by Tabatha Kiss
Myra throws open the door and takes one final, smug look back at us. “See you around,” she says.
She steps one foot outside and runs smack into Dante’s thick chest.
“Oh, shi—”
Dante grabs her, spins her around, and wraps his arm around her throat, putting enough pressure to cut off her airflow.
“What the hell are you guys doing?” he asks, gawking over at us.
Lilah exhales hard. “She escaped.”
He furrows his brow in annoyance and squeezes tighter as Myra scratches at him but he doesn’t let up.
Finally, Myra’s eyes flutter closed and she loses consciousness. Her damaged hands slide down to the floor as Fox trails in behind him, a pistol clenched tightly in one hand.
“It’s all right,” he says, looking back over his shoulder. “Come on in.”
A tall man in a black suit eases in behind him, his hand holding on to a brunette woman’s arm.
“Where’s Lucy?” Lilah asks.
Dante rises slowly, his eyes locked on Myra. “Let’s get her secured first.”
“First?” she repeats. “What the hell does that mean?”
I reach for her shoulder. “Myra won’t stay down long, love. We should do as he says.”
She looks at me, her eyes sensing betrayal. “What happened?”
“Fox...”
We turn around, following Boxcar’s voice down the hall. He props himself against the wall and holds up his phone.
“Call Dani. Now,” he says. “I can’t reach Caleb.”
Fox steps forward, his hand deep in his back pocket. “What’s going on?” he asks.
Boxcar looks down at Myra. “She knew about the baby. Something’s wrong. I can feel it.”
Fox dials a number and holds the phone against his ear. The rest of us wait in silence, eager to find out what the hell went wrong here.
“Dani,” he says. “Are you—”
He goes silent and his eyes rise to Boxcar’s. With a quick flick of his thumb, he taps the speakerphone button and holds the phone up between them.
“Who is this?” he asks.
“Oh, Fox,” a woman says, laughing coldly. “Do you really have to ask?”
Boxcar deflates and nods his head, broken and defeated.
Fox clenches his jaw. “Hello, Marilyn,” he says.
Forty-Three
Fox
My heart burns in my chest. I try not to think about what this means but it could only mean one thing.
“Where are they?” I ask into the phone.
“Who?” Marilyn asks, amused. “Oh, you mean Ms. Roberts and Ms. Fawn?”
“Yes.”
“That... is an excellent question.”
“Answer it,” I say.
The others ease a little closer to me, their eyes wide-open on the phone, while Dante stays close to Myra. The agents among us have never heard this voice but we’ve felt the power behind it before. Even I’m a bit struck by it. The woman behind the curtain.
“I’ll be happy to, Fox,” Marilyn says, “but I have a question of my own first.”
“What?” I ask.
“Where is my son?”
“He’s dead.”
Boxcar frowns at me. With Caleb’s fate up in the air, I don’t blame him.
“Yes, I know that,” she says with a sigh. “Ms. Roberts was... honest, to say the least. I mean his remains. Where are they?”
I bite down, unwilling to answer. I don’t want her finding her way to Mrs. Clark’s farm. “He’s gone,” I answer instead.
Marilyn clicks her tongue. “Well, that’s unfortunate,” she says.
“Where are Dani and Caleb?” I ask her again.
She hums with amusement. “They’re gone,” she answers.
“Leave them alone. This isn’t their fight.”
“Now, why would I do that? Why would I trade this experience for anything?” she asks. “You took my legacy, Fox. My family’s future. Is it not fair that I do the same to you?”
I turn my back to the others. “What do you want from me?” I ask through my teeth. “I gave you years off my life. I did everything you told me to do, no matter how revolting it was. You destroyed me. I have nothing left to give you.”
“Oh, Fox. My dear boy,” she whispers. “You have so much left to lose.”
I bow my head. “Take me instead,” I beg. “Just... leave them alone.”
Marilyn sighs. “It’s such a shame, too. The two of you would have made such beautiful children.”
I glance over my shoulder toward Myra on the floor. Her eyes are open now but she hasn’t moved. Not with Dante’s pistol pointed at her head.
“If you lay a hand on them, I’ll—”
“You’ll what?” Marilyn snaps. “Was my son right about you all along, Fox? Are you really nothing but a killer?”
“You’re about to find out,” I growl.
She chuckles calmly. “Won’t that be lovely?”
“Myra,” I say, silencing her. Myra looks up and fires a hard, defiant glare at me. “If you touch them, I’ll kill her.”
Lilah shifts on her feet. She’s obviously not going to let anyone else pull that trigger but this is the only card I have to play right now.
“Go ahead,” Marilyn says.
She hangs up and my guts churn with the sudden silence. Even Myra’s face falls.
My God, what have I done?
Dani, I’m sorry. I promised you no one would ever hurt you again. I promised Caleb she’d be safer there with you. I can’t even bring myself to look at Boxcar. We’re on the other side of the world. I can’t save them and that’s my fault.
I slowly lower my hand to my side as rage heats my skin.
The Boss won.
But I’m not dead yet.
“Myra...” I say. “Where are they?”
She doesn’t answer.
I step forward, rolling my fists. “I know you know,” I say. “Where is she taking them?”
Again, she stays quiet but her eyes shift in their sockets with fear.
I rush across the room, following tunnel vision right to her.
Dante shifts out of the way, letting me pass and I grab Myra by the collar to hoist her off the floor. She screams in pain as I wrap my hand around her hair and drag her into the dining room just off the foyer.
Voices rise behind me, a mix of mercy pleas and apathy cries, but I can’t tell who says what. I don’t care, either.
I force Myra to bend over the table and I reach down for the knife strapped to my ankle.
“Fox, stop—!”
I stab through Myra’s right hand, going deep enough to splinter the table beneath her. She cries out with wide, dead eyes and tries to resist as I hold her down.
“Anyone with a weak stomach should leave the room,” I say, flexing my hand along the back of Myra’s neck.
“Boxcar, come on...”
I glance over as Archer leads him out. Boxcar turns away from me, a look of shock and disgust on his face. Good. I’ve never wanted him to see this side of me. The side I’ve lived with since the day I died.
Dante comes in beside me and lays his hands along Myra’s left arm while Lilah stands in front to watch. Luka towers in the doorway with his arms crossed. And Sofia... part of me wishes she’d leave, too, but she stays by Luka’s side. Her choice.
Myra struggles beneath us, whimpers of agony trembling her mouth.
“Where are they going?” I ask her again.
I see the training in her eyes. Snake Eyes agents are put through a lot of it. How to withstand torture. How to keep your mouth shut. We all know the tips and tricks of retreating into the dark depths of oneself to get through it but I don’t have time for that shit.
I twist the knife and she returns to her eyes as tears spill out. “Where?!”
“It’s...” She stutters through her teeth. “It’s too late, Fox...”
“Try again.”
I yank the knife out and stab her
hand again before she can move it. She lurches upward but Dante and I push her right back down to the table.
“Myra.” I tilt her head back, forcing her to look at me. “If you don’t start talking, I’m going to peel off every inch of your skin, starting with your fucking eyelids. Now, where is she taking them?!”
She closes her eyes, trying to hold back again.
Dante reaches into his jacket pocket and withdraws his garrote. He quickly wraps it around her left pinkie finger and pulls it tight enough to draw blood. Myra tenses, trying to ignore what’s coming but she can’t hide the fear from her face.
“Last chance, Myra,” I say.
“Go to hell,” she whimpers.
Dante pulls the line. It digs in deep, dripping flesh blood onto the table as he hastily wraps her ring finger, too. I give him a nod and he pulls tighter, filling the air with the crack of breaking bones.
“Gio!” Myra cries out, her body shaking from shock. “She’s...”
Dante backs off a bit and I loosen my grip on her head but I don’t move the knife still plunged through her right hand.
“She’s what?” I ask.
Myra breathes hard. “Gio,” she says again. “She’s taking Dani to Gio.”
Luka steps closer to the table.
“Why?” I ask, tilting the knife.
“He... he hired us.”
“For what?”
Myra shakes, every breath as painful as the last.
“Revenge,” she answers.
Forty-Four
Fox
I did this.
Dani was taken because of me.
“Revenge?” I repeat.
“I’ll tell you everything,” Myra says, shaking against the table. “When, why, how.” She turns her head to look at me. “But you have to let me go.”
“Don’t you dare make that deal, Fox.”
I raise my eyes to Lilah’s. She stands tall at the other end of the table, her arms locked across her chest.
I blink twice, staring hard into her eyes. “I don’t have a choice,” I say slowly.
Lilah squints. “She’s not leaving here.”
“I’m no good to you dead,” Myra says.
Dante presses into her arm. “You’re no good alive, either.”
“Lucy Vaughn,” Myra says. “He hired us to take her, too. Don’t you want to know why?”
Dante pauses.
“Promise to let me walk out of here and I’ll tell you everything you want to know.”
“No.” Lilah leans forward and digs her nails into the table. “Fox, if you make that deal, I will rip your fucking throat out. So help me—”
“Lilah,” Dante says. “Cool it.”
She looks at him and her face darkens more. “No, don’t you turn on me, too. She killed Elijah. Our brother, Dante. My twin.”
He looks down. “I’m getting Lucy back,” he says, swallowing hard. “I don’t care how.”
Lilah eases backward and shakes her head. “Don’t do this, Dante.”
Dante glances at me and I nod. His expression holds, strong yet regretful, before he finally bows his head and nods once.
I pull the knife out of Myra’s hand.
“You fucking idiots,” Lilah seethes.
Dante releases Myra’s arm. “Take a walk, Lilah,” he says.
“Fuck you.”
She storms out, her boots stomping down the hallway until a door slams somewhere in the house.
I grab a chair and shove it behind Myra, forcing her to take a seat. She slinks down into it and inspects her broken hands, cradling them as tears spill down her face.
“Thank you,” she whispers.
“Shut up and talk.” I sit on the table’s edge, my knife still ready for anything while Dante closes in on her other side.
“After...” Myra takes a breath, wincing as she tries to bend her fingers, but can’t. “After you deflected, Gio came to us. He was a little upset. He paid for a product and we didn’t exactly deliver our best.”
I look at Luka, he and Sofia still standing behind her. The day we met flashes in my head. I was sent to kill him and Yuri but I didn’t. I helped him save Sofia from Gio instead... and he helped me escape Snake Eyes in return.
“Then,” Myra continues, “you killed the second squad we sent to get the job done and... well, at that point, our reputation wasn’t doing so hot. Gio demanded to know what agent it was that tossed him out of a plane and kidnapped his beloved bride. He wanted your head on a spike and the Boss agreed.” She glances at me with rolling eyes. “Mercer, on the other hand...”
“He wanted me back,” I say.
She nods. “I told him to get over it but he had the dumbest boner for you. We figured it was harmless, and it was for a while, but then the next thing we knew, he killed Senator Lamb and cut up a movie star on TV just to get your attention.
“At that point, he dropped off the radar completely. Literally and figuratively.” She glares over her shoulder. “Meanwhile, the Russians were hunting us down, the Boss was panicking over the master file, and Gio got impatient. He had a spike with no head and he wasn’t about to continue negotiating deals between the Zappia family and Snake Eyes until he had it. Then, the news broke. Terrorist group exposed.” Her eyes shift toward Dante. “Gio wasn’t too pleased, obviously. Not only had Fox disappeared into the ether again, now we had another rogue agent who tried to kill his baby brother.”
“I wasn’t rogue,” Dante says. “My family was always loyal to you.”
“Then, why strangle old man Spencer?” she asks, genuinely curious.
“He tried to kill Lucy. It was personal.”
Her eyes roll. “And let me guess. You would do anything for love?”
He doesn’t answer.
“Whatever.” She sighs. “Anyway, after you popped Marty’s face cherry, Gio went berserk. He started thinking a little more... outside the box.”
“How so?” I ask.
“If he couldn’t have you and Dante mounted on his wall, then he’d settle for the next best thing,” she says.
I bite down, not wanting to say it. “Dani.”
“And Lucy,” Dante says.
“And Lilah,” Myra adds. “After I told him about Archer shoving big brother Enzo into a trunk, he officially added Mr. Allen to his growing list of vengeance. Unfortunately, while securing Dani and Lucy seemed easy enough, I regretfully screwed up Lilah’s capture.” She shrugs. “What can I say? We didn’t expect the band to break up in London and we lost track of her en route to... well, here. Mea culpa.”
London. They were following us the whole time, watching and waiting for the right moment to strike… but they didn’t come to Los Angeles for me.
They came for Dani.
And I left her there… lamb to the slaughter.
I tighten my grip on the knife. “This was never about finding me, was it?”
“Nope,” Myra answers. “Not directly. We serve our client’s needs before our own. You know that as well as I do, but...” She nods. “Efficiency. Two birds, one stone. If we can put a few bullets through your eyes while delivering Gio his new brides, then we’ll make it work.”
“Brides?” Dante repeats.
“What?” she says with a smirk. “Did you think he was just gonna kill them? No, Gio wants something a little more poetic than that...”
Dante looks at me with the same aching dread that grows in the pit of my stomach.
“Heirs,” Sofia says behind us. “Gio wants heirs.”
“You wouldn’t deliver, so... what’s a man to do?” Myra says to Sofia. “With only one Zappia boy left, someone’s gotta repopulate the bloodline. Who better than the beautiful soulmates of his mortal enemies?”
“Like hell he will,” Dante growls.
“I already told you, it’s too late,” she says. “Once they’re gone... they’re gone. Even I wasn’t told where they were going.”
“Fox...”
I raise my head to look at Sofia be
hind me. Luka reaches for her but she steps out of his hands, tears streaming down her face as she looks up at me.
“Fox, I’m so sorry,” she whispers, her lip trembling. “This is my fault, I...”
“No,” I say, shaking my head once. “It’s not, Sofia.”
“Well...” Myra hums. “Technically—”
I grab her right wrist and she yelps in pain as I slam it against the table again to shut her up.
“And Caleb?” I ask, leaning forward. “What does Gio want with her?”
“I don’t know.”
I raise my knife again and Myra lurches.
“Wait — stop! Really! I don’t — I don’t know why they took her, too. Caleb’s always been off-limits.”
I frown. “Off-limits? Why is Caleb off-limits?”
“Because she’s a legacy hire.”
I look over my shoulder at Boxcar lingering in the doorway. “She’s what?” I ask.
He walks over and I relax the grip on Myra’s wrist. “Caleb’s father,” he says. “He’s an agent. I saw him myself.”
I furrow my brow.
“We’ve been watching her,” Myra says slowly. “When she enlisted after Casey’s recruitment, we saw some pretty obvious potential. We wanted to bring her in but then she got a bit upstaged out in the field by the great Fox Fitzpatrick and his magic sniper rifle. The Boss made an executive decision and we placed Caleb on the backburner. Until now, I guess. I’d call and ask for you but... I don’t really care.”
“Where is her father now?” I ask.
Myra nods at Boxcar. “That one’s for you, dude. I’ve been a little tied-up.”
Boxcar exhales. “He was here, but... I let him go.”
I squint. “You let him go?”
“What was I supposed to do, Fox?” he asks. “Kill him?”
“Yes.”
“He’s my father-in-law.”
“He’s a time bomb,” I argue. “He probably ran to the Boss the second he left here.”
“Gee, if only I’d been smart enough to think of that.” He exhales hard. “He’s in Paris. I’ve been tracking him since he left.”