by Maya Banks
For that matter Eli didn’t strike her as the type to hire others to do his dirty work, either. He’d looked her up personally after the deal in Singapore.
That only left Esteban, and maybe he was making sure she hadn’t set him up. She’d find out soon enough.
She didn’t want to take the impending confrontation too public, so she veered off the main stretch and ducked into the narrow alleyways lining the back streets. It was quieter back here, though certainly not noiseless.
She kept her stance casual as she rounded the next corner, but as soon as she was out of sight, she flattened herself against the building and waited.
Suave Guy turned the corner a few seconds later, and she lashed out with a kick to his midsection. He doubled over and stumbled back. She launched herself at him, but he recovered quickly, landing a fist to her mouth.
Her head flew back in pain as her lip split. The metallic taste of blood filled her mouth. She spit, and it spattered on the street.
“At least you don’t hit like a pussy, despite appearances to the contrary,” she taunted.
His eyes flashed at the insult, and he swung again, but this time she was prepared. She blocked his fist, planted her boot in his balls, and when he folded over with a bellow of pain, she slugged him and sent him sprawling to the pavement.
She wrenched her knife from the inside of her jacket and followed him down, pressing the blade against the crotch of those nice, expensive slacks. She rotated her wrist in one of those flashy moves Mad Dog had taught her that was more for intimidation than anything else.
“Unless you want to lose the jewels, you tell me who the fuck you are and what you want.”
His eyes betrayed him. His gaze skittered beyond her face, and she saw a glint of satisfaction.
She reacted solely on instinct, whirling and thrusting with her knife. It collided with a muscular arm, and she lost her grip on the handle as the blade slipped deep.
A hand snaked around her ankle and yanked. She fell forward, scraping her palms on the jagged cobblestones. She rolled and arched upward, snapping back to her feet.
She faced not one, but two pissed-off men, desire for her blood burning bright in their eyes.
She backed cautiously away. “Not that the knife doesn’t look good on you, but I’m rather attached to it. It was a gift. So I’d like it back if you don’t mind.”
The second attacker calmly reached up and gripped the handle and yanked the knife out of his arm in one clean motion. She winced. That had to hurt.
She reached down to slide the two knives from her boots. She rose gracefully, twirling the handles expertly in her palms, letting the smooth leather dance between her fingers.
They circled each other, the unarmed man taking refuge behind the man with the knife.
He swiped first, testing her. She easily leaped away. He pressed in closer, trying to box her in. She kept a wary eye on Mr. GQ as he sidled over to the left.
When he reached down for a piece of metal pipe lying in the alley, she threw one of the knives. It landed with deadly precision right in the side of his neck.
He went down like a rock, blood spewing like a geyser from his carotid.
“That leaves just you and me,” she said calmly as she sidestepped to keep a safe distance between her and the remaining man.
He grunted in response and whipped the knife in an intricate pattern in the air.
“Is that supposed to scare me?” she asked. “Come on, slick. You’ll have to do better than that.”
To his credit, he refused to let her bait him. He continued to stalk her, and Tyana knew she needed to end things quickly before they were discovered.
The man rushed her. She felt the slick steel cut through her skin as his knife slashed through her upper arm. Refusing to allow the pain or surprise to make her falter, she dropped to one knee and rammed her fist into his balls at the same time she slashed at the hand that held the knife.
Her blade met bone, and she heard the clatter as the knife fell from his hand. She dropped and rolled, reaching for the other knife. She lunged to her feet a few yards away, ignoring the pain in her shoulder and the overwhelming odor of blood.
She tensed, prepared for another attack, but the man merely glared at her then turned and sprinted down the alleyway, blood dripping from his arm.
She didn’t waste any time herself. She yanked the knife from the neck of the dead man and wiped it clean on his pants. She looked down at herself, and apart from the blood smeared on her jacket, she wasn’t too much of a mess.
She slipped the jacket off, put her knives back in her boots and covered the remaining knife with her jacket. At the end of the alleyway, she found a bucket of dirty water and rinsed the blood off her boots so she wouldn’t track it out of the alleyway.
Her arm hurt like hell, but a quick glance told her it wasn’t too bad. The blade had just glanced off her skin, cutting a shallow gash about two inches long. It could have been a hell of a lot worse.
She hurried on to the hotel and snarled at the doorman when he took one look at her, turned his nose up and wouldn’t admit her. She gave him Esteban’s name and waited with ill-disguised impatience as he called up to verify her identity.
A few moments later, he uneasily escorted her to the elevator and ushered her in. The lift opened into a penthouse where she was met by two men who looked like poster children for steroid use.
When they tried to pat her down, she yanked the blade out from under the jacket and pointed it under the chin of the one with his hand on her shoulder.
“I suggest you back the fuck off,” she hissed. “I’ve had about all I can take this afternoon. You touch me one more goddamn time, and you’ll lose that hand.”
“Jorge, let her go.”
Tyana looked up to see Esteban standing across the room, an amused smirk on his face. Then she saw the man who’d cut her in the alley standing just beyond Esteban.
She stalked over to Esteban.
“You sleazy motherfucker. What’s your game? You want to hire me, I say yes, and then you try to kill me?”
She pulled back to punch him but a hand gripped her wrist and squeezed painfully. She turned to gut the son of a bitch when again Esteban barked a command for his man to back off.
“Leave us,” Esteban ordered.
The three men complied, and she was left alone with Esteban.
“Come, sit down,” he said as he walked into the lavish sitting room.
She followed but opted to remain standing so she could see every entrance to the room.
“Why’d you try to kill me?”
“I wasn’t very successful,” he said pointedly.
“Your men are inept and fight like damn pussies,” she sneered.
Esteban chuckled. “Which is why I hired you to go after Eli Chance instead of sending them. You impress me. Maybe I just wanted to see what kind of muscle I was hiring. I’d say you passed with flying colors.”
“You gave up one of your men for a test?”
He shrugged. “He was expendable.”
“Nice,” she drawled.
“Enough about him,” Esteban said with a wave of his hand. He sat and crossed one leg over the other as he extended his arm along the back of the couch. “We have other matters to discuss. Like Eli Chance.”
She nodded. “Eli Chance in exchange for the antidote or cure or whatever you want to call it for my brother.”
“Alive,” Esteban said. “He must be alive or the deal is off.”
“I think you made yourself perfectly clear when we spoke before. Now tell me where to find him.”
Chapter Twelve
Jonah surveyed Tyana’s empty room and barked a directive into his radio. One by one his security team checked in. No one had seen Tyana or knew her current location.
He let out a vicious curse and turned and stalked down the hallway toward Mad Dog’s room. He flung open the door, and Mad Dog, never one to sleep much or very deeply, rolled out of bed, silver g
linting in his hand.
“What the fuck?”
“Tyana’s gone. Any idea where she is?”
A flash of fear speared Mad Dog’s blue eyes. “She’s not on the island?”
Jonah shook his head. “Last time she was seen was last night around ten when she went up to see D before heading to bed.”
Mad Dog got up from the floor and tossed his knife back onto the pillow. Then he reached for his pants and yanked them on. He turned back to Jonah. “Let’s go see if D knows anything.”
Jonah hesitated. “It might not be a good idea to upset him.”
Mad Dog swore. “If she’s gone, he’s going to know it soon enough. Those two are attached at the hip. You can’t protect them from everything, Jonah.”
Jonah nodded curtly and walked into the hall. Mad Dog was right, and he wished he could stop the knot that was growing in his stomach. Ever since Damiano had taken the Americans into Adharji, things had slowly spiraled out of control. And now Jonah feared he was no longer able to protect his team. His family. Just as he hadn’t been able to protect so many others from his father all those years ago.
He and Mad Dog walked past the guards at Damiano’s door and entered quietly. D was awake, standing at the window, staring unseeingly over the water. His hand dangled at his side, a piece of paper held between his fingers.
He turned slowly to look at Jonah and Mad Dog, dullness edging his dark brown eyes.
“She’s gone,” he said simply and held the paper up.
Jonah yanked it away and read the short note written in Tyana’s neat scrawl.
We’re going to beat this, D. Believe that. Don’t worry about me. I can take care of myself, and this time I’m going to take care of you. Be back soon. Ty.
Jonah balled the paper in his fist and sent it flying across the room. Mad Dog, who’d been reading over his shoulder, cursed and ran a hand through his shaggy hair.
“How can she be so stupid?” Jonah gritted out. “She’s going to get herself killed. How does that help any of us?”
Raw helplessness seeped into his chest and paralyzed him.
“You don’t understand,” Damiano said, and he sounded as helpless as Jonah felt. “Ty feels like she owes me. She’s always felt like she’s owed me. No matter what I say or what I do to try and make her understand, she looks at where we were and everything I did to protect her, and she feels guilty. But God, how could I not? She was a child. A tiny little thing too young and innocent for the hell we lived in. I was all she had, but she was all I had until you and Mad Dog.
“As crazy as it makes me for her to feel the way she does, I understand it, because if the positions were reversed, I’d do whatever I could to help her, fuck you and anyone else in my way.”
Jonah saw the pain, the uncertainty in Damiano’s eyes. He knew that he and Tyana had been through hell before they’d struck out on their own. After two scraggly kids attempted to pick his and Mad Dog’s pockets on the streets of Prague, Jonah hadn’t ever stopped to examine the reasons why he took them in.
Running from his own past and mistakes, Jonah had teamed with Mad Dog under the patronage of Burkett, a wealthy businessman with more shadows than dusk. With Burkett’s money and Jonah’s determination, he’d turned two misfits into honed fighters. Later they formed Falcon Mercenary Group, first only doing work for Burkett, but as their reputation grew, they expanded beyond Burkett’s umbrella and became independent.
Still, they owed him a lot, which was the only damn reason Jonah allowed Esteban on his island. He needed to glean what information he could from Burkett about Esteban and his connection to Eli Chance, but first he was going to give Tits a call.
“We’ll find her, D,” Jonah said quietly. “And I’m going to haul her ass back here where it belongs. After I’m done with her, she won’t have much of an ass left, but at least it’ll be here where she’s safe.”
“I want in,” Damiano said in a determined voice.
Mad Dog muttered a no even as Jonah was shaking his head.
“I know how important Ty is to you,” Jonah said. “But we can’t afford any distractions. The best thing you can do for her and us is to stay here and concentrate on beating this thing.”
Damiano’s face twisted in a sneer. “Don’t fucking patronize me, Jonah. I know what I’m dealing with here. There isn’t a cure, no matter what Tyana wants to believe. No serum, no antidote. I’m stuck like this. I have to learn to deal with it. That’s on me. No one can do it for me. For Ty I can do whatever it takes. You’re not leaving me in the dark. Not when it comes to her.”
Jonah and Mad Dog exchanged frustrated glances. It was obvious that if they left him, he’d pull a Tyana and go off on his own. And that wasn’t an option. The last thing they needed was an unstable wild shifter on the loose. He’d get his ass killed.
Goddamn, but there were times when Jonah wished to hell he’d never laid eyes on those two gangly kids.
Mad Dog shrugged. “He’s a big boy, Jonah. Time to cut the apron strings.”
“Hey, fuck you,” Damiano growled. But a glint of humor lit his eyes, the first sign of the old Damiano Jonah had seen in a long time.
In that moment, he realized that maybe this was what D needed. Not to be treated like a freak. To give him back his position on the team and ride his ass just like Jonah had always done.
They’d all been so wrapped up in their worry that they’d started treating him like he was damaged. Less than human. An animal.
Tyana’s accusing eyes and her furious words flashed back to Jonah. She was right. He’d treated D like an animal.
He glanced sharply up at Damiano. “You’ve got a half hour to get your act together and meet us downstairs. I’m going to be on the horn with Tits because I know that bastard was the one who helped Tyana off the island.”
He turned to Mad Dog. “I want all the intel you’ve collected on Eli Chance, and get the chopper out here pronto. If we can get to Chance before Tyana then we can eliminate the threat and be there when she shows up.”
“And if we don’t beat her to him?” Mad Dog asked.
“He dies,” Jonah said simply. “He’s already signed his death warrant. You and I have been over this already. Tyana’s leaving had nothing to do with it. He was going down regardless. As long as he exists, Tyana’s never going to stand down.”
Mad Dog nodded then clasped Damiano’s shoulder. “Glad to have you back, brother. Now get your ass in gear. We’ve got some ass to go kick.”
Jonah turned and walked out, and Mad Dog followed closely behind. As they hit the stairs, Mad Dog bumped Jonah on the arm.
“Now you mind telling me what the hell we’re going to do if he spazzes out on us?”
Jonah sucked in a deep breath. “Call Marcus. Ask him what we need to bring, whether it’s drugs, tranquilizers, sedatives, and ask his advice on how much stress he thinks D can take. We’ll just have to keep a close eye on him.”
Mad Dog nodded and trotted down the remaining steps, disappearing around the corner. Jonah stalked into his office and picked up the phone.
A few moments later, Tits’ distinctive drawl bled over the line.
“Jonah, my man, what can I do you for?”
“Cut the bullshit. Where is she?”
“Where is who? You lose your girlfriend?”
Jonah clenched his jaw. “You know damn well who I’m talking about. What the fuck were you thinking, Tits? She’s going to get her ass killed. And I swear to God, if that happens, I’ll fucking gut you and feed you to the sharks.”
“Ty’s a big girl, dude. Chill the fuck out.”
“You don’t seem to get it,” Jonah snarled. “She’s in way over her head. The guy she’s after has already gotten to her twice. She’s lost all perspective. She’s gone off half-cocked riding high on emotion. You tell me, Tits. Would you want someone like that working under you?”
There was a long pause. Then Jonah heard several indecipherable swear words.
“She�
�s not going to forgive me for this one, man.”
“I don’t give a shit. All I care about is making sure she stays alive.”
Tits sighed. “I put her on a private jet to Paris. Gave her money, weapons and a fake passport. That’s all I can tell you. She wouldn’t say much more.”
“Much, you said much,” Jonah said, latching onto that little tidbit like a pit bull. “Which means she did say more. You tell me every goddamn word.”
“She was hooking up with Esteban, the guy who wanted to hire you guys to take out Eli Chance and his team.”
Jonah swore. “If you hear from her, if she asks you for anything else, you fucking sit on her until I get there, you read me?”
“I don’t take orders from you,” Tits growled.
Jonah hung up before he hurled any more curse words into the phone. Next on his list was a call to Burkett to find out his connection to Esteban and why Burkett had arranged the meeting between Esteban and Falcon.
He sat down and stared at the phone for a long moment before picking it back up. He punched in Burkett’s private number and waited.
“Jonah, what can I do for you?” Burkett’s gravelly voice bled over the line, harsh, like rocks.
“You’re so sure it’s me,” Jonah said dryly.
“No one else has this number.”
Jonah leaned back in his chair. “I need information, Paul.”
There was a surprised silence.
“What kind of information?”
“Esteban Morales. What is your connection to him, and why did you turn him on to us?”
There was another long pause.
“Is Esteban a cause for concern?” Burkett asked.
Jonah simmered impatiently. “That’s what I’m trying to determine. I need to know whatever you can tell me about him.”
Burkett sighed. “He’s an old friend. Well, not a friend exactly, but I owed him a favor. He came to me and asked if I’d put in a word for him with you. He wanted a job done, and I knew you were the best at handling discreet matters.”
“How the hell would he know you were in any way connected to Falcon?” Jonah bit out.
