Chapter 12

Rurick

My shoulder blades itched when I hunkered down near Agosta's base. Lexi was perfectly safe aboard the Striker, and still it felt wrong to be gone from her side. My unease possibly also had something to do with the angry expression on her face when I left, and locked her inside my ship. I'd done exactly what I'd sworn not to do last night and imprisoned her. Even though I told myself it was for her own safety, I was pretty sure she didn't see it the same way.

I huffed, well tough. There was nothing I wouldn't do to keep my mate safe, even face her ire. I'd just have to soften her up with some kissing and apologizing once this was over and done with. I just needed to take care of this one thing and I'd make it up to her for the rest of my life. There was just no way I'd let her out there when a mobster like Agosta wanted her dead.

My body flushed with rage just thinking about that slimy bastard. Would he really kill a beautiful woman like my Lexi should he find her, or would he decide on a different way to shut her up? My stomach clenched, moot point, I was going to kill him before it ever got that far.

The derelict, shabby-looking building was even more dreary and abysmal in the early morning light. Rust stains had streaked like rivers down the side, a gutter hung dangling near the front entrance, and the steel door looked like it was one slab of solid rust. A deceptive appearance, I'd seen how thick that door was last night, and it was in good shape too. Not that that would stop me from entering the place.

I'd been watching the movements of Agosta's goons for half an hour, noting the pattern of the guards that patrolled the area. Each thug acted like they were just out for a casual stroll, but to my trained eye, it was obvious they carried guns and I knew Earth had very strict laws about that kind of thing, a gun without a uniform basically equaled a criminal.

The opening I'd been waiting for came not a minute later and I rose from my hiding spot and darted across the road. I came up behind the single guard at the door, the same huge Dragnell from last night. My knife flashed in the drab, smog-filled sunlight, a dull silver glint. The huge male never saw the strike coming, I just severed his carotid arteries in a single swipe, opening up his neck and his jugular in the same sweep.

He dropped to the ground with a thud but I was already moving before he'd even face-planted. I snatched the key from his belt, a silver card that needed to be swiped over a fancy, high-tech lock. The door opened soundlessly and smoothly and I was through the door before the guards on the other side could rise to their feet. Pistol in hand, I started firing.

There was a crowd, mostly humans. Customers and whores both, they started screaming by the time my third round went off, which was also about the same time that the third guard went down. My aim was impeccable, even with a host of running, screaming idiots running every which way. Nobody got close enough to jostle me but the guards were definitely affected by the chaos. Agosta had turned placid and lazy, he should have hired better guards.

When guard number six was down, I strode through the room, straight for the office at the back that I'd been in last time. Cameras on the ceiling tracked my every move but with my feature jammer pinned to my collar, they wouldn't be able to record my face. Not that I was worried that they'd go to the police about this. Everyone was just scrambling to run away and save their own skin.

I wouldn't have long, Agosta wouldn't be unarmed either, nor would he be alone. But I was counting on the chaos to derail them just enough for me to get the upper hand. My personal shield would take care of the rest.

The office door was open, the big desk empty, and so was the fancy chair that the mobster had been lounging in last night. The bookshelf-covered wall behind the desk hung partially open, showing me a passage, and a safe with the door hanging half off its hinges. Agosta had fled the scene, and he'd taken whatever had been in that metal box with him. Too bad, he still owed me a ton of money too.

I didn't have any intel on where that passage led, and normally that would have made me pause. Not today. Not with a threat hanging over my mate's pretty head. I strode inside, a soft light flicking on at my wrist to help my vision. Just enough to pierce the darkest corners in case there were traps; if it were my passage, there definitely would be traps.

My nose twitched from the dust that coated everything, my eyes stinging, but it was my ears that picked up the sounds of my prey. There was no mistaking that Agosta had turned into prey, he knew it, I knew it. He wouldn't have fled like one of those silly furry Earth creatures, a bunny, if I hadn't thoroughly rattled his cage.

A vicious smile split my face, good. He deserved to know what it felt like to be hunted, he'd made my mate feel that way. He deserved every second of terror three times over. If not for Lexi stewing angrily aboard the Striker, I might draw this out until I felt he was appropriately punished for what the asshole put her through.

The tunnel hadn't been long, then followed a ladder down into the ground. Sewers, of course that tunnel ended in a sewer line. My boots were trudging through watery muck, kicking up a disgusting smell that covered any trace of the Talac male I was hunting. It didn't matter, there were other ways to track his passage, wet footsteps along the edge, a hand print here and there for balance against the wall.

Only a couple hundred feet later I reached a ladder beneath a metal hatch, I was sure Agosta had gone up it. Caution warned me that I shouldn't just stick my head out of that manhole, I'd get it blown off. Activating one of my favorite drones, I let the little scanner bot do the fine work that even my top-of-the-line com-device couldn't.

Good thing, in short order I'd located several tripwires leading to some nasty bombs. Once they were disabled, I pushed open the hatch but didn't climb the ladder until my drone helper had shot out and completed a thorough scan. Three-dimensional information loading onto my com to help me get the exact lay of the land up there.

A hover vehicle stood parked next to a warehouse. Long rows of empty buildings to my right, a street stretching out in either direction. Heat signatures crouched behind the vehicle and just inside the nearest warehouse door. They had guns, they'd start shooting as soon as I climbed out, just like I figured they would. The coolest of the dozen or so heat signatures had to be Agosta, Talac never ran very warm, they were ice planet dwellers.

I tapped my lip as I pondered the situation but I didn't have to think very long. I jogged down the tunnel a little further, aiming my scanner up until I was sure I was in the right spot. And then I planted my own little explosive surprise. They wouldn't know what hit them when the ground literally exploded beneath their feet.

I grinned, enjoying myself now that my revenge was within reach.