Liar & Champion (Super Serum Billionaires #4)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

CHAMPION

Igot out of bed at five-thirty. I’d slept for a few minutes here and there, but I was too wired to sleep deeply. I’d sleep when my Kitten was dead. Or better. She had to get better.

I left her a note on her pillow, then a note in the bathroom, then in the fridge, before I headed down to the lobby of the pretentious hotel Providence, with its vaulted ceilings and carved marble scenes from the Good Book.

The large man with dark hair, leaning over the front desk with his coffee was exactly the man I wanted to see.

And kill. Anger made killing him seem like a rational choice when I knew it wasn’t.

Rational was saving my wife. Insane was also saving my wife.

Everything was saving my wife. The anger wasn’t going to save anything, so I ignored it even though my hands trembled from needing to snap something into pieces. Sunshine was dying. Unless…

Horse was chatting with a new clerk, a guy who was apparently really into LARPing. That was dressing up in historical clothing and sword fighting, apparently.

I dropped my hand on Horse’s shoulder. He stiffened up, seeing me in the reflection of the mirror behind the guy.

“Horse, could I have a word?”

“We’ll finish this conversation later, Tim,” he said and turned to smile at me.

I wasn’t having this talk in public. I walked to a conference room, all burgundy and navy, that I knew had no cameras or any other recording devices. He followed me, and when we got inside, I whirled around. He already had his hands up, ready to block.

I smiled at him. “You’re on the defensive this morning. I don’t have time to pull punches. I smelled you on my wife after she was kidnapped yesterday.” He’d touched my wife. Left bruises. I was going to kill him. But first, he was going to help me.

His dark brows furrowed as he lowered his fists. “You can smell me on other women? That’s disturbing.”

I crossed my arms so I wouldn’t strangle him. “What’s disturbing is knowing that you had a part in the abduction that left bruises on my precious love.”

“Love?” He swallowed hard and looked nauseous.

I leaned close so I could see the striations of his lovely blue eyes.

“You’re going to send me everything you have on her, or I’m going to take those pretty eyes and give them to Trix to put in her spaghetti and meatballs.

I’m also going to tell Trix that you sullied your hands forcing someone as sweet as my Kitten.

Trix fed her last night. She’s getting attached. ”

His nostrils thinned as he glared at me. “Yeah, she carried her away like a real superhero. I saw the feed.” He pulled out his phone and a second later my phone dinged. “You aren’t going to like it.”

I punched Horse hard and fast, so fast that he didn’t have time to change gears from jealousy over Trix, to violence. Heroes had more distractions than villains, particularly ones who had been subduing their darker natures for years, and I’d been born and bred to be the worst kind of villain.

I stepped back, one punch and done. “You don’t touch my wife.”

“She fell over. You specifically said that you wanted me to catch her,” he said, fists up, once more on the defense.

I snarled. “I didn’t tell you to kidnap her!”

He exhaled and dropped his hands in defeat. “Fair enough. Look, if you need any of my resources to help her…”

“I’ll take them,” I responded with a hard smile before I turned and walked out without finishing him off.

I didn’t have time for that, and as obnoxious as he was, Trix had a thing for him and would probably leave my team if I killed him.

Also, he was an excellent fighter when his head was in the game.

He was a real pleasure to spar with when I had time for pleasure.

Kitten. She was dying, every second closer than before. For a moment I stood paralyzed by panic that bled into raw fear. I had to fix this, fast.

I went through the files Horse sent while I walked to the garage where my truck was parked.

Daniel was waiting for me, unfolding from the shadows like a wraith while I ignored him, scrolling through all of Horse’s documents.

Flowers? Sunshine’s genetics belonged to that madman?

Lucky girl to be raised by someone else.

“Is she safe?” my cousin asked, approaching with caution.

“Safe? That’s a peculiar word to use for my wife. Send me everything you have on her, the serum, her health records, all the treatments she’s gotten, including your plan for saving her, unless it was just to hand her over to me.”

He pulled out his phone, and it was like with Horse all over again, only I didn’t punch him. No, I studied his face, his nose, the bruising he should still sport but didn’t.

“She treated you yesterday. What did she use?”

He shrugged. “Where is she?”

“In my bed without me. The plan, Daniel.”

He held out his arms and shrugged. “She’s Flower’s heir, with a twist. You’ve tasted that twist. Obsession. I’ve been disposing her stalkers for years. Always the very worst of society, rapists, murderers. I feel like some heroic vigilante.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

He bared his teeth at me. “You don’t care what she turns you into?”

I smiled and shifted my position slightly so I was more relaxed. “That’s right. She’s in my bed. She’s my wife. She loves my hands on her. Do I have to kill you or can you settle for her friendship?”

He took a shaky breath. “I’ve been resigned to that fate for a long time. She loves me. She asked me to date her, but every time I touched her, I hurt her. I’m not as physically gifted as you. I’ve accepted my limitations.”

“Like a true psychopath beyond feeling. The plan.”

“As I was saying, Flowers injected his wife before she became pregnant with a new strain of serum. It was supposed to mingle with his in an interesting way, but I don’t know what, exactly, that strain was.

Supposedly she died from complications along with the baby, but first, she charmed Doc Wilson into keeping Sunny safe.

I’ve looked into what the strain was, of course, but Flowers doesn’t share his research willingly. ”

I nodded thoughtfully. That meant I’d be stealing from him.

I hadn’t broken and entered for ages. “He was betrothed to the Crocodile before she stabbed him, and he decided that she wasn’t quite as containable as he’d assumed.

After that he found another female more susceptible to his manipulation?

But somehow she got away at the end. What a charmer. ”

“I was aware that the Croc and he had history.”

I nodded. “One of my first missions was to infiltrate his Florida lab. I still have some scars.” That was an understatement. “What else? Your plans are always overcomplicated.”

“Doc Wilson, the man who raised her, he had a mild strain of the serum, but he was working with the King of Macau to find a cure for Kitten when his lab was burned to the ground with him in it.”

I rubbed my forehead. “The King of Macau? The thief whose entire island is made up of his petty soldiers?”

“You could probably buy the information you need. He usually sells to the highest bidder.”

“Probably isn’t good enough. I’ll have to stack the deck in my favor. Any other impenetrable fortresses I’ll need to conquer?”

“Well, DuPre was in the same treatment centers as Sunny in Switzerland as he suffered from a similar serum-related affliction, but recently he’s had a miraculous recovery of all that ails him.”

I smiled at him. “Oh, I like this. DuPre as a target? I didn’t expect to hear any good news today.”

His jaw hardened. He’d hatred DuPre for a lot longer than I had. “Your mother has an alliance with them. It would be smart to use that alliance to gain what you need.”

“Would it be smart? Only if I intended to use that alliance in the future. Any other leads?”

“VanBuren seems to have accrued more knowledge about the serum than anyone else.”

Horse’s last name was VanBuren. He’d offered me his help, because Flowers was supposed to be on the ‘good’ side, while I was not, and Sunshine was now clearly linked to him.

If Horse had pertinent knowledge that would save Kitten, he would have given it to me.

He already thought of himself as a hero.

“I’ll start with Flowers.” I called Jezebel, who answered almost immediately, but her voice was accompanied by a lion’s roar.

“You’re interrupting breakfast,” she said, voice sharper than the lion’s claws.

“I can’t make it in today. Can you make arrangements for the race?”

“Do I look like the boss to you? Don’t tell me, you have to stay home and give the missus some extra loving attention.”

“You can tell the others that’s what I’m doing, but only if it won’t get back to her. I’m going out of town on business.”

“Involving…”

I glanced at Daniel. “Flowers.”

“You can just order flowers to come to you.”

“Not these ones. If I were going to try and buy some information from the King of Macau, what could I do to hedge my bets?”

“Oh, Nix, sweetie, you don’t want to deal with that criminal element. You’re likely to lose your pretty head, although I have heard that he favors mixed martial, and might give you what you seek if you provide him with an entertaining fight that he can bet on.”

“I can do that.”

“If you can get to him. Why do you think I know something about the King of Macau?”

“Why wouldn’t you? The far east is your specialty.”

She laughed, low and throaty and then hung up. After that I called Tom. He was sitting on a chair outside my apartment waiting for Sunshine to emerge.

“Tom, could you please get in contact with Tarnish and have him call me?”

“Yes, of course, but he’s not the most stable employee your mother has.”

“What do you mean? He isn’t still the best at breaking and entering?”

“Not when he’s screaming at the target because he thinks it’s his dead grandfather. He apparently didn’t like him.”

“I appreciate the heads up. Still, have him call me.” I hung up and got into my truck.

Daniel leaned his arms on the window. “You’re going to hit Flowers today, with Tarnish, before you’ve had a chance to plan?”

I smiled at him and he took his arms down because he knew that look. “What’s there to plan? I’ve been there before. So has Tarn.”

“He’s completely unstable. I’ve gone on a mission with him before and he almost jeopardized the whole thing.”

I nodded. “Of course, but that’s because you’re Beastie, not the Prince of Beasts.”

His ice-blue eyes narrowed. “Your overconfidence is going to get you killed.”

“But that doesn’t bother you, it’s me not saving Sunshine that has you concerned.

I’m never overconfident. I spent years with Tarnish, I know his triggers, and I know exactly how to get what I need out of him.

You specifically got me involved because you trusted me to be able to do what needs to be done. ”

He blinked twice. “Actually, I was running out of options. You were always a long shot.”

I laughed and revved my engine. “I appreciate that vote of confidence. Watch out for DuPre while I’m gone. But don’t kill him until after I’ve gotten what I want out of him. Ah. That’s why he’s not dead yet. Good work.”

“I’ll hang out with Sunshine today, if you don’t mind.”

“I approve. See that she’s safe. Particularly if you go boarding. Make sure she wears a helmet. I’d hate to waste my time using up my air miles if she’s just going to kill herself.”

“I’ll do that,” he said with a sober nod. Of course he’d keep her safe. Even from himself. Good thing he had that compulsion or I really would have to kill him. No, I never would have met Kitten, because he would have kept her all to himself. Now that was a scary thought.