Jordan Summers

by Phantom Warriors: Linx

  Taylor rolled her eyes. "It wasn't with a gun. At least not any kind of gun I'd ever seen before," she said.

  “Was it a Taser?” Tabby asked.

  Taylor shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. There wasn’t any electricity.”

  "Start from the beginning and tell me everything that happened." Tabby took a deep breath and slowly let it out. It was a good thing Linx wasn’t still here or she’d strangle him.

  Taylor's nose crinkled as she tried to recall. "I came out after the fight. Well near the end anyway."

  "What fight?" Tabby's heart began to pound. What had Linx done? He'd said he had made sure they were safe by speaking with Sergei. She'd known that was a lie, but hadn't questioned him further. His knuckles had been red, but other than that, he appeared unharmed. Perhaps Taylor was over-exaggerating the seriousness of the situation.

  "He took out all three of Sergei's men, then he attacked Sergei himself," she said.

  Or maybe not, Tabby thought.

  Taylor looked at her sister. "I've never seen anything like it. One minute he was there, the next he disappeared. Like a ghost. He had fangs and claws." Her voice trailed off as she put her fingers up to her mouth to simulate teeth. "I think he might be a vampire."

  Tabby blinked. "I'm sorry, did you say vampire?" She'd never heard anything so ridiculous in her life. It was more than obvious that Taylor was suffering from a concussion. “I think I need to get you to the hospital.”

  Her sister's chin shot up. "I know it sounds crazy, but you didn't see him. He moved so fast and fought so good. He was like a Ninja. When he got his hands around Sergei's throat, I'm telling you, he didn’t look human. He looked like some kind of animal with glowing red eyes, long claws, and sharp teeth. I’ve never been so scared in my life. " She scrubbed a hand over her face as if to erase the memory. "Boris called him a demon. I'm beginning to think that he's right."

  "Linx is not a vampire and I’m pretty sure he’s not a demon. But I’d bet my house that he is a soldier," Tabby said. That made far more sense than him being some kind of supernatural creature. She glanced at her twin. Her sister looked so sincere. Whatever Taylor had seen had definitely freaked her out. Maybe the shock of witnessing all that violence had triggered her imagination. It was compensating for the missing pieces of her memory.

  Yeah, that had to be it. The other option was unthinkable.

  "How do you know he’s not a vampire?" Taylor asked, scanning Tabby's neck for bite marks.

  She wouldn't find any. At least not where she was looking. Linx had nipped her during their lovemaking, but he'd done so on her shoulder. He hadn't left fang marks behind, but he had left a whopper of a hickey. Telling Taylor so wouldn’t help bring her sister back to reality. It would only fuel her fantasies. “Listen, my name isn’t Sookie. This isn’t Louisiana. And I don’t have any blood drinks in my refrigerator.” Tabby stared at her. “And if that wasn’t reason enough, then I’d like to point out that vampires aren’t real.”

  Taylor didn’t look convinced as she took another sip of water.

  “I’ve seen Linx during the day, okay?”

  Taylor scowled. "Well, he could still be a demon. They can go wherever they want anytime they want."

  "Do you hear yourself?" Tabby asked. "I'm mean, really hear yourself? You're starting to worry me."

  "There’s nothing wrong with my head," Taylor said defensively. "I know what I saw. Sergei and the others saw it, too. It’s only a matter of time before they recover enough to come looking for him. And I suspect they’ll start here."

  Fear slithered down her spine, settling into Tabby's gut. "Linx said that everything would be okay now. Except maybe in a church."

  Taylor glared at her. "All he did was piss off an already pissed off Sergei."

  Tabby looked at her. "Why, Tay? Why did you stay?" It was a question that she'd been asking herself for months. She desperately needed an answer. "You know what kind of man Sergei is."

  Taylor crossed her arms over her ample chest. "He's not always an asshole, you know? When we first met, Sergei treated me like a princess."

  She sighed. "Princesses don't have to strip for their boyfriends in order to stay in his good graces."

  Taylor’s gaze dropped, then quickly returned. "I don't strip for Sergei. I strip because I enjoy the attention. You're just jealous."

  Tabby snorted. "Jealous? Jealous! Is that what you think?"

  "Yes." Taylor nodded.

  “Then you’re delusional,” Tabby said. "Did it ever occur to you that I didn't want you to end up like Sergei's last girlfriend? She's dead, Taylor. He discarded her like week-old garbage."

  "The police found no evidence that Sergei had anything to do with her disappearance and subsequent murder," Taylor said. "I asked Sergei and he was upset that I'd even think such a thing."

  Tabby couldn't believe the words pouring out of her twin's mouth. "He's part of the Odessa Mafia. What did you expect him to say? Yeah, honey, I beat the crap out of her and tossed her in the dumpster."

  Taylor scrambled off the couch until they were standing eye to eye. "You don't know him. You never even gave him a chance. You have always been so judgmental. Maybe if you spent time on your own social life, you wouldn't have to worry so much about mine. At least I don't date monsters,” she spat.

  Tabby reeled back as if she'd been slapped. All these years she'd done everything to try to help her twin out. She had no idea that all she'd been doing was building Taylor's resentment. "You don't mean that." She couldn’t mean that. Didn’t she understand how worried she was?

  "I do!" Taylor said.

  Her twin was right about one thing. Tabby had spent more time trying to fix her sister's love life than she'd spent working on her own. Well that was about to change, starting now.

  "Had I known that was how you felt, I wouldn't have bothered." It was a lie and they both knew it, but Taylor didn't call her on it. Tabby thought about Linx. Maybe if she hurried, she would be able to find him at his hotel before he left town.

  Taylor straightened her shirt and walked over to the front door. “I tried to tell you. You just wouldn’t listen.”

  "Where are you going?" Tabby asked, though in her heart, she already knew.

  "Back to Sergei," Taylor said. “He loves me.”

  And you don’t was left hanging in the air between them.

  "Is that why he puts so many bruises on your face?"

  Taylor’s hand rose subconsciously to her cheek. When she realized what she was doing, she lowered it and gave Tabby a sad look. "I'd worry about my own life, if I were you. Sergei doesn’t want to hurt me. He wants Linx. And he won’t think twice about going through you to get to him."

  Tabby took a step forward. "You're a fool if you really believe that."

  "I'm not the one dating a monster," Taylor threw back, then opened the door...and walked straight into Sergei's open arms.

  Tabby tried to scream, but a large bandaged hand closed over her mouth before she could get a single sound out. She glanced up over her shoulder and saw Boris’ battered face glaring at her.

  "Bring her!" Sergei turned and walked back out the door, tugging Taylor along with him. "We need bait in order to catch the demon."

  "How do you know he'll come, boss?" Boris picked Tabby up with one arm.

  "Because for some reason, he wants her." He pointed directly at Tabby. "Personally, I don’t see what he sees in her. But we'll make sure there's enough of her left for him to identify."

  Tabby's eyes rounded. Her gaze sought her twin. Taylor's face had paled.

  "Sergei, honey, we don't need her. We have each other." Taylor nuzzled close.

  Sergei grabbed her arm and squeezed until she cried out. "No one. And I mean, no one comes into my club and humiliates me the way that bastard did. Do you understand?" He shook Taylor hard enough to rattle her teeth.

  She nodded and tears filled her eyes.

  Tabby felt no triumph as her twin finally realized the truth. S
he wasn't dating the monster. Taylor was.

  * * * * *

  Chapter Eight

  "Did you think you could hire a mercenary to come in and mess with me and I wouldn't retaliate?" Sergei asked. "Did you?" He growled in fury.

  Before Tabby could open her mouth and respond, he backhanded her hard across the face. She cried out. Her eyes began to water as blood trickled from her nose.

  "Sergei, baby. The guy’s a total stranger. I swear," Taylor cuddled up next to him.

  He shoved her away. "Only whores fuck strangers." The disgust he showed her was palpable. "Unlike you, your sister is no whore."

  "No, she isn’t," Taylor murmured, shrinking down in the seat.

  Sergei glared at her. "I suggest you shut up and don't interrupt me again or maybe I’ll start to tink that you were in on the plan, too," his accent thickened with his rising anger.

  Taylor’s eyes widened. “I wasn’t…I’d never…I love you.”

  Sergei snorted. “Do you hear that, Boris? She loves me.”

  A chill of fear started in Tabby's stomach and slowly spread to her limbs, numbing them. By the time the cold reached her head, her teeth were chattering.

  They drove in silence to the strip club. Normally open seven days a week, the closed sign on the front door only added to Tabby’s sense of dread. She shouldn’t have sent Linx away. Pride and fear had kept her lips sealed and it was about to cost them everything. They circled around back to the alley.

  No people. No witnesses.

  Boris stopped the car and stepped outside. He quickly surveyed the alleyway, then signaled to the vehicle behind him. Viktor and Alexei drove forward and cut their engine. They continued to scan the darkness, searching for unseen threats, while Boris opened the back door.

  "Come on, ladies." Sergei shoved Taylor out the door, then tightened his grip on Tabby. "Let's go." He yanked her hard, pulling her off balance.

  Tabby fell to her knees on the pavement, scraping her hands.

  Sergei jerked her to her feet and hurried her to the back door. Tabby looked around for any means of escape. She knew if they got her inside, she wouldn't walk out again. But Sergei's grip was strong and even if she did manage to break his hold. His men would be on her before she made it twenty feet.

  He shoved her through the door into the blackness. The lights flickered on a minute later. Tabby found herself at the front of the stage. The tables and stools had been cleared out. All that remained were two chairs, which had been placed on enough plastic to wrap a house in, and a long thick rope. It was also the perfect amount of plastic to wrap two bodies in without having to worry about the messy cleanup afterwards.

  Her heart leapt into her throat, choking her. Tabby struggled in earnest; using every move suggested in the books she'd read. None worked.

  Sergei shoved her into one of the chairs. She tried to leap up, but Viktor pulled out his Glock and pointed it at Taylor’s chest.

  "Sit down," he spat. "Or she's dead."

  Tabby glanced at her sister. Tears streamed down Taylor’s face, smearing her makeup. She said nothing, but her eyes spoke of sorrow and regret. Tabby sat.

  Alexei slipped the rope around Tabby's ankles and tied her hands behind her back.

  "What's this for...ahh!" Tabby managed as she was yanked out of her seat and hoisted up into the air upside down. Her hair brushed the floor as Alexei tied off the rope and quickly removed her shoes.

  Sergei looked at Boris. "Turn on the music. As we know, this one is a real screamer."

  Boris nodded and strolled off to the D.J. booth. A few seconds later, a familiar thumping beat poured through the speakers. Tabby’s chest tightened as memories of her one perfect night with Linx flooded her mind. The pain of ‘what might have been’ sharpened them, leaving her raw and empty.

  “Please turn off this music,” she said, fighting back tears.

  Sergei laughed. “I thought you liked this song. It looked like it on the video.”

  “Turn it off!” she screamed.

  “Nyet! I like it,” Sergei said.

  Tabby thought for sure that her heart would explode in her chest. She now understood that they weren't simply going to kill her as she'd suspected earlier. They planned to torture her first. Her mind filtered through all her reference books. She'd never read anything about torture. Tabby had no idea how to combat it. Did you meditate? Brace? Did it help to scream? She couldn’t think with this song playing.

  "What do you want?" she growled, ignoring the blood pounding in her ears. Her nose was bleeding again. Tabby choked on the blood as it ran down the back of her throat.

  Sergei stepped forward and tilted his head until he was almost upright in her vision. "I want you to tell me all about the Merc you hired, so that I can hunt him down and kill him."

  Tabby's heart slammed against her ribs. "I didn't hire anyone. I’m a librarian. I don’t have that kind of money," she said. “I barely know him.” Even if that wasn’t the truth, there was no way she’d give Linx up to these men.

  Sergei made a show of scratching his head, then he glanced at his men. "Did it look like she didn't know the man on the recording, Viktor?"

  The big man shook his head. "Nyet, boss."

  "What do you think, Alexei?"

  Alexei rubbed his chin. "I'd say she knows him well...unless she's a whore."

  Sergei looked back at Tabby. "Are you a whore?"

  She grit her teeth. "No."

  "Then I expect you to tell me everything that you do know," he said.

  Tabby tried to twist around. The blood throbbing in her head was beginning to mess with her vision. "I don't know anything."

  "Hear that, Boris? She doesn't know anything about the man who crushed the bones in your hand. Do you believe her?" Sergei asked. “Perhaps we should cut her down and let her go home.”

  Boris's gaze hardened. “She lies. I think she just needs her memory jogged."

  "Perhaps you’re right. Give me the bat." Sergei held his hand out. Alexei stepped forward with a wooden bat and placed it in Sergei's loose grip. "I am going to ask you one more time. Who is he?"

  Tabby whimpered. "I don't know." She refused to betray Linx.

  Sergei swung the bat onto the bottoms of her bare feet. A shock of pain sliced through Tabby, jolting her spine, making it hard to breathe. She gasped, then screamed in agony.

  "I want his name," Sergei said.

  Tears dripped down Tabby’s forehead as her feet and legs throbbed.

  Taylor surged to her feet. “It’s Linx! Now let her go.”

  “Taylor no!” Tabby shouted.

  “Sit!” Sergei pointed to the chair, then reached down and yanked Tabby up by her hair. "A last name, please."

  "He doesn’t have one," she grit out between clenched teeth.

  “Who does he think he is? Some kind of pop star?” Sergei released her and she fell back. He tapped the top of the bat on the ground three times like a batter preparing for a fastball, then he swung.

  The bat hissed, arcing high through the air, a second before it made contact with the bottoms of her feet. This time the pain was worse. Something in her knee shifted, dislocating the joint. Tabby screamed. The breath rushed from her lungs and she nearly blacked out.

  Taylor stood. "Stop it! Please, Sergei, stop hurting her!"

  Sergei nodded to Viktor. The man fired a round into the wall. "The next one will be in your chest. Now sit the fuck down."

  Taylor trembled and dropped onto the chair. She covered her face with her hands and her shoulders began to shake. Tabby could hear her muttering, “I'm sorry…I'm sorry…I'm sorry,” under her breath, as she rocked back and forth.

  Sergei shoved the bat into Tabby's abdomen, knocking the air back out of her lungs. "Pay attention. Where did you meet him?"

  Tabby gasped, then gasped again. Before she could recover, Sergei hauled back and punched her in the face, sending her spinning in circles.

  Something in her jaw crunched and light exploded behind T
abby's eyes. For a second she was blind, then the world came rushing back in a flurry of color and pain. "Here," she choked. "I met him in your club."

  "Now why don't I believe you?" Sergei asked. "Boris get the board."

  "Da, boss."

  A minute later, Boris ambled over and placed a small table next to Tabby.

  "Untie her left hand," Sergei said.

  Boris did as he was told.

  "Alexei hold her arm. Viktor you keep Taylor covered in case Tabitha decides to attempt something foolish."

  "Da, boss."

  Alexei held onto Tabby's arm, pulling it toward the board until her hand was flat upon the surface.

  "I've told you everything I know," she cried.

  "I don’t think so. I ‘tink’ you’re holding back on me. Either way, someone has to pay for what your friend did. Since he’s not here…looks like it’ll have to be you." Sergei's voice faded as he handed the bat to Boris. "An eye for an eye, a hand for a hand. You get the picture."

  Boris took the bat and slammed it down onto Tabby's fingers, breaking them instantly. This time the cry that was ripped from her throat was more a tortured yowl. He swung the bat again, hitting her ribs, cracking them.

  Tabby’s eyes rolled back in her head and the world faded around her. Her last thought was of Linx. She hoped he’d gotten far, far away.

  * * * * *

  Linx sat in a bar surrounded by beautiful women, who were going out of their way to catch his attention. Yet, everywhere he looked, he saw Tabby's face. He'd left. Abided by her wishes, but that did nothing to ease the ache in his chest or quiet the beast within.

  He'd been here for two hours. Had plenty of opportunity to lose himself in another woman's body, but every time he went to act on his instincts something pulled him back.

  Damn her! What had she done to him?

  They were not bound. There should be no ties of any kind preventing him from choosing another. He felt his beast’s claws sink into his spine.

  Linx tossed back the last of his drink and threw a few bills down on the bar. He never liked the sensation of being unsettled. And things felt very unsettled with Tabby. She may not want to speak to him or see him again, but she was going to have to. He couldn’t leave things as they were. Maybe if they had it out once and for all, he’d be able to move on.