?”

  Tessa nodded. She smoothed a hand over the pink flannel of her gown. The metal key in the pocket pressed reassuringly against her hip. “I was about to lie down, but I thought I heard something outside.”

  “That would be security’s concern.”

  “Of course.”

  She held her breath until he’d gone. As long as she obeyed, she could take care of the children and the patients. More caution was necessary. She couldn’t make a mistake. For years she had watched the unthinkable treatment of those confined…she had worked diligently to reach a position of some authority so that she could change that sadness. So that she could devise a plan.

  No matter the cost to her, she could not lose that small power.

  In spite of that need, she still longed for freedom…escape. There had been opportunities…few and rare, but opportunities nonetheless. She would not take advantage of the chance to escape without being able to take the others with her.

  To take the child.

  An ache rose in her throat.

  No matter the cost.

  Pay attention. She squared her shoulders. Something was happening tonight. There was an unusual tension in the air. A sense of anticipation.

  For the past hour or so she had seen the seemingly frantic coming and going of the others assigned to the house. There were no other deliveries or pick-ups on the schedule for the next eight days.

  Fear trickled into her veins. If he had increased his schedule… No. She shook her head. It was too risky. He wouldn’t do that. She would know if changes had been set in motion.

  Taking a deep, steadying breath, Tessa turned away from the window and moved toward the door, her bare feet soundless on the frigid floor.

  She couldn’t think about the deliveries or the pick ups. Taking care of the children and the patients was all that mattered. That was her life now.

  At least until the time was right. The opportunity was close…so very close.

  A shiver rumbled through her body as defeat weighed heavily down upon her. Stop. Nothing would stop her…she would find a way, no matter the obstacles that arose. Her plan was solid…but the timing had to be perfect.

  Outside her door, along the dark, silent corridor were two large rooms besides her own. Tessa removed the key from her pocket and unlocked the first door.

  She didn’t turn on the light for fear of waking the sleeping children. Whatever was happening, it could be dangerous. The children would be safest if they were asleep. Noise—not even a whimper—was allowed past eight in the evening.

  Tessa crouched down next to the first bed. She pinched her lips together to prevent the forbidden. The urge to sweep soft blond hair back from the little girl’s forehead forced her to clench her fingers. She drew the fist to her lips and resisted the new urge to cry.

  She had to protect the child.

  She had to protect them all.

  In a few days, at most, everything would change…it would all be over.

  Clinging to that hope, Tessa moved to the next bed, then the next and the next. All four children slept soundly. All beautiful blond-haired girls with dazzling blue eyes.

  And one, her gaze wandered back to the first bed, was the most beautiful of all.

  Careful not to make any noise, she padded back to the door. Once in the corridor she closed and locked the door to the children’s room.

  Her heart sank into her belly as she approached the next door. Tessa moistened her lips and unlocked it. Her hand shook as she removed the key and slid it into her pocket. Bracing for the misery, she turned the knob. A creak made her flinch. She prayed those inside, too, would be asleep. It would be best if they didn’t ask questions. Their cries and pleas took a heavy toll on Tessa.

  Holding her breath, she eased into the dark room. The thick drapes on the windows blocked the moon light from filtering inside. Beyond the drapes, on all the windows in the house, were iron bars that prevented anything inside from slipping out.

  She moved quickly to the first of four narrow beds that lined the walls. Like the children, the women slept soundly. With no nightlight, Tessa couldn’t see their faces in the thick blackness, but she could hear their breathing. Slow, deep, rhythmic. Sleep was their only escape from a reality too horrifying to endure for more than a few hours at a time.

  Please let me be able to help them before it’s too late.

  The distinct sense of urgency thick in the room caused Tessa’s stomach to tighten with emotion.

  Time was running out.

  She had to be ready to act. She couldn’t allow this to happen again.

  Her plan had to work.

  Determination chasing away the uncertainty and fear edging out her courage, she turned and walked quietly back across the room, then as noiselessly as possible she exited and locked the door.

  Let them sleep. Reality would intrude soon enough.

  The corridor was quiet. Tessa hesitated outside her own room. She should go to bed. But sleep would be impossible. As the time drew nearer, the anticipation built, preventing sleep and prompting a restlessness that wouldn’t go away.

  She bit her lower lip and considered the risk involved with indulging her curiosity.

  Learning what tonight’s unusual activities were about could prove useful to her plan…but if he caught her she would be punished severely.

  No one defied the Master.

  Tessa inhaled a breath of courage and set one bare foot in front of the other; her destination: the landing. Each step frayed her nerves a little more. This house was so very old…the floors creaked. It had taken her months to learn the best
places to step to avoid the loudest groans.

  She didn’t release the air in her lungs until she reached the landing. Repeating a silent mantra for protection, she dared to lean over the railing just far enough to view the stairs that wound down to the second, then the first floor.

  Clear.

  Holding her breath, she glanced upward to the fourth floor—his floor. No one was allowed up there unless personally invited by the Master.

  Her gaze dropped back to the stairs winding downward. Whatever was going on, the trouble had apparently settled in the questioning room.

  Another shudder rattled her bones as she considered that room…the basement.

  He’d turned it into a chamber of horrors. Steel bars had been erected at both ends of the massive area for using as cells. Every square foot of the floor space between acted as a stage for terror.

  Torture devices.

  Tessa closed her eyes and summoned her fleeing courage yet again. The silence closed in on her, crumbling away at her fragile bravado.

  Just go.

  Blocking the warning voices inside her head, she descended quickly to the second floor. She hesitated on the landing. More of that consuming silence. The soldiers who used the second floor for sleeping quarters were either rallied for whatever was going on or adjourned to their rooms. It was past curfew, but until a short time ago there had been much coming and going. That she could not be certain of their status made her decision to get a closer look at what was happening even riskier.

  Had the Master summoned his entire team for some impromptu action?

  Perhaps the police had finally discovered his identity and this hidden compound. Tessa had prayed for years that the police would come, that somehow she and the others would be rescued.

  But he was too smart for the police. Eventually she had realized that no one was coming. There would be no savior…no rescue.

  Unless she stepped into the role and organized her own rescue.

  The first floor proved equally quiet. She made her way from room to room and from window to window, using her memory as her guide since she didn’t dare turn on any lights. Her breath hitched when two dark figures moved past a rear window. The perimeter guards. Two men walked the grounds twenty-four/seven. The Master never relied solely on security cameras or other gadgets.

  So…whatever was happening was in the questioning room. Her gaze lowered to the wood floor. She moistened her lips and swallowed back the confirming lump of fear that had lodged in her throat.

  Trouble.

  Someone had either been identified as a potential informant or an enemy had been captured. Only once since she’d been with him had an informant been uncovered. He had forced her to watch the slow, agonizing torture and ultimate murder of the man.

  Two other times an enemy had been brought here. Most of the time anyone presumed to be the enemy was simply killed on the spot. But if there was information to be gained, the enemy was interrogated. Always here. Always mercilessly.

  Tessa returned to the wide entry hall and held her breath. She listened, straining with the effort. Silence. They had to be in the questioning room. That level had been meticulously insulated to ensure no sound escaped or invaded the space.

  The original entry point had been in the hall, but the Master had long ago closed that access and created a hidden entrance in his library.

  Directly across the entry hall from the parlor, the library had provided hours of escape for her in the beginning. It had taken almost a year for her to accept her new lot in life, then she had turned her attention to gaining trust and responsibility. One day, those years of planning and praying would provide freedom.

  Inside the library, bookshelves lined the walls, floor to ceiling. A massive desk sat in the middle of the room, flanked by four chairs. This was where he held his strategy sessions. Only recently had she been allowed to attend the sessions. She had not gained a chair as of yet, but she was allowed to sit on the floor in one corner. A trusted member of the family was assigned a corner and eventually a chair.

  A section of the shelving, four feet wide and nine feet tall opened, revealing a wide staircase that led down to the questioning room—or dungeon as she preferred to call it.

  There would be only one place she could hide from view and that was about one-third of the way down. She would be able to see around the wall that ended at that point while still concealing her presence—if no one stood at the bottom of the stairs or happened to be coming up as she started down.

  She removed the book that concealed the button, then pressed. The section of shelving with its faux books slowly, quietly moved open via its hydraulic hinges. Raised voices vibrated on the cool air. The temperature down there was kept at a steady sixty degrees, adding to the discomfort of those imprisoned and/or being interrogated.

  The instant Tessa moved down to the first step she pressed the closing mechanism. The door crept closed behind her. She shivered, as much from the cold as from the fear.

  She stood very still and listened.

  The Master and his two deputies were grilling a fourth man. Tessa didn’t recognize his voice. She needed to see. She bit the inside of her jaw and considered whether she dared.

  The timing was too close to her plans to ignore the situation. If operations or schedules were about to change related to the capture of an informant or an enemy, she needed to be aware.

  Easing forward, she peeked around the wall. A man wearing gray coveralls was secured to the interrogation chair. Her heart bumped her chest. His face already showed signs of torture. The Master stood back and watched as his deputies, Brooks and Howard, questioned the man. The man looked young. Brown hair. Definitely no one she had seen before.

  She waited a moment more for her heart to stop pounding, then she moved.

  Without daring to take a breath she descended the steps and moved around to hide beneath the stairs. Supply containers provided cover for her crouched position. She willed her heart to slow once more, thanked God the fabric of her gown hadn’t so much as whispered against her skin. She inhaled slowly, soundlessly until her breathing returned to normal.

  She wrapped her arms around her knees and maintained her balance on the pads of her feet. They called the man “Smith.” Tessa knew no one named Smith.

  “Considering your fear of capture,” the Master said, his deputies falling silent as he spoke, “why make contact with us? Why not go into hiding?”

  Smith stared up at the Master as if he had no fear at all. Tessa’s eyes widened in expectation of retaliation.

  “I had no place else to go,” he said with no humility whatsoever. “That’s why I took this job in the first place. I’d run out of other options.”

  Brooks, the taller of the two deputies, backhanded Smith, almost toppling the chair.

  “You believe,” the Master went on, “that we have an obligation to take you in?” He laughed, that deep ugly sound that haunted Tessa’s dreams far too often. “This is no halfway house, Mr. Smith. In fact, in your case, it’s the end of the line.”

  The Master turned and started toward the stairs. Tessa held her breath.

  “Finish this,” the Master ordered, “and feed him to the alligators.”

  Howard, the bald man with the big nose, who leered at her whenever the Master wasn’t looking, chuckled. “Guess you aren’t as smart as you thought, Mr. Smith.”

  “I’m smart enough to know when I’ve grown over-confident. Maybe your Master would be better served to recognize that in himself.”

  Silence fell over the room. The Master paused before reaching the stairs and turned to face the man who dared to challenge him.

  “Your soldier, Kennamer, liked to brag about how you’re fearless,” Smith continued. “How you’re untouchable.” He shrugged. “Seems funny to me that if that’s the case, you just had a major operation go south on you. But then,” Smith added, “maybe that’s why he also bragged that your god complex would be your downfall.”

  A moment
, then two, of thick silence.

  Tessa’s heart stumbled to a near stop.

  “Can we kill him now?” Brooks suggested.

  More of that heavy silence.

  “Perhaps not just yet,” the Master said.

  Surprise flared beneath Tessa’s breast. The Master never showed mercy like this. Did he fear that Smith was right? She gave her head a little shake. Impossible.

  “Perhaps,” the Master went on, stepping back toward Smith, “we’ll interrogate Mr. Smith once more after we’ve all had some rest. We’ll have a fresh perspective then.”

  Tessa tilted her head back and watched the Master climb the stairs. If he checked her room and found her missing… No, stop, he wouldn’t. He trusted her to do as she was told after so many years.

  Howard kicked Smith’s chair and cursed about the missed opportunity to feed the pets.

  Tessa shivered at the thought of the swamp surrounding this awful place. Howard and Brooks fed the gators regularly to ensure the beasts considered the area a generous feeding ground. Anyone who stumbled onto the property would likely never make it even close enough to enter the electronic surveillance field.

  The whole compound was off the grid. No land-lines for communications. Even the power was provided by a massive generator. And the water was obtained from the property and directed into the house via a state-of-the-art filtration system.

  Tessa doubted there was more than a dozen people who even knew of their existence deep in the wooded swampland outside New Orleans.

  But now someone did…this man, Smith. He knew. He was here and still alive.

  Anticipation fired through her as Brooks and Howard stomped up the stairs. The overhead lights extinguished, leaving the room in almost total darkness. Only the dim lights from the electronic equipment provided minuscule illumination.

  Did she dare question this Smith herself? Could he possibly possess information that would help her? Hope bloomed despite the years of desolation that had left her soul barren.

  Smith would die in a few hours. That was a certainty.

  He presented no peril to her.

  Still…he could tell the Master that she’d come down here.