by Rucker, Shay
“Bluntly stated, but Zeus is correct,” Terry said. “Sometimes people have prices. Governments harbor people all too willing to be bought.”
Sabrina let her head fall back on the love seat and closed her eyes. She wouldn’t sleep, just rest, listen, ask. She didn’t have the energy or the mental capacity to answer any more of their questions without accidentally saying something she shouldn’t say.
“So what happens next?” she asked.
“You rest, dear girl. We’ll watch over you,” Mama said.
“I take care of myself,” she muttered. “I always take care of…” She sighed, overcome by a crescendo of darkness.
“WEIRD THING OUT at the warehouse, Mama. It might have nothing to do with nothing, but we thought it best to check in around it,” Lynx said.
“What did you find?”
Lynx was silent for a moment. “Fresh wounds, bruising, multiple contusions on the head and throat areas of the kidnappers. At least two of those men took a hell of a beating. Didn’t think it was your style to beat ’em first and slice them up after, Zeus.”
Zeus paused in his downstroke on Sabrina’s leg. “I just cut.” He shrugged. “Nothing more.”
“Ante up, Lynx. I told you he didn’t do it.” Big Country rubbed his fingers together, anticipating his winnings.
“It was her,” Price said. “It had to be. More than likely the third or fourth man knocked her unconscious from behind. Something about that woman just doesn’t sit right. I don’t trust her.”
“You not trust, Price?” Coen said. “So surprising.”
“Sounds like she had it rough growing up, makes sense she would know how to defend herself when attacked,” Big Country drawled.
“I don’t see her beating the shit out of two grown men like that,” Coen argued. “I held her when she was on that warehouse floor. She was shaking with fear; there was no fight in her.”
“I don’t like it,” Price said.
“You don’t like much,” Coen stated.
Zeus looked up to see Bride watching him stroke Sabrina’s leg. She looked perplexed. He winked at her. She sneered at him.
“So what does it mean to you that she turned the tables on her attackers?” Big Country asked.
“It means we may want to watch our backs around her,” Price said. “Doesn’t anyone else find it peculiar that after the last few strikes against the Consortium, there’s a stranger in our midst, a supposed victim of Kragen, who has the ability to do what no one in his organization has been able to do since our first attack—put a face to their unknown enemy. A big coincidence our last mission involved exposing their role in the exploitation and abuse of the women in Hallow’s House, and we just happen to intercept information that, coincidently, leads us to a woman taken for Kragen.”
“Maybe we acted too hastily bringing her here, but we couldn’t have just left her there,” Coen said.
“You don’t seem so confident in her innocence anymore. Wonder what she’d think about it?” Zeus said.
Coen had the good sense to avert his gaze.
“Should we really be having this conversation with her right here? She could be detailing everything we say,” Lynx said.
“She’s asleep,” Zeus confirmed.
“No harm, Zeus,” Price said, “but I’m not quite ready to trust the judgment of a man who isn’t always an active part of this reality. Who just happens to think he’s strengthened by some spirit-possessed blades.”
Zeus didn’t take offense. He didn’t care about Price’s opinion or his ability to perceive reality. He’d said what he knew. Sabrina was asleep. Shifting, he pressed his back more fully against the base of the love seat and brought both knees close to his chest, placing his feet flat on the ground. He liked the feel of Sabrina’s leg pressed flush against his shoulder and chest, her foot dangling limply near his navel. Slowly he removed the flip-flop and massaged her leg from knee to toe.
“Should he be doing that?” Lynx asked Big Country.
“You gonna make him stop?”
“Hell,” Lynx said, burrowing deeper into the recliner, “it’s not my leg.”
“Zeus, you really shouldn’t handle her body without her permission,” Almaya said. “But she is indeed asleep and will likely stay that way for the next five or six hours depending on how her body metabolizes the sedative I put in her drink.”
Price leaned forward, placing his elbows against his knees. “So what are we going to do?”
“We know she’s clean,” Big Country said. “No tracking or electronic devices attached to or in her. Checked her at the warehouse, and she didn’t trigger the system when she entered the bar. Kragen’s group has no extra eyes or ears on her. In that sense she’s truly lost to him right about now.”
“We know, for whatever reason, Kragen wants her,” Terry said. “Either she’s working for and with him, or she truly needs to be protected from his plan for her. And, guys, have no misunderstanding, he will be in a cold rage over this. Unlike the attacks on the Consortium, the women are damned personal for him. She is personal to him.”
“Can you dig deeper into Sabrina’s history?” Almaya asked.
“Can a bat shit acid?”
“I hope that means yes,” Coen said to Price, who nodded wearily. The man who’d led the warehouse run looked close to burned out, tired to his soul.
Is that what working with the Brood does to well-meaning men, Zeus wondered.
“What about Kragen?” Big Country asked.
“Lynx, you, and Bride?” Mama requested.
“Consider it done.”
“Sniff him out; put a tail on him; call him our bitch,” Bride mumbled.
She was weird. Not like a normal woman. If the need to have Sabrina hadn’t been dominating his attention, he would have made Bride his new project. Her strangeness spoke to him.
“Should we move Sabrina to a different location?” Coen asked.
“I’ll take her,” Zeus volunteered. “We’ll hole up, work some things out till Almaya says it’s safe to return.”
Almaya hushed the objections that erupted around the room.
“Thank you for the offer, Zeus, but we’ll keep her here. Between you, Terry, and me, I’m sure she’ll be well looked after.”
As gracious as she was, and as much as he respected her courage, he didn’t like being told no. That’s why he didn’t usually ask for anything. Almaya had approached him about a month ago, after he’d just ended a hunt. She hadn’t been afraid of him when he’d been wild-eyed and soaked in blood. She’d talked to him easy, not like she knew him but like he knew her, trusted her. Her courage and his curiosity were the only things that had kept him from killing her. No sane person should’ve approached him when he was on a hunt and expected to live. Yet here they both were.
“What about me and Coen?” Price asked.
“Until we have some direction, you can hang out here. But I do have a small errand for you,” she said with a slight smile that held a hint of guilt.
“Yeah?” Price asked, looking wary, reluctant.
“Simple drop-off. Juarez will want to return to his family to heal. You will take him there.”
Coen groaned, and Zeus wondered if Juarez’s family was as irritating as Juarez was.
“He’s going to be in a hell of a bad mood when he’s conscious again,” Price said.
“I can dispose of him,” Zeus offered. “It’ll be quick. He bitches, I cut out his tongue. Solves the problem of his overworked mouth permanently.” There was something about this group that made him feel generous.
“We’ll drop him off, Mama.”
Zeus shrugged. He didn’t want to be separated from Sabrina anyway, but with her asleep, she wouldn’t have even known he’d been gone.
“It’ll be interesting to learn how Kragen reacts to the message Juarez left in the glove compartment of the kidnapper’s truck,” Lynx said.
“What message?” Price asked, tensing.
All eyes
except Big Country’s, which closed in disgust as he shook his head, turned to Lynx. “Like Juarez, seems you need to learn the art of shutting the fuck up, brother.”
“Using the digital printer in Big Country’s van, Juarez printed one of the pictures I took of Sabrina when we first arrived at the site. He put it in the glove compartment of the truck after writing ‘Look what I found’ on the back,” Lynx said, looking uncomfortable.
Zeus pressed his cheek against Sabrina’s knee. “Bet you all wish I had sunk my blade a little deeper. I can still drop him home if you like.”
“What the hell were you both thinking?” Almaya demanded.
Old Mama doesn’t sound so benevolent anymore, Zeus thought as she snapped at Big Country and Lynx.
“Just for the record, I was finishing up in the warehouse. I didn’t find out until after,” Big Country said, holding up his hands in surrender.
“Taunting Kragen is not a smart idea,” Terry said.
“That’s only if Kragen is the one to pull the photo,” Mama said. “It’s just as likely that the police, the fire department, some random civilian could find the message. They’ll figure out there’s an unidentified woman linked to the warehouse, and they will also be looking for her.”
“Naw,” Big Country said. “Lynx drove the truck to a place in the hills up from the area. Kragen has a tracking device on it. His people will more than likely be the ones to find the photo. The warehouse isn’t tied to Kragen in any obvious way, so there shouldn’t be a link to him, the truck, or the bodies inside the warehouse.”
“So what, we wait as Kragen heads back home, locks down all his less than legal activities, and waits until it’s safe to go after Sabrina again?” Price asked.
“He won’t hole up. It’s a matter of pride and ego,” Terry said contemplatively. “Remember, she’s personal to him. This will be an opportunity for him to display his superiority. He’ll accept the challenge. He’ll come for her just like he came to the Bay Area to get her in the first place.”
“Just so you all know, I told Juarez not to leave the photo,” Lynx said.
A pillow flew, hitting Lynx dead on in the face.
Mama’s satellite phone rang, and Terry reached beside him to answer it. “Yeah?”
There was a pause as Terry listened; then he rose, waving them toward the decompression area. Almaya preceded him to the lower level, reaching for the television remote.
“Thanks, London. Keep us updated on the police’s investigation,” Terry said before disconnecting.
Zeus watched the others trail behind Almaya like well-trained puppies. He heard the television turn on, heard the channel being changed to a news report in progress.
As the others huddled around, blocking the sight of the television screen, Zeus looked up and over his shoulder. Finally he had Sabrina to himself. Unlike at the warehouse, this time he didn’t mind being left with her. He wanted it, wanted it bad, wanted walls and doors with bolts and a… No, he didn’t even need a bed.
“Eyewitness Randy Leon reports he made a phone call to 911 when he heard a violent confrontation happening in his neighbor’s apartment. Mr. Leon was unable to identify the assailants but was able to identify a dark-colored truck fleeing the scene. If you are just joining us, a missing persons report has been issued for Sabrina Samora, who is believed to have been violently assaulted and abducted from her home. Her assailants are as yet unknown, but the police have issued an all-points bulletin for an extended-cab, dark-colored pickup truck, with the first three digits on the license plate of 5DT…”
“And whose idea was it to leave the photo in the glove compartment again?” Terry asked.
Zeus moved Sabrina’s leg from over his shoulder and crawled backward onto the love seat. He shifted her body onto his lap. The press of her ass against his groin… He grunted as his dick hardened from the soft cradling press ready to do its part on both their behalves. He tucked her head into the crook of his neck, aware of the nuances of her scent. On the surface, the floral of Almaya’s lavender-rose bath gel and the citrus-bergamot lotion, but underneath, the spicy earth scent, uniquely hers, made him want to bury his face in her deepest recesses.
“What the hell,” Price said, returning. Zeus sighed and pulled his hand from beneath Sabrina’s top, where he’d begun to stoke his thumb over her abdomen.
“She was cold.”
“That’s bullshit.”
“Yeah,” he said, tugging on, then releasing, a twisted loc to watch it spring back into place.
“Zeus, please carry Sabrina to the blue room,” Almaya requested as she returned to the front room. He stood with Sabrina in his arms, feeling a deep sense of satisfaction he usually only experienced when using his blades. Almaya was seeing the value of letting him have the woman. Between Kragen on her tail and the cops, maybe Almaya believed this would be Sabrina’s only opportunity for pleasure before she was free of them. He frowned. Something was off about that, her being free of him, leaving him.
“Zeus, why are you growling? I thought you’d rather take her to the room than allow one of the others to do it.”
“I’ll take her,” he said, ignoring the others as he walked toward the decompression area, where a door, indistinguishable from the wall, led to the second sublevel of Mama’s house. The blue room was a good place for Sabrina to sleep because it shared an adjoining door with the brown room, the room he was using. Both of the connecting doors had to be unlocked to pass through, but he doubted Almaya would lock Sabrina’s door now that she wanted them to have sex. He smiled inside. Despite having to deal with the Brood, taking this assignment was turning out to be one of the best decisions he’d made in a while.
Almaya followed him out of the room and down the stairwell that led to the sleeping quarters. He glanced over his shoulder and frowned, wondering why she was trailing behind them.
“You know, despite the fact that Cizan recommended you, I offered you a place in the Brood because you belong here. I know it might not seem as if you do, but I have a sixth sense about these things.”
“You couldn’t have kids? That’s why you created this facade of a family, isn’t it?”
She laughed. Most people didn’t usually respond that way to his questions.
“No, nothing stopped me from having kids. I learned early the ugly side of youthful vulnerability, and I choose to fight for the ones who haven’t yet learned to fight for themselves. The Brood helps me do this. There are a lot of children, of people who need to be fought for. As I moved about the world doing my work, I found that once you take someone into your heart, claim them as an essential part of you, it doesn’t matter if you’re connected by blood or not; you’re connected, and you do all you can to see to their safety and happiness.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
She laughed again. “You will.”
He guessed this was her attempt at playing the mama the rest of the Brood identified with.
Almaya stepped around him and opened the door to the blue room. Like the other rooms designated by color, the blue room was decorated in various shades of blue. He walked to the queen-size bed and placed Sabrina on it, shifting her so he could pull the covers around her. He sat on the bed and unbuttoned his jeans before Almaya stopped him.
“Thank you for your help. I’ll make sure she’s all tucked in before I lock the doors.”
He frowned over at the connecting door. “She’s not going to like waking up alone.”
“I’m sure she’ll cope.”
Zeus walked back out into the hallway. He stood in front of the door long after Almaya had closed it in his face. He turned and walked the few steps to his door. It was chilly inside the room. He walked directly to the California-king-size bed without turning on the lights. Stripping, he lay on top of the covers, hand reaching down to fist his hardening erection. He imagined Sabrina naked in his bed, her legs straddling him as she sank down, sheathing him over and over again as she fucked him without mer
cy. His hips surged up to meet each downward stroke. They fucked, hard and primal, his grunts, her pleading. He came hard as she screamed out. His body relaxing as he imagined her falling forward, a nipple prodding his lips until they opened and he sucked it in, flipping her onto her back and hammering into her until he came a second time.
As he closed his eyes, feeling only partially satisfied after coming, Zeus resolved that he was going to have to get her away from the others if he was going to make the fantasy real. He needed that hard fuck with her in real life. He slipped into the shadow realm between sleep and wakefulness, the closest thing he ever got to true sleep. He had so many things to teach her about satisfying him. So many places in her body he could stick the one blade he was born with.
* * * *
Less than two hours before dawn, Almaya settled in the bed beside Terry, relaxing as he pulled her into his arms.
“You know, this whole situation has the makings of some very messy business.”
“I know,” she said.
“You know she’s hiding something.”
“I do know.”
“Yet you’re allowing her to remain with us.”
“I know it goes against good sense to keep her, Terry, but something tells me she’s supposed to be here.”
“And him? What happens when he’s no longer able to keep his urges in check? You know it’s inevitable, Almaya.”
“I know.”
He turned out the light and settled her beneath him, lightly kissing her neck, her cheeks, her mouth. “Almaya, Almaya, Almaya, the all-knowing one. Let me share some things I know.”
Chapter Three
Maxim William Kragen III left his suite at the St. Regis in San Francisco’s SoMA district determined that the day would be better than the one before it. He hadn’t slept in over twenty-four hours. He’d left New York with the sweetest anticipation and arrived at SFO only to be enshrouded by dense fog and the more demoralizing knowledge that the one he had come thousands of miles to retrieve had escaped his men—his dead men, per reports about the bodies found in the burned-down warehouse—and was missing. A police investigation was underway, and news reports about the bloody abduction of Sabrina Samora were being broadcast over every local news station at what seemed like two-minute intervals.
