Chapter 30

CHAPTER 30

Butcher

I didn't know how to describe the emotions clawing at me when I looked up and saw Isla's limp body hanging from that fucker's hand. I didn't know if she was dead or alive. But if he dropped her there'd be no fucking question about it. It took me a minute to realize the bellow of fury and pain had come from me, but I was already charging up the stairs. The world was going to pay for taking my Terror away from me. This goddamn country would burn. I'd kill anyone standing in my path.

I was panting by the time I gained access to the roof, but I didn't stop to examine whether it was from the rage or exertion. I had tunnel vision and the only thing I could see was Isla dangling and that piece of shit holding her. I charged, not caring if we all went over the fucking side of the building.

The monster of a man standing in front of me clearly didn't want to die that way, though, because he pulled Isla back in and tossed her limp body a few feet away. She landed with a skid. As much as I wanted to run to her side, my desire to kill him took priority. We hit with a bone jarring crunch. He was too fucking low to deserve a bullet. I was going to beat him to death with my fists.

"Ah, ah, ah, Drop it."

I heard from behind me. It was Toxic. I knew my friend was taking care of the other men on this roof so I could focus. I swung my fist around and caught the big bastard in the side. His grunt of pain was like music to my ears. I wasn't paying any attention to the blows he rained down on me, because I was returning them with interest.

"You better drop that gun or I'll put a bullet between her pretty gray eyes."

I growled at Randal's order, but there wasn't much I could do right now. I had to trust my brother and our friends to take care of my girl while I fucked this piece of shit up. Though, it did add to the urgency, so I stopped punching and locked both hands around his neck. I squeezed and twisted at the same time until I felt the crunch and pop in my fingers. His eyes bulged and reddened like they might explode. He was done. His trachea crumpled beneath my fingers as he gasped for breath.

The man stared at me with a shocked expression. I didn't bother to finish him. He was going to be dead in minutes. I grabbed the gun from where I'd shoved it in the back of my pants and turned. One of the guards was standing over Isla, his gun pointed at her. Randal was on her other side. The third was a few feet away from them. They thought they had some kind of standoff. I didn't hesitate, just pulled my gun out, aimed and fired, sending my round through that man's worthless brain.

"Stop!" Randal shouted, but there was no longer excitement and victory in his tone, like there'd been when he'd called my name earlier. Now there was fear. "Unless you want her dead."

My eyes dropped to Isla and the relief nearly buckled my knees when I saw her chest rising and falling. She was still out, but at least she was alive. I focused back on Randal. "You're already dead. "

His smile was uncertain. "I'm the one with the upper hand here, Butcher." He motioned down toward Isla. "At least, I am if you care anything about her."

I didn't say anything. Neither did Toxic or Warrant. Scythe wasn't around, so I assumed he was still below, taking care of the remaining guards.

"I can't imagine you kept her with you just to make sure you didn't die. Otherwise you'd have just killed her," he mused.

"We've got the guard," Toxic muttered to me. He'd slowly inched his way closer until he was standing next to me.

"Yeah," Warrant said in an equally low voice. "You take the weasel."

"Shut up!" Randal screamed, spit flying out of his mouth. "I swear to God I'll fucking kill her if you don't-"

That was when I saw what my friends had seen.

Isla's eyes were open. The two men near her weren't watching her, they were focused on us. She pulled a mini blade from her boot and with one smooth move, drove the knife into the side of the guard's knee. She rolled out of the way of his gun, but he was too busy reaching down, howling in pain. The chaos continued from there.

My gaze was fixed on Randal as I ran forward. I knew Toxic and Warrant would handle the other man, and take care of my old lady—who was already taking care of herself. That left me free to kill the fucker who'd helped put out a contract on my life. Who'd tried to have Isla killed. He yelped when I bolted at him, trying to run. He wasn't a fighter. He was thin and wiry, and I knew it wouldn't take much to end him. But that wasn't my only goal.

One blow to the back of the head sent him careening toward the edge of the building. He was screaming, covering his face with his arms, but he stopped when he realized he wasn't falling. He looked over his shoulder and grimaced when he saw my face. "Don't kill me. I can tell you everything," he pleaded.

I tilted my head and nodded. "Do that," I demanded.

"It wasn't me. I'm just the middleman. I didn't want you dead."

"Who did? "

"Someone from within Heliaz Relay Telecom Corporation."

"Why does that sound familiar?" Toxic asked as he walked up.

A quick look over my shoulder was all it took to see Warrant helping Isla to her feet. Knowing she was safe, and alive, I focused back on Toxic and Randal. "That was the corporation we ditched against direct orders."

Toxic's eyes widened. "Shit, you're right."

"Who?" Isla asked as they walked up.

"When we were still with the elite group Butcher led," Toxic explained. "Heliaz Relay made a lot of the radios and equipment we used overseas. We were given orders to back up some mercenaries who were hired by Heliaz Relay Corp to help find one of their board members who'd been taken hostage in a village."

"Why was a board member overseas, and taken as a hostage?"

"Good question, never bothered to ask. When we got there, the guy was the one starting trouble. They were trying to force this village to move. Didn't matter to him that their families had been there for hundreds of years and that was their home."

"Why did they want them out?" Warrant asked.

"Never found out," I replied. "As soon as his hired guns got there he told them to start executing anyone who wouldn't leave."

"Men, women, children, it didn't matter to these assholes," Toxic snarled.

Isla gasped. "That's terrible."

It didn't escape any of our notice that the professional assassin in our group agreed that what they'd done had been barbaric.

"Thankfully, it only lasted about a minute," Toxic said with a grin. "Butcher gave the order and we killed the mercs and the businessman. And by ‘gave the order' he just started shooting the pricks and we got the hint."

"Not before a father and daughter died," I replied, the anger still blazing inside of me even after all these years.

"Bet your higher ups were pissed," Warrant said with a grim look.

"Wasn't long after that my unit was disbanded and we were kicked back into civilian life," I admitted. "We'd gone against orders. Had proven we wouldn't kill for them under any circumstance anymore."

"You did the right thing," Isla insisted, sounding angry. "How did they not see that?"

"They didn't care. They needed mindless killers. They'd found a situation where we wouldn't do their bidding. So we weren't useful anymore. Couldn't take the chance of us disobeying again." We all turned back to Randal after I said that. He was quietly dangling off, knowing if I let go of that coat he wouldn't be able to correct and avoid the fall.

"Who took out the contract on my life?" I demanded.

"Evan Danners," he gasped as I let him slip a little.

"Where can I find him?"

Randal got wise to what was happening here. "If I tell you that, he'll kill me!"

"You're already dead, Randal. I told you that."

"He's here," Randal said, sounding resigned to his fate.

"In Belize?"

"Why do you think I came here? Whose place do you think this is?"

"Why would he help you?" Warrant asked.

"Because Randal is a direct line to him," Isla explained. "He's the only one who knows who his clients are. Without Randal you can't hire an assassin. At least, most can't. He's the biggest middle man in this part of the world."

"Address," I growled, shaking the man into compliance.

He rattled off an address. "You'll let me go now?"

"Sure," I said with a smile.

He looked over his shoulder, a hopeful expression filling his face.

"Butcher," Isla said, her tone holding a warning. Toxic just shook his head and she fell quiet.

"Really?" Randal asked.

"Yeah, absolutely," I told him. "You answered all my questions. I have no problem letting you go." I used the hand that wasn't holding him to grab my knife.

"Thank-" His voice broke off as I plunged my blade into his abdomen, then ripped downward. He stared down in shock as his guts slowly started to escape from his body. As soon as the horror spread over his face, I released my hold on him. He screamed all the way to the pavement.

We couldn't hear the sickening crunch quite the way I wanted to from up here, but seeing Randal splattered all over the stone courtyard eased the rage inside of me a fraction. As much as I'd wanted to keep him alive and slowly kill him, there just wasn't time. Not when I had another asshole to track down.

"Give a guy a head's up next time," Scythe shouted from down below. "You almost dropped that worthless fucker on me!"

I turned and pulled Isla into my arms. "You okay?"

"I'm fine, Butcher," she replied, burying her face in my neck.

She wasn't fine. She had bruises on her neck and I was sure there were more I couldn't see yet, but I'd take care of her on the way home, and every day after. All it took was seeing her dangling from that roof to know I wasn't letting her out of my sight, much less out of my life.

"You can't just go in there!"

The door slammed shut in the secretary's face as we ignored her and stormed into her boss's office. "You Evan Danners?" I asked.

"Yeah. Who are-" The gunfire shut him up and he stared down in shock at the bullet holes in his chest.

"Who else sent Randal and his assassins after me?" I asked.

"Who-" He coughed, blood splattering his chin.

"I'm Butcher. You had Randal put a contract out on my life. Did you hire anyone else?"

Evan blinked in shock, but slowly shook his head.

"No one?" I barked.

Another shake of the head.

"Good." I pulled my blade from its sheath once more, but Toxic grabbed my bicep.

"There's no time, Butcher," he warned .

I glared at him. "I didn't get to kill Randal slowly. This asshole's time is short, but I'm damn well going to get some fucking pleasure from bleeding him before he dies." Begging would be the last thing he did.

"The local authorities are probably already on their way," Toxic told me. He was calm, but trying to talk some sense into me.

Sighing, my fingers flexed on the hilt of my blade, then I put it away. "Fine," I muttered. "But the next one I'm going to filet like a fish."

"That's…disgusting, but okay," Toxic agreed. He would have said anything to get me to move this along. And he was right, damn it. We needed to get out of here before we were caught. It just wasn't as fucking satisfying killing the men who'd been threatening us so quickly.

I fired my gun three more times, the last hitting Danners in the forehead. He slumped in his chair, his brains painting the window behind his desk. Turning, I followed the others out of the office.

"How are you going to clean this up," Isla asked. "At least three people saw us come in here."

I pulled out my cell phone and hit a contact.

"Butcher, is it all over?" Gail asked.

I could hear music in the background and the whoosh of waves. I'd been right about my handler hanging out somewhere tropical. "Almost," I told her. "I need a favor."

"Sure. What do you need?"

I explained the situation as we walked out of the small office building. Evan thought he could hide away here in Belize, and for a while it worked, but he'd fucked with the wrong man. "Can you convince them to clean this up and not ask me any questions?" I asked. I knew the men who'd been in charge of my team had skeletons in their own damn closets to hide. They didn't want to be associated with what happened in that village. They'd contact Heliaz Relay and make sure that this all came to an end right here.

"I'll get right on it. "

"Thanks, Gail."

"I'm glad you're okay, Butcher," she told me.

I hung up and wrapped an arm around Isla's shoulder. Bringing my other arm up, I looked at my watch. "We're just barely going to make Lock's deadline. Better get moving."