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Chapter 14

He hadn’t had much time to perfect his plan, but Martin had no doubts that it would work.  He’d spent the last few hours before dawn setting up his trap – a game really - and now, he was ready.

The warehouse was huge and from his hiding place above, he could survey the entire building.  The Hawk could not enter without his knowing.  The smile that curved the corners of his lips was wholly evil.

Martin turned cold eyes, filled with an intense hatred down towards his wife.  She was tied to a chair that was bolted to the floor in the center of a maze that he had built.  Her face was bruised and slightly swollen from where he’d hit her several times – punishment for the trouble she’d caused him – and she was crying softly.

“Bitch,” he hissed, then giggled suddenly as the insane part of him tried to bubble up and take control.

“Pay you will, pay you will,” he sang softly, his eyes suddenly bright and glassy.

His mind took him back to not a half hour before and he relived those glorious moments when he put the fear of God in the bitch’s eyes.  Fear of him, for in the deepest recesses of his warped and demented mind, he was a god.

“Martin, please don’t do this!”

He grinned down at Rachel, her fear feeding the power his insanity gave him.  “Oh, but I must,” he answered quite calmly.  “For you see, dear wife, you betrayed me.  It does not matter that I have no more use for you, you are still mine, to do with as I please.”

His eyes lit with the gleeful knowledge that he was just about to rock her world.  In his hand, carefully hidden behind his back, was a poisoned dart.  In the other hand a vial that contained the antidote.  “If I wish to throw you away, that is my prerogative, but no one…” his eyes gleamed dangerously, “…no one digs through my trash.”

Rachel struggled against the ropes that bound her arms behind her back, but they were tied too tight.  She also discovered that her chair was bolted to the floor as well.  Desperately, she tried to reason out what Martin was saying, but the words of a crazed mind were beyond her and so she said nothing.

She stilled suddenly when Martin brought one hand from behind his back and revealed what looked like a dart of some kind.

“You are my trash, bitch,” he continued with a hiss, his eyes snapping with anger.  “And the Hawk had no right to take you.  For his betrayal, he will die slowly, painfully and while he wreathes in torment…” Martin brought his other hand out to reveal the vial.  A slow wicked smile curving his mouth, “…while you, my lovely wife, will have this within your grasp, yet you will be quite incapable of doing anything about it.”

Rachel felt the blood drain from her bruised and beaten face.  She thought she had been afraid before, but nothing prepared her for the sheer terror that bloomed in her heart now.

“What is that, Martin?” she whispered, a heavy sense of foreboding filling her, making her stomach twist in agony.

Martin felt his grin return, his eyes gleaming wickedly.  He held up the hand with the dart.  “Death,” he whispered back.  Then he held up his other hand to show her the vial.  “Life.”  He moved closer to dangle it teasingly in front of her face.  Leaning down, he crowded close to her and taunted softly in her ear, “Life that you will be unable to give him.”  He heard her soft whimper of protest and he threw his head back and laughed.

Taking the vial, he taunted her some more.  He traced the cool glass tubing along her cheek, down her throat and over the creamy curve of her breasts.  Gabriel’s shirt hung open about halfway down, revealing her soft swells to his lustful gaze.  Continuing his descent, Martin drew the vial across her stomach and then, with a knowing grin, he pushed the vial down between her thighs, making sure that it rubbed against her crotch.

“Be careful, now dearest,” he taunted one more time, “you don’t want to be breaking that.”

He stepped away and laughed again.  “Let's see how smart your lover is, Rachel.  Let's see if he can play the game.”

Swallowing the sob that threatened to choke her, Rachel willed herself to calm down.  She wouldn’t be able to help Gabriel if she was hysterical.  “And what is the game, Martin?” she asked, then held her breath for his answer.

Martin smiled evilly and held his arms up to encompass their surroundings.  “To save both you and himself, he must solve the mystery of the maze before the poison kills him.  You have the antidote in your lap, my dearest wife.  You better pray that your lover is as smart as all the rumors claim.”

With that, he whirled around and left Rachel alone in the center of the maze.

And now he sat waiting for the Hawk to arrive.  He held a rifle, loaded with the poisoned dart, ready to fire the moment the bastard stepped into the warehouse.  Martin smiled again.  And then the real fun would begin.

~*~

Gabriel growled his frustration as he easily leapt down to the alley floor from his perch on a dumpster.  He had silently, carefully searched every square inch of the outside of the warehouse that Stone had directed him to and there was only one usable entrance.

It was a trap.  He had no doubts about that.  Stone had prepared and prepared well for his arrival.  The only way into the warehouse was through the front entrance and that way meant certain death.

Gabriel was not afraid to die.  On the contrary, he was ready for it, but this was not about him.  This was about Rachel and making certain that she and Abigail lived in a world safe from the likes of Martin Stone.  However, it would not do Rachel any good if he got himself killed before he could even reach her.

“Think, damn you,” he cursed himself angrily.  He had no idea what waited for him on the other side of the front entrance.  He only knew that Rachel was in there – he could sense her nearness – and he would not let her down.

Setting his jaw, he knew that there was only one thing he could do.  He would not give up and desert Rachel now just because of the impossibility of the situation.  If this meant his death, then so be it.

Pulling his 9-millimeter from the waistband of his pants, he checked the clip then loaded the chamber.  He closed his eyes for a moment, clearing his mind of everything but his goal.  He buried his emotions, buried the part of him that had allowed him to feel and to fall in love.  When he opened his eyes again, his brown eyes were ice cold and nearly black with controlled rage.

It was time.

~*~

Martin tensed the moment he saw the door crack open.  His heart fluttered in excitement and to his immense surprise and pleasure, he discovered he had a hard-on.  Chuckling softly, he raised the rifle up and lined the sights up.  “Now, the hunter becomes the hunted,” he whispered with a slight smile and his finger slid over the trigger.

~*~

Gabriel crouched down beside the front entrance and carefully reached out to ease the door open a crack.  He kept his 9-millimeter up and ready as his sharp gaze peered in, taking a quick perusal.

The lighting was dim inside the warehouse.  Gabriel was able to see that the building was not empty, but he could not see well enough to determine what it was.  There was no movement inside and the only sound he could hear was soft feminine crying.

Rachel…

His lips pressed into a thin line as the rage threatened to burst free.  Taking a deep breath, Gabriel forced the uncontrollable anger back down.  He could not lose control, he could not let his emotions come out or it would be death for both he and Rachel.

Calling upon the unwavering discipline and control that he was notoriously known for, Gabriel suddenly threw the door open and dove in.  Rolling with the momentum, he finally pushed up on one knee and looked around quickly, his gun out in front pointing in every direction his gaze went.

For a moment, nothing happened.  The door slammed shut with an echoing bang and the warehouse grew quiet again.  It was then that Gabriel realized that he was a sitting duck.  There was nothing for him to hide behind and what he had seen in his brief perusal of the inside appeared to be plywood walls.

“Gabriel, no, it’s a trap!”  He heard Rachel’s warning, but also knew there wasn’t anything else he could do but go forward.  Pushing to his feet, his eyes darted around looking for any signs of Stone.

It was then that he heard the soft *pop*.

A second later, he felt a stinging sensation in his leg.

A heavy sense of foreboding filled the pit of his stomach when he looked down and saw a dart sticking out of his left leg.  Reaching down, he yanked it out and tossed it aside as deep laughter, tinged with a bit of hysteria filled the warehouse.

A strange feeling of dizziness began to slowly sweep through Gabriel, his equilibrium shifting for a brief moment before righting itself once more.

“Stone, you son of a bitch,” he barked in agitation, “what have you done?”

“Shut up and listen carefully, Hawk,” Martin taunted sarcastically from his hidden perch.  “You have exactly 15 minutes to find your way through that maze before the poison sucks the life from your body.  In the center of the maze is my bitch wife and in her lap is a vial with the antidote.  She is securely tied up and quite unable to help you.”

“Figlio di puttana,” Gabriel cursed softly in Italian.  He couldn’t believe what he was hearing.  Stone had truly gone off the deep end and if Gabriel had any hope of winning this game, he would have to stop thinking rationally and place himself inside Stone’s mind.

“If you can solve the maze,” Stone continued, “and get to her and the antidote before the poison kills you, then you can have her and you are free to leave.  However, if you don’t, then you are dead and you will die knowing that I will take great pleasure using her before she dies.”

For a moment, Gabriel didn’t move.  He could already feel the poison in his bloodstream, weakening him.  “You are wasting time, hitman,” Martin reminded him when he didn’t move right away.

“You think I’m stupid, Stone?  I’m dead whether I make it to the center or not.  We both know that.”

Martin laughed, knowing that Gabriel would not believe the claim that they could go free.  “Very true, however, I will take great joy in watching you suffer as you try, because you will try, Hawk.  I found your weakness and she will be the death of you.”

“Nooo,” Rachel cried out and struggled harder against the ropes that held her.  She’d been listening to the whole conversation and her heart shattered knowing that because of her, the one man she had ever truly loved was going to die.

Gabriel felt himself go cold.  His jaw tightened as he glanced over at the walls of plywood to his right.  Stone was right… he would try, no matter what the cost because if Rachel died, he could not live with himself.

“Let the game begin.”  Martin grinned as he watched Gabriel approach the maze and begin looking for the entrance.

"Indeed,” Gabriel murmured when he located the entrance and stepped carefully through it, his eyes searching for any traps, “let the game begin… and prepare yourself to meet your maker, Stone.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The Hitman – Chapter 15