“Release her!” The dust dog shouted, the barrel of his pistol pointed directly at Dan. The only reason Dan wasn’t already dead was because Shane had his knife against Susa Jaiban’s neck, and Dan had his own gun pointed directly at the guard.

“Get back!” Dan motioned with his pistol, but the stupid guard wouldn’t listen. This felt amateurish—getting caught.

More shouting echoed from below as boots stampeded up the stairs.

Shit!

“I hope you got a plan,” Shane said, tightening his grip on the girl’s shoulder. She cried out, but Shane didn’t seem to care, and neither did Dan. Not right now at least.

Moments later there were at least ten men in the outer hallway. All of them had guns. “What do you want?”

Dan didn’t recognize the voice, but the men in the halls stole furtive glances toward the voice. “Who are you?”

Dan was beginning to skirt back to the left of the door, barely peeking out, his pistol ready. He could probably shoot three or four of those men outside before they let loose with a fusillade of weapons fire into the room. Assuming they were willing to kill the hostage.

“Dorian Jaiban,” the man answered. “I’m the girl’s father.”

“Great,” Shane said, a note of cheerfulness in his tone. The son of a bitch was actually having fun!

“I swear,” Dorian said, “if you hurt her, my men will kill you. Preferably I would like them to take you alive so that I can torture you so you can beg me for death before the end. Is that what you want?”

Classic gangster-boss threats. “Not really,” Dan said. “But it looks to me like we hold the high card. So you do what we say, or the girl gets her neck slit. Do we understand each other?”

Shane pressed his blade against Susa’s neck and she squealed.

“Stop! Don’t hurt her!”

“We won’t if you do what we say.”

“You still haven’t told me what you want with my daughter!”

Dan let out a breath and rolled his eyes. “Leverage!”

“For what?”

“For starters,” Shane bellowed, spit flying out of his mouth, “we’d like to get out of this shithole you call Purgatory Valley.”

“And then?”

“And then you’ll just have to find out,” Dan said.

“How do I know you won’t just kill her?”

Shane bared his teeth. “That’s the thing about hostages. They’re a lot less useful when they’re fucking dead!”

Dorian didn’t respond.

Dan frowned, wondering, but then he heard the clumsy guard outside the window. He turned, pressed his back against the wall, and shot the Dust Dogs man on the terrace.

He grunted, stumbled back and fell, causing a crash of glass three stories down.

“Try that again,” Shane snarled, “and she bleeds out on these floors!”

“All right!” Dorian said, a note of fear beginning to creep into his voice. “All right. I’ll let you go. But please, do not hurt her.”

Dan’s back was still to the wall, but he was ready for tricks now. “So long as you don’t try anything stupid, Susa will be just fine. You have my word.”

“What do you want? A truck?”

“That would be nice,” Shane said.

* * *

There was a loud crash of glass outside. The guards tensed, testing the grips on their guns as they glanced at each other.

Marcus held his hands, one on top of the other, in front of him to keep from shaking visibly. Kaisa and the kids popped into his mind. He might never see them again.

There was a lot of noise on the floor above. Men talking, boot steps moving about. A girl yelped and voices became more frantic. It was quiet for a while but then Dust Dogs men started coming downstairs. Some of them filed into the room. Others backed down the hall, guns raised.

Marcus frowned. Who were they pointing their weapons at?

Of course.

The two commandos came into view. Shane glanced into the room, but kept his eyes on the man in front of him, his knife on the girl’s neck. She was still in her sheer nightgown.

Dan had his back to Shane with his pistol out as they slipped down the hall, out of view. Marcus moved to say something, but realized Blake Halls hadn’t said a word, though he looked very alarmed.

Dorian moved past the door and down the hall behind some of his men, pursuing his daughter and their kidnappers.

After a while of standing still, sweating profusely, Marcus sat down. Blake and his man Razen did the same after a while.

Finally, about ten minutes later, Dorian Jaiban stormed into the room, five guards with guns at his back. “Did you have something to do with this?”

Marcus’ eyes went to Blake, the man the Dust Dogs leader was intent on. Marcus’ stomach heaved. He felt sick.

Blake frowned. “Would we come here to negotiate for the guidance system if—“

“No fucking games! Tell me the truth, Blake Halls or I’ll gut you like a fucking fish and hang you out to dry!”

Marcus’ eyes started to sting. He’d been forgetting to blink.

Shit, he thought. This isn’t good.

Blake remained calm. At least, Marcus thought he seemed calm considering the circumstances. “It would be incredibly dumb of me to come to your fortress, give up my guns and put myself in your complete mercy if I had two men in the room upstairs kidnapping your daughter.”

Marcus swallowed hard. Would this Dorian Jaiban guy trust what Blake was saying? He was lying!

Dorian thought for a moment. “I assume you want me to give you the guidance system and in return you can promise me Rork will help me retrieve my daughter?” His tone was full of sarcasm.

“I wasn’t about to propose such an arrangement,” Blake said. “But now that you mention it, Rork would be extremely grateful to have that piece of tech back. He would owe you.”

Dorian didn’t say anything. He just stared at Blake.

Marcus tried to remain calm, but he was sure he looked like a rat caught in a net, scrambling to get out.

Blake continued. “I am sure Rork will be happy to introduce you to our off world contact, as well as help find Susa.”

Dorian had moved to the hearth. He was bent over, his hands on the mantel. “Maybe I should just throw you in the pit. Two hostages should be well worth one.”

Blake didn’t say anything.

* * *

The ATV the Dust Dogs provided them with was a piece of shit. The vehicle drove and that was all that mattered.

Dan breathed out a relieved breath, though he was still concerned about the others. What were they doing in the manor?

“Colonel Taver,” he said over the growling engine. They hit a pot hole and Dan bounced. “Colonel Taver, do you read?”

“What’s wrong?” Shane asked. He was sitting in the back seat, Susa Jaiban beside him, tears streaking her dusty face. They’d only been driving for about twenty minutes so far.

“I don’t know,” Dan said, tapping the skin behind his neck. As if that would work. He couldn’t even feel the coms tech under his skin. He tried to reach the old man for five more minutes, but nothing happened.

Shane jumped into the front passenger seat like a cowboy jumping onto the back of a horse. The ATV didn’t have a roof.

Dan’s heart skipped a beat when he realized Shane was pointing his pistol at him, smiling with that fucked up face.

“Stop.”

Dan glanced at his pistol he had put on the dash.

Shane shook his head. “That would be bad for you. Now stop.”

Dan released the gas and the vehicle came to a stop, shuttering and growling. Was this the part where Shane shot him?

Shane nudged the pistol forward. “Get out.”

Dan got out and Shane moved into the driver’s seat. Susa Jaiban stirred in the back and Shane glanced at her over his shoulder. “Shut up.”

Dan’s heart was beating faster now.

Shane smiled, shook his head. “I’m not going to shoot you, asshole. I’m going to let those guys take care of you.” He gestured with his head to the south.

Dan looked.

There was a small dust cloud, a vehicle at its head, though he could barely make it out since it was so far off.

Well that’s great.

Shane must have registered Dan’s alarm, because he nodded, that sick smile growing deeper. “You’re fucked.” He closed the door on the driver’s side and the ATVs tires spun out, leaving a cloud of dust in the vehicle’s wake.

Dan just watched him go. Yeah, he was fucked. The Dust Dogs leader would probably do exactly what he said he would; make Dan beg for death before the end. He bent down, removed the knife from his boot.

Would he let the Dust Dogs leader capture him in hopes of escaping when some opportunity presented itself—if, an opportunity presented itself, or would he use the knife on himself? A blade across the neck wasn’t the way he planned it, but it wasn’t the worst way to go.

He looked at the blade in his open hand. An ugly weapon, designed for killing. He turned the weapon over in his hand, tested the knife’s edge with his thumb. It would do the job.

Too bad that fucker won.

He still watched as Shane’s ATV became a prick in the distance, the sound of another engine closing in from behind. He raised the knife to his neck. It would have to be a good stroke. Hard. He would have to make sure the blade cut through the major arteries in his neck so he could bleed out quickly.

The ATV was right behind him. He smiled, shook his head and pressed the knife to his throat.

“Dan?”

Dan jumped, lowered the knife and turned around. His eyes widened. “What are you guys doing here?”

“Well,” Blake said, getting out of the front passenger seat. “I promised Dorian Jaiban that Rork would help him find his daughter.”

Dan cocked his head back. “He believed that bullshit?”

Blake smiled. “What can I say? I’m a good salesman. Where’s Shane and Susa Jaiban?”

Dan stiffened. “The fucker put his gun on me and left me for dead.”

Marcus stepped forward. “Good thing we’re here to rescue you, then. Come on!”

“We didn’t get the guidance system.” They—fuck that—he wouldn’t be able to rescue Ambassador Silverman and Diplomat Kolivar. The mission was a failure.

“Like I said,” Blake said. “I’m a good salesman. I was able to negotiate for the guidance system. After all, Rork doesn’t do anything simply out of the kindness of his heart.”

Dan shook his head, smiled and put the knife back in his boot sheath. Blake was Rork’s lieutenant, an enemy and Dan would kill him if he had to. But he wouldn’t like it. He kind of liked this Blake Halls guy.