Cocking his head to one side, he listened for the exact moment to strike.
Wet splatters hit the fake tile flooring less than ten feet away. The bullet to the cashier’s head had killed him instantly. The hot breeze blew the smell of the copper-scented liquid into his mouth and lungs. Taigen automatically held his breath.
Off to his right, near the store’s entrance and now-broken window, glass crunched under a heavy footstep. “Now.”
Torrhent bolted to her feet, lunging toward the truck as Taigen straightened. He turned his back on her, weapon aimed at the target following her with his scope. Without a second thought, Taigen pulled the trigger, embedding a bullet straight between the dark-haired shooter’s eyes.
He ducked as another round of shots made bags of food and drinks explode around him and slammed his back against the brick. The whine of the pickup’s engine filled his ears but didn’t drown out the sound of the automatic weapon unloading in his direction.
She made it
. Bullets slammed into the brick over his head, dislodging shrapnel onto the asphalt. With a quick assessment of the direction the bullets had come from, Taigen surmised he had about a ten-second window to make it to the truck before the shooter got a good shot.
He glanced toward the truck. Torrhent wasn’t visible, which meant she’d either ducked out of harm’s way or been hit with a stray. Praying to God the former was true, he found he didn’t have the focus he needed to worry about her and the shooter. Taigen convinced himself Torrhent knew what to do in either situation and gripped his weapon harder.
The bullets stopped, the shooter presumably reloading. The instant silence descended, Taigen ran for the truck at full speed. The metal in his chest protested violently, taking the breath from his lungs as it bit into the soft flesh around the wound. He caught a glimpse of Torrhent on the floor of the truck and climbed inside. Slamming the door shut, he put the truck in gear and floored the accelerator.
The small window behind their heads shattered.
“Stay down!” The rain of bullet fire drowned out his words as the truck swung out of the parking lot and leveled out on the highway. Taigen didn’t slow, even when they’d put more than five miles between them and the store. “Are you okay?”
“Fine.” Torrhent crawled up into her seat, pointing at his shoulder. “You’re bleeding.”
He surveyed the damage. Minimal. Most likely from a falling piece of brick. The adrenaline in his system refused to dissipate. “It’s nothing.”
He inhaled slowly to calm his racing heart. When he was wound up like this, he usually let off steam with his favorite dancers from the strip club, but those times were over. He pushed away thoughts of what he wanted to do to Torrhent right here in the truck. No time for pleasure. Besides, with a body like hers, he’d probably break her with how much energy vibrated through his hands alone. Despite his brain saying no, other parts of his body said yes.
“Were those friends of yours?” She reached toward her feet and came up with two squished, wrapped sandwiches. Handing him one, Torrhent studied him, her eyes narrowing in curiosity. The weight of her gaze settled on him like a stack of bricks. “I didn’t recognize them.”
“I did.” Taigen checked the rearview mirror for the hundredth time to ensure they hadn’t been followed. Gripping the steering wheel harder, he tried to ignore the moans escaping Torrhent’s mouth as she ate. He held back a laugh. “I take it this is the first sandwich you’ve had in a while?”
She covered her mouth with a free hand. “Sorry. Prison food isn’t exactly the best in the world.”
He shoved half of his sandwich into his mouth in one bite. Every movement she made fascinated him, but he couldn’t explain why. He’d had lovers, dozens, but none of them compared to Torrhent Lynd. Maybe it was the “wanted” factor or the fact she’d remained calm in a storm of gunfire. She’d shown him a side she’d hidden from even herself and Taigen would never forget it, or her, when this was over.
“So who were those guys?” she asked around a mouthful of food.
“I think the second shooter was your forger.”
“Aaron? Why the hell would he—” Torrhent dropped her hands into her lap, still holding the sandwich. Shaking her head in disbelief, she scoffed. “Son of a bitch. He’s one of Isaac’s.”
“So it seems.”
“I can’t believe I didn’t see it before.” She took another bite.
Taigen needed her to keep her mind in the game. “He most likely followed us from the pawnshop.”
“But why? I know Isaac wants me dead, but why would Aaron take out the competition? It doesn’t make sense unless there was a price on my head . . . Oh.”
His stomach twisted with the realization. It’d been a possibility in the back of his mind since teaming up with Isaac Rutler’s stepdaughter, but he hadn’t given the bounty another thought with keeping Torrhent alive as his priority.
“How much do you think I’m worth?”
“I’ll make a call when we stop for the night.” His thoughts drifted as silence ended their conversation. Rutler had his sister. The past indicated the why, but not the how. Adelaide lived to kill. She was good at it, enjoyed it, and Taigen saw the draw she presented, but this time she’d gone too far. Flashes of her victims’ faces crossed his mind, too many to count. Men, women, one child. A girl still holding her teddy bear.
He shuddered from the memory.
The crime scenes he’d studied told him exactly what he had to do once he found his twin, but Taigen didn’t know if he could put a bullet in his own sister’s head. He wiped his face with the back of his hand, surprised his sorrow had escaped in liquid form.
Torrhent’s attention focused on him and it sent a shiver down his spine. He’d never broken down in his life, never once gave an outsider a look at the devastation within. People like him wanted as little attention as possible from their targets, especially at times like this, but Taigen hungered for more from the woman beside him.
“I’m sure she’s okay.” She used the pad of her thumb to wipe away his grief. “Isaac obviously needs her for something or he would have killed her already.”
Taigen didn’t answer. He couldn’t tell her that no matter how physically intact his twin was, she’d brought death to hundreds of families for pure enjoyment, that she didn’t deserve to live. The sky matched his mood, darkening every passing second as he imagined what he’d find in New York.
* * *
He’s in love
. Torrhent deflated at the idea, but refused to acknowledge why. She pushed aside her desire to comfort him and cleared her throat twice before asking, “Who is she?”
Taigen gripped the steering wheel tighter and she cringed. There was so much strength in those hands and she’d witnessed what they could do. His jaw tightened. “My sister.”
“It’s fine.” He didn’t go on and they sank into uncomfortable silence. The desert passed in a whirl of gray and black, tints of color lost to the moon. She’d obviously stepped into forbidden territory, but relaxed at his revelation. Isaac had his sister.
“She’s been missing for two years.”
Torrhent turned back in time to see his face soften and her heart went out to him. Losing a loved one, in any circumstance, tore lives apart, but Taigen’s pain far outweighed her own. She’d dealt with the loss of her mother. She’d had a chance to say good-bye. Taigen didn’t. “I had no idea.”
He shrugged then cleared his throat, the sound barely audible over the vibration of the tires against the pavement. “Men like Isaac Rutler have used her for years. When she disappeared, I thought she’d finally have a chance to live her own life, away from sedatives, shock therapy, people who wanted to control her. I was mad she left, but I understood. Turns out she just became a bigger target.”
“Used her for what? What does my stepfather want her for?”
Taigen didn’t answer right away. The wind coming through the shattered back window ruffled the sleeve of his T-shirt and drew Torrhent’s attention to the designs slithering down his arms. The letters USN engraved into an anchor with a skull mounted to the top lay over the tribal streaks running from bicep to fingers. His skin looked soft despite several small, white-lined scars decorating his forearms.
“If there’s one talent she has that people want, it’s killing people.”
His words ripped her back into reality. “Oh my God.”
“She was kidnapped by the Vicente drug cartel when we were seven. The things they made her do . . .” Taigen’s breath shuddered on a slow inhale. “They broke her mind. She can’t control herself. She doesn’t know what she’s doing and I’m the only one who can help her.”
“How do you help someone like that?” The words left her lips as a whisper, but he’d heard her. Taigen wouldn’t meet her gaze, his eyes distant, and Torrhent realized exactly what he planned to do once they reached New York. “You’re going to kill her.”
“It’s the only way I can help.” Taigen’s voice broke on the last word. “I tried once before. I thought it’d be easy, but when I held the knife to her throat, I froze. So instead, I stayed with her. I supported her on jobs and I never left her side until two years ago.”
“What happened two years ago?”
Taigen finally met her gaze, his expression shut down as if reliving a horrible memory. “She killed me.”
Chapter 9
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Isaac led his new recruit around the ring. Adelaide trailed her slender fingers over the ropes, bruises already formed along her hands from the night before.
Devon had been a hard one to break, but his new fighter had lived up to her reputation perfectly. Now, all Isaac needed to do was convince her to stay. It wouldn’t be difficult from the look in his little monster’s eyes. She’d enjoyed torturing Devon and he’d retrieved what belonged to him because of her.
Nicholas tested the ropes lightly, but the movement didn’t seem to bother her.
Thousands of fights had been won and lost in this ring, and with Adelaide Banvard at his side, he’d never lose again. He swung himself around in front of her, leaning against the ropes as she eyed them with a mixture of disdain and curiosity. He’d only heard rumors of her past and idly wondered how someone who’d taken so many lives slept at night. The Mexican cartel who’d kidnapped her all those years ago had clearly underestimated her. But Isaac wouldn’t. He knew exactly what she’d become and would use her to get everything he deserved: power, safety, revenge.
No one would dare take from him again, and with Adelaide, he’d ensure it.
“Nicholas is my usual fighter, but as you can see”—he motioned to his bodyguard’s leg—“his injury is more prolonged than we thought.” Isaac didn’t hold back the disappointment in his voice. Nicholas had been his best asset at one point, but those times were over and the bodyguard had paid for his carelessness with his leg.
Charlie would still be alive if it weren’t for Nicholas’s failure.
“I think you and I can do great things together.” Adelaide had solved his problem with a thief. Now, he owed her a favor. Isaac reached into his jacket pocket and smiled when Adelaide stepped back. “Don’t worry, Ms. Banvard. You will never have to fear me.
“As a thank-you.” He stepped forward, removing the syringe filled with clear liquid from his breast pocket, and studied her reaction to the sedative she’d once depended on so fully. It was a small thing, but full of so much power. It’d taken two long months to get the recipe out of her former employer. With small offers came trust, and he wasn’t about to give his new bodyguard a reason to turn on him. “The first one’s free.”
Isaac moved in closer, her breath warming his lips. “But if you want more, you have to fight for it.”
Her emerald eyes locked on to the syringe, her face void of any expression. Adelaide’s fingers twitched, like an anxious tic, and Isaac realized it’d been more than twelve hours since he’d allowed her any kind of release. Urges like hers constantly simmered beneath the surface until suddenly boiling over the edge and demolishing everything in their path. That passion presented itself in the bodies she’d left for him to follow across the Atlantic, a message signaling her existence for him to decipher.
The woman he’d sought for more than two years stood in front of him, made into the monster she was by a series of events, perhaps just for him, just for this moment in time. “Fractured” is what therapists called someone like her. He preferred the term “morally detached.”
“I know what you crave, Adelaide, and I’m willing to give it to you, but only on one condition: I want your loyalty. Give yourself to me one hundred percent and you can have all the victims you desire.”
Adelaide’s lips parted slightly, her eyes widening in pleasurable surprise as she clenched her hands into fists.
He imagined the thoughts running through her head, the possibilities, and smiled at her reaction. “Then I believe we have a deal.”
Two men entering the gym caught Isaac’s attention. His gaze flickered toward them. He turned toward his guests, arms open in invitation. “Councilman Keller. Right on time.”
His rival approached cautiously, Keller’s personal bodyguard tagging along. “Isaac.”
They shook hands, Isaac towering over the shorter man by more than a foot. Keller’s casual shake, mixed with the gloating grin plastered on his face and his position on the council, sent fire straight through Isaac’s limbs.
“Have you come to your senses after all?”
“Not exactly.” Isaac sidestepped the new addition to his roster. “Your hostile takeover will have to wait.”
“If not to surrender your worthless fighters, then what did you ask me here for?” Keller’s thick Mexican accent made his words more intimidating, but Isaac had stood up to men like Keller his entire life. And won. “There’s nothing you can do to prevent it, my friend. Even with Yanez’s death, you will not rise to commissioner. The council will not allow it with the allegations against you.”
Keller took a step forward, his expression playful, but his tone serious. “You did not have anything to do with that, did you?”
“I think you already know the answer to that.”
“Well, if you killed him like the rumors say, I would be very concerned for your life.”
“I find that hard to believe.” Men in Keller’s position did not show concern for the competition and neither did Isaac. Underground MMA was an every-man-for-himself business in the truest sense of the word, one he’d become determined to lead. Killing the former commissioner had been the easiest part of his plan thus far. Now, it was time to show the old bastard’s supporters just how much they’d need Isaac Rutler in the upcoming months. The council had procrastinated choosing a replacement for far too long, Keller included.
“Tell me”—the councilman sauntered closer to the ring, fingering the ropes as he walked its length—“is it true what they say about your wife? That our beloved commissioner had her killed because you tried to overthrow him?”
“We are not here to discuss my personal life, Keller.” It took every ounce of control he’d developed over the last two years to keep his expression slack. The anger raging in the center of his chest threatened to explode any second, but Isaac focused on every beat of his heart rather than lashing out.
Nicholas sidled up beside him automatically, tense, ready.
“Then why am I here? Yanez had a lot of supporters. For the rest of the council to find out who murdered him . . . well, that would be bad news for you,
mi amigo
,” Keller said.
“I’m not worried about them anymore. Today I’ve asked you here for a demonstration, and when I’ve finished, you’ll tell the council exactly what you’ve seen.”
“What kind of demonstration?” Keller’s gaze darted from Isaac to Adelaide and back. He closed the distance between him and his bodyguard.
Isaac nodded toward Nicholas. His personal guard moved beside Adelaide then led her into the ring. “I presume you’ve heard of Adelaide Banvard?”
His prized possession slid through the ropes with ease, her body bending in places he hadn’t paid attention to until now. Wren hadn’t been able to control her, but Isaac would. By any means possible.
“Myth,” Keller retorted, but doubt crossed his expression.
Isaac nodded toward the small woman in the center of the ring. “
I
found her.”
“What is this, Isaac? A game? You brought me down here to watch a woman fight and for what?” Keller chuckled, facing Isaac head-on. “You’re desperate and broke. Your fighters don’t respect you and neither does the council. That is why you lose, my friend. Better for you to end this now. Give me your fighters and retire with the small amount of dignity you have left.”
“And if the myth is true?”
“You’re delirious and I won’t have anything to do with your hallucination.” The councilman pivoted on his heel, striding toward the exit. “Roman, bring the car around. Fucking waste of my time.”
“Would you care to make it interesting, Councilman?” Isaac called out.
Keller stopped halfway to the exit and turned back around. “You owe me over fifty thousand already. You do not have more to lose.”
“If your fighter wins, I’ll let you take over my franchise, but if she wins”—he nodded toward Adelaide, who stared at the ceiling blankly—“I keep my fighters, my debt disappears,
and
you vouch for me as commissioner.”
Keller was slow to consider the offer.
“You have nothing to lose,” Isaac reminded him, and neither did he. Nothing would stop him from taking the commissioner seat, especially the lowest-ranking councilman of the organization. If Keller didn’t work out, he’d move on to the next and then the next, working his way through the entire council if he had to. He deserved their respect, fought for it in the ring when he was younger and behind a desk as a manager.
“All of your fighters?” Keller’s gazed roamed over the small woman waiting in the ring then over his shoulder to his personal bodyguard. Narrowing his eyes, Isaac’s rival smiled. “Including Nicholas?”
Isaac inhaled slowly. If Adelaide proved to be as valuable as he believed, he had nothing to worry about, but if not . . . “Yes.”
Keller nodded. “Roman, get in the ring.”
A smile crawled across Isaac’s face. He’d been waiting for this moment for over two years. Victory hung just out of reach and all he needed was a hundred-and-ten-pound woman to kill a Russian bodyguard twice her size.
They shook hands once again, sealing the deal, and took their positions on opposite corners of the ring.
“Shall we say anything goes?” Isaac leaned against the ropes.
“Anything less and I’d suspect you were up to something,” Keller answered.
“Good.”
Adelaide rolled her neck, popping more cavities than Isaac thought possible. The action set the tone for the next few minutes and nothing would convince him she wasn’t going to take the fight seriously. Her green eyes lightened at the sight of her opponent and Isaac gripped the ropes hard.
It wasn’t fear coming from her gaze.
It was hunger.
Things are about to get bloody.
He took a step back to save his suit.
The monster was about to be set free.
Roman smiled, his missing teeth broadcasting his recklessness over the years. The six-foot-six Russian giant weighed in at more than twice her weight, a formidable opponent, but not one she couldn’t beat if the rumors were true.
Silent tension descended on the mat as the fighters assessed one another.
“Begin,” Isaac announced.
Roman lunged forward.
Only by keeping a constant watch on her did Isaac realize just how fast Adelaide Banvard was. Perfectly still one moment, fists colliding with Roman’s pressure points in the next, Isaac’s new toy easily outmaneuvered her opponent. The lucky hits to her face and sternum did nothing to slow her, and Roman would go down fast.
“What are you doing!” Keller screamed as if he were coming undone at the seams. “Get up! She is a
woman
for God’s sake!”
Isaac studied his competitor with a smile and intense pleasure. “Looks like the myth is true,
mi amigo
.”
The fight hadn’t ended, yet fresh blood hit the stained mat in sloppy droplets in regular intervals as Roman shuffled to stay on his feet.
Keller raced around the ring, his hands fisting in Isaac’s collared shirt.
Nicholas intervened and pulled the Mexican back by the throat.
“This is a fucking setup! The deal is off!” Keller tried to wrestle out of Nicholas’s hold, but in vain.
Isaac sauntered toward him, straightening his shirt carefully. He tightened the tie at his throat and smoothed it over as he glanced back into the ring.
Adelaide’s fists and legs swung into the points that caused the most damage on the human body and Roman went down. Hard. Blood exploded from the fighter’s nose and mouth across the mat and dripped from Adelaide’s hands as she stared down at him.
Face flat on the mat, Roman lay motionless.
Isaac closed his eyes, reveling in the victory. For the first time since Charlie’s murder, the feeling of safety washed over him. The war outside his door raged on, but with Adelaide at his side nobody, least of all the council, would touch him again. He held on to the moment as long as he could then locked gazes with Councilman Keller.
“How—Where did you find her?” Keller’s voice shook, sending another jolt of pleasure down Isaac’s spine.
“The deal is still on, Councilman.” He reached inside his jacket pocket and extracted a white handkerchief. “My debt to you is cleared. Now you will go back to the council and tell them your new position on voting me in as commissioner.”
Adelaide appeared at his side, lips bleeding, skin torn, but eyes bright. She studied the cuts and bruises she’d accrued on her hands with a look of wonder on her face. She’d visibly enjoyed herself.
He offered her the handkerchief, taking in her steady hands and lithe movements.
The plunge back into madness hadn’t affected her at all. Adelaide Banvard, schizophrenic assassin, was his.
Isaac faced Keller, enjoying every moment the look of fear danced on his enemy’s features. With a single glance into the ring, he declared Roman dead, most likely from cranial damage. He’d taken Keller’s prized fighter from him, but the councilman had taken so much more than that. “You and the other council members knew about Yanez’s decision to kill my wife, Keller. In fact, if my information is correct, you pushed for Charlie’s death more aggressively than the others. Why is that?”
Up in his face now, Isaac confronted only one of the men who’d taken everything from him, and he wasn’t about to leave the room without answers.
Keller held his ground, pieces of the fighter he’d been as a young man bleeding through. His expression hardened, shoulders sinking slightly. “Your information is wrong.”
Isaac nodded absently. “We’re going to discuss a new deal. You will keep your end by vouching for me as commissioner
and
you’re going to give me all of your fighters.” He smiled, knowing just what this meant for his brand and how much money he’d make with one of the most talented franchised fighters in his control.
“That wasn’t the deal, Rutler! It’s an outrage!” Keller tried to wrench himself out of Nicholas’s grip. “You won’t get away with any of this and I’ll never vouch for you.”