Enforcer Ensnared (23 page)

Glassware
broke,
wood from the benches flew all over the place as the
shots embedded themselves in the laboratory walls, exploding everything in
their path. When
Sarke
ducked out of view, Malone
turned around and saw them almost upon him. With another scream he swung the
gun around to them and continued to fire wildly toward them.

Blade dived to the right,
Flame to the left and they both grunted as they fell to the ground, the
concrete mercilessly skinning their palms.

Flame recovered first.
She sprang up as if the footpath were a trampoline while Blade returned more
cumbersomely to his feet.

She leveled her gun and
shouted, “Drop it!”

Instead of obeying,
Malone held out his hand, then grimaced as he called fire and blasted Flame in
the chest. She fell to the ground, winded, but rolled to smother her smoldering
clothes. Blade had never been so grateful for armor plating in his life, though
he figured she would still have a nasty bruise to show for it.

Stalking forward, Blade
threw his knife. A sickly sounding thud echoed as it made its mark and sank into
Malone’s shoulder. The man dropped to the floor, out of Blade’s sight.

“Malone’s hit,” Blade
yelled as he slowly edged into the large room in a crouch. One hand was
outstretched, a ball of power ready to finish incapacitating Malone as soon as
he had a clear shot.

“He’s got my knife in
him, and I want that blade back,” he added wryly.

“Copy that,” Jarred
answered. Will merely
sighed
.

The sound of glass
shattering distracted Blade for a split second and his head turned to try to
track where the sound had come from.

“Spotted
Sarke
,” Chase said. His next words were interrupted by the
sound of footsteps running along the pavement. They all snapped to closer
attention as Chase spoke again. “He’s jumped out a back window. Sage and I are
in pursuit.”

“Give it up, Malone,”
Blade yelled in his deepest, most powerfully commanding voice. “I hereby order
you before the Tribunal. I am an Enforcer Agent and you are to turn yourself
over into my custody.”

“Shit,” Will
half-whispered over his
comm
, amazed, “you’re fucking
kidding me. Does that ever work?”

“There’s been a
misunderstanding,” Malone shouted back hotly, livid. “I want my fucking lawyer!
You assholes have stabbed me and I’m going to have every one of your jobs by
morning. I am a legitimate financial consultant and I merely came here to show
a piece of property to a client. You can’t
fucking
do
this to me!”

“Didn’t think it would
either,” Jarred answered.

Malone leaned heavily on
a scarred bench, his gun mysteriously nowhere in sight as he stood up and
pulled Blade’s dagger from his shoulder and pressed his jacket heavily against
the wound.

“I demand your name and
number,” Malone shouted. “I demand to speak to your boss. I have rights—both to
privacy and freedom to perform my job. This is harassment at its most base
level, and don’t think I won’t press charges for—”

“An Enforcer is allowed
to defend himself and his partner by any means when under a state of duress,”
Blade quoted as he, Jarred and Will closed in on Malone.
“Section
six point nine point three, paragraph two.
You shot at my partner and
me, and when ordered to drop your weapon instead you called fire and blasted my
partner in the chest. I believe most courts would declare that ‘under a state
of duress’.”

“It’s just your word
against mine,” Malone snarled as Will and Jarred pinned Malone and patted him
down. Blade gathered his magic and brought forth a thin cord of energy to wrap
as unbreakable manacles around Malone’s wrists as Will held them behind his
back.

Only after Malone had
been secured did Blade turn back and cross to where Flame had stood shakily.

“Are you okay?” he asked
softly. Concern tinged his voice.

“I’ll be fine,” she
answered with a small smile. “My reputation, however… We haven’t burned the
place down, or really blown it up. What will the others say?”

Blade gently squeezed her
shoulder as Will and Jarred frog-marched Malone back out onto the street,
Will’s cigar still firmly planted between his teeth. Malone had pressed his
lips together firmly, his eyes bitterly angry as he glared at them each in
turn. Blade didn’t need to hear Malone’s thoughts to know exactly what he
wanted to do and say to them all, nor did he doubt that were it possible they
would all be in a world of pain right now.

“Interesting restraints
you make there—I think I’m jealous.” Will nodded to the pulsing chord wrapped
tightly around Malone’s wrists. Every time he moved more than an inch or so at
a time, they pulsed, tightened and restrained him further.

“I’ll bring the car up,”
Jarred offered and stalked off back down the street to where he and Will had
left his car.

Blade drew in a deep
breath, letting it out slowly and releasing all the tension that had been
gathered in him.

“Hard to believe that’s
it,” he commented idly to Will and Flame.

Will nodded. “Often takes
a while to come down from the high,” he agreed. “The paperwork will soon settle
that feeling out though.”

Blade sighed, dispirited.
“
Ain’t
that the
truth.
”

“We got him,” Sage said
proudly over the comm. “We’re a block and a half away and are going to detour
past our car to put
Sarke
inside.”

“Head straight back to
Enforcer headquarters, then,” Will ordered. “We want these two wrapped up
tightly before we debrief. Julian? Matt? Guys, what’s going on with you?”

Blade and Flame both
stood straighter as a car came down the small side street they stood on, but
they both relaxed again as the plates came into view and they recognized Will’s
car.
Jarred sat behind the wheel.
He pulled the car
over, blocking part of the street.

“Matt’s trying to get a
track on him,” Julian answered after a brief pause. “We’ve lost the assassin.
He’d started to move just as I arrived so Matt didn’t get a good sense of his
signature. We’re trying, though—give us a minute.”

“We’re going to sign
off,” Sage said. “Chase and I are en route with
Sarke
.
We’ll see you at home.”

“Well done, you two,”
Will congratulated them. “We’ll see you there.”

Blade took hold of one
elbow as Flame took Malone’s other shoulder. Jarred climbed out of the car and
slammed his door shut, then came around to open the back door for them. Malone
remained silent as Flame led him to the door, only removing her hand at the
last minute so he could climb up into the backseat. Blade followed.

Blade bent in and helped
Malone to keep his balance on the backseat, buckling him in like a small child.

“He’s gone,” Matthias
said over his comm. “We’re going to head back too—sorry, Captain.”

“Nothing you can do about
it,” Will
assured
Matthias. “Both you boys did
good
. We’ll see you back in the office.”

Jarred returned to the
front of the car and sat behind the wheel while Will opened the back passenger
seat on the opposite side and slid into the seat next to Malone.

Blade glanced at Flame
and shrugged. “I’ll ride back with our boy here,” he said.

She glanced from him to
Malone and back again, understanding. “I’ll see you there, boys,” she answered.

The faint purr in her
voice hummed through Blade’s blood. The very sound of her tone enticed him,
made him crave her. Taking a deep breath of fresh air, he let it fill his lungs
until they were bursting. It also gave him a good excuse to watch the subtle,
exquisitely female sway of Flame’s ass as she walked down the street in the
direction of where they had left the bike.

She truly had a
delectable ass.

Just at the edge of the
street, mere seconds before she would turn and walk out of sight, Flame tilted
her head to face Blade, waggled her fingers in a mini wave and left. Blade
almost laughed. She’d known exactly what she did to him and that he had watched
her soft, swinging walk.

He adored her more than
mere words could ever express.

Blade climbed into the
backseat, the three men rather squished together but it couldn’t be helped.
With a roar Jarred started the engine, revved it a few times, and they pulled
away, headed for the Enforcers’ headquarters and lockup.

* * * *
*

Eight ice-cold bottles of
beer clinked together and a raucous, gleeful chorus of “Cheers!” sounded
throughout the near-empty office. Blade pulled back his bottle, tilted it to
the group circled around him,
then
took a healthy
swallow of the cool liquid.

Malone and
Sarke
had been entered into their system and were rather
unhappy inhabitants of the Enforcers’ finest two jails cells. Malone had barely
set foot inside the booking office before he’d started once again squawking for
his lawyer. He had been logged, printed, his magical signature documented, then
he had received his privacy and a phone call.

Sarke
, conversely, had remained biddable,
polite and almost affable throughout his identical procedure. His gray eyes had
absorbed everything, and to Blade, he had the feel of a slippery character.
Blade had no doubt whatsoever that however the chips
fell
Sarke
would manage to contrive something and would
come out on top with the best of all possible outcomes.

Matthias spoke too
loudly, tipsy on the beer he’d already managed to consume. “Last I heard
,
the almighty Jack
Carruthers
has
not as yet been able to grease enough palms to secure bond for Malone.”

Sage,
Ange
and Blade sniggered simultaneously. Taking another long, truly celebratory
swallow of his beer, Blade enjoyed the amber liquor before explaining.

“Jack
Carruthers
is Malone’s lawyer and probably the very best lawyer anyone will ever come
across. He will give us one hell of a fight at the Tribunal, but if he hasn’t
managed to get Malone out on immediate bail it bodes well for the solidity and
robustness of our case.”

“I’ll drink to that.”
Will cheered, pulled his cigar from between his lips and
they
all clinked bottles and drank together once again.

“Now what’s this I hear
about us all branching out?” Chase asked. A slight hush fell over the group and
the team exchanged glances, almost too afraid to burst the bubble of happiness
and hope.

“I think we work well
together,” Blade started. “Our skills complement each other and Circe knows we
don’t grate on each other’s nerves or egos.”

“We’re talking of going
mainstream
?” Will asked, surprised but not sounding
especially shocked or upset by the notion.

“Not immediately,”
Ange
said with a quick look around. “We could maybe start
part time…”

“Build up our clientele
and reputation,” Sage added with a nod.

“Don’t suppose there’d be
room for a middle-aged—very fit and eager—ex-black ops team member?”
Jarred asked quietly.

Will
turned
to face him, surprised.

“You leaving?” he
stuttered, clearly shocked enough to almost drop his beer.

“I’ve enjoyed myself
immensely with you all and it’s probably past time for me to let someone
younger take over within my division at black ops. I can think of two decent
men who could do the job and barely break a sweat. It’s time,” Jarred replied.

“We’re really going to do
this?” Matthias checked, his blue eyes dancing. “Management will have a fit
when they hear,” he added with a laugh. Julian raised his bottle, a twisted,
dryly humorous smile spreading over his face as laughter glinted in his eyes.

“That alone would be
enough for me to be in,” he added.

Blade could feel
Ange’s
eyes on him through her shades. His heart filled
with love and happiness as he realized that not only could they continue to
work together, but their team—which now felt like family—could also remain
whole. He poured his love for
Ange
into his eyes as
once again they raised their bottles of beer and clicked them together as one.

“To us,” Blade said
deeply. The group cheered, though Blade caught the gaze of his
Ange
, the double meaning clear in the electric attraction
between them. The corner of
Ange’s
lush lips tilted
up in a very private smile. She nodded at him and Blade felt his heart overflow
with love for her.

The whole crew cheered
heartily, the cry of “To us!” resonating through the room as they shouted in unison.

Lifting their drinks,
they drank deeply to the promise of the future and all it would bring to each
of them.