Chapter Five

Venus

It took five days for Wylde to be satisfied he had everything in place to keep Victor holed up in quaint little house in Belle Meade, just outside of Nashville, Tennessee. By "quaint", I mean estate in elite neighborhood. But it was enclosed with locked gate that made it convenient for bastard to lie low for as long as he wanted. He had all creature comforts he needed to not have to leave and not have to think about fact he was being hunted. Call it luxurious prison.

I'd thought about blazing, leaving Piston at Iron Tzars, but he would have followed me. Better to know where he was than have him interrupt something important.

It took me and Piston roughly six hours to get from Evansville, Indiana and Iron Tzars to Nashville. We stopped on outskirts to find place to park vehicle where we could make quick getaway and still be hidden. When I was satisfied I was ready to go, we made our way to the estate to stake out place and get feel for general routine of occupants.

"I don't like this." As usual, Piston was being buzz kill.

"No one said you had to be here. Besides, your own tech guys said this was best place and best time." We didn't look at each other. He had field glasses to his face, likely going over our entry and exit routes. I was accessing new thermal imaging update Giovanni wanted me to try. My brain wasn't used to processing it all yet, so I had dull ache behind my eyes and knew I was going to have to give my vision a break soon.

Everyday use as simple colored contacts was no problem, but activating enhancements could send me into migraine if I wasn't careful. Testing update had seemed like good idea given we had short amount of time to find Victor and be off property, but I might have underestimated how badly new spectrum would affect my vision. Probably difficult for my brain to process the drastic change.

"Nope," was his only reply.

I sighed, rubbing my temples to ease ache building in my head. "Listen, Piston, I'm not thrilled about setup either, but it's our best shot. Victor's not going to stay put forever."

Piston grunted, lowering his binoculars momentarily to look at the property as whole before putting them back. "Yep."

I used my phone's app and adjusted the intensity of the thermal imaging interface, squinting as I tried to sort through the haze of heat signatures. " Blyat ," I swore softly.

"If you have to adjust that thing so much, perhaps you should turn it off." Piston had gone back to studying the grounds with his binoculars, not looking at me at all.

"Mind your business. I'll mind mine."

He didn't move. "Just sayin'. This isn't the environment to test new technology."

I froze. "What are you talking about?"

He gave a derisive snort. "Nothin' at all. Just stating an opinion."

"There are supposed to be four guards plus Victor." I tried to turn the conversation back to the situation at hand. Mainly because there was too much to unpack, and so many implications I wasn't sure I could wrap my head around them all.

"There are."

He didn't continue. I didn't want to give up my secrets any more than he wanted to give up his. As unbelievable as it sounded, though, I thought our intel was bad. Or, at least, not accurate. I'd blown Piston off earlier, but I had same bad feeling he did.

I huffed out a breath. "Opinion would be nice, Piston."

"Already told you my opinion."

"All you said was you didn't like me trying new tech in field."

"Did not. Said this wasn't the best environment. Gotta check new tech in the field sometime. Just probably not this particular field." Still, he kept those stupid field glasses to his face, not looking at me.

"That was it! Only opinion you offered!" Hard to believe I was reduced to whisper-yelling, but there it was. I was exhausted, playing this game with Piston took far more energy than I had at moment because my head was beginning to seriously hurt.

"What exactly do you want to know, Venus?" There was no inflection in his voice. Just man carrying on conversation.

"I can only find two places in house with warm bodies."

"Oh? I take it your new tech didn't work out so well."

"If you want me to kill you, all you have to do is ask. Would rather end you without getting blood pressure up," I snapped. "I can only find two out of five people who are supposed to be in house! Perhaps they are merely in two groups in separate rooms, perhaps not."

Piston did turn to me then. "You sayin' you can't deal with five people in this house if they're ready for you?"

"I can deal with anything Victor throws at me. But, no. I'm not keen to head into ambush."

Piston lowered his binoculars, finally giving me his full attention, the lines around his eyes tightening. "Fine. Let's assume your tech's right, and we're dealing with fewer opponents than expected. Maybe it's an advantage. Fewer to take out, fewer complications."

"Or it's trap," I countered, feeling the migraine pulse behind my eyes. "Victor's not complete idiot. He's likely baiting us."

He nodded slowly, considering this. "True. Victor knows we're after him. Could've sent some of his guys out as a distraction or to prepare for something bigger. But do you honestly think Crush, Byte, and Wylde got it wrong?"

"Not likely," I muttered.

"Not likely." Piston repeated my words, but not like confident statement. More like he didn't believe statement any more than I did.

"We've got less than hour before we're supposed to be gone."

Raising an eyebrow, Piston gave his ultimatum. "Shit or get off the pot, woman."

I bared my teeth at him. " Zasranets ." He was right though. Either I took risk, or backed off and hoped we could find bastard again.

Pulling out my phone again, I switched off the vision enhancements and shook my head slightly. Yeah. I had to get this done fast because I was definitely headed toward a migraine. Hopefully without the app running, it would ease the eye strain and the pain. It was time to get to work. I wanted Victor dead tonight.

I slipped my phone back into my pocket and drew my weapon, checking the chamber silently. Piston mirrored my actions, his movements swift and practiced.

As I moved toward the shadowed side of the house the moon played hide and seek behind thin clouds, casting an eerie glow on the property. Despite the lack of concrete evidence, every instinct screamed that danger lurked inside.

As we approached rear entrance, I tested handle cautiously. It turned with soft click. Unlocked. Just like Wylde said it would be. I paused, frown creasing my forehead. This was too easy. There should be some resistance. Anything. Sure, Crush assured us he'd taken care of security system, but it wasn't like Victor to leave any entrance to his lair unguarded when he was being hunted.

"What's your game, svoloch ?"

"I want to try another entrance before we fully commit." Piston's voice was barely above a whisper.

"Will it change the outcome?" I met his gaze with a raised eyebrow.

"No. But it might give us more of an advantage if this is a trap."

I gestured with my hand. "Lead way."

Moving with practiced stealth, we retreated and approached property again from west side, where shadows lay thickest. The grass was wet with dew, muffling our footsteps as we crept closer to the large back windows that gave us a partial view inside. My heart thudded in my chest, each beat a loud drum against the silence around us.

Once we reached house again, we paused, crouching low against wall. Piston peered through window. The soft glow of television flickered inside, casting shadows that danced across the back wall. Three figures could be seen lounging lazily on vast sectional sofa, seemingly engrossed in whatever drama unfolded on screen.

"Three inside," Piston murmured, his voice low and controlled. "Looks like they're not expecting company."

"Perhaps I'm paranoid."

I glanced inside the window, needing to get look inside for myself. It wasn't that I didn't trust Piston. Man might be my nemesis, but he was damned good in battle. I simply wanted to see if I could find something he missed. As he said, three men were in the room. One spoke as he stood, pouring a couple fingers of whisky for each of them. The appeared to chat lightly, one of them grinning as he spoke, waving his hand to make some point. The others laughed before each of them drank.

"Victor isn't there."

"Which other part of the house did we need to check?"

I frowned. He obviously knew more than he was letting on about my vision. No one knew, yet somehow, he did. "Center of house. I can't tell which room, only that it's in center of second level."

He thought for a moment before speaking. "We take out these three, then make our way from here." When I nodded, he ducked under the eave to the other corner of the window. Wylde said we had until exactly two-thirteen before security system was automatically switched back on. That gave us thirty minutes. If Victor was in this house with no extra guards, it wouldn't take us that long. If we ran into resistance, there would be bit of time crunch.

Piston met my gaze and held it. I nodded once, then we both raised silenced weapons and fired twice at glass pane. It didn't shatter. Instead, four blossoms appeared as our shots disintegrated against the bulletproof glass. All three men turned to the window, pulling weapons. One spoke into his phone just before floodlights illuminated every square inch of property from this side.

"Bloody hell." Piston lunged for me, pulling me after him. That was all it took before we both sprinted around corner to a shadowed depression against side of house.

"I'm not leaving until I know Victor's not here." I checked my weapon, scanning our surroundings for the enemies I knew were close by.

"Now's not the time to argue, Venus." Piston reloaded his gun with a fresh clip, even though he'd only used two rounds. Obviously, he was expecting to have to fight our way out. Which was problem because, even though there was plenty of land with this place, we were still in residential area. It was why we went in with suppressors on our weapons. Last thing we needed was to have law enforcement involved. "Move!"

He shot twice at figure moving among trees scattered over this side of grounds. Second shot had man spinning around before he landed face down on the ground. Another man met similar fate, this time from my weapon.

We both darted from our cover, headed back to edge of property and tree line used for privacy. Way we'd come in. Several bullets kicked up earth where they landed near our feet or just in front of us.

Piston hung back, covering my back as we ran. I heard him fire several times as I kept running, sprinting for cover and not looking back. I wasn't used to watching out for someone else in battle because I always went in alone. Now, not only did I feel responsible for Piston, there was heaviness in my chest that had nothing to do with running as hard as I could over rough terrain, and everything to do with worry Piston would be shot. Or worse.

The second we reached street, Piston moved up beside me and urged me forward even faster. Sirens wailed in the distance, and I wanted to pull my hair out.

"I can't fucking believe this. What happened?"

"We'll figure it out later. Let's just make a clean getaway and regroup." Piston grabbed my arm when I slowed slightly and urged me on, not letting me lag behind. "Just a little farther."

"I know where truck is," I snapped. "I'm not idiot." He shot me look but said nothing else.

We'd left truck several blocks over, but hidden in small park. Once we reached truck, we both climbed in and he started the engine. Or tried to. He turned key but nothing happened.

"You've got to be fuckin' kiddin' me." He tried several times, but nothing happened. Finally, he popped the hood of the truck and we both got out. The second he raised the hood, I knew we were fucked.

"Where's fucking battery?" It was only thing that would come out of my mouth.

"Good Goddamned question," he muttered. Piston pulled his weapon again, even as he put a sat phone to his ear. "Wylde, you better fuckin' know what the fuck's goin' on, man."

Piston listened in silence, closing hood of truck before he motioned me to follow him. There was nothing in truck to lead back to any of our clubs. License plate had been removed and the VIN number removed, and Piston and I had worn gloves so we didn't leave prints on inside of the house or truck for this very reason. Vehicle was as clean as if it has been recently detailed.

We hurried through sparse trees and across several roads around affluent neighborhoods and fucking golf course. My mind raced through countless scenarios as we tried to stay out of sight. Had someone tipped off Victor, or was it just our bad luck there was more security than our best tech guys could dig up? And the bulletproof glass? That certainly wasn't in the briefing we'd received from Wylde before leaving Evansville for Nashville. Was it a setup from the start? Or were we just that unlucky? And how far-reaching were the consequences going to be now that things had gone south?

We reached another street, quieter and darker than the ones before. "We need new plan," I said, catching my breath. Sirens had faded the farther away from Belle Meade we ran, but my heart continued to pound furiously against my rib cage.

Piston was on the phone again. We both crouched behind large shrub as he listened intently. "Yeah, got it," he finally said and disconnected the call. Turning to me, his expression was grim. "We need to make our way to the Kiss of Death MC compound."

"Kiss of Death?" I spat the name. "They're all dead. We cleaned house when their president tried to move his club to Palm Beach. Opened a BDSM club called The Dark as front for his trafficking ring. We killed every one of that lot and burned club to ground."

"Yep. But Bohannon and Torpedo came here, to this club, to stabilize the region after Kiss of Death was no longer a player in the area. They decided that, since Bane had wiped them out, no one would protest if they kept the name." He shrugged. "Having a recognizable name, even if it's under new management, so to speak, sparked less resistance. With a little TLC, I think they've managed to hold things together."

"I assume by TLC you mean some kind of tough love?"

Piston smiled. "Yeah. Something like that."

It took another couple of hours before we finally stumbled to the gates of the MC in question. Bohannon and Torpedo met us at the gate, along with several other members of his club. It was almost anticlimactic. Sure, we'd been shot at and killed more than couple of people, but we hadn't directly engaged anyone, including the police. Which was a miracle in itself given the neighborhood.

Bohannon stepped forward and reached out a hand for me. "Venus. I didn't think I'd see you in our new digs."

I grinned as I took his hand. "Wasn't aware you had new digs. Kiss of Death MC? Really?"

He shrugged. "No reason to reinvent the wheel. Locals are used to the name. While we'll eventually give the club a better public reputation, for now it suits us to have everyone think we're a true outlaw club."

"This is Piston. He follows me around like puppy." I gave a dismissive wave to my companion. Choke on that, svoloch .

"I know Piston," Torpedo said as he stepped forward and took Piston's hand. "By reputation anyway."

Piston just grinned. "Whatever you heard, it's all true."

Torpedo chuckled. "Figured as much. Data got word to us through your man, Wylde. I've got the boys goin' after your vehicle. We'll have everything taken care of by morning. It's late. I'm bettin' you'd like to get some rest."

"He's not my man." I shook my head.

"He's Iron Tzars. Right?"

"Yep. I'm not Tzars."

Torpedo gave me an odd look. "Sting insinuated you were." Odd, but Sting was kind of into head games at times.

I started to say that no, in fact, I wanted to figure out how that bastard Victor got around us, but Piston cut me off. "Yeah. A room with a bed and a shower would be great. We'll be out of your hair tomorrow."

"No problem." Bohannon jerked his chin toward the clubhouse. "Got you all set up."

What Bohannon failed to mention and what I was too tired and frustrated to realize until it was too late, was that the bastard had given us one room. With one bed.

" Blyat ," I bit out. When I chanced a look at Piston, he didn't even try to hide his grin.

"One bed. No other furniture. Seems like we might be getting cozy." I just stared from bed to Piston and back, unable to form words. "No problems? Good."

"I'm not sleeping with you, Piston. Not happening."

Slow grin spread his lips. "Who said anything about sleep?"