He gave a small, almost imperceptible nod.
Watch for a reaction . . . whoever reacts, take him out.
Maybe she should thank the son of a bitch who’d just tried to mind-rape her. It made this easier. Controllers were dangerous. If they used that ability without any sort of care . . . yeah. He’d made this a lot easier.
She gathered up her control and narrowed her thoughts down. It was like weapons practice, really. Just a different sort of weapon. She had a line of sight, thanks to what that son of a bitch had tried to pull. With her mind’s eye, she could see that line, that connection that led her to his mind . . . and once she was there, she unloaded.
A shriek rose up—yeah, she’d been right. They were close.
An odd little pop echoed through the air.
Somebody swore.
She didn’t have time to process that, because a hand appeared in her line of vision. She reached up blindly and found herself on her feet a second later, staring up into Gus’s face. Her head was screaming at her but that pressure on her brain was gone, too. “He’s dead,” she said softly.
He didn’t respond.
She didn’t guess there was any point.
Out behind them, in that little field behind the house, somebody called out, “Y’all can’t avoid all of us, not for forever. Just tell us where to find the kid and this all stops.”
She snorted. Yeah. Sure it would stop.
Gus stroked a hand down her arm and then crowded her back against the tree. She didn’t know what he was doing, or why, and just then, she decided she was maybe okay with that. She was out of her element here. She worked on task forces. She’d been shot at before, had been hunted before, and done her share of hunting before, but it had all been within the confines of the law. On her part, at least. There were rules in her world.
She’d left her world behind and she was still struggling to adjust to that.
Gus dipped his head and whispered in her ear, “Any idea what he can do?”
She turned her head and looked at him. Then, silent, she shook her head. Whatever the guy was, he either wasn’t very strong, or he was very, very smart, and very, very good because she couldn’t feel much more than the faintest buzz from him.
“Y’all really want to come out of there now. Come on now,” the unknown psychic said. “Don’t make me force it.”
Don’t make me force it. Those words sent a shiver of trepidation down her spine. Force it. Force them? His partner had already tried that, ended up dead for his trouble. Just what was he going to . . .
An odd crackle reached her ears. Familiar, that sound. She hissed out a breath and jerked her head around to stare at the orange glow. It shimmered off in the brush about a dozen yards away. “There’s the first one,” he called. “Do I have to—”
The words ended in a scream and Gus was already striding out of the trees, his Sig Sauer in his hand, the Heckler & Koch hanging from his shoulder. “Bring my bag,” he said over his shoulder.
Vaughnne stared at the flickering orange flames for a minute longer, watching as they raged higher. “Don’t kill him yet, Gus. We need him.”
* * *
DON’T kill him yet, she says.
Gus crouched down by the man and shot out a hand, fisting it in the bastard’s hair. “You want to try and burn me out of there, hmm?”
The man clutched at the bleeding hole in his belly. “Fuck you,” he rasped.
Gus took his weapon and pressed the muzzle to the sensitive underside of the man’s chin. “That hole in your gut isn’t going to kill you,” he said softly. “Not for a long, long while. So I have time to make you suffer.”
“Gus.”
He looked up as Vaughnne came closer. “Wait for me by the car,” he said shortly. She was already upset by this. He’d known it would happen, that she would see the monster inside him. He could handle that. But he’d rather her not see it.
“Stop,” she said, grabbing his wrist and tugging until he eased up.
“Stop?” He stared at her. The cabrón had been ready to burn her and she wanted him to stop?
“If you don’t stop, that fire can burn out of control. You want that?”
He wanted to say he didn’t care, but realized he couldn’t entirely say that, not without lying. Perhaps he wasn’t as far gone as he’d always thought. He didn’t want to think of this quiet little place gone, lost to a fire.
Sighing, he looked back at the bastard on the ground and instead of pressing the muzzle to the man’s chin, he dragged the tip of it down his torso, along his hip, and then jammed it hard against his scrotum. “Here is the deal, cabrón. You’re going to put that fire out now. If you don’t, I’m going to kill you, ojete, in the slowest, most painful way you can possibly imagine. And if you can’t imagine a slow and painful way, let me know. I’ll give you some ideas.”
The man sneered at him.
Gus shifted the Sig Sauer to his other hand and reached down, grabbed the man’s penis and twisted. Once the man’s shrieking had faded away into whimpers, Gus started to speak. “The first thing I’ll do? I’m gonna pull your balls out through your nose. If that doesn’t get your attention, I’m gonna slice your dick off. In pieces.”
He let go and smiled down at the man. “Have I made the matter clear now?”
The man sucked in a breath and nodded.
“You’ll put out the fire?”
“Are you going to kill me when I do?”
Gus smiled. “No.”
And he wasn’t lying. He had questions. After he was done with those questions, though . . .
Vaughnne stood just to the side. From the corner of his eye, he could see her face, grim and unsmiling. Some of her tension eased and she blew out a sigh. “The fire is dying. I’m going to go check, make sure it’s out. Don’t kill him before I get back here, Gus,” she warned.
He didn’t answer.
Once she was gone, he pressed the muzzle of his weapon against the man’s groin. “Here is where we can start to play, ojete. I can put a hole in you. Right here. Or you can answer my questions. You ready to play?”
The man wheezed out a breath in response.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
* * *
VAUGHNNE made it back to the area as quick as she could and the warning was still a scream in her head. The fire was out. Awesome. Gus was still crouched over the pyrokinetic. Not awesome.
He had his gun pressed against the man’s groin and Vaughnne grimaced a little. The man looked ghost-white and he was babbling out answers so fast, she could barely process them.
Gus didn’t look to have that problem. The man finally stumbled to a stop and Gus twisted the weapon against his scrotum. “You’re sure that’s all you know, cabrón? There’s nothing else?”
“No. Nothing.” His eyes were wide, locked on Gus’s face like he’d never seen anything so terrifying in his life.
It was a scary thing to look at a man and know he could, and would, kill you without any remorse, without blinking an eye.
“And what was the latest update on the website?”
“Not much.” The pyro licked his lips and wheeled his head around to look at Vaughnne. “Word is out about her.” Something that might have been hope bled into his eyes. “Hey, I hear tell you’re a cop . . . you . . . you can’t let him kill me.”
She lifted a brow. “Word is out about me?”
He nodded, a quick, awkward bob of his head. “One of the mods can see things. She gets all technical with it, calls it remote viewing and shit, but she knew there was law enforcement working this—described you, this place . . .” His words ended in a whine as Gus reached up and laid a hand on his throat, squeezing lightly.
“You need to be useful,” Gus warned. “Or you die. Tell me something I can use. Don’t look at her and expect her to help you.”
Vaughnne took a few steps closer and knelt down by the man, careful to stay out of reach. “I want to know more about the others. How many are
still chasing after the boy, do you know?”
“No.” He whined and clutched at his bleeding gut. “We don’t work like that. But—” He broke off.
“But what?”
He hunched in on himself, refusing to speak.
Gus sighed. “This man, he likes having me hurt him, I think.” He let go of the bastard’s throat, but before he could do anything else, the man’s breath gusted out of him.
And he started to talk once more. “It’s Gemma. One of the mods on the board. The one who saw this place, who knew about you. She’s telling people they need to pull off the job ’cuz it’s death all over. People listen to her. The smart ones, at least. I wasn’t going to take the job. But it’s so much money . . .”
Taut, heavy moments of silence stretched out, and when Gus abruptly stood, Vaughnne almost came out of her skin. And when he lifted the gun, leveled it at the man on the ground, she had hers in her hand. It was pointed at Gus’s head. “Don’t,” she said softly.
He didn’t even look at her.
“Gus, if you shoot him, I’m shooting you. He’s bleeding out, you’ve now scared him shitless, and he’s getting too weak to do anything,” she said. The man was pale, and getting paler by the second. He’d die if he didn’t get medical help. And she wasn’t ready to cross that line. She didn’t want to cross that line.
Gus’s finger tensed. She could see it. “Gus, please. Don’t do this.”
The man sobbed.
“He was ready to kill you,” Gus said gently. “He can, even now. With that ability to use fire? And you would try to save him?”
“It’s not about saving him. He hunts kids. He’s scum, and I know that. This is about saving me . . . and you.”
He looked at her now, and in the depths of those beautiful eyes, she saw a flicker of something. Surprise, maybe.
“Saving me.” He shifted the gun away from the man, but she didn’t think for a minute that this was done. “Saving me, how?”
“He’s not strong enough now to go throwing fire around. Pyros have to work harder, and if he’s weak, he can’t handle it. He’s not the threat he was a few minutes ago. He’s wounded, and he’s unarmed. If we go around killing the helpless, we become just like the monsters.”
Thick black lashes fell down, shielding Gus’s eyes. “Vaughnne, I already am just like the monsters. It’s one of the reasons I was able to keep the boy alive.”
She shook her head. “No.”
Another long, tense silence and then finally he knelt back down. She held her breath as he changed his hold on the weapon and swung out, using it to club the man across the head. Her breath gusted out of her and she almost went to the ground in shock. “You cannot save me, Vaughnne,” he said softly. “I’m already lost. But you can pretend to save yourself . . . for a little while longer.”
NINETEEN
THE hotel had seen better days, that was for certain. It was mostly vacant, on an isolated little strip along the Texas interstate. The terrain had gone from lush and green to flat and brown, with scraggly little bushes that looked like they struggled to stay alive.
Kind of like the hotel.
Punch drunk with fatigue, she looked toward the highway, half expecting to see another SUV, a sedan with black windows . . . something ominous. It had been quiet for more than a day, ever since she and Gus had left the pyro tied up on the porch of that tiny little shack back in Louisiana.
She’d called Taylor. He’d said he’d handle it.
No telling how he was handling it, but she’d kept an eye on the news in that area. No reports of fires springing up out of the blue, so she didn’t have to have that on her head.
And nobody else had caught up to them yet. The best she could do was hope they could get some rest before anyone new showed up on her radar. A couple of hours, she thought.
That was all she wanted.
“Are you thinking about running?”
She looked behind her as Gus came out of the bathroom.
She’d already showered and changed into some clothes he’d picked up for her earlier in the day. The tank top and yoga pants were comfortable enough to sleep in, but if she had to move—or fight—she could.
The only direction she really wanted to move just then, though, was toward the bed. She was so damn tired. Turning away from the window, she decided she’d do just that. This might be her last chance to get any decent rest for a while, right?
“No,” she said, shooting him a dark look. “I’m not thinking about running. For the hundredth time. If I decide I’m going to run, Gus, you’re not going to see me doing something so obvious as staring yearnfully out the window.”
A moment passed and then he echoed, “Yearnfully? Is this really a word?”
“Oh, bite me,” she muttered. She stretched out on the bed closest to the door. She had her Glock on the table right next to her, and out of habit, she reached for it, checked it. Loaded. Ready. It didn’t do much to ease any of the weight on her mind.
She put it down and closed her eyes.
Five seconds later, she jerked up in the bed as Gus lay down next to her, shirtless, wearing nothing but a pair of loose-fitting gray pants. Low-slung, they revealed far too much for her peace of mind. But then again, everything about Gus was too much for her peace of mind. “What are you doing?”
“Lying down.” He rolled on his side to face her. “You should do the same.”
She glared at him. “There are two beds.”
“There are.” He reached up and touched her lips, and her skin all but buzzed from the light contact. “But I’m going to be closest to the door. And even if you move to that other bed, Vaughnne, once we’ve both had some rest, I plan on being inside you again. Before we leave this room, if nothing else goes wrong.”
She gaped at him.
Part of her wanted to sneer at him.
The other part wanted to forget how dog-tired she was and just crawl on top of him, take him now.
“You know, that’s a terribly romantic proposal,” she said, shooting for sarcasm. Hopefully it would keep him from realizing just what she was thinking. Feeling. Wanting . . . “But I’m thinking I might pass. You have it in your head that it’s a foregone conclusion, pal, the two of us getting it on again. Whoever said it was going to be a repeat?”
He just stared at her, and after a minute, a faint smile tugged up the corners of his lips. “Why don’t you get some sleep, Vaughnne?”
“Are you going to move to the other bed?”
“I’m staying closest to the door.” He stroked his thumb across her lower lip and then lifted his hand, settled it between them on the bed. That was when she saw the gun—that Sig Sauer he carried around like it was a pacifier. “If you don’t want to share the bed, then you can move to the other one.”
She should do just that. Really.
But instead, she lay down.
From the corner of her eye, she could see that smile of his. Infuriating. She rolled away from him and gave him her back. The guy was hot as hell, too beautiful to be real. And arrogant as all get-out.
Knowing that last part didn’t make it any easier to convince herself she wasn’t going to have sex with him once she woke up.
She already knew what was going to happen.
Assuming they had the chance.
* * *
THE phone rang.
Nalini rolled up off the bed, grabbing the phone as she moved. She checked the caller ID and looked up to see Reyes glaring at her. Her hold only lasted for a short time when she wasn’t in physical contact, and she had no desire to stay in physical contact with this guy indefinitely.
Tying him up, though, that always worked.
“Hello?” She smiled at him as she brushed her fingers over his brow, establishing the connection, looking for what she needed. He made it too easy. He was greedy and grabby and wanted everything. She twisted those needs and used them against him. Sinking the compulsion deep inside him, she promised him, You can have what you want
. . . me. Hurt me as bad as you want. After you help me. Again . . .
It was all lies, but he didn’t know that. Didn’t have to, either. He’d figure it out once the compulsion wore off, but it wouldn’t help him then. You’re going to tell them everything is fine. She set the guidelines mentally as she spoke with his second in command.
They’d all looked at Reyes as though he’d lost his mind when he told them that everybody was going to leave. He wanted a few days alone with his lady. That was the lie Nalini had offered him last time. She wouldn’t be mad at him for hitting her, she’d never leave again, she’d do him however he wanted her to . . . and damn, the guy was a freak. However he wanted sometimes included the kind of violence that women sometimes died from.
As a voice jabbered on in her ear, she held Reyes’s gaze, watched as his eyes went unfocused, and she felt it when her hold on him snapped into place. “Yes, he’s here . . . we’ve been . . . well, I can’t tell you that, but he was still in bed.”
She smiled a little as she put the call on speaker. She kept one hand on his cheek as they lapsed into Spanish. Some part of him tugged against her hold, and she wrapped her will more tightly around him, felt him acquiesce.
“No, no . . .”
Reyes smiled, a dazed, blissed-out look on his face as spoke to his second, Yes, yes, everything is fine. No, you are not to return yet. Yes, we are well . . .
“Mañana . . .”
Nalini swore silently and pressed harder on his mind. Not tomorrow. Tell him to call.
Reyes went white around the eyes under the strain of her hold, but his voice was steady as he relayed just that to his second in command. She was pushing her luck, she knew it. But she was going to finish what she started here, and she had to finish dealing with the website, too. All of that took time, and she kept having to stop and reinforce her damn hold on Reyes every time he had a phone call.
They spoke for another few minutes and then the call disconnected. She broke contact with him, but he continued to sit there, a dazed, happy look on his face, almost like he was high.
“If somebody gets to sit around looking all strung out and happy, why can’t it be me?” she muttered as she headed back to the desk.
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