“Son of a bitch,” Diego swore. “Goddamn it, Grace. We can’t just let you walk into that son of a bitch’s clutches. Do you not remember what they did to you before?”
“I survived,” she said calmly. “I survived before. I’ll do it again. Besides, I have a hell of a lot more to live for now. If you think I’m giving up and rolling over, you have another think coming. I’m going, but I damn well expect you guys to get your asses in gear and come save my ass before it gets too bad. All I’m doing is buying us some time.”
idth="1em">Terrence stared hard at her, respect and admiration bright in his eyes. “I’ve never known another woman with bigger balls than you, Miss Grace.”
She forced a laugh. “Thanks. I think.”
Slowly she pushed upward and this time they let her go. Diego caught her hand, and she turned to look at him.
“This is a hell of a brave thing you’re doing. I won’t ever forget it and I’ll make damn sure no one else does either. Go with God, Grace, and fight like the devil himself.”
She smiled faintly and then turned her head toward Terrence. “Give me your handgun.”
He looked strangely at her but didn’t hesitate. He pulled a smaller nine millimeter from his ankle holster and extended it to her. She slid her fingers around the stock, jacked a shell into the chamber and thumbed off the safety.
Then she took a deep breath and stepped onto the platform that had been pushed up to the hatch.
“I’m here,” she said calmly.
“Goddamn it, Grace, get the f**k back in the plane!”
Rio’s furious voice made her flinch. He stood a short distance away, beside another woman who’d been made to resemble her. The woman’s hair was twisted tightly around the fist of the man holding her captive while he held a gun to the back of Rio’s head.
She took a step down, her gaze connecting to the man behind Rio. Then she paused, never backing down from his stare.
“I want your word. I go with you, no one else gets hurt. I know much about you, Hancock. I’ve seen inside your mind. I know how it works. So maybe you’ll appreciate the implications of what I’m about to say.”
The entire area went quiet, held captive by the strength in her words.
She raised the gun held loosely by her side, but she didn’t point it at anyone. There was a mad scramble within the ranks of Hancock’s men, and he barked a terse order for them not to shoot her. No, they wouldn’t shoot her. A point that worked hugely in her favor. She could take one of them out right now and they still wouldn’t shoot her. They’d just slaughter everyone else while she watched.
Instead she continued to raise the gun until she pointed it at her own temple. A series of gasps, curses and what-the-fucks quickly made the rounds from both sides.
“What the hell are you doing?” Rio croaked. “Put the gun down and get your ass back in that plane.”
“Here’s the deal, Hancock,” she said in just as arrogant a voice as he’d used moments earlier. “You’re going to let every last person go until it’s just you and me.”
“And if I don’t?”
There was more curiosity in his voice than any real threat. It was apparent that he’d been caught off guard by her approach. Maybe he’d expected her to be crying or screaming or cowering behind Terrence and Diego.
“If you don’t, then I shoot myself and you have yourself one f**ked-up failure of a mission.”
Rio’s roar of denial echoed and mixed with all the other shouts and exclamations of surprise.
Hancock smiled. “You’re bluffing, and you’re insane. No one here believes you. I hold all the cards, Grace. You hold nothing.”
Her stare grew colder. She stared until he actually flinched and glanced away for the briefest of moments.
“Really?” she said coolly. “I saw into your mind, Hancock. I know you’re telling the trutling theh about slaughtering these people to achieve your aim. I also know that your death is meaningless to you. Your sense of honor, however twisted, is that the mission comes first. Above all else. Above life. Even your own. You don’t care if you die because one of the others will deliver me, accomplishing the mission. But guess what? I’m about to let you into my mind so you can see that I’m dead serious too. The very last thing I want to do is go back to the endless torture I was subjected to. But I’ll do it if it saves people I care about. If you kill them, I’ll have nothing left to live for anyway, and it would give me great pleasure to deny you what you most want.”
For the first time, a flash of uncertainty crossed his face. She opened herself to him, focusing intensely on the pathway she’d traced to him just moments earlier. She saw his indecision and oddly his admiration for her. There was grudging respect that she’d stand up and bargain for the lives of the others.
Then she closed her eyes and let him feel her own determination. Let him feel the despair and the helplessness that had long been weighing down on her. She let him see the past and how many times she’d wanted to die. And then she showed him cold resolve. Her decision to die by her own hand before she allowed that evil son of a bitch to win. She felt his shock at the realization that she’d been utterly serious.
She felt the quick change in him, his sudden urgency to acquiesce to her demands. The very last thing he wanted was for her to kill herself because then it made him a failure, and he saw failure as the ultimate dishonor.