The Dark Duet (22 page)

I take out my music player and attach the earbuds over my ears. Mozart’s Requiem Lacrimosa blares through my head. It’s crazy, I know; but the music moves me, strengthens me, and most of all, it invigorates the assassin inside me.

~Nikolai~

The first five men rush through the doorway and charge toward me. I use my middle finger and thumb to clamp down on the first guy’s throat. They never see that move coming.

The next two charge toward me at the same time, one man on my right and the other on my left. Smiling, I wait for the right moment to release the new toy Crow outfitted me with before leaving the States, a boot blade. As soon as the two men come within five feet of me, I flip upside down and perform a spinning leg stand, a trademark move that has made me one of the most sought after dancers in Europe, a protection mechanism taught to me by the Master. The blades built inside the tips of my shoes extract and slice both men’s throats. Grasping their necks, the men drop to their knees.

Only one man stands on the other side of the room, guarding the doorway leading to the hallway. He’s young and wide-eyed, a gun shaking in his hand as I inch closer to him. “Move out of my way, boy,” I order.

“I’m not a kid. I can shoot you without looking,” he chides.

“You’re standing between me and something I need from behind that door.” We’re staring each other down, and I’m fairly certain I can take him, but assumptions have been the death of great men throughout the ages. He clicks the barrel, and I release a blade, his inexperience with a gun becoming his downfall. The knife lodges in his chest. Both the gun and the man drop to the floor.

Inside the hallway leading to the study, I fight a horde of thugs while worrying over Alese’s safety, as I work my way toward the center of the lab, the place where I know I’ll find Burkenstein’s study.

About five more thugs charge toward me as I make my way through the hallway and toward the door to the study. This isn’t quite what I expected. There’s too damn many and I know without a doubt there’s no way Alese made it through this barrage of men.

Time for evasive measure number one. Reaching into my backpack, I remove the canister of tear gas I wasn’t planning on using until Alese and I had completed both goals: copying the parent hard drive and capturing Burkenstein. I pull the release switch and toss the can into the group of men guarding the doorway. The thin layer of plastic covering the eye holes of my mask protects my eyes for a brief moment.

All around me men drop to their knees, giving me time to use the decoder on the keypad outside the door. I crack the code in less than twenty seconds and place my hand on the lever, ignoring the voice of Crow screaming inside of my head right now, telling me I’m being an idiot by going through that door instead of heading back outside to check in with him.

I push down on the lever, open the door and creep into the study, my leg throbbing from the wound I just received. There’s no Rudolph or Alese. The study feels as empty as it looks.

“Fuck! Where the hell is she?”

I slip into the wood paneled room where I should’ve found Alese waiting for me. Instead, I find the podium Crow described, the one hiding the computer inside a locked vault, but no Alese. I hit the button to close the door behind me, blocking out the tear gas in the adjacent area.

Upon closer inspection of the room, I find out why everything about this mission has moved along so smoothly. Six monitors on the left wall all show various sections of the compound, including the lobby Alese and I sabotaged.
Fuck! Burkenstein has been watching us the entire time.

Almost as soon as I take a few more steps into the room, someone side swipes my head with a blunt object. Instead of giving in to the pain slicing through my skull, I embrace the anger coursing through me and take the man down with a well-aimed blow to his left temple, growling as I do so.

“Where is she?” I repeat and glance around.

Calming my thudding heart, I move toward the place in the back of the room, concealed by a row of bookcases, the section where I know there’s a second door. Rudolph’s love chamber as he so affectionately called it the day I first arrived in this place. A secret panel. Burkenstein, the sick bastard, has some kind of secret space he calls the Red Room somewhere in here. I remember seeing him and a young couple around my age stepping out of a hidden wall as I was about to enter. I hid in the shadows while the three of them said their goodnights to one another.

I search the shelves of the bookcases in back until I move my hand across a book that doesn’t feel like the rest. This one is bound in metal instead of leather and cloth like the other ones. “Slick son of a bitch.” Pulling the fake book out causes the entire panel to slide to one side, revealing a metal door behind the bookcase.

Alese. I’m coming, baby.
Crow was right. She’s all I can think about right now, that one question repeating inside my mind. I snap the lock on the hidden door with my metal cutter and prepare to take out anything or anyone who tries to hurt the woman I love.

CHAPTER 25

~Alese~

Five minutes earlier ...

I’m focused on one object, one goal—the computer Nikolai instructed me on how to find. Burkenstein’s study is an extension of the man: stark brown paneling, bookcases lined up against all four walls, a huge desk in the center of the room. However, the vibrant art work scattered across the walls makes up for the drab Ivy League style decor surrounding it. A podium covered in red and gold velvety drapes sits in the middle of the room, a golden swan sitting on top. Only someone like Vladimir would have his lap dog disguise his computer in something so extravagant.

Bending down, I part the drapes, expose the safe hidden underneath and set my timer for three minutes. That’s how long Nikolai has said it’ll take before the reinforcement security crew reaches me, and since they’ll be coming up from the underground laboratory, I should be able to escape through the back passage Crow discovered by piecing together a virtual map from the information he and Nikolai copied from computer number one.

“Yes! I got it,” I exclaim, quietly. However, my mini celebration doesn’t last long. The hairs on the back of my neck are suddenly standing up. I inhale and hold my breath, afraid to turn around. With one slick move, I drop the flash drive into my bra and ease my hands down to the knife attached to the left side of my holster.

“Now, Alestasia. You wouldn’t be trying to steal from me, would you?” a familiar, but unwelcome, voice asks from behind me. It’s Rudolph. “After all I’ve done for you.”

“You’ve done nothing for me,” I respond through gritted teeth and spin around, my knife pointed at his face. I don’t even get a chance to finish positioning it before something electrical shoves into my side, waves of mind-numbing pain bringing me to my knees. It’s useless to try and fight against the Taser his assistant is using on me, and now Nikolai will find me and be captured as well.

“You fought so very bravely. A reward is in order, I should think,” Burkenstein states, limping toward me.

“You lied to me. Made me think Nikolai wanted to hurt me and my family.”

“He negotiated the deal that sealed your fake husband’s fate. Yet, you forgave him so easily for this. Such a shame. I had high hopes for you and me, sweet girl. I thought we would go places.”

“Your reign of terror ends tonight,” I say, wishing I felt as confident as my voice sounds.

“I am a scientific genius. My reign will never end. People will record my name in history books. I am a god!” Burkenstein gloats, slamming his fist into his palm.

“All psychos are, in their own minds,” I say sarcastically.

I get an oily smile. “I’ll never understand why Vladimir chose to spare your life. A mistake, one of which I knew would come back to haunt us one day. As a ghost always does.”

His news both validates a vital part of my missing life and agonizes me. All those years I put my trust in this man based on the things my grandparents told me, my poor Grandma and Grandpapa who’ve lived in constant fear since my parents died.

Am I doing them more harm than good by being here in this place tonight?

“And here you are, fighting alongside the man who helped me bring down your husband’s operation,” Burkenstein continues, gloating and looking pleased with what he has just revealed. Men like him enjoy tormenting people and controlling their lives; it gives them a sick pleasure, a sense of control that can only be achieved through the fear of others. I hold my emotions in check and focus on my situation. I refuse to give him anymore power over me.

“Yes, Nikolai did those things. Helped destroy a man who was abusive and delusional ... ah, kinda like you.”

“Restrain her,” Burkenstein orders Gash, his smile fading.

“With pleasure, boss,” Gash says and grasps my forearms, squeezing so tightly I want to cry out. I refuse to give these sick psychos the satisfaction. “You know it hurts. Go ahead and cry out. Make me harder than I already am for you, baby.” Gash licks my ear, his tongue as thick and grotesque as the man using it.

“Patience, Gash,” Burkenstein says, smiling. “You’ll have your reward soon enough. There’s still the slight matter of a phantom we need to handle first. Take our little ghost girl into our red room. Sparky, stay behind and make sure her lover knows how to find his beloved.”

“Got it,” Sparky says, grinning and flexing the num chucks in his hands. “Been waiting for this moment.”

I should be afraid, terrified even, but I’m mad as hell; fear has ruled enough of my life over the past decade. No more. The girl who survived the night her parents were brutally murdered retreats into her corner and the assassin who has held on to the sweet sensation of revenge takes over. I will avenge my parents. Men like Burkenstein can’t reign forever.

Turning my head toward Burkenstein as Gash leads me past him, I lock gazes with him and say, “I will dance on your grave tonight. That is a given. A promise,” I hiss.

Something flickers behind those cold eyes of his. Excitement? Doubt? Fear? “Remove Ms. Broussard from the room. Gag her with whatever object you find suitable.”

“Come on, baby. I got the perfect thing to shove into that pretty little mouth,” Gash says in my ear and begins leading me toward a doorway hidden behind a set of bookshelves. I hold Burkenstein’s gaze up until the moment we walk through the doors and I can no longer see his face, a man paralyzed by fear.

~Nikolai~

Crashing into the back room of the study, the first thing I see is Alese’s hands hooked up to one of those metal bar contraptions attached to the ceiling, the same way Gemma was tied up the night Gash beat her senseless. She wears only her bra and underwear now, and a ball gag is stuffed inside her mouth. Her legs are spread apart and secured to a second set of metal hooks attached to the floor on either side of her body. Although she can see me, Alese keeps her eyes focused on the faces of her captors.

A surge of adrenaline rushes through my head and chest, firing me up. Without thinking things through, I start toward the two men holding onto Alese and touching her body. It’s Gash and Sparky, of course. After tonight, I’ll make sure neither one of those two assholes will ever be able to hurt another female. A third man, who should be keeping watch at the door, stands behind them. He’s too busy drooling over the scene taking place in front of him.

My emotions blind me. All I can think of, all I can see is making a way for Alese to be free of her restraints. I charge the guy standing behind Gash and Sparky first.

Wrenching his head to the side, I hear the tell-tale crack in his neck, his life ended by my hands. Unfortunately, my eagerness to save Alese works against me. Gash has managed to get behind me while I was preoccupied with making sure my naked girlfriend’s body would be the last thing their partner saw before meeting his maker. He slams a Taser into my back, the current on full force. I drop to my knees, my body less than three feet from Alese, my back arching so far inward I am surprised it doesn’t break. Gash holds the Taser against my back much longer than necessary, and I find myself fighting to stay conscious.