Vendetta (14 page)

He, Gavin, Sully and Drake were headed to the converted warehouse, while Valencia was headed to the drop location alone. He didn’t like it, but he couldn’t stop her. The only thing he could do was try to make sure she had some help when she arrived. He just hoped her father could get there in time to help her. He knew her family would hunt JJ to the ends of the Earth if he killed one of their own—especially Valencia, but he didn’t want her to die.

He had to go after Sabian. If he didn’t have to do this he would have gone with her. He would have sent Sully except Drake was a loose cannon right now. He had never seen him that way. He was always the one in control, but right now he was ready to break. He knew he needed the guys with him so somebody could make sure Drake didn’t detonate like a live grenade the moment he saw Sabian. Thomas wanted the man dead himself, but a dead man wouldn’t talk and they still needed to find out exactly where in, or near, the facility he was holding Geneva. Drake would try to beat it out of him and probably kill him in the process. Thomas wanted Sabian dead without question, but his motto right now was save the woman first, kill the seditious bastard second. And when part two of the equation came, it was going to be he who delivered the end game to Sabian. Sabian was going to pay for every life he had taken, and every life he had ruined in the process. He was going to pay for the families who had to get the news that their loved one wasn’t coming home. And finally, he was going to make sure the bastard paid for what he had done to the sweetest, most innocent woman he had ever met—Thena Davis; soon to be Thena McGregor if he had his way. He needed to believe she was going to live, that she was going to wake up and be the Thena Davis that he left behind. Eve was right; he had to hold out that hope.

Each day, holding out hope was getting more difficult because Thena’s condition hadn’t improved. She hadn’t opened her eyes, and now the doctors weren’t really sure if she would. They had hoped she was going to be okay, even with the massive blood loss that she couldn’t afford to lose, but they had to take her back into the OR due to some internal hemorrhaging and as of yesterday they weren’t guaranteeing anything. Fifty-fifty, they had said. What kind of odds were those to give to people who loved her? Realistic ones; he knew that; but that didn’t make it any easier. His woman was a fighter. She was going to make it. He had to believe, not just Eve’s words, but he had to believe in Thena. She would fight her way back to him.

“Let’s roll out,” he said. They couldn’t just stand around. They had to cover the distance by land and he didn’t want to waste another minute. He didn’t want to risk letting Sabian get away, or letting him kill Geneva. There was too much on the line now, and there was no turning back.

“JJ,” Valencia greeted the man in front of her. She tried to keep her emotions in check. She was already at a disadvantage by not being on par with JJ as a fighter. Skill to skill they weren’t equally matched and she knew that. But the worst thing she could do right now was let his betrayal overwhelm her emotions and cause her to screw up before she even had a chance to try to win the fight.

This was hard, no doubt about it. They had grown up with each other for most of their younger years. They had learned to fight, sparred with each other, and talked with each other. She had always considered him her friend. Even when his father sent him back to Japan, and she became more entrenched in her government assassin role, she never stopped thinking of him as somebody she could trust forever.

“I should have known you’d figure it out and come alone,” he grinned. “Actually, I’m rather glad you did. It means I can put all my energy into this battle,” he smiled. “I take it those men who don’t mind letting a woman lead have figured out where Sabian really is.”

She said nothing. She would take their location and every other secret they had to the grave with her—should it come to that.

“No matter. By the time he gets there he can watch his wife drown, knowing he was without any ability to save her. Then, Sabian and his men will take out the others; I’m sure they’re going with him even though he was supposed to show alone.” He laughed. “Then they’ll get their families, one by one. And you get to know all of that before you die. Must feel powerless for you,” he baited her to attack first, but she wouldn’t. She knew what he was doing and she knew, never, ever, attack first. And never, ever attack in blind anger. “And I,” he said as he pulled a long blade from behind his back. “I get to take down the Mishoto family and restore my family’s position on the throne—the one your father helped knock my father off of when he talked him into going legit.”

“Your father was a good man,” she said. “Unlike his son, he had honor and integrity.” He should be glad the man was dead; otherwise he would be broken by his only son’s actions.

“My father was a weak man. Even my grandfather thought so. While I was there in Japan, training at his camp, he told me there would come a day when I would have to honor the family, when I would have to usurp my father. Then my father died in the same weak way he spent the last years of his life—catering to your father’s demands. And I,” he looked her over as she pulled the smaller blades from her arsenal. “I spent years working for a man I hate learning everything I needed to know to take him down. I thought I would have to search hard, but it was clear from the start that you’re his heart. You were his prized stallion waiting to take over the throne.”

She ignored his comparison of her to a horse. He was trying to make her angry. She had to, like her father said, think with her head when fighting against JJ. She couldn’t be quick to attack because that would be her downfall. He knew her weaknesses, her pressure points, and the quickest way to knock her out of the equation, because he had continued to train with her. Now she knew that he had done so in order to test her vulnerability. Well it was a good thing she lived by the motto of not playing all her cards, not showing the full hand, and not giving away every facet of her abilities to anybody. He knew a lot—enough to kill her, but he didn’t know everything about her fighting skills and that’s what she was going to have to rely on to get her through this— she had to rely on his blind spot when it came to her strengths to give her an edge.

She took a fighting stance, beckoning him to come to her because she knew if she went in for the first attack he would have her where he wanted her. “Bring it,” she said. No matter what happened, she was not going down without a fight.

She evaded the first series of attacks expertly before catching a swift kick to her abdomen that sent her airborne into the nearest wall. She didn’t have time to process the pain before JJ was right on top of her. She twisted out of his reach, avoiding the blade in his hand. Since she was now two knives down to his one, machete-like blade, she pulled two more knives from their hidden locations on her body.

He chuckled. “It’s going to bring me great pleasure to kill you,” he said before he lunged at her again with more swift, deadly movements that had her reacting fast to keep from getting sliced up in the process.

She missed one block and that cost her some blood when his blade clipped her waist before he kicked her in the gut. He laughed with his accomplishment. She was down on the ground and she realized this is what he wanted. He could have killed her already, but he wanted to torture her. He wanted her to suffer for whatever wrong he perceived to have been done to his family because of their fathers’ friendship.

She was taking a beating. She could either stay down and give up or get up and fight. She was in pain, staying down seemed like an easy out, but whether she wanted to continue to exhaust her energy on a futile effort or not she needed to keep JJ away from that converted warehouse. None of the guys would be able to go up against him, and he wouldn’t give them a chance to shoot him. He would do a sneak attack because that’s what he was good at.

She pulled herself from the floor and poised herself for another attack. He came at her hard, fast, relentless, but she got in a few of her own kicks and punches, sending him across the floor on his back. He pushed himself up using a back flip. He was angry, she could tell from the look in his eyes, that raging fire that seemed to be building to an end game.

She didn’t anticipate his next move and he rammed her hard, knocking her against the wall and jamming the blade of his weapon into her side. It wasn’t a fatal wound; it was just enough to make her feel the pain. It was just enough to let her know what was coming next. Either he would make her keep fighting injured, cutting her body whenever he felt the need, or he would end it here.

He braced one hand around her throat as he pushed the blade into her more. “Before you die, know that I will destroy every ounce of your family’s blood. I will wipe them from Hawaii, piece by piece. Starting with your brother, then your mother, and once I have taken everything from Master Mishoto, once he has suffered the pain I suffer every day; then I will take his last breath away from him; slowly and painfully.”

Valencia pulled the smallest blade from her belt and sliced him with it. “Nobody messes with my family,” she growled as he stumbled backwards leaving his blade still stuck in her side. While he was so busy gloating about his intended victory he hadn’t realized he had left himself open for a simple, yet lethal, blow. One cut to his brachial artery and she had him. He cursed at her with his last breath.

She leaned back against the wall, preparing herself for what had to be done. She wrapped her fingers around the weapon still implanted in her, and in one swift move she ripped it from her body. She stifled the cry of pain, willing herself not to give JJ that final victory of admitting he had hurt her. If there really were an afterlife she prayed that his would be haunted with the dishonor his betrayal had brought upon his family’s name.

She collapsed to her knees, her head hung low. She needed to move, she had to move. JJ had uttered a lot of words during his attack on her, and some of those words told her just how serious the situation was for her friends. There were at least fifteen of Sabian’s men left. She knew they could handle that, but while they were trying, those men would make sure they kept them away from Geneva long enough for her to drown in that box of a room they had her in. She couldn’t let that happen. She barely knew Geneva because she hadn’t spent much time talking with her when Drake requested her as Harrison’s bodyguard, but she knew Drake, and she knew Thomas, and even if she didn’t, she wouldn’t let an innocent life be lost once again. Her mission wasn’t over.

She heard the door swing open, and she steadied herself for attack. She looked up. “Dad,” she whispered as she pulled herself from the ground.”

“Thomas called me,” he said. “I didn’t know if I would get here in time.”

“I remembered what you told me. I heard your voice and I remembered what you said it would take to win.”

“You’re bleeding,” Harrison rushed toward her. She was bleeding, but she would live. She saw some of her father’s men coming into the room. She saw her brother and she knew what her father had intended. He was prepared for war, no matter how long it took. She figured they had taken the private jet because with the swords some of the men were carrying there was no way they would have gotten that past airport security.

She wrapped one arm around Harrison, being careful not to press the injured part of her body against him. “I’m okay,” she said. “Dad, stitch me up. I have to go help the guys.” She kept her hand pressed against her injury. She knew her dad would have to do a little more than just stitch her up. He would have to use fire to cauterize the wound and she didn’t want Harrison to have to see that. He didn’t seem to be willing to move, so she figured he would have to see it. She would be fine. It wasn’t a wound that wouldn’t heal and she knew that, yet convincing Harrison of it was a completely different story.

“You can’t go,” he said. “You’re injured. You’re hurt. You’ve done enough,” he was angry and she understood his anger, but he knew what her life was. If he couldn’t handle it then he needed to walk away now because she was not leaving her friends now.

“I have to,” she said.

He pulled her in once more and pleaded with her not to go.

“Harrison,” she pulled back and looked up into his eyes. “They have Geneva.”

He stumbled back. “My sister Geneva?”

“Unless there’s another Geneva in your life that I don’t know about.”

“I’m going with you.”

“Your training hasn’t been started,” her father reminded him. “You need more work.”

“I’m going.”

“No you’re not,” she held up her hand when he was about to protest. “I can do this, Harrison, but I can’t do it if I’m worried about your safety.”

“Valencia, I don’t want to lose you.”

“You won’t.”

“I’m going with her,” Leo grumbled. “I should have come with you here. I shouldn’t have trusted that dog,” he looked over at the lifeless body of the man they had accepted into their family.

“You will not go alone,” her father said before ordering three of his men to go with her. She didn’t protest her father’s choice. He was the head of their family and what he said went. This time she would be thankful for the help because she was sure she was going to need it. No man was an island, and that applied to her too. She was good, but that didn’t mean she didn’t need help. It didn’t mean she could do everything alone.

“Not all of the people there are bad guys,” she told them.

“I know,” her father said. “I pulled the information I needed on your friends and the men have seen their pictures. They won’t kill any of them. But if there is somebody who is not in any of those pictures, and they are there, then they will die.”