Chapter Twenty-Five

Hunter

The storm overhead grew closer as they combed through the dark for an hour, and while it had dampened the earth, it hadn’t dumped rain yet.

He had forty fucking minutes before he needed to leave for the meeting with Malcolm and he’d come quite a ways from the safe house.

After a few more moments of searching this far out, Hunter decided that whoever Stone had seen outside was long gone or very fucking good at hiding.

And then Hunter felt him and smiled.

Granted, the ground was damp, but Seven had done it again—creeping up close with a stealthiness that normal humans didn’t possess. Was it any wonder Dave had offered Seven a job? Oh, Hunter knew he had lost his own edge from being out of the hitman business for a while, but Seven was fucking good and took it to a level that rivaled the best.

“Well, there you are.” Hunter barely breathed the words as he felt Seven’s forehead press against the back of his head before lips brushed into his hair.

Hunter turned and placed a finger to his own lips, indicating total silence, and Seven nodded his head. Hunter searched Seven’s eyes in the dim light but couldn’t make out anything because it was too dark. He wondered if Seven had taken care of the killer or found different news, but they’d have time later to discuss—

A figure melted out of the darkness behind Seven. Too late, Hunter couldn’t push Seven aside and a gun cracked down on the back of Seven’s head. Seven went down, his body thumping on the ground, and Hunter snapped his gun up but then lowered it when Malcolm pulled off his hooded mask.

“You fucker! He’s with me!” he raged at his former mentor and crouched down to run his fingers over Seven’s head, checking for the lump.

“He’ll live,” Malcolm rumbled.

“I should shoot you where you stand,” Hunter snarled.

Quicker than Hunter thought possible, Malcolm kicked the gun in his hand and sent it flying. Hunter jerked his burning fingers up and away and brought the stinging digits to his chest.

“Hunter! Run!” Solomon shouted.

Hunter spun toward the sound of Solomon’s voice but never got a chance to answer when Link and Eagle converged on Solomon. Both Pegasus operatives easily removed Solomon’s weapon and took ahold of his arms.

“Wait!” Solomon said.

Hunter took several steps away from Seven’s prone frame and walked more into the dim light from the nearby street. Anything to get Seven out of the line of fire. As he hoped, Malcolm followed him. If there was a shoot-out, he didn’t want his man hit by accident.

“What’s going on?” He tossed a glance to Malcolm.

“Sorry, Hunter,” Malcolm said and shot Solomon.

Stunned, Hunter watched opened-mouthed as Solomon sagged between Link and Eagle.

Malcolm waved his gun at Hunter to move and then positioned himself in such a way that he could point his gun at all three of them.

“So, it is you.” Hunter struggled with the fact that all this time, it had been Malcolm.

His former mentor tossed a quick glance at Seven’s body before his attention was refocused on him. Hunter steeled himself to keep from running back to Seven. Surely, he should have woken up by now?

“Yeah, it’s me. I just need to tie up loose ends and I’ll be gone.”

“Loose ends?” Hunter stared at Malcolm through burning eyes.

“Theo.”

“Why’d you let him go then?”

“I had a moment of weakness and I sent him to you because I knew he’d be upset.” Sadness pulled at Malcolm’s mouth for a moment but then disappeared.

“So, what changed?” Hunter spat.

“He dug into the financials and found out about that bogus account,” Malcolm said flatly. “I can’t have Theo doing that.”

“It might have been Theo that first time, but it wasn’t him who found out it was bogus. Theo thought you were innocent, you fuck! Oh, and the money? It’s frozen. You’ll never see a fucking penny,” Hunter snarled, and the drizzle from the storm increased to a steady rain.

Stunned, Malcolm hesitated and then backed toward the trees. The man ignored the rain dripping from his hair and kept his weapon pointed at Link, Eagle, and Hunter. The dark tree line was only steps away and Hunter knew that if Malcolm reached them, he’d be gone.

Hunter had to keep Malcolm talking.

“Why kill Solomon?”

“He came after me in that motel room.” Malcolm lifted a finger to his cheek and that was when Hunter noticed two things—one, the deep knife wound in Malcolm’s face partially hidden by his thick beard, and two, that Seven was no longer on the ground. His heart thundered along with the rumble in the sky.

“When Solomon went dark, I had to use you and Theo to get him to come out in the open.” Malcolm shrugged. “I knew Solomon would be monitoring my phone. I turned on the GPS locator before coming here. I figured I’d take care of you three all at once.”

“Solomon would know it was a trap.”

“Yeah, but he still showed up.”

“That’s what men of integrity do!” Hunter ground out from between his teeth. “What I want to know is, why kill me? I didn’t have anything to do with this shit,” he said, trying to find a reason Malcolm would kill like this.

“I’m sorry.” Malcolm sounded sad, but Hunter didn’t believe it.

“You used to be an honorable man.”

“In all honesty, when I got here, I didn’t realize you had this much company until you left the building with Jaxon and Stone. I was going to tell you to disappear and I’d take care of Theo and Solomon.”

“So, what are you going to do, kill us all?” Sarcasm dripped from the words.

“Regrettable, but yes,” Malcolm simply said. “I was surprised to see Stone here, though. I’m sure Dave is going to miss his golden boy.”

Hunter’s chest tightened. Had Malcolm already killed Stone? And what about Jaxon? Or was this some kind of sick bluff?

Gunfire broke out in the distance, but it wasn’t coming from the direction of the safe house and Malcolm gave a slight smirk. Relief swept through Hunter. Malcolm hadn’t killed both Jaxon and Stone—one of them was still out there, that was for fucking sure.

“Why didn’t you just shoot me when I came out the door?” Hunter waved his hand in the direction of the safe house. “You’ve had a fucking hour to do it.”

“I had to get you alone to flush out Solomon.”

When Link edged away from Solomon’s body, Malcolm shook his head and pointed his weapon. Eagle snarled and stepped in front of Link, but Link was having none of that and moved around to Eagle’s side.

“Of course, there’s more of you than I’d bargained for.” Malcolm frowned at Link and Eagle.

“I’ll bet, you asshole,” Hunter sneered.

“Good thing I brought my own men.”

“What’s with the fucking men? Since when do assassins have men at their disposal?”

“When you have the cash, you can buy anything or anyone.”

That meant Malcolm and his hired hitmen could potentially kill all of them in one fell swoop. Over my dead body. Malcolm was as good as dead if he touched Seven again.

“Big fucking plans,” Hunter taunted, curling his lip at Malcolm. “How did you find the safe house?”

“I have my ways.”

“How?” he asked tightly.

“The tracker is in Theo’s watch. It was a Christmas gift from me. It took me four days to come back and make my way here.”

“Sorry to fuck up your vacation.”

“Stop talking and walk,” Malcolm said, gesturing toward Link and Eagle.

“You sent five men to kill me and Theo, you son of a bitch.” Hunter didn’t budge.

Malcolm sighed.

“And you set me up,” Hunter said.

“Yeah, I had to get you outside. Now, enough talking, get over with the other three.”

“Fuck you!” Hunter spat and stood his ground through the driving rain.

Malcolm’s mouth pulled flat. The guy seemed to be weighing his options and then came to a decision.

“Where’s Theo?” Malcolm said.

Those were the last words his former mentor ever spoke.

Both Seven and Fisher melted out from the trees and converged on Malcolm. With a flash of steel, Fisher had a knife against Malcolm’s throat from behind and Seven snatched the gun from the assassin’s slack grip.

“Theo’s not coming, motherfucker,” Fisher hissed against Malcolm’s ear and sliced the knife—opening Malcolm’s throat.

“Wait! Don’t kill him yet—”The words spilled out, but it was too late.

“Why not?” Seven frowned.

“I don’t know where Stone and Jaxon are!”

Behind them, someone groaned, and they turned toward the noise to find Solomon struggling to sit up. Eagle pulled Solomon to his feet and looped one of the man’s arms around his neck. “I’ll move him down the block. Call an ambulance.”

Link pulled his cell phone out to make the call, following after Eagle and Solomon.

Shaking rain from his hair, Hunter looked at Fisher.

“I’ll clean up,” Fisher said and grabbed Malcolm’s feet to pull him into the trees.

Hunter turned to Seven and lifted a hand to brush the wet hair from the man’s forehead.

Seven smirked. “I’m good, I have a hard head.”

“But you were knocked out.”

“No, I wasn’t.”

Hunter sniffed, but then grinned.

“Now, let’s go.” With that said, Seven snagged his hand and they both took off running in the dark, wet night back toward the safe house.

Boom, boom.

Hell yeah! Hunter silently cheered at the sound of the 12-gauge Jaxon had chosen discharging. Shortly after that came two more booms. The bodyguard sounded pissed.

The sky rumbled overhead as thunder rolled in the distance and the rain slackened to a drizzle.

With his heart pounding, he ran with Seven toward the gunfire—staying hidden within the edge of the tree line. When they grew closer, both slowed to quiet their approach. It was as if Seven had read his mind. They matched each other in every way. And Hunter couldn’t imagine being in sync like that with another living soul.

He spotted Jaxon running down the side of a nearby building and pointed. When the man slipped into the foliage, Hunter sprinted that way with Seven at his side.

“Jaxon?” he hissed.

“Yeah, I’m here. They were Malcolm’s men,” Jaxon said, out of breath. More from adrenaline than the run through the trees.

“I know.”

“Malcolm is the one.” With a wet hand, Jaxon shoved more shells into his weapon.

“I know.”

Jaxon seemed to understand what he was saying and pointed his shotgun at the safe house. “They’re dead. At least, I think. Stone went after the last guy.”

“We better go find him.”

“What happened with Malcolm?” Jaxon asked.

Even though they had been speaking quietly, Hunter put a finger to his lips. They couldn’t be sure there were no others until the last man was taken down. Jaxon grimaced as if he should have known that. Hunter wasn’t one to judge; both of them had been out of the business for a while. At least, he thought Jaxon was out of Erebus, but then he couldn’t be sure if Dave had called the bodyguard.

It took several more minutes before they worked their way along the row of buildings by way of the tree line.

Snick, snick.

The familiar sound was slight through the rain, but they all heard it.

“Fuck,” Hunter whispered.

“What?” Seven said, barely audible.

“That’s not Stone’s gun,” Jaxon hissed.