"I could do that," I said, my voice a little high pitched and breathy, my eyes stinging with the accumulation of unshed tears.
Ben took a good long look at me, eyes a rich, deep chocolate brown I could lose myself gladly within. Then he smiled. It was breathtaking. It was Ben Tamati open and free. And it was magnificent.
"From what I gather," he said, eyes darting back up to check Kasey's progress. "The Compound is just around the corner."
I glanced back up the street, noting we'd rounded the corner and made it to the end of the block. I'd been walking in a daze. A daze created by Ben. The Compound was just up the road and around the corner, as he said. There was nowhere else, no fall-back location plausible that I could think of, for Kasey to go.
I nodded my head in agreement. Detective Pierce had been wrong after all. Kasey was just high-tailing it straight back to Roan's base.
"I'll let Pierce know," Ben murmured, clearly picking up on my disappointment.
If Kasey was heading to the Compound, there was no more need for us to follow her. It was stupid to feel anything other than relief. Relief that my part was over. But I'd been enjoying Ben's shadow lessons. They'd filled me with joyful emotions that blotted out all the darker ones, revisiting my old life made me feel.
"Pierce, Tamati," I heard Ben say into the walkie-talkie.
"Go ahead, Ben."
"She's headed to the Compound, 'bout two minutes away."
"Copy. We'll cut her off when she nears. T minus fifteen for the go. Thanks for your help." And with those words, the police effectively dismissed us. It was up to them to raid the Compound now.
I lifted my eyes up to Ben's. His gaze was still down the street, watching Kasey near the the corner that would lead her directly to the Compound. He had a contemplative expression on his face again.
"I guess we head back to Pierce's car," I suggested softly.
Ben shrugged. "Nah. Let's just follow her a little further. Use it as an opportunity for you to practise shadowing."
"Is that wise? What if she spots us?"
"At this point, there's no way she'll make it into that Compound. The cops have the place surrounded, ready to head in as soon as the team in Hamilton advance on McLaren. There's no time for her to react to our presence, should she pick it up, and tip any of them off."
"OK," I replied, feeling a fluttering of excitement in my belly at the thought of another lesson. There was just something so exhilarating about Ben showing me his professional secrets.
Exhilarating and welcoming. Like coming home after a long, cold, hard day outside.
"So, tell me," Ben asked, eyes still on the rapidly retreating figure of Kasey, "what's our next move?"
I glanced back up and scanned the street. We had about thirty seconds before Kasey would round that corner and disappear onto the same road as the Compound. This lesson was going to be brief, once she was near the police, we'd have to pull back and just watch from a distance.
"OK," I said, squaring my shoulders. "Across the street, behind that van. Now."
We walked briskly over to the other side of the road and pressed our back to the rear of a Ford Transit van. I peered around the corner and spotted Kasey stopped at the end of this block. Had she seen us cross the street? Had I blown our cover already?
She glanced down the road that led to the Compound, then shifted her weight on her feet, as though deciding whether to bolt.
"What's happening?" Ben whispered, unable to see from his position behind the van.
I held my breath and waited for Kasey to make a decision. It felt like an eternity. When she moved, it wasn't forward, but to look over her shoulder, back down the street towards us. I pulled my head back, my heart rate escalating, my breathing coming in short, sharp pants.
"Made?" Ben asked.
"Unsure," I replied, and then crouched down and snuck a look around the bumper of the van.
Kasey had moved. But not down the Compound's street, she'd crossed over our street and started heading down the opposite side of the road to the end of the block Roan's base rested on. Where the fuck was she going?
"She's on the move and it's not the Compound," I advised Ben.
"Fuck," he muttered. "Any ideas?"
I searched my memory for alternate entries into my old home, but came up blank. And I certainly couldn't think of what else would be down this side of the street either. I shook my head, keeping my eyes on Kasey, knowing Ben would have seen the movement.
"Pierce, Tamati," I heard Ben quietly say, obviously into the radio. There was only static as reply. "He's gone silent. The raid's either begun or about to."
I looked at my watch. Four minutes to five.
"Where's she going?" I whispered.
"I say we follow," Ben suggested.
I admit, I was curious. The raid was about to start in less than five minutes and Kasey had changed her mind about heading back home. Why? Did she see the cops? Did she see us? Was she about to blow it all for the taskforce? Ruin their chances of wiping out McLaren's criminal world. Make my father's sacrifice worthless.
I couldn't have that.
I grabbed Ben's hand and moved us down the street side of the road, crouched as we hid behind a four wheel drive, then a small furniture removal truck and finally a bus stop shelter covered in advertisements for a movie premier featuring Weta Digital CGI. We were practically opposite the Compound's road, but the shelter gave us cover from that angle, as well as from Kasey, should she turn to look back down the street.
We were closer to her now, I could hear her mumbling something indistinct. She sounded agitated and upset. My eyes scanned the road across from us, picking up no movement, unable to spot the cops hiding, preparing to enter the Compound... whose stark walls and razor wired fence could be seen clearly from our hidden vantage spot.
My heart missed a couple a beats, my throat went painfully dry. I think I forgot to breathe for several seconds. Memories flashing through my mind. Horrid, frightening, almost debilitating. I'd thought I'd been doing so well. Shadowing Kasey, doing my part to help save the innocents caught in the crossfire, while the police did their job and brought a man like Roan McLaren down. But I'd forgotten just what that place meant to me. Just how much of my anxiety was rooted in there.
"Stay with me, red," Ben murmured. His hot breath washing over the back of my neck. His warm, hard chest bracketing me from behind, as his steel-like arm wrapped around my waist.
I think I was going to be sick. I made a sound. It was pathetic, but thankfully not loud enough for anyone but Ben to have heard.
"I'm here," he whispered, his thumb stroking my side as his hand grasped my hip comfortingly. "I'm not going anywhere," he added, his arm pulling me firmly back into the safety of his body. "You are not alone."
No. I wasn't alone anymore. And Roan McLaren wasn't even here. He was in Hamilton, about to be arrested for his multitude of disgusting crimes. But Kasey could blow the whole thing and there were no cops here to stop her.
I sucked in a fortifying breath. Then another and another, until my heart rate settled, my mind cleared, even though my throat felt tight and dry.
"I'm OK," I said after a few long seconds.
"You're more than OK, red," Ben announced, laying a soft kiss against the side of my neck. "You're amazing."
I huffed a breath out at that. Charmer. I realised my lips were tipped up and I could actually swallow for the first time in several minutes.
Kasey abruptly turned into a driveway up the street. My eyes took in the house. An old dilapidated weatherboard bungalow with chipped paint and patchy grass out the front. The concrete drive was cracked, the blue fence, which had peeled in places to show a dark green paint job beneath the blue, had several planks missing. Making it look like the gaping maw of a toothless monster.
Roan's bolt hole. Directly across the street, from the rear corner of his Compound.
Shit. Pierce had been right after all.
"Bugger," Ben whispered, se
eing exactly what I was seeing.
"What now?" I asked. Did we follow her? Pierce wouldn't hesitate to arrest us if we got in the way of this operation. But, Kasey could be about to hit a trigger and set off some sort of alarm. I took a quick look at my watch. Sixty seconds and counting. More than enough time for her to warn McLaren's men.
My muscles tensed, in readiness for movement. My mind already made up. We had to risk Pierce's wrath, we couldn't let Kasey destroy any chance of the taskforce's raids succeeding. We had no choice but to follow her in.
I took a step out from the safety of our hiding place behind the bus shelter and felt Ben's hand wrap around my upper arm and haul me back behind the poster covered glass wall.
"What?" I hissed, adrenaline pumping through me and having no outlet to escape.
"Watch," he whispered, eyes fierce as he looked back up the street.
I followed his gaze and watched as Detective Andrews crossed the street casually, from the direction of the Compound's road. Then he walked up the path to Roan's broken bolt hole of a house and stepped through the front door.
"Cops already know she's there," Ben said on an exhaled breath filled with relief. "Andrews will contain her. Fuckin' arsehole will probably hit the woman in the face, the way he was behavin' earlier."
I frowned. It was a relief to know the police were aware of Kasey's current location and the danger she posed to their mission, but even though Kasey was clearly no longer the girl I used to know, I did not like the idea of Detective Andrews taking out his rage and disgruntlement on her. She'd suffered enough. Delusional or not, the woman did not deserve Andrews' type of treatment.
"Come on," I said, stepping out from behind the shelter and walking towards the footpath.
Ben fell into step beside me. "Whatcha plannin', red?"
"I'm stopping that jerkwad from giving Kasey a hard time. Got a problem with that, shadow-man?"
Ben chuckled, flicking his eyes all over the street. Taking in the shadows, the possible hiding places, the tops of buildings, the darker shades beneath the cars across the street. And the road that led to the Compound.
Movement could be seen up there. Black hunched figures advancing on the main gate; flack jackets, helmets, assault rifles held across their chests.
The raid was on, the Compound about to be brought down. No doubt something similar happening in Hamilton right this second.
Time to save, at least, one last innocent from the fallout of Roan McLaren's filthy world.
Chapter 24
The Shadow Man
The front door was ajar. No sounds from inside breaching the gap created. My hand hovered above the tarnished brass knob, a small tremor taking up residence there. I may have wanted to get to Kasey before Andrews did something needlessly cruel, but the darkness peeking out from behind that barrier felt complete. A black hole about to suck in everything that got too close.
Ben pulled me back, placing me behind his body. Offering a shield again. I wasn't above taking it, even if the guilt at that thought gnawed at my insides. He was better at this than me. I still had so much to learn, I wasn't going to go off half cocked thinking I was invincible. I'd survived too long in this fucked up world, to throw it all away on overconfidence.
A gun appeared in his hand from out of nowhere. I hadn't even seen him bend down to retrieve it from his ankle holster. Either I was blanking out, or the man was super fast. What with all the adrenaline raging through my system right now, I was going with Ben being quick. His hand came up and rested on the door panel; there was no evidence of shaking there at all.
He pushed the door open, lifting his gun at the same time, while he crouched slightly and peered into the gloom inside. Still no sounds. No arguing Kasey and Andrews. No fighting - fist to flesh, crunch of a shattered bone. It was still and ominously silent.
I sucked in a breath and waited for Ben to advance.
"Stay behind me," he murmured, almost too low for me to make out the words.
I placed my hand on his back to let him know I'd heard and felt him move across the threshold. I half expected him to simply disappear. To fall down a yawning abyss, or get sucked away into a pitch black portal. Everything about this was making the fine hairs on my arms lift.
But nothing happened. My breath came out in a rush and sounded so very loud in the ensuing silence. I couldn't hear Ben breathe, but me? I sounded like a steam train chugging into station. Ben glanced over his shoulder to check on me, obviously concerned about how freakishly loud my respirations were. And it happened.
Just like that. In the split second of his distraction - caused by me - his gun was knocked from his hand and an aluminium baseball bat connected with his cheek.
I heard the crunch of bone then. That gut wrenching God-awful sound that let you know something had shattered. Whoever had swung that bat had used phenomenal force. Then he was being yanked to the side, his body flailing; uncoordinated attempts to take his attacker down. Desperate and conversely sluggish movements that met only thin air.
I'd fallen into a crouch immediately. My fists raised, my eyes wide and my breaths no longer chugging, but utterly still. If I'd been alone, I would have retreated. I would have used the distraction to turn and run. But I wasn't alone anymore. Ben had said so. And there was no way my feet would move away from him. Even if logic dictated I needed to escape and regroup, call in reinforcements and return to free him then.
Logic did not coexist with love. That tie was stronger than man's link to survival.
My hesitation cost me. It would probably cost Ben his life. A fist grasped my hair tightly and then I felt my body lift as the strands tried to pull my scalp from my head. I gasped, reached up to grip my hair and ease the pain, leaving my chest and face open to attack.
A second fist connected with my jaw, then quickly followed that assault up with a punch to my gut. I doubled over, feeling strands of hair rip free from my head and my stomach contents threaten to expel. Then I was flying. Down that pitch dark abyss, landing in a painful crumpled mess against an internal door frame. The skin on my hand tearing on an exposed nail in the hardwood floor. The pain of my attempted scalping paling in comparison to the pain of my head hitting plasterboard, clearly supported by a hidden joist, because despite the force, the wall had absolutely no give.
I couldn't breathe. I couldn't hear a single thing as a high pitched ringing sounded out in my ears, blocking all external noise. My chest heaved, joining my stomach, and blood welled in my palm, dripping onto the floor and smearing under my outstretched hand. I needed to protect my body. Curl up, raise my hands in defence. Do something. But the world was spinning in a strange dark way. Unable to make out shapes or shadows, the spinning felt disorientating. Unreal and unusual, leaving me nothing to focus on to combat the world turning inside my head. I tasted bile on my tongue, a precursor to vomiting. I retched and spilled the contents of my stomach all over the floor at my feet.
The effort required made my ribs scream. That punch to the gut had done some damage.
Within seconds of entering this house I was completely incapacitated.
And where was Ben? Was he faring any better? He was a professional. He was more experienced than me at this type of thing. But that bat had been more than anyone could combat. Even more than Ben Tamati could?
A whimper left my lips before I could stop it.
"Pathetic," someone hissed in the darkness.
"You deal with her, I'll teach this dipshit a lesson or two in the front room."
I recognised the second voice. Andrews. Detective Andrews had swung the bat.
And he was working with Kasey. That hissed voice had to be hers. But I wasn't certain. Because it sure as hell didn't make any sense. My head was still foggy, trying to fight the nausea the spinning had created, and I couldn't quite work this all out. Andrews was a cop for Christ's sake. Hell bent on bringing Roan and his organisation down.
But that threat had been real. Teach this dipshit a lesson. What lesson w
ould Ben give me right now?
I couldn't see a thing, my head was still a cotton wool mess, and my limbs weren't responding to any mental directives. I could segregate the pain. There was nothing left in my stomach to vomit, so I could force the nausea down. But being blind, immobile and unable to think clearly were true disadvantages.
I didn't need Ben's voice in my head to know what I had to do. Play dead. At least until I could see, think and move again.
A hard hand gripped me under the elbow and lifted my upper body off the floor. A boot to my side encouraged me to follow the pull on my arm. I came to my feet, sweat dripping down my temples, between my shoulder blades, over my chest. I panted through the dizziness, gritted my teeth and stumbled after the vice-like grip on my arm. The fingers of my captor dug painfully into the joint. I could feel tendons compressing, bone shifting, a nerve reacting to the assault.
My body was slung onto the floor in a new room. Light erupted out of the ceiling, someone had flicked a switch. I blinked back spots, trying to focus on the shape looming over me, desperate to be prepared for the next hit.
A gunshot sounded out in the distance. Was it the raid at the Compound? The SWAT team? Or did it sound closer than that? Like the room next door. My heart tripped painfully, fear gripped my chest. I blinked rapidly, trying to get the room and the shadow before me to come into focus. Panic had made my body shift into a basic survival mode.
See.
Assess.
Escape.
It took longer than it should have, the entire time my heart tried to escape the confines of my chest. I must have looked like a frightened rabbit, at the end of a farmer's shotgun. I could hear a feminine chuckle off to my right hand side. The ringing had at least stopped in my ears. Kasey then, I swung my head towards her laughter, making out a hazy figure leaning against the wall.
She came into focus painfully slowly. Enough time passed, before she was fully visible, for me to know we were not alone in this room. I scrabbled backwards like a crab, until my shoulders found a wall. I flicked my gaze around the over bright room; taking nothing of the sparse furniture in, my mind stalled on the foreboding figure towering before me.
Sweet Seduction Shadow Page 24