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The glint of something to the right drew my attention. A flash of reflection that shouldn’t have been there on an empty street. Turning, I scoured the space until I caught it.
A man five cars down with a camera in one hand, a phone in the other, and a very clear tattoo of a playing card on his neck. As soon as I made him, he was gone and so was I.
Palming a knife from my pocket, I called out orders as I sprinted behind him. “Geneva, call Greyson, and get Ash home. Do not leave her alone. Cameron, you’re with me.”
With slamming doors and a groaning engine I could barely hear over the noise of my own footsteps, they were gone, and the race was on.
Time to go hunting.
Chapter Twenty-One
Mari
One of the first things I’d learned when I’d taken over for Antoni was how much I liked the chase. The elation when I caught my prey was a high like none other. It was why, up until recently, I’d done my own hunting. I’d scoured the city for those doing me wrong or disobeying my edicts and taken their punishment into my own hands.
Rey’s assassination had forced me to take a more conservative approach and allow my people to do the job for me, but fuck, I’d missed it. The poor fool running from us had no idea what he was in for.
Cameron and I darted through the light pedestrian traffic, struggling to keep him in sight in the sea of bodies. He skirted the sidewalk vendors, keeping close to the water, but he didn’t seem to be trying to lose us. That told me he was trying to lead us somewhere else.
Knowing Cash’s penchant for quiet chaos, he wouldn’t take us anywhere that made a huge splash. He liked things done behind the scenes. In the dark. Somewhere unexpected.
“He’s heading for the library.” Quiet place, easy to lose someone in the stacks and somewhere even I wouldn’t dare make a scene. Too public. Plus, there were tons of exits. He could’ve had a militia waiting in the basement, and we wouldn’t know until we showed up. “You stay with him, and I’ll herd him in from the other side.”
“Absolutely not,” Cameron snapped. “You’re not going anywhere alone right now. We go together or not at all.”
There were times when I wondered how Cameron was okay so soon after Rey’s death, when it had nearly destroyed me. Then I realized he wasn’t; he just hid it well. Looking over, I saw the fractures my cousin tried so hard to keep below the surface. If I went without him, he’d never forgive me, and I couldn’t stand it. “We’ll need to cut him off.”
“And we will. Together.”
“Fine. Together.” I ran through my mental GPS, trying to decide what alley would work best to pull him into. Hell, I’d take an abandoned building—whatever it took to get the answers I needed. Thinking through the nearby streets, I took a calculated risk and led us a block over from our runner. We were still close enough to see him occasionally, but we’d mostly fallen out of sight.
All the better to stalk you, my dear.
Less than a block later, our man started stumbling over his feet.
“He’s gassed out,” Cameron said.
“Let’s give him a break.” I pulled ahead, leading Cameron another two blocks up and circling back until I found the back alley of a rundown pub that’d seen more than a few gang hits. I knew for a fact that it wasn’t covered by cameras, and anyone who stumbled on us would walk away, even in broad daylight.
In other words, it was perfect.
After he handed me the zip ties he always carried on him, my cousin and I settled on either side of the alley’s mouth, hidden by large metal garbage bins. It wasn’t the best thing I’d ever smelled but it was temporary, so I ignored it and promised myself a long shower to wash the scent of rotten food out of my hair. While we waited, I took a minute to send Greyson and Dominic a text, hoping one of them was free to pick us up when we were done.
It was Dominic who responded.
ETA 15 minutes. That work?
Gives us plenty of time to talk to our friend.
Good luck. Let me know if you need cleanup.
I wasn’t planning to kill the guy; we needed him alive to send a message. It was time to bait the trap.
It took no time for our prey to find us. Huffing and puffing, he stuttered to a stop at the end of the alley, trying to catch his breath. He obviously didn’t run much, and I sent a mental thanks to Greyson for forcing me to do cardio most mornings before work.
We waited until he was thoroughly distracted, craning his neck to try to spot us in the crowd. When we had his back, we pounced.
Cameron shoved him into the wall, making him cry out, while I looped the zip ties around his wrists and pulled tight. Too tight. He’d lose circulation soon, but I didn’t care much about that. Cash could cut him loose later. Cameron shifted so he had an arm wrapped around the guy’s throat, dragging him to the farthest corner of the alley. Of course, he struggled the whole way. Couldn’t make things easy on us.
