by Kym Roberts
“Why?” There wasn’t any judgment on Megan’s face, but she wanted Téa to explain her actions.
“They were the Secret Service of the United States. They were my hope, my future, my salvation.”
“Except they weren’t.”
“No, but I knew I had to try and escape that night. The agent I was with was drunk before we got there. He wasn’t going to be forgiving if he couldn’t perform, so I snuck out of his room before we started, but when I got into the living room of the suite, Sandra and the other agent were blocking my only chance of escape, so I went into another bedroom in the suite.”
“What’d you find in there?” Megan was anxious for her answer, Téa could tell she was, but she was also watching the rearview mirror she’d positioned for her use and staring hard out the back window. Téa glanced in the side mirror where she saw a small red car in the distance.
“At first nothing, but he saw me first. He started to kick me out of his room and I begged him to let me stay. It was another agent who was sick with a fever. When the other agent who’d paid for me started yelling, he pulled me into the bathroom and started acting like he was throwing up. I hid under the sink next to him and the other agent came in and shoved the shower curtain back, looking for me. Then he really started getting sick and he shoved the guy out of the bathroom. He hid me from his friend.”
“They weren’t friends.”
Téa smiled. “That’s what he said.”
“What was his name?” Megan adjusted in her chair and for the first time, fear ebbed through Téa blood.
“The guy in the bathroom?”
“Yeah.”
“He didn’t say, but I looked in his wallet later when he was sleeping. Ty Beckinsale.”
A grin spread across Megan’s face. “I knew it. Did Ty ever touch you inappropriately?”
“No.”
“Did he touch Sandra?”
“No, we had strict instructions that only the two men were to touch us. If anyone else did, it would cost more.”
Megan frowned. “So Ty would’ve had sex with you?”
“No! Not at all. He told me to lock the bedroom door and to stay in there until morning, but I told him I couldn’t wait that long. I wasn’t going back with Miguel. I wanted out and this was the only chance I would get. Miguel didn’t normally leave without having someone waiting for us.”
“What did Ty do then?”
“He gave me the name and address to Sister Mary and the Sisters of Mercy. He said he would help me escape when everything got quiet in the other room.”
“Did he?”
Téa shook her head. “No, I left before he woke up. I didn’t want to take a chance and when I went to get Sandra, because I thought this was the opportunity both of us needed, she was already dead.”
“She was dead before Ty woke up?”
“Yes, I left before anyone else woke up.”
“You told me earlier that Stefano killed Sister Mary. How do you know that?”
“I found Sister Mary two days after I left the hotel. It took me a while to make my way through the city. I was afraid Miguel would be out looking for me, so I took one of Ty’s shirts and a pair of his gym shorts. I threw my clothes and shoes away in a dumpster. Sister Mary offered to send me back home to New Jersey, but there was no one to go to. And despite Ty helping me, I didn’t feel I could trust him or anyone else to help me prosecute my uncle, so she helped me go to Brazil. From there I was headed to Spain through the church. Sister Mary didn’t know anything, but somehow, Miguel found out that I’d been with the Sisters.”
The red car was in plain view now in her side mirror. Téa looked for Khaos’s blond hair but still couldn’t make out the driver. “One day when I was getting ready to leave Brazil, I got a call from Sister Mary. I was supposed to dispose of my phone, but I couldn’t let go of the woman who’d done so much for me. Only it wasn’t Sister on the other end of the call. It was Stefano.”
Megan nodded, but she was no longer looking at Téa. She was tracking the car behind them. “What did he say?”
“He said if I didn’t turn myself in to him, he would cut her throat like he did my mother’s.” Reliving that moment burned. When it happened, she’d felt fear and sorrow and sickness. Today the sorrow was still there, but the fear was beginning to morph into fury. Stefano needed to pay for his crimes.
“Did you?”
Téa shook her head. “Sister said there was too many at risk for me to give myself up. She told me to hang up, destroy the phone and move.”
“She was able to get all that out?”
Téa’s voice cracked. “No. She’d warned me a month earlier that if she was ever used as bait over the phone, I needed to hang up immediately. When Stefano called, Sister Mary yelled for me to hang up and I did, but before I got rid of the phone, Stefano texted a photo of Sister Mary’s body to me.”
The engine of the red car behind them revved. Tea looked in the mirror and the driver’s face finally became clear. “Stefano,” she said right before the vehicle slammed into the back end of their stolen auto. Up until that moment, she’d been comfortable driving along the highway. The barren roadsides now felt too open and too far away from civilization.
The car veered to the shoulder with the impact and Téa’s hands felt as if they were strangling the steering wheel to keep it on the road.
“Go!” Megan yelled as she aimed her pistol toward the red car through the rear window.
“You’re not going to shoot through the window, are you?”
“If he tries to run us off the road, I’m going to do everything in my power to stop him.”
It didn’t really answer her question in so many words, yet it did. It was Megan’s polite way of saying, “Hit us again you SOB, and I will put you down.”
The rear glass shattered before Megan had a chance. Shards catapulted into Megan’s face and the back of Téa’s head. The instant explosion, pain and shock made her jerk the wheel just as Stefano crashed into their car for a second time.
Tires squealed as she tried to maintain control. The rear of the car whipped to right with the impact. She over corrected to the left, and the car spun out of control.
“Get control, Téa!”
“I’m trying!”
“Not hard enough!”
When she straightened the wheel, Stefano was next to them. The bald man was in the passenger seat and had a gun pointed in their direction when Megan fired. The deafening noise sent shock waves through her ears. Stefano slammed on the brakes and struck the side of their car. Téa turned into the skid that threatened to send the car careening down the steep embankment on her right. She struck the front passenger side of Stefano’s little red car, jolting the ruthless bald man who still had no name. He fired his gun at the same time of the impact and more glass shattered. Téa wasn’t sure where the point of impact was, but glass sprayed at her like rough-cut diamonds carving everything in their path. Even her hands didn’t come out unscathed. Stefano swerved into oncoming traffic and she prayed he’d hit a truck, yet at the same time she didn’t want him to hurt anyone else.
Too many innocent people had been hurt.
Téa turned away from the spin the impact had sent them into, and somehow straightened the vehicle enough to stomp on the gas. Before she could identify his location, Stefano was next to them, and ramming into the side of the car once again. The force whipped her toward the passenger seat as Megan’s head slammed into the passenger window.
Téa wrenched the steering wheel to keep it on course and pushed the gas pedal down, but Stefano was right there. Again. Ready to ram their car into the ravine.
“I’m tired of this shit,” Megan growled.
Her face was covered in blood and Téa wasn’t sure if she’d been shot, or if it was from the shattered glass spraying them. Megan wiped blood out of her eyes and aimed for the passenger with Stefano. Téa knew he was the man from the train station,
the same man who’d been with Stefano on the ride to Marco’s house. He’d stood by and watched her mother die with a smile on his face and laughter in his voice. He needed to die just as much as Stefano.
It was as if something or someone heard her thoughts, or maybe she’d said them out loud and Megan agreed with her assessment. Perhaps it was karma coming back to bite the man’s head off because Megan didn’t miss her next shot. It ruptured in their car and detonated in the man’s face. Blood, bone and matter she didn’t care to identify, sprayed the windshield, the seat and Stefano. The man fell back in slow motion as Stefano swerved, cursed and shoved his partner off of him. His lifeless body fell over the edge of the open window, showcasing the hole in the back of his head, which was much larger and messier than the one in his face.
“Arrivederci, asshole.” Megan’s voice was cold and smug, and Téa knew there wasn’t a more fitting farewell to a man without a soul.
Stefano yelled something unintelligible in a threatening tone.
Megan responded with her own. “Great is the art of beginning, but greater is the art of killing!”
Téa cringed. “You just butchered Longfellow.”
“He won’t mind.”
Chapter Sixteen
His blood ran cold when he heard Téa tell the graphic details of her mother’s death. Megan had told him to logon to the Service’s social media site right before she hung up the phone. She was streaming Téa’s story live, for the whole world to see.
Holy hell, the woman had balls. If this didn’t cause a shit storm in D.C., he wasn’t sure what would. Their bosses would crucify the two of them. He’d tried to warn her not to do anything stupid, but the damned woman hung up on him. When he finally got the feed going on his phone, Téa had already begun her story about Stefano forcing her into a car with a stranger at her father’s office.
He wished he could go back in time and rid the world of Marco Vanetti. Ty had been involved in taking down the Vanetti la Cosa Nostra in the States, but that operation occurred after Marco killed Alessandro and Olivia Vanetti. After Téa had been brutalized and fucking sold. Marco Vanetti had been the snitch in his brother’s destruction. The takedown of the family business in South Carolina had occurred without a single person in law enforcement knowing about his crimes. From what Téa described, Marco Vanetti’s crimes were so much worse than Frank Vanetti's racketeering case.
And Marco had walked away a free man. As soon as he got Téa to safety, he was going to send the FBI to Jonathan Phillips’s compound. To hell with international law. If there were more girls there, American or not, they were not going to victimized further or sold to the cartel in Mexico. He also had contacts with the Policia Federal Ministerial in Mexico. Miguel and his ilk would be dealt with in kind. Sandra deserved justice as much as Téa.
The phone feed went blurry. The images became jumbled. Téa was yelling and Megan was barking orders for her to get control of the car. What the hell was going on? He should be catching up to them soon, he’d been speeding for what seemed an eternity and every mountain crest he peaked, he’d been disappointed not to see them in the distance.
Holding his phone in one hand and the steering wheel with the other, he struggled to hear the conversation. Then the image cleared. Was the phone on the floor? It was, and Megan was the only person in view.
Fuck. Her gun was drawn. Her emotions out of control. Khaos had never seen Megan express anything beyond irritation, but the image captured for the whole world to see, was a Special Agent Megan McClary full of hatred and rage—right before she pulled the trigger.
Glass exploded, the phone slid across the floor when a loud crash filtered through the speaker and Megan was slammed against the side of the vehicle. For a brief moment, Téa’s face came into view and her calm, delicate features in the face of more violence were in dramatic contrast to Megan’s. Megan was going to take the bastards out; Téa was accepting whatever was happening as fate.
“Don’t accept. Please, don’t. Fight Téa. Fight for your parents. Fight for Sandra. Fight for Sister Mary. Fight for my agents and every man, woman and child who has been victimized by these people.” His last wish, he was too frightened to hope for, but couldn’t stop himself from whispering. “Fight for us.”
Téa disappeared and the underneath side of a car seat came into view. Frustrated he couldn’t find them; Khaos tossed his phone onto the passenger seat and pushed the car even harder. The steering began to shake, but he didn’t care. He had to find them. Now.
He crested another incline and there, in the distance were two vehicles. It was like viewing a brutal clash of chariots in Rome’s Circus Maximus. The ancient arena, however, was in rubble and the trail of dust and debris left on the highway, belonged to two cars, not twelve chariots. Still the battle raged on, both fighting for position, both losing and gaining ground.
Khaos swerved around a crushed bumper in the middle of the road. He couldn’t tell which car it belonged to, and he didn’t care. His only focus was to get there and ram the son of a bastard off the road. He wasn’t sure who Megan and Téa were battling, but a war had started and he was damned well going to make sure they were the victors.
Téa’s tire blew and her control was gone. Her vehicle spun into a ravine on the side of the road. Rocks flew and dust billowed. The race was over as the vehicle rolled and mangled metal marred the countryside. Khaos wanted to roar as his grip squelched the shaking steering wheel.
Helplessness engulfed him. He couldn’t get to her fast enough. He had to get to them. Now. He was not going to lose her, or Megan. Then to his horror, the red car pulled off the road. He’d thought the driver would keep going. The damage was done. If Téa and Megan survived the crash it would be a miracle.
But the other driver didn’t keep going. The motherfucker got out of the car and Khaos could only watch and wish he was there as Stefano stretched his big, ugly ass out of the driver’s seat and disappeared into the ravine.
Khaos couldn’t see. Fuck. He couldn’t fucking see. His gut clenched. He could hear nothing but his own little mantra. “Not Téa. Not Téa.” His foot pushed on the pedal, but the car refused to give any more. He prayed and prayed, because there was nothing else to do as he ate up the distance, and then finally skidded to a stop.
Khaos jumped out of the car with his gun drawn and his paralysis sidelined. He would put that motherfucker down slowly and painfully. He ran for the ravine, jumped down and found his worst nightmare.
The car lay on its side, the damage inconceivable, and Megan was caught underneath the vehicle’s roof while Stefano sat on the embankment with a blade to her neck. A large, serrated knife at her jugular. She looked like hell. Her face was bloodied, her hair was a tangled mess, her jacket torn, and her shirt had almost as much blood on it as her face.
“Drop the knife!” Khaos roared as he raised his sights to the big ape with hair in his ears.
Stefano merely laughed. “Danny boy, you made it to the party. I was just telling Téa that she could watch another loved one die. Shall we make it two?”
“Where is she?” He wanted to search for her. Find her, but if he did, Megan would be dead. He kept his sights glued right between Stefano’s eyes.
“The ladies were quite unlucky in their accident. The agent’s trapped underneath the vehicle, and Téa is trapped within.”
Jeezus. How the fuck was he going to get them out of there? “Drop. The. Knife.” He ground out. “Or I will annihilate that tiny brain of yours.”
“There’s just one problem with that.”
“What’s that?”
“The Vanetti la Cosa Nostra are pulling up behind your vehicle now, and your agent killed a local boy. Rocco Vanetti was a friend of mine. We worked together, like you and this fine piece of ass here.” Stefano patted Megan’s face as if he was going to pinch the cheek of a child.
“Fuck you,” Megan spat. She still had venom, but her voice had lost its lethal dose. “Kill him, Da
nny.” Megan’s brow was pinched in pain and Khaos knew her injuries had to be extensive with the weight of the vehicle pinning her down.
He stepped forward and Stefano cut into her flesh. Scarlet drops trickled down her neck.
Stefano tsked. “I wouldn’t take another step, if I were you. Her skin is very, very thin.”
Khaos wanted to blow Stefano’s fucking head off, but at twenty feet, Megan’s head was at risk too. Stefano’s face was pressed against Megan’s, making the shot extremely difficult at that range.
Stefano’s dick, however, was lying at a ninety-degree angle away from Megan and if his shot missed, he’d hit him in the gut. Win-win.
The sound of car doors slamming behind Khaos gave him little time to negotiate. He had to get down there with Téa and Megan, otherwise they were all toast.
“You give me no choice, Stefano. I suggest you cover your dick, because Megan and I are dead no matter what I do and I plan to take your manhood with us.” He prayed to God, Megan could defend herself from the knife as he re-aimed.
Stefano’s eyes went wide. His moment of superiority—gone. Megan slid her hands up her chest and under Stefano’s arm. One hand protected her throat, and the other grabbed Stefano’s arm.
Khaos didn’t hesitate. He only had one bullet to spare, the rest he would save for the upcoming battle with the la Cosa Nostra goons behind him. He pulled the trigger and ran. Megan pushed Stefano’s hand with the knife away from her body and turned away from Stefano. Stefano moved to save his dick and the bullet struck him in the side as voices began barking orders in Italian behind Khaos.
Stefano squealed, all his focus that had been on Megan, redirected toward his wound and his knife toppled to the ground. Megan wasn’t done, not by a long shot. She grabbed the knife and was about to stab Stefano in the neck when Khaos hurdled over the top of her.
“Don’t kill him, we need him alive!”
Khaos grabbed Stefano before he became more of a problem and turned his aim at two men descending the embankment with guns drawn. He was ready to use every last round he had to keep them alive.