that? Come on, I’m not that stupid. He may not like me, but he’d never tell you to let me be
dead. No more than I would him. I might want to pull the trigger, but never would I let him die.
Where is he now? On the property, I’m betting.”
Tony laughed. Of course she’d know it. “He is. As are most of his team. They took a hit last
week and three are out. Not as badly as yours, but bad.”
“Have them investigated, too.” He nodded, thinking that she’d be right to want that after
this, but he’d already had them looked over. It had been done quietly and privately. “And I’ve
been thinking about something else, too. Danny. I want you to see into his background. It’s just
too pat that he’d come work for me just as this shit is going down.” Tony was surprised by that
but said nothing.
“I had him looked into when I found out that he was working for you.” She told him to look
harder. Making a note to do so, he watched her pace again. “No one but a few know that you’re
involved with the Harrisons. And I’d bring your aunts here, too. No point in letting them be used
against you. As well as I’ve put some people on the Harrison home as well.”
“I’ll take care of them. Call them off. I have someone that owes me, and I’ll talk to him.
Also, I’d like for you to not come back here. Not that I don’t trust you, but you could be hurt in
this.” He nodded. Tony had already thought of that as well. He wanted no one to get hurt in this
unless it was by his order. And he wasn’t ready to order that just yet. He was doing this by the
books, his books.
As she continued, he made notes. Riordan was making them as well, and when he got up
and left them, Storm sat down. She was going to tell him something that he was pretty sure he
didn’t want to know.
“I have two friends that I’m going to bring in to work with Burkhart. When they get here,
he’s going to pitch a fit. But I need to be sure about several things, and these guys can do it.” He
asked her if he knew them. “I don’t think so. Both are vamps that I’ve worked with before.
They’re not nice, rarely have anything nice to say, and are fucking bastards when they don’t get
their way.”
“All right.” He stood up. “I’m going to leave you my drop phone number. I know you know
the drill, but don’t use it more than once, and when you do, I’ll send you the new number.”
“I won’t call you. I’ll send someone.” He nodded, almost afraid to ask her who it would be,
but didn’t get the chance when someone was suddenly in the room. “This is Mason. Don’t fuck
with him and he won’t fuck with you.”
After shaking hands with the man, he knew why he wasn’t to fuck with him. He was an old
and very powerful vampire, despite looking like he was only about twenty, if that. When the man
demanded a taste, Tony wasn’t sure he wanted to give it to him, but Storm told him that was the
only way she would work with him.
The small bite wasn’t painful, but Tony knew that forever this man would be right there with
him. Maybe not physically, but he’d know his every mood, his every thought, and where he was
at all times. That could either be good or deadly. Tony wasn’t looking forward to finding out. A
short time later, they were all sitting down to dinner together, and that was when Burkhardt
showed up.
~~~
Viper moved along the woods. He had been here several times in the last few days, and not
once had he seen the woman or the man that was supposed to be this great love of hers. And he
could no longer rely on his inside man to help him. The man had served his purpose, and now he
was as good dead, which, to Viper’s way of thinking, should have happened months ago.
“She’s not here.” No kidding, he wanted to tell the man on the phone connection in his ear.
“I don’t think she’s coming in while I’m around the building. I’m thinking that she’s got this guy
to fuck now, and the business ain’t appealing as it was before. He’s got himself some big bucks.”
Viper didn’t tell him that Browning could have bought and sold Harrison several times over,
but then he was never one to tell all that he knew. Instead, he watched the building for the old
women. Why they weren’t under some male’s control was beyond him. Women were not to be
left on their own. It was high time that Browning knew that as well. And he was going to take
them today or know the reason why.
When the large vehicle pulled up in front of the building, Viper watched the men get out.
Military. He’d know that even if he didn’t see the guns they carried and the way they were
dressed. They had a way about them that told him that they’d been trained and trained well. And
they would never balk at killing someone if they needed to. Dead was better than living and
wounded.
It was then that he saw her. The picture that he’d been given all those months ago had done
little to tell him that she was beyond beautiful. He already knew that she was smart and cunning.
Viper had made it his business to know all there was to know about the woman. What he knew
about her, however, was very little compared to what he knew was yet to be found. The man that
thought he was directing this take down of the woman had no idea what kind of plans Viper had
for her. Nor did he think she’d be answering any of his questions.
Like, where did she learn to fight like a man? Someone had done her a great disservice to
train her like one of them. And he was going to find that person as soon as she was his. He didn’t
want to have her as a wife. Now that he could see her it was tempting, but she was not his type.
He liked his woman more subservient and mindful of their place. Viper knew that no matter how
many times he beat her, Browning would forever be the wrong kind of woman for him.
And where had her information come from that led to the bombing of his home? There was
no way that she’d figured this out on her own. Women did not have the intelligence to do
something like that. He’d been told that she’d been the one to order the airstrike, as well as the
elimination of the men that had not been killed by the blasts. They had been lined up and
murdered like they were nothing more than dogs that ran the streets.
She was slightly smarter than most women he knew, but she would not have been able to
figure out where to bomb them. And she’d known that he was living there, that he’d been on the
compound when it had happened. Someone was helping her.
“The aunts are leaving the building. I think they’re onto us.” Viper wanted to go to the
man’s hiding place—which was in plain sight as far as he was concerned, and he should have
been found out weeks ago—and kill the man. He was giving him updates on things that he could
see as plainly as he could see his own battered and burned hand.
The two older women came out of the building, and even if he had wanted to make them
dead for even being related to Browning, there was no chance of it happening. They were well
surrounded, in addition to the fact that they did not move as one unit as he’d seen done in this
country. They moved as if they wished to be a moving target, one that would be difficult to
catch. When the Browning woman paused before getting into the vehicle, he stilled.
She was looking right at him, or at the very least in his direction. As she stood there
watching, he tried his best not to move back deeper into the shadows, not to breathe too loudly,
even though there were ten yards or more between them. When she took a step in his direction,
then another and another, he slowly moved his hand down to his weapon and put his hand over
the butt of it. When she stopped, so did he.
There were less than five yards between them now. A mere fifteen feet separated him from
his prey. The woman that had nearly brought his entire army to ruin, the bitch that did not die
when she should have, was close enough to him that he could see the color of her eyes. When
she started forward again, he pulled his weapon free of the holster at his side and held it down.
This time when she stopped, he could see the smirk on her face and hated her all the more for it
and her arrogance.
“I have your scent now, Viper.” The skin on the back of his neck danced. His heart began to
pound all the harder for the quiet deadliness of her words. “I’m coming for you, fuck wad. And
when I find you—and there is no doubt that I will—you are going to suffer terribly at the hands
of a woman. How does that make you feel?”
Viper wanted to shoot her then. Fire upon her body until she was nothing more than a mass
of blood on the ground. But men came to stand beside her, too many for him to kill and get
away. And Viper would get away. Going back to his father to tell him what he’d done was all he
lived for.
She stood there for several more minutes. He knew that should anyone take two more steps
toward him, just small ones at that, he’d be found. Viper was sure of nothing else except that he
did not want to be caught on American soil after what he had done to so many.
Her laughter accompanied her as she backed away. The men went with her, their guns at
their shoulders, their aim on his location even though he was fairly sure that none of them could
see him. But at her command, he also knew that they’d fire until they hit him, and then it would
be over. Viper marveled at her smooth steps back, her innate ability to see where she stepped
without looking, and the way that she was as confident as if she were positive that he was right
where she was looking.
Viper knew then that he was going to enjoy killing her more than he’d ever thought possible.
And when he did, he was going to make sure the world knew that he’d done it. He would be the
most wanted man in the world when he was finished with the bitch Browning.
Moving back into the building that he’d been using for weeks now after they left, he knew
that there would be no way he could return here. Looking around, he didn’t see anything that
would indicate that he’d been here, or anyone for that matter, but he knew that taking care of the
man who worked for him and his cause, as well as her lover, was going to have to be taken care
of soon. Since he knew that access to the old women would be nil now, he had to work another
angle. And that would mean the men in her life.
Burkhardt was pissed. Riordan could see that, but he was pissing him off as well. When she
answered his question a dozen times, even he knew that she’d been bluffing when she’d told
Viper she could smell him.
“I don’t understand why you didn’t just open fire.” Good question the first four times he’d
asked her, but she had already told him why. But when she stood up, he could see that this time
was going to be an entirely different answer.
“And when we went in there and it was a bunch of kids fucking around in the building,
getting high, having sex, what then? I shoot the shit out of them, or you did, and then what the
fuck do you think would have happened then? Huh? Would you be there with me when we had
to explain to not only the police and the Feds what I did, but to the families, too? Oh sure, little
Pavlov had his pants down around his ankles and his dick in Porsche’s ass when they died,
because we didn’t take the time to fucking check the area properly before we opened fire on a
bunch of kids. Guess it sucks to be you. But hey, Burkhardt is fine with that because he’s a shit
head and doesn’t care so long as I tried to kill the bad guy.” Burkhardt glared at him when he
laughed, but Storm wasn’t finished with him as yet. “You are a fucking bastard. Has anyone
pointed that out to you?”
“Yes, my wife.” If asked, Riordan would have thought a woman would have killed him long
ago rather than be married to him, but he did sit down. “Okay, you have a point. But I still want
to know why you thought he was there. There had to be something that made you look in that
particular place.”
“I don’t know. I…you know that when Riordan and his brother Aedan went there, they
could smell him. And lucky for us the bastard left behind a water bottle that he might have drank
out of. We know that the scent on the bottle matches the one where I thought he was. That’s
more than we had before.” Storm got up and went to the makeshift information wall that they’d
put up. She didn’t turn around as she continued. “We also think that Brewer is in on this
somehow. Tony flagged two accounts that he thinks are his. And we have someone watching the
bakery.”
“Yeah, but we know less than we should going into this thing. For all we know he could be
one of your brothers-in-law.”
Riordan was out of his seat in seconds, but he should have just stayed where he was. His
father had moved, too, and had shifted at the same time. He had Burkhardt down on the floor
with his mouth wrapped around his throat, his huge cat pinning him down with his claws in his
chest. Storm moved to kneel down next to them.