Vengeance (SSU Trilogy Book 1) (24 page)

Kai!

Jenna rushed out of the store. She glanced to her right. There. Passing the nightclub.

She hurried down the street. Remembering Niko’s warning, she pulled out her cell phone and sent him a brief text message. She couldn’t wait for him, though, or she’d lose Kai.

Chapter 18

Niko pushed through air congested with lies, blood and fear, heading desperately for the door of the upscale strip club. Dark memories choked him. He slammed his palms harder than intended against the door, causing it to bounce off the wall with a loud smack.

He had to get out of this place. Away from the knowledge of the people he’d hurt in order to establish dominance as Alvarez’s second in command. But the terrified eyes of the club manager were hard to forget. The man remembered Niko, and the week he’d spent in the hospital after Niko disciplined him for embezzling.

The manager had gotten off lightly. Alvarez would have killed the man if he’d known the truth. But that didn’t make Niko feel any better.

Christ, he felt tainted. Dishonorable.

He rolled his shoulders. He hated slipping back into this role. Hated the fear and slavering respect people gave him. Hated the way Jenna had flinched when he’d told her the truth.

He wanted to shout that he wasn’t that vicious, callous man any more. But until he found Aunt Madalena, he must be that man.

Niko took a deep breath, letting the faintly salty air clear his lungs. The club’s air conditioning hadn’t kept sweat from pooling under the Kevlar vest he wore beneath his shirt. He wanted to tear off his suit jacket, but walking down the street with an exposed shoulder holster was a bad idea. He’d either get shot or end up having to shoot someone. And while violence would release some of his spiraling tension, he couldn’t afford that kind of attention.

Instead, he jerked out the knot holding his tie and unfastened the first button of his shirt. Finally took his first easy breath in hours. The oppressive heat meant he’d be soaked with sweat by the time he reached the hotel, but he’d deal.

He’d accomplished his mission. That was what mattered.

The men who ran in the shadows knew he was back. This was the fourth place he’d visited tonight, and everyone assumed he was still Alvarez’s right-hand man. His lips quirked. He’d been right. Alvarez’s pride hadn’t allowed him to denounce Niko as the man who’d turned him in to the authorities.

And that was going to work to Niko’s advantage. Because the men he talked to said Alvarez was offering a reward for Paterson. With Alvarez out of town, people would now bring that information straight to Niko.

It had been a risk hitting the clubs alone. There were too many men who wanted to test him. Who wanted to brag that they’d finally beat the man Alvarez called son. Or men who had a personal score to settle with
la mano derecha
. Who watched him and waited for the right moment to attack.

Even now, outside the club and away from the low-level gangsters inside, he felt eyes watching him. Measuring him. Making his nerves hum and the back of his neck tingle.

Yeah, well, bring it on. He could do with a good fight.

But no one approached him as he walked down the street. No one even gave him more than a cursory glance.

Once he hit the decent, tourist-riddled part of town he relaxed. And thought about what he’d learned. Alvarez wasn’t in town, but was rumored to be arriving very soon. If Alvarez followed precedent, Aunt Madalena would be with him.

Making it all that easier to rescue her. Niko wondered if he should even bother with Kai Paterson. He had Rafe. And Jenna.

Someone else could go after the chip.

Yeah, right, who was he kidding? Alvarez’s homes were guarded like the Pentagon. It would take more than the three of them to rescue his aunt.

His phone signaled an incoming text message.

Spotted Kai. Following. Near hotel.

Dammit, no! Niko bolted down the street, feet drilling fearfully into the pavement. He’d told Jenna to stay put. What the
hell
was she doing?

At the corner before the hotel he slowed to a walk. He didn’t want to scare Paterson away by barging onto the scene.

He scanned the street, trying to spot Jenna among the throngs of window-shopping tourists taking advantage of the cooler night air.

There. At the end of the street. Jenna’s hat lit by a street lamp. She’d stopped in front of a shoe store and appeared to be checking out the selection. But, Jesus, that outrageous hat was a damn beacon for any man searching his six, looking for a tail. What was wrong with her? She knew better.

Even as he thought it, she pulled the hat off and tied a dark scarf around her hair. She preened at her reflection and then passed her hat to a startled teenage girl.

Stay there, sweetheart, Niko thought as he dodged a family with three whining children. Let me catch up with you. He sent Jenna a brief text message.

Wait for me.

Then, hoping Rafe’s plane had landed, Niko dialed his brother’s cell. But his call bounced straight to voicemail. Niko didn’t bother leaving a message.

By the time he reached the shoe store, Jenna was gone. A few yards ahead of him, two men detached themselves from the shadows and turned left down the next street.

Shit. He recognized one of the men by the way his head tilted to the left every time he took a step. Ignacio Jimenez. One of Alvarez’s more vicious minor lieutenants.

Niko followed. Half a block down, Jenna sauntered along, glancing in store windows as if simply out for an evening stroll. He couldn’t see the man she was following.

She either had her phone off, or was ignoring the phone’s announcement that his text message had arrived, damn her. It was too dangerous to catch up with her now. Jimenez would recognize him and he didn’t want to draw the man’s attention to Jenna.

With any luck, Alvarez’s men would walk right by her.

As the street worked its way closer to the ocean, the stores gave way to houses and an occasional boat rental shop already closed for the night. There were fewer people on the street to hide behind. Jimenez and his partner were gaining on Jenna. Down at the end of the block, a man disappeared around the corner, heading toward the marina.

Jenna broke into a trot.

Jimenez and his friend paused, glanced at each other, and gave chase.

Shit. When he got Jenna back to the hotel, he was going to wring her sexy little neck.

Jenna and Alvarez’s men disappeared around the corner. Niko ran after them.

Too late. As Niko rounded the corner, Jimenez grabbed Jenna.

“Let the woman go,” Niko shouted in Spanish. Dammit, he couldn’t shoot, not with Jenna held so close against Jimenez’s body.

Jimenez turned his head toward Niko. Jenna took advantage of his distraction by driving her elbow into his gut and following up with a fist up Jimenez’s nose.

Atta girl!

Jenna spun away as Jimenez fell. The other man lunged for her, but Niko got to him first. Niko knocked the man out before he realized the danger.

Neither man was going to stay down for long, though. Niko took Jenna’s hand and started to run back the way he’d come.

She tugged him the opposite way. “That’s Kai!” she said, pointing frantically toward the man she’d been following just as a white sedan sped past them.

At the end of the street, Paterson glanced back over his shoulder, then bolted.

Two shots cracked the silence of the night. Paterson jerked and fell face down.

Jenna gave a sob of denial. She kicked off her high heels, broke free of Niko and ran toward her brother.

The car reached him first. A large man in a black suit leapt out and dragged Paterson’s body into the car. Another face Niko remembered from Alvarez’s entourage.

A moment later, the car turned a corner and was gone.

Jenna reached the spot where her brother had been shot and sank to her knees, head in her hands.

“Get up, Jenna,” Niko told her. “C’mon. Stay strong for me just a little longer,
chica
. Alvarez’s men are behind us.” He pulled her upright and urged her into a run in the same direction the car had taken. “That’s right. Keep moving.”

They sprinted down the street. If they made it to the next corner before Jimenez caught up with them, there were several small cross streets where they could hide.

But Jenna stumbled, then began limping. Damn. She must have stepped on a piece of glass or other sharp debris.

He heard the men’s rapid breathing drawing nearer. Saw a couple of other men approaching from an alley between two houses.

He pulled Jenna in front of him and twisted to the side an instant too late. Jimenez grabbed Niko, yanking him away from Jenna.

Niko pivoted and threw a punch toward the man’s head.

Silver flashed in the streetlight and Niko pulled back before the arc of Jimenez’s trademark ivory-handled switchblade. Shit, the man was fast as ever. Niko didn’t have time to reach for his weapon or one of his knives. Jimenez kept moving forward, slicing the air with his blade in a deadly pattern that forced Niko farther and farther away from Jenna.

Cold, dark rage swept over Niko. To hell with this.

Niko stepped toward Jimenez, putting up his left forearm to protect his face. The knife bit through his suit jacket and deep into his skin. Niko ignored the pain. Because the movement got him underneath Jimenez’s defenses.

After that, the man went down easy. Jimenez had always relied too much on his knife work. And Niko had learned to fight from some of the most vicious men in Alvarez’s organization.

As Niko leaned down to pick up Jimenez’s knife, a bullet split the air where his head had been seconds ago. Niko flicked his wrist and Jimenez’s perfectly balanced knife found a new home in the shooter’s heart.

Niko stepped over the man’s dead body. When Alvarez learned that one of his men had been killed with Jimenez’s own knife, Jimenez was going to wish Niko had killed him, too, instead of leaving him unconscious.

Whoa, there was another man on the ground. Jenna must be—

Jesus H. Christ.

Jenna lay on her stomach with a man straddling her back. His hands were around her throat, choking her. Jenna’s fingers clawed frantically at the skin on the back of her attacker’s hands.

Niko couldn’t tell if her struggles were just to get air, or if she was panicking.

It didn’t matter. The asshole would pay for hurting Jenna.

Niko slammed his boot heel into the side of her attacker’s head, knocking the man away from her. When the man tried to stand, Niko kicked him again.

Everything dark and ugly inside of Niko focused on hurting the man. He didn’t want the fight to end quickly. He needed to punish the man for attacking Jenna. He needed to—

Jenna pulled his arm.

Niko blinked, and the rage slowly receded. Leaving him standing in the middle of the street, a bloody, unconscious man at his feet.

Fuck. Niko ran his hands down his face. He’d nearly killed the man. If not for Jenna…

God, he hadn’t lost it like that in years.

He took a deep breath. It wasn’t safe here. They had to get away.

Niko stepped toward Jenna.

Something hard slammed into his chest, knocking him backward. His head smacked against the pavement and the world went black.

#

Jenna froze as Niko toppled backward.

Oh, God, please, no.

A bullet ricocheted off the pavement to her left. Jenna threw herself at Niko, shielding him with her body.

She looked up, trying to see who was shooting at them, and met the furious eyes of the man Niko had been fighting. He held a pistol aimed at her head.

Jenna pulled off the scarf hiding her hair, hoping that this man belonged to Alvarez and would recognize her as Kai’s white-haired sister, and therefore too valuable to shoot.

The man muttered something about a white-haired devil woman, but didn’t lower his weapon.

“I do not care what they say,
señorita
, I will shoot you to get to him,” the man said in Spanish. “I will not permit him to take back his power.”

So this was one of the men who wanted Niko dead. Jenna tightened her arms around Niko, waiting for the slightest twitch to show her the man had pulled the trigger. So she could roll Niko away at the last minute.

But five men ran came around the corner at a run, yelling. Shots almost hit the man with the gun. Anger, frustration, and a helpless rage dashed across the man’s face before he turned and fled.

Three of the new arrivals gave chase. The other two slowed to a walk and approached Jenna.

Beneath her, Niko began to stir.

Oh, thank God!

Jenna scrambled off him. She ran her hands over his chest, trying to find where he’d been hit. She found a tear in his jacket, but no blood.

“Kev…lar, vest,” Niko gasped. “I’m okay. Just winded.”

But her fingers had come away wet from his left sleeve. She reached for his arm, but Niko knocked her hand away. “No. Help me to my feet.”

She wedged her shoulder under his bad arm, giving him enough support so he could stand.

One of the men walked over to them and Jenna tensed.

“Shit,” Niko muttered. “What’s he doing here?”

Chapter 19

The man stepped forward so that the light from the streetlamp illuminated his features.

Mark Tonelli.

Jenna tightened her grip on Niko.

“You okay?” Mark asked.

Niko just grunted. “Yes,” Jenna answered warily.

“He ran Alvarez’s men off?” Niko whispered for her ears only.

She nodded.

“Thanks,” he told Mark.

Mark gave Niko one of his superior smiles. “You’re welcome.” He looked up and down the street. At a signal from Mark, the other man walked away and disappeared down the block. “Where are you staying? I’ll help you get back.”

Jenna felt Niko’s hesitation. If he wanted to reject Mark’s offer, she’d support him, but she really wanted to get off the street before Niko passed out from loss of blood.

The three of them were alone now and Jenna was acutely aware of being exposed underneath the street light. Without the sounds of traffic or conversation, she could hear the waves breaking against the pier and the occasional buzz of a cicada.