Scarlet Angel (24 page)

“
Son of a bitch,” she whispered.
“Not this close.”

Zinchenko could just as easily run his operation
from a prison cell if he didn’t get right back out. Then he’d just
go even deeper into hiding. Neither she nor Dax would be safe if
that happened.

Scarlett glanced at the truck and smiled. She raised
her weapon and leaned against the large vehicle. Between the twin
posts of her sights, her target smiled and shook his head. He was
at least a hundred yards away. Even for the best marksman, hitting
a target at that range was extremely difficult. And Zinchenko knew
it.

She would only get one shot before the FBI agents
would fire on her. She closed her eyes for a moment and forced her
muscles to relax. Scarlett focused on her breathing, felt the rise
and fall of the gun in her hand.

Her eyes opened slowly. She adjusted her line of
sight on the moving Zinchenko.
Not today.
With his head
between her gun’s sight posts, she waited until all the air had
left her lungs and squeezed the trigger.

She rolled back behind the truck and sprinted for
the door. Scarlett smiled as she ran. She did not need to see her
target fall to know she’d hit him. Scarlett felt the round hit, as
if the bullet were an extension of herself. She didn’t just think,
she
knew
the lead slug had torn through his exposed flesh
and left him bleeding to death on the ground.

* * *

Agent Romski held his hand over Valery Zinchenko’s
throat, trying desperately to stem the flood of blood. “Hang on Mr.
Zinchenko, hang on. An ambulance will be here any second.”

The man’s eyes pleaded with the agent, as if there
were something else he could do. But Romski barely knew CPR, much
less how to save someone whose jugular had just been severed. It’s
not as if he cared if the mobster died. With Zinchenko gone, Romski
had no idea who would take over the organization.
It doesn’t
matter anyway, as long I still get my cut.

Sirens wailed in the distance and grew closer.
Romski looked over his shoulder in their direction, but they were
still too far away. When he looked back, Zinchenko’s eyes were cold
and empty.

“
Damn. Now what?”

Chapter 37
Sides

It’s not always easy to see who your friends and
your enemies are. Through clouds of deceit and false promises, we
have to figure out whom we can and can’t trust.

* * *

Scarlett turned the corner and skidded to a halt,
sliding farther than she intended on the dusty floor. The warehouse
she was running through was far more complex than she’d
anticipated, and the FBI agent was getting closer every second.

She tapped her ear and opened a comm line to Dax.
“Dax, what the hell. This place is crazy.” Her words came between
ragged pants.

“
Oh, so now you want my
help.”

“
I don’t have time for this shit.
I’ve got an FBI agent on my ass. I need to get out of here
now.”

Dax’s fingers clicked away at a keyboard. “Yes, I
know. You are literally running around in circles. I was wondering
how long it would take you to call back.”

Distant footfalls signaled her pursuer’s approach.
“DAX!”

“
Fine. Now that I have a lock on
your earpiece’s signal... Go back the way you came to the main
office, head out the door to the right. Then it’s a straight shot
to a back exit.”

Scarlett glanced around the corner and saw only an
empty hallway. “Thanks.”

“
You better hurry; I’ve got three
more FBI cars two minutes out from your location.”

She sprinted across to the small side office.
Scarlett skidded to a stop by the door. The footsteps grew closer
until he was almost on top of her.

Scarlett backed up to the wall as the door swung
open, hiding her from view. She peeked through the crack behind the
door to see a black-clothed figure obscure her view.

“
Scarlett!” Dax’s voice almost
made her jump. “What’s going on? You’ve stopped. Did he find you?
Scarlett? Scarlett!”

She reached up and closed the communication line.
The door wavered slightly, as if the FBI agent’s hand was still on
the knob. Scarlett’s hand slid to her weapon.
Just turn around.
Nothing to see here.

The door closed. She counted to ten then let out a
lungful of air. The agent’s footsteps faded into the distance. She
leaned her head against the wall and considered herself, and the
agent, lucky.

Scarlett waited a full minute before she cracked the
door and checked the hallway. The door opened silently. She spied
down one end of the corridor then the other. The coast was
clear.

She made her way back to the main office. The room
was large and broken into several cubicle spaces. Most of the desks
had not been used in some time and were covered in a thick layer of
dust. A few, though, showed signs of recent use.

A wide aisle split the room in two. At the far end
of the room was a set of double doors leading to the main warehouse
floor. To her left and right were several more.

She walked to the middle of the room and looked
around. Scarlett did not like the idea of calling Dax back to find
out which exit to take. It was bad enough he’d helped her this
much. She just wanted him to do a little hacking, not be her
personal sidekick.

She closed her eyes and shook her head. “Well,
better get this over with.”

“
Get what over with?” The voice
was male and familiar.

Scarlett’s eyes snapped open. Thirty feet away, at
the far end of the room, stood the FBI agent, his gun trained on
her.

“
Now, I don’t think I could have
made the shot that took out Zinchenko. But from here I can’t
miss.”

Scarlett looked up and froze. She recognized the man
as Agent Barnes from outside Dax’s apartment.

His eyes narrowed. “You.”

She smiled. “Me.”

“
I should have known it’d be you.”
Agent Barnes stepped closer.

“
Am I that
transparent?”

“
You working for one of the rival
Russians? Barov maybe? Or maybe one of the others is moving in...
The Italians? Mexicans? The bikers?”

She rested her hands on her head. Her thumb slipped
down and touched the skin behind her ear.

“
It’s about damn time. What the
hell is going on?” Dax said.

She cleared her throat. “Sorry, no dice Agent
Barnes.”

“
Then why?”

“
Agent Barnes?” Dax
whispered.

Scarlett took a small step forward. “Hypothetically
speaking... If I were the one to take out Zinchenko, it wouldn’t be
for power or money. It’d be because he deserved it.”

“
So you’re some kind of vigilante
or something?” Agent Barnes said.

She smiled. “I said hypothetically.”

“
Well, whoever you really are,
you’re very talented. I saw the mess you made in the other room.
Was that all you too?”

“
I’m sure I don’t know what you’re
talking about. Aren’t you supposed to be watching Mr.
Lewis?”

“
Zinchenko took priority.” Agent
Barnes reached into his pocket and pulled out a small comm
device.

Scarlett lowered her hands. “I wouldn’t call for any
backup, if I was you.”

The agent stopped and tilted his head. “Are you
threatening me?”

“
No.”

“
Good.”

“
It’s just that—”

Agent Barnes adjusted his grip on his gun.

Scarlett sighed. “It’s just that, I don’t want you
to get hurt.”

The agent scoffed.

He lifted the comm to his ear and pressed a button.
“Command, this is Agent Barnes requesting assis—”

A high pitched whine erupted from the small device.
Agent Barnes cringed and threw it away. The comm hit the wall and
shattered, silencing its piercing wail.

The agent held his hand over his ear and bent over
in pain. When he pulled his hand away, blood trickled down his palm
and the side of his face.

Scarlett closed the distance between them and ripped
the gun from his hand. She stepped back and leveled the weapon at
him. “I told you, you shouldn’t have done that.”

He looked up at her and raised his hands. “Now think
careful what your next move is. You don’t want to do this.”

She sighed. “Really? After all this, you think I’m
interested in killing you?”

“
Then what do you
want?”

Scarlett lowered the pistol but stayed ready. “Out
of here for number one. Then I’m looking forward to a hot bath.”
Her face scrunched. “And put your hands down, you look like an
idiot.”

Agent Barnes lowered his arms and covered his
bleeding ear. “Are you always this crazy?”

“
Usually.”

“
So what now?”

“
Well.” She glanced around.
“You’ll find that Mr. Zinchenko had some of his men perform some
rather ugly acts recently. They just finished torturing two men at
the MakerMasters on Lakeshore. One of them is dead.”

Agent Barnes’s head sagged. “I’m sorry.”

“
Me too.”

A long, awkward moment hung in the air. Dax’s words
broke the silence. “Remember there are more feds on the way? You
only have a few seconds.”

Scarlett nodded. “Right.”

“
Huh?” Agent Barnes’s face
wrinkled in confusion.

Scarlett stepped toward her exit door but stayed
facing Agent Barnes. “Nevermind. I just want you to know, I’m on
your side.”

“
By blowing out my ear drum and
taking my gun? Sure, you’re on my side.”

“
It’ll heal. Just know that I’m
not a threat to you or any of your agents.”

“
How do we know that?”

“
You’ll have to trust me.”
Scarlett twirled the gun on her finger and flipped it around so the
handle was facing Agent Barnes. She pulled out a handkerchief and
wiped the weapon down. When she was just a couple feet from the
door, she set the weapon on the ground and slid it over to
him.

Agent Barnes stopped the sliding gun with his
foot.

Scarlett opened the door. “You know, I could have
killed you.” She stepped into the dark hallway. “Have a good day,
Agent Barnes. I look forward to the next time we meet. And I hope
it is under better circumstances.”

She closed the door headed down the corridor. A
moment later, she was standing outside at the back of the facility.
Ahead, the asphalt parking lot ended at the base of a hill covered
in yellow grasses.
Oh joy.
Scarlett sighed and jogged up the
hill.

“
Were you just flirting?” Dax’s
voice in her ear almost made her jump.

She scoffed. “No.”

“
Uh-huh.”

“
Shut up.”

“
Sure thing.” Amusement echoed in
his voice.

“
Oh and Dax?”

“
Yeah?”

Scarlett stopped for a second. “Thanks.”

“
No problem.”

“
You know what this means, though,
right?” She turned around and looked down at the warehouse below.
Four cars sat on the far side of the building with red and blue
lights flashing.

“
What’s that?”

She turned and stepped over the crest of the hill.
“It means we’re going after Derrick next.”

Chapter 38
Thirty-Four Percent

Once again, because of me, friends get hurt and die.
Despite my desire to be solitary, it’s not realistic. Now I seek
what the weak cannot... vengeance and justice.

* * *

In the hospital, Mickey told Scarlett what had
happened. Devan and the rest of Zinchenko’s cronies had made Mickey
watch as they broke Janson’s fingers one by one. It wasn’t until
after they’d destroyed Janson’s right hand that they finally told
Mickey to hack into the National Security Monitoring Network—a
massive collection of government and private security cameras
spanning the country.

To add to the pressure, for every minute he took to
find Scarlett, they broke another of Janson’s fingers. After the
thugs had Scarlett’s location, they broke both Mickey’s legs and
put a bullet in Janson’s skull.

Scarlett apologized to Mickey for getting them
involved, but he dismissed it. He told her that they would have
done the same thing to Dax already if she hadn’t stopped them.
Still, she felt responsible and took care of his hospital
bills.

Janson had no family, no one to notify of his death.
He hadn’t even made a will, meaning MakerMasters was going to
become the property of the state. At Scarlett’s request, Dax
changed that. She had him forge an electronic will naming himself
and Mickey as co-owners. Instead, he gave himself and Mickey each a
thirty-three percent ownership stake in the shop. The other
thirty-four he gave to Scarlett for killing Zinchenko.

The day after Mickey was released from the hospital,
the three of them held a quiet vigil inside the shop. They kept it
simple and ordered Janson’s favorite pizza. Dax and Mickey spent
the night sharing stories about their friend while Scarlett
listened.

Dax closed his eyes for a second and chuckled. When
they opened again, a smile spread across his face. “I remember when
I first met Janson. These gang-bangers were chasing me. I’m running
through the warehouse district and duck into this place. Didn’t
know what it was, didn’t care. The door was open.”

Scarlett snickered. “That sounds like you.”

“
Anyway, I yell at this big guy in
a dirty apron if there’s a back exit. He looks me up and down, and
pulls me to the back of the shop. We’re behind a few shelves when
the front door bursts open. He shoves me into this bin and dumps a
barrel of crappy old circuit boards and broken junk on top of me.
Then I hear the back door open and close again.