by Isabel Wroth
The silence stretched on long enough that she turned her face back toward the mirrors to see what the holdup was. Ghost had a bored look on his face, but a muscle in his jaw jumped with tension.
“Honestly, I hoped the question of why I let her live and what she had to do with my people would have you spinning your wheels long enough for me to find the girl Dillon spirited away, recover my property, and get on with my business. Which I would very much like to do now. Duchess, the drive if you please.”
“Front right pants pocket,” Nasa said from between his teeth. Hand shaking, she slid her hand into his pocket and pulled out the small rectangular object.
“Toss it over,” Ghost ordered, and Nasa took it from her to obey. She waited, watching Ghost study the black piece of plastic. “Where did she hide it?”
“Toilet seat cover dispenser,” Nasa snapped.
Ghost's eyebrows gave a bounce, and he held the drive up to show them. “If this isn't the right one, I'll be paying you a visit, my friend.”
“Fuck you, asshole. It's what I pulled out of the dispenser, and you piped up two seconds later. If whatever you're after isn't on there, it's not my problem.”
“No, I suppose not,” Ghost agreed, tucking his prize into his pocket. “It will be Rachel's problem, and I'll take it up with her if I must. Move to the sink.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Nasa sidestepped a few times, not allowing Ghost to get a clear line of sight on Dillon. Rage for not having taken steps to ensure it was safe for her to be here churned in his gut like acid.
Not wanting to upset or insult Dillon, Nasa hadn't checked to see for himself that the building was inaccessible from the outside.
He hadn't done a cursory sweep using the security cameras to keep an eye out for anything suspicious because they were in a hurry, either.
He'd said if it were him, he would have sent a woman in as a Trojan horse, so why the fuck hadn't Nasa pressed Patti just a little more about the women who'd come in after Rachel?
Why hadn't he run a search on all the faces in residence while Dillon looked for the flash drive?
If he'd pulled Duke and Tobias in to search the building like he'd wanted instead of being sympathetic to the trauma of the women seeking shelter here, they wouldn't be in this mess right now.
Or maybe Ghost would have shot them to even the odds, and this bullshit would still be going down.
His impatience and desire to please his woman might very well cost Dillon her life.
Nasa could feel her shaking behind him, but when he turned and gave Ghost his back, he didn't see fear in her eyes.
He saw an unholy fire burning there. She was pissed and doing everything she could to contain her fury.
“I'm sorry,” he said as Dillon started to empty his pockets.
She didn't look at him, shaking her head as the pile of stuff grew. “It's not your fault. I built this place to be impenetrable, and I failed.”
“There's always a way in,” Ghost told them with a note of false cheer. “Especially when there's a human element to be exploited. Someone is always desperate for something, whether it's drugs, freedom, or money.
“Or an escape from one seriously sadistic biker. I promised my girl could leave alive if she did what I asked. You would not believe what that woman was willing to do in order to get away from her old man.”
Nasa gritted his teeth as Ghost rubbed salt in their wounds, making this woman Nasa had been so ready to condemn as just another biker gang bitch, into one of the Leviathans’ victims.
“I wouldn't have thought a guy in charge of selling women and kids as sex slaves would give a shit about saving lives,” Dillon muttered nastily, carefully slipping his .45 from under his arm.
She wanted to pull the trigger, Nasa could see it in the way she gripped the butt of the gun so hard her knuckles blanched, but after a breathless moment of uncertainty, Dillon carefully set it in the sink.
“Life sure is full of surprises, isn't it, Duchess?” Ghost drawled, “Don't forget the revolver in his boot.”
Dillon looked up at him to confirm, and Nasa nodded. “Right side. There's a knife too.”
With a testy huff, Dillon crouched down and pulled up his pant leg. “You know, you keep calling me Duchess, as though you feel the need to remind me you were there, sitting on your ass for a week while I was being tortured because some asshole didn't like it that I took his punching bags away from him. I didn't forget, John.”
“I doubt anyone in the world could forget seven days of torture,” Ghost replied vaguely, as though he hadn't been involved.
“Why take Rachel to the emergency room after you beat her half to death, only to send your guys after her to get her back?” Dillon asked, diligently pulling up the other leg of his jeans to show Ghost there wasn't anything hiding in here.
“Our deal was three questions, Duchess,” Ghost practically sang.
On her knees, Dillon gave a derisive snort. “You said Nasa only got three questions. I think after everything you've put me through, I at least get one question answered.”
“You know, that's the second time you've managed to point out my failure in giving precise directions. I'm usually not so careless with my words,” Ghost told her, and Nasa held his breath, waiting for Ghost to violently punish Dillon for pointing out his failures.
“Maybe you're losing your touch,” Dillon muttered, her earlier fear completely absent from her tone.
It was one thing for Nasa to antagonize Ghost, but hearing her do it made him itch to smack her ass for being so reckless.
To Nasa's amazement, Ghost agreed. “It's possible, or maybe you're just paying attention. In my business, quality matters. A bruised, beaten, half-starved girl with a staph infection won't fetch even a fourth of the price of a healthy, unblemished one. I confess I wasn't at home when my crew got a little... overzealous after Rachel attempted to escape.
“I was told they found her hiding under my desk, and at the time, I didn't think anything of it. I was a bit preoccupied reminding my less intelligent brothers of the consequences for taking matters into their own hands without my explicit instructions.
“In her condition, Rachel was worthless, and I had neither the time nor the desire to waste resources nursing her back to health.
"One of the hang arounds drove Rachel to the ER, and I had every intention of letting that be the end of it until I discovered she found my little hidey-hole under the desk and stole what belonged to me.
“It took me some time to deduce where Rachel went, and I couldn't go fetch her myself without being seen, so I sent two men to get her back, and they made a royal mess of everything.”
“Hard to find good help these days, huh?” Dillon mercilessly commiserated.
“You have no idea,” Ghost replied blithely. “It didn't take me long to connect you to the shelter here, and I came to understand if I allowed them to continue their bumbling attempts to prove to me how useful they were, we'd have a missing girl, a dead nurse, and a dead owner of the shelter.
“As far as I was concerned, that was one too many dots to easily connect, and I wagered it would be something that would pop up on Nasa's all knowing tracking software. Hence, the distraction and the added bonus of you delivering my message. Is that everything he's got?”
Nasa held his arms up while Dillon made a big show of patting him down.
“That's it.”
“Good. Your turn, Duchess. Try anything, and I'll put a bullet through the back of Nasa's head.”
Dillon glared over Nasa's shoulder at Ghost, staring the guy down while she pulled her Colt out of her leggings, the gravity knife from between her breasts, two extra clips of ammo from another pocket at her low back, a ring on her index finger that Nasa hadn't realized was any sort of weapon, and the necklace from around her throat.
“Anything else?” Ghost chortled, like the fucker was actually impressed.
Dillon opened her mouth to answer, frowned, and then reached i
nto her bra to pull out a yellow canister of pepper spray.
Despite the seriousness of the situation, Nasa found himself on the verge of smiling to see everything she'd managed to conceal on her person.
She added the pepper spray to the pile, and firmly said, “Unless you want me to try and fit a hundred and eighty pounds of pissed-off dog in the sink, no, there's nothing else.”
“I'll accept your reassurance that she'll remain right where she is,” Ghost answered, and Dillon pointed to the floor without looking away from the maniac holding them at gunpoint.
With an unhappy grumble, Elka dropped to her belly. “Good enough. Just out of curiosity, have you ever utilized her training as an attack dog?”
Nasa watched Dillon give a slow, nasty little smile. “Recently, as it happens. Two strange, dirty guys who smelled like the ass end of a feral hog came to my home after you did, and I used Elka to help me take them down. She ripped one guy's throat out, and I shot the other one in the chest.”
Nasa hadn't wanted to advertise her involvement in killing two fully patched in Leviathans, but too late now. In the mirrors, Nasa saw Ghost narrow his eyes even as the corners of his mouth kicked up.
“Strange, I recently received an anonymous delivery. Two black leather cuts, one seriously bloodied and torn, the other one with a hole right through the charter logo on the front left side.”
“I'm sorry for your loss,” Dillon answered coldly. “After all that shit you did to get me to Austin, why send more guys to chase us down the highway in broad daylight, shooting at us the whole way?”
Ghost rolled his eyes lazily. “I assure you, that was not my idea. As I said, I was away, and my former second-in-command fell back on Wexler's bad habits.
"He regretted the decision to undertake that task on his own, and because of him, I've had to alter several plans that would have greatly benefited all of us. Unfortunately, my Leviathans aren't known for their patience or their intelligence.”
Nasa could attest to that.
“That's all the time I have for storytelling. It's time to go. Walk backward to me, Nasa.”
Dillon grabbed onto his cut with both hands before Nasa could take a step, holding on to keep him in place while glaring furiously at Ghost.
“If I don't get my man back alive and in one piece, I will spend the rest of my days working with Perdition to hunt you down. When we find you, I'll help them skin you alive.”
Even though she hadn't yet said the words back to him, Nasa felt the heat of her love like a fire in his soul. If he went down today, Nasa would die knowing he'd attained the ultimate reward.
Dillon's trust and the ferocity of her love.
Ghost gave a short bark of what might have been laughter. “Just for that, your man is going to cuff you to the grab bar in the handicap stall. Catch, Nasa.”
He twisted to snatch the pair of cuffs out of the air, feeling a lick of momentary relief to know Dillon would be out of shooting range inside the stall.
Unless Ghost had full metal jacketed rounds, the bullets wouldn't penetrate the stall doors. She'd be safe in there. Well, safer.
She glared up at him when Nasa nodded, crowding her back with his body to make her move. “It's okay. Just... don't sit on the toilet again.”
“Seriously?” Dillon hissed as he took her hand and cinched the cold metal around her wrist. It burned holes in his heart, worrying whether she might have a panic attack or regress to the moment of her trauma when she'd been slapped in cuffs and thrown into a dark pit of despair.
Right now, he couldn't allow the remorse he felt to stop him from doing whatever he had to.
“I'm sorry.” The clang of metal on metal made Dillon flinch, and if she got out of this without suffering anything fatal, Nasa planned to do some serious groveling.
There was no guarantee Ghost would stay true to his word. No promise Nasa would be able to come back up here and let Dillon out of the cuffs himself.
“This'll be over soon, I promise. I love you.”
He meant to comfort her, but if anything, it only angered her further. Her tiger eyes practically spat lava at him, but neither of them got the opportunity to speak because Ghost rapped the stall behind Nasa.
“Back off so I can see for myself the cuffs are tight.”
“There's not a chance in hell I'm giving you a direct line of sight.” Nasa snarled, turning to glare over his shoulder at Ghost, purposefully putting his hands on either side of the stall door. “I want her as far away from you as possible. I cinched them tight enough. She can't get out.”
“You expect me to take your word?” Ghost asked with a hint of incredulity.
“Not one time since you came into my house and pretended to be my friend, have I ever told you a lie. Can you say the same?”
Ghost gave an agreeable tilt of his head, right before he got close enough to press the cold steel of his gun to the back of Nasa's head.
“No, but I'm not the trusting sort. Move.”
Nasa dropped the arm closest to Ghost, letting the bastard peer in to see Dillon lift her hands as much as she was able and give the cuffs a rattle.
“I'm not going anywhere,” she snapped, causing Elka to peel her lips back in a vicious snarl. Dillon told Elka to stay, but didn't tell her to stop making the hellish sounds of warning.
“Excellent. Nasa, let's go. Walk backward to the door and head down the stairs. If I see that dog, Duchess, I'll take my chances with the lockdown.”
Nasa could see the anger war with the fear and frustration in Dillon's expression. Her lips were pinched tight, lines of stress bracketing her eyes.
He tried to pour every ounce of confidence in his voice when he told her he'd be back, but the reality was, he might not be. Nasa nodded, drinking in her beauty just in case this was it for him.
“Hands on the back of your head,” Ghost told him calmly, the press of steel against his skin disappearing when Nasa obeyed. “Down the stairs. You got anyone waiting outside for you?”
Nasa seriously wished he did. “No. Dillon and I came in alone.”
It would have been real fucking smart of him to program Dillon's smartwatch to send out alerts and warning messages to someone else's phone. Like Tobias or Duke's.
Tobias had parked only a few streets over, watching to make sure no one blocked in their escape route or figured out the warehouse and the shelter were connected, and Duke was set up to watch the back door of the shelter. It never occurred to Nasa that Ghost would have the balls to walk out the front door.
They were halfway down the last flight of stairs when Ghost broke the silence. “You understand I can't have you chasing after me.”
“Yeah, I figured that 'we can all walk away' line was bullshit.” Nasa braced himself, glad he'd told Dillon how he felt. At least he was going to go out knowing she was alright, and Ghost wouldn't be getting away with whatever was on that drive.
Dillon would take all his stuff back to Austin, and Saint would know how to recover the files from Nasa's tablet.
“You should know by now, I'm a stickler for the rules, Nasa. I said we'd all walk away, and we will. You'll just be walking slower than me.”
The impact of the bullets and Ghost's boot kicking his knee forward sent Nasa flying face-first down the stairs, and the last thing he heard just before he hit the ground, was Dillon screaming his name and Elka's thunderous barking.
*****
As soon as she heard the echo of their footsteps fade, Dillon made her move.
“Elka, keys. Bring it.”
Joshua taught Elka a butt load of tactical commands, but he'd also instructed Dillon to spend time teaching Elka tricks. Dobermans were exceptionally intelligent, constantly in need of stimulation, so Dillon hid stuff all over the house for Elka to find and bring back.
Once Elka mastered hide and seek, Dillon made piles of stuff and asked for one specific item. Elka enjoyed the 'bring it' game immensely and took great pride in winning.
Case and point, Dil
lon's whispered command sent Elka straight to the sink where she immediately stood on her hind paws, nose in the basin to sift through the assorted electronics and disguised weaponry until she found Nasa's wallet chain and his keys.
They made a merry jingling sound as Elka pranced over and delivered them into Dillon's waiting hands.
As expected, Nasa had a handcuff key right there on its own jump ring. She'd just twisted free of the cuffs and was on her way to the sink to grab her gun when she heard the shots.
Two in rapid succession, the sound amplified by the narrow staircase, followed seconds later by a loud thump.
“Privedi yego!” Dillon ordered, ordering Elka after Ghost. Elka took off like a bat out of hell, snarling and barking the whole way.
Dillon ran after her, leaping down the stairs as fast as she could. She saw Nasa's huge boots first, then his legs, and he wasn't moving.
Dillon dropped to her knees beside him, gun up and tracking around the lobby, searching for anywhere Ghost might have positioned himself.
Elka was at the door, slobbering and barking like a rabid beast, her claws scratching at the glass to get out, which meant Ghost was already outside.
Dillon called Elka back, dropping her gun as she leaned over Nasa and felt for his pulse.
“You unbelievable asshole! Don't you dare be dead!” she swore, her breath hitching on a sob to feel the strong, steady throb of blood beating through his carotid. “Nasa? Can you hear me?”
Lying face down on the floor like he was, she couldn't tell where he'd been shot, or how bad it was.
Had he hit his head?
Broken something vital that punctured a lung? Was he bleeding internally?
She didn't know if she should even try to move him, and in her search for gunshot wounds, all she found were two neat holes in the leather of his cut, low on the left side of his back.
As soon as Dillon yanked his vest and shirt up to put pressure on the wounds, she realized there was no blood, and no gaping holes anywhere. Nasa gave a long, drawn out groan, startling her so badly Dillon gave a short scream in answer.
“Dillon! I heard gunshots... Oh my god. Ohmigod!” Patti shouted as she hurried down to them. “I hit the silent alarm; the cops are on their way. How bad is he hurt? What happened?”