No Fury

by Tabatha Kiss

  “Was what so hard?” she asks.

  “Treating Sparky like a human being.”

  She scoffs. “He finally did something helpful. Whoop-di-doo.”

  “He led us here,” I remind her. “He got you inside, putting himself at great personal risk—”

  “Okay, fine. The kid’s not completely worthless.” We stop at the end of the line of bodies. “All right, drop him.”

  I release the torso and the dead man clunks to the grass with the rest of them. “Well, that’s done.” I gesture toward the pile of tarps and sheets. “Let’s get them covered up. No respect in leaving them out like this.”

  “Or...” Lilah slinks closer to me, “we can just skip that, go inside, and have hot sex in the shower while I rinse all this blood off.”

  I furrow my brow. “Good God, woman...”

  “What?”

  “Of all the times to be insatiable.”

  “Archer, if being surrounded by dead bodies kept me from having sex, I never would have lost my virginity.”

  She starts back toward the house, wiping her dirty hands on her jeans as she goes.

  “I wasn’t joking about that therapy,” I say. “It’ll be good for you!”

  Lilah waves a passive hand at me without breaking her stride.

  “And me...” I exhale to no one. “And our future children... which may not even happen.” I grab the tarp. “Hard to impregnate a woman if she lives on the other side of the world.”

  “Are you talking to yourself?” she shouts from the back door.

  “Yes!” I shout back as I lay the tarp over three of the men.

  “Well, hurry up. I’m hungry, too.” She disappears inside, drifting around the corner toward the kitchen.

  I drop my head, eying the dead bodies at my feet. Food is possibly the last thing on my mind. I’ll take the shower sex, if I had to choose one.

  But there’s something I have to do first.

  I lay the rest of the sheets down, obscuring the bodies completely, before heading back inside. Boxcar looks up as I lock the door behind me, giving me a nod as passive and casual as Lilah’s wave.

  “So, this is our lives now,” I say.

  “Hey, we could be those guys out there,” he says with a shrug.

  I nod. He’s not wrong.

  “Aw, hell yeah!”

  Lilah sidles in from the kitchen and holds up a small pint of Rocky Road ice cream. “Myra’s a bitch but she’s got good taste.” She holds up two spoons and clinks them together. “Meet me upstairs, big guy?” she hints at me as she walks backward into the hallway.

  “All right, then,” I say with a sigh.

  She ticks her tongue as she leaves the room.

  I look down into Boxcar’s uncomfortable face. “You good?” I ask.

  “Yeah, I’ll, uh...” His nose curls. “I’ll find a couch on the ground floor to crash on... where all the people died. That seems… safer.”

  I pat his shoulder as I pass toward the basement door. “Try and get some sleep. You did a great job today.”

  “Oh, hey, you going down there first?” he asks.

  “Yeah.”

  He reaches into his pack and hands me a pen. “There’s a reset button on the cameras. Right on the bottom, you can’t miss it. There should be at least one in that room.”

  I tap the pen against my palm. “I can do that.”

  “That should give us eyes on her until morning. I’ll get the rest of the cameras down there back online then, but...” he peeks at the door, “I think we’ll all feel better if we can see that one overnight.”

  I nod in agreement and open the basement door.

  I continue on down the stairs. Lights dim behind me as I walk through the shadowed hallways, going all the way back to the unfinished room on the left. The only unfinished room in the house, from what I’ve seen. Though, I don’t blame them.

  There’s no sense in finishing a room solely meant for making people bleed.

  I stop in the doorframe and look at her. Myra Black. Hair as black as her eyes. Skin as pale as fresh fallen snow. A regular Snow White... if there’s some alternate universe version where the Evil Queen raises her as her own and the two of them stab the woodsman to death, cackling all the while.

  I bound her here in the same way I bound Lilah in my trailer just two weeks ago. Resting forward on the table, hands and legs fastened by every chain or cuff I could find. The chain is wrapped tightly around the table legs, which are luckily bolted to the floor. She’s not going anywhere, just like Lilah didn’t. At least, not until I let her go but that’s never going to happen here.

  I step in and pass the table with the pen Boxcar gave me. I spot a camera in the corner, just like he said there would be, and reach up to feel for the tiny reset button on the bottom.

  “I knew it.”

  A little red light turns on in the camera’s right corner. Should be good to go, Sparky.

  I shift back toward the table to find Myra staring up at me, her cheek resting against the table.

  “Knew what?” I ask.

  She flashes a weak smile. “I knew you were into some kinky shit.”

  I shake my head. “Don’t you ever quit?”

  “I’m just saying. A handsome guy like you.” She jingles her chains against the table leg. “An affinity for tying up girls. Lilah’s one lucky lady.”

  “Never pegged you for the envious type,” I say.

  “I never pegged you, either... but I’m in if you are.”

  I ignore it. “Last call for the night.”

  She coos. “Are you here to spoon-feed me some pudding?”

  “No, I was gonna offer you a bucket,” I say. “Don’t rightly care to feed you at all.”

  “Well, that’s not very humane.”

  “Interesting observation coming from the likes of you.”

  “Oh, please.” Her eyes roll. “You don’t kill. You capture,” she mocks me. “Seem to be a bit in the gray area when it comes to watching your girlfriend go on killing sprees.”

  “Lilah’s gonna do what Lilah’s gonna do,” I say. “And the only one stopping her from doing whatever she’s gonna do to you is me, so...” I place a hand on the table by her head and lean forward. “Do you need a bucket?”

  “No,” she answers, her voice hard. “I’m good.”

  I step back. “Sleep tight, then.”

  “Archer.”

  I pause in the doorway and glance back over my shoulder.

  “It’s not too late, you know...” she says, her eyes glossed with sympathy. “Maybe for her, but not for you and me—”

  “Save it, you insidious twat.”

  Her jaw drops as I flick off the light.

  I head back to the stairs and I pause halfway up, feeling a light vibration deep in the pocket of my jeans. I reach in for my phone and answer it as soon as I see Dante’s name.

  “Please tell me you’re on your way, mate,” I say, lingering on the stairs.

  “Not quite,” he answers, his tone heavy and tired. “Is Lilah with you?”

  “No, she’s upstairs getting...” I stop myself from saying too much. There are some things a big brother doesn’t need to know about his baby sister. “Getting some sleep,” I say.

  “Good. Arch, I need to tell you something and you need to keep it quiet. Can you do that?”

  “Of course,” I say.

  A deep groan echoes in the background; one of sheer agony. A man in pain. I recoil instinctively.

  “The job we did for Lutrova tonight went south,” Dante says. “Lucy’s gone. She’s been taken.”

  My stomach turns. “By who?” I ask.

  “Gio Zappia,” he answers.

  “What would he want with her?”

  Another painful shriek rattles my ears.

  “We’re working on that,” he says. “So far, we haven’t gotten much. This squad was kept in the dark. They didn’t even know they were sent on a possible suicide mission against me and Fox. They were
just a transport team. There’s only one person I know who could connect the dots.”

  I look back down the stairs. “And we’ve got her tied up here.”

  “I wanted to give you a head’s up. Archer, if Lilah finds out about Lucy...”

  “It’s going to be a lot harder keeping her from ripping Myra’s tongue out,” I say with a nod.

  “Myra needs to be questioned but I don’t trust Lilah to do it. Her state of mind right now...”

  “I agree.”

  “I know protecting Myra is probably low on your list of priorities.”

  I breathe a heavy laugh. “You ain’t kidding.”

  “But...” He exhales, pain in his voice.

  “It’s Lucy,” I say for him. “I’ll do everything I can, Dante.”

  “Myra is a master manipulator and Lilah’s just vulnerable enough to fall for it. Keep Lilah away from her. I don’t care how you do it.”

  “I’m sure I can think of something.”

  “I’ll keep you posted.”

  He hangs up and I drop the phone back into my pocket.

  Lucy Vaughn. The lover of the man who murdered Gio’s brothers. I didn’t want to point out the obvious — Dante’s surely already realized it by now. There’s a clear motive here.

  The question isn’t why. It’s where.

  And how much longer she has left.

  Thirty-Six

  Fox

  I’ve been here before. That dark, cold look in Dante’s eyes is more than a little familiar. It’s not a headspace I ever want to experience again and I’ve spent the last few months making sure I never do.

  Every waking hour. Hell, even when I manage to sleep at all, I’m plagued by nightmares.

  Dani with Mercer’s gun to her head. A knife to her throat. My hands stained with her blood as she struggles to stay alive in the backseat of that car. To this day, I still can’t wash it off. Not completely.

  All a man ever wants to do is protect his woman. No matter the cost.

  For men like me and Dante, that cost is our humanity. Judging by the screaming coming from this warehouse, his is ripping apart at the seams but I can’t say he’s in the wrong.

  If it were Dani...

  I walk down the road from the warehouse and look up into the Russian night sky. We’re far outside the city, so the stars show easily. It’s a nice view. Pleasant and hopeful, on one hand. On the other, it’s a perfect, secluded spot to do what needs to be done.

  The agent lets out a scream from the center of the warehouse. I keep walking toward the treeline, getting as far away from the crumbling humanity as I can.

  When I hear her, I don’t want to hear that, too.

  I find a quiet spot and lean back against a solid tree. My fingers twitch around my phone with hesitation, though I’m not sure what I’m so nervous about. I’m just a guy calling his girlfriend.

  Totally normal.

  I dial the number. My thumb hovers over the send button for a few seconds before I finally push it and raise the phone to my ear. It rings three times, each one like a stake digging deeper into my heart.

  “Hello?”

  I exhale, closing my eyes. Just two little syllables and I’m already gone. “Hey,” I say.

  “Fox?” Dani says with a bit more enthusiasm. “Is that you?”

  “Yeah,” I answer. “It’s me.”

  “Are you okay?” she asks, sensing my tone. “What happened?”

  “Nothing. I...”

  I hesitate, wondering how much I should say. Should I mention Lucy? Should I tell her about the failed mission or about the man strapped to a chair a half-mile away from me?

  “I just needed to hear your voice,” I say instead.

  “Are you coming home?” she asks.

  “No,” I say. “Not yet. We still have... a lot to do. I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay.” She takes a long, quiet breath. “What time is it over there?”

  “Just before midnight, I think.”

  “Almost two in the afternoon here. Did you find your Russian friend?”

  “We did. We, uh...” I chuckle once. “They kidnapped us at the airport. Almost got executed.”

  “You almost got what?”

  “It’s all right. The hangman and I go way back.”

  Thankfully, she lets out a short laugh. “I’m sure I’ll find that funny someday... Maybe.”

  “How about you and Caleb?” I ask. “Are you doing okay?”

  “We’re fine. Keeping our heads down on the road, just like you taught me to,” she says.

  Something about that makes me smile. “Good.”

  “Fox...”

  “Yeah?”

  “Did you know she was pregnant?”

  “Ahh...” I chuckle. “Box told me yesterday morning after I left. That’s why she stayed behind.”

  She exhales hard. “Wow.”

  “Yeah, wow.”

  “She’s... not taking it well.”

  “What do you mean?” I ask.

  “I mean... she’s a little freaked out. Understandably. Holding up better than I would be, all things considered...” She goes quiet for a second. “Listen, Fox, I...”

  I shift on my feet, digging my toe into the dirt. “What is it?”

  “Do you want to have kids?” she asks. “Caleb said something her kids growing up with your kids but we had never really talked about... well, kids...”

  I bite my cheek. “I told her what I had to tell her to get her to stay behind, Dani. It wasn’t safe for her to be here.”

  “So... you don’t?”

  I open my mouth to answer but I close it again, bouncing between yes and no. Maybe someday and never at all.

  “Do you?” I ask.

  “I don’t know. Do you?”

  I laugh with her, defeating the tension. “I’ve wanted a lot of things,” I say. “Never really got much of it. Always figured kids would be on that list, too.”

  “Wasn’t I on that list once?” she asks.

  My lips twitch. “You were. Yeah.”

  “We don’t need to decide now,” she says. “Even if we did want... there’s still a lot more to do before then. Right?”

  “Right,” I say. “Dani.”

  “Yeah, Fox?”

  “I want a life with you,” I say. “If kids happen, then they happen. If they don’t, then they don’t. I don’t care what that life looks like, as long as I have you. All right? No pressure.”

  “I feel the same way,” she says. “I love you so much, Fox.”

  I close my eyes again, immersing myself in her. If I could find a way to cling to this feeling... maybe I could keep my humanity just a little bit longer.

  “I love you, too,” I say.

  Something knocks twice in the background.

  “That’s Caleb,” Dani says. “She went to check us out and turn in the room key, so I’ve gotta go...” She breathes out, not wanting to go. “Thank you for calling. I know you might not have wanted to...”

  “I wanted to,” I say. “I needed to.”

  “Stay strong for me.”

  I chuckle. “You stole my line.”

  “You let me handle the lines,” she says. “You handle the guns.”

  “Sounds fair.” I linger a second longer in the moment. “Be safe.”

  “You, too. Bye, Fox.”

  “Bye, Dani.”

  The call disconnects and turn my head up toward the starry night again. I felt so weak before when I began that call but now... I feel strong. Dani is strong. She didn’t sound terrified or on the brink of tears like I feared she would be. She’s tough and capable. Calm and steady...

  Or she’s just that good of an actress.

  I head back over to the warehouse, the silent, pleasant night fading with each step I take toward it. The closer I get, the louder the screaming becomes. The harder it is to cling to Dani… to my humanity.

  The door slides open as I draw near and Dante shuffles out. He kicks a rock down the dirt
road and I slip my phone back into my pocket before he can see it.

  “He say anything else?” I ask.

  He wipes the sweat off his brow. “Just more of what we already know,” he says. “Gio was here making connection for the Boss to undermine the Russian network but nothing else about...” His voice fades.

  About Lucy.

  “Let Yuri take over here,” I say. “We’ll go to Paris. Try and get some sleep on the way—”

  “No, Fox—”

  “You’re no good to her like this, Dante.”

  He frowns. “Excuse me?”

  “They planned this,” I say. “They know us. They know everything about us. Our strengths, weaknesses. Mercer went after Dani because he knew what it would do to me... and they took Lucy because they knew what it’d do to you.”

  “What do you suggest I do, Fox?” he asks, angry and cold. “Run away? Go into hiding? Grow a beard?”

  “Save it.”

  “For what?”

  “The weakness of my enemy is my strength,” I quote our old squad leader. “The Boss isn’t just a phantom anymore. We know her name, where she lives. Who her family is.” I take a step forward. “Save it for Myra, Dante.”

  He raises his head and I catch a little more sense entering his eyes.

  Yuri walks out of the warehouse with a groan. “Well, he’s unconscious,” he says as he adjusts the rolled sleeves of his shirt. “Might be a while before we can go again.”

  I look at Dante. “What do you want to do?” I ask.

  Dante turns and scratches the back of his head. “I want to burn this fucking city to the ground until I find her.”

  “They’d be gone by now,” I say.

  “The country, then.”

  “Dante.”

  He exhales hard and stares at the ground. “We’ll go to Paris,” he says. “Meet up with the others and talk to Myra.”

  I nod. “Can you get us a flight out?” I ask Yuri.

  “I’ll call my brother,” he answers. “We can have you in the air within an hour, give or take.”

  Dante keeps his head low and doesn’t say a word as he turns to walk off, heading for the car parked at the far end of the warehouse.

  Yuri looks to me, his expression soft and sympathetic with tiny drops of blood on his brow. “I’ll stay here with the snake,” he says. “I’m sure once Markov is patched up, he’ll be out here, too. I’ll keep you updated if we get anything more.”