A Stainless Steel Cat (21 page)

"I don't need to bluff when I'm holding the winning hand." Royce replied evenly.

The first rounds took out four security goons on the first floor. The suppressed weapons made short work of the guards, and didn't even make much noise. The masked men moved into the open area, scanning each section of warehouse to make sure all enemies were down. Justin pointed at two of his men, then gestured at the stairs to follow him up. He and his men started silently up the steps, pointing their SMGs up and to the left where the space would open up once they cleared the platform.

Royce smiled as he heard the bodies hit the floor downstairs. "You had your chance, Mr. Prescott."

"Green!" Prescott shouted, and Green aimed his pistol at Tam's head. She felt it against her temple, then all of a sudden it wasn't there anymore, and she heard it clatter to the floor.

Royce saw the weapon pressed to Tam's head, and reacted out of instinct. He threw two shuriken in quick succession, the throwing blades hitting Green in his wrist and neck successively. The gun fell from his nerveless fingers and he raised the hand to his neck to try and staunch the flow of blood from his punctured jugular.

Royce turned with his last throwing knife as Prescott tried to draw a pistol from his shoulder holster. Royce's last shuriken hit him in the hand going for the gun, severing nerves and tendons.

Prescott shouted in pain, and looked over at Green, who was now reaching for his gun with his good hand.

Royce saw it too, and drew the dagger from under the back of his belt, racing forward just as Green raised the weapon and fired.

To Royce, it felt as if a burning fist had punched him in the shoulder, and he spun as he fell heavily. He cried out involuntarily at the searing pain radiating from his wound, and he dropped the dagger from his right hand as his left hand came over to press against the hole in his upper right chest/shoulder area. He turned and looked up at the man with a look of defiance on his face.

Green took careful aim, but never had the chance to finish him off, as two bullet holes appeared in his chest. Green looked down in surprise, then his eyes glazed over as he fell backwards, his heart punctured by the two precision rounds fired from Justin's MP5.

"On the ground, Prescott!" Justin ordered, and Prescott knelt as ordered, his hands behind his head.

Royce rose to his feet and walked slowly to where Tam was. He freed her, removing her blindfold as two more men came up the steps to help them.

"Dammit, Royce! Now Cammie won't let me hear the end of this." Justin said with a smirk under his mask and a shake of his head.

"Hey, my Man took a bullet for me. That says a lot right there." Tam interjected as one of Justin's team came forward and set to bandaging the through and through wound on both sides. The 9mm slug had gone straight through with very little internal damage.

"I got sloppy, Sweetheart." Royce grimaced as the medic cleaned and dressed the wounds. "I'm sorry that I wasn't there to protect you before."

"Hey, better late than never, Baby." Tam smiled and kissed him. Once the medic pronounced him able to move, his hands went to her face and he kissed her like a man possessed.

"I'll never let that happen again, Baby Girl." He promised. "I love you."

"I love you too, Royce." Tam replied in a whisper, then kissed him again until they were interrupted by Justin clearing his throat.

"Listen up, kids. We need to move out. The cops will probably be investigating this. I've got your blades here, Royce." Justin smiled and handed him the throwing blades and dagger.

"Thanks, man." Royce replied with a smile as he took his weapons and replaced them in their sheaths. He winced as his shoulder moved, but was otherwise ok after a numbing shot and some aspirin.

"No problem. Now, let's go. Pete will ride your bike back for you, but you two are in the van with us." Justin laid down the plan, and they moved out quickly before the cops could get there. Royce handed Pete the keys to the Ducati, and promised that if Pete wrecked it, he would break the man's neck.

Pete smiled. "Don't worry about it, son. I've got one of these bad boys, myself."

Royce was reassured, and they all piled into the van for the ride back to the Wolfe estate.

Detective Natalie Raines wasn't happy as she looked at the carnage in the warehouse. She shook her head and saw the precision used on the dead bodies. The only one still alive was Mr. Liam Prescott, and a flash drive had been taped to his lapel. If she hadn't known better, she would swear that the Steel Cat was behind this. Except the Cat didn't kill or use guns.

As soon as the EMTs cleared him, she hauled in Prescott for questioning, and was sitting across from him as he spun his tale. He admitted to kidnapping Tamara Jenkins in order to lure the Steel Cat out of hiding. He said that the information on the flash drive had been altered to make BioGen appear guilty. He said that Royce was the Steel Cat, and Tam was his accomplice.

"Mr. Prescott, do you actually expect me to believe all that? It doesn't sound very plausible, you know." Natalie was smirking at him. "No, what I think happened was that you were having some kind of meeting, but things went sideways for you, and your men ended up dead. Who did you piss off?"

"The Wolfes! They were behind it!" Prescott was desperate now to have her believe him. "They were backing up the Steel Cat!"

"So, you think this Royce person is the Steel Cat? Why would you think that?" She asked with an arched eyebrow. She didn't want him to know she'd met Royce twice already.

"It all fits! The Jenkins girl's car was parked in an alley beside BioGen when we were broken into!" He shouted.

"Oh? And you didn't report the physical break in to the police? Just the cyber attack?" Natalie had him. No matter what he tried now, no matter what excuse he gave, he was going to prison. "Why was that, Mr. Prescott?"

"That doesn't matter! That Royce person and Ms. Jenkins stole some sensitive information from our servers, then altered it to make it look like we were guilty!" Prescott shouted, clearly agitated.

"Well, Mr. Prescott. Our Cybercrimes division has just gone through the flash drive, and those files haven't been altered in over a year. They were sitting on your server in their current form before the break in." Natalie smiled sweetly at the sweating CEO. "As soon as they get here, you are going to be turned over to the FBI. That makes you not my problem in about an hour or so."

Prescott realized then that he was not getting out of this one. That flash drive had the most damning evidence of all, and would probably spark a new class action lawsuit. He would need to run when he made bail, but that wasn't going to be an option either. His corporate accounts had been seized and his running money that he'd had in the safe was gone, stolen by the Steel Cat already. He also regretted destroying the evidence of Tam's car being parked in that alleyway.

He wondered what else could go wrong.

Royce grimaced in pain as Mr. Wolfe's personal physician stitched the second wound in his shoulder as he sat on the exam/operating table. He had opted for a local anesthetic instead of being put under. The bullet had gone clean through, for which he was grateful. His shoulder would be sore for a few weeks, but he could deal with that. Tam stood by the table, holding his hand and looking at him with grateful tears in her eyes.

"Don't worry, Baby. Doctor Martinez is one of the best around." She reassured him.

"That he is, son." Anthony Wolfe nodded his agreement. "So, Justinian tells me that you are accepting my job offer?"

"And you got some explaining to do, Royce!" Cammie interjected. "You too, sis!" She glared at Tam.

"All done." Doctor Martinez said as he snipped the last stitch on Royce's back, then bandaged both entry and exit wounds. "Take it easy, then come back in two weeks and I'll remove the stitches. You got lucky, kid."

"Thanks, Doc." Royce said, and shook the man's hand after he'd removed the latex gloves.

"Just be more careful and try to avoid getting shot!" Doc Martinez said with raised eyebrows. He'd treated more than his share of gunshot wounds already, working as Wolfe's physician, which meant he also treated all of Wolfe's employees. He was just glad he made more here than as a plastic surgeon.

"I will, sir." Royce promised, then turned to Mr. Wolfe. "Ok." Royce sighed. "Mr. Wolfe, I wanted to thank you first. So thank you for everything. Whether you still want me for that job should wait until after I confess some stuff."

Tam winced. She knew that he was about to spill everything, but he squeezed her hand reassuringly. He pulled her close and whispered in her ear. "If you don't want to tell them who you are, that's fine. I am only going to confess about what I've done."

"Ok, Baby. I think it's time I confessed too, but I'll let you go first." She whispered back.

Royce smiled, kissed her sweetly, then pulled back and looked at the assembled friends and family. He cleared his throat.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I am the Steel Cat, as the News people call me." He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then proceeded to give detailed information about his break ins of the two city councilmen and finally of BioGen. He left out his theft from Senator Keen, and also left out the fact that Tam had hacked the security at BioGen.

"So that's my story." He shrugged his good shoulder as he wrapped it up.

Mr. Wolfe just considered him with new respect. While the break in at BioGen hadn't gone quite as planned, it was still masterful work. "How did you disable the security cameras?" He asked at length, knowing there was more to this than Royce was saying.

"That would be me." Tam smiled sheepishly. Ray Hammond, who had just walked in, grinned ear to ear.

"I KNEW it!" Ray said. "When I broke that encryption, I knew I'd seen it someplace before!"

"Ray, what are you talking about?" Mr. Wolfe looked at his IT guru with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, I got ahold of some files encrypted by black_fire back when I used to work for the FBI. I thought the encryption on that flash drive looked familiar, and I think this proves it." Ray grinned, then bowed to Tam. "Masterful work, milady."

"Gee, thanks. Did you make the connection because I'm black?" She asked sarcastically.

Ray just shrugged. "Deductive reasoning. You're hot like fire, and you're black."

Tam laughed. He had a point. "Ok, ok. Yes, I'm black_fire, hacker extraordinaire." She confessed with a sheepish smile.

"More like cyber vigilante extraordinaire." Royce chimed in. "Tam does online what I do with physically." He squeezed her hand and they shared a smile.

Justin laughed. "You two are adorable." He said with a grin from ear to ear. That set off a round of laughter in everyone except Cammie.

"Ok, so lemme get this straight." Cammie inhaled deeply before continuing. "My sis and her boyfriend belong in a comic book!?"

"Yeah, that sounds about right." Justin said with a thoughtful look on his face. "I don't think Marvel or DC would do it, but maybe Dynamite." He stopped when Cammie elbowed him in the ribs.

"Not helping, Ranger." She smirked at him, then turned to look at Tam and Royce. "You two. You know what mama and daddy would say about this, right?"

"Yeah, we know." Tam nodded. "Which is why you need to NOT tell them, ok?"

"Jury's still out on that one." Cammie huffed and turned to walk out, grabbing Justin by the arm and pulling him with her. He shrugged and gave an apologetic smile as he was led out by Cammie.

Anthony looked at the two. "Tam, I would like to offer you a position in my company as Ray's partner. Equal partner, that is." He glanced at Ray, who just shrugged.

"I got no problem with that, boss." He replied with a smile. "Tam's always been cool."

"Good to hear." Anthony inclined his head to his IT guru. Then he looked at Tam and Royce again. "Royce, my offer still stands. You know how to breach security, and I want my security here airtight. You are definitely the man I want for the job." He nodded to the young cat burglar.

"Yes, sir. Give me two days, and I'll have your security locked down so tight a mouse won't make it through." Royce smiled at the big mob boss.

"Good." Anthony replied. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get some sleep. And don't worry about Mr. Prescott. I have the strangest feeling that nobody is going to believe him."

"Thank you, Mr. Wolfe." Royce nodded and smiled. Anthony Wolfe was about as good a guy as could be for a Mafia kingpin.

"Anytime, son. Cammie has been family for almost four years now, and that makes you both family too." He replied, then left the room.

"Hey, if you guys need a place to stay, the guest house is out back." Ray said as he left with Doctor Martinez, leaving them alone.

"I think we should stay here tonight, Baby." Tam said. "With that shoulder, you're in no condition to ride."

"I think you're right, Tam." He smiled and kissed her, then jumped down from the table and pulled one of Justin's t-shirts on, with Tam's help for his injured shoulder. Mr. Wolfe's son hadn't even hesitated when he'd offered his help in rescuing Tam, and providing Royce with a t-shirt after his own t-shirt had been ruined by Green's bullet.

"I know I'm right, Baby." She replied, then pulled him to her gently as she kissed him. "I don't think I've properly thanked you for that rescue yet." She said sultrily as she bit her bottom lip and pulled him with her out of the in-house medical exam/operating room and towards the back yard where the guest room was.

Royce went willingly, giving her a grin as she pulled him towards the guest house. It was late, but with the painkillers he'd taken, and the endorphins still coursing through his system along with the excess adrenaline, he was more than ready for whatever Tam had in mind.

Ray had left the key to the guest house under the mat, and it didn't take Royce long to find it. They went inside and quickly found the Master Bedroom.

"I need you, Tam." Royce said as they undressed each other slowly, taking care with his shoulder wound and her bruised stomach from where Green had hit her. When Royce saw the purple discolored flesh, he felt a rush of rage and protectiveness towards her. He kissed her gently, kneeling and kissing her breasts and stomach where she'd been struck.