“Yes, I might be.” Kait smiled at him, seeing an unexpected ally. “I promise I won’t get in the way.”
“I don’t know.” Delilah looked between them, clearly puzzled by Ryu.
“Please. Johnny’s taken advantage of me. Heck, he might even have burnt down my house and if it wasn’t him it was the men he’s working with. Anything I can do to help, I want to do,” Kait paused, “and I want to see the end of this. I want to know you’ve caught them.”
Delilah gave her a searching look then shrugged. “It’s not up to either of us, at the end of the day Adrian will have to agree, but for what it’s worth I understand the need for closure. I’ll support you, but you’ll be Ryu’s responsibility.” She looked hard at Ryu.
“I’ll ask if you can come with us, but Kait, you need to promise right now to do exactly what we tell you, no questions asked, and to keep yourself out of trouble.” Ryu stood up as he spoke. He wanted to use his height to intimidate, to make her think twice, she needed to know he was serious about this.
“I promise.” Kait’s smile was electric and even Delilah smiled back reluctantly.
“The van will be here shortly to collect us. Looks like we don’t have time for breakfast after all.” Ryu looked longingly at the food.
“I’ve got gear in the other room, I’ll get it and we can prep.” Delilah was out the door almost before she finished talking.
“Thank you for letting me come with you.” Kait’s eyes were glowing as she climbed out of bed, naked as the day she was born, and stood on tiptoe to give him an excited kiss on the corner of his mouth.
He grabbed his shirt and gave it to her. The sooner she hid temptation from his view the better. Once she was covered, he slid his fingers into her hair and grabbed a thick hank, turning her head so he could watch her eyes. “Don’t make me regret this. Don’t forget your promise.”
“I won’t.” Her lips trembled as she spoke.
Unable to resist he leaned down and kissed her. The fire that ran through his body at even so slight a touch was as powerful as the flames living in his belly. He wanted to tip back his head and roar, but settled for driving the kiss harder.
He broke away as the door swung open. Delilah stepped inside and when she saw Kait sway on her feet, gave him a knowing look. Ryu reached out a hand to steady Kait, loving the way it took her eyes a moment to focus and knowing he was the cause of her daze.
Once she was steady, Ryu went into the bathroom to change, while the women used his absence to dress in the main room. When he returned Kait was dressed in practical fatigues, and talking calmly to Delilah, but he could see telltale vestiges of a blush staining her cheeks and suspected Delilah had been ribbing her about him.
“Where’s Spock” They weren’t the words he wanted to say.
A rapid knock on the door had both him and Delilah picking up their bags and walking for the exit. Kait scrabbled after them. Spock was on the other side talking to the driver of a van with blacked-out windows. When he saw them, he nodded and headed back inside. Kait glanced after him, and Ryu knew for the first time she was seeing Spock as the formidable agent he was, gone was the good-looking IT geek, his expression was focused and hard as granite.
Ryu opened the van door and felt Kait hesitate when she saw Adrian and Hass inside, they too looked nothing like they had earlier. Both were dressed like Ryu and well armed, but she pushed through whatever doubts she might have and took an empty seat.
Adrian looked at him curiously as she buckled her seatbelt. “I see you’re joining us, Kait.” Adrian’s voice was smooth as silk but Ryu could hear the query.
Kait offered a tentative smile. “Ryu said you had to okay my being here?”
“That’s right I do. But I trust Mac’s judgement and if he thinks you should be here, then here you are.” Adrian rapped on the roof of the van and it bolted out of the motel parking lot.
As they drove Adrian filled them in. “We’ve traced Johnny to a deserted warehouse. As far as we can tell he’s been holed up there since the fire.” His eyes scanned the team. “If our luck holds, he won’t be there alone.”
“How many? Do we have enough people to subdue them?”
“I’ve called in the rest of the team. They’ll meet us there, approaching from the other side.” Adrian ran through the plan, quickly answering both Ryu’s and Delilah’s questions.
Ryu glanced at Kait as they drove. Her hands were fisted together in her lap and she was staring at them as though they held all the answers. He reached over and gave her icy hands a squeeze.
“It’ll be all right,” he whispered, wishing he knew if that were true. Wishing he hadn’t agreed to her coming with them.
She looked up him, her mouth tight with nerves, but she nodded. He gave her a small smile then focused on what Adrian was saying, pushing all other thoughts out of his mind ruthlessly.
****
The van slid to an almost silent halt in an industrial area downtown. Adrian gave a few curt instructions and the team jumped out. Kait was preparing to follow them when Ryu caught her eye.
“Stay here,” he said.
“But…”
He didn’t say anything, just looked at her.
She swallowed and nodded. His expression was all business, nothing of Ryu-the-fun-fire-eater remained.
“Derek will be here if you need anything,” he said.
She nodded again but could see his focus wasn’t on her, he was already thinking about what needed doing next. She watched as he loped across the gravel parking lot after the others, and vanished into the shadows surrounding a group of warehouses.
She’d promised to follow all instructions and she would. True, she didn’t want to stay here, she wanted to be part of the action, but she wasn’t a fighter and she knew it. Unfortunately, she was more likely to hinder than help. If they needed her, they would ask. The fact Ryu had allowed her to come at all still amazed her.
She clambered out of her seat and sat on the edge of the open door. I’m still technically in the van, she argued with an invisible Ryu, but I can see better this way. The sound of a door closing and gravel crunching made her look up sharply.
Derek, she breathed a sigh of relief, she’d forgotten about him. She gave him a companionable smile as he leaned against the passenger door, his gun resting easily in his arms. She shivered as she looked at its lethal black length. She’d never fired a gun and now she was dating a man whose job it was to play with them. Well, play was the wrong word. Actually, dating was the wrong word, too.
She’d never slept with a man before, always holding out for a solid relationship first. Yet here she was, trying to decide if the man she’d slept with was even her boyfriend. When all this was over she needed to have a serious talk with Ryu, and this time she wouldn’t let herself be distracted by his magical kisses that turned her brain to mush.
A skitter of stones in the distance made her flinch and she looked quickly at Derek. He stood up straight, no longer leaning against the door, but he gave her a reassuring smile.
“They’ll be fine. They know what they’re doing.” Derek’s voice was matter-of-fact but comforting nonetheless.
She nodded jerkily then looked across the gravel parking lot, trying to penetrate the gloom around the buildings. Despite being late morning the whole area was eerily empty, surely she should be able to hear people working.
“Why is it so quiet?” she asked, her voice little more than a whisper.
“Not many people work here, this area has been hit hard by the recent economic troubles. These warehouses have been empty for a while. No one needs the additional storage.”
“Ideal place for Johnny.”
“No one to watch his comings and goings, who he meets with…” Derek shifted his gun and glanced around.
“You wish you were with them.”
His lips twisted into a laconic smile. “Yes, but even if you weren’t here I’d still be with the van. Someone always guards the escape vehicle.”<
br />
“Why you?” She wasn’t sure she should ask but she wanted to talk, silence only made her worry about Ryu.
“Short straw.”
“Bummer.”
“Especially for you, you could have been sitting here talking to Mac.” He smiled when she blushed and this time it reached his eyes. “It’s nice you’re together. Ever think you’d end up with a man like him?”
“Gossip? At a time like this?” She tried for an arch tone but didn’t know if she quite succeeded.
He ignored her attempt at distraction and waited, head cocked curiously.
Kait sighed. “I don’t know that we are together.”
When Derek’s brow creased in puzzlement she added, “I like him but…close quarters and all, once this is resolved he’ll probably lose interest.” She hoped he didn’t but she needed to be realistic.
Derek snorted. “No, he won’t, I can smell the bond.”
“Smell? What bond?”
“He didn’t tell you?” He looked at her searchingly. “Then it’s not my place to do so.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Ryu will explain—” Derek stopped, his eyes raking the surrounding area. “Get in the van.” His voice was hard, stripped of all trace of the friendly tone that had been there a moment ago.
“Wha—”
“Now.”
Suddenly deathly afraid, Kait scrambled into the van. Crouching between the seats, she peered out the open door. On the drive here she’d wished the windows weren’t blacked out because she wanted to see where they were going, now she was glad no one could see in. Derek stayed outside, crouching low as he turned his attention to their surroundings, his gun no longer resting passively but ready for action.
She wanted to ask what was going on but didn’t dare. He was listening for something, his head turning from side to side. How she knew he was listening, not looking, she didn’t know. She strained her ears, but all she heard was the wind scraping against the buildings and the sound of her own heartbeat.
Crack!
The report of a high powered firearm echoed across the car park. Kait jumped. Derek fell.
She stared, trying to take it in. Derek no longer tracked the area with his gun; he lay in a crumpled heap on the ground. His neck a ragged, raw wound drenched in pulsing blood.
Her hand slammed against her mouth as if to hold in a scream. There was so much blood, there was no way Derek could be alive.
Chapter 33
Ryu crouched on the edge of the roof of the building opposite their target site, watching as the rest of the team approached the warehouse. He hoped Johnny was inside and willing to come quietly. He wanted this over and done with so he could talk to Kait.
A quick glance at the sky told him the summer storm, which had been threatening all day, was on the verge of breaking. Dark clouds filled the sky creating odd shadows, making his job more difficult.
He scanned the surrounding area again—nothing. He thought of Kait back at the van and wished he’d fought harder against the urge to bring her with him. She shouldn’t be here, he had a bad feeling about this whole thing. Johnny was escalating so quickly, first non-confrontational information theft then straight to arson with the intention to commit murder.
Ryu stretched his senses along the newly minted life-bond he shared with Kait and tried to asses her state of mind. Damn it, he was too unfamiliar with the link to make sense of anything except that her heart was still beating. He flexed his mind, trying to settle the link more comfortably. The sensation reminded him of a new pair of jeans. Initially too tight and stiff, but once worn in soft and flexible.
He sighed, he had little more than his father’s warnings to go on when it came to bond dynamics, and he didn’t know any other linked dragons he could ask. Like so much in his life he would have to muddle his way through and hope he didn’t balls it up completely.
“We’re in.” Adrian’s words came clearly through his ear clip.
Ryu imagined them moving carefully through the building and wondered if the inside looked as run down as the outside, or if its appearance was as deceiving as Johnny’s jovial one.
A whisper of sound caught his attention and he leaned forward, focusing on the side of an adjacent building. He waited, patient as any predator. There it was, movement. Someone was creeping along the side of the building deep in the shadows.
“Possible target sighted,” he muttered tersely into his radio, giving the location.
On Adrian’s go, he double-checked the angle of the light, he didn’t want to give his location away to his prey, and let the dragon rise close to the surface. He banished the clothes covering his upper body into Elsewhere. Taking a controlled breath, he felt the exquisite pleasure-pain in his back signifying the emergence of his wings.
He wished he could transform completely as he had last time he exited via roof top, or the night of the fire, but dragons ate their prey, they didn’t arrested them. He rolled his shoulders, unfurling his wings, and jumped over the edge of the building.
He felt the wind hit his wings, felt them catch and hold, slowing his decent. His feet dropped to the ground with barely a sound. Reluctantly, he let his wings retreat and returned his clothes. Pulling out his gun, he stepped forward lightly and began tracking the shadow. The other man was moving faster now, as if he no longer feared capture—big mistake.
For a moment, a ray of light flickered through the clouds breaking up the increasing darkness. A moment was all Ryu needed to confirm his suspicions.
“Target confirmed, in pursuit,” he murmured. “Caution on approach, target armed.”
He heard Adrian giving orders and knew two others were heading out after him as backup. He secretly hoped he got to Johnny before they did. He wanted to punish the other man for his gall in trying to burn Kait alive. Sick bastard.
Ducking through the shadows, he darted around a corner in time to see Derek fall. Shock tore through him. He acted without thinking. Instinct, as well as years of training, taking him past the pain of losing a friend straight to action.
Forgetting stealth, Ryu ran straight for Johnny who was lining up for another shot. Kait obviously didn’t know where the previous shot had come from because, despite backing further into the van, she was still in plain sight. Fear gave him wings, metaphorical rather than literal this time, but he could feel the dragon fighting to be free, to protect his mate.
****
Kait stared at Derek’s body, then she saw it, his chest moved. He wasn’t dead, but he was bleeding out fast. Her eyes flicked to the shadow of the shooter. All she could see from where she was hiding.
She needed to get out and stop the bleeding, but if she moved she was dead.
Her breath came in frantic pants as her eyes darted between Derek and the man with the gun. She couldn’t stay in the van, she couldn’t let him die without trying to save him. But she couldn’t get out, if she got out they were both dead.
Maybe she’d be okay, maybe when he saw she was unarmed he wouldn’t shoot. She started to move, then stopped herself. No. She wouldn’t stand a chance. This man was a killer.
Her desperate gaze fell on the lifeblood spilling from Derek’s neck. Unable to help him, she was going to watch him die.
The sound of feet pounding rapidly over the gravel reached Kait. Her eyes jerked away from Derek and she peered cautiously around the seat.
She didn’t see the owner of the feet, but she could now see the shooter; a man who looked eerily like Johnny. He was down on one knee, and he was aiming a nasty looking gun directly at her.
Shit. The blood in her veins flash-froze. If she could see him, he could see her. The van offered no protection.
She was going to die…
She stared, unable to blink, unable to move, her world narrowed down to that length of nightmare metal.
Crack!
The rifle shot echoed around the parking lot, followed by a sharp ping as the bullet lodged in the side of the van.
>
He’d missed.
Her blood melted and she slumped down, unable to support her own weight. He’d missed.
There was a harsh grunt and the sound of spraying gravel outside. Desperate to know if she was still in danger, she forced herself to her hands and knees and looked cautiously outside.
Ryu!
She didn’t think she’d ever seen a more welcome sight. His must have been the running feet she heard before the shot. Once again, he was her saviour.
Kait gripped her hands together to stop them trembling. She heard the other man shouting, but not clearly enough to distinguish the words. Ryu pushed him down to the ground and the two men struggled ferociously.
Now was her chance. She had to trust Ryu to take down his opponent. Moving carefully she jumped out of the van and onto the ground beside Derek.
Close-up his face was paper white. She pressed her hands against his neck. She hoped the pressure would be enough to slow his bleeding. She had to keep him alive long enough for real help to arrive.
She caught sight of the blood splattered over the side of the van. Unable to look at either the van, or the man dying beneath her hands, she looked instead at the fight.
Ryu was trying to twist the shooter onto his stomach, presumably so he could cuff the other man, but the man’s greater bodyweight was making things difficult.
Ryu shifted to avoid a knee in the ribs and the man managed to tug one of his hands free, whacking Ryu across the face. Kait sucked in a sharp breath as Ryu’s head snapped back. While he was still reeling, the shooter managed to squirm free. He wriggled along the ground trying to get the gun lying a few feet away.
Desperate to grab the gun herself, Kait almost moved before she remembered Derek. Common sense quickly asserted itself. Derek was relying on her, besides she wouldn’t get there in time and Ryu didn’t need the distraction. She’d only make things worse.
Her breath hitched as Ryu grabbed the man’s ankle, catching him before he could reach the weapon. The sweet, metallic taste of blood flooded across her tongue and she realised she’d bitten through her lip.
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