Kill Zone

Chapter Twenty-five

Trevor shoved Katherine into a chair after flipping on a light. She was shaking all over and murmuring, “Peter… Peter, help me…” over and over.

Trevor Watkins slapped her across the face, turning her other cheek red. She screamed at the blow, cowering in the chair, praying that Miranda would stay dormant. She needed to stay in control. She needed her husband…he could stop her.

“Now, Mrs. McCormick, I know you are having marital troubles, but I need you to focus. Forget about Peter. You have to prove your loyalty to me, to the Zone, to your job or else… it’s not going to matter.”

“You are going to kill him, aren’t you?” she asked quietly.

“Yes, Nikki is going to kill Peter if you don’t start proving your value and loyalty to us—“

“You said you wouldn’t separate us!”

“Mrs. McCormick, it has become necessary to separate you. I never promised that I would keep you together. I was going to let you work as a team, but then you two disappeared. That was not very nice of you, Caitlin—“

“I was sick! I needed help! I still need help! I need Peter!” she begged, eyeing the door.

“You will have all the help you require once you complete one job for me. One job is all I ask, Caitlin. One job and you will have access to all the resources here at the Zone. I can hire the best doctors in the worlds to treat you, if that is what you need. We take our employee’s health very seriously here.”

“Then please, please let me go. Let me be with him!”

“No, Mrs. McCormick. Now, calm down so I can give you your assignment. The sooner you do what I tell you, the sooner I will let you see your husband. Until then, I need you to shut your mouth and listen!” Trevor hissed, pressing her into the chair.

She whimpered, but nodded. She did not want to be quiet. She had to get out of here. Katherine needed Aidan to kill her before it was too late. She had to get him to stop her before Miranda came back.

“Now, your job is very simple. It is nothing like the Carter hit. Stealth is not a problem either. What I need from you is for you to do a simple breaking and entering—trash the house too—and kill the occupants of the house.”

“Why?” Caitlin asked. “Why would you want me to do something like that?”

“One of our more… volatile enemies has family there.”

“So you think killing their family will make them behave? That’s crazy!” she shouted. Weiss had tried that with her father and it had back-fired miserably. Losing his family had made Jackson more unpredictable and dangerous. Her father had been a ticking time-bomb.

“Now, now, Caitlin, it’s not that simple—“

“Whoever he is… he is not going to be pleased with you harming his family. You think he is violent now? Take away his family—see where that gets you! You would be lucky to escape with only a bullet wound in your head or heart!” she hissed, her face right in his face as she tried to get her point across.

He smacked her again, causing her head to turn and smack into the back of the chair.

“Don’t you ever talk back to me again!” he snarled.

“I won’t do it…I won’t kill a family.”

“Fine. Just kill the kid.”

Her face fell. “The kid? There’s a child involved?”

“Actually, the kid is the target. He’s a nasty little one anyways. His father is a psychopath if I ever met one—a sadistic one at that—and the little bugger looks just like him. Spitting images of each other, father and son.”

“Why are you telling me this?” she whispered.

“Because, by killing the kid, you give me leverage against his father, not to mention you kill a psycho before he kills someone else. It’s a preventive measure.”

“This isn’t prevention—it’s murder!”

“And what is your job again?” Trevor taunted, a smile on his face. “Oh, that’s right… you are an assassin! Congratulations, Mrs. McCormick—you are a professional murderer!”

“Please, no… don’t make me do this…”

“You have two choices, Caitlin. Either you kill the kid and I let you see your husband… or you don’t kill the kid and I kill your husband, and then I make you kill the kid. Either way, the kid dies, but if you do it right the first time, then Peter does not have to die either. Now, who is more important to you? Your husband? Or some kid you have never even met who is going to grow up to be a killer?”

“This is wrong,” Kat said quietly. “This whole job is wrong. He’s just a child!”

“And you, Mrs. McCormick, are really starting to get on my nerves!”

He backhanded her again, causing her to cry out in pain.

“Please don’t… don’t make me do this…” she begged, her voice no louder than a whisper.

“I really don’t care whether you want to do it or not, Caitlin. The fact still remains that it needs to be done and you are the only one with the proper skills who can get it done. I am so generously offering you a chance to save your husband’s life. All you have to do is—“

“Kill an innocent child! I won’t do it!!” she screamed.

Another smack. Dang, her cheek stung.

“Stop playing this game with me, Mrs. McCormick. It is old and boring. Now, I want you to say ‘Yes, sir, Mr. Watkins, I will do it right now. Thank you for sparing my idiotic husband’ and then go pick up the folder on my desk. Do you think you can do that for me, Caitlin?” he breathed, one of his hands on her shoulder and the other resting on her thigh.

She nodded, knowing it was useless to fight. She had to save Aidan. If she could save him, he could kill her. He could stop her.

“Yes, sir, Mr. Watkins, I will do it right now. Thank you for sparing my idiotic husband,” Kat repeated softly, feeling like a traitor and a parrot at the same time.

“Good girl.” He patted her cheek and moved away from the chair so she could go collect her folder. “I have a feeling that this is the beginning of a beautiful partnership. I will have a car brought around for you to use. What kind of car do you prefer, Mrs. McCormick?”

“A BMW,” she muttered without thinking. “A black one with tinted windows.”

“As you wish!” he said cheerfully reaching for a phone to make the order.

Katherine picked up the folder, trying to ignore the fact that her hands were shaking. She flipped it open and collapsed into a nearby chair.

The photo attached to the first page was not of a child—not even close. It was a very cute, innocent infant. A five-month-old baby.

Her heart tightened and her throat felt dry. No, she could not do this. She could kill him.

Her fingertips traced the photo and the name “Chris” slipped out of her mouth.

Kat took a deep breath, trying to relax as her blue eyes fell on the name.

Christopher Carston. Chris. Her Chris. Oh God, her own nephew.

She slipped out of the chair and hit the ground, her forehead cracking against the wooden floor as the file slipped from her fingers.

“Lord of the Flies?” Aidan whispered into his cell phone, hoping that there were not any microphones in the small room they had sequestered him in.

“Murphy? What’s going on?”

“It’s Caitlin—they took her from me.”

“What?!”

“I was trying to calm her down and Watkins ripped her away from me. She was freaked out, sir. She kept screaming and trying to get back to me.”

“Why did he take her? Where is she now?”

“I don’t know, but I think they are going to make her do a job. Before he dragged her away… she told me to kill her.”

He paused, waiting for his boss to go nuclear on the other end. He would not blame Jackson for having a cow. He had hardly believed what she was saying in those few moments—and he was standing right there with her!

“Why on earth would she say that?”

“I don’t know…and that is why it scares me, sir. She was serious. Something is really wrong with Caitlin.”

“Did she say anything else along with the ‘kill me’?” Jackson demanded.

“Yes, she said if I loved her, I had to stop her. That I had to kill her before she killed me,” Aidan said solemnly. He would never forget the look on her face as she pleaded with him in those moments. So frightened, so insecure. Terrified.

“All I can think of is they either want her to do something horrible, or she’s splitting, like you thought. Her demons are too strong for her to defeat alone, Aidan. She needs you. You can keep her sane. She is right—only you can stop her. You have to stop Katy before she hurts herself or someone else.”

“How? I don’t even know where she is!”

“You can find a way. Ask whoever is watching you to let you see her before she goes on assignment. Say you want to wish her luck. Anything,” Jackson suggested with a sigh. “Just do not let her leave your sight.”

“I will do my best, sir. I love her.”

“I know you do. And I know Katy loves you back.”

WHACK!

With a loud moan, Katherine started to stir. Her cheek felt like it was on fire.

“Wake up!” Trevor hissed, smacking her again.

She cried out, trying to crawl away from the burning sensation. She rested her hot cheek on the cold wood floor, grateful for the icy-touch it provided.

He jerked her up by the hair, tugging on her log braid. Kat let out a loud scream, her eyes wide open.

“I said, WAKE UP!”

“Stop it, please, stop! You’re hurting me!” she begged, trying to hold on to the base of the braid to ease the pain.

He dropped her and she slammed into the floor again, striking her head again. She moaned, rolling onto her back on the floor, her blue eyes shut.

“Do you need me to hit you again?” he teased, nudging her side with a shoe.

Kat groaned in response.

“Huh? You need a little kick?”

He kicked her sharply in the thigh and Kat screamed loudly, her body trembling all over.

“Don’t… do… this…” she whispered, trying to curl up into a ball.

“I will do whatever the hell I want to you. Who’s going to save you now, Caitlin? Your husband? Well, he’s not too bright, nor is he anywhere near.”

“You don’t have to do this… please…”

“Caitlin, Caitlin, Caitlin… have you been listening to anything I have said lately?”

“Yes…”

Trevor crouched down beside her. “Now, I think you can think of a few ways to delay the job, but laying there, crying is not one of them… Perhaps, I will even let you see Peter before you go…”

She sniffled. “What do you want from me?”

“Many things, Caitlin, many things. Right now, I would settle for a favor… or for Chris Carston’s dead body. Either one would delay your husband’s execution and the second would save his life.”

Her shaking increased when his hand touched her skin.

“No, I won’t do that for you,” she said firmly despite the shaking.

“Hmm, what a shame…”

“Let me go and I will kill Chris for you. Just let me say good-bye to Peter.”

“It does not work like that, Mrs. McCormick.”

Kat sat upright and twisted his sprained wrist. He hissed in pain, his face twisting.

“You will let me say good-bye to my husband or I will remove your hand,” she hissed in warning. “Now, where is Peter?”

“Okay, okay, you crazy bitch, I will take you to see him!”

She gave his hand an extra twist before releasing it. “It’s about time, you idiot!”