She laughs loudly, exaggerating it to show she’s actually insulted. “Fuck you, Adrian. Fuck you! Do you think anyone would be lenient with me if all this failed?”
“Honestly? No. I think they’d give you the chair. But I said I’d do what I could for you, and I mean that. Just let Tori go.”
She glances at Tori and smiles that sick, evil, emotionless smile I remember seeing years ago. I clench my jaw muscles as I sense what’s about to happen.
“So, explain to me how the brooding, tormented soul of the legendary Adrian Hell has found it within him to get himself a girl,” she says. “What about your dead wife? Huh?”
There it is...
Bitch!
The ‘Try To Make Tori Hate Me’ card.
And not only that, but she said my name like she was air-quoting it, which is infuriating on a whole other level.
I see Tori’s eyes widen, before narrowing as she frowns with confusion. She stares at me in silent enquiry, and then turns to look at Clara, scornfully.
“Oh, did you not know?” asks Clara with feigned innocence, before looking over at me and smiling. “Adrian, does she not know anything about you?”
I feel my finger involuntarily tighten on the trigger as I fight the urge to risk shooting her while Tori’s so close.
“She knows everything about who I am,” I say, feeling the need to justify myself. “She doesn’t need to, or want to, know anything about who I was.”
“It looks to me like she’s very curious…”
With the gun in her right hand, aimed at Tori’s body, she puts her arm around her, and pulls her close like an old friend.
“How about us girls have a nice talk about our man over there? Eh?”
Tori turns to her and looks her dead in the eye. “Go to hell,” she says.
“Oooo, feisty!” She turns to me momentarily. “I can see why you like her. But seriously, Tori, there’s so much you should know about Adrian… Like, for example, did you know he’s one of the greatest assassins ever to pull a trigger? Did you know he killed my father?”
Tori’s livid with Clara, staring a hole through her with wild eyes, and she must be frustrated knowing there’s little she can do to stop her. But, to be honest, I wouldn’t want her to try. Clara’s a trained killer, and very capable of hurting her, or worse. I’m just grateful Tori and I have already had the conversation, and she’s said she understands why I don’t want to talk about it and accepts that. She’s always said she loves me for who I am, so anything Clara says won’t have the intended effect on us. It’ll just make me want to shoot her more.
“And another thing,” continues Clara, oblivious to Tori’s stare. “The thing that made Adrian tick all those years he spent alone… the guilt of being to blame for the death of his wife and daughter.”
That makes Tori look at me, her eyes asking me a thousand questions all at once. I look at her apologetically; genuinely sorry she has to go through all this. But I take exception to Clara’s statement.
“Hey, I wasn’t to blame for their deaths, and I’ve since killed the guy who was! Don’t…”
I stop myself as I see the sick smile creep across her face. She just suckered me into that exchange and got a reaction out of me that I shouldn’t have allowed. The look on Tori’s face confirms it.
Shit.
Josh was right—I allow myself to get too emotionally involved in a situation, and it sometimes clouds my judgment. That wouldn’t have happened if he’d been here.
Let’s not mention it, though, eh?
“Well played,” I say, trying to recover gracefully. “I know what you’re trying to do, Clara, and it won’t work.” I look at Tori. “Sweetheart, if you have any doubts or concerns about me, or us, after this, I completely understand. I swear to you, I’ll tell you whatever you want to know. But can I please ask that, for the time being at least, you trust me and let me get us out of here?”
If ever I needed more proof that Tori is my ideal woman, she struggles to suppress a smile and winks at me.
“Lead the way, Action Man!”
Clara’s face contorts with disgust. “Oh my God, really?” she says. “I think I just threw up in my mouth.”
Still holding Tori with her left hand, she points her gun at her mouth and makes the vomiting gesture, doing her best to ridicule us both and get more of a reaction out of me.
I’ll give her a fucking reaction…
Without thinking, I whip the gun up and fire in one movement. The bullet catches Clara at the bottom of her neck on the left, where it meets the trapezius muscle. Tori jumps out of her skin in surprise as a thin spray of blood hits her face. Clara is equally caught off-guard, clawing at thin air with both hands as she tries to stop herself from falling backward. Not wasting the opportunity, Tori quickly puts some distance between them. I dash over, kicking the gun out of Clara’s hand the second she hits the ground, before taking aim and covering her.
“Put pressure on the wound so you don’t bleed out,” I say to her. “Both hands. Now!”
She does, probably more because of her own survival instincts than because of my order, but the outcome’s the same. She’s lying on her back, staring up at the ceiling and breathing fast and shallow. I kick her foot.
“I’m a good shot—you won’t lose too much blood if you keep your hands on the wound. You need to stay alive long enough to help me.”
“What makes you think I’ll help you with anything?” she says, coughing and struggling to get her words out.
“Because you hate me. I think you’ll want to tell me the full extent of what I’m up against, so you can watch me realize I’m doomed to fail. I think you’ll get some twisted level of satisfaction from it.”
She smiles weakly as more and more blood starts to spill from her wound. I quickly look at it. There’s a chance I might’ve nicked an artery with the bullet, which means she doesn’t have long. I need to act fast.
I turn and point to all the documents laid out on the table behind us, looking at Tori. “Babe, gather up everything over there—we’ll take it with us. Hopefully they’ll be something useful.”
I look back at Clara. She’s given up putting pressure on her wound. I see the last sliver of defiance in her eyes.
“Clara, listen to me,” I say. “What can you tell me about El-Zurak? How can I get to him in Afghanistan to stop him controlling Cerberus?”
She moves only her eyes and looks at me with a mixture of loathing and defeat and confusion.
“Who… who said he was in Afghanis… tan?” she asks, weakly.
I frown. “We tracked him there via satellite. We found you here, and saw him and Yalafi Hussein in the Afghan mountains. We figured he’d be untouchable there, and impossible to find, so I came after you so I could rescue Tori.”
She struggles to laugh, instead letting out a sickly wheeze, followed by a cough and a wince as more blood oozes from her neck and pools around her on the floor.
“You might want… to check your intel. Hamaad…El-Zurak is… is in the States. You’re too… late.”
I can’t hide my surprise or anger. I don’t know if she’s telling the truth, or just trying to wind me up. I suppose there’s little reason for her to lie at this stage…
Without a word, I turn to Tori, who’s standing by the table with a handful of papers and folders.
“Got everything?” I ask her.
She nods.
I bend down, dropping the gun I had, and pick up my Berettas and the Ithaca, holstering each one in turn on my harness.
“Let’s get out of here,” I say.
We set off walking toward the corridor I came down initially.
“Adrian… wait,” says Clara, weakly.
I stop and turn, staring at her impassively. She looks at the gun I left on the floor, then back at me.
“P-please…” she says.
I know what she’s asking. She doesn’t want to lie on the floor and bleed to death. She wants the honor of going out
on her terms. I regard her for a moment and ask myself if I hate her enough to deny her the opportunity to have a warrior’s death. And do you know what? I honestly don’t. My initial anger toward her, when I first found out she was involved, only stayed because she’d kidnapped Tori. I’d have hated anyone who tried to hurt the woman I love. I realize now, that the fact it was Clara was irrelevant. I’m actually surprised at myself for being so rational about it, but under the circumstances, holding a grudge against someone who turned their back on me over four years ago seems kind of… petty. There are much bigger things going on for me to worry about.
I nod and take a step toward her, but Tori grabs my arm.
“Adrian, what are you doing?” she asks.
“It’s okay,” I say, looking at her and placing my hand on hers. “This won’t take a minute.”
She doesn’t understand, but she trusts me and lets me go. I walk over to the gun, taking the magazine out and leaving one in the chamber. Holding the barrel, I crouch down next to Clara and place the butt in her hand. She’s barely breathing now, but her eyes look at me, and for the first time ever, I see honesty in them.
“Th-thank you…” she whispers.
I smile. “You’re still a bitch.”
She smiles a smile that offers no apologies, but, nevertheless, calls a truce between two people who have lived on different sides of the same coin. I stand and walk back over to Tori.
“Come on,” I say, leading her with my arm around her shoulder down the corridor and toward the stairs that lead back up to the street.
“What was that about?” she asks, genuinely curious.
Before I can answer, we both hear a single gunshot from inside the lab. We look at each other—Tori with surprise in her eyes, while I’m trying to look sympathetic.
“Nothing,” I say, as we climb the stairs. “Now let’s get out of here.”
31.
23:41 EEST
We reached the street, and I contacted Josh, telling him Clara was dead, and that I have Tori, and we need a ride home. Within an hour, a helicopter arrived and flew us to Chernigov Airport. Despite being closed for the last fifteen years, the runway itself was still accessible, so there was a private jet waiting for us which had us in the air almost straight away.
We didn’t say much for the first few minutes. Tori looked around in amazement at how the other half lives—the nice leather reclining seats, the plush carpet, and the stewardess who needs absolutely no prompting to bring us both an ice-cold beer.
She’s sitting opposite me, leaning back, and staring at the ceiling with the bottle in her hand. She takes a deep breath and a grateful swig of the beer before looking at me. I’ve been sitting patiently, sipping my drink, and waiting for the inevitable onslaught of questions.
“Adrian, I owe you my life,” she says. “How did you ever find me?”
I raise an eyebrow, surprised. “I had a little help,” I reply with a shrug and a smile.
Before I can say anything else, she stands and moves over to me, straddles my lap, and kisses me like it’s our last day on Earth. I wrap my arms around her waist and hold her close to me, savoring her smell, her taste, and her warmth. We part after a minute or so, short of breath, with our hearts beating slightly quicker than before. I look over at the stewardess, who is standing respectfully looking at the floor and smiling to herself. Tori kisses my nose and rests her forehead against mine for a moment, before sitting back in her seat and taking another pull of her beer.
“Adrian, I… I have to ask you a couple of things,” she says.
Here we go…
“Fire away,” I say. “I’ll tell you whatever you want to know, I promise.”
“Okay…”
She composes herself, seemingly struggling to find the words.
“Take your time,” I say. “You’ve been through a lot—more than anyone should have to.”
She smiles and tries to remain strong, as if she’s trying to prove something to me, or to herself.
“Why did you come for me?” she asks.
I frown with slight disbelief. “What do you mean? I was prepared to tear this world apart to find you, Tori. I—”
“You said to that woman you only came after her because you couldn’t go after the other guy. Should you have done something else besides rescue me?”
“Babe, no—of course not. You’re more important to me than anything.”
“I know,” she says, smiling briefly. “But you agreed to help your friends stop those terrorists who attacked us at your bar… be honest with me, Adrian—was there something else you should’ve been doing besides coming after me?”
I take a breath and stare at the floor for a moment. I need to choose my words very carefully here, and this kind of thing isn’t my strong suit.
“I’ll tell you everything I know about what’s happening another time,” I say. “But to summarize, there’s a guy called Hamaad El-Zurak, who’s planning a large-scale attack on, I suspect, most of the Western World. Our intel told us he fled to a mountain range in Afghanistan, essentially making him untouchable. The ideal play was to go after him—cut the head off the snake, so to speak. But we also knew that Clara had come to Ukraine and that she had you. I immediately said I was coming for you, but other people pointed out that the right thing to do was go after El-Zurak, because of the threat he poses. We argued, and I came very close to shooting the guy out of frustration, but… Josh stepped in and pointed out that going after you was the better move, because there was a higher chance of success, and it would still be a massive blow to the terrorist organization.”
She nods and takes in everything I just said.
“So, there was no way you could’ve gone after the other guy?” she asks.
I shake my head. “Not without being killed, no.”
She nods slowly. “Okay.”
“You sure? It seems like something’s bothering you about it?”
“I just…” she sighs. “I wouldn’t have forgiven myself, or you, if coming to save me meant innocent people suffered and died at the hands of some lunatic extremist.”
I smile. You can’t help but love her.
“Babe, I’ll do whatever I can to stop these assholes, but there’s no way I’d want to save the world if you weren’t gonna be in it. End of story.”
She’s quiet for a moment, and then the smile creeps across her face.
“Adrian, you’re a very… impressive man. And I love you.”
I feel my cheeks flush slightly, which I’m very glad Josh isn’t around to see.
“I love you, too,” I say.
“Right, now what was that crazy bitch going on about before?” she asks, her mood changing in the blink of an eye. “You killed her father?”
I sigh. “Yeah, I killed her Dad.”
“Why?”
“Because he was a terrorist who was trying to detonate a nuclear weapon in Nevada.”
“Oh, well… wait—wasn’t there something in the news a few years back about a bomb going off in Nevada?”
“The Nevada Incident?” I offer. “Heaven’s Valley?”
“Yeah, that’s right!”
I nod. “Yeah, that was me.”
“Holy shit! So, that thing she said about you being an assassin… is that for real?”
“It is. Or, it was. I retired. But that’s why those men originally came to the bar. They wanted to recruit me because they knew who I used to be.”
“And who did you used to be?”
“Adrian Hell.”
She’s silent for a moment, and then she bursts out laughing. A real belly laugh. She laughs so hard she stops breathing. Then she starts shaking and doubles over, wafting herself with her hand.
“Oh… my… God!” she says. “Adrian Hell? Really? Who thought up that name?”
I shift uncomfortably in my seat, unsure how to react. I think my feelings are hurt…
“Well, I did,” I reply. “What’s wrong with it?”
; “You sound like a villain in those comic books!”
“Hey! I was, and still am, the most feared killer who ever lived, I’ll have you know.”
“That maybe so,” she says. “But, to me, you’re simply Adrian. You own a bar, and while you’re strong and tough, you’re the most loving man I know. I can’t imagine you being a… contract killer.”
“To be fair, I did just kill, like, thirty guys to rescue you… I hijacked a tank, Tori.”
“Like I said, tough and strong!”
She smiles, and I honestly don’t understand why she has no issue with my past.
“One more thing, then I’ll go back to kissing you,” she says.
“Shoot.”
“What happened to your wife and child?”
I take a deep breath. “Tori, I… that’s a long story. And to be honest, now isn’t the time. Do you mind?”
“I understand,” she says with a smile. “But I do want to know, okay?”
“Okay.”
The stewardess walks over and politely clears her throat. “Sir, I’m sorry to interrupt, but there’s a call for you.”
She hands me a cell phone, and I put it on speaker.
“Yeah?”
“Adrian,” says Josh. “You alright?”
“Yeah. Thanks for the plane.”
“No worries. Tori, are you there? How are you holdin’ up?”
“Hey Josh,” she says. “I’m fine, thank you.”
“Good. Both relieved Clara’s dead?”
“Honestly?” I say. “I can’t say I’m bothered either way.”
“Check it out—my boy’s all grown up!” Tori smiles at me, and I roll me eyes. Josh continues. “Listen, I’ve radioed the pilot and got him to re-direct your flight. We’ll meet you at Fort Worth.”
“Texas? What’s happening?”
“Tell you when you get here,” he says, somewhat cryptically. “Get some rest.”
“Okay, see you soon.” I hang up and look at Tori. “Something’s not right,” I say.
“What makes you say that?” she asks.
“My spider sense is tingling.”
“Your what?”
“My spider sense.”
She shakes her head and laughs. “My God, I got rescued by a cartoon character!”
Deadly Intent: An Action Thriller (Adrian Hell Series Book 4) Page 23
