EDGE OF NIGHT

by Rae Morgan, Emma Sinclair, Sherrill Quinn

  Kai swore under his breath then turned back to the monitors. Nothing showing on the south where the docks were located, and the house perimeter cameras also showed nothing.

  “Tell Sam you’ll be there to help him ASAP.” He turned to Sian and Mandy. “Mandy, you’re on Sian. I have some tricks up my sleeve to help the guys contain the attackers, but I need you to secure the house.”

  “No problem.” Mandy’s face was a picture of calm competence.

  “Take Mandy with you,” Sian said. “I’ll be safe in the house. It’s like a fortress. And there’s always the safe room you showed me.”

  Kai hesitated. She was correct. Without the codes, anyone attempting to get into the house would get a shocking surprise—and then some. And the safe room was bullet and bomb proof. Four people could live inside it for weeks.

  He was pissed that he’d underestimated the amount of assistance the younger Brucchi could scrape up. Obviously, old Tony had already had his own little army set up, probably non-family members, mercenaries who would do anything for money. He bet old Mario never realized just how treacherous the viper was in his midst. Or, maybe the elder Brucchi had and was relieved that someone else had offered to handle the situation for him.

  “Fine. Mandy, you go to Sam on the east side. Derek, you go cover Dan’s position and be ready to back up Jack and Dan, if they need it. I’ll coordinate my defense mechanisms in the field. Stay in radio contact and when I say go to ground, do it.” He pulled Sian into his arms and kissed her forehead. “Remember, no one should be able to get in. No one has the code but me—and you. My people know where the hidey-holes are on the island and they can hole up until the coast is clear. They will not approach this house until I give the go-ahead. Anyone attempts to gain forced entry, go to the safe room and radio me. Okay?”

  “Okay,” Sian said, a brave smile fixed on her face. “Now go. I’ll be fine.”

  Kai grabbed her again and kissed her on the lips. Hard. “I love you, Sian York.”

  Then he raced out after Mandy and Derek.

  Chapter Eight

  Ten. Twenty. Thirty minutes passed.

  Sian monitored the coded transmissions on the radio receiver that Kai had set to roving frequencies. She only understood about one in ten words. The sound of weapons fire and explosions needed no translation. It was a war zone out there. At least they were all alive—for now.

  She stared toward the south side of the island, now lit up like a football stadium on Monday Night Football. Nothing moved except the waves hitting the shore and the trees in the wind. Walking to the back of the house and into Kai’s office, she scrutinized the perimeter camera images on the monitors. She sought signs of movement. There was nothing. Just a wild night of weather. The wind whipped up the fine snow and created a blizzard effect. It was a horrible night for fighting outdoors. But when was it ever a good night to make war?

  Movement just outside the lighted area of the yard caught her attention. The snow and the shadows blurred her view, but two figures seemed to be approaching the house from the steps leading down to the dock. It looked as if one of the figures was supporting the other. Who was hurt? Was it Kai? One of his people? Wouldn’t he have called her? Warned her?

  She listened to the radio. All male voices. Was Mandy hurt?

  She strained to make out the faces as they finally came fully into the light.

  God! No! It was Mandy—and Tony Brucchi.

  Brucchi had one of Mandy’s arms twisted behind her back and held a knife to her throat. As the figures came into closer range, Sian could see blood all over the front of Mandy’s white snow gear. The female agent’s eyes were closed.

  Sian got the impression that only pure grit was keeping Mandy on her feet.

  What should she do?

  Kai had wanted Sian to go to the safe room, but she knew Tony Brucchi. Mandy’s life was worth less than nothing to him. He would use the agent as a tool to get to her. Sian knew that as well as she knew her real name.

  But Sian couldn’t allow another person to be killed like an animal on her watch. Calvecchio and Bill were already large blots on her soul.

  Sian ran to the radio set and clicked the red button that Kai had used to talk to his men when setting up the perimeter defenses.

  “Kai! Kai!”

  “Sian. What is it, baby?” Kai’s voice was calm as if there weren’t gunfire and hell breaking loose in the background.

  “Brucchi’s outside.”

  “Go to the safe room. I’m on my way.” Kai’s terse instructions brooked no opposition.

  “I can’t.” Sian choked back the sob that threatened to strangle her. “He’s got Mandy—and she’s hurt. Bleeding. He’ll kill her.”

  “Fuck! Baby, you’ve got to stall him. For as long as you can.” Kai paused. “Derek, what’s your sit rep?”

  “We’re still cleaning up. Two or three holdouts. Jack and Dan can hold them. I’m on my way.”

  “Baby, which door is Brucchi at?”

  “The front.”

  “Okay, Derek. Head east, skirt around Sam, then head for the dock and come up to the mudroom door. Code is 56XR.” Kai paused. “Baby, buy us ten minutes.”

  “I’ll try ... but he isn’t easily stalled. I can’t ... can’t let him kill her.”

  “I know, darling. Just do anything you can—short of letting him inside. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

  “Which way are you coming?”

  Sian pictured the island topography as explained to her by Kai when they’d arrived. If Kai had gone to the west side to check on Dan’s old position, he would have to take a long way around along a rugged coast line. At least Derek had a path of sorts through more meadow-like terrain from the north and east. The snow would slow both men considerably.

  “Over the top, baby. Over the top.” Kai paused. “Whatever you see. Whatever happens. Know that I love you and that you make me whole. Don’t be afraid of me.”

  “I could never be afraid of you. I love you.”

  “Just remember that later. Use one of the extra radios I left on the desk. Set it to green. I need to hear what’s going on at all times.”

  “Okay. Good luck—be safe.” And hurry, Sian thought.

  Kai clicked off. She picked up one of the ear pieces then took its companion receiver and clipped it inside of her shirt to her bra. Kai and his men would have inside audio for as long as she could provide it. She pushed the green button. She was as ready as she would ever be.

  A pounding on the door indicated that Brucchi had finally arrived. It was show time.

  Running to the front door, she flipped on the intercom and eyed the man and woman on the small door-side security monitor. “Let her go, Tony.”

  Brucchi sneered at the camera. “Let me in, bitch. Or, I’ll start cutting off appendages until you do.”

  “He’s going to kill me any...”

  Mandy’s words were cut off when Brucchi sliced the side of Mandy’s face. Blood welled then flowed freely down Mandy’s cheek and joined the blood on the front of her snowsuit.

  Sian gasped and felt like throwing up. But Mandy merely winced and said nothing.

  She had to stall. Mandy’s life would be forfeit as soon as the door was opened. She had to stall—and think. Come up with another plan to buy more time for both of them until Kai and Derek arrived.

  “She’s right, Tony,” Sian managed to say through gritted teeth. “You’re gonna kill her anyway. Why should I make it easy for you to kill me, too?” Sian paused for effect, hoping she sounded cool and collected and not like the frightened woman she really was. “Kai has this place built to withstand Armageddon. You’ll never get in. Never. So, we have a stand-off.”

  “Think you’re pretty smart, dontcha?” An ugly smile spread across the lowlife’s face. “But I know you, Jane or Sian or whatever in the hell they call you now. You’re too good and nice...” He made the word “nice” sound like something bad or dirty. “...to let this pretty lady be sliced a
nd diced into little pieces. You would’ve tried to save Calvechio if you’d been in a position to do so. So, I think I’m gonna call your bluff.” He swept the blunt side of the knife along Mandy’s throat. “I’ll count to ten—give you a sporting chance to disarm whatever booby traps the bastard put on this place. If I don’t see the security lights flash to disarmed on this nice touch pad here, I’m going to start cutting off body parts on this bitch, beginning with her right ear.”

  He placed the knife at the part in question.

  Sian checked Mandy’s face. The woman mouthed, “Don’t do it.” But Sian knew herself. Brucchi was right that she couldn’t allow Mandy to be hurt. But she also knew Brucchi. He had no intention of letting Mandy live any longer than necessary.

  “One.—Two.—Three...”

  Inspiration struck at number four. Sian raced to the safe room, entered it, and closed the door and locked it from the inside. She could disarm the house’s perimeter security system from here. When Brucchi entered and didn’t see her, he would use Mandy as a hostage and protection for himself until he found her. This was the best she could do. Hopefully, it would allow enough time for the men to get to the house.

  “Tony?” Sian spoke into the intercom. “I’ve disarmed the system. The door is unlocked. Come on in.”

  On the monitor, Sian watched as Brucchi had Mandy open the door. He shoved the injured woman into the room in front of him, maintaining his arm hold on her.

  Brucchi stopped just inside the door, not bothering to close it against the storm. He’d have to let go of Mandy, and he probably realized that could be a deadly mistake. “Where in the fuck are you, Jane?” Brucchi growled. “Stop fucking with me, bitch.”

  “I’m in a safe room,” she said, using the house intercom. “I’ll make a deal with you. Let Mandy come into the safe room, then I’ll come out. An even exchange. You don’t want her. You want me.”

  “What if I just slit the bitch’s throat if you don’t come out?” he countered with a sneer.

  Sian took a deep breath. The next moments could be crucial for Mandy. “If you kill her now, I could just stay in here for weeks. Of course, I won’t have to do that, since even now Kai and his men are on their way here. You’ll be caught. So, what’s it to be? A fair exchange? Or, you losing everything you came here to accomplish—and quite possibly your life?”

  “You fucking slut!” Brucchi slashed Mandy across the same cheek. This time the woman screamed bloody murder.

  “If you hurt her again, the deal is off.” Sian’s heart was in her throat, almost choking her. Her cheek throbbed in empathetic pain.

  “Deal.” Brucchi shoved Mandy forward, following her two steps behind. “But you’ll pay for trying my patience.”

  “Stay further back,” Sian warned. She didn’t want him close enough to pull both women out of the room.

  * * * *

  “Sian.” Kai’s voice whispered close to Sian’s ear.

  Sian whipped around. “Where did...?”

  “Hush, baby. I want you to get to the back of the safe room. Get behind the bed and on the floor.”

  Kai moved to the door and watched the monitor.

  Mandy stalled the best she could, acting weaker than she really was. Standard operating procedure—buy time until your team could back you up. She hand-signaled repeatedly that she could move when needed.

  “Kai?” Sian stood by his side, a worried look in her eyes. “Mandy lost a lot of blood. You’ll need me to distract Brucchi, while you pull her to safety.”

  “See her hands?”

  “Yeah. Looks like some sort of sign language.”

  “She’s signaling that she is ready to move. She knows that I or another member of the team will have entered the safe room through another entrance. She expects help. The fact that you thought to use the room to stall him was a smart move. You did good, baby.” He kissed her cheek. “Now, scoot. And let Mandy and I do our thing.”

  “Love you.” She stood on tip-toe and captured his mouth in a searing kiss that had him aching for more. “Save Mandy.”

  Sian turned to leave, but stopped at the sound of Brucchi’s voice coming over the intercom.

  “Bitch! We’re here. Open the fucking door. Or, I’ll do her and find a way in there.”

  Kai mouthed, “Answer him.”

  “I’m figuring it out. Hold it a second,” Sian shouted into the intercom. Then she ran to the back of the room and dropped out of sight just as Kai had asked.

  Satisfied that she was safe. Kai disarmed the door, hit the automatic opener, and dissolved into his mist form. As he hovered slightly back from the doorway, he gathered energy from the air.

  When the door was a third of the way open, Mandy dove inside, dropped to the floor, then rolled out of his way. Kai covered her motions by darkening his cloud and adding some thunderous sound effects that shook the very foundations of the house.

  Behind him, he sensed Sian crawling to Mandy and helping the injured woman to hide. He couldn’t worry about what she saw. Later, he would have to explain everything.

  “Where are you, bitch?” Brucchi’s voice was close, just outside the wide-open door. “Why is it so dark in there? And what is that fucking noise? Ya think you can hide from me? Scare me into leaving?”

  When only silence met Brucchi’s questions, the mobster took one, then another step forward.

  “Her name is not bitch.” Kai’s voice rumbled like thunder. He allowed some of the energy he’d gathered to escape in the form of small flashes of light among the roiling gaseous molecules that now comprised his form.

  Brucchi stepped back more quickly than he’d moved forward. “What kind of trick is this? You released some sort of poison gas or something? And why the masculine voice? You trying to fool me, bitch?”

  “Her name is not bitch. Or are you hard of hearing?” Kai moved forward at first slowly, then picking up speed until the edge of his mist form just touched Brucchi and kept pace with the man’s backward steps. “Stop. If you go any further, I can’t promise that I’ll be able to control myself. You see...” Kai allowed his voice to reverberate like a series of sequenced small explosions. “You threatened the life of my woman—and harmed one of my agents. I can’t let that go unpunished. It’s up to you whether your death is easy or hard.”

  “My death?” Brucchi stopped, then straightened. He pulled and aimed a gun at Kai’s mist form. “I don’t know how you’re doing what you’re doing. And I’m not sure how you got inside the house, Axton. But I figure you’re just a man in some sort of fog-machine costume or something. Let’s see what my Glock can do.”

  Brucchi fired six bullets into Kai.

  “The hard way it is, then.” Kai roared.

  He moved forward, absorbing extra energy from his surroundings. The rapid drain of power blew the circuits in the house, plunging the interior into darkness. The only light in the room was the orange glow of the battery-powered security lights—and the flashes of lightning emitted from his gaseous form.

  Brucchi screamed. “What the fuck are you? Some freak?” Lightning flashes flickered over the mobster’s terrified face in a strobe-like effect.

  Kai knew what he looked like to Brucchi. Derek had once told him that, in what his agent called “Kai’s-send-them-to-hell-mode,” he looked like a purple-black-blue thunder cloud filled with flashes of lightning and generating cyclonic winds of up to forty miles per hour. A living, breathing, thinking tornado from hell.

  Brucchi finally overcame his paralytic fear enough to run. Kai followed Brucchi, pushing the man along in front of him—out of the bedroom where the safe room entrance was located, through the great room, then out the front door into the snowy night.

  Once outside, Kai let loose the full quota of destructive forces he’d harnessed, sucking Brucchi into his roiling cloud form where the man absorbed over 10,000 volts of electricity. When Kai could detect no further life signs, he ejected Brucchi’s body. It landed over fifty yards away on the side of the hill l
eading to the docks. The mobster’s body was burnt, broken—and definitely dead.

  Kai dissipated the extra energy into the atmosphere, causing a mini blizzard. Then he reformed and walked to the edge of the cliff. He sensed rather than heard Derek’s approach. “Make sure the bastard is dead,” he told his agent. “Then use the trash incinerator and burn him. We’ll let his father know his ashes were scattered somewhere in the U.P.”

  “Got it, boss.” Derek started down the hill, then stopped. “I checked in with Sian. She’s helping Mandy. Dan, Jack, and Sam have eliminated the bogies on the island. What do we do with those bodies? There’s nineteen of ‘em.”

  “Burn them, too. Spread the ashes around the grounds. Another front is coming through. The snow will cover any traces. By Spring, they’ll be fertilizer for the wild flowers.”

  Kai heard Derek relaying the orders to the others as he walked away. His people were good. They had managed damage control many times before in all areas of the world. But the violence had never hit this close to home before. He shook off the fierce anger at Sian being endangered. At Mandy being hurt. It was over. Sian and Mandy were safe.

  He entered the house and shut the door. Obviously, Derek had fixed the circuit breakers, because the lights were on and the heat had begun to take the edge off the chill.

  Kai followed the women’s voices to the guest bedroom where Mandy had put her things. Sian sat on the edge of the bed, supporting Mandy as the female agent injected herself with something from the medical kit that Kai kept for just such emergencies.

  “How is she?” Kai said in a low voice. He avoided Sian’s searching gaze, afraid to see fear of him that she’d seen his freak of nature act.

  “Kai?” Sian said. “Sweetheart, look at me, please.”

  She called him sweetheart. That had to be a good sign.

  Sian’s green eyes were clouded with pained sympathy for Mandy, but he could see no fear in them. Maybe he was seeing what he wanted to see. He had to know how she felt about his preternatural abilities, had to know if she still loved him.