Die for Me (16 page)

“And leave Adelaide alive.” It wasn’t a question.

“And Isaac and Nicholas. We’d leave it all behind.” Torrhent gripped his forearm, giving it a squeeze for her own assurance. “Can you do that?”

Taigen stepped back, betrayal written over every feature of his face. “You want me to choose between stopping Adelaide or being happy with you?”

“Yes.”

“In that case, if you want to turn yourself in, you do it alone.” He picked up his duffle bag, wiping the dust from the bottom. “I need to stop my sister.”

* * *

“Gentlemen. Councilwoman.” Isaac faced the ten men and one woman of the council with Nicholas at his back. The darkened chambers did nothing to conceal their faces despite their vain attempts to hide their identities. It’d been too easy to track the council members through credit card statements, airline history and cell phone usage to their secret headquarters. They hadn’t even bothered to use aliases. “My name is Isaac Rutler and I presume you know why I’m here.”

“You are in violation of—”

“I did not come here to speak of violations, Councilwoman Lee.” He shot her a warning glare. “Unless you wish to speak of your own.”

“Our own?” a man to the left asked. “You speak to the council, Mr. Rutler, the same council able to take every fighter you manage. Tread lightly, sir, if you wish to remain a part of this organization.”

Petty threats. They could take his fighters. They meant nothing in his future. “I’ve tracked you here to simply claim what belongs to me.”

He took a step closer to the large U-shaped conference table. Two seats remained empty. The end, Keller’s seat. The middle, the commissioner’s, the head of the organization and a symbol of his hard work, his sacrifices and greatness.

His seat.

“You killed Commissioner Yanez and Councilman Keller.” Councilwoman Lee stood, her expression filling with pain. “You’ve committed treason, Mr. Rutler. You have declared war on the council and the organization.”

He addressed every member. “I am here to give you a choice. Cast your ballot for me as commissioner and take part in a new order where privatized security will not be left to the government, but to the organization, as it should be. Where our fighters have the opportunity to discover their real potential rather than waste it away in the center of a ring.”

The silence pounded against Isaac’s temples.

“Commissioner? You’ve lost your mind, Rutler. This organization is not a mercenary service.” Councilman after councilman nodded in agreement.

“You’re right, Councilman Suthers. I have lost my mind. It happened the second this council decided to kill my wife.” He let that sink in for a moment, studying their shocked expressions. To his own surprise, the words left his mouth effortlessly. As if he’d created a barrier between his heart and mind, Isaac reveled in the newfound control over his grief. “Yes, I know firsthand of the power you claim does not exist.”

“And you believe blackmail will get you what you want?” Again, Councilwoman Lee scowled at him. “We built this organization from nothing”—she reached under the table from her standing position—“and we will not leave it in the hands of men like you.”

Before the councilwoman lifted her weapon, she collapsed over the conference table, eyes wide, dead.

Adelaide removed the knife from the councilwoman’s spine slowly and a burst of pride blossomed in the center of Isaac’s chest.

He addressed the remaining members. “Does anyone else agree with Councilwoman Lee?”

Blood dripped in sloppy droplets onto the carpet as Isaac sauntered around the conference table. Studying the council members as he passed behind them, he smiled as he moved toward his chair. Isaac paused before sitting, his fingers taking in the feel of the soft leather, the sturdiness of the crafted wood.

Tense, with fear written in every small movement they made, his lambs waited for their orders.

The moment he’d worked for for so long had finally come upon him.
I did it, Charlie. I did it for you.

Gurgling noises interrupted the perfect moment and another council member slumped to the floor. His attention snapped back to reality in time to see two more bodies drop without warning. Dread descended like a parachute onto his shoulders as Isaac comprehended the source.

Adelaide moved onto the next council member without hesitation.

“No!” Isaac lunged toward her.

Eyes wide, mouth open, Councilman Suthers screamed in anguish before the blade severed his jugular. Blood rushed over Adelaide’s pale hands and the light in her eyes brightened.

“Nicholas!” Why hadn’t his bodyguard moved in on her yet? Isaac searched the conference room and froze midstep.

Adelaide stood in front of him, a smile crawling across her face as she held the dripping blade idle. She hadn’t confronted him yet, but she would, and not even his personal bodyguard would be there to save him.

* * *

She’d given up hope he would come back.

In the end, Taigen had chosen the potential lives of strangers over his own.

Torrhent pushed forward, the wad of cash he’d left in her right pocket and a bottle of water in hand. She’d been an idiot to think she could change his mind and she’d live with his blood on her hands for the rest of her life. Right along with Richard Clemet’s.

She’d almost told him she loved him.

It would have been a lie
. She screened her eyes from the sun, surveying the next few miles for any sign of civilization.

You’re kidding yourself if you really believe that,
an inner voice reprimanded.

The heat wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been, but it was still uncomfortable with heavy clothing and no sunscreen. Every now and then her stitches stretched too far and she had to slow her pace. She’d been able to cover a mile in less than fifteen minutes walking. Now, she’d be lucky if she made it in thirty.

She groaned to herself, covered in blood, sweat and dirt, but she wouldn’t stop. No matter how much it hurt to keep going. Even if she needed a doctor.

“The doctor left you,” Torrhent chastised herself. She ran a free hand through her hair. The closest town couldn’t be far. She’d already been walking for four hours.
Unless you’re going the wrong way
. She blocked the thought out. She couldn’t think like that. Everything depended on her making it into the next town.

She’d gone through her water supply in less than an hour, she hadn’t eaten since the night before, and she had no other supplies. She had nothing except the price on her head.

The August sun stole the energy from her body, wringing out every drop of water from her skin. Wind swayed the wheat fields around her but hardly cooled her down. If she didn’t find a town soon, she’d collapse and Taigen would die.

Her eyes roamed over the empty fields stretching out before her. In the distance, a dark shadow grew closer. It formed the shape of a car or SUV, but Torrhent knew better. There was nothing out here. She blinked, unable to rid herself of the hallucination. “Can’t be.”

The shape continued toward her, the sun glinting off the car’s black panels.

Not a car, a luxury SUV.

Nobody drove those in farm country.

Torrhent forced herself to stop in the middle of the field. “Please let it be the police,” she prayed, but knew better than to hope. Hope had gone with Taigen.

The SUV angled toward her across the field, a small apology in the back of her mind to the farmer who’d just had his crop ruined.

The vehicle stopped, but Torrhent refused to move.

If they wanted her, they’d have to work for it.

Chapter 15

The cell was a lot smaller than others she’d been in, almost claustrophobic. Mice scurried under and around her feet, but all Torrhent had attention for was the man standing on the other side of the bars. She didn’t have to look up to know he waited for her to respond, her head bent low, her hands clasped in front of her as she supported her weight on her knees. She’d felt the change in atmosphere the second he’d walked into the station. “I should have known he’d send you instead of coming himself.”

“He didn’t send me,” Nicholas corrected, his voice husky. His clothing was nondescript. Black on black. Aside from his scar, not even his facial features could be described by the officers if they chanced a look toward the cells. “But I’m surprised to find you here. You’ve been careful until now. Why?”

“I’m tired of running.” Torrhent finally let their gazes connect, his a piercing blue that didn’t compare to the color of sky she was used to seeing in Taigen’s. The cruel expression permanently marked on his face was offset by a crooked smile. It terrified her, but she wouldn’t let it get to her. After everything she’d faced, Nicholas was the least of her worries. “What do you want?”

“To bring you back to New York.”

It was the most she’d ever heard Nicholas say. They were having an actual conversation. She’d almost been convinced the killer was just another illiterate barbarian with muscle for hire. Torrhent scoffed. “I’ve turned myself in. I’m not going anywhere.”

Nicholas glanced behind him, backing up until his legs hit a chair against the wall. He sat, supporting his injured leg over the other. He crossed his arms over his chest.

Her gut instincts flared. He was trying too hard to make it seem like he’d always been normal, an everyday man who hadn’t killed dozens of people for her stepfather, maybe even more.

Torrhent studied Nicholas in her peripheral vision, noting he never took his eyes off her. She finally gave him her full attention. “That’s it? You’re just going to sit there?”

“If that’s what you want.”

The uneasiness in the back of her mind took its stand at the front of her thoughts. Where was the assassin who’d framed her for murder? Where was the man who followed orders to the letter? Where was the murderer? “What do you mean if that’s what
I
want?”

“You’re smart, Torrhent.” Nicholas gave what she thought was a smile, but couldn’t be sure. The smile disappeared before she had a chance to look again. “I’m sure you could figure it out on your own.”

“Is this a joke?” She couldn’t decipher the gimmick he’d dealt, but she would. She wasn’t used to it, but if he wanted to wait, she’d make him wait. A flicker of hope flashed across her brain, a hope more deadly than relying on a former hit man to help her get her revenge. Nicholas was loyal. He’d never leave Isaac unprotected unless ordered to. But if Isaac ordered him to, that meant someone else protected him, someone better than Nicholas, or her stepfather was dead. The former was almost impossible to imagine.

“It’s Adelaide, isn’t it?” A pang of jealousy centered itself in her chest. Seemed like everyone had focused on Taigen’s sister.

Anger made a small appearance in Nicholas’s eyes, but he smothered it faster than she thought possible. “So it seems.”

“Where does that leave you?” Torrhent couldn’t believe herself. She sat in a jail cell, the third in her short life, talking to the man who’d framed her for murder like they were old friends. She didn’t care if he’d been replaced, but the possibility of Nicholas gone rogue frightened her. “So you’re bringing me in to get back in his good graces.”

“I knew you were smart.”

Torrhent nodded absently, lowering her head back toward her knees. “So what are you going to do? Kill the officers out there? Shove me out the window to avoid them?” The memory of climbing down from a third-story window at the county jail in Los Angeles crossed her mind. It’d been Taigen’s idea of an escape. She could only hope Nicholas’s plan didn’t involve heights.

“They’re already taken care of.”

She should have known as much.

“They’re still alive,” he added, pulling her attention back to him.

“Why?” She shouldn’t have asked, but it slipped. “If they realize what you’re doing here, they’ll arrest you or shoot you. Then me.” Was he really so stupid? It didn’t make sense. “Then again, I don’t think I’d care.”

“You look just like your mother when you’re angry.” His expression relaxed, the corners of his mouth pulling up slightly.

Torrhent wrenched herself from the bench, gripping the bars as hard as she could. “Don’t you dare talk about my mother!” she screamed. “It’s because of people like you that she’s dead. Murderers. Thieves.” She glared at him with everything she could muster in the sense of loathing. “And I hope you all rot in hell.”

She pushed herself away, turning her back on him.

Not a good idea.

Suddenly, she was yanked backward. Nicholas’s forearm threaded through the bars and around her throat. She fought to breathe, to break his hold on her.

“Don’t presume to know me, Ri-Ri.” Nicholas’s voice was calm, dead even. He let her go after a few more seconds, letting the weight of his words sink in. “You have no idea who you’re dealing with.”

Torrhent fell forward, sucking in as much air as she could. The stitches in her stomach were bleeding again. She gripped the soaking spots with one hand and worked to turn around to face him, but couldn’t move. He’d called her Ri-Ri, the nickname only her mother had used until she’d died.

“Why’d you call me that?” she said with a husky voice. “How do you know that name?”

Nicholas didn’t answer, stepping away from the bars. He turned his back on her.

She pushed herself to her feet, massaging her throat and holding her side. It was stupid for her to get so emotional, but she needed to know. “How do you know that name?”

In that moment, she didn’t care about living through the night. She didn’t care a hit man had pretty much pledged himself to her the night before or that Isaac might get away with murder. She wanted to go home.

Nicholas confronted her again, his face tense. “Because I was the first one to call you that.”

Torrhent’s mind went blank. Her mouth hung open and she snapped it closed quickly. Her stomach recoiled, bile rising in her throat.

“I knew your mother before she met Isaac.”

The words were simple enough, but meant so much.

Torrhent doubled back over, heaving. “She knew you were . . . She knew . . . you . . . killed . . .” The cell spun. “You—” Her eyes darted from him to the floor and back, her mind trying to understand what he told her. “I can’t take this.”

She slumped against the wall. She could barely keep breathing. “Are you?”

She couldn’t even say it.

Nicholas let her settle, relaxing back into the chair. “I’m not your father, if that’s what you’re worried about.” He paused, his eyes distant. “I loved her for a long time before she met Isaac.”

She nodded slowly. The world righted itself after a few more deep breaths. “You came here to tell me that?”

“No.” He leaned forward, meeting her gaze. “But it was bound to come out. I thought I should be the one to tell you.” His features softened, the scar running from his forehead to his chin crinkling around the edges. “You have her eyes.”

She wanted to laugh. “You framed me for a murder my stepfather committed.”

She wedged herself against the wall and pushed herself up, splitting more of the stitches in her torso. Gritting her teeth from the pain, she wrapped her arms around herself. “I was sent to prison because of you, and now you want to tell me you and my mother were in
love
?”

She swallowed hard, making sure her throat would be clear for the next words out of her mouth. “I don’t give a shit what you two had, so you’re either going to take me back to Isaac or get the hell away from me.”

“That kind of talk may work on Banvard, but it won’t work on me.”

Torrhent wanted to ask what they’d do with Taigen, but she kept her mouth shut. She ran the show now. It was her turn to give orders. She stood straight, shoulders back. “Are you going to take me to Isaac or what?”

“Cut the charade,” he snapped. “Your life isn’t the only thing at stake here.” Nicholas pondered a moment, his scarred hand raised to his chin. “For this to work, you have to do exactly what I tell you, understand?”

“For what to work?”

“My plan to put your stepfather rightfully in his place.”

“And where’s that?” Torrhent’s chest ached. Her breathing had settled, but something familiar pulled at her. Hatred? Anger? The emotions were there, but buried beneath something stronger.

“Prison.”

She wasn’t sure she’d heard him right. “You want to have Isaac arrested?”

Torrhent held back the laugh that would surely give away her disbelief if her tone hadn’t already. “Why?”

“Do you know how your mother died?” Again, his eyes darted toward the floor.

“What does that have to do with anything?”

His gaze reconnected with hers. “Because she started this whole thing. Her murder was
payback
against Isaac.”

Torrhent didn’t respond.

Nicholas approached the bars. “You’ve played the victim for so long, but you don’t even know the truth. Isaac wants the position of commissioner.”

“What the hell is that?”

“It’s the highest rank within the underground MMA ring.” Nicholas cut her off with a raised hand. “Before you ask, your mother didn’t know about his extracurricular activities, but she was pulled into it all the same.”

Torrhent swallowed hard. “He killed her?”

The idea nearly buckled her knees. She gripped the bars as hard as she could and was taken aback when Nicholas’s hand covered her own.

“Not directly.”

“Either he did or he didn’t!” Her breathing grew out of hand again. She worked to calm her insides, but the pain in her chest, along with the pull of the stitches on her stomach, made it almost impossible. “She loved him. She—”

“The former commissioner felt threatened by Isaac,” Nicholas said. “The council agreed your stepfather shouldn’t rise in the organization and they gave a man named Keller the contract to do the deed.”

Torrhent’s mind reeled. None of this made any sense. “My mother was killed because of stupid
office politics
?”

She pulled away from the bars, out from beneath Nicholas’s touch. “Isaac wouldn’t have left her alone if he felt threatened. Someone should have been there to protect her!”

“I was.”

“But you failed and she’s dead.” The words were surreal. Torrhent couldn’t even be sure if she was awake. “Because of Isaac.”

“Yes. Now, do you want your justice or not?” Nicholas asked, his voice level, rough.

She inhaled deeply, closing her eyes. Flashes of her mother’s bright red hair, the same red hair she’d colored over to save her life, danced in front of her eyes. A smile, gray eyes and freckles followed. Torrhent had lost pieces of her mother’s features and she wanted nothing more than to make Isaac pay for it. Because of him, she’d lost her closest friend. She opened her eyes. “Yes.”

“Good.” Nicholas smiled then, a small scoff escaping his throat. “We have to lose your tail first.”

Taigen.

She should have known he’d watch her back. The thought sent a chill down her spine. “Then what?”

“We give Isaac what he deserves.”

“How?” Torrhent sauntered forward, her fear morphing into hard determination.

Nicholas kept her gaze, the terrifying killer returning before her eyes. “You’re going to have to die.”

* * *

Taigen had lost them.

Either Nicholas was better than he’d thought or the skills he’d relied on nearly his entire life had taken a serious turn in the wrong direction. He was inclined to believe the former, but the latter is what kept his thumb over the send button on the cell phone.

The throwaway phone waited for him to make a decision, the rental car pulled over to the side of the highway egging him on to keep driving. Nobody was out this time of night, making his next action ominous.

He pressed
send
.

The line rang four times and he was about to change his mind when a familiar voice filled his left ear.

“This is Grant.”

Taigen tried to convince himself calling the man who’d betrayed him was the best option to get her back, but couldn’t decide if he did it for his sister or Torrhent. “Guess who?”

“Are you fucking crazy? I’m hanging up,” the voice snapped.

“Don’t hang up, Marcus.”

“Why not? You’re a fugitive, running around with another fugitive. I could lose my badge for talking to you.” Marcus’s voice went down in volume.

He wasn’t alone.

“Who else is there?” His eyes darted to the rearview mirror, where a pair of headlights advanced. Within seconds, they were gone, but his paranoia hadn’t gone with them.

“Fifty other guys trying to catch bad guys like you. I’m at the office.”

He wasn’t assured. “You’re a shit of a liar, but I don’t have time to play games with you. I need a team sent to Isaac Rutler’s house.”

“Is this a joke?” The cop didn’t wait for an answer. “Don’t you remember what I told you, Banvard? I’m done. With you. With your sister. Everything. I can’t do this shit anymore.”

“Even if a girl’s life depends on it?” His voice slid into his English accent. Taigen hoped Marcus felt the weight of his words.

“Christ, I know that tone,” Marcus said. A thump echoed in through the earpiece. Marcus had hit something. Hard. “What did you get yourself into?”

“Nothing I can’t handle with an ATF team at my back.”

Silence on the other line led him to believe Marcus either took direction from someone else or was in the process of making a decision. “If I give you a team, you, Adelaide, all of you are going inside. Do you understand?”

It was a warning of sorts. Trullio
was
directing Marcus, and it meant she intended to catch a flight to New York either way. They’d be arrested. “Yes. I understand.”