The Fall and Rise of Kade Hart: A Hart Brothers Novel

by A. M. Hargrove

  Hands grip my arms and my attention is diverted back to the shadow that stands before me. He makes it clear that my bones could be instantly crushed if he so much as applied the slightest amount of pressure. He’s controlling his strength but his power is conveyed to me. It courses through my veins. I wince.

  “Explain yourself, and be very specific, Juliette.” He drags the word ‘very’ out. This man is not playing. At all.

  I tremble. I’m afraid of him, and he never gave me reason to fear him before. The tables have now turned.

  He shakes me and I feel like a Raggedy Ann doll. “Now, Juliette! We don’t have all day.”

  I can hear Kade again so I quickly answer. “I threw it into the sea.”

  “You what?” Each word is emphasized. Distinct. Clear.

  “I threw it away. Into the sea.”

  He leans down so we are nose to nose. I breathe in his scent. It’s something I’m unfamiliar with, but it’s more than pleasant. It’s heady. Almost intoxicating. I don’t like the effect it has on me. He sighs. He’s exasperated.

  “Stay focused, damn it! Where?”

  “I don’t know. Back there. Kade, where did I throw it?”

  “West of here, not far, but I don’t know the exact place. I can’t be sure. And stop man-handling her like that!”

  The shadow ignores him. “Do you know what you’ve done? Do you realize what you’ve done!” he shakes me and my teeth rattle.

  “Sabin! Release her!” one of the other shadows shouts, as Kade does the same in the background.

  The other shadow appears, and Sabin (I guess that’s his name) eases up on my arms. I’m sure I’ll be bruised tomorrow. But this entire thing pisses me off.

  I ram my face back into his, grit my teeth, and say, “Hell, no, I don’t know. And do you know why I don’t know? Because you wouldn’t tell me! After I begged you. I even tried to give the damn thing to you, you idiot!”

  “That’s not how it works. It’s not possible for me to take it!” he’s roaring at me and it’s so loud my ears are ringing.

  “She’s right,” Kade yells. “She tried to get information from you!”

  “Shut him the fuck up, Edge. Now!” Sabin yells back.

  “It’s true, you asshole,” I say.

  “Oh, you think calling me asshole is going to help? Believe me, I’ve been called a lot worse.”

  “I can see why.”

  Then he yells out, “Verus!”

  “Can you not talk in a normal voice? You’re ruining my ears!”

  “Shut up.”

  Another shadow moves forward and says, “Yes, sir.”

  “Can you use your monitoring and track where this hunk of plastic was in the last couple of hours?”

  “I can try.”

  “No, no, no! Wrong answer, Verus.”

  “You are such a buttwipe.” I call out to the other shadows, “I don’t know how you guys stand this jerkface.”

  He yanks me against him again, saying, “This jerkface is going to save your ass, or die trying.”

  “Will you just explain to me what it is about that necklace that’s so damn important?”

  “It’s not just a necklace. It’s Judgment Day, for fuck’s sake.” His nostrils flare as he seethes. Anger radiates off him in waves. He looks at Kade and says, “I want you to drive us to the vicinity to where you think ‘the necklace’ is,” and he says the necklace in a real singsongy voice. “Now, pretty boy.”

  Kade is released, starts the engine, and we set off. I pray he gets it right.

  “What the hell is Judgment Day?”

  “Seriously? And you were going to be a nun? I don’t fucking believe it.” The Sabin dude shakes his head.

  “Well, I know what Judgment Day means biblically.”

  “So, little girl, think about the end of the world, and figure the shit out.”

  Then a thought strikes me. “Hey, how did you get here? Where’s your boat?”

  He cocks his head and stares. The one standing next to him says, “Just tell her, Sabin. We’re going to put them through the wash and rinse cycle anyway, so what does it matter?”

  “Rafe, everything matters. This whole ops has been nothing but one massive fuck up. And if we don’t find Judgment Day, then what?”

  “I know, but we’re going to have to give them some kind of explanation.”

  Facing me, he says, “We didn’t come by boat.”

  “Then how—?”

  “Long story,” he bites out.

  This is getting really freaky. “Who are you people? Really? Are you with some super secret government agency that no one knows about?”

  “Yeah, we’ll go with that. The necklace, Judgment Day, is part of a weapon system called Paradox. It’s an activator. Neither can work without the other. The people who want you dead want Judgment Day, so they can either sell it to the highest bidder or go after Paradox and use it to destroy.” Then he sticks his face up against mine until we’re nose to nose and says in that husky voice of his, “And little girl, it can destroy.”

  “Like atomic bombs?” I ask.

  His eyes bore into mine as he shakes his head, very, very slowly.

  “Worse?”

  His head slices up and down once.

  “How much worse?”

  “One activation could take out this entire planet.”

  Oh, holymotherfuck.

  “But why me?”

  “One reason only. You put the fucking thing around your neck and until we get it back, its imprint is on your body. They can still find you and kill you. You don’t want to die, do you Juliette?”

  I shake my head.

  “Didn’t think so.”

  Twenty-Seven

  The Seven

  “Verus? What have you got for me?” Sabin yells.

  Juliette covers her ears. “Please, whatever your name is.”

  “It’s Sabin.”

  “Do you always speak loud enough to rupture everyone’s eardrums?”

  “When the world is in this kind of peril, you bet your sweet little ass I do.”

  “Can you not talk to her in such a derogatory manner?” Kade asks.

  “Oh, I forgot. The boyfriend is in the house.” Sabin never takes his eyes off Juliette.

  “Okay, stop! You are the most obnoxious, overbearing, prick.”

  He laughs. “You are the only one who dares speak to me as such.”

  “I’m not afraid of you. You’re nothing but a bully. Bullies are people who have no self-esteem, who only pick on those they can push around. Size. That’s the only advantage you have over me, Mr. Sabin.”

  “Drop the mister, and that’s not quite true. I have a lot of advantages over you, but I don’t particularly care to list them.”

  “Well, I insist.”

  Sabin instantly melts into the environment, blending in as if he weren’t there. Then he reappears.

  Juliette’s mouth is a yawning chasm. “How’d you do that? And that’s what you all would do every day, right? My shadows?”

  Sabin never blinks, then shouts, “Verus?” Juliette jumps a foot.

  “Getting close,” a voice comes back.

  His head turns to the left. “Not good enough. What about your tracer?”

  “Not picking anything up.”

  “How the fuck can that be?”

  “No idea.”

  His head swivels back to Juliette. “Do you have any idea how many problems you’ve caused?”

  “No! All I wanted to know was a little bit about that necklace, but NOOOO! You wouldn’t tell me.” Her face rises closer to his. She stands on her tiptoes. It does no good. He towers over her.

  “You really don’t want to go there. Do you know how many times we’ve saved your ass from getting flayed open by the Shaurok?”

  “I can’t answer that because I don’t even know what a Shaurok is.”

  “That night that I covered your body, little girl, with mine. The night I told you not to walk home in
the dark by yourself. Yeah that night, the night I took the beating for you, those were Shaurok. And they want your blood. In the worst way. And won’t stop until they have it. Oh, and don’t think just because you don’t have the necklace now they’ll forget. It doesn’t work that way. They feel its imprint on your skin. They know you had it. They smell it. Therefore, they’ll always want you.”

  His tone, and what he says, makes Juliette shiver. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me any of this?”

  “Because I was protecting you so you could live in your nice little fantasy world. Well, guess what, little girl, the shit’s about to get ugly.”

  Juliette glances at the guy next to Sabin and he only shrugs. She guesses he’s confirming what Sabin says.

  “What are you people?”

  “Nothing you need to know about.”

  “You used to be kind.”

  “You used to pay attention. And listen.”

  “We’re here, I think. To the best of my knowledge,” Kade calls out.

  “Verus! Now! What have you found? Anything? Get your ass up here.”

  “Just a minute.”

  “We don’t have a fucking minute!”

  Verus appears and has a device in his hand. “I’ve got something, not entirely sure it’s Judgment Day because it’s element is so faint, I’m barely getting a signal.”

  “How can that be?”

  “You’re not going to like this. I believe it was here, but it’s not anymore. It could be the trace of what’s left behind.”

  “Aw, fuck. Get down there and have a look for yourself. Take Helios.”

  Juliette watches, her mouth wide and gaping once again, as the two men jump into the water fully clothed without any masks to see or anything. A fleeting thought has her wondering if she’ll always feel like some stupid fish around these men.

  “What the—? How will they see? This is crazy. You all are just a damn bunch of kooks. I have never seen anyone jump in the water, fully clothed like that.” Then an idea strikes her. “Hey, are those Shaurok people, are they Russian mafia? Is that why I couldn’t understand what you all were saying?”

  Sabin’s gaze gouges into her, but he doesn’t answer. He’s so close to her; she notices how black his eyes are. Pools of ink, deep and dark, they pull her in. Images flit past, bloody figures lying ripped and mangled. But then he blinks and the thread between them snaps.

  Juliette rubs her eyes, wondering if she just imagined it. She turns her attention back to the water and speculates on whether this whole escapade is really happening. Seven men magically appear on their boat. Two jump into the water. Then she looks around and sees them. No, they’re here all right.

  “Hey, they’ve been under way too long. You need to check on them.”

  “Don’t concern yourself,” Sabin says abruptly.

  They’re down there for the longest time and never come up for air.

  “You need to check on them. Something must’ve happened. They may have drowned.”

  “They’re fine.”

  “No, really, they’ve been down without coming up at all. It’s too long. How can you be so damned nonchalant?”

  When no one responds, Juliette starts yelling, “Will someone just go and check on them? They could be in serious trouble. Don’t any of you even care at all?” She wrings her hands.

  “I said, they’re fine,” Sabin grits out.

  Rafe walks up and says to Juliette, “Don’t worry, they have um, an ability that will ensure they will not drown. Do not fear for them.”

  Juliette turns her attention to him. “An ability?”

  He shrugs. “We have certain abilities that you don’t possess.”

  Juliette stares at him in confusion. What kind of people are these? She looks around and assesses them. Everything screams military. The look, the build, they way they carry themselves. And this one in front of her, this Sabin, they way he orders everyone around, like he owns them all, must be their commander.

  “Where are you from?” she asks. She looks up for Kade and sees him watching her like a hawk. Did she imagine that slight shake of his head? It’s so dark; it’s too difficult to tell.

  “As I’ve said before, it is not your concern.”

  “It’s far too late for that,” she says.

  Sabin’s eyes possess hers, but he doesn’t speak.

  “You look human.” Juliette decides to push it.

  “Arrogance is such a ridiculous trait.”

  “I’m not—”

  “I could say you look human. Everyone thinks Earth is the only inhabited planet in the universe. But there could be hundreds.”

  “Are you saying—”

  “I’m not saying anything, except it’s a ludicrous notion not to expand one’s thinking. That is all.”

  “Sabin, shut it,” Rafe says.

  Sabin looks at Rafe like he wants to eat him for breakfast. “She’s only curious.” Sabin responds, not quite but almost under his breath, “And too damned intuitive for her own good.”

  Juliette says, “I saw a picture, an ancient one of a Pict woman wearing a necklace that looked like this one. Was that coincidence?”

  “There are very few coincidences in life.”

  “Was that a no?”

  Sabin sighs. “It was the same necklace.”

  “It’s that old?”

  “It is older than that. Paradox is ancient, created before man existed on this planet.”

  “How?”

  “I have no answers to that nor am I curious enough to seek them out.”

  “I’m sorry I threw the necklace. I didn’t know.”

  He releases Juliette’s arms. Her hands reach for them and immediately rub them, attempting to restore circulation. She tries to move toward Kade, but is pushed back in her place.

  “I released you but didn’t say you could move,” Sabin says.

  “If you can’t find it, are you going to kill me?”

  He huffs, “We don’t kill, we protect. I’ve already told you that. We only kill when necessary.”

  There’s a shout from Rafe and Sabin looks over the water to where Verus and Helios have resurfaced. Minutes later they’re back on the boat.

  Juliette watches the two men walk on board with what should be soaked clothing and hair, but theirs is as dry as hers. What the hell?

  “Nothing. We found where it was, but it’s gone now. Someone took it,” Verus says.

  “Shaurok?”

  “No. We didn’t pick up their trace at all.”

  “Fucking hell. This is going to be a long night,” Sabin says as he turns back to Juliette.

  Rafe asks, “What do we do now?”

  “We have to get them off this goddamn boat.” He turns to Kade and says, “Mr. Hart, take us to the marina. And make it as fast as you can. Rafe, guard him. We’re sitting ducks out here. I’m taking her below.”

  He grips Juliette’s arm and practically drags her.

  She tries to pull her arm out of his hand. “I can walk on my own.”

  “Go, and make it fast.”

  They go down and sit at the dining table. She reaches for the light switch, but he stops her.

  “No lights. Nothing to draw attention.”

  She raises both brows. “Like the sound of a running engine won’t do that.”

  “Look, I’m doing the best with what I have. You haven’t left me much to work with.”

  Juliette slams her hand on the table. “I’m tired of your shit. You know? I’ve been running from these assholes for almost three years, and I have no idea who they are. I didn’t even know why they wanted me until now. Try putting yourself in my shoes. What would you have done, Mr. High and Mighty?”

  “Maybe, just maybe, I would’ve listened to the people who kept saving my ass all these years!” his face is right in hers again.

  “Would you stay out of my face? Don’t they teach you people about personal space?”

  He grabs her chin and says, “You don’t get it
do you? You’re worried about personal space? I give them fifteen more minutes and this boat will be a damn hive of Shaurok. And I can guarantee you, they don’t give a damn about your personal space. They will be all over and in it. Then what will you do? Who will protect your boyfriend? Do you think he’s capable of fending them off? You don’t even know what they look like. You saw my back. You saw what they’re capable of. You know what they did to your family. Can you protect yourself, little girl? I didn’t think so.”

  Now that Juliette is more than sufficiently freaked, she grabs Sabin’s hand. “What will we do? Where will we go?”

  In his low voice, the one he used to use with her, he says, “That’s what I’m trying to figure out. But we have to get off this water, for your and Mr. Hart’s sake. Or the two of you don’t stand a chance.”

  Twenty-Eight

  Kade

  This trip was a huge mistake. I’ve put Juliette’s life in danger. But how could I have known? How could she have known?

  These men. I wish I could talk to her alone. But that’s not going to happen. Our best option is to do what they say. In some ways, I know they’re here to protect, though they’re awfully brutal about it. Now the leader has taken Juliette down below and I have to trust he won’t hurt her.

  But who are these strange people? Military? Government? I’m not sure they’re either. And when those two dudes popped up out of the water, jumped back on board, and weren’t even wet, what the hell was up with that? I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, but when one walked by, I made it appear that I accidentally brushed him, and he was dry! There is definitely something going on here. But what? I haven’t a clue. Right now, my best guess is that they’re some super secret government operative team. I never did trust the government. They probably have all kinds of things hidden from us.

  Now the question is, what are they going to do to protect her? Or is that even feasible anymore? Boy did I ever fuck up.

  Twenty-Nine

  Juliette

  “Sabin, why didn’t you tell me all of this before?”

  He leans forward on his elbows and steeples his fingers. His hands are scarred, like his face. But it only adds to his appeal, and much as I hate to admit, he is appealing. Or is it intriguing?