by Sonya Clark
“Seems like a fair trade to me.” He approached the stairs and gazed up at her. “I owe you my life. Let me help you until you get on your feet. I understand why you’re not entirely comfortable with the situation. I wouldn’t be if I were in your place. But don’t let pride keep you from accepting help when you need it.”
Dani gazed at the bundle of clothes in her arms. “I guess the whole brooding loner thing is overrated.”
Kevin smiled. “Why brood alone when you can brood with a friend?”
Her mouth tipped up in a slight smile. “You never brooded in your life, Boy Toy.”
“I’m Irish. Believe me, I brood.”
“Thank you for this,” she said.
“Shakedown run tonight?”
Dani nodded. “Then check in with Housecat.”
“I’ve got to be at the shelter tonight.”
She let out a soft, brief burst of laughter.
“What?”
She said, “We’re both doing community service to atone for our sins.”
Kevin looked away. “That we are.” He indicated the clothes. “Go change. I want to see you in that mask.” He wagged his eyebrows.
This time her glare came with a hint of a smile. While he waited, he folded the rest of the clothes and put them all in one big shopping bag. After a short time he heard boot falls on the stairs.
Dani stood on the bottom step. All in black. Fierce. Beautiful. And sexy as hell in that domino mask.
Kevin whistled. “If you wear the mask with the kitty ears, I’ll let you do naughty things to me.”
“As if it would take even that much.”
He laughed. “True.”
She plunged her hands into her hair and untied the mask then shoved the leather into a pocket. “Anything on the hashtag?”
“Just chatter. You heading out?”
“Time for a workout.” Excitement lit her up like the city lights at night, her eyes gleaming with anticipation.
“Okay. Be careful. Or at least not too egregiously reckless.”
“Sure thing.” She came close, so close that the warmth of her body did funny things to his insides. And some of his outsides. “But just in case, come to the shelter in that stupid fast car.” It wasn’t a request.
He didn’t even mind. “You got it.”
Dani grabbed his collar and pulled him down. Before he knew what hit him, her mouth was on his. The kiss was sweet and a little feral and before it could become a competition for dominance, it was over. She left without another word.
Chapter 29
Dani fairly flew through the night. Side streets and back alleys, rooftop to rooftop. She pushed her body, then pushed a little further still. The speed, endurance, and agility given to her by the lab’s enhancements were on full display, and she gloried in it. Adrenaline raced through her veins. Surprisingly, so did pride. The lab may have remade her into something new and different, but she was the one in charge of how to use these gifts. She was nobody’s property, nobody’s lab rat. This body was all hers now and she would keep it that way.
The clothes moved easily with her as she shifted from a straight run into parkour. The boots were a perfect fit. The mask allowed her to see unimpeded. Kevin sure knew how to pick out clothes for her. As long as she didn’t think too much about the fact that she was letting a man take care of her, she was okay with him handling the shopping. At some point she was going to have to do something about it. Right now, the idea of getting a job and a place to live was more than a little intimidating. For one thing, it meant admitting she planned to stay in Point Sable.
Of all the decisions she could make, staying was the most reckless. Knowing that might not stop her, though.
Figuring all that out was a job for another day. Tonight, all she wanted was to put her body through its paces.
She dashed into an alley. Catapulted herself up a fire escape and to the roof. A leap to the opposite roof and a rolling landing that flowed easily into standing. She stood still, hands at her sides, chest rising and falling. With a mental tap, she activated the neural interface. Her night vision came online with no more effort than it took for her to twitch a finger. After years of training and practice, the interface operated as part of her nervous system. Basic functions operated seamlessly. Or they were supposed to, after recovering from shock overload.
The dark pockets of Cabrini glowed with a greenish tinge thanks to her night vision. Once her breathing slowed to normal, she tried to both relax and brace herself for the worst. She tested the zoom and was able to read the graffiti on a street sign three blocks away without getting a stabbing headache. Next she dialed up her hearing. Thankfully, rather than painful feedback, the cochlear implant and interface brought her sounds from two streets away, three, four. By fine-tuning her focus she could make out distinct voices and conversations. Music coming from several locations. A car trying to make it on a flat tire.
Now for something a little more complicated. She found the best view of the Cabrini lights she could and snapped a couple of photos. A helicopter in the distance caught her attention and she took video until it was out of sight. When she got back to Kevin’s she would download the media files. That would be the final test. For now, everything looked good.
Half an hour later she was sitting in Housecat’s office, waiting for him to take a break from running his club.
He came to a halt after closing the door and looked her up and down. “Nice mask.”
“Are you making fun of me?”
“Only a little.” He moved gracefully to the chair behind his desk but didn’t sit. “You okay? Heard it got ugly in Dogtown.”
Dani nodded. “Masha didn’t make it out. Bessonov showed up.”
“Yeah, that’s what I heard.”
“You come up with anything on Tatiana’s whereabouts yet?”
“Nah. Had a lead about a Russian girl just started working at a strip joint in Cabrini but it wasn’t her.”
“How’s Sveta holding up?”
“She’s pissed. If it were up to her, every last Bratva soldier in the city would be dead.”
“Hard to argue with that.” Dani knew from bloodlust. Damn right. Even knowing it would cost her Kevin, the temptation to kill bad men like Bessonov was strong.
“I don’t want a war. That’s not good for my community or my business. I just want to find this Tatiana girl and keep her out of trouble.”
“Tell you what, Miles. You keep looking for Tatiana, and leave trouble to me.”
Housecat leveled a finger at her. “You’re not allowed to call me that.”
“It’s a nice name.”
“Yeah, at least it’s not generic, like Ghost.”
Dani took a pen and a sticky note pad from his desk and wrote the number to her cell phone. “Call me if you get anything.”
“I’m not your sidekick.”
“No, I already got one of those,” she said as she walked to the window. “You’re an informant.” She smiled sweetly. “Miles.”
“Get outta my place.”
Once back on the street, Dani checked the time on her phone. Still another couple of hours before Kevin would be finished for the night at the shelter. She scrolled through the hashtag, looking for something to keep her occupied.
Dani didn’t know what she was doing. She’d been trained to fight at the lab, and they’d tried to train her to follow orders with far less success. But searching for a missing person, or a bad guy for that matter, and doing any kind of investigative work – those were not things she’d learned. She had no idea how to do any of that. Asking for help bothered her less and less. She just wished she could do more than throw a punch.
Something new popped up on the hashtag and suddenly throwing punches seemed like the perfect plan.
Come get your bitch #cabrinighost
Attached to the tweet was a picture of Tatiana.
The phone buzzed with an incoming call, startling Dani.
“You seeing this shit?
” It was Housecat.
“Yeah.”
“Bessonov wants to take you out. I hope you got an army to go with that sidekick.”
“Got any idea where I can find him?”
“Last time any of my people saw him, he was headed into Lincoln Heights.”
“Where your people can’t follow without risking a war with the Bratva.” Shit. She really did need her own crew. “Can you at least text me the addresses of some hangouts for the Russians?”
“On it.”
She ended the call and took off for Lincoln Heights. Would Bessonov want to make it hard for her to find him? Dani didn’t think so. The better question was, would he want backup or would he want to take her on by himself? She wasn’t afraid to face a bunch of Bratva soldiers but she knew she had a better chance of getting Tatiana out alive if she went one on one against Bessonov. He would know that too, but what would his ego demand?
Three text messages chimed in rapid succession. Dani read the addresses from Housecat and did a quick internet search for directions to the first. It was a private club in a brick building with boarded up windows and an armed guard on both the front door and the back. There was no way in she could discern that didn’t involve a fight from the word go.
The ability to see through walls would have been a nice enhancement. Whatever, this place didn’t feel right. People were going in and out wearing date night clothes and music seeped out every time the guard opened the door. Not the place for a showdown. She moved on to the next address, a bar and pool hall with a quieter clientele but nearly as busy. The third address was two blocks from the brownstone she’d torn through just days ago.
The smell of smoke still permeated the area. Images of that night flashed through Dani’s mind. How many did she kill? God, she couldn’t even remember what the news reports said about it. Or maybe she just didn’t want to. Her feet moved her toward the spot before her brain could exercise veto power. What was left of the building was a black hulk of caved-in brick and debris marked by fire, water, and smoke damage. Dani stood in the street, not far from where she’d climbed into Kevin’s car, and stared. Forced herself to remember.
Two shots center mass in one man.
The same in another.
One to the head.
Again.
Again.
Again.
A length of rebar planted in one man’s chest.
More once she’d reached the brownstone’s ground floor.
Thirteen dead in gangland violence, read the headline.
Thirteen.
Jesus. She’d killed thirteen people. They were criminals, yes. Human traffickers. Still, that didn’t give her a pass to take their lives. To take the law into her own hands. She’d killed them, not to save herself or anyone else. She could have gotten out of there before it got so out of hand. She could have made different choices. Instead, she’d let rage and a thirst for vengeance turn her into a murderer. The lab, using her as a test subject without her consent. The traffickers who’d sold her to the lab. The foster parents whose horrific betrayal of trust sent her into the streets. Those were the origins of her rage, but she couldn’t blame them for the deaths any more than she could blame them for her leaving Molly. She, Dani, had committed these sins, and she had to atone for them.
She dropped to her hands and knees in the middle of the street and vomited. Thirteen people. She was a murderer. A killer. How could she ever atone for that? She should find a police station and turn herself in. The thought of it made her stomach heave again. Because the cops wouldn’t keep her long. The lab would send someone and she’d belong to them again. Maybe it was selfish and wrong, but that was a nightmare she couldn’t stand.
Dani straightened and wiped her mouth on her sleeve. She didn’t want to be a killer. That was why she’d escaped from the lab in the first place, so she wouldn’t be sent on missions that required her to kill. They’d decided that’s what she’d be best at, and here she’d gone and proved them right. Hot, sickening shame filled her. She didn’t want them to be right about her. She was more than just a killer, she had to be.
An electric snap sounded, followed by a buzzing rattle. The sound of a stun gun. Next came a muffled cry of pain.
Bessonov was close and he had Tatiana with him.
Dani stood. Fine-tuned her hearing to pinpoint their location. The electric buzz came again and she had it – the house directly across the street from the brownstone. Trash littered the small patch of overgrown yard. A corner of the roof dipped inward precariously. The windows were boarded up, the façade covered in swirls of graffiti. Definitely abandoned, maybe used by squatters if they weren’t run off by the Russians. She circled the house on stealthy feet, checking entrances and exits, listening carefully.
They were on the second floor, in a room in the back left corner of the house. Sneaking in was unlikely to work. The place was made of rotted wood, guaranteed to creak and crackle with every step. So why bother skulking around? She had speed too, so why not use it? She double checked their location then moved back across the street to give herself some room.
Her personal best in the lab’s training facility was a two-minute mile. A speed of thirty miles an hour. Since her escape she hadn’t gotten near that fast, mostly so she wouldn’t be noticed. Right now there were no witnesses and someone who needed help, so Dani pushed herself into running at super-speed.
It took barely any effort at all to get that fast. Dani crashed through the front door, leaving it splintered and hanging on its hinges. The walls were a blur. She took the stairs two at a time, barely feeling them under her feet. A short hall, another door left damaged, and she found herself face to face with Ilya Bessonov once more.
The stun gun lay forgotten on the floor. He held Tatiana to him with a knife at her throat, a line of blood already welling under the sharp edge. Her eyes were wide with fear, face drained of color.
“You got my message,” he said.
Dani activated the camera in her left eye and snapped a photo with a blink. “Sorry it took me so long to get here. You didn’t include an address.”
“Couldn’t make it too easy. Where’s the fun in that?” He sank his fingers deep into the flesh at the juncture of Tatiana’s neck and shoulder. The girl cried out and struggled against his grip. The movement caused the knife to bite into her skin, sending red trickling down her neck.
“You got me here,” Dani said. “Let her go and we’ll finish what we started the other night.” The only thing harder for her than downloading was bringing the video camera online and keeping it going. Dani did it now, struggling with the interface for a moment and hoping like hell it didn’t show in her face.
“We’ll get to that.” He shoved Tatiana to her knees, one hand on her shoulder and the other holding the knife at the back of her neck. “You killed a lot of my friends that night. And for what?” He jerked on Tatiana’s hair. “Trash like this?”
“Goddamn it, she’s a person.” Anger uncoiled like a waking cat.
“So were they, you bitch,” he snarled, pulling harder on Tatiana’s hair until he got a sharp cry from her. The sound of her pain brought a smile to his face. “This bitch is property. Until her debt is paid, she belongs to us.”
Dani’s breath came in ragged puffs. Keep the anger down, she thought. And her own guilt. Those things weren’t important right now. Keep him talking and keep the video recording, until she could safely get Tatiana away from him.
“Who’s us? Your Bratva pals? You’re just a soldier for them. Why so loyal?”
“Just a soldier?” Bessonov spat, his own anger bubbling to the surface. “We are a brotherhood. There is no just to it.”
Dani shook her head. “Some brotherhood you got there, making money by luring girls into sex trafficking. So how’s this work? Bring them into the country with promises of modeling contracts, then put them to work as prostitutes? Is that it?”
“They owe a debt to us for bringing them here. If the pretty ones
work it off on their backs, so what? Better than the shit holes they came from.”
“You come from a shit hole too? Because you stink of it.” Her body shook, rage trying to get the best of her.
Bessonov yanked on Tatiana’s hair hard enough to move her body backward several inches. He leveled the knife at Dani and said, “You’ll stink of blood and piss by the time I’m done with you.”
She could take him now. She was fast enough, and he was as distracted by his anger as she was fueled by hers. But she had more in mind than just a beatdown. “That’s a shitty way to run a business, what you did. Those two girls Polina and Masha can’t earn money for your pathetic brotherhood since you killed them.”
“It was worth killing them just to keep other bitches in line. Nobody runs and gets away with it. You run, you wind up dead like those two.” He released Tatiana’s hair and smacked the back of her head so that she fell forward onto all fours. “Like this one, and that bitch who thinks she’s safe in Belmont.” He waved the knife at Dani. “Like you, for getting in my way.”
Dani launched herself at him. She batted away the knife easily and knocked him to the ground. His head bounced off the floor and he was slow to get up. Dani took advantage of that and rushed to Tatiana. “Sveta’s in Belmont,” she whispered. “Go to a club called Dirty South and ask for Housecat. You’ll be safe there.”
Tatiana tried to speak but she was shaking too hard. Dani touched her shoulder. “Go!”
Bessonov rolled over and struggled to sit up, blood seeping down his forehead. That was all the motivation Tatiana needed. She ran from the room. Dani kept her hearing focused to make sure the girl got away with no problems. Her attention momentarily occupied, she didn’t see Bessonov swipe the knife at her leg until it was almost too late.
The knife edge slid across her leg just above the shaft of her boot, the reinforced denim of her jeans keeping her skin safe. She was going to have to thank Kevin for that. She kicked Bessonov, the steel toe of her boot making contact with the inside of his wrist. He screamed, dropping the knife.
