Midnight Rescue: A Killer Instincts Novel by Elle Kennedy Page B

too shaky to continue.
    “How do I know?” he said, filling in the rest of her sentence. “Because I see it inside you. That ice-cold anger. The need for revenge.”
    “I got my revenge a long time ago,” she murmured.
    “No. You just got rid of
your
demon, Abby.” He chuckled. “But you couldn’t get rid of
all
the demons, could you? All the sick fucks out there victimizing young girls and young boys, getting away with whatever sick crimes they’re committing.”
    “There’s nothing wrong with wanting to help,” she whispered. Steadying her voice, she met his eyes. “You’re right. I was raped. Repeatedly, and for years. But I got over it. And if my own experience has made me determined to prevent it from happening to others, what the hell’s wrong with that?”
    D was quiet for a moment. Then he shook his head. “Iwas like you, you know. Once.” His voice softened. “Idealistic, driven, ready to dive headfirst into battle, any battle, as long as the bad guys lost and I won. Wanna know what happened?”
    “What happened?” she echoed dully.
    “I woke the fuck up. If I threw myself into every damn battle out there, I’d be fighting for the rest of my life. It became more practical to pick and choose. Fight when it was advantageous to me. You can’t save the world, Abby. Want to know why?”
    “I can’t wait.”
    “Because as much as you want to save it, there will always be someone else who wants to destroy it. Better to back off. Pick your fights. And those girls in the bunker? They’re not your fight.” His face went hard. “And they’re not our fight either.”
    “I take it that’s your way of saying you won’t help.”
    “Oh, I’ll help,” he said viciously. “Because somehow you managed to convince Kane to support your foolish crusade. And if Kane’s on board, the others will follow like sheep. Which leaves me to make sure you don’t get my fucking guys killed.”
    His words inspired a flicker of guilt. She quickly brushed it off. “Kane and the others are grown men. They know the risk, yet obviously they’ve decided it’s worth it.”
    “Whatever.” Cursing under his breath, he stood up, reverting back to his cold, impassive self. “I’m going to be watching you, Abby. If you do anything to endanger Kane, or any of the others, I will break your neck. Understand?”
    “Perfectly,” she replied, equally cool.
    He marched toward the door.
    “Who raped
you
, D?” she called after him.
    He froze.
    “Your father?” she guessed. “Mother? Both?”
    Slowly, he turned to face her, his eyes flashing with fury.
    “I see it in you too,” she answered, with only a touch of sarcasm. “What is it they say? It takes one to know one.”
    Without a word, D left the room.
    Abby stared after him. Was he right? Was this a battle better left unfought?
    No. No, it couldn’t be. It wasn’t idealistic to want to save a bunch of innocent girls who were about to be sold off to rich, sadistic perverts, not if a successful rescue could be planned.
    How could D—how could
anyone
—fault her for wanting to help?
    “You have to eat, Sylvie.” Lucia Alvaro spoke in a hushed, encouraging voice, but the small black-haired girl sitting beside her didn’t even lift her head. In the doorway, the guard glanced over at the two girls in annoyance. She called him
halcón
—hawk—because he had a long beak of a nose. He also had the eyes of a hawk—sharp and cold—and he was always watching them.
    “Please,” Lucia urged in Spanish. “You heard what Señor Blanco said would happen if we didn’t eat.”
    Sylvie shook her head ferociously. Her hands were wrapped around her bare knees, her long hair falling onto her dirt-covered face like a curtain. She was the youngest of the thirteen girls—only eleven. She had barely moved an inch since the
halcón
and the other guard, the one with the red scar next to his mouth, had thrown her into the cold, damp room.
    Lucia didn’t have an appetite