Warped (The Mercenary Series Book 2)

by Marissa Farrar

  “Cops?” I whispered to him.

  He shrugged.

  X knew as much as I did, but I hoped if the police had been planning a raid on the house, Detective Caraway would have let me know. Obviously, I wouldn’t have expected him to tell me before it happened, as I’d have been too much of a risk when it came to warning my sister and the word getting out, but if people had been arrested, and Nicole had been with them, I thought he’d have let me know.

  I knew my way around the house far better than X, so I led the way, pushing through the broken door and stepping into the hallway beyond. The staircase up to the first floor, and the bedroom where I’d assumed and hoped Nicole would be, was toward the front of the house, and we needed to pass the back of Tony’s office to reach it. My ears strained for any sound of movement, but I heard nothing. Normally the house had people coming and going all the time. The stillness of the building only confirmed to me something had happened.

  “Vee …” X’s voice was low with warning.

  I turned to glance at him, and he nodded forward.

  I looked back down the hallway. A little beyond the door to the library, a body was crumpled on the floor.

  We approached with caution. There was every possibility this whole thing was a trap, and the guy on the floor was actually alive and about to start shooting at us at any moment. But as my footsteps took me closer, X right beside me, I could see the black smear of what looked like oil in the dim light, but what I realized was blood. I also realized I knew who the body was.

  “Ah, shit.”

  It was Mateo, Nickie’s tutor.

  My heart sank. I didn’t give a shit about the tutor, but I knew Nickie wouldn’t have taken his death lightly, if she even knew he was dead. Where was she now? Was she still alive? For some reason, I told myself I would instinctively know if she was dead, as though we had some kind of telepathic connection, which I knew was total bullshit. I prayed she was simply worth too much to kill.

  The certainty that I wouldn’t find her asleep in bed solidified within me. Though I didn’t want to go in there, we needed to search Tony’s office and try to get an idea about what had gone down here. I jerked my head in the direction of the doors which led to the back of Tony’s office. X nodded, understanding what I needed to do.

  Cautiously, I pushed open the door, and then stepped back again, behind the shelter of the wall, expecting gunfire to chase after me. When nothing happened, I aimed my weapon and stepped into the office, X covering me.

  For a moment, I thought the place was empty, but then the big chair which sat behind Tony’s monster of a desk spun around to reveal the man himself sitting in its leather depths, cradling a glass of amber liquid—whiskey, I assumed.

  My stomach lurched and I pointed my gun directly at him, my finger trembling on the trigger. If it wasn’t for my need to know the location of my sister, I’d have shot him then and there.

  “Now there’s a face I wasn’t expecting to see again,” Tony said with a tight smile. “I certainly hadn’t expected for you to walk right back in here. Not to worry. You’ve saved me a job.”

  Movement came from behind us, and three men emerged—Warren and Paulie, and right behind them was Johnny. My old boss was the only one who wasn’t armed, and with the tape across his nose and the two black eyes, which I assumed X must have given him, he didn’t look in a great way.

  Both Warren and Paulie aimed their weapons right at the back of X’s head. I had one gun, which was pointed at Tony, and X would never be able to shoot both men before getting shot himself.

  I should have known Tony would never have just been sitting there without any protection.

  Tony’s gaze moved past my shoulder and focused on X. “Well, you seem to be a hard man to kill. Up until today, I thought your body was feeding the fishes at the bottom of the Hudson River.”

  “Takes more than a bullet hole to kill me,” X growled.

  Tony laughed. “We’ll see about that.”

  “What happened here?” I demanded. “Where’s my sister?”

  “Your father happened. You just missed him, actually. He was looking for you.”

  My blood ran cold. “He’s out already?”

  “I figured you already knew that.”

  “I’d hoped we’d have more time.”

  Tony shrugged. “Sorry, sweetheart.”

  “Where’s my sister?”

  He waved a dismissive hand. “Gone. Taken. By him. She wasn’t happy about it either. He shot the tutor I’d hired right in front of her. I actually felt sorry for the kid. By the scream she gave, I think she had real feelings for him.”

  My heart wrenched. God, poor Nickie. I knew how that felt, and she was far more vulnerable than I was. And she was back with our father. Would he hurt her? I prayed more than anything that he’d keep her safe, but I wouldn’t put anything past him. How could I?

  “He had a message for you, actually,” said Tony. “He said if you ever want to see your sister again, you’d better hand yourself over to him.”

  I gritted my teeth. “If he thinks I’m going to make things that easy for him, he never knew me at all.”

  Tony laughed. “I told him exactly the same thing.”

  “Why did he leave you alive?”

  He nodded to Warren and Paulie, who moved closer with the guns, pushing X farther into the room. “Because I convinced him that I would be more use to him alive than dead. It helped to have your old boss over there report back on where you’d been seen last, and that you had help with you.”

  I quickly looked over my shoulder and shot Johnny a glare. The older man shifted uncomfortably and glanced down at the floor. Why had he told Tony that he’d seen me? The only person he’d seen was X. The guy was obviously trying to get brownie points from Tony.

  “What are you even doing back here, Johnny?” I snapped. “Did you figure you hadn’t caused me enough trouble yet? What did I ever do to you?”

  Tony didn’t let him answer, and spoke instead. “Johnny said he wanted to know how you were getting on, which is sweet, isn’t it?” He said that in a way that made me think it was far from being sweet. “He may have been a little worried I wasn’t taking good care of you. What is it about you, Vee, huh, that makes all us men want to take care of you? Especially when you’re so damned capable of taking care of yourself? Or is it that we see you as a challenge, and that excites us?

  “Fuck you, Tony.” I’d wanted to say that for a while.

  “Lucky for me Johnny did come to the city, though, or I wouldn’t have known you had your friend with you. I find it’s best to be prepared about these things.”

  I turned toward my old boss. “I can’t believe you took his side. I thought we were friends, Johnny. Looks like I can’t trust anyone.”

  He shrugged and wouldn’t meet my eye. “Sorry, Vee. He didn’t exactly give me much choice. You know how it is?”

  “No, Johnny. Actually, I don’t know how it is. I’ve never taken money to betray the people who trust me.”

  His cheeks flushed red, and for a moment I felt sorry for him. If he hadn’t taken a chance on me and given me a job, he’d never have been dragged into Tony’s net. This was partly my fault.

  However, I wasn’t in a particularly forgiving mood.

  “So,” Tony continued, “the plan is that I deliver you to your father, and in return, he’s going to throw some business my way, and we’ll call it a truce.”

  My eyebrows lifted. “You really believe he’ll do that? As soon as he gets what he wants, he’ll shoot you.”

  “No, your father is smarter than that. He knows he’ll do better from me in the long run if I’m alive.”

  “And you’re happy with that? I thought you wanted to take over my father’s business, and instead you allow him to come and shoot up your house, kill your men, and then he orders you around like a little lapdog. I thought you were better than that, Tony.”

  His eyes narrowed and a muscle in his forehead twitched. “
It’s called being sensible. Perhaps that’s something you should start learning about yourself, Verity. For example, coming back here wasn’t the most sensible choice you’ve ever made.”

  I glared back at him. “I had to find Nicole. It’s called putting someone else before yourself—but you wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”

  “Perhaps you should have put your boyfriend before your sister, because now I’m going to have to shoot him.” He gave a sigh of exasperation. “Again. Only this time he’s going to stay dead.”

  Tony jerked his chin at Warren and Paulie.

  “No! Wait!” I yelled, pointing my weapon at Tony as a threat.

  But X wasn’t going to stand around and be shot. He threw his shoulder to one side, knocking Paulie to the ground. A shot went off, making me instinctively duck. The two men tussled, and a gun skittered across the floor, away from them. I glanced at it, trying to figure out if I could risk taking my aim off Tony long enough to go for the gun. Warren aimed his own weapon at X, but in the bundle of arms and legs, couldn’t get a clear shot.

  “Stop!” I shouted. “Or I’ll shoot Tony. I swear I will.”

  I was torn, wanting to use my gun to cover X, while knowing if I dared move it from Tony, he’d take advantage of that moment of weakness.

  But then something hit Warren from behind, throwing him forward, and I realized it was Johnny. A second gun went off, but X had gotten the advantage, and he lifted his fist and punched Paulie in the face. The crunch of bone splintered through the room, and Paulie howled.

  An arm locked around my throat, and a hand struck my wrist in a karate chop, causing my fingers to spring open and the gun to fall from my hand. I’d taken my eye off Tony for too long, and he’d realized his men were losing. Tony choked me hard, pain searing through my already bruised throat. I tugged at his arm, trying to pull him loose, but he was too strong for me. My breath was trapped in my chest, and I was only able to take the tiniest sips of air, barely enough to stop me from passing out. I stared down at the gun Paulie had lost, my eyes bulging. Would he try to grab it? If he did, he’d have to loosen his hold on me, and then I’d do everything I could to get free.

  “Let her go!”

  X had grabbed the gun he’d dropped and now stood in front of me, pointing it toward where Tony held me. My gaze cast over his shoulder, to where Paulie appeared to be semi-conscious. Warren was lying still, and Johnny was on his knees, clutching a bullet wound in his thigh.

  Tony was still unarmed. My eyes flicked to the gun on the floor again. Would he try to go for it?

  “Don’t move,” said Tony, “or I’ll break her fucking neck—you know I will.”

  “How do you think Mickey Five Fingers is going to react to that?” said X. “I can’t imagine he’d be too happy about you not keeping up your end of the deal.”

  “He wants her dead anyway,” Tony spat. “I’d be doing him a favor.”

  “You really think that? You’re kidding yourself if you do.”

  Tony’s hold around my throat tightened, and I gave an involuntary gurgle. The pain was excruciating, making my eyes stream and blurring my vision. I wished I could shout to X to just shoot him, but I couldn’t speak.

  “Johnny, pick up the other gun,” X shouted over his shoulder.

  Johnny looked up, his eyes wide, his face pale. “What?”

  “You owe Vee. Help us now.”

  Fresh panic filled the older man’s features, but he leaned to one side and reached out to snag the fallen weapon.

  “Johnny!” Tony snarled. “Don’t you fucking dare betray me. I’ll ruin you.”

  Johnny managed to stand. “You already have ruined me. Ever since you first walked into my bar. And it isn’t you I betrayed, it was Vee.”

  He was limping, but he was on his feet, moving past the fallen men to stand with X.

  A shot went off, and Johnny staggered forward then fell face first at my feet.

  X spun around and fired. Warren had regained consciousness and shot Johnny in the back. Perhaps he’d been aiming for X and missed, I had no way of knowing, but X returned fire and Warren collapsed backward, the bullet finding home.

  Tony used the moment of confusion to dart for the gun. His arm was still around my throat, and he dragged me with him, but the change in direction was enough to loosen his hold on me, allowing me to suck in a long lungful of air. Tony snatched up the gun, but X had already turned back around. He must have noticed Tony’s hold wasn’t so tight.

  “Vee, duck,” X yelled.

  I lunged to the side as much as I could, creating a clear path between Tony and X. The bullet he fired was so close I felt the movement of it through the air as it flew past my cheek and struck Tony in the throat.

  “That’s for ever laying a hand on Vee,” X said, as the other man crumpled to the ground in a pool of his own blood.

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  X

  I took deep satisfaction in watching Tony the Hound bleed out on his office floor. I knew Vee would have liked to have killed him herself, but there hadn’t been time to worry about requests.

  She ran to me, and I pulled her against me, holding her tight.

  “Are you okay?” I asked. I held her at arm’s length so I could see her poor, bruised throat, and the further injuries that son of a bitch had caused her.

  She nodded and said, “I will be,” but her voice came out as a hoarse whisper.

  I hugged her again and kissed her hard.

  “We need to get out of here,” I told her. “We can’t be found surrounded by dead bodies.”

  The man Tony called Paulie was still alive, his face mashed by my fist, which was throbbing. I released Vee and stood over him. “If you see Verity’s father—Mickey Five Fingers—tell him that we’re coming for him. Got it?”

  His eyes started to roll in his head, as he was about to pass out. I gave him a shove with my foot, snatching his attention back to me. “Got it?” I repeated, my voice more forceful.

  The man managed to nod, and I turned my attention away from him.

  Vee was standing over the body of her former boss, her hand to her mouth. “This wasn’t really his fault,” she managed to croak. “He didn’t deserve to die.”

  “Plenty of people don’t deserve to die.”

  “But he wouldn’t have even been involved if it wasn’t for giving me a job. I must have this black cloud hovering over me that destroys the lives of everyone I come into contact with.”

  “Bullshit. The only black cloud you have is your father. Once we get rid of him, everything will be fine.”

  She looked at me, her dark eyes serious. “So we’re going to kill him?”

  “I don’t think we’ve got any choice.”

  “And what about Nicole?”

  “We take her with us, if she’ll come. I suspect after seeing your father kill that man—Mateo—she might have started to realize you weren’t the one responsible for your mother dying. Maybe she’s started to see the bigger picture, and how much you’ve been trying to help her.”

  Her chin jerked in the faintest of nods. “I hope you’re right.”

  I bent and picked up the guns Tony’s men had held. It wasn’t as though they’d be needing them, and I figured we probably would.

  We didn’t want to be seen leaving the property, so we left the way we’d entered, cutting through the back of the building and stepping over the body of Nicole’s tutor. I worried the sound of gunfire would have alerted others in the area, and I didn’t want the cops showing up. The wall was higher on this side—the ground having been dug down during the construction of the property—so it took us a little longer to get over without the help of a rope. I was able to help Vee, as she was still weak from her ordeal, but then I stepped back to get a good run up. Moving as fast as I could, I ran toward the wall and jumped. I slammed into it, crunching my ribs and expelling the air from my lungs in a huff. My fingers slipped from the brick, taking part of my skin with it and tearing a nai
l, but then Vee grabbed me and pulled me up, just as she’d done on the way in.

  I was still concerned about Giovanni Bianchi possibly being on my tail, but we’d dealt with Tony, so now we needed to do the same to Vee’s father, and then we could get the hell out of the city. I still had images of Vee sipping cocktails in a bikini somewhere in Mexico dancing around my head, and I wasn’t going to allow a couple of asshole gangsters take that from me.

  We ran back to the car, and I grabbed the keys from where I’d hidden them above the wheel.

  I unlocked the door and we both jumped in, breathing hard.

  I turned to Vee. “Where now?”

  “My father’s place,” she said, her hand at her throat. Her voice sounded better, but was still grating. “I have to go there. He’ll only track me down if I don’t. We’re armed, and he has Nicole. I have to do this. I have to face him, whatever the consequences.”

  I didn’t want her to. The thought of losing her made me not want to live, but I knew I’d never persuade Vee not to do something when her mind was made up. Besides, the man was still her father. He’d caused her more heartbreak than any man should ever cause a woman, and it wasn’t my place to tell her no.

  She gave me directions, and I started to drive, the gun wedged between my knees.

  We waited at the lights, impatient for them to turn from red to green. I glanced over at her. “Whatever happens, Vee, know that I love you.”

  She turned to me and gave me a brave smile. “I love you, too. Meeting you was the best thing that could have hap—”

  Something slamming into us from behind cut off her words. The impact threw us forward and shoved the car farther into the road, past the stop lights.

  Had someone just rear-ended us?

  “X?” Vee cried, glancing over at me in confusion, her fingers gripping the dashboard.

  “What the f—”

  I didn’t get the chance to finish before something hit us again, pushing our vehicle farther into the stream of oncoming traffic. I glanced back to see a truck rammed into the back of the car. I shoved the car into gear and released the handbrake, ready to pull out of the way, when Vee let out a scream.