Chapter 30 Vigilante Justice
Vigilante Justice
…survival is natural to everyone; being unexpectedly thrust into the life-or-death struggle of survival is not.
— U.S. ARMY FIELD MANUAL
Kingston leapt at Lucas with his Hunter knuckles, and the fight disappeared from view. I leaned through the door. Miller jerked his weaponed hand toward Lucas, his knife arcing wide.
Luke pushed them off, twisting to swipe his blade across Kingston’s wrist. Blood spewed from the wound, but he held on to his weapon, retreating.
I’d never seen him fight, and I could see why people feared him, why he was known as merciless and cold-blooded.
Even outnumbered, Lucas was lethal. Kingston and Miller hesitated before each move, keeping too far for Lucas to do any real damage.
He hurled one of the karambits at Kingston, who dove out of the way. Luke leapt at Miller.
His strikes were controlled, powerful.
Forward. Down. Retreat. Repeat.
No frills, no heroism. He fought to survive, and to survive meant to kill.
Miller’s practiced defense failed when Lucas drew blood from two swings to Miller’s chest. Kingston rejoined the fray. The three of them circled, searching for advantages. I remained quiet, hidden, until Miller landed his blade across Luke’s arm, and Kingston lashed at his chest.
Blood spilled, and all thoughts of staying away fled. I tripped into the room, clenching my knife. With a running start, I leapt onto Kingston’s back, sinking the point of my blade into the base of his throat.
Blood spurted over my hand. He choked, stumbling backward from the fight, and I dug the knife deeper, refusing to stop when I met resistance.
He fell, taking me with him. I landed on my back.
Silver sparks ruptured across my eyes with the lightning that struck my wounds. A moan wrenched from my throat.
Still, I yanked the knife from the dead man’s neck, and life-giving blood spilled from his body.
For Tekqua, I thought with vindictive satisfaction.
I shoved the body off me. Lucas lashed out at Miller, who defended himself with a quick raise of his arm. “What the fuck are you doing, Scott?”
Lucas advanced. I scrambled behind Lucas, my heart pounding.
Miller’s gaze bounced between us. “Oh, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me. Is this why you were such an asshole today? Develop a savior complex?”
Lucas kept his blades out, hands steady.
Miller glanced at his dead friends and spat blood. “I’m assuming Blake’s dead?”
Lucas said nothing.
Miller’s jaw slackened with sudden understanding. His gaze landed squarely on me. “You had Hunter knuckles.”
My heart squeezed tight as he put it all together.
“You had fucking Hunter knuckles.” He spat blood onto the floor again and glared at Lucas. “Goddamn it! You’re the spy? You killed your friends and turned traitor for this fucking whore?”
Still, Lucas said nothing, though I wondered whether he’d mention his sister.
“No pussy is worth this, man. I’ve had her enough times to know she isn’t anything special.”
I clenched my fist around my weapon, longing to rip it across his body.
Miller sneered at me. “Though I suppose I did like the way her throat felt around my cock.”
My stomach dropped. I had no recollection of that. Had I… Had I lost memories? Maybe he was lying. I was fairly certain I would’ve bitten it off, even under threat of death.
I expected Lucas to lose his temper, but he countered with, “I doubt it’s big enough to reach that far.”
Miller’s keen green eyes turned calculating, searching.
In a flash, Lucas threw his remaining karambit to the floor and pulled something from his waistband.
It whizzed toward Miller, catching him above the knee.
With a scream, Miller collapsed to a kneeling position.
He ripped the throwing knife from his body.
Lucas threw another. Miller fell backward, the blade buried in his right chest.
Yanking a spiraled knife from a holster, Lucas dropped to his haunches before Miller, holding the deadly weapon to his throat. “You’re lucky. If she weren’t here, I’d cut out your intestines and make you eat them.”
Miller tracked the blade in Lucas’s hand with the focus of a man who knew death hunted him. “Luke, think about this. If you kill me, you’re a dead man. You’re the only one left? That’s suspicious. Leave me alive. We’ll play it off like she killed them.”
Lucas raised the dagger.
“Or I can get you out!” Miller said, desperate now. “I have contacts. I can hook you up. I’ll make sure they don’t come after you. You weren’t even here tonight. No one will ever know.”
The dagger touched Miller’s throat.
“Please,” Miller said.
“You hear that? He’s begging, Sophia.”
I smirked at Miller. Vicious pleasure rolled through me. “I like the way he begs, don’t you?”
Miller’s mouth went slack. “Sophia? Is that your name?”
Lucas’s wicked knife whipped through the air and pinned Miller’s right wrist to the floor. “You don’t speak her name,” he snapped, his calm slipping.
Miller screamed. Barely restrained savagery glittered on Luke’s face. He wanted to do awful, cruel things to this man before him, and I was the only thing holding him back.
My mind cast back to that sheet Lucas had given me months ago, the list of Miller’s strengths and weaknesses.
Will always underestimate a woman.
I snatched one of Lucas’s discarded karambits. One swipe, and a bleeding gash opened from Miller’s mouth to his temple, barely missing his eye. Blood flowed from the wound, dripping down his neck and reddening his teeth. The split flesh dangled from his face, and his eyes blazed.
Panting with pain, attached to the floor, Miller cursed. He twisted, jerking his pant leg up to his knee and reached down.
Lucas yanked on my wrist. I tripped behind him.
Miller extracted a small handgun from a concealed holster around his calf and aimed. In the time it took Luke to shield me, Miller was able to get off a single shot.
The deafening bang startled my every sense. I screamed. Lucas jumped on him, grabbing his left wrist. It knocked him flat on the floor. Several more shots thundered while they struggled.
I leapt to Lucas’s side. He had one hand on Miller’s wrist and the other on his elbow. I went for the gun. Once I had the warmed metal in my hands, I pointed it at Miller’s forehead, squeezing the trigger without guilt.
Nothing happened.
Miller laughed, teeth scarlet, as I threw the gun at his shredded face. Lucas fell back, gripping his arm to his chest. Blood dripped to the floor, but he pushed himself up. “Sophia, you have to go now—”
A shout from the front of the house caught our attention. “Colonels? We heard shots—”
Miller screamed for help. Still pushing me away, Lucas yanked his spiral blade from Miller’s wrist, and rammed it through the most fatal place he could reach. Footsteps entered the house.
Lucas grabbed my hand.
We ran, slipping through the doorway. I met the eyes of one guard, who stared in confusion as Lucas darted past.
His voice echoed behind us as we reached a side door. “Colonel?”
“He attacked us!” Lucas sent them on a false trail. “He’s back there!”
Behind us, Jack screamed, “Get him! Don’t let him get away!”
The guards headed further into the house as we burst into the chilly night air.
We fled down the dark neighborhood street, Luke cradling his arm.
I tried not to step on anything too sharp.
Adrenaline faded fast, and my back screamed at me.
Every jolting step throbbed like fiery knives in my flesh.
Rocks dug into my bare feet. My gaze darted left and right, peering at the dark houses.
An engine roared to life behind us, and Luke jerked me to the side. He pressed me against the trunk of a large oak, his arms on either side of me, caging me in.
“Shh.”
I struggled to control my ragged breathing, each breath louder than the one before.
A Humvee sped by.
Lucas dragged me onto the street while shouts echoed behind us.
The silver Jeep was parked where he said it would be. I scrambled into the passenger seat and handed him the key he’d given me earlier. We zoomed down the street without headlights, whipping past guards who shouted and ran after us.
Driving in silence, the stress of the last few minutes washed over me. My heart pounded, and the images pulsed with each beat.
Panic set in.
“Hey,” he said, voice eerily relaxed. “It’s okay. Breathe. You’re almost done. A few more minutes and it will be done.”
No, it wouldn’t! We’d killed five of his fellow Blood Colonels. How would we ever untangle the knots we’d tied? My hands shook. Stained with blood, I tried to wipe them on the silk, but the blood had already dried. I couldn’t breathe.
“Sophia?”
I glanced at him. He drove one-handed, his right arm cradled against his chest.
“Breathe.” He said it so calmly. “In and out. Think of the forest. Tall trees. Warm rain. Cypress.”
I nodded and forced myself to simmer down.
“You okay now?”
“No, I’m not fucking okay, Lucas. I killed a man today. I had a Brotherhood Cross carved into my back today. I’ve been a prisoner for a week.”
He said nothing, his face lined and stiff.
I took a breath. “I need a minute.”
He nodded.
I studied him again, lingering over the blood spatters. Bruised and bloody fingers gripped the steering wheel.
“Will those guards find us?” I asked.
“I don’t know. They’ll have alerted the whole goddamn army by now.”
“I wonder why Miller didn’t use the gun sooner.”
Luke grimaced. “He didn’t really have a chance. If I’d known he had it, I would’ve killed him first.”
“Why would you save him for last anyway?”
Glaring at the road ahead of him, Lucas’s jaw clenched. “Pride. Stupidity.”
Ah, that would probably haunt him until his dying day.
“I thought about you every day,” I whispered.
He expelled one bitter laugh. “I thought about you every second.”
“You found me.”
Surely he’d break a bone if he continued gripping the steering wheel so tightly. “I didn’t find you. You were thrown in my face.”
My voice dropped to a whisper. “I’m sorry, Lucas. I shouldn’t have begged. I only made things harder.”
He stayed quiet. I stared at his face without blinking, scared that if I glanced away, he’d disappear.
He slammed his hand onto the steering wheel. “Don’t apologize for that. Ever. Ask me for anything, Sophia. Never be afraid to ask me for anything.”
“Even death?”
“Even death. I won’t give you that, but you can ask me for anything you want.” Thick strands of guilt strangled his words.
I wanted to cry again. “Lucas, this isn’t your fault.”
“All I’ve wanted is for you to be safe, and I can’t fucking manage it.” He reached out with his injured arm and grabbed my hand. “I was very clear if anything happened to you, I wouldn’t take it well.”
“It wasn’t a mission. I was taking care of injuries from an attack, and they sieged our healing house.”
He cursed under his breath.
“But I’m safe now,” I said. “With you.”
“You’re not safe with me.” His voice cracked.
Brows drawn together, I shook my head. “I’m always safe with you.”
He glanced at me, taking a deep breath as his eyes darted over my tear-stained face.
“I love you so much, Lucas.”
“I love you, too. But that’s only going to make the next part very painful.”
“The next part?”
The Jeep came to a stop at the house on Evanston.
“You’re not safe with me.”