Hard Case V: Blood and Fear (A John Harding Novel Book 5) (31 page)

“I’ll talk! I’ll talk! What… anything… what is it you want?” He sobbed convincingly through his guarantee to tell us everything. Then Gus, Lucas, and Casey held him in place while I gave him a ten second refresher course with the propane torch on his stump.

“Sorry, Yuri, I thought I saw a little more blood seeping out,” I apologized as Kornev hit a high noted scream I don’t think has ever been heard before. “Okay… I think I got it. Now I want to know where that Phoebe Christova bitch is. If I don’t find out in the next thirty seconds, I’m going to roast your balls in five second intervals until I do.”

We listened then, because nothing could shut Yuri up short of a bullet in the brain. If everything with Lynn was okay, I bet I’d get a laugh from this session when I related my off the cuff method. After about forty-five minutes with Denny recording directly to our IT wing of the monster squad, and them lighting our vast internet starship of information on fire, he gave me the cut sign. I then broke Yuri’s neck with a violent but heartfelt twist, making him look like he was auditioning for the part in an ‘Exorcist’ remake where the kid turns her head a hundred and eighty degrees around. I did it with feeling, having wanted to since the first moment I laid eyes on the creepy son-of-a-bitch.

“Well, damn. Took this a bit on the personal level, did we?” Yeah, Casey noticed.

I ignored him and the general amusement from my other companions. “Do we need to secure the property, or move on this now, Denny?”

“If Christova slipped by the force I have in play right now, nothing we do will help. Yuri didn’t know how she would leave, or her route to Lagos. That she would go there answers a few questions I admit didn’t come into play before. I think we can agree she owns some high end power in Nigeria. She’ll also be calculating ways to take us out of her picture here on the West Coast since we moved fast enough to screw her. Our Phoebe will be thinking she’s safe in the Lagos home port. She doesn’t know we now have her on our radar. I know we have assets in Nigeria. We’ll monitor her until we can get the Sea Wolf EMP shielded and ready to go.”

Denny didn’t like the subsequent silence at his declaration. “What?”

“That’s a lot of ifs, ands, and buts unspoken in there, Denny,” Casey was the first to say. “You have the part where she’ll be spending the equivalent of a small country’s gross national product to have us killed, right… probably nuked from orbit? If we wait around until the stars align in the sky for this, we may as well shoot ourselves in the head.”

“We still have the leak in our own hierarchy to deal with,” Lucas added.

I put in my bit then, because I agreed, but I knew instinctively Denny couldn’t do a damn thing instantly. “If Laredo or Jafar find out who we need to seal in the leak department, it will make any movement on Christova overseas safer. We’ll need the Sea Wolf. Any other plan will be broadcasting intent unless we did it through military channels, which is also a bad idea. We can get Alexi to ship the Sea Wolf to a neutral port in another country like nearby Ghana. I know they have a deep water port in Takoradi. Then we can sail an intercept course with the yacht Yuri says is her mother-ship in Nigeria. I hope he’s right about the location she lays low in.”

“Good one,” Denny said. “That would indeed keep us off everyone’s radar if Alexi would agree to move the Sea Wolf for us. Yuri’s claim she has a love/hate relationship with the Nigerians would make it easier for any assets I can move into place to track whether she’s on her yacht or not. As John pointed out, we have to get the one she’s contacting in our own circles before we risk a mission on the open seas. I’m sorry, but we have to bide our time until we get the targets. Let’s get the hell out of here, and go see how Crue and Clint are doing.”

“I pray to God they have people real good working on her,” Lucas said. “If something happens to her, Clint will be an unknown factor.”

“Agreed,” Denny said. “Let’s hope we get there in time either way it goes. We can’t afford to lose either one of them, and losing both would damn near close us down for the time being. That mix can’t be duplicated. Let’s spread out, grab anything looking even remotely interesting. The train pulls out of the station in ten minutes.”

* * *

Clint stared at the tiny thing in the incubator with fear. His heart pounded like nothing he had ever experienced. He had done things without raising his pulse that would have caused cardiac arrest in most normal people. The sight of this microscopic human being with a wisp of hair threatened to tear his heart out. Clint accepted with a smile the label monster squad for both he and Lynn. With any predatory force on earth, he knew the challenge of winning with Lynn at his side would be negligible. They reveled in being two of the most dangerous human beings on earth. They would kill, torture, maim, or dangle in a purgatory of hell anyone getting in the way of their mission. Here was a mission he could do nothing to achieve other than wait and watch. His fists tightened involuntarily as mayhem seeped into his mind. He turned away, needing Lynn as his stanchion against the darkness.

* * *

Lynn perceived her surroundings in blurred form. Her first thought was she had been captured, and her captors stupidly left her unrestrained. Reality flowed over her in a slow wave of anticipated killing to helpless confusion. She recognized the parameters of what she had done on a step by step meeting with the unknown. Lynn gripped the rails of her bed with white knuckled intensity, every nightmarish outcome flashing into her consciousness. Recognizing she had an IV inserted, and numerous diagnostic patches attached from surrounding machines gave her pause for only a few seconds. As she reached for the first thing to pluck off of her, Clint streaked into her room with fear highlighting his features for the first time she had ever seen. It shocked her into immobility. He clutched her hand while kneeling next to the bed, kissing it with reverence, and something beyond Lynn’s grasp for a moment. Then light shone on a darkened landscape. He needed her.

“I’m here, baby.” Lynn said. “How are we doin’, Cowboy?”

Clint buried his face in her hand, obviously fighting off never before felt emotions threatening to unmask him as a normal human being. Lynn watched him take hold of reality in a slow reckoning, a recognition she adored about him. Her mate didn’t cry out in helpless anguish or fall into a fetal withdrawal on the floor. It was not in his nature or hers. Clint planted a final kiss on her hand, looking into her eyes without wavering.

“He’s okay right now. They have him in an incubator for warmth. He carries monster genes, so I don’t want you to worry. I didn’t think you’d wake this soon. I should have known better. I love you so much it makes me feel like one of those clowns doing romance movies on the Lifetime Channel.”

Lynn giggled with a rasp, the tube inserts in her nose making their drying presence known. “Can you take me to see him?”

Clint stood with a mission in hand. “Thy will be done, babe, even if I have to decimate the population of the hospital to see it done.”

Lynn’s brows furrowed. “Don’t you dare touch anyone inappropriately, Clint Dostiene! I’m certain a simple request, and a few hoops I might have to go through will be the extent of what we need to do.”

Clint’s eyes welled up. He grasped her hand in both his while kissing her on the forehead. “You have my word on it.” Clint was at peace with the second lie he gave during the visit. He grinned while enfolding Lynn in his arms. Anyone trying to prevent his mission completion had better have kissed all their loved ones before leaving home.

* * *

All members of the monster squad waited in the designated area, drawing looks probably never seen by regular visitors. They jutted to their feet as one when spotting Clint walking toward them. The monster squad knew better than to speak or slice into Clint’s approach with stupid questions, and whining for knowledge. We stood stolidly, hoping and praying for the best. Outward rending of clothes and shrill screaming in anguish would not be demonstrated by us. We didn’t need to convince anyone of our caring for the public to see.

“Lynn is fine, and will be able to see little Clint in a couple hours. He’s in an incubator for preemies right now, but Maria’s obstetricians like his improvements. It’s good to see you all.”

We greeted his news in true monster squad form, by swarming him with relief. We killed and tortured without mercy, but we’re kind of needy when it comes to loved ones. Crue was one of us, and there are only a handful.

“I’ve had the area around your house sterilized, and Amara is with Maria and Dannie at our place, Clint. Dannie brought Tonto with her, because I didn’t know how long you’d be tied up here.” Denny paused for a moment as if uncertain how to go on. “Anyway, Maria let me know we’re building an obstetrics wing into your house, complete with everything they have here, and a few extras her obstetricians noted down. They will be in rotating attendance, and on call, so you and Lynn can bring the baby home right away when all is safely stabilized. I have people working on it right now, gathering what’s needed.”

Clint grabbed Denny by the shoulders. “Damn… I don’t know what to say. I-”

Denny waved him off. “It’s a small thing, brother. We have the money, and when Laredo finishes confiscating Yuri’s holdings, we’ll have even more. Maria thought it all out. I’m putting her plan into effect. Thank God you have all the security in place, and didn’t walk into a trap. We’re on this, Clint. Laredo’s looking for an island retreat too.”

“Damn right, brother,” Laredo confirmed. “I have a few possibilities. When we seal that bitch Christova’s fate, we’ll have the assets to do anything we want.”

“C’mon then,” Clint urged, releasing Denny. “I’ll take you in to see Lynn. She’s barely out of recovery, and already steaming to get into a wheelchair for a Clint Jr. visit. I’ll let her know the good news on the hospital wing edition to our house later. She’ll flip. They can’t allow her in the wheelchair yet, but it will be soon. A visit from the gang may take her mind off ripping the IV’s off, and running down the corridor.”

“Are you sure it’s safe for us to see her?” Jesse was getting anxious, and funny. “She gutted a guy, and popped the other in the head on her way down. There’s no tellin’ what she’ll do with all of us in the same room with her. They took her butterfly knife off her, right Clint?”

Needless to say, Clint enjoyed Jesse Brown’s take on the visit as he guided us down the hall as did we all. Lynn was sitting up in the bed. She had a private room, if not for money, then for the sake of safety for the rest of the hospital. I smiled when meeting her eyes. I knew they’d put her under for the operation, but it looked to me as if she had completely obliterated the anesthetic, the operation, and all other aspects of everything in the hours since taking the lives of two men. Yep, she was a monster to be held in awe. Her minions ran to her side, heads lowered comically by plan I’m sure, with hands palms up. It was hilarious, and Lynn absorbed it with grinning acknowledgement.

“Awwww… so sweet,” she cooed. “My minions all here with me in this special moment. Okay… I see uneasiness in Jess’s face, weirdness in everyone else’s… except for Samira. What’s wrong, my young disciple?”

The minions had gotten off their knees, clasping Lynn’s hand with big smiles as they moved away. Samira hesitantly walked forward, very pregnant with Jafar’s baby, and obviously concerned for Lynn’s welfare, but also fearing in a mother’s way for her own child’s eventual delivery.

“I am so sorry about your complications, Lynn. Did you have any indication something was wrong?”

Lynn shook her head. “Nope. I lost it after I put the Uzi burst through the second guy’s head. I faded. Buck up, kid. You’re young. Everything will be fine with your baby. I’m older. Everything that can go wrong usually does with us non-teenagers. I’m glad for the visit. It softens my baser tendencies to allow Clint to wreck mayhem on the hospital until I am in the same room with my son. Believe me, it has not been easy to keep my husband from a rampage. He only thinks I don’t know what he’s thinking.”

“In my defense,” Clint said amidst more hilarity, “I wished also to see my wife with her son. Those brainwaves may have set off a stranger protection gene in my wife, where she pretends to care one way or another about the human sheep around us. My bad.”

“Get the fear of death off your features, Sam,” Lynn said finally. “We still don’t know what will happen, and yet here we are, all laughing like hell. It’s a moment to moment world, kid. Enjoy the good ones, and we’ll stick together through the bad ones. I hate to break this up, but I have to take a short nap before my designated meeting time with my younger Clint. He’s mildly in trouble, but his Dad and Mom are at the scene. Now go on home and get some rest. I’m sure it will be needed if we are to kill every bastard involved in this assault on a poor innocent pregnant woman.”

Samira hugged her, stifling the tears and fears in the presence of her mentor. “You are an inspiration… an evil, killing one, but still an inspiration.”

“And don’t you forget it. Now, out of my room. Leave the man from nowhere with me for comfort’s sake. If I need an intervention for my beloved if he starts going off the deep end during this trying time, I will text you.”

We exited the room with waves at our monster squad torturing department. Once outside Lynn’s room, we monsters met for a brief period to divvy responsibilities. I had already called Lora to let her know my plan, so she and Al would be staying in the safe-room for the night. “I’ll take first watch tonight. I’ll go until 8 am.”