Chapter Twenty-Nine
F rom his vantage point on a neighboring roof, Crow watched until the Erebus and Genesis assassins left the building.
He didn’t need to linger or wonder where they were headed, he’d memorized their license plate.
Clenching his teeth, his mind raced. It had taken him months to find Blue’s warehouse, but Erebus and Genesis had found it in a matter of hours.
That Blue didn’t come out was a sure sign the guy was dead, and that fucked with his plans.
Without Blue, it was going to be harder, but not impossible, to complete his mission.
Reaching the access door of the building, he grabbed the door handle just before a force slammed into him.
The hit took him off his feet. Painfully, Crow hit the asphalt roof and small pieces of gravel dug into his arm.
Rolling, Crow launched sideways, trying to get his feet beneath him, but the weight of the man took him down again.
The fucker was big.
Crow sent his elbow into the man’s face and went for his eyes through the hooded mask.
Rolling away, the big guy was up and circling him. The fucker moved fast. Faster than Crow had ever seen for someone his size. Dressed in all dark clothing and a black trench coat, the guy had to be an assassin, Crow would bet money on it.
Slowly, the guy slid the long coat from his shoulders and dropped it to the ground. Two short swords crossed at the assassin’s back.
Crow honestly didn’t have time to dick around with this shit. He reached for his own short swords and pulled them free.
The man did the same.
Rather than circling, Crow swept in, slicing and slashing. He cut the fucker’s black shirt open, leaving a wide gap in the material.
He had hit skin. The man’s exposed chest showed blood welling from the cut.
With a hiss, the assassin attacked overhead with one blade—thrusting straight at him with the other, it was an experienced move and it was all Crow could do to defend for a moment.
Knocking the blades away, Crow gained the advantage and sent his boot into the man’s stomach, putting the guy on his ass.
With one cross slice, he could take off the guy’s head and leave him up here for bird food.
He moved in.
Snick.
Instinct had Crow diving for cover. The burn of a bullet nicked his calf.
“Rogue!” A darkly dressed figure shouted and leaped onto the roof, running and shooting at him.
Snick.
Snick.
Snick.
It was time to retreat.
Racing to where Rogue had fallen on his ass and then sprawled to his back, Wrath yanked the big man up into a sitting position.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“You shouldn’t have interfered,” Rogue croaked.
“The fuck you say,” Wrath growled. Crouching down, he yanked off Rogue’s hood. He cupped the man’s face in his hands and ran his eyes over Rogue’s face, then his hands down the man’s neck, shoulders, and arms until he spotted the sliced-open shirt.
“He fucking cut you.”
“That guy was good,” Rogue mumbled, sounding confused.
“Hey.” Wrath patted the man’s cheek hard and Rogue jerked away.
“What do you want?” Rogue snarled at him, shoving him away.
Wrath stumbled beneath the impact, but he was nimble enough to stay balanced on the balls of his feet.
“We need to go.” Wrath kept his voice even and scooted closer to hold Rogue’s gaze.
The man reached out and gripped his shoulders with hard hands. The angry light in Rogue’s gray eyes was like an unspoken fuck off .
“I told you to stay away from me.”
Wrath shook his head at the gravelly whispered words.
“I can’t. Now, let’s fucking go.” He yanked Rogue to his feet and retrieved the man’s jacket. After jerking it around Rogue’s shoulders, Wrath shoved the assassin toward the access door that led to the stairs.
“Wrath…”
“Hmm?” He kept his eyes on Rogue at all times so he was looking at the assassin when his name was called.
It was a good thing because he might have missed the pain replacing the rage in those gray depths.
“Don’t believe in me.” Rogue disappeared through the door.
“Why not?”
Rogue’s answer drifted back to him as the assassin jogged down the stairs.
“I’m not a good man.”
Crow’s heart was pumping when he leaped over the side of the building and landed in an open industrial trash can.
Rogue.
The assassin he’d almost killed was a member of Erebus.
Fuck.
He gained distance and pulled out his cell phone, wincing as he walked. The blood from the bullet wound had soaked his sock and the inside of his boot.
His boss answered on the first ring.
“Did you find him?”
“No, sir. There’s no sign of Steven. He may have had his name changed.”
“You sound winded.”
“I had a run-in.”
“How bad is it?” the man sighed.
“The situation is bad. I want to kill that son of a bitch so badly.”
Crow stepped into a crevice between two neighboring buildings to keep himself from being seen.
“I know, but you can’t. Not yet.”
He knew that.
At least his boss realized how fucked up this was. Plus, there was a problem with killing the fucker and it was a big one. If he choked the life out of Tanis, then he would not be able to find Steven.
And Steven was his mission.
“What do you need from me?”
“Honestly? I don’t know. I have the former SecDef’s assassin team after me and Genesis will probably be barking up my ass here soon. Why don’t you call Dave?”
“That’s not a good idea.”
“I don’t understand why the President didn’t take this to Dave in the first place,” Crow said.
“Dave wants to retire.”
“I thought he was retired.”
“Not from the specialty teams.”
Crow tiredly leaned his head against the wall behind him, and sweat dripped from his soaked hair. His calf was throbbing.
“See what you can do and I’ll run some things past POTUS,” his boss said into the silence.
“Okay, I’ll check in tomorrow.”
Ending the call, Crow left his hiding place, got into his car, and drove to his temporary home in Ventura. He had shit there to take care of the bullet wound.
Going to a hospital was not an option for him.