Dark Warrior Untamed (33 page)

Adele evidently realized that his question was laced with subtext. She reached over and brushed her fingertips across his cheek. “Of course that’s different, Wes. You know that.” She gave him a sweet smile. “Fast food sounds good. I’d love a burger and a chocolate shake.”

“Good. I’ll be back in plenty of time to finish wiring all this.” He closed his tool kit and stood up. “See you in a few.”

Once Wes was gone, Piper might as well have been dead for all the attention Adele paid to her. She passed the time wondering if she could sow some seeds of dissent among the troops. When she heard Wes pull up in the driveway, she broke the silence, hoping Adele wouldn’t hear him come in.

“So, tell me, Adele. Have you written your will? Your heirs will appreciate your leaving everything in good order for them.”

Nothing.

“And I was wondering, did it hurt your feelings when your father left you to face the music alone? Well, not
alone.
After all, you’ve got good old Wes to stand with you. But I’ve got to tell you, he doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy a Grand Dame would pick for a Consort.”

Adele finally looked up. “Wes has his uses.”

“I can only imagine.” She was definitely on to something here.

Adele shot her a suspicious look. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well, we both know that image is everything. Wes
is perfect if you’re looking for a mad bomber, but then he doesn’t exactly scream leadership material, does he?”

“And you think Ranulf Thorsen is any better?” Adele sneered. “The man should still be wearing animal skins and a horned helmet.”

Piper shook her head. “I hate to nitpick, but Ranulf’s tribe didn’t wear horned helmets. Still, I get what you’re saying. He’s a warrior, not a politician, hence his jeans-and-flannel look. However, no one questions his ability to fight, and Kerry knows he’ll do whatever it takes to keep her safe. That’s important to a Dame.

“Besides, it’s Sandor who acts as her ambassador, and you’ve got to admit that he looks hot in a suit and tie. Personally, I think Grey Danby has him beat hands down, although I might be a little biased.”

She offered Adele a sympathetic smile. “But then, Wes is just an ordinary human male, isn’t he? I suppose comparing him to the prime quality of Talion warriors isn’t really fair. You can’t expect him to measure up to the special Talion abilities the past two Consorts have had. Somehow I just can’t picture Wes standing there at your side as you rule.”

Maybe she’d pushed a little too far because Adele began toying with the barrel of her gun. “Bloodlines are everything in our world. I can trace my family back for generations, but mutts like you and Kerry wouldn’t know anything about that. When I rule, I will restore the purity of the Kyth gene pool. The taint of human blood has already diluted our strength too much. Wes will understand. If not—” She just shrugged.

Enhanced Talion hearing wasn’t necessary when the man in question stood right there in the doorway. Just as Piper had hoped, he’d overheard their conversation. The only question was what he was going to do about it.

Unaware they had an audience, Adele went back to making notes. “Wes does have his uses, though. He has a real talent for explosives, which you’ve already seen firsthand.”

The man stalked into the room and tossed a sack full of burgers and fries on the table. “I’m good for a helluva lot more than just explosives, Adele, and you know it. It doesn’t take brains to swing a sword, just gorilla-like strength. And I’d like to see one of your precious Talions best me in a cyber war.”

He was wrong about that, too. Piper would put her money on Grey and Sandor anytime, but she kept her opinion to herself. Far better that they underestimated the men who would be coming after them.

Piper shivered. It was one thing to know that Grey was capable of violence, and quite another to witness it. Still, these two had drawn a line in the sand and dared the Dame and her warriors to cross it.

And lucky her—she’d been caught in the crossfire.

“Here.” Wes tossed a cheeseburger in Piper’s lap and set a shake on the small table beside her chair. At least they’d tied her hands in front this time, making it possible for her to feed herself.

“Eat up, you half-breed bitch. We wouldn’t want you to die on an empty stomach.”

Piper ignored Adele’s taunt. Fine. She might not
make it through the day, but she was damn sure she wouldn’t be the only one who’d breathed her last before the dust settled. Closing her eyes, she choked down her meal.

In her heart, she knew Grey was coming for her, his blue eyes ablaze with battle fever. And there would be hell to pay. How could Adele have known Grey this long without realizing that the man would crawl through broken glass to protect what was his? Well, she’d learn soon enough.

Drawing comfort from that thought, the pain in Piper’s chest eased.

“Okay, everybody clear on their jobs?”

Each of the men surrounding Grey nodded as they checked their weapons one last time. They’d taken several cars to the Adele’s stronghold, slipping through the gathering shadows to meet up a short distance away from the house.

Sean, trying hard to look like he belonged, checked the slide of his knife in its sheath. He was too damn young to be there, but Grey knew they’d have a fight on their hands if they tried to leave him behind. With Sandor’s approval, he’d assigned the kid the job of driving one of the cars, hoping that would keep him out
of the line of fire. He was under orders to keep the engine running in case they needed a fast escape for any wounded, or to get the two women to safety.

Grey stuck another loaded clip in his pocket just in case. The last thing they needed was for this to turn into a shootout on the streets of Seattle, but it was his job to be prepared. Finally, he checked the charge on his cell phone in case Adele called.

All set. “Let’s roll.”

His men fanned out, preparing to approach the house from all directions and ready to keep innocent bystanders out of the way. They’d planned for every scenario they could think of, but he couldn’t shake the sense of impending disaster. There was no way this was going to go down clean and tidy. Adele would never play by the rules or stick to the plan she’d outlined over the phone. No, he couldn’t see her leaving the relative safety of her current location to meet him out in the open.

Despite her considerable ego, Adele had to know that she was up against warriors schooled in both combat and tactics. In some cases, that meant decades of training or even centuries, as in Ranulf’s case. Most Talions had also served in the military, naturally gravitating toward the highly specialized forces that taught urban combat techniques.

“What’s wrong, Grey?”

Kerry moved up beside him, her dark eyes narrowed in concern. “You’re not happy.”

Well, no shit!
Her sister—his lover—was already in the hands of two certifiable crazies, and now leader of his people insisted on putting herself in danger. What
was there to be happy about?

He kept that particular summation to himself. “I think—no, I know—we’re playing right into Adele’s hands. She’s expecting us.”

“She said she’d call with the meeting spot after sundown, but you don’t believe her. Why?”

“Because she’s not stupid. She had to figure we wouldn’t wait around until she crooks her finger to come running. By now, she’s confirmed that her father didn’t make his flight back to London, which means we have him in custody. Adele knows the first thing Harcourt would do is sell her out to save his own worthless hide.”

Ranulf entered the discussion. “So she’s spun her web and is waiting for us to show up to spring the trap.”

Grey nodded. “All things considered, it feels right.”

“Okay, so how does that change anything? We can’t sit here and wait for her to come to us.”

“No, we can’t. The longer we wait, the more likely it is they’ll decide to make an example of Piper.”

And if that happened, hell would rain down, secrecy be damned. Grey would raze the whole fucking house if that’s what it took.

“Sandor will take out the power grid for the entire neighborhood in the next few minutes. Adele’s bound to think we’re up to something, but having the whole area go dark may buy us a few precious seconds.”

He pegged his leader with a hard look. “You
will
hang back. You’re our last resort, got that?”

“Yes, Grey, I’ve got it. Now go save my sister.”

“I will. This I vow.” He gave his ruler a solemn nod. Then, unleashing the full power of his Talion senses, he walked away and faded into the growing darkness.

When the lights all around him blinked out, he smiled.
Let the hunt begin. May the gods above help them all.

The lights flickered once, twice, then stayed on a few seconds, and then everything went dark. Piper flinched at the sudden change, but then drew immediate comfort from the blanket of darkness that surrounded her. She blinked, giving her eyes a chance to adjust.

She was looking directly at the front window when a quick movement caught her attention. It was too dark to see any details, but she could have sworn she spotted two small circles of blue light aimed straight at her. Her heart did a slow roll. It had to be Grey. He was the only one she knew with eyes that burned that exact shade when his emotions ran hot. As quickly as they appeared, the twin lights blinked out, making her wonder if her imagination was just working overtime.

Wes’s laptop cast a soft circle of light at the table, but the glow didn’t extend much past the center of the room. Neither Adele nor Wes seemed upset about the power outage, which meant they were expecting it.

Wes scooped up his computer and closed it, blanketing them in darkness. Piper thought she saw him palm his gun before dropping down out of sight of the
windows. Adele followed suit.

When the lights didn’t immediately come back on, Adele rose up to peek out the window. “And so it begins.”

Fed up with the woman’s theatrics, Piper sighed loudly. “Tell me, Adele, could you
be
more melodramatic? A car probably hit a transformer, and you make it sound like a bad horror flick.”

“Do shut up, Piper, or I’ll make you. Your buddies are out there staging a rescue. How very heroic.”

“It is.” Okay, so she wasn’t supposed to say anything else, but someone had to speak up for them.

“I’m very disappointed in Kerry Thorsen. A Dame is supposed to keep her word, yet she sends her thugs after me rather than negotiating with me directly.”

Personally, Piper would kick Kerry’s butt up and down the street if she was stupid enough to come within ten miles of Adele.

When Adele’s cell phone rang, she answered it and then hit speaker phone. “Kerry, I was just going to call you.”

“I’m sure you were. But as Dame, I have a rather busy schedule. I can’t always wait around until it’s convenient for my subjects. Are you ready to meet or not?”

Piper didn’t need to see Adele to know the woman was vibrating with fury. “I am
not
one of
your
subjects. I refuse to acknowledge a low-bred stray as the Grand Dame of
my
people.”

When Kerry spoke again, she sounded every inch
the ruler of the Kyth. “Regardless of how you might personally feel about it, Adele Harcourt, I
am
your Dame, and you are still subject to my rule and my justice. This night will not end well for you unless Piper is released unharmed. I order you to lay that gun down now, and walk out the front door with your hands up. That goes for your companion as well.”

Adele sounded unnaturally calm when she responded. “I don’t know where you got the idea that you were in the position to do any bargaining. Will you really force the Talions to die for you? Because that’s what’s going to happen if you insist on sending them after me. Think about that. How will you sleep at night when Grey, Sandor, and your precious Ranulf all die defending a piece of trash like you? Because, make no mistake—they will.”

There was an ominous silence on Kerry’s end of the conversation. The next person who spoke was definitely male and it was a voice Piper recognized immediately.

“Adele Harcourt, this is Sandor Kearn speaking on behalf of Greyhill Danby, Chief Talion to Grand Dame Kerry Thorsen. Remember this when you face justice: you were given ample opportunity to halt your treason against our people. It is now too late to recant and request mercy. You stand charged with attempted murder by sending a bomb to the Dame’s Home.

“Furthermore, you are charged with assault on the Dame’s home and property for destroying a highly valued automobile belonging the Dame’s Consort. You stand charged with the kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment
of Piper Ryan, with intent to do harm. And finally, you have been charged with the crime of high treason against the Kyth nation. Stand ready to surrender and face judgment. We await your decision. Failure to comply will result in grave consequences.”

As the list of charges was being read, they heard cars pulling and then speeding off, followed by footsteps pounding on the sidewalk. Both Adele and Wes ran across the room to look out the front window.

Piper felt a slight stirring in the air coming from behind her. She looked at the door to the kitchen just as a section of shadow broke away, forming a dark figure that loomed over her.

Before she could scream, a hand clamped over her mouth, and Grey whispered in her ear, “Hush.”

She recognized his voice, but there was something wrong with his face. When he cut the ties on her hands and then her feet, she realized he was wearing night vision goggles.

“Go. Get out.”

She didn’t want to leave him behind, but he left her no choice. If she stayed, if she protested, she would put them both in greater danger. Grey positioned himself between her and Adele and Wes. For the moment their attention was directed toward Sandor’s disembodied voice.

Only a few more steps and they’d be in the clear. She reached out to touch to the doorframe, feeling her way along. Her heart pounded in her ears, her breath so loud she was sure the neighbors could hear it. The comforting presence of Grey right behind her was all
that kept her from panicking.