Arrow to the Soul (24 page)

She had seen him and everything had changed. She had kissed him and become something else. But he sought to protect her, change her from what she was. It was impossible, yet not. Because what Rand Beckett still did not know was that she would give everything she was to keep him safe. In the process she would be with her sisters and move another step closer to their ultimate goal.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Lei Wang was an evil man. Not quite Joseph Bombardier, but similar enough that Arrow felt the urge to kill flood her veins. She had been on the ledge of this mountain for two days and Lei Wang was scheduled to arrive at his summer abode any time.

Cars had been coming and going for hours, activity picking up in the compound below her, and Arrow felt adrenaline begin to race through her body. She was close to the next step. Bullet’s journey had begun everything. Arrow’s would cement it. She’d taken the President of Mexico with little effort. Wang was both a personal and necessary hit.

If China’s President fell, Joseph would have no choice but to retreat.

As it was, he was scrambling. All of his contacts in China were worried, hesitant to talk to Arrow because they knew First Team had gone rogue. Yet talk they did once Arrow held their life on the tip of her
ya
. What she discovered was nothing less than she’d expected.

Bullet’s actions in Arequipa, striking at the heart of Joseph’s demesne, had the parts of the world owned by The Collective very, very concerned. If they could strike at him there, how far would their reach extend—how far would they go to destroy the entirety of The Collective?

Arrow was about to show them. In the valley below her, a line of black limousines was a snake wending up a tree. She was going to cut off its head.

She sipped from her camel-pack, moved to a sitting position and then stood. She was dressed head to toe in black. The only spot of color came from the red peacock feathers at the ends of her
yas
. She pulled her longbow over her shoulder, attached her quiver to the opposite shoulder and eliminated any trace of her presence from the ledge.

Arrow had not eaten in three days. She had endured bitterly cold temperatures at night. It was by no means the worst she’d been through in her life, but the nights were dark at the top of this mountain. Dark and difficult. The blackness seemed resolute and unending.

She pushed her thoughts down, found her calm center, and began her way down the mountain. There were two miles to traverse, a river to cross, and then she would be in Wang’s space. She would watch his eyes flare in recognition before she put her arrow through his throat. She would make him speak the name of the woman he’d killed for Joseph.

Ching Lan.

She felt eyes on her and knew both Blade and Bone were here. They had a part in this, but Wang was Arrow’s. She moved through the trees with assuredness. Her steps never faltered and her breath never wavered. Conviction solidified in her gut. As the cars slithered up the pass, Arrow knew this was as it should be.

She came to the river and dove in without hesitation. The current was swift but Arrow had the strength of hell behind her. She would not falter. Once she was out of the river, she headed up a small incline, keeping to the trees as she pulled out her ocular and scoped the side of the mountain fortress that was Wang’s summer home.

Arrow wondered if his wife and children were in residence. She could use them as leverage perhaps, should things veer off course. First though, she would free the children hovering in the cold beneath the house. Forced laborers, sold by their parents into service to a man with no conscience.

She would free them first, kill anyone who thought to stop her, and then Wang was hers.

The sound of cars approaching echoed up the valley and she increased her pace, practically flying over the terrain, her goal in sight. There was a single guard at the basement door and she zeroed in on him. He turned his back just as she crested the rise and she was on him.

It took no more than a second to incapacitate him.

“Nǐ shì yīgè hǎorén?”
Are you a good man
, she asked in Chinese.

He nodded but fear was an oily stench in her nostrils. He couldn’t be older than twenty, twenty-one, so she reached for his carotid, pinched it and he knocked out immediately. Cut off blood flow to his brain and he was going to be out, then too groggy to cause her any issues.

She moved him to the edge of the woods and headed back to the basement door. She stepped in and immediately sought the prisoners in the pitch-black interior. They were huddled close to one another. Their eyes were huge in their emaciated faces. Children, a few adults and possibly some teens. They were scared shitless.

“Yùnxíng,”
she said.
Run
.

They did as she’d instructed. She took the steps to the next level, but encountered no other guards. Then she heard it, men above her shouting for all available guards to get to the courtyard.

What the hell was going on? Footsteps sounded above her and she waited until it was quiet. Then she hit the upper level and blended into the shadows. The house was opulent. Artifacts from the Ming Dynasty interspersed throughout, granite floors and gold fixtures attested to the importance of the man who lived here a few months out of the year. She hoped the people she’d freed returned here and looted the fuck out of it once she’d killed Wang.

Windows at the front of the residence showed several cars pulling into the courtyard but it was the man standing right in the middle that made her heart stop beating.

Adam.

Arrow pulled her
yumi
off her shoulder and notched a
ya.
What the hell was he doing here? His clothing was torn and dirty and he seemed to be bruised from head to toe. As she watched, a man walked up to him and struck him in the stomach with the butt of a rifle. Adam went to a knee and the guard kicked him in the head. Adam fell to the ground, but pushed himself back up.

A word from the man at the guard’s side stopped any further action and two more guards stepped up to hold Adam on his knees. She kicked the door open as the first guard used the rifle to butt Adam in the head this time. Arrow stepped into the fading light and every gun in the place turned and aimed on her.

Her arrow was locked on Wang.

“Let him go,” she said softly.

Wang threw his head back and guffawed. “Joseph! Look, your killer tells me what I should do,” he said as if it was the most hilarious thing he’d ever heard.

Then her nightmare stepped from one of the limousines and Arrow was conflicted. Wang or Joseph. No matter how many times she’d defeated Bullet at their game, no matter how many times she’d been faster, her
ya
could never fly quicker than a hail of bullets. She would be cut down and Adam would have no chance to escape before they killed him as well.

“Let. Him. Go,” she said again, softer now.

She felt it then, her sister’s attention, and she nodded once. They could not be in this place. Not now. Adam’s presence threw a huge kink in her plans, and while she would kill Wang here today, her life would be forfeit.

“I hold the cards, bitch,” Wang said slyly. “The cards and one of Trident, it would seem. Tell me Joseph, what will you pay for Mr. Collins?”

Joseph remained silent, his black gaze on Arrow. The setting sun held no warmth when his gaze was on her. Then he smiled and it was to her he addressed his words.

“What will you give me for his life?”

“I will give you the greatest gift I could offer,” she said with a smile.

His gaze went hard and his eyes narrowed. “What is that?”

“Death,” she whispered and let her arrow fly straight into the guard who struck Adam. She pierced his throat and he didn’t make a sound as he fell.

A single shot rang out and one of the guards holding Adam went down next. Bullet to the middle of the forehead.

A whistling sounded in the air once the report of the rifle ended. A blade embedded in the ear of the other guard who held Adam. As he fell, so too did Adam, though he pushed to his knees immediately.

She hoped her sisters would leave this place so they didn’t witness her death. She should have known they wouldn’t. So be it.

She refused to look at Adam. To meet his gaze would be the biggest mistake she could make here today.

“No!” Wang yelled and every single gun trained on Arrow.

She held another
ya
ready and it was trained on Wang.

“You will not kill him because I will take Mr. Collins’ head like I took your monk’s. Your sisters cannot make it to you in time, Arrow. Think about this,” Joseph murmured.

“My
ya
will fly straight and true, remember my given name, Joseph and know I will take you next.”

His face hardened and he spat at his feet.

“I can see your fear. It is a lovely sight. I can smell your terror. It is a beautiful scent. But it is not you I want here today, Joseph, it is Lei Wang whose name is written on my arrow today.”

“You will not kill me, bitch,” Wang screamed.

In the layers of his voice was the knowledge that she held his life in her hands. She blinked slowly then focused on the area below his chin.

“Which will it be, Joseph? You or Wang?”

“Kill her!” Wang shouted yet no one moved to do his bidding.

The threat of her sisters was too great. They did not like being in one place at the same time yet they had not abandoned her. She almost went to her knees. They had come for her. Her sisters and Adam.

“He is important to you then?” Joseph asked.

She drew in a breath through her nose and shrugged. “He is nothing to me.”

“Your eyes say something different, death-bringer. I will make you a deal, much as I made with your sister, Bullet. You come to me and I will let them all go free. Minton,” he called out.

She could not believe that Minton was here too. Something was here she’d missed. Was it the boy? Was the boy here?

Minton stepped from another limousine and scurried to Joseph’s side. Would that Bone could take him today. Would that this scenario played out differently.

“Tell them to scatter or Bullet will pick them off one by one,” Arrow said in a hard voice.

Joseph turned to Wang. “Do as she says. You have the eyes of the best sniper in the world on your men,” he said loud enough for them to all hear.

Wang didn’t have to say anything. His men scattered, with the exception of a few intrepid souls, running away from the courtyard as fast as they could.

She laughed. Wang cursed her.

“Take your kill then, Arrow. Minton? Take Mr. Collins,” Joseph said.

Arrow could not let Joseph have him. “No.”

“You would come in his place?” Joseph asked.

“I would,” she bit out.

“No!” Adam said hoarsely.

They had hurt him. From the corner of her eyes she saw blood dribbling down his forehead. His words were slurred. It seemed he’d been tortured.

The shock of that thought had her eyes narrowing on Joseph. “How long have you had him?”

“I did not. Mr. Wang did,” Joseph said with a smile.

Goddamn it.

“Make the kill, Arrow, and then come with me,” Joseph urged.

Her gaze switched back to Lei Wang. His eyes were wide and he was sweating.

“Do you remember Ching Lan?” she asked him.

His eyes darted to the left and right, and Arrow felt a chill on her skin. Something was happening around them. She felt movement behind her and heard a single gunshot. A startled scream echoed back and Minton fell to the ground, writhing in agony, pleading for help. That wasn’t Bullet’s shot. She didn’t miss and Minton had been hit in the chest.

Joseph glanced around, cursed and got into his limousine between one blink of her eyes and the next. Wang smiled then and Arrow was attacked from behind, vicious strikes that forced her to lower her weapon as she turned to confront the attacker.

What she saw froze her blood and settled the need to kill firmly in her heart. She shut down and began defending. She cleared her immediate attacker and began her own assault. Men dressed all in black surrounded her and continued to stream from the forest beyond the house.

She saw Bone then, her body a tool that began cutting down adversaries left and right. Blade entered the fray, slashing with her sword, ripping with her knives. Bullet entered from the forest then and Arrow wanted to weep. Her sister wasn’t healed yet. Not fully.

Arrow pushed one of the men to the ground, saw Wang from the corner of her eye as he entered the house with several of his guard. He smiled at her—he thought he’d won.

But then the fight took all of her attention. Limousines departed, Minton continued to writhe on the ground but Joseph was gone.

She centered her mind even as she notched
ya
after
ya
and let them fly. They were overrun and she knew then what she had to do. Bullet was hurt. Bone and Blade were fierce, but they were outnumbered, and she had to get Adam to safety.

“Take him,” she yelled to Bone.

Bone glanced at her and what passed between them needed no words. Bone accepted Arrow’s decree and moved to Adam, helping him stand, and putting a shoulder under his arm.

“Go,” Arrow called to Blade and Bullet.

Both hesitated, but then a Jeep screamed into the courtyard and Rand Beckett was there, shooting down the men covered in black. But it was too little, too late as men continued to pour into the courtyard.

Wang had a secret guard and was using them to his fullest advantage. They had killed Ching Lan. Her fury was potent.

“Take them and leave,” she yelled to Beckett.

He didn’t hesitate, pulling Adam into the Jeep and then going for Bullet.

Blade and Bone looked back at her once. She nodded and then began defending herself in earnest. They were safe. No matter what happened to her, Adam and her sisters would be safe.

A bell rang in the distance and the men around her stopped fighting, running back to the forest and simply disappearing.