Hot Contract

by Jodi Henley

  Deacon didn't move when Keegan eased in behind him and slipped a knife under the tape around his wrists. No telling how long it would take the Aina to finish what they were doing. Not much finesse to C-4. It was a simple, brute force explosive.

  “Got any charcoal?” called a voice.

  “Charcoal won’t cut it, man. Rocks are cool. Try this one.”

  “...carrot? Look, I got this Groucho mask...”

  Keegan flipped Deacon on his back and pulled the tape from his mouth. “How many?” he breathed.

  Deacon tapped his fingers. Five, then. Three at the vent, which meant two were missing.

  “Can you run?”

  “Get me out of here,” Deacon growled, “and I can fly.”

  “Where were you shot?”

  “Left hip. Hurts like a bitch.” Deacon looked wild, head weaving back and forth. “My pack’s on the ledge. Get it, call for back-up.”

  Keegan pulled the other man after him. “Too risky.”

  They swung down to the courtyard and ran, crunching through the gravel.

  Deacon staggered and dropped to one knee, folding in over his belly with both hands pressed to his injured hip. “Dizzy,” he whispered, trying to get up. Without a quick trip to Emergency, odds were he wouldn’t last the night.

  Out in the parking lot, new cars pulled in and parked between the ones the police had dismantled.

  “We have company.”

  Deacon leaned against the retaining wall, barely visible in the darkness. “That yellow car...Avalanche,” he gasped, “…Kimo.” His eyes were white-rimmed all the way around, and he was losing his breath.

  The parking lot was wide open. If Kimo was out there, Kate wasn’t far behind. There was no cover and nowhere to run except to the road, and if the sight of a woman in a tattered pink dress, a shirtless guy in tourist gear and a wounded giant didn’t turn heads, it was time to buy lottery tickets. A series of car doors slamming brought it all home. They were trapped at a deserted temple with no way to call for backup, and as soon as the loonies back on the platform realized their catch had escaped, they’d tell their loony friends out in the parking lot, and all hell would break loose.

  Keegan eased Deacon to his feet and held him still. “Get ready. The minute they start across the courtyard, we’re out of here.”

  Deacon nodded. Keegan had to admire the man, he was bleeding to death and somehow he was going to haul ass.

  Something moved out in the parking lot, but Keegan didn’t react. He had to be ready. They only had one chance and he didn’t want to fuck it up.

  “Hey, Kuipo! Look what I found—”

  That was Kimo, first up on Keegan’s list of men who needed to look down the barrel of his gun.

  A loud shriek, then, “My brother will kill you, traitor! Give it up now, before it’s too late—uphf!”

  His heart raced. They had Jen.

  Kate swept through the entrance with a double row of guards expanding out around her. One remained at her side, carrying Kate's special prisoner like a bag of ungainly potatoes. Jen's sandals plowed through the crushed coral, kicking up huge clouds of white dust while her shrieks rose like a tsunami warning. At the bottom of the stairs, he stopped and said something unintelligible before helping Jen to her feet, one hand cupped under her elbow.

  “Thank you,” she said, so damned polite, like the part of her that was in the process of being kidnapped was a totally separate entity from the woman straightening her clothes. She stood, brushing at her shirt.

  It was part of being a Stalling. Normal was something other people did.

  She eyed Kate through her tangled hair and produced a sneer. “If you surrender, I’ll talk to Percy for you.”

  “Ten years in the home for wayward Stallings, my dear?” Kate pushed her guard aside. “I think not.”

  Kimo strolled up, slender and mocking in his green fleece hoodie. “Want me to dispose of her?”

  “No,” Kate tapped her lips. “Just bring her along and send a team to look for her bodyguard.” A tall man in a green polo shirt handed Kate a shoe. “Oh, dear.” She frowned down at the bloody leather for a long minute. “We have company. Mr. O’Malley, and…I’m assuming...Mr. Dalfrey?”

  She dropped the shoe with a little moue of distaste. “Come out, come out,” she called.

  Keegan closed his eyes, trying not to look at Jen, trying to stay calm. He could make it to the Project and find help. Less than a mile there. A quick five minute run. Everything wound up in less than half an hour. If he could only stay calm.

  “They’re around here somewhere,” said Kimo. He pushed Jen hard enough to make her stumble. “Shoot her. He’ll come running.”

  Jen gave him a dark look. “Dalfrey is an employee. He won’t sacrifice himself for me.”

  “You didn’t see them together,” said Kimo. “He’s hot for her. He’ll come, you’ll see.”

  A raft of scudding black clouds darkened the temple courtyard. The entrance was little more than ten feet away. If they stayed back, close to the wall, and hugged the shadows, odds were good they could get through before Kate’s security found them. Keegan got his shoulder under Deacon's arm.

  Deacon sagged, his face strained with the effort of holding himself together. “You’ve got to get her away, man. Kuipo will kill her.”

  “Kate isn’t stupid. She knows she needs a bargaining chip.”

  “She isn’t stupid, she’s fucking crazy. Get Jen away from her.”

  “I think a kneecap,” Kate said. “Then her hand.”

  “Aunt Kate,” Jen brushed her hair back, “Please. Don’t do this.”

  Kate brushed at her caftan and pulled her gun. Light flashed off the long silver barrel of an old-fashioned Colt with bullets big enough to rip Jen's legs and hands off. Keegan was abruptly sick to his stomach, terrified that Kate would shoot and Jen would die of shock and blood loss before anyone thought to get her to a hospital.

  “No!” he shouted, falling out of his hiding place, down on his knees, anything to get that gun pointed at him and away from Jen. “Don’t hurt her.”

  Jen’s head snapped around, her emotions unguarded. For an incandescent second, joy lit her eyes.

  Kimo laughed, bouncing up and down on his heels. “Am I good or what?”

  Jen walked past Kimo like he wasn’t there. She’d told Keegan that she couldn’t cry, but water stood in her eyes like drowning pools.

  She looked down at him from a distance of less than a foot, and said, “Let him go. He means nothing to you or any of us.”

  Kate stopped a body length away. There was a splint on her wrist and two of her fingers were taped down, but she had no problems handling her gun.

  “Tell Mr. O’Malley to come out,” she told Keegan.

  Deacon stumbled into the open. “Jenny-fleur...” he said. “Mrs. Kualani.”

  Jen shivered, hands chafing at her arms. “I’ll bargain for Deacon as well.”

  Kate tapped the gun on her cheek, eyes twinkling. “In case it’s escaped you, my dear, you have no leverage.”

  “I can help you. Of my own free will. I’m smart, and I know what I’m doing. I can destroy the Project so it never comes back. That’s what you want, isn’t it? Just...let them go.”

  “You mean none of it,” said Kate. “Step out of the way.”

  “You have me!” screamed Jen, spinning around. “Isn’t that enough?”

  “Three hostages?” Kate’s face lit up, flickering through a wide range of insanity. “You’re right. It is harder to control three. Therefore we shall have two.”

  She swung her gun out, pointed at Deacon, and blew his face off.

  The air froze. Even Kimo flinched back.

  “Omigod!” Jen broke the silence. “Deacon—”

  Keegan launched off his knees and caught her in a full body hug. “Don’t look!”

  “He could be alive!”

  “No,” said Keegan. “He’s not. He’s fucking dead. Stay calm and whatever you do—do
n’t antagonize her.”

  Katherine Stalling-Kualani eyed him with interest. “You care for my niece. How very odd.” She looked down at her gun and back at Kimo. “This is dirty,” she said, throwing it at him. “Bring me another.”

  ****

  No one held a Stalling against their will, and Kate was a Stalling right down to her toenails. She didn’t care for the lives or needs of anyone other than herself. Jen had more than a little of that herself. They bred for it.

  Keegan held her hand locked in his, his heat welcome warmth when she was so very cold. Maybe he wanted her where he could watch her; afraid she’d follow in her aunt’s bloody footsteps—for the first time, she understood Tris. How many times could he look back on his mother’s death without wondering if madness was hardwired into his genes?

  We’re cannibals, all of us, glutted on blood.

  Too late for regrets. Her aunt would misinterpret any sign of caring as weakness. Kate gestured her bodyguards to herd them toward the temple. Jen wobbled beside Keegan, her knees going every which way, and slipped in a puddle of blood. She lurched, desperate not to fall into what remained of Deacon. Kimo watched her with a gloating smirk. From the look in his eyes, he’d kill Keegan just to tweak her. Safety was an illusion, and Keegan obviously knew it because not once had he looked away from their captors.

  “You’ve got to keep moving,” he breathed. “You become a target the minute you stop.”

  Jen stared up the steeply pitched stairs. “I’ll make it.”

  Their eyes met for the first time since he’d stumbled out of hiding, and her breath caught. With their roles reversed, she would have done the same thing. Fear sickened her. She couldn’t let this man die. She walked across the platform as slowly as possible while Kate’s security faded away, leaving Jen, Keegan, and her aunt alone in the gathering darkness.

  Fading sunlight slanted across the temple. Makena’s blood was gone, sucked away by the dry stone blocks. A head popped over the retaining wall. Her cousin, Dave. He had to be standing on the ledge just inside the drop. Noises came from down in the crevasse.

  Kate stalked to the center of the platform, and threw her arms wide. Her caftan blew out behind her and snapped in the wind coming out of the vent.

  “Can you feel Her presence, love?”

  “Please, Aunt Kate—there's a fifty-fifty chance that something will go wrong. You’ll only hurt yourself without triggering any kind of eruption.”

  “I have faith," Kate laughed. “Things will work out.”

  Jen looked down in the crevasse. The Aina were all lined up single file up against the wall and someone had built a snowman on the ledge. It had timers instead of eyes and fuses for hair, but it was still recognizable as Frosty.

  Kate followed her look and crossed to where she could see down into the opening. “What have you done?” she screamed. “You think a snowman in Her temple is funny?”

  Dave vaulted the wall, a grin on his face. He was a big man, muscular and black-haired like all the Kualanis. “C’mon, Auntie. Chill. The guys were bored. It’s a visual blooper.”

  A thin white line formed between Kate’s brows. “Take it down.”

  Dave was still smiling, still laughing, unaware of the danger he was in. Kate pulled her gun and waved it, from the glitter in her eyes, ready to explode.

  “But it took almost an hour,” he said. “We’d have to take off the fuses.”

  “Then do so.”

  “Auntie...”

  “You question me?”

  Dave held his hands out at shoulder level. “It’ll work. What’s the big deal?”

  Kate shot him in the belly. “Take it down. Now.”

  Nobody moved.

  “Oh, man...” Dave stared down at the blood gushing out between his fingers. “You shot me!” He dropped to his knees and threw up.

  Kate fluffed her hair. “Does anyone else have a question?” She was doing something with her lips, but it bore only a superficial resemblance to a smile. “No questions? Good. Then the sooner you dismantle the snowman, the sooner we can accomplish what needs to be done, and we can all go home.”

  Dave hunched over in a puddle of blood and vomit, bleeding and crying.

  Kate glanced his way and shot him again.

  Jen felt like she’d been dipped in ice. She wasn’t under any illusions. She and Keegan had been warehoused so the minute the Aina needed a bone, all fingers would point to them.

  Dave’s men worked fast and scared, taking the head from the snowman before they flattened the lump back into manageable slabs. They didn’t talk or laugh. One of them couldn’t stop crying. The others kept sneaking looks back at Dave, like they couldn’t believe he was really dead.

  Keegan turned and put his arms around Jen, holding her like she was fragile. Blood spread out under her cousin, dark and hard to see in the fading light. The rocks were so dry, it wouldn’t last long.

  “Once they start on the fuses, I’m going to create a diversion,” he said almost soundlessly. “There’s a backpack on the wall. Orange nylon, it’s a radio. Grab it and run like hell.”

  “No,” she breathed.

  “They’re going to kill you,” he gritted out.

  “They’re going to kill you, too.”

  A barrage of shots rang out from the courtyard where Kate’s security surrounded the temple. The sound of moving, of feet pounding, rose up the steps and exploded into a blur of motion as Corlis vaulted the edge of the platform, running low and flat out. Fallon followed screaming—what Jen didn’t know, because she couldn’t hear. All she could do was watch in horror as her aunt swung to shoot at their only chance of rescue.

  Corlis rolled to a stop, came up on one knee and sighted down her gun barrel, watching Kate with ice pale eyes. “It’s over. We took out your security. Drop your weapon.”

  Kate kept her eyes locked on Corlis in a deadly standoff. “You! You shot me, put the police on me, and interfered! For that you must die!”

  Fallon shoved Dave’s body out of the way. “Nobody move!” he shouted.

  “Her punishing hand,” snarled Kate.

  Fallon cut her off. “People are predictable. You say A, they say B—”

  “You desecrate Her sacred space!” shrieked Kate, her voice rising into a piercing crescendo.

  “And sometimes C,” he continued, ignoring her.

  Keegan looked through Kate like she wasn’t there, a trick Jen wanted for herself. “How did you know?”

  Fallon watched the Aina trapped down in the fissure. “You want to die, boy? Then c’mon up here. They brought Kate in,” he told Keegan, “then let her go. So we used Plan B.” He gave Jen a wicked grin, teeth flashing. “We called StallingCo Security.”

  One of the Aina scrambled over the wall and launched himself at Fallon.

  Fallon sidestepped, swung his weapon up and hit the man on the downswing. “Get your ass back over that wall and stay there.”

  Madness slid through Kate’s eyes. “Contagion!” she screamed. The big silver gun wobbled all over the place. “You infect my people with self-doubt.”

  Kimo lurched up the stairs, blood caked down the side of his face. “Get away!” he shouted. “You’ll ruin everything.”

  Corlis swung to cover him. Nobody saw Kate laugh, except for Jen.

  She shoved away from Keegan. “Aunt Kate?”

  “Liss! Get over here.” Keegan grabbed Jen’s flying skirt and pulled.

  Jen hit Kate at an angle. The older woman stumbled to her knees and her heavily embroidered gown slid through Jen's grip like water.

  Jen rolled on her back, kicking at Keegan. "Stop her!"

  “I’m trying to keep you safe!”

  Kate staggered toward the stairs. Chaos exploded across the platform as the Aina erupted out of the crevice after her.

  “Stop her! She’s going to destroy the Project! Hundreds of people will die! You have to stop her—”

  Corlis threw Jen a long look. “You’re too valuable—”
r />   “Your girl's freaked,” shouted Fallon. “Keep her down.”

  “I’m not hysterical—you’re not listening! Kate’s insane—” No matter how many times she laid out the information, they weren’t going to listen. Their job was to protect her. Jen shivered, feeling the cold ooze up through her still-damp dress.

  Keegan held on to her, his eyes conflicted. How long before his brother's needs overrode hers? He had to keep her safe. As her bodyguard, his hands were tied.

  A gun skittered past him. He grabbed for it at the last second and turned to push Jen into the cover of the retaining wall. “Stay here,” he growled. “Don't move.”

  Jen caught his hand. His eyes met hers—hurting and desperate, like every bone in his body was being broken, and he couldn’t do a thing about it. Then he was gone, and she was alone in an alcove formed where the wall ran into a pile of tumbled blocks.

  Across the way, Jen saw Kate pause on the top step to the temple, arms out wide like she was about to give a benediction. Percy wasn’t going to make it in time. Once Kate hooked up with the remnants of her security team, she’d light Frosty and whatever Terri had predicted would come to pass.

  Jen hesitated, heart up in her throat. If she died trying to stop Kate, Keegan’s brother also died. And if she didn’t? She peeked out across the platform. On the far side of the temple Keegan knelt next to his sister, both of them squeezing off rounds like they had an unlimited supply of ammo. The Aina were pinned down in the crevasse and nobody was paying attention to her.

  Jen got to her feet. “Aunt Kate!”

  Kate turned. “Yes, dear?”

  “Percy will help,” she said, grabbing at the billowing folds of the jeweled caftan. “Turn yourself in. It doesn’t have to be this way.”

  “You want to lock me away!”

  “I want to help you!”

  Kate turned away. “You already said that.”

  Jen tried to pull her back. Kate stumbled, her flailing hand reaching out to lock on Jen’s wrist. They fell, bouncing and screaming down the black stone steps. Bruised and sore, Jen sat up slowly. She was so tired, deflating now, as if the air had been let from her lungs. She kept her eyes on Kate, but Kate didn’t move.