I popped off another shot as one of the dudes on the sidewalk tried to get up, this time capping him right between the eyes and painting the concrete red as I swung my leg over the Ducati.
A quick glance around as my driver revved her engine and took off at top speed told me where my backup had come from. Apparently KJ-Fit was training more than just MMA fighters.
I held on tight, leaning into the corners with the bike as we flew through the streets. We made it back to my rented house in just a few minutes, and my escape bike pulled to a stop in front of the gates for me to hop off.
“Thanks for the lift,” I said with a grin, patting my pockets to check the thumb drives were all still present. “You don’t want to come in?”
My driver flicked the visor of her helmet up. “I have a mess to clean up in West Shadow Grove, thanks to you.” Her glare was hard but curious. “You’re lucky my guys caught sight of those cut-rate mercs prepping up earlier, or you’d have been outgunned, Danny.” My rescuer essentially owned the whole damn town, so I had no doubt she’d be able to clean it up in no time.
I scoffed a laugh. “Outgunned, sure. But I’d have worked it out, I always do.” Then I wrinkled my nose. “Send me the cleanup bill and say thanks to D’Ath for the assist, too?” Manners mattered when fostering mutually beneficial relationships.
She gave a nod. “Do me a favor? Finish whatever you’re doing and leave town. The Guild brings nothing but trouble.”
I grinned, knowing Hades—queen of the Timberwolves—held little love for my employer. Except when it benefitted her. “I’ll see what I can do.”
She scowled, then shook her head and flipped her visor down again. Without another word, she revved her bike and took off down the street.
I keyed in the gate code and started walking up to the house. It was about damn time we found out what Layla had been hiding. What was so damaging that someone—I assumed Blanchet—was going to such extreme lengths to bury.
The anticipation was killing me.
44
After Danny called me, bubbling with excitement that she’d uncovered Layla’s data cache, I quickly abandoned my plans and jerked my steering wheel in a sharp U-turn. Danny was heading back to the house. I wanted to get there as soon as possible.
Call me crazy, but I fucking despised the idea of her being alone with that big-dicked shit stain for even a moment. I’d convinced her to leave this morning without having to suffer through another rage-inducing kiss between them, then promptly ripped up her note telling him where she was.
A cold smile curled my lips. I really wanted to beat her back so I could witness the blind panic the muscle-bound moron was experiencing at the thought she’d left him. Hell, I’d even stashed her clothes in another room to make him think she was gone for good.
Chuckling to myself, I pressed the gas harder. A red Ducati flew past me in the opposite direction, and suspicion spiked at my guts. The neighborhood that Danny’s rented mansion was in didn’t have a lot of motorcycles, and that one had been breaking the speed limit, which didn’t line up with the stuffy old rich people I’d seen cruising around in their Bentleys.
I had a bad feeling, and it only got worse when I passed through the gates and spotted Danny walking up the driveway to the house. Why the fuck was she walking? Where was Vega’s car that she’d stolen?
“DeLuna!” I shouted, leaping out of my car the moment I pulled to a stop. She was halfway through keying in the front door codes and cast a calm glance in my direction. “What happened?”
Her answering smirk was dagger sharp. “Apparently, we’re not the only ones looking for Layla’s cache.” She pushed open the door and indicated I come inside quickly. Once the door was closed behind me, she reactivated the security system, and I raised my brows in question.
“I’m assuming you’ve got a computer here with you,” she asked, heading through to the living room and tugging off her jacket. From the pockets, she produced two handfuls of USB sticks which she placed down on the table. “Whatever Layla found, I just had an entire merc team try to take me out.”
Panic washed through me, then I quickly reminded myself that clearly she handled it and was fine. Danny DeLuna was the definition of capable. The red Ducati… Oh, now I knew where I’d seen it before. “Hades helped out? That was nice… I didn’t know she had it in her.” Danny just parked her hands on her hips and gave me a long look. “I’ll grab my laptop,” I murmured, striding out of the room.
“Grab some weapons too, Bunny!” she called after me. “Just in case anyone followed.”
I chuckled as I hurried upstairs to get my computer. No way was anyone left alive to follow, but it did beg the question of who the fuck they were working for. Something about pinning it all on Blanchet didn’t sit right with me. It was too easy… and the pieces didn’t match up. How the hell did he even learn of Project Remus? It had been my responsibility to clean up evidence of the program after a militant group had started wiping out orphanages and medical labs. Kai’s fucking team.
I didn’t know what bullshit he had spun to Danny about their “mission” to take down Project Remus, but his team was willfully massacring people—children—and all because they were the next generation of Guild mercenaries. It didn’t truly anger me, until I put Danny in those kids’ shoes. Then it made me murderous.
Fuck, every day that passed, I came closer to slipping up and stabbing him through the eyeball. The only thing holding me back was her.
My instincts saw me duck when I rounded the corner to the bedrooms, leaving Kai’s punch to slam into the wall instead of my head. I snickered a mean laugh. “Idiot.”
“Where is she?” he roared like a bear with a toothache. “What did you do? You sneaky, lying, two-faced sack of shit, I’ll fucking kill you. Where the fuck—”
“Oh, I’m the liar here?” I sneered, cutting him off but staying out of reach as he tried to hit me again. If I started throwing punches today, I wouldn’t stop until I’d ripped his heart out and stomped it under my boot. “I’m the sneaky one, huh? Tell me something, Malachi, how’s Carlos doing?”
He paled—as much as he could—and stopped trying to fight me. Idiot. Hadn’t he learned his lesson already? He would lose the next fight we engaged in, and this time I wouldn’t be satisfied with a tap out.
I curled my lip in disgust. “If you’ve hurt him, I won’t need to kill you. She’ll do it herself. I’ll just hand her the knives.” I dismissed him from my attention and stalked into my room to grab my computer bag.
“Is that why she’s gone?” Kai croaked as I returned to the corridor. “You told her that I’d—”
“Nope, I’m keeping that gem up my sleeve for a rainy day,” I told him with a cruel smirk. “She probably left because you’re such a subpar fuck. You know I needed to finish her off after your lame attempt at revenge last night? Pathetic.”
It was like waving a red flag at a bull. He launched himself at me with a roar of blind rage, and I ducked at the last second, sending him sprawling in the carpeted corridor. Quickly—to stem my own desire for a fight—I jumped over him and took the stairs three at a time to head back downstairs. He’d see she was still here soon enough, so why shouldn’t I fuck with his head a bit?
The more he let his jealousy and rage control his actions, the less Danny would like him. She appreciated intelligence and logic. Calm control. Kai lacked those qualities, and pretty soon the appeal of his caveman personality would run dry.
“Come back here, you coward!” he shouted after me as I reached the foyer. “Or are you too scared to fight me without the advantage of surprise? Huh? Worried I’ll mess up that pretty face of yours?”
I didn’t slow down, striding through to the living room where Danny was pacing the carpet in front of the TV with her phone to her ear. She was talking to someone—Sabine, I thought—and giving a brief recap of what’d happened to her. Shit she hadn’t told me. It made me simmer with frustration as I put my laptop bag on the table to unzip it.
“…do that, then,” she was saying to Sabine, but her eyes were on me. “Get out of town for a few days at least. Just let me figure out what the fuck is so important in this data, okay? And for fuck’s sake, Sab, stay armed.”
Her friend must have agreed, because Danny ended the call as Kai came barreling into the living room. The instant he saw her, he pulled up short, frozen to the spot as she frowned her confusion.
“What the hell is going on?” she demanded, parking her hands on her hips. “What was all the shouting about?”
I kept my expression carefully placid as I pulled out my laptop and powered it up. Kai flashed me a death glare, then crossed the room to sweep my woman up in his arms.