Die for Me

by Nichole Severn

  Nicholas glanced behind him, backing up until his legs hit a chair against the wall. He sat, supporting his injured leg over the other. He crossed his arms over his chest.

  Her gut instincts flared. He was trying too hard to make it seem like he’d always been normal, an everyday man who hadn’t killed dozens of people for her stepfather, maybe even more.

  Torrhent studied Nicholas in her peripheral vision, noting he never took his eyes off her. She finally gave him her full attention. “That’s it? You’re just going to sit there?”

  “If that’s what you want.”

  The uneasiness in the back of her mind took its stand at the front of her thoughts. Where was the assassin who’d framed her for murder? Where was the man who followed orders to the letter? Where was the murderer? “What do you mean if that’s what I want?”

  “You’re smart, Torrhent.” Nicholas gave what she thought was a smile, but couldn’t be sure. The smile disappeared before she had a chance to look again. “I’m sure you could figure it out on your own.”

  “Is this a joke?” She couldn’t decipher the gimmick he’d dealt, but she would. She wasn’t used to it, but if he wanted to wait, she’d make him wait. A flicker of hope flashed across her brain, a hope more deadly than relying on a former hit man to help her get her revenge. Nicholas was loyal. He’d never leave Isaac unprotected unless ordered to. But if Isaac ordered him to, that meant someone else protected him, someone better than Nicholas, or her stepfather was dead. The former was almost impossible to imagine.

  “It’s Adelaide, isn’t it?” A pang of jealousy centered itself in her chest. Seemed like everyone had focused on Taigen’s sister.

  Anger made a small appearance in Nicholas’s eyes, but he smothered it faster than she thought possible. “So it seems.”

  “Where does that leave you?” Torrhent couldn’t believe herself. She sat in a jail cell, the third in her short life, talking to the man who’d framed her for murder like they were old friends. She didn’t care if he’d been replaced, but the possibility of Nicholas gone rogue frightened her. “So you’re bringing me in to get back in his good graces.”

  “I knew you were smart.”

  Torrhent nodded absently, lowering her head back toward her knees. “So what are you going to do? Kill the officers out there? Shove me out the window to avoid them?” The memory of climbing down from a third-story window at the county jail in Los Angeles crossed her mind. It’d been Taigen’s idea of an escape. She could only hope Nicholas’s plan didn’t involve heights.

  “They’re already taken care of.”

  She should have known as much.

  “They’re still alive,” he added, pulling her attention back to him.

  “Why?” She shouldn’t have asked, but it slipped. “If they realize what you’re doing here, they’ll arrest you or shoot you. Then me.” Was he really so stupid? It didn’t make sense. “Then again, I don’t think I’d care.”

  “You look just like your mother when you’re angry.” His expression relaxed, the corners of his mouth pulling up slightly.

  Torrhent wrenched herself from the bench, gripping the bars as hard as she could. “Don’t you dare talk about my mother!” she screamed. “It’s because of people like you that she’s dead. Murderers. Thieves.” She glared at him with everything she could muster in the sense of loathing. “And I hope you all rot in hell.”

  She pushed herself away, turning her back on him.

  Not a good idea.

  Suddenly, she was yanked backward. Nicholas’s forearm threaded through the bars and around her throat. She fought to breathe, to break his hold on her.

  “Don’t presume to know me, Ri-Ri.” Nicholas’s voice was calm, dead even. He let her go after a few more seconds, letting the weight of his words sink in. “You have no idea who you’re dealing with.”

  Torrhent fell forward, sucking in as much air as she could. The stitches in her stomach were bleeding again. She gripped the soaking spots with one hand and worked to turn around to face him, but couldn’t move. He’d called her Ri-Ri, the nickname only her mother had used until she’d died.

  “Why’d you call me that?” she said with a husky voice. “How do you know that name?”

  Nicholas didn’t answer, stepping away from the bars. He turned his back on her.

  She pushed herself to her feet, massaging her throat and holding her side. It was stupid for her to get so emotional, but she needed to know. “How do you know that name?”

  In that moment, she didn’t care about living through the night. She didn’t care a hit man had pretty much pledged himself to her the night before or that Isaac might get away with murder. She wanted to go home.

  Nicholas confronted her again, his face tense. “Because I was the first one to call you that.”

  Torrhent’s mind went blank. Her mouth hung open and she snapped it closed quickly. Her stomach recoiled, bile rising in her throat.

  “I knew your mother before she met Isaac.”

  The words were simple enough, but meant so much.

  Torrhent doubled back over, heaving. “She knew you were . . . She knew . . . you . . . killed . . .” The cell spun. “You—” Her eyes darted from him to the floor and back, her mind trying to understand what he told her. “I can’t take this.”

  She slumped against the wall. She could barely keep breathing. “Are you?”

  She couldn’t even say it.

  Nicholas let her settle, relaxing back into the chair. “I’m not your father, if that’s what you’re worried about.” He paused, his eyes distant. “I loved her for a long time before she met Isaac.”

  She nodded slowly. The world righted itself after a few more deep breaths. “You came here to tell me that?”

  “No.” He leaned forward, meeting her gaze. “But it was bound to come out. I thought I should be the one to tell you.” His features softened, the scar running from his forehead to his chin crinkling around the edges. “You have her eyes.”

  She wanted to laugh. “You framed me for a murder my stepfather committed.”

  She wedged herself against the wall and pushed herself up, splitting more of the stitches in her torso. Gritting her teeth from the pain, she wrapped her arms around herself. “I was sent to prison because of you, and now you want to tell me you and my mother were in love?”

  She swallowed hard, making sure her throat would be clear for the next words out of her mouth. “I don’t give a shit what you two had, so you’re either going to take me back to Isaac or get the hell away from me.”

  “That kind of talk may work on Banvard, but it won’t work on me.”

  Torrhent wanted to ask what they’d do with Taigen, but she kept her mouth shut. She ran the show now. It was her turn to give orders. She stood straight, shoulders back. “Are you going to take me to Isaac or what?”

  “Cut the charade,” he snapped. “Your life isn’t the only thing at stake here.” Nicholas pondered a moment, his scarred hand raised to his chin. “For this to work, you have to do exactly what I tell you, understand?”

  “For what to work?”

  “My plan to put your stepfather rightfully in his place.”

  “And where’s that?” Torrhent’s chest ached. Her breathing had settled, but something familiar pulled at her. Hatred? Anger? The emotions were there, but buried beneath something stronger.

  “Prison.”

  She wasn’t sure she’d heard him right. “You want to have Isaac arrested?”

  Torrhent held back the laugh that would surely give away her disbelief if her tone hadn’t already. “Why?”

  “Do you know how your mother died?” Again, his eyes darted toward the floor.

  “What does that have to do with anything?”

  His gaze reconnected with hers. “Because she started this whole thing. Her murder was payback against Isaac.”

  Torrhent didn’t respond.

  Nicholas approached the bars. “You’ve played the victim for so long, but
you don’t even know the truth. Isaac wants the position of commissioner.”

  “What the hell is that?”

  “It’s the highest rank within the underground MMA ring.” Nicholas cut her off with a raised hand. “Before you ask, your mother didn’t know about his extracurricular activities, but she was pulled into it all the same.”

  Torrhent swallowed hard. “He killed her?”

  The idea nearly buckled her knees. She gripped the bars as hard as she could and was taken aback when Nicholas’s hand covered her own.

  “Not directly.”

  “Either he did or he didn’t!” Her breathing grew out of hand again. She worked to calm her insides, but the pain in her chest, along with the pull of the stitches on her stomach, made it almost impossible. “She loved him. She—”

  “The former commissioner felt threatened by Isaac,” Nicholas said. “The council agreed your stepfather shouldn’t rise in the organization and they gave a man named Keller the contract to do the deed.”

  Torrhent’s mind reeled. None of this made any sense. “My mother was killed because of stupid office politics?”

  She pulled away from the bars, out from beneath Nicholas’s touch. “Isaac wouldn’t have left her alone if he felt threatened. Someone should have been there to protect her!”

  “I was.”

  “But you failed and she’s dead.” The words were surreal. Torrhent couldn’t even be sure if she was awake. “Because of Isaac.”

  “Yes. Now, do you want your justice or not?” Nicholas asked, his voice level, rough.

  She inhaled deeply, closing her eyes. Flashes of her mother’s bright red hair, the same red hair she’d colored over to save her life, danced in front of her eyes. A smile, gray eyes and freckles followed. Torrhent had lost pieces of her mother’s features and she wanted nothing more than to make Isaac pay for it. Because of him, she’d lost her closest friend. She opened her eyes. “Yes.”

  “Good.” Nicholas smiled then, a small scoff escaping his throat. “We have to lose your tail first.”

  Taigen.

  She should have known he’d watch her back. The thought sent a chill down her spine. “Then what?”

  “We give Isaac what he deserves.”

  “How?” Torrhent sauntered forward, her fear morphing into hard determination.

  Nicholas kept her gaze, the terrifying killer returning before her eyes. “You’re going to have to die.”

  * * *

  Taigen had lost them.

  Either Nicholas was better than he’d thought or the skills he’d relied on nearly his entire life had taken a serious turn in the wrong direction. He was inclined to believe the former, but the latter is what kept his thumb over the send button on the cell phone.

  The throwaway phone waited for him to make a decision, the rental car pulled over to the side of the highway egging him on to keep driving. Nobody was out this time of night, making his next action ominous.

  He pressed send.

  The line rang four times and he was about to change his mind when a familiar voice filled his left ear.

  “This is Grant.”

  Taigen tried to convince himself calling the man who’d betrayed him was the best option to get her back, but couldn’t decide if he did it for his sister or Torrhent. “Guess who?”

  “Are you fucking crazy? I’m hanging up,” the voice snapped.

  “Don’t hang up, Marcus.”

  “Why not? You’re a fugitive, running around with another fugitive. I could lose my badge for talking to you.” Marcus’s voice went down in volume.

  He wasn’t alone.

  “Who else is there?” His eyes darted to the rearview mirror, where a pair of headlights advanced. Within seconds, they were gone, but his paranoia hadn’t gone with them.

  “Fifty other guys trying to catch bad guys like you. I’m at the office.”

  He wasn’t assured. “You’re a shit of a liar, but I don’t have time to play games with you. I need a team sent to Isaac Rutler’s house.”

  “Is this a joke?” The cop didn’t wait for an answer. “Don’t you remember what I told you, Banvard? I’m done. With you. With your sister. Everything. I can’t do this shit anymore.”

  “Even if a girl’s life depends on it?” His voice slid into his English accent. Taigen hoped Marcus felt the weight of his words.

  “Christ, I know that tone,” Marcus said. A thump echoed in through the earpiece. Marcus had hit something. Hard. “What did you get yourself into?”

  “Nothing I can’t handle with an ATF team at my back.”

  Silence on the other line led him to believe Marcus either took direction from someone else or was in the process of making a decision. “If I give you a team, you, Adelaide, all of you are going inside. Do you understand?”

  It was a warning of sorts. Trullio was directing Marcus, and it meant she intended to catch a flight to New York either way. They’d be arrested. “Yes. I understand.”

  “Good. Don’t do anything until the team gets there.”

  The line went dead.

  Taigen put the car in gear. It took him a few seconds to pull back onto the highway, his thoughts running wild. What condition would Adelaide be in? Were Torrhent’s stitches bleeding? What would he do to protect her?

  He didn’t want to think about it, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to wait for ATF.

  Chapter 16

  Torrhent realized her mistake as she struggled against the ropes around her wrists and ankles. She’d been shoved in the back of the oversized van, her hands tied behind her back. The tape over her mouth had begun to itch five minutes into the ride, but she couldn’t move. She sat in total darkness. Only the sound of the engine had kept the silence at bay for the long drive to New York. She had nothing to barter with for her life, and Taigen’s words became real. She’d die at her stepfather’s hands.

  “We’ll be there in twenty minutes,” Nicholas said from the driver’s seat. His warning echoed in the back of her mind.

  In twenty minutes, she would die.

  She’d known the day would come, but still couldn’t prevent her hands from shaking. Close to twenty minutes later the van stopped. They’d reached the front gate. She followed along with the sound of the keypad as Nicholas typed in the gate’s four-digit code. The gate creaked open.

  All too soon Nicholas pulled her out of the van by the arm. He set her on her feet and she had to work to stay upright. The drive had made her legs fall asleep hours ago. Cutting the ropes around her ankles, he didn’t speak, didn’t meet her eyes, just led her in through the familiar back door of the house she’d called home up until a year ago. The darkness made it difficult to make out any differences since that time, but one stood out: more guards.

  They turned a corner and she knew exactly where he’d take her as they ascended the stairs. The room where all of this had started, the room that had changed her life forever when she’d found the body of Romano Yanez: Isaac’s study.

  Torrhent tried to keep her eyes down as Nicholas nudged her inside, but the silence made her buried curiosity burn. Her eyes went up and her heart stopped.

  “Torrhent.” A smile spread across Isaac’s face as his arms widened, ready to receive her back into the fold.

  It sickened her.

  Nicholas pushed her down onto her knees, keeping a hand on her shoulder.

  A figure to the right rose from one of the chairs at the desk. She was petite, moving carefully, as if thinking about every step. Like a dancer. Her eyes were a fierce green Torrhent had never seen before, but it was the white-blonde hair that gave the woman’s identity away.

  Adelaide.

  She was the woman Taigen had dedicated his life to.

  Something made Torrhent study her, a tic she couldn’t pinpoint. Adelaide’s lips moved silently as if she were speaking to herself, her eyes darting across the entire study. Unfocused.

  “I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time,” Isaac said. He walked towar
d her slowly, his suit pristine, hands relaxed at his sides. “I thought I’d lost you there, but you got through it.”

  He crouched down in front of her, their gazes connecting. “Did you really think your plan would work, bringing an assassin back here to kill me?”

  She inhaled slowly, closing her eyes. Flashes of Taigen swept through her mind, bits and pieces of their time together over the last two weeks. Torrhent clenched her hands into fists, her nails biting into the palms of her hands to keep her focused. She’d come home for a reason. She opened her eyes and nodded. “The night isn’t over.”

  * * *

  The two men at the gate would be easy enough, but the four at the front door presented a problem. His best option would be to make his way into the house from another entry point, but Taigen didn’t have the time to scout it out. Torrhent had been taken inside fifteen minutes ago and he didn’t know how long Isaac’s welcome would last.

  “Back door secure,” one of the radios squawked.

  So there was a back entrance. Possibly one with fewer men to disable.

  Taigen kept his cover against the wall, crouched beneath the shadowed overgrown trees. The darkness shielded him for the time being, but if he moved in either direction, the moonlight would give him away.

  All he had to do was get into the house.

  Bingo. The window on the east side of the house would do just fine, but the hired gun standing in front of it put a wrench in things. He needed a distraction. Checking the clip in his 9mm, he inhaled slowly one more time.

  Throwing a rock simply wouldn’t work. No. He needed something bigger.

  The duffle bag over his shoulder weighed him down but held the supplies he needed. Taigen backed down the driveway the way he’d come and darted across the street. Pulling open a Volkswagen’s gas tank door, Taigen shoved a shirt from his bag down into it. He glanced back over his shoulder to ensure the flame from his lighter wouldn’t be spotted from the house and lit the end of the shirt.