Stark Surrender (16 page)

Another long silence, and something in his gaze changed, sharpened slowly into a gleam of unholy glee.

“Fuck me seven ways till St. Thor’s Day,” he said softly. “You don’t have the faintest idea who I am, do you? That head injury rattled your brains good.”

“No,” Lode croaked, every word an effort, “I don’t know you. But that doesn’t mean ... I won’t kill you. So stay away … from me.”

“Kill you?” Black Braids asked affably, his cheeks creasing as he smiled. “Hells no. I’m gonna enjoy watching you suffer way too much to kill you.”

He cocked his head, his pale eyes gleaming. “You work for me, actually. You’re a guard in the back hallway of my club. You keep riffraff from fighting in the lavs, shit like that.”

“Fine,” Lode agreed. “Give me ... a weapon. I’ll get back ... to it.”

Black Braids laughed, a whisper of sound. “No you wouldn’t. I give you a weapon, the first one you’d use it on is me.”

“You ... did this ... to me,” Lode managed, his left fist clenching.

The smile disappeared, leaving ice in its wake.

“No, that would be Mordacity. And since I have you to thank for stirring him up to even worse shit than he started up while I was gone, I’ve half a mind to toss you back to him, pompous fool. You don’t belong in these streets. They’re mine.”

A Serpentian female, lithe and slim with short, dark hair entered the room and stopped beside the man. Lode felt a jolt of near-recognition, but then relaxed. He didn’t know her. She too, wore leathers, but hers were dark red like dried blood. She eyed Lode with open fascination.

“Fuck, it’s really him,” she said. “He doesn’t know you at all?”

“Nope, which means he doesn’t know you either, snake eyes. Wanna take advantage of that to play with him a little?”

The woman smirked, but then sighed, hand on her hip.

“No. Kiri’s my friend. And don’t ask me why, but she’s gonna want him back—in one piece, if possible.”

The man scowled. “Seven quarking hells, woman. Now you’re ruining all my fun.”

“Oh, c’mon,” she soothed. “You’ll get to watch the fireworks when she sees him and he doesn’t know her from the goddess.”

“True.”

Kiri … the name rang in Lode’s mind like a bell. His dream woman—did they have her?

He opened his mouth to demand they bring her to him, but another being appeared at the bedside, a medtech in a white suit.

“Time for another session in the regen unit,” he said, eyeing Lode with enthusiasm that made Lode’s skin crawl.

“No,” he ground out.

“Oh, you won’t feel a thing,” the tech assured him. “Sleep well.”

He pushed a button on the med unit floating by his elbow. Lode grabbed, but the unit floated out of his reach. He fell back with a gasp of pain.

“Can’t control everything, eh, Stark?” Black Braids mocked.

The last thing he heard before the blackness sucked him down was that whispering laughter.

Chapter Eighteen

Kiri did not have fond memories of the NSPD headquarters, so when Kai, Joran and Bronc appeared at the door of the small room where she’d been closeted with two of the officers who rescued her, she flew from her chair.

Kai’s eyes lit up, and he led the way into the room. Kiri took a step toward him, tripped on her too-big boots, and fell into his arms. He caught her and for the first time, wrapped his arms around her, hugging her hard.

“You’re safe,” he said, his voice cracking. “They didn’t hurt you?”

“No,” she said in the same tone. “I’m—I’m fine.” She wasn’t fine, she might never be fine again, but at least she was safe—and back with her brother.

“I’m sorry, sis. I didn’t take care of you.”

“No! It wasn’t your fault,” she said quickly. “We both decided to go down there. I’m just as much to blame.”

“Kiri,” Joran interrupted, his voice gentle but urgent, “are you … all right? You weren’t attacked—raped?”

She shook her head, even though her eyes were wet. “No. I wasn’t raped.” She’d been oh, so willing for that part. “It—it was just some punks who thought they could get ransom. I waited till they fell asleep and snuck out.”

“And you’re sure that’s all?” the female officer said, her gaze level.

Kiri nodded. “I’m sure. Thank you for your help. I’d like to go home now.”

The woman sighed. Kiri knew she didn’t quite believe Kiri’s story of masked kidnappers, but it was the best story Kiri had been able to think up on the spur of the moment. She couldn’t say she’d seen any faces, or they’d have her examining the criminal databases for the next few days.

And she couldn’t expose Liss without giving up Logan as well—and his brothers deserved the first chance to deal with him. So she’d lied, which felt awful. But then so did the rest of this night.

Bronc had the LodeStar cruiser on the roof. Kiri was bundled carefully in, Kai staying at her side.

As they took off, Joran cocked his head inquiringly at Kiri. “Glad you’re safe, honey. Now you wanna tell us what really happened?”

She nodded, but her eyes filled with hot tears. “Oh, Joran. It was—
it was Logan
.”

All three men went still.

“What?” Joran asked hoarsely.

“It was Mr. Stark who grabbed you?” Bronc dipped his chin to peer into her eyes, his own filled with disbelief.

“Yes. I know. I couldn’t believe it either. Something is terribly wrong with him. He—he didn’t seem to remember me—not as a person. He kept saying that he dreamt me, and that he was surprised that I was real.”

“Oh, great God.” Joran went pale. “It’s as bad as we feared. Something’s wrong in his mind.”

There was the understatement of the millennium. Logan had descended into a cold, callous shadow of himself, intent only on survival by any means.

“Tell us everything,” Bronc ordered. “From the beginning.”

Kai stiffened protectively, but Kiri pressed his hand. “It’s okay. You need to know.”

She told them almost everything.

She left out the sexual parts, although she suspected from the way Kai’s gaze darkened and his hold on her hand tightened that he guessed. Then Bronc looked from her to Kai and back, and his face tightened as well.

“But he didn’t … try to force you?” he asked.

She shook her head. “No. It was just … so strange. He was so strange. And he—he wouldn’t let me go, or link any of you.”

“Force you?” Joran repeated. His face darkened.

“No,” Kiri said. “He didn’t, Joran. We—I was … willing. I became frightened later, when he told me I couldn’t leave, or contact you.” However, her face flamed at having to admit she and Logan had had sex while he held her captive.

Joran groaned. “Hells, honey. But … at least you’re unharmed. And I cannot fucking believe I’m saying that about my own brother.” He shook his head, and took a shaken breath. “Okay, we need to get you back to HQ, and then go back there, stake out this apartment.”

Kiri held out a hand to him. “Be very careful. When he left, he said he was ‘going out to take out some of his competitors’. And he was heavily armed.”

And the Logan she knew—or had known, would be destroyed by the knowledge he’d injured or even killed one of his own people, especially his brothers. The Logan who had treated her with such casual cruelty tonight? She wasn’t sure it would even bother him.

And knowing that this hard, violent Logan had emerged lay on her chest like a burning weight. No matter what else happened, she was done with him, this time for good.

Much later, warm and clean and safe in Logan’s penthouse, Kiri was curled up on one of the dark gray leather divans, a hot drink in her hands. Kai sat next to her, Taara and Zaë near.

Creed had gone out with Bronc and Joran to search for Logan, all of them grim-faced and tense.

Kiri told her friends that she’d been with Logan, but she let Kai repeat the rest of her misadventure. The adrenaline rush of her escape had long since worn off, leaving her exhausted and sick at heart, almost as if someone she loved had died. Or maybe that was the last of her dreams about her and Logan.

Taara and Zaë both made sympathetic noises, and asked no more questions. Although Taara gave Kiri a look that mingled love and a promise that they would be talking about this later.

None of them wanted to go to bed. Kiri was grateful for that, as she really didn’t want to be alone—not yet. Later she’d need time to examine the encounter again in detail, and process it. But not now. Now she simply craved the comfort of Kai’s silent, solid presence at her side, and her friends fussing around, making sure her tea was hot, and she was comfortable.

In her corner of the comfortable divan, she let herself doze.

When her com pinged, she started violently, her heart racing. What if it was Logan? But it was Tal Darkrunner.

“What’s he doing contacting you?” Kai demanded, leaning close to scowl at the inked visage framed with ebony braids gazing at them from the holovid. Taara and Zae watched, Taara shaking her head in a way that said nothing could surprise her anymore tonight.

Kiri accepted the link. “Tal?” she asked warily. “What do you want?”

Tal Darkrunner gave her a dark look. “Not linking for old time’s sake, starry girl. I’ve got something of yours. You need to come and get it.”

“What? Is Scala all right?”

He scowled. “She’s fine. This has nothin’ to do with her.” His gaze flicked from her to Kai, his brows flying up. “You have a twin you never told anyone about?”

“I’m her brother,” Kai said, his voice cold. “And if you’ve something of Kiri’s, seems to me you could courier it.”

“Not this,” Tal said, the intensity of his look deepening. “Kiri, you can bring the Starks, but you gotta come too, or none of ‘em gets in. And be here within an hour, or I put him out on the street. I don’t need the aggravation.”

Kiri sat, speechless as he broke the link. Then a mighty yawn overtook her. “He can’t have anything of mine that I’d want,” she mumbled, rubbing her eyes.

“He sounded weird,” Taara added. “As if he didn’t want to speak openly.”

“Didn’t you hear that at the end?” Kai asked. “That time, he said ‘him’. He said ‘I’ll put him out on the street’.”

The women all stared at him. “You’re right,” Kiri realized.

“I’m linking Creed,” Taara said, sitting up straight. “Something’s going on.”

Zaë looked worried. “We need to know they’re safe.”

The men were safe, but they were not in a good mood. The holovid link revealed them all in the cabin of the LodeStar cruiser, tired and frowning.

“Been searching all over the area,” Joran said, raking a hand through his hair. “Nothin’.”

Taara relayed Tal’s strange message.

Creed cocked his head. “You all took him seriously.”

“Very,” Taara said, nodding.

“We’re close to his club,” Bronc said, looking at the instrument panel. “We can stop there. Maybe he has intel for us.”

“Or the twisted body of one of the informants our people have questioned,” Joran said darkly. “I don’t trust him.”

“You can’t go without Kiri,” Zaë pointed out. “He won’t let you in.”

Joran gave Kiri a searching look. ‘You up for one more ride, honey?”

Kiri gathered her strength and nodded. “I’m fine.”

“I don’t want you anywhere near that ganger,” Kai said.

She shook her head wearily. “He won’t hurt us. Scala won’t let him. “

And Tal wouldn’t have contacted her unless it was important. She was beyond exhaustion anyway. What was one more stop in this long, weird nightmare of a night?

* * *

Liss spent the next day worrying and fretting about what Lode was gonna say when he discovered his new little sex toy was gone, and that Liss had let her escape.

Finally, though, fed up with that much mental effort, she went out to do a little shopping, reasoning that if Lode wasn’t with her, she should be safe, because she wasn’t the one targeting the GloJacs. And sure enough, she was fine. She even stopped in at Raly’s Bar one evening, basking in admiring looks, and had some laughs.

She also met a man—rough around the edges, true, but with bold admiration in his gaze and lots of credit he didn’t mind spending on the fanciest drinks she wanted. So when Welt invited her to meet some friends of his, she left the bar with him, ignoring the disapproving stares of the bartender and his woman, who were friends of Lode’s.

But the next day was another long one in the tiny apartment. She was nervous as a rat on a busy street and bored out of her mind. A girl could only watch so many holovids, even the romance stories she liked, with dangerous Tygers and other shifters menacing and then romancing nubile heroines, rescuing them from monsters and crime lords and then sexing them into ecstasy.

Who did Lode think he was anyway, ordering her around and then just deserting her this way? He was probably gone for good, leaving her to fend for herself. Which she did not want to have to do. She needed a man to watch over her, to tell her what to do. She felt safer that way.

But at least Lode had left her in possession of an apartment far nicer than her old one, a galley full of food and drink, a sexy wardrobe and even Vince’s slider. She smiled to herself—it was like he’d left her with a dowry, like the princess in the holovid she’d watched last night.

He’d also, strangely, left his leather duffel beside the bed where he slept. After three glasses of wine, Liss finally worked up the courage to open it and delve into the contents.

She didn’t care much about any of it, except for the jewelry case. When it opened, she gasped in awe and admiration at the delicate beauty of the necklace it held. Gold and diamonds, it was an adornment fit for a high-priced courtesan.

And if there was a female alive who could resist seeing how it looked on her, that wasn’t Liss.

She brought up a holomirror and held the necklace up to her throat, shaking her long hair back to admire the way it sparkled and shone against her skin. She held it open at her nape and then turned this way and that, smiling at her reflection.

She’d gained weight eating the good food Lode purchased, and she’d been getting more sleep, and bathing regularly. She looked good, real good. Her skin was smooth again, her new cosmetics were better quality, and her hair looked fab from the salon treatment. No wonder Welt had moved in on her the moment he saw her in the bar.

A noise out in the passageway jolted her out of her reverie. Liss froze, feeling guilty as only a woman going through her absent protector’s private things could feel. She dropped the necklace back into its case and thrust it back into its hiding place.

She tucked Lode’s duffle carefully back where she’d found it and sat again on the sagging divan, trying to look innocent and natural. She practiced smiling casually, for when he walked through the door.

She wanted that necklace, though. She’d ask him for it as soon as he returned ... because if she waited, she might never get it. Matter of fact, why not just put it in her bag now, where it was safe?

Finally, she fixed herself up and headed back down to Raly’s again to see if Welt was there.

* * *

Mordacity could hear them talking, one of his lieutenants and his new whore. He’d had spycams installed everywhere in his headquarters, because he gathered many but trusted absolutely none.

Welt had proven himself loyal so far, but sex had a way of loosening male tongues and softening their brains. Pillow talk had brought down many an empire. From here in his private quarters, he could see and hear everything that went on inside this complex, as well as the streets around it.

“Who—or what is he?” the woman breathed.

Welt yawned, as if he’d rather be sleeping and no wonder, after the marathon of grunting and moaning that had issued from his quarters.

“Mordacity? He ain’t like you and me, babe,” the man said. “Part-human, part-Occulan, far as I can tell. Suspect there’s some Indigon in there too, because the boss has some kind of mental power. And he’s cold as deep space. Swear he could kill his own mother and not blink.”