39. Alana
Alana
The warehouse is twenty minutes away from the nearest hospital and any help. Remote as a strategy. If someone is shot out here, there’s no hope of rescue.
Of course, that works two ways. It’s as much my advantage as his.
Behind me there’s a path of men crying out in pain, unable to move, or slowly bleeding on the floor.
I prefer to shoot at the joints. If they survive, the healing process is slow, and they’ll be able to tell the weather by how much pain they’re in.
See? It’s like I’m giving them a superpower as well as a punishment for pissing me off.
The final room serves as a manager’s space. Monitors fill the walls near the side. Windows toward the ceiling give the room an evil corporate vibe. Like there’s light outside, but you’ll never see it.
Grae was kneeling on the floor with a bag over his head. A mix of annoyance and anger courses through my muscles as I lift my gun.
Damn. The Deviant looks like shit. I’ve had surveillance on him for a while, but he’s lost weight. His clothes hang on him loose and wrinkled. And the deep, sunken dark circles under his eyes give him a raccoon-hopped-up-on-coke-and-hasn’t-slept-in-six-months vibe.
“Hello, Kinsley,” he says, smug and proud.
Grae groans, the bag moving side to side. “Oh, for fuck’s sake. I already warned you.”
It’s weird hearing my name, but it’s not enough to throw off my mission or game.
“Grae, you okay?”
“Yeah. I have a headache and my knees hurt from kneeling this long.”
I grin and the words come flying out. “That’s ’cause you’re not a pro.”
“Ha ha,” my boyfriend grumbles under his hood. Then adds, “I’m very much a pro. I’ve got an MVP ring to prove it and everything.” I roll my eyes but keep my gun trained on the Deviant. He has a gun pointed at Grae’s head, but the safety’s on.
“I’m going to take him and we’re going to go. You’ve got a warehouse filled with bleeding, discount henchmen you might want to take care of.”
“You fucking bitch.” He snarls. “You killed my father.”
I frown. Guys like this need to be taken seriously. It’s their whole identity. They’re so fragile that they’ll crack under a single cool breeze. “Um, no. Not me. But I do know what his brains taste like—zero out of ten. Would not recommend.”
He lifts his gun away from Grae and points it at me. I like this better. Less chance Grae will get hurt. “You destroyed all the Majesty in the world.”
“And I’m still waiting on a thank you for that one,” I huff. Seriously, would a flower arrangement have killed the guy?
“Why would I do that?” he snaps, eyes dilating.
How fucking stupid is this guy? He’s been my arch nemesis for the last few years. Jesus, Zeus, and Odin. This is just embarrassing for both of us.
“Majesty is forged from the hythanatia flower. But the flower is the byproduct of a mixture of rare metals that can be used as a renewable energy source. And you wanted to burn it all down for a fad narcotic. You wanted your legacy to the criminal world to be the Silly Bandz of drugs.”
His brows furrow as he tries to process the information, “You’re lying.”
“Kinsley doesn’t lie,” Grae says under his hood. The Deviant punches his prisoner in the face and rips off the bag.
My stomach knots when I see the man I love bruised. His cheek is swollen, and his eye is already changing colors. Grae glances at me and mouths ‘Sorry.’ Oh, we’re going to have a very long talk tomorrow about the consequences of poor choices. But for now, I need to focus on the Deviant.
“Nope. And I destroyed your family’s four-hundred-year-long, yet tiny criminal empire in three years. Shit, it wasn’t even the most important part of my day. I worked on it during lunch instead of playing Bubble Gum Pop Princess.”
His rage boils up. He pushes a button on a remote and the screens flicker on.
One screen: my mother, father, and brother. Mom is yelling something. My brother cries while my dad tries to keep the peace.
The next screen: Amanda and Craig, both crying—huge ugly tears.
The final screen: Lena is pissed and bored.
Behind each of them stands a man with a gun to the back of their heads. Fear grips my throat as I stare at the images of my dearest people in danger.
“Fuck this bitch.” He gives the order.
Six guns flash. Six bodies sink to the floor, their final emotions etched on their faces forever. My body reacts before my brain can. Tears spring out. Every muscle tightens and revolts.
Grae gasps a strangled cry, and the Deviant has a smug look on his face. I’ve never wanted to tear every tendon from my enemy’s sinew and flay all muscles off their bones until now. I want him to feel every ounce of pain he’s inflicted over the years.
I want to hurt him. And this is the best way. Tapping my ear communicator, I say, “Remove the AI filter over the local screens.” The screens flicker. They show two empty rooms. “I need a status check.” Lance’s voice fills my ear.
“Mama Bear, Papa Bear, and Hemorrhoid are secure and in motion.” My lip curls every time I hear my brother’s code name.
“Update on Siren and Apollo?”
“Secure,” Uri says. “First aid administered to Apollo, but Siren is unharmed.”
“Damage report?”
“Apollo has minor abrasions to his cheek and eye. My right wrist is sprained.” I glance back at the Deviant.
“You didn’t think I was really going to leave them to die, did you?”
His confusion shifts to irrational hope as he points to the screen with Lena. “She’s still there.” I frown, because she should’ve been gone a while ago, but instead Dimitri and Donny are standing behind a fallen mid-sized man and Lena has her hands in fists.
“I need the sound on Honey Badger.” The speakers crackle alive.
Lena lifts her leg back and kicks the man square in the ribs. Dimitri seems amused, but Donny—there’s something different about him. The way he’s standing. Too stiff. His voice filters through the speakers.
“You only get two more hits, and it stops being self-defense and starts becoming assault.” Donny shouldn’t be there, Joey should. I don’t like this at all.
Lena looks at Donny, her grin wicked and menacing. “You want in?”
“Sure.” He shrugs.
He and Dimitri start kicking the man as well, but Lena needs more height to do damage and starts jumping while kicking. This leads to her jumping too high and landing hard square in the middle of the man’s stomach. There’s a sickening suction sound as Lena’s five-inch heels sink into his body.
He screams. Lena screams. Donny and Dimitri curse. Even the Deviant and Grae cry out in shock.
“What do I do?” Lena starts crying, “Is he okay?”
“It’s fine.” Donny grabs her shoulders trying to pull Lena off. “He’s gonna be fine.” The man writhes in pain. “Do you like piggyback rides?”
Lena shakes her head in a panic. “But if I move, he’s going to bleed to death, isn’t he?” Her bottom lip quivers and she looks down at the man. “I’m so sorry.”
Donny puts his hand on her cheek. “It’s going to be fine.”
“Did I kill him?”
“No.” Then he pauses. “How’d you get that bloody lip?”
“Um. I talked back.” Something shifts in Donny. I can feel it from here, through a screen miles away.
But he grins and turns his back to her. “Hop on.”
She puts her hands on his shoulders and hops, leaving both of her shoes in his body. The man screams again, but Donny calls over his yells, “What languages do you speak?”
“I can say ‘Thank you for coming to my show’ in fifteen different languages and I speak a little Spanish.” Donny starts walking her toward the door.
“That’s great. Hey, can you rank all the best Broadway plays of the last twenty years? I thought I read somewhere that you’re a theater kid.”
“I am!” Lena says through her tears.
“Great. You keep talking and I’ll agree with whatever you’re saying—unless you’re wrong. But you have to keep looking straight ahead, okay?”
“Okay.”
Then he speaks in Russian and my heart stops. Donny issued a kill order, so Lena couldn’t be arrested for murder. Donny gave a fucking kill order. I don’t even think Joey’s ever done that.
“I swear to God if they get together because of this shit…” Years of work down the drain if this is the reason they get together. Lena and Amanda are gonna have nightmares. I’m going to get a guilt trip from Mom. Fuck. And what the hell am I going to do about Grae?
Something inside me snaps. I fire four bullets, two shoulder shots, two knee shots. The Deviant cries out as he hits the floor face-first with a thud. Grumbling, I walk toward Grae, kicking the Deviant along the way. Grae’s already standing, smiling.
“You know I could’ve taken him out?”
“With your hands behind your back?” I say with a cocked eyebrow, pulling bolt cutters from my back pocket and snipping off the zip ties. His wrists are already red and swollen.
“Remember, I’m morally gray.”
I huff. “So, what happened? Did CJ betray you?” We both know I already know the answer. He dips his head and wraps his arms around me.
“Yeah. I’m beginning to see why you don’t like him very much.”
I sigh, grateful he’s not hurt. Replaying the billion ways this could have gone wrong today. Everyone I could have lost. The irreversible damage that might’ve happened.
He feels perfect in my arms. Like a home I forgot I had.
“You were right.”
“Oh, I love those words.”
“I did something very stupid,” he sighs. At this moment, I don’t care. Later I’ll wake up and be livid. But right now, I like how he feels in my arms. The worst is over. The words are on the tip of my tongue. My heart screams them.
But there’s a pop of sound. The world stops before it shatters.
Grae lifts his head off my shoulder and blinks at me, confused. There’s a burning in my chest. Pain, but my brain doesn’t register it. The windows break and Hunters rappel in, screaming
“Phoenix hit, Lioness hit.”
No.
No, no, no, no…
Grae slides down my body. I grip him, crying ‘no!’ I just found him and now I’m losing him. Teddy drops next to me with a black box. He flips open the latches to six needles in a perfect line. I know what it is.
“You’re hit,” Teddy tells me, like I don’t already know. On the other side of the box there’s a basic med kit.
I reach for the quick clot bandages and slap it on my chest. “Get my back.”
Teddy does as instructed as I pull two needles out of the case. He tries to hold me back, but I crawl toward Grae who’s already coughing.
“Baby, I’m so sorry.” A decade of nightmares lies at my knees. I stroke his cheek as his eyes water. “This is going to hurt.” Plunging the needle into his forearm, I press my lips to his, kissing his screams of torture, and count to ten.
In my ear Teddy says, “Administering the second shot.”
Grae relaxes in my arms, his eyes rolling back in his head, and it haunts me how familiar this feels. Except this time, I can punish who did this.
I grab the black case. Each step feels like my chest is dripping lava. Breathing feels impossible. But my body can wait to shut down—I’ve got work to do.
There’s a team of hunters dressed in black fatigues around the Deviant. “Off,” I shout and trudge toward him. His bitter laugh echoes around the room. I drop to my knees on his stomach and open the box. He’s about to speak when I put my fingers on his lips.
“Shh.” I drag the first needle out of its foam slot and wrap my hand around his throat. “You wanted Kinsley? You’ve got her. Alana was going to let you rot in a cell. But Kinsley’s fucking pissed.” I slam the needle into his neck and barely push the plunger.
He screams an unholy wail.
“I’m going to dismantle everything your family did.
” I pull the needle out and stab it into his sternum, administering another dose.
“I’m going to replace everything you hate with strength and beauty.
” I jam the needle between his ribs. “When I’m done, your legacy won’t even be a cautionary tale for those who fuck with me. You’ll be erased.”
The last dose goes directly into his stomach. He writhes in pain. His screams rub his throat raw until flecks of blood spill out. I take out the second needle.
“This one will take away all the pain and make you forget the horrors. Your body and mind will be at peace.”
He tries to reach for it. I snap the needle, sending shards of glass everywhere—even into my own fingertips. The glass slices his face as I stroke his cheek, the same twisted method I used on Grae.
“Alana would have taken your life, but Kinsley will take your death.” I stand and stare at my hunters. “If he dies, resuscitate him. He lives until I say otherwise.” By the time I turn around, Grae is being lifted onto a stretcher. He’s safe.
That’s when I black out.