“Then clearly you don’t have all the facts,” said Tauna. “Flint worked for Infernum years ago and after a mistake on the job cost a young mother her life, he chose retirement. Dante respected that, but had a job only Flint could do. The job went fine and then Dante arranged for Flint to get out of the country, set him up with a new identity to avoid the Agency.”
“And what about how Flint died?”
Tauna shrugged. “That was his own actions. Flint had a strong sense of justice. But as per the conditions of the job, Flint wanted the orphaned child to be the recipient of a trust fund. After Flint’s death, Dante increased the amount of the trust far beyond what Flint agreed to.”
Dalton took another sip of his wine. “Fair enough. But that doesn’t explain you.”
“Dante found me when I was in a bad situation in my home country,” said Tauna. “He saw something in me…a spark as he called it. He rescued me from what would have likely been a very short, very miserable existence and trained me. Everything I am, I owe to him.”
Dalton snickered to lighten the mood. “Saint Dante. Has a nice—and slightly ironic—ring to it.”
Tauna didn’t appear to share her partner’s amusement. “I have no illusions about what Dante is. He is a man who will commit evil, but he does it with purpose. And he is the only one who ever did something good for me. So you can spare me your little quips about what kind of man he is. I have seen it firsthand. You, on the other hand, have yet to show me what kind of man you truly are.”
Dalton sighed. “I’m sorry. Maybe that wasn’t—”
“We have to go back to our quarters.”
“Look, I’m trying to apologize here and—” Dalton stopped when he noticed Tauna’s eyes looking past him. He glanced over his shoulder and saw a new entrant into the dining car. The Asian man was dressed from head to toe in black, with a leather jacket over his body.
“What is it? You know that guy?” asked Dalton. When he looked back, Tauna had already stood. He followed her lead.
“Now, let’s go!” she said, keeping her voice low but also maintaining a sense of urgency in her response. “And don’t look back!”
Dalton walked after her, following her advice not to look at the man behind them. As they passed into the next car, he leaned forward, whispering to her. “What’s got you so spooked?”
“If that man is who I think he is, we’ve been made,” said Tauna.
“Who is he?” asked Dalton as they returned to their deluxe sleeping carriage. As they opened the door, they saw their attendant busy making up the beds.
“I’m sorry, we’re not yet finished with the turn-down,” said the young woman.
“It’s fine,” said Tauna, handing her some lira. The attendant nodded with some confusion but took the money and left, closing the door behind her. Tauna went to the storage closet and took out Dalton’s bag, tossing it to him. “We have to get off this train now!”
“What’s going on?” asked Dalton.
“That man outside? I recognize him,” said Tauna. “Vincente.”
“Who’s Vincente?”
“An Agency assassin, one of their deadliest.”
“How did he find us?” asked Dalton. Tauna gave him an incredulous look and he shook his head. “No, not this thing with Baxter again.”
“We’ll figure out the details later, right now we have to get off this train or people will die.” Tauna pulled a clasped balisong or butterfly knife from her bag and held it tightly in her hand. She pulled the bag’s strap over her body and moved to the door. Dalton stood behind her, still trying to process everything she just said.
She opened the door cautiously and stepped out. As soon as she did, a blade came whizzing down towards her. Tauna ducked and sprung back, throwing herself into Dalton. The man stepped in front of the door. A blade extended from beneath the sleeve of his jacket.
Tauna released the clasp on the balisong and flipped it open, raising to defend herself from Vincente’s next swing. Dalton moved out from behind Tauna and swung his bag, striking Vincente’s arm and causing him to falter from his blow. Tauna drove a foot into Vincente’s chest, knocking him into the corridor.
She quickly moved out of the room after him and brought the knife down on his chest. It scraped against the body armor Vincente wore under his clothes. Before she could go for the throat, Vincente grabbed her wrist and squeezed, twisting it until she had no choice but to let the knife slip. Dalton grabbed Tauna’s waist and pulled her off Vincente, his next strike narrowly missing the pair.
“Go!” shouted Dalton, pushing her forward. Tauna cursed under her breath, wanting nothing more than to finish Vincente right there and then but knowing they had no choice but to run. She pushed past an attendant who came from the opposite direction, standing in shock as she witnessed the scene.
Vincente rose to his feet and the attendant stood back up, staring at the blade that poked out from his sleeve. “Wh-what is this?” she asked. As Vincente came closer, he took one quick swipe, slashing the woman’s throat and leaving her to bleed out on the floor.
***
Dalton and Tauna moved into the next car, closing the door behind them. They entered the lounge car and the other passengers barely acknowledged their presence until the pair moved quickly through the car. The door opened after them and Vincente entered, the blade retracted and hidden beneath his sleeve once more. He continued down through the car.
Dalton stopped to rifle through his bag, much to the consternation of his partner. She pulled on his arm. “What the hell are you doing? We have to go!”
“I’ll handle this!” he shouted back, pulling free his gun. Dalton raised it up and fired, a tranquilizer dart striking Vincente right in the neck. He paused and pulled the dart free, looking at the small instrument for a moment before he collapsed on the ground.
That caught the attention of the rest of the passengers, who started shouting and screaming. Dalton pushed Tauna forward and they moved into the next car. They kept on moving until they reached the luggage car. Tauna pulled open the side doors and looked out. They were coming to a bridge crossing the Danube and Tauna looked down at the water below.
“Jump!” she shouted.
“Are you out of your bloody mind?” asked Dalton. “The fall could kill us!”
Tauna looked him square in the eyes. “Train security is going to find us and if they don’t, that dart won’t keep Vincente down for long. We either stay here and die or we risk the jump!”
Dalton took a look down but before he could make a definitive decision, Tauna pulled him and they fell from the bridge, striking the water below.
CHAPTER TWELVE
After emerging from the river, Dalton and Tauna took refuge in a small town in Romania not too far from the river. They found a hotel for the night that only had one room left, so they booked it and settled in.
Dalton took his phone out of his bag and examined it. Fortunately, the bag was watertight enough that the phone was undamaged, so he was grateful for some small favor. He also checked Fury’s container just to be sure it was still intact and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw it was.
“We move on tomorrow,” said Tauna. “Shouldn’t stay in one location for too long. Vincente is an excellent tracker.”
Dalton stripped off his wet jacket and began unbuttoning his shirt. “You make this guy sound like some kind of boogeyman. It’s just one man, how hard can it be to stay a step or two ahead of him?”
Tauna stepped up to Dalton, closing the distance between them until she was only a few inches from his face. “Trust me on this, Moore. You do not want to get any closer to Vincente than you already have. He’s a legend in this business and he’s not one to give up easily.”
“Fair enough.” Dalton stepped away from her and went back to his bag. He pulled out a miniature bottle of vodka and held it up, swinging it from the neck with his thumb and forefinger. “Made sure to pilfer the minibar before we left Istanbul.” Dalton tossed it to her an
d Tauna caught it easily. She unscrewed the top and took a quick swig of it. Dalton produced another bottle, this one of gin, and began to sip from it. “Would help if you told me a little bit about who this guy was. Would give me a better idea of what sort of stakes we’re looking at.”
Tauna sat on one of the twin beds, draping one leg over the other. Despite the wet clothing clinging to her skin, she didn’t seem to mind. “He’s relentless. The Agency only sends him out for high-risk jobs. That blade you saw? It’s something of a trademark of his. That and the fact that he never speaks.”
“Why’s that?”
“Rumor has it his tongue was cut out, but no one’s ever really gotten close enough to confirm it,” said Tauna. “No one has ever survived an encounter with him. Until now, of course.”
“So how did you know who he is?” asked Dalton.
“Our mole within the Agency managed to get us some dossiers on their talent. If not for that, he would have gotten us by surprise and we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
“What’s our next move?” he asked.
“For now, just keep moving. I’ll contact Dante soon, figure out where we can arrange a meet. The sooner we get rid of Fury, the sooner this job is over for the both of us.”
“Well, if you don’t mind, I could use a shower,” said Dalton, setting down the gin and pulling off his wet shirt, dropping it to the ground. “Unless you’d like to go first?”
Tauna found herself staring at Dalton’s naked torso, and it took her a moment to register that he asked her a question. She shook her head and looked down, trying to hide the color that came to her cheeks. “No, you go ahead. I’ll wait.”
Dalton nodded and walked to the bathroom, closing the door behind him. He stripped off his wet pants and shorts, staring at his reflection in the mirror. Dalton turned on the faucet and splashed some cold water on his face. He shut off the water and leaned over the counter with a sigh. When he looked up in the mirror, he whispered, “Just what the hell are you doing, mate?”
He didn’t want to think of the possibility that Baxter might have turned on him. It seemed impossible for the man to break his loyalty like that. But at the same time, Dalton couldn’t deny that the case Tauna presented was compelling.
She’s being paranoid, that’s the only thought that could comfort him. It was the only thing that made sense. If Vincente was as good a tracker as Tauna said, Dalton figured it was possible he could have found them on the train even without help from an inside man. And of course, both Venom and the Agency likely had informants all over Turkey, probably given descriptions of the two of them. It was likely when the security kicked in at the Cobra Club that the cameras would have reactivated, catching a shot of Dalton’s face.
He put those thoughts out of his mind and climbed into the shower. Dalton turned on the hot water and closed his eyes as it poured down his body. Already he could feel the tension flowing from him. This job would be over soon and once it was, he could move on to something else. Leave Infernum, the Agency, and Johnny Venom to fight their little shadow wars. Dalton had no dog in the fight, other than saving his own skin. Once he erased his debt, he’d be in the wind.
As soon as Dalton finished his shower, he stepped out of the tub and grabbed one of the folded towels, drying himself off. He wrapped the towel around his waist and tied it, picking up his wet clothes. When he stepped out of the bathroom, the steam escaped along with him. He walked over to his bed and looked through his bag for clothes. Tauna said nothing, just walked past him with some clothes in hand and entered the bathroom next. He heard the lock turn and then the sound of the water came. Dalton pulled on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, picking up the small bottle and pouring what remained into one of the hotel glasses. He sat on the bed and checked his phone. No missed calls or messages. Dalton set it on the nightstand and peeked inside the bag once more.
His fingers lightly touched the case that held Fury. Something so small could cause so much pain and death. Not unlike a bullet, just on a far larger scale. It made him recall the life he once led in years past, before he became a professional thief, finally joining the family business.
The bathroom door opened and Dalton zipped up the bag, setting it on the floor and watching as Tauna emerged, wearing shorts and a tank-top. Dalton couldn’t help staring at her as she moved, admiring her brown skin and the curve of her body. But there was something else he saw in her at that moment that he hadn’t seen in the past.
“Something wrong?” she asked.
“Pardon?”
“You’re staring.”
Dalton grinned and raised the glass to his lips. “Sorry.” He sipped the gin.
Tauna faced him with her hands on her hips, one knee slightly bent. “What? You can’t tell me you’ve never seen a woman dressed for bed before.”
“Believe it or not, I haven’t.”
Tauna scoffed. “I find that hard to believe.”
“It’s true. Most of the women I’ve been in this situation with have been naked,” he said. “But there’s something else. This is different from how I’ve seen you in the past. You look…”
Tauna sighed and pointed at him. “If the next word out of your mouth is ‘beautiful’ or ‘sexy’ or some variation, I’ll have no hesitation in shooting you.”
“Normal is what I was thinking.”
Tauna rubbed her forehead and glanced down at her feet. She looked up at him and said, “Care to elaborate?”
“You work for an international criminal syndicate. You’re a trained assassin. It’s sometimes hard to forget that somewhere under all of that is a person.”
“Don’t get used to it,” she said, sitting on the bed and sipping directly from the small vodka bottle. When she set it back down on the nightstand, she stared at it for a few moments. Like she was trying to find the words to say.
“Something on your mind?” he asked.
“Something I’ve been thinking about ever since we first met.”
“Do tell.”
She looked into his eyes. “Would you have still taken this job if Dante didn’t promise to secure your father’s release?”
Dalton cocked his eyebrows and took another sip. “Wondered about that myself. You read my file, so you know about him. He trained me to be a thief, like him. But I went the other way, joined the navy and that led to a position on Her Majesty’s Secret Service.”
“Why?”
“He was caught a few times when I was growing up. Always managed to get out of it somehow,” said Dalton. “I guess part of me wanted to get back at him for that. Show him that I wasn’t like him. But after a few months…”
“You resigned.”
Dalton gave a nod. “Just couldn’t hack it, I guess. Dad had something of a code—a thief doesn’t kill unless he has to. And here I was performing assassinations for Queen and Country. After the last time he was grabbed, I never saw him again. It made me question just who was more the criminal—the man who stole for a living, or the man who killed for one.”
“That’s why you refuse to take a life.”
“Live by the code, die by the code.” Dalton took another sip, finishing off the last of the gin. “I’d wager it sounds a bit ridiculous.”
Tauna shook her head. “Not at all. I respect a man who adheres to his principles. You know where your line is. There aren’t many who can claim that.” She took another sip. “Although it does make me wonder whether or not you were bluffing when you said you would kill me.”
Dalton stood and set the glass on the nightstand. He crossed the short distance to Tauna’s bed. She looked up at him and he stared back down at her, looking into her deep, brown eyes. He took her drink and set it on the nightstand. “If I did, I wouldn’t be able to do this.”
“Do what?”
Dalton bent down and pressed his lips to hers. Tauna’s eyes were wide at first, but then she fell into the kiss and her lids closed. He gently eased her back onto the bed, her head resting on the pillow.
With her breasts pressed against his chest, he could feel the pace of her heart quickening and his hands moved to her waist. She kissed back, the taste of gin and vodka mingling together in their mouths. Dalton slid his hand up her shirt, but then she pulled away from the kiss. Dalton was surprised at first and tried to move in for another. Tauna put her hand to his chest, holding him back.
“No.”
Dalton blinked several times in succession and looked away then back at her. “Are you sure?”
She sat up and covered her face with her hands for a brief instant and sighed. Her hands clasped together and she closed her eyes tightly. “Yes.”
Dalton placed a hand on her back and she flinched under his touch. “What is it?”
She looked back at him, her nostrils flaring. “Like you said, I read your file. I know that you’ve seduced women in the past to get what you want. Like that woman at Loerke’s party.”
Dalton dropped his head against the pillow. “That’s not what this is and you know it.”
“Maybe so, but I have no desire to be just another notch on your belt, Moore.” She pointed at the empty bed. “We should get some sleep. We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow.”
“All right, suppose you’ve made things pretty clear.” Dalton climbed out of her bed and walked back over to his own, settling under the covers.
Tauna reached to the nightstand and turned off the lamp and laid her head against the pillow, pulling the covers over her body. She curled up into a ball beneath them, bringing her knees up to her torso. Tauna knew she was wrong to get so agitated with Dalton. The problem wasn’t with him, it was with her. She was so lost in her thoughts that it took another hour before sleep finally claimed her.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Vincente sat in a small room, chained to a table. He could see his reflection in the mirror across from him, and he assumed there was someone on the other side. The chair across the table from him was empty, but he assumed it wouldn’t be long before it was filled.
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