Absolution: The Hunter Mercenary Series (Book Two)

by Morgan Kelley

  “Is that where you heard the names?”

  She nodded.

  “Most of them. The Danny Boy was mostly Rosemary wishing he was dead or calling him a pain in the ass. I don’t know anything else about him.”

  “The rapes,” he began.

  She was shaking again.

  “Let’s skip that part,” Stella stated, cluing him into the fact that she wasn’t ready to talk more. They needed to back off of that topic for now. “They wore masks.”

  Dakota got it.

  “Okay,” he stated. “How about we go with pictures?” he asked. “They might have a feature you recall, and then you might be able to ID them.”

  “And if I can’t?” she asked.

  “Don’t stress it. Then we have some audio clips. We have a few things we can try.”

  She held Sarah’s hand.

  “Okay.”

  He pulled out a packet of pictures. One by one, he placed them on the table.

  There was Elliot, the man who was destroying Charlotte’s book in her home.

  “Him?” Dakota asked.

  She stared at him.

  “I recognize his nose. He was there.”

  “Well, I’m glad I killed him,” Sarah stated. “He deserved it. Now I wish I really worked his dick over.”

  Dakota didn’t go there.

  He flipped over a picture of Danforth Harrington.

  There was no reaction.

  “I don’t know about that one.”

  Stella actually released the breath she was holding. She hoped her father hadn’t been raping women at some sick sex party, but from what she’d learned about him, she wouldn’t put it past him.

  He was a monster.

  “Okay, how about this one?” he asked, flipping over Chesky Jensen’s picture. They didn’t have many, but they did have the one the FBI had on file.

  She nodded.

  “He raped me.”

  “Oh, I can’t wait to get him,” Zayn stated. “I’m going to let you kick him in the balls a million times before I make him cry like a girl,” he promised.

  Dakota had one last thing. He picked up Stella’s phone and got ready to press play. She had a message saved from her father.

  “Ignore the words, but go with the sound of his voice, okay?” he asked.

  She nodded.

  ‘Stella, answer your phone. I want my money back, Stella. Don’t be a little cunt like your mother! Call me back. If you give me the money back, I won’t kill you, baby. Call me. Stella! Call your father!’

  It stopped playing.

  Storm tried to stay calm.

  “Yes, I’ve heard his voice. It was on the day I was taken. I arrived in New Orleans. I heard him outside the trunk. He told the person transporting me that he wanted to speak to Rosemary.”

  Well, that made sense.

  “Okay, so we know who to go after next. Elliot is dead, Chesky is still out there, and we know that Danforth is likely Danny Boy.”

  Yeah, now they had to find him.

  “I’m sorry,” Storm stated. “I wish I could be of more help,” she whispered.

  The front door buzzed, and Storm jumped.

  “We have you,” Sarah stated, pulling her gun from the back of her pants in the concealed holster.

  “I’ve got it,” Dakota stated. He figured it was either the person sent to guard Storm fulltime or the scientist they needed.

  “I’ll get it.”

  Zayn tossed him one of his spare guns when he didn’t see him pulling one of his own. The man was insane not to carry one at all times.

  Dakota stared at him like he was insane, first for tossing a loaded gun, and second for having that many on him at this time of the day.

  “I think I’ll be fine in our home,” he stated. “No one knows we’re here.”

  “Better safe than sorry,” Zayn said, leaning against the wall. “That’s lesson numero uno. You’d think you’d live that after the last few weeks.”

  He had a point.

  Dakota made it to the door, and when he opened it, a stranger was standing there. He took off his sunglasses and introduced himself.

  “I’m Gamble. I believe you’re expecting me.”

  That was the person who Elizabeth said was coming, he was clearly all Native, and he screamed mercenary. He was tall, ethnic, and had two different colored eyes.

  “Come in.”

  He led him inside.

  “Elizabeth wanted me to give you this,” he stated, handing him a packet of cash. “She said you may need it if the shit begins going down. It's untraceable. Let’s just say that it was swapped out of some rich guy’s stash.”

  They were good with that. In New Orleans, they just might need to grease a few palms. God knew they were starting to feel the heat. Rogue had a cop dogging him.

  Were they next?

  “Where’s my job?” he asked.

  “Let me pat you down,” Zayn stated.

  “Uh…”

  “Or I can shoot you,” he offered.

  It was clear the man wasn’t taking any chances, and Dakota wasn’t going to stop him.

  “Fine.”

  He assumed the position.

  “I have two guns. One is under my arm, and the backup piece is in my boot.”

  Zayn finished.

  “He’s good.”

  Well, that was fine with Dakota.

  “Storm St. Clair is inside. She was a Fed, and she was abducted for a whole year. She’s been physically, emotionally, and sexually abused. She’s pretty beaten down. She may not let you near her. To say she’s skittish would be an understatement. Your primary job is to protect her, and not scare her.”

  Yeah, he’d been briefed by Blackhawk. Gamble knew what he needed to do.

  “I have this. Introduce me. I’m good with the ladies. I can turn on the charm.”

  Zayn lifted a brow.

  “I can kill him now for being arrogant,” he offered. “I hate that in a person.”

  Gamble laughed.

  “Yeah, I heard about you.”

  Zayn didn’t doubt it.

  Dakota got back in control or there would likely be bloodshed. Zayn didn’t like new people, and he certainly didn’t like gun-toting men near his wife.

  “Am I to assume that you’re a mercenary?” Dakota asked Gamble.

  “I didn’t know you needed my resume. Oh, darn. I forgot it.”

  His answer said it all.

  “Yeah, you’re a mercenary. You have a chip on your shoulder and a bad attitude. Welcome to my world. I seem to attract them.”

  He escorted the man into the room.

  “Everyone, this is Gamble. Elizabeth sent him as personal protection for Storm.”

  He shook everyone’s hand.

  When he got to Stella, Zayn actually growled at him.

  “Hands off my woman.”

  Stella laughed.

  “Brother, that’s cold.”

  “Ah-ni-U-ka-sha-na,” Zayn muttered moving away from the man to put himself between him and Stella. It told them everything they needed to know.

  Zayn didn’t like the man at all.

  “You’re no brother of mine,” the big man stated, crossing his arms over his chest.

  While it looked like he was taking a stand, Dakota knew he was packing two guns, one under each arm. He was in the position to pull both at once to fill the man with lead.

  Yeah, this was bad.

  “Chill out,” Dakota stated, pointing at Zayn.

  He mumbled the words again.

  “What did he say?” Sarah whispered, dying to know what he said. Without Rogue around to translate, they didn’t know many Cherokee words.

  Gamble took this one.

  “Basically, he knows me from the Marines, and he thinks I’m beneath him. I won’t call names. He’s a mercenary too. I just got paid by the government,” Gamble stated.

  Dakota had to babysit killers.

  When they started sniping at each other, it was minute
s until a fistfight ensued and the place was destroyed.

  He knew from past experience.

  “Don’t mind him. He doesn’t like people as a general rule. Here is Storm St. Clair,” Dakota said, introducing them.

  He crouched down in front of her and smiled warmly. She was a beautiful woman, battered and bruised.

  “Hello, Miss. It’ll be my pleasure to keep you safe,” he offered, not touching her. “If you need anything, I’ll take care of it for you.”

  “Thank you,” she stated, starting to feel edgy. There were too many people in the room for her liking.

  The panic was coming, and the room was closing in on her. She couldn't fight it.

  “If we’re done, I’d like to rest a little while.”

  No one stopped her. In fact, Stella thought it was a damn good idea for her to go to her safe place. She needed one.

  The minute she headed out, Gamble followed her out of the room.

  “Where are you going?” she asked him, as she stopped not far from the stairs.

  “I’m your tail,” he stated, smiling calmly at her. “I am your personal security duty. I’ll sit outside your bedroom door in case you need me,” he offered.

  She hesitated.

  “He’s safe,” Dakota offered, hoping he really was. If not, that was going to suck. Zayn was already eyeing him up for a coffin. He could tell by the look on his face.

  “Okay,” she stated. “I think I can handle that.”

  “If you can’t, I’ll sit at the top of the stairs. I just need to be able to hear you if you call for me.”

  She was calmer.

  “Thank you, everyone, for being gentle today. I know you have to be desperate to get the information. I’m sorry I can’t be of more help.”

  “Rest,” Dakota stated. “We have you, and you’re safe. That’s the priority.”

  She headed up the stairs. The rest of the team waited for them to be out of earshot. There were still some loose ends to handle before the day got underway.

  “First off, Dakota, I made some calls like you asked,” Zayn stated. “We have some shit on the horizon.”

  “Like what?”

  “The city is stirred up. I asked around if anyone was working for a man by the name of Chesky, and the chatter went dead silent.”

  “Is that bad?”

  He laughed.

  “Uh huh. When the city stops talking, there’s a reason. Normally, there would be some money exchanging hands, and I’d get the details. By a Tuesday, in a normal week, I will have three or four job offers. As of now, I have zilch. So, the word is out that I’m a bad bet.”

  That wasn’t good.

  “And Rogue?”

  “You’ll have to ask him. We don’t have the same contacts. When the pretty boy gets his ass to work, you should have him do some digging too. I’m willing to bet Chesky has put the word out, and so has Rosemary—if she is a major player here.”

  Well, there was no time like the present. Dakota pulled out his phone and made the call.

  “Hello?” Rogue said, grumpily.

  “Hey, off the top of your head, have you been offered any jobs this week?” Dakota asked.

  “Well, good morning to you too.”

  “Who pissed in your cereal this morning?” Dakota asked. “Oh, and you’re not here yet.”

  “I’m working on it.”

  “Answer the question, and I can leave you alone to work on it all by your cranky self.”

  “Let me check.”

  There was silence.

  “That’s odd.”

  Dakota waited.

  “I don’t have any. Normally, I’d have a couple by today. A few break-ins, a few thefts of merchandise jobs.”

  “Yeah, Zayn has the same issue. The word is out that you both are out of the game.”

  “I’ll kill Chesky myself,” Rogue stated. “That asshole. When I get my hands on him….”

  Dakota cut him off.

  “Take a number. Get your ass moving and wake-up. We have work to do today.”

  “Yeah, yeah. I’ll work out and head in.”

  Dakota hung up.

  “Well?” Zayn asked.

  “You both are targeted. Somehow, your names got out, and the city knows.”

  It was weird that New Orleans was like a living, breathing entity, but it was. Now, who would call the two biggest mercenaries out in the underground?

  That was the question.

  “It has to be Chesky,” he stated. “He and Stella’s mother had Danforth’s home under surveillance. That’s the ONLY way they got my name.”

  Stella went to him and hugged him.

  “I’m so sorry,” she said.

  He held her.

  “Stella, my sweet, this is NOT on you, but now I have to kill your father. When I find him…”

  She gave him a kiss.

  Stella heard the nerves.

  She was making her stand with her husband.

  “Well, what about Rogue?” asked Sarah. “There is no way they got his name from that. The man barely speaks. The only time he lost it was when Danforth threatened Zayn.”

  Dakota knew.

  There was only one possibility.

  Well, two.

  “Charlotte or Julius,” he stated. “Purgatory.”

  They didn’t argue. It was the only way. Rogue had turned up there twice, and now his ‘business’ was ending. Yeah, there was no doubt that Charlotte had burned him, or had Julius do it after the fact.

  Damn that freaking bar.

  It was the bane of Dakota’s existence.

  “Well, we’ll survive,” Dakota said, optimistically. He didn’t need Zayn losing his shit all over New Orleans. They had a job to do, and it meant doing it right.

  Zayn laughed.

  It wasn’t a good one either.

  “Well, I have worse news for you. I dug it up while I was asking around.”

  Dakota put down his coffee cup.

  What could be worse than a city turning on them?

  “As in really worse, or are you just exaggerating for emphasis that the shit is about to hit the fan?”

  “Worse-worse.”

  Christ.

  “What?”

  “Purgatory is officially sold. She’s under new management, and we won’t know who until they make themselves known. We have to hope and pray that the person who buys her doesn’t hate one of your guts.”

  “Ours?” he asked Zayn “Why are you not included in that little analogy?”

  “Everyone likes me,” he stated. “Well, unless they are trying to hire me.”

  Dakota smirked.

  “Yeah, Gamble thought you were awesome. Way to welcome someone new into the fold.”

  “I knew him by the eyes. He was a war profiteer. He worked for the CIA outside the country, and then came back here to make more money.”

  “You make money,” Sarah stated. “Technically, you profit from jobs like that.”

  He pulled on her ponytail.

  “Hey! What the hell was that for?” she asked.

  “It hurt, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, picture being shot through the chest with an arrow covered in acid.”

  “Uh, why the hell would I do that?” she asked. “That’s crazy!”

  “It would hurt, right?”

  “Well, yeah.”

  “Which one would you rather have done to you?” Zayn asked.

  “The hair pull.”

  “I’m the hair pull. That dude is the arrow, and then he rubs salt in the wound. He left Marines behind.”

  And now they got it.

  It wasn’t a mercenary thing.

  It was a Marine thing.

  Zayn disliked the man because he’d betrayed a brother in arms. They figured as much since he might be a killer, but he was made and created by the Marines.

  “See the difference?”

  They did.

  Zayn was an equal opportunity hater. This was his
amped up version, and it said it all.

  “Are you going to be able to work with him?” Dakota asked. “We need him on Storm. If Rosemary wants her back to tie up loose ends…”

  “I can deal with him—unless he betrays us, and I’m going to cut out his eyes and make baubles for my review mirror. They will be beside his balls.”

  “That’s going to smell,” Sarah stated, sarcastically.

  He yanked on her hair again.

  “HEY!”

  “Anyway, the devil you know,” Zayn stated. “That being said, the whole city is poised to see who bought Purgatory,” he stated. “This could get worse for us. Be warned. We may only be blackballed now, but we could be targeted, and if that happens, we have to get out.”

  He was aware.

  “Great. I love a packed week of excitement,” Dakota stated. “It gets the blood pumping.”

  “Yeah, well, once the owner’s name is out, the place will either crumble around us or we’re dead men walking.”

  “Even better. That sounds…pleasant.”

  “Maybe someone good will buy it,” Sarah suggested. “We can’t always assume the worst. Maybe it’ll fall into the hands of a decent bunch of people.”

  Zayn laughed.

  Dakota joined him.

  That was not in their odds.

  “The person who buys it is a glutton for punishment. The last three owners died. They didn’t die peacefully,” Zayn admitted. “That’s like the albatross around your neck. Charlotte hated herself. That’s why she saddled herself with that shitstorm. You’d have to be insane to even try to handle that place. It takes a strong person just to survive it.”

  Sarah swallowed.

  “It’s not just a bar. There are so many deals going on that you can’t help but get sucked under. I would NEVER even think of going there, and I’m crazy. Look what I saddled myself with,” Zayn stated, pointing at the two ex-Feds in the room.

  Dakota laughed.

  “Yeah, you’re awesome too. Here’s to hoping we don’t get fucked by the new owner,” he said, holding up his mug of coffee.

  She couldn’t handle it anymore.

  Sarah knew it was now or never.

  “Uh, I bought it.”

  They all looked over at her.

  Zayn’s mouth actually dropped open.

  “What?” Dakota stated. “I think I misheard you. Did you just say you bought Purgatory?”