Leather & Lace- THE SPECTER SERIES [book five]

Chapter FORTY EIGHT

Ace Greyson

"No! No! STOP IT.. STOOOP PLLEEEASEE!!" Lacey's shrill scream that erupts through the previous silence of the lab pierces my heart.. Terror and agony reverberate in her cries as the lab tech begins panic and splutter, rubbing his head in confusion..

I push a shoulder against the glass but the automated door doesn't budge.. "Get her out!.. OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR, NOW!"

I'm already looking around the room for something to break the thick glass with when the technician hits the release and it clicks, sliding open as Kingsley sighs, aloof and unphased.. "So dramatic.."

I rush to where Lacey crawls out from underneath the MRI machine, her complexion green, looking like she's ready to throw up or pass out as she splutters and chokes on the words.. "S-sick.. This is... So sick.. S-shes dead.."

I wrap her in my arms as she slides from the plastic covered cot, pulling her towards the door, ready to get her the hell out of here away from this fucking circus.. "Ace We're done here.. This is over." I bark at Kingsley, his mask of British upper-class indifference never cracking, not for a second..

The lab technician turns to his boss with guilt and fear pasted across his gawky features..

"Mr Kingsley, Sir.. The images have been tampered with.. I'm sorry, this wasn't supposed to--" The young guy clearly has no idea about any of the shady shit that has been going on in the shadows of the corporation he is employed by..

Hell.. He doesn't even know what he's really doing here today.. That together he and Kingsley are torturing Lacey.. And she is making me let them..

How the fuck did it come to this?!

Should I have been more persistent, more adamant.. Should I have made some big scene, said no, forbidden her from doing this?..

Should I have forced her to stay at the safehouse?..

Where am I supposed to draw the line between concern for her safety and taking control of her life? Because I don't want that.. I just want to be a part of it..

"Yes yes, I know.." In a flash of silver steel, Kingsley draws a Desert Eagle from beneath his blazer..

I can already predict exactly what is about to happen, literally picture it unfolding in my minds eye, but there's nothing I can do to prevent it..

In the tick of two seconds it's going to be over..

As his outstretched arm swings around, I open my mouth, the sound of my shout drowned out by the gunshot as the deafening crack of the bolt echoes throughout the lab.. "Don't--!"

- BANG -

The pale blue wall is painted in a pulpy Pollock of red as the technicians blood, bone and brains spray from the back of his skull, his whole body thrown two foot back in an unnatural jerk like a ragdoll from the force of the close up calibre that shreds through his left eye..

Laceys snaps stiff in shock in my arms, witness to the gruesome execution.. Yet another thing she should never have been exposed to, now surely embedded in her psyche.. I have just enough time to grab her and push her behind me a little too roughly before he turns the barrel on me..

I knew Kingsley was a sicko.. But this guy is beyond that, this mad chemist motherfucker is a fucking psycho..

I can feel my glock M18 Sig Sauer holstered beneath my coat, but bringing another gun into this equation doesn't necessarily keep Lacey alive..