Shiv Crew (2 page)

Rune tossed her car keys onto her
desk and then began unloading as many of her weapons as she dared. She was
never without a little something. There was even a wicked-looking black shiv
lying across the soap dish when she showered.

The monsters were a pain in the
ass.

“Don’t get too comfy.”

Rune sighed and turned to face the
voice, which came from her diminutive assistant, Ellis. “What is it now?”

Damn, but she was tired. She hadn’t
slept for two nights. All she wanted was an enormous cup of black coffee in her
chipped pink mug, a hot bath, and a soft bed.

Ellis smiled, his dark brown eyes
crinkling at the corners. “I’m sorry, Rune. I know you’re exhausted. But there
are a couple of boys here to see you about joining the team.” He lowered his
voice as though said boys were standing behind him. “They’re very interesting.
And look delicious.”

Rune raised an eyebrow. “Were you
planning on cooking them?”

“Oh no, sweetie. I’d take these
boys raw, just the way the good Lord intended.” He winked. “Shall I send them
in?”

“Yeah, send them in. But one of
them needs to bring a cup of coffee along with him.”

“You got it.” Ellis backed out of
the doorway, his smile never dimming. He was accustomed to Rune’s grumpiness.

She sat down behind her desk,
yawning. If she could stay awake through interviewing the delicious boys, she
was going home before someone else could delay her.

She looked up when she heard footsteps.

Damn.

Ellis was right. These two were hot
enough to set the rug on fire. They were identical twins. Their hair was long
and dark brown, and each man sported a braided ponytail that reached his lower
back.

Matching pairs of jewel-green eyes
stared at her from olive-skinned faces with high cheekbones, full lips, and
brows that slashed with perfect darkness over their hypnotic gazes.

They weren’t huge, bulky, and
muscled like Jack and Raze—they were lean and slender like Z.

They looked a little too pretty to
be fighting Others, but something deep in their eyes told her not to judge them
by that. Darkness slid through the calm green stares and she recognized it. It
was the same darkness that hid inside her.

She realized she’d been silent a
little too long when Ellis cleared his throat. With a smile, he began the
introductions. “Boys, this is Rune Alexander. Rune, this is Denim and Levi Montrosa.
And from the names alone, you know they belong on Shiv Crew.”

Ellis was always a little too free
with his mouth. And his opinion. Didn’t matter that he was usually right.

She pointed her chin at the cup one
of the twins held. “That for me?”

“Yes, ma’am.” His voice was quiet
and smooth, and he set the cup carefully on her desk.

“Dude.”

He looked up at her tone. “Yes?”

“My name is Rune, not ma’am.”

He nodded. “Got it.”

“Have a seat.” She waited until
they’d lowered themselves into the chairs in front of her desk before
continuing. Ellis slipped from the room, closing the door quietly behind him.
Even through the closed door she could hear him softly singing a song she
didn’t recognize. Ellis sang pretty much every waking hour—everything from
country to metal. Inwardly, she smiled before getting back to business with her
visitors.

“What makes you think you’re
suitable for Shiv Crew?”

“We—”

She held up a hand. “Wait. I’m
going to need a way to tell you two apart.”

The twins looked at each other for
a long moment, and then one of them began to peel a long, skin-colored piece of
tape from the right side of his face.

When it was off he simply looked at
her and waited for her to take it in. He’d revealed an evil-looking red scar
that began at the outer corner of his eye, twisted over his cheekbone, and
ended at his chin. “I’m Denim.”

Shit.
She fought to keep her
face expressionless. “I’m sorry. You can cover it back up if you want.”

He shrugged. “It’s fine. I’m used
to it.”

“Did you get that fighting the
monsters?”

“No. My stepfather gave me this when
I was eleven. He was in a bad mood.”

Both twins’ faces remained blank
and cool, waiting for her pity, perhaps, or her judgment.

She simply nodded. “Have either of
you fought an Other?”

They both smiled, their eyes a
little too unreadable for her peace of mind. “Oh yes, we’ve fought Others. We
used to belong to COS. You’ve heard of them.” It wasn’t a question.

She shivered—an involuntary
reaction she hoped the twins hadn’t noticed.

The Church of Slayers…

Yeah, she’d heard of them. They’d
been disbanded over five years ago, but rumors persisted that they’d only gone
underground and were still operational. Regrouping.

They were cold-blooded killers.
They didn’t just catch and kill Others, they tortured them. And if a human
happened to have a soft spot for Others, COS considered him or her worse than
an Other.

Their leader, Karin Love, had been
living on death row for the last five years. She’d gotten into some trouble for
torturing Others, but that wouldn’t have gotten her executed. She was on death
row because she’d killed
humans
who were allies of Others. She’d be
executed eventually, but Rune wasn’t sure the doomed woman wasn’t still making
plans and running things from her prison cell.

She looked at the two young men.
“Yeah. And I’m not sure I could ever trust an ex-COS.”

They said nothing.

She picked at the old glitter
polish on her thumbnail. If either of them realized she was part Other, they’d
think nothing of ripping her head off and tossing it into the garbage.

She folded her hands. “Nothing to
say to that?”

“Trust will come if you’ll let it. We
hunt Others. You hunt Others. It’s all good.” This was from Levi, who seemed a
little softer than his brother.

She sighed. God, she was tired.
“You can’t hunt indiscriminately. You can’t torture them. You can’t kill
without provocation. That’s just murder, and you’ll end up sitting on death row
with your former boss. Shiv Crew doesn’t need that kind of trouble.
I
don’t need that kind of trouble.”
God, no.

She let that sink in before
continuing. “We’re slowly building trust, boys, and that’s because we’re a…
mostly
law-abiding organization. We protect humans. It’s what we do. We don’t chase
down the monsters with the sole intention of burning out their eyes, selling
them for lab experiments, or simply killing them. We don’t do that.”
Unlike
COS.

She tapped her fingers on her desk,
letting them mull over her words. These were dangerous men with a past she
didn’t want to delve into too deeply. She was a little crazy for even
considering them.

Finally Levi spoke, his words
simple, and they rang completely true. “We want to be the good guys, Rune.”

Something haunted and dark flashed
across Denim’s face. “We were involved in COS from the time we were children
and our mother met our stepfather. It wasn’t…encouraged for a COS member to
leave the church. We got out as soon as we could.”

But not before they’d been damaged
in ways she could only imagine. She felt something for them—some sort of
empathy and connection she wasn’t sure she understood—but it was there and it
was strong.

“You trained with blades?”

“Yes. We trained with many weapons,
but our specialty is blades.” Levi met her eyes. “Shivs.”

She took a drink of her coffee,
then set the mug gently on the desk, giving herself time to think. “You
understand we are not without limitations. We’re under too many thumbs. We get
left out of things, we’re used for dirty jobs, and there is little appreciation
for Shiv Crew.”

“Not for long,” Denim said. “We’ve
been hearing things. SCRU and Shiv Crew are becoming well-known and important.
I’ve seen it happen for lesser groups, and it’ll happen for us. Shiv Crew is
going to be something big.”

He spoke as though he and his
brother already belonged—with pride and confidence. It made her smile.

And as tired as she was, she wasn’t
about to wait until the next day to try them out. She stood, scooped up her car
keys, and gulped down half a cup of lukewarm coffee.

“Then let’s see what you’ve got.”

They followed her from the room,
standing slightly behind her when she stopped in the reception area to speak
with Ellis.

“Call the crew and have them meet
us in the Sandbox.”

“This late?”

“Yup. And tell one of them—”

“Bring you coffee.”

“What would I do without you, Ellie?”

“I don’t know, probably die.”
Though he said it lightly, the look he gave her was anything but. His eyes were
serious—too sad for her to look into for more than a second.

So she ignored him. It wasn’t like
she could suddenly stop doing the bad things. Wasn’t even sure she would if she
could.

Her chuckle was hollow. “Without
you, I probably would.”

As the twins filed past him Ellis
stood and tapped his chest, right over his heart, twice. He then raised his
right hand, his index and middle fingers crossed, and stared at the twins.

“What are you doing?” Levi asked.

Ellis kept his hand raised. “This
is our promise of protection symbol.” He grinned and lowered his hand. “It has
come to mean acceptance as well, and my hope is that someday the Others can
show it to us.” He glanced at Rune. “And that we can show it to them.”

Rune sighed. “Ellis loves the
Others, boys. He wants them to be as accepted and free as the humans. He’s
always been a bleeding heart and a dreamer.” She flashed a grin at them, though
she knew her eyes would be completely devoid of humor. “But no matter, I love
him anyway.” She stared at them for a long moment, making sure they got her meaning.

The twins said nothing, but their
expressions were thoughtful. They needed to know right up front about Ellis,
and they needed to know that she would kill to protect him.
And not just
because he’s the only person in the world who knows what I am and accepts me
for it. Not because he’s saved my life too many times to count.

They looked at each other, and then
as one, gently tapped their chests and raised their crossed fingers high.

The sun shone in Ellis’s eyes.

She left headquarters, the gorgeous
twin ex-COS members at her heels.

It was turning out to be a very
long night.

But she had a strong feeling Shiv
Crew had just found two new additions to their group.

The Sandbox was a gymnasium inside
RISC headquarters and was used mainly for training and intense workouts. It was
only a block away, but Rune didn’t want to waste time walking. She motioned the
twins into her car, a black SUV built to hold big bodies and lots of weapons.

The boys climbed into the backseat
after hesitating for a short moment, both of them looking toward a battered red
Chevy truck with tinted windows.

“Don’t worry, boys. Your truck will
still be here when you get back.” Yeah, it kind of looked like they were thinking
about jumping in that truck and getting the hell out of there, but she ignored
that part. It was natural that they might waver.

No one spoke during the ride, and
that was fine with her. Time for talk was over. Now she just needed to see them
fight.

She wanted the crew’s input on the
twins as well. Especially Raze’s. He could judge people better than anyone
she’d ever met. It was strange. He was like a big growly bear, but the man had
a crazy sensitive streak a mile wide.

The RISC building was still busy
for this time of night—or morning, she realized, when she glanced at the dash
clock. It was nearly two a.m. but the RISC building never completely shut down.

Darkness brought out most of the
monsters.

Two on-duty cops grinned at her
from their desks when she walked by, but quickly focused on the two strangers at
her back. Not because the boys were hot, but because the men were cops.

She was a little uncomfortable
letting the twins walk behind her but not uncomfortable enough to make them
walk where she could see them. Aggravated by her acceptance of them, she finally
chalked it up to that strange connection and forgot about it.

Because in her mind, they were
already Shiv Crew.

The twins were composed—too
detached—and it was difficult to imagine them waking up enough to become
violent, bloodthirsty little crew members.

She shoved the heavy double doors
open with a little more force than necessary. She didn’t like a lot of quiet,
and the men behind her were eerily so. “Welcome to the Sandbox, boys. When the
rest of the crew arrives, we’ll test you out with rubber blades. Don’t want
anybody getting his head cut off at the first meeting.”

They glanced at each other, then
shrugged. “We’d be careful not to hurt them with real blades if you’d rather
test us on silver.”

She laughed. “I wasn’t worried
about you hurting them. The blades can still cause some damage, but no one will
be getting hurt tonight. My men are very good at what they do. We’ll save the
damage for the monsters.” She folded her arms and stared up at the twins.

At five-four, she was often dwarfed
by the men she dealt with. Denim and Levi were probably around five-ten so they
didn’t make her feel overly small. Her men were going to make the twins look
like delicate little kids.

Even Z, the most height challenged
of the crew—next to her—was six-two.

Thinking of him must have conjured
him, because he pushed the doors open and slipped into the room. He stopped
beside Rune, staring at the twins.

They stared back, their gazes empty.
Denim’s scar was a harsh rope of pain against his face, but it looked right on
him.

Horrible thing to think, Rune.

But still.

“Z,” she said, “meet Denim and Levi
Montrosa. They want to give Shiv Crew a shot. You up for a little play?”

He grinned and offered the twins
his hand. “Always.”

As affable as he seemed, she knew
him. His face was careful, his eyes guarded. He must have seen something in the
twins too. Something that bothered him.

Jack and Raze arrived, their
entrance as loud and hard as Z’s had been quiet. They brought energy with them.
The air seemed to crackle with it.

Those two were her giants. They
intimidated by size alone. Jack was smaller than Raze, but that wasn’t saying
much. Jack’s muscles bunched as he stood with feet apart, arms akimbo, watching
the twins.

He wore his dark hair short in a
neat buzz cut, and like the other two men had quite an assortment of tattoos on
his body. He wore his weapons like jewelry—belts draped across his massive
chest, knives and guns in holsters and sheaths, silver blades gleaming from
every available space.

Sex oozed from Jack’s pores, and
she’d never known a woman who could resist him. Or who wanted to. Good thing
she had some rules about fucking the men in her crew, or she’d never have
gotten anything done.

Raze, on the other hand, scared the
hell out of women. And men. And small animals. He was nearly six feet six
inches tall and big as a tank. Long, messy, dark red hair made him look like a
wild wolf, but Raze was completely human.

Even his eyes were scary and
strange. They were light gray, surrounded by lashes thick and long enough to make
her jealous. She’d known him for three years and had never seen him smile. Not
once.

He was the one she watched as he
gave the twins a once over. Raze would know if the twins had evil souls.

He always knew.

So when he looked at her, frowning
and puzzled, she threw her hands up in disgust. “Of course,” she said. “Why
not?”

The twins were locked up so well
that not even Raze could read them.
Fuck.

“Where’s my coffee?”

“Shit, Rune. I’m sorry. I was
supposed to pick it up and forgot.” Jack looked at her with his limpid, sexy
eyes, trying for apologetic. He failed.

“Dammit, Jack.”

Z pulled an apple from his jacket
and tossed it to her. “Here you go. Better for you anyway.”

She polished the apple on her shirt
and went to sit on the bleachers. “Don’t hurt them, but give them a good test.
Let’s see what they’ve got.”

She had some hopes pinned on those
boys. She wanted them to work out. If they could manage not to let the men run
circles around them, they could be trained into Shiv Crew.

Any other time she might have tried
them out herself, but she wanted to see how they were with her men. Guys who
didn’t know her tended to pull their punches, and she didn’t want to waste time
showing them just why they shouldn’t be doing that.

Jack and Raze circled the twins. Z
grabbed sword-size rubber blades from the cabinet and threw both the new guys a
weapon, then joined Jack and Raze.

The twins stood back-to-back,
rubber-tipped blades touching the floor, and waited for Shiv Crew to make the
first move.

Jack went for Denim, moving his
blade in a quick slashing motion. Had the men been on the battlefield, that
movement would have sliced his opponent from balls to throat.

Denim blocked the blade with his
own.

Jack grinned. “Good, kid.”

Denim’s face remained blank—no
return smile, no acknowledgment—but Rune was pretty sure she saw a spark of
scorn in his eyes.

Z tried a similar move on Levi, and
once again, it was blocked.

“Okay then,” he said, “we know they
aren’t totally inept.”

“We know what we’re doing,” Levi
said. “It’d save a lot of time if you’d just show us what
you’ve
got.”

“We’ll try not to kick your asses,”
Denim said. “Let’s do this.”

Raze shrugged. “No sense in wasting
time.”

“Raze,” Rune called, a little
warning in her voice.

The twins, as one, looked at her.
“If you’re not going to fight, and you want to see what we can do, please stay
the fuck out of this.”

Denim was obviously the blunter of
the two boys. “Well okay then.” She took a bite of her apple and motioned at
them. “Carry on.”

The twins woke up.

They moved with a seamlessness that
was impossible not to admire. Each movement by one man was perfectly mirrored
by the other.

Still, her men were careful…for
about two minutes.

That’s all the time it took to
figure out the twins did indeed know what they were doing. They played off each
other. While Jack was still lifting his sword for a painful slash across
Denim’s chest, Denim flipped backward, kicked himself off his brother’s body,
and ended up behind Jack with a sword to his throat. Had it not been a mock
battle, Denim would have just cut Jack’s head off.

The twins woke up, and it was like
a fucking dance.

“Son of a bitch.”
Rune
dropped the forgotten apple. She stood and watched the fight, her breath
catching, her heart racing, her entire body covered with gooseflesh.

The twins were magic. Her men were
as astounded as she, and perhaps their surprise made them slower. Or perhaps
the twins were just that good.

When it was over and the twins had
proven themselves, she was disappointed. She could have watched them all night.

Her men were breathing a little
harder and had angry red marks across their faces and throats. She was sure the
skin underneath their clothes was just as abused.

Z stretched out his kinks. Jack
grimaced as he limped toward the bleachers, and Raze, the least marked of all of
them, stared into space, frowning.

The twins had kicked ass. Sure, her
men hadn’t had the desperation of a real fight behind them, but if it came down
to it, she wasn’t sure who would come out on top.

The twins were incredible.

And they’re mine.

She couldn’t help but smirk at Jack
as he sat down. He ignored her and began rubbing out a sore muscle in his leg.

The twins stood in the middle of
the floor, talking quietly. Denim gestured angrily, and when he noticed her
watching he looked away and held up his palm to Levi.

Be quiet.
Or maybe
later
.
Whatever, it was obvious he wanted his brother to hush.

She frowned. Secrets were allowed, but
if those secrets could hurt the crew they were best dragged out of the dark and
destroyed before they became a problem.

She’d deal with it if she took them
on.

If. Right.

“What do you think?” She asked the question
of both men. Their answers were going to be different, but they’d both
basically agree on what she was really asking them. Should the twins stay, or
were they too dangerous? Too risky?

“Where’d they come from?” Jack
asked.

She dreaded telling them, but they
had to know. Deserved to know. “COS.”

Z whipped his head around to stare
at her. “What?”

“They claimed they were pretty much
forced to stay in the church.”

“You believe them?” Jack asked. He
was the most suspicious of her crew, but once you had his trust, you had it.

“Yeah. I do.”

He nodded and got up to pull two bottled
waters from the cooler. He threw one to Z before drinking most of his in one
gulp.

“Z?” she asked.

“They’re fucking amazing with a
blade. They fight like they’re in each other’s heads.”

“Yes. Like they have one brain but
it’s in two bodies.”

He nodded. “Amazing fighters, but
taking on ex-COS is going to be risky. Can’t trust them.”

“We can trust them eventually,” she
said. “That’s the way it is with every new person.”

He leveled a cool stare at her.
“You think so, Rune?”

She shrugged and snatched his water
from his hand, taking a long drink. “We give them a try.”

There were a hell of lot of secrets
in COS. A lot of very strange rumors. But nothing stayed hidden forever.

“I think those boys can take care
of themselves,” Jack said. “I’m going home.”

“Jack?”

He glanced at her. “I don’t think
we have a choice, Rune. We need them.”

Raze finally walked over. “If they
fuck up, I’ll kill them.” He didn’t lower his voice.

The twins stared at Shiv Crew with
cool eyes. “If we fuck up, you deserve to try.”

Not exactly comforting words, but
what did she expect? “Okay, boys. You’re in. I’ll take you back to the station,
and tomorrow you can come in to fill out paperwork.” She pointed her chin at Z.
“Z will be the one to show you the ropes, give you info you need, and take you
to RISC for badges. Jack will take you to shop for weapons. Anything else you
need, come to me.”

They looked surprisingly grateful.
Levi even put his knuckles to his mouth, as though otherwise he might release a
sob. It was weird.

Maybe they just needed to belong.

“Thank you,” they said, in unison.

She nodded. “Let’s go.”

Raze never said another word but
stared after them with a frown. He wasn’t settled, but then, none of them were.

Only time would tell if taking on
the twins was a good idea.