Stone Cold Angel (The Perfect Order Book 2)

by Amy Deason

  Maybe he would have time for both but he’d thought that once before and a woman had ended up dead. Her death had eaten at him for years, the guilt tearing him apart. But this mission was different. It had been from the beginning, he just hadn’t known it until recently.

  Throwing the car into gear, Nikolas whipped the car around, leaving the burning sedan behind him.

  ~ ~ ~

  Cadence heard the door to her room open but she kept her eyes sealed shut. She didn’t want to see whoever was coming through the door this time. Probably Dmitry again. Or maybe Henry. Either way, she was choosing to ignore them. Pretend she was still under whatever they had drugged her with. They couldn’t force her cooperation if she was still out could they?

  “I was hoping she would be awake by now.”

  Dmitry’s voice broke the silence in the room and it took everything she had to keep from reacting to it.

  “Let me check her.”

  A woman’s voice. Swiss by the sound of it.

  Cadence sensed someone stepping closer to the bed. It was harder to remain still this time, especially when all she wanted to do was cringe from the hard touching her hand. Forcing herself to remain limp, she felt the small, delicate fingers grip her wrist, feeling for a pulse.

  Oh shit. There was no way she could fool them now. Not with her heart racing out of control.

  Her arm was replaced by her side only moments before fingers pried open her right eye. It was then that she caught her first blurry glimpse of the woman leaning over her. She was beautiful. Stunning. Absolutely breathtaking. But it was a cold beauty. Harsh and desolate like a frozen tundra. Wide eyes, the color of blue ice, stared at her from behind a pair of black rimmed glasses. Framed by a shoulder length waterfall of golden hair, the woman’s face was flawless.

  Does she even have pores?

  If she did, then they had to be microscopic because Cadence couldn’t see a single one.

  There was no mistaking the intensity in the woman’s eyes as she stared at her, into her. She felt her blood freeze in her veins.

  She was found out. It was only going to get worse from here.

  The ice queen, as Cadence thought of her, released her lid, allowing the eye to slide closed once again. With some crazy sixth sense, Cadence felt the woman turn away from her, completely blocking Dmitry’s view.

  “Her pulse is slow and steady. Her eyes are heavily glazed. She is still fully under,” she heard the woman say as she dropped her arm back onto the bed. “How much sedative did you give her? She’s a girl, for God’s sake, not a horse.”

  What the hell?

  Why was she lying to him? She didn’t have to feel her own pulse to know it was pounding against the thin wall of skin.

  “Damn that Collins,” Dmitry growled. “He said he knew what he was doing.”

  “Well what can you expect? He’s an American.”

  The distaste in the woman’s voice was nearly as thick as her accent.

  “How much longer until she’s awake? I have backers that demand progress.”

  “She is quite unresponsive. I would say two hours, maybe three.”

  “Fuck! This is not what I had in mind when I brought her here.”

  “Then perhaps you should have drugged her yourself instead of relying on Henry Collins. Where is he, by the way?”

  “He left a short while ago. Heading for somewhere warm he said. Damn him. If he was here right now, I would ring his fucking neck.”

  “Calm down, Mr. Lishin. You knew this was a delicate situation. That’s why you brought me here. I will get the girl to talk but I must wait until she is fully conscious.”

  “I trust you will, Dr. Ekstrom. You come highly recommended and I have heard many stories of your past successes in these types of situations.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Alert me as soon as she wakes up.”

  “Of course,” the ice queen murmured.

  Cadence heard the door shut and the sound of locks being slid into place.

  Great. Now she was not only trapped in here but she was stuck with strange, unsettling doctor.

  Remain calm. Maybe she won’t do anything. But then what is the point of her being here? And why lie to Dmitry?

  She felt the bed shift slightly as the doctor knelt beside her. Although she tried, she couldn’t help but shudder as she felt the cool fingers settle on her shoulder.

  “Cadence. I know you’re not asleep,” she whispered, her breath warm against her ear. “I’ve come to help you but we don’t have much time.”

  What a crock of . . .

  Then she noticed that the Swiss accent had disappeared. The doctor now spoke with a heavy French dialect instead.

  I wonder if it is as fake as the Swiss one.

  There was no way for her to know. Everything she knew or thought she had, had been a lie. Her dad’s strange disappearance, Henry’s loyalty, Nikolas . . . What was one more deception added to the mix?

  Fluttering her eyes, Cadence opened them and struggled to pull herself into a sitting position.

  “No, lie still,” the woman demanded. “At least for a while longer. I have to make sure Dmitry doesn’t change his mind and decide to come back early. That would be disastrous. For both of us,” she emphasized.

  Ceasing her movements, Cadence had a sudden need to swallow but her mouth felt as dry as the Sahara Desert. With a drought-cracked tongue, she sought to moisten her lips. They felt like sandpaper.

  “Who are you?” she managed to croak, the words leaving her mouth in a thin, scratchy sound.

  “It doesn’t matter. What matters is both of us getting out of here alive. But I’m going to have to need your cooperation. Can you do that?”

  Cadence had no idea who this woman really was but if she was willing to lie to a man like Dmitry, then she couldn’t be all bad.

  Chapter 31

  The front lawn was immaculate. And empty. Suspiciously so.

  Nikolas was willing to bet everything he owned that the building was not as unprotected as it seemed. The minute he stepped foot through those gates, he would be overtaken.

  With the sun shining brightly, he didn’t have the cover of darkness to shield him from the eyes he knew were watching behind those red brick walls. Fortunately, he wouldn’t be coming through the gates this time. Although his alternative route would be a bit more unpleasant, it was one nobody would think to guard thus giving him perfect access to the interior of Dmitry’s compound.

  Parked three hundred yards to the west of the building’s main entrance, he stood within the shadowy recesses of the tall fir trees, their thick, needle like branches providing a perfect screen from which to observe the structure he was certain Cadence was being held in.

  “What have you got for me?” he asked, the phone tucked securely between his shoulder and his cheek.

  “Well, since you asked so nicely,” Ricki drawled.

  Nikolas could practically see the sarcastic grin on her recently-turned fourteen-year-old face. Despite her punked-out hair in a rainbow of blue, green, purple, and pink and the fact that she looked like she fell out of Darth Vadar’s closet, Ricki Havens was an absolute genius behind a computer screen. A top-notch hacker, her unique skills came into play quite often during many of The Perfect Order’s missions. Being the youngest member of the organization, she was like everyone’s kid sister. One that could bring an entire civilization to its knees with the touch of a finger. Thankfully, she was on their side.

  “I’ve uploaded the blueprints of the abandoned sewer to your phone and the route you’ll want to take. Providing you don’t have any problems, you should be inside the building in ten minutes.”

  “Great. Now what about the rest of it?”

  “Hold your horses. I’m on it,�
�� Ricki said. “Exactly eight minutes after you enter the sewer, I’ll replace the surveillance camera video with old footage. Now,” she continued, “the video I’m feeding into the system will be on a continuous loop. As long as no one looks at it too closely, it should buy you some extra time.”

  “How much time are we talking?”

  “Ten, maybe fifteen minutes. But that’s pushing it.”

  “Thanks, Ricki. I owe you one,” Nikolas replied. Actually truth be told, he owed her about five or six.

  “You know, one of these days, I’m going to expect you to actually pay up,” the teenage girl quipped.

  “That’s what I’m afraid of,” Nikolas muttered good-naturedly.

  Ending the call, he sprinted through the wooded area to a small hill rising out of the ground. Nestled between a pair of trees, a tunnel, lined with brick, was carved deep into the red earth. According to the information Ricki had supplied him with, the mouth of the sewer lay just behind the heavy wooden door.

  Looks more like the entrance to a hobbit house than to a sewer. But I doubt I’m going to find a friendly hairy-footed creature on the other side.

  “Ricki, you better be right about this,” he muttered under his breath.

  With a gun in one hand, Nikolas grasped the crusted metal ring embedded into the wood with the other and pulled. The hinges, rusted by age and weather, squealed as they released their hold, allowing him his first look into his entry point.

  One whiff of the stale air escaping from the glorified hole left no doubt of its actual purpose. This was no hobbit house. Not unless the mythical creatures defecated where they ate and slept.

  Stepping through the entrance, Nikolas pulled the door closed, sealing himself in darkness so complete he couldn’t even see his hand in front of his face. Using his phone as a flashlight, he surveyed the area. The walls and ceiling crowded him, their once-white surfaces now painted a dull brown and green from the algae and other muck covering the chipped brick. Beneath his feet, leaves and rubble lay strewn about like abandoned playthings and shards of glass winked at him beneath the light of his cell phone. The whole place carried a stench of abandonment and despair.

  But as he ventured further into the tunnel, he began to notice the appearance of vegetation protruding from small pipes embedded in the brick. And on more than one occasion, roots had actually pushed their way right through the mortar, determined to find the puddles of muddy water scattered along the floor of the sewer.

  Skirting the twisted roots, he followed the uploaded map, reaching the end of the tunnel in well under ten minutes. According to the blueprints, the steel door he now faced opened up to the boiler room at the far end of the building.

  Now to get inside . . .

  Easier said than done considering the door was locked from the other side. Without the proper tools, there was only one way in. He was going to have to fire at the ancient handle on this side of the door. Hopefully, the noises from the machinery on the other side should drown out the sound of gunfire easily. If not, he would quickly lose the element of surprise. But there was no turning back now. He didn’t have time to come up with another plan. God knows what those sick bastards had done to Cadence already.

  Stepping back, he aimed the muzzle and pulled the trigger. Sparks flew as the sharp sound of gunfire swept through the underground tunnel. The noise was deafening inside the small, enclosed space and it left his ears ringing but the locked surrendered against the onslaught of the bullet.

  As he pushed the door open further, he found himself inside a well-lit room of considerable size. Thick pipes ran along the walls, ceilings, and floors like strange, white snakes. Motors of various sizes and colors churned noisily and tables were strewn with unknown mechanical parts.

  A movement to his left drew his attention.

  The man, blubberous in his gray maintenance garb, stepped around the corner. His white, bushy eyebrows shot upward as his jaw came unhinged. For a moment, time seemed to stand still but then with a quickness belied by his age, he spun around, racing out of sight.

  Nikolas caught him easily and bringing the butt of his pistol down hard, connected with the man’s skull, dropping him to the floor in a crumpled heap. Bending down, he hooked his hands under the sweat-stained armpits and dragged the unconscious man behind a set of monster-sized generators. As an extra precaution, he bound the half-naked man’s hands and feet together with black zip ties tucked inside one of the overall’s pockets. A strip of silver of duct tape slapped over his mouth was the final touch.

  Leaving the workman lying on the floor out cold and relatively helpless, Nikolas found the door leading deeper into the building. He still had to find Cadence and get her out of here before someone noticed the altered surveillance video. He just hoped like hell she was still alive. And she didn’t try to rip the eyes from his head when she saw him.

  ~ ~ ~

  This entire situation was a major pain in the ass.

  Phillip was dead and his only major lead to the formula was out cold because of Henry Collins’s fuck up. To make matters worse, his backers were threatening to pull out if he didn’t produce some real results soon. He was set to lose everything if things didn’t start coming together soon.

  This should not have been so hard.

  Dmitry’s jaw clenched hard enough to make his jaw ache. Closing his eyes, he drew in a deep breath, releasing it slowly. After several minutes, he opened his eyes again, studying the paperwork in front of him.

  He still had a chance to pull this off but it had to be quick. He’d been given an extra thirty days to make the formula work or the deal was done. Not only would his financial investors leave and take their millions with them, they were expecting him to return the sizable advances they had already given him. Everything he owned was tied up in this transaction. If things went south, he would be sunk.

  There would be nowhere he could run nowhere he could hide. Without a penny to his name and owing millions to the wrong type of people, he might as well have a bull’s-eye painted on the back of his three-thousand-dollar suit.

  It was fine though. Dr. Elevina Ekstrom was one of the best interrogators in the world. The word from some highly trusted, if not exactly legal, confidants was that she had been able to make the most hardened individuals start talking. And all without laying a single finger on them. Which was perfect. The last thing he needed was a repeat of Phillip Montgomery’s situation. He’d only wished he had brought the good doctor in sooner. Then this wouldn’t have turned into the shit storm it was now.

  The price tag for her services was staggering to begin with. But add in the short notice and urgency of the job and he’d paid through the nose. Twice. Any other time, it would have galled him to give away so much money. And to a woman, no less. But time was running short and with her specialized skills, no amount had been too much. Once she got the girl to talk, everything he’d paid her would be a drop in the bucket compared to what he would be gaining. Which was no less than the entire world groveling at his feet.

  ~ ~ ~

  With most of the fuzziness gone from her brain, Cadence followed Dr. Ekstrom out of the room.

  “This way,” the doctor whispered, heading down the empty hallway.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Downstairs to the boiler room.”

  “Why the boiler room?”

  “Because it’s our best chance of getting out of here without being noticed. Now stop asking questions and move.”

  I can’t believe I’m trusting this strange woman. But what else can I do? Wait for Nikolas to come and save me?

  She might as well be waiting for Mozart to return from the dead, take her under his wing, and teach her everything he knew. She was confident there was a better chance of the composer appearing out of thin air than for Nikolas to miraculously show up to resc
ue her.

  The asshole.

  Biting her lip, Cadence fell into step beside the petite blond, leaving her temporary prison cell behind. How the woman managed to get past the locks on the door, she would never know. And she didn’t care. She was out. That was a start. Now if only this mystery woman could manage to sneak them out of the building, she might just give her a hug. Although the thought of wrapping her arms around the petite ice queen made her break out in cold sweat.

  There was something very odd about her. The way she moved, the way she talked, even the way she looked at her. All extremely poised and calculated. And ruthless. Just like . . . Nikolas!

  The idea came to her suddenly, halting her pace. It clicked into place like a puzzle piece. This woman was not Dr. Ekstrom. She was Nikolas’s boss, the leader of The Perfect Order.

  “Oh my God,” she gasped, “you’re Charlie.”

  Spinning slowly, the other woman turned, her eyes drilling into her even as surprise made them widen in her perfect face.

  “What did you say?” Icicles hung from every word as she stepped toward her.

  Cadence fell back a step under the harshness of the petite blonde’s eyes.

  Good Lord, this woman is scary. No wonder Nikolas feels compelled to do as she says. But he would never be the way he was if it wasn’t for her.

  And just like that, Cadence felt her fear turn to anger, strengthening her spine. She stepped forward, going toe to toe with Charlie.

  A thousand accusations raced through her head but each one was drowned out by the intense hatred for the woman in front of her. It was her fault Nikolas was like he was. He had been screwed up enough as a child but then she came along, taking him from one life of sexual abuse into another. The only difference was she was making him believe it was for the good of the world.