Darkest Day (StrikeForce #3) (11 page)

An actual punch. I’d be surprised about it later. It hadn’t been as fast or hard as I’d once been able to punch, but it was enough to send his head rocking back against the wall.

“Where’s Killjoy?” I asked him, and he started laughing, blood leaking from the side of his mouth.

I hit him again, and his head hit the brick wall hard.

“Think this time. Where’s Killjoy? Which hole is he hiding in?”

“You still worried about Killjoy and which holes he’s messing with? After everything he did to you?” Maddoc said with a bubbling laugh. I reached out to punch him again, and he took the opportunity to grab my arm and fling me away and to the ground. And then he was stalking toward me, his face a mask of rage, blood and bruises everywhere. I popped back up and kicked out at the side of his knee, but he dodged it just in time.

“Slow as fuck,” he snarled, trying to hit me.

I ducked. “We’re not talking about your mental capabilities right now,” I said. “Where’s Killjoy?”

He punched out, and I ducked, but he managed to catch my chin, just a little. Unfortunately with Maddoc, and the strength he has behind him, just a little bit was enough to rock my head back at the impact. He used it and punched me in the stomach at full force and I went flying across the yard, hitting the stone wall at the edge of his yard.

“You kidding me, you dumb bitch? Coming to my house threatening me?” He pulled his arm back to hit me and I ducked and sent a quick blast of power out at him. It did what I wanted. It knocked him back while I tried to regain my breath from that punch to the gut. It wasn't quite enough and he landed a hard punch to my side. I felt something crack and it took everything in me not to bend double in agony.

“Killjoy shoulda killed you that day. He could have,” he said, coming after me again. “He could have, but he didn’t. Fucking weak on his part, still thinking after all that that he could turn you, that he could have you. He’s still waiting for you.”

I sent a blast of power at him, knocking him back again. I winced and forced myself to focus. He was talking. I had to keep it that way.

“The sex couldn’t have been that good,” he taunted. “Or maybe it was. You trashy girls must have something going for you.”

I swallowed, hit by a wave of nausea thanks to the pain I was in. The weird thing was, it all gave me something to focus on. He lunged for me again and I rose into the air and landed behind him.

“No, no. Don't do that flying shit. You came here for me, come on,” he said, gesturing for me to come at him. “You came for me,” he repeated. “You’re gonna see what a mistake that was.”

I laughed. It hurt like shit, but I laughed. “You are so pathetic. You know you're nothing to him, right? You get your ass kicked, provide all his muscle, and you don’t mean a damn thing. Just like everybody else.”

“Aw, did Daystar get her heart broken? We’re not all garbage to him. Just you.”

“But apparently he wants me,” I said.

“Delusional asshole. I think that injection Death gave him is starting to mess with his head.”

He got a look on his face like he’d said too much, and he charged me. I smiled under my mask. If Killjoy was losing it, he’d slip up eventually. And I’d be there waiting.

“Where is he, Maddoc? Last chance,” I said.

“You’re such a stupid bitch,” he sneered. He started walking toward me, flexing his hands in a way that reminded me of what it had been like having his hands around my neck, crushing the life out of me. I reached behind me and pulled the gun out of my belt, held it up the way Ryan had showed me. Maddoc stopped short. “You’re not gonna use that. You gonna kill me?”

“Maybe.”

“Not very hero like.”

“Tell me about it.”

My finger flexed on the trigger, and Maddoc tried to run.

I pulled, and the gun went off with a weird, hollow sound.

And then Maddoc fell to the ground, his body twitching.

I looked down at Maddoc. Now I had to fly him to Command and hope he stayed out until we had him secured. I slipped the stun gun back into my belt, then bent and went through Maddoc’s pockets. Two phones, a wallet, a small bag with a few pills in it. I glanced at them, then shoved them in my belt pouches along with the phones and wallet. I took a dampener out of my belt and put it around his neck and activated it, then I cuffed both his wrists and his ankles.

I was about to stand up when a wave of nausea swept over me, courtesy of all the pain I was in.

“Nope,” I pleaded, knowing that if I threw up now, it would only make my ribs hurt more. I heaved, and the world went dim as I almost passed out from the pain. I managed to avoid actually getting sick, but it still hurt like hell. I was dizzy, and I gulped for breath. I stayed on all fours for a bit, then looked at Maddoc.

It had all been worth it. I had Maddoc. I had his phones, which, who knew what we’d learn from them. I had some leads. And we had
Maddoc
. I’d break him eventually.

Or, I’d at least break enough of him that he’d want to do anything to get rid of me. Either way, I’d find out where Killjoy was hiding.

I forced myself to stand, then took a few long slow breaths to steady myself. He would be out for a while. I pulled the keys out of my pouch and hit the button to unlock the SUV and disable the alarm. I opened the back door and pulled out one of the boxes he’d shoved in there. Money, electronics. He’d been cleaning Damian’s house out? “What an asshole,” I muttered. I set the box down on the garage floor, wincing at the pain that came with every movement. The rug was next, and I pulled that out and kicked it open on the driveway.

It was almost impossible to miss the enormous reddish-brown stain on the cream-colored design. My stomach turned, and I slowly looked back at the SUV.

Specifically, at the big black garbage bag Maddoc had loaded into the SUV. It was one of those heavy-duty kind that they sell at home improvement stores for cleaning up construction debris and crap like that.

I walked toward the back of the SUV and pulled at the bag. Whatever was in it was heavy, and my stomach turned again. I clamped my mouth shut hard and untied the top of the bag.

And was met with the sight of Damian’s pale face.

I moved to the side of the garage and pulled my mask up just before I emptied my stomach, my ribs screaming in agony the entire time. I was dizzy with the pain, black spots starting to appear over my eyes.

“Jesus Christ,” I moaned. I heaved again, and the pain this time was enough to bring me to my knees.

I forced myself to breath and to try not to think about what I’d just seen.

Maddoc. I had to get him locked up, put away. I had to get answers from him.

Because now there was one more death on Killjoy and his team’s hands.

And, one more death on mine as well, because Damian never would have gotten involved with Death and his crew, and, therefore, Killjoy, if it hadn’t been for me.

“Okay. Maddoc first,” I told myself, forcing my body up and on my feet. I closed up the car and locked it, then closed the garage. I’d have Portia send whoever dealt with shit like this later. I took one more painful breath and pulled my mask back down over my mouth.

I walked back to Maddoc, who was still out cold. I wanted to kick him. Hit him. Shoot him with a gun that had actual bullets instead of the stun gun I’d started carrying. I was feeling anything but heroic. Damian, who everyone else knew as the villain Virus, had been weak, and a bit of an asshole, but he hadn’t deserved that.

I gave Maddoc’s prone form a look of disgust, then hoisted his gargantuan bulk overhead and settled him onto my shoulders, the effort making me dizzy again as I gritted my teeth against the pain.

“Worth it,” I repeated. There wasn’t a single thing I wouldn’t do to get answers, even more so now. I was prepared to do, to give so much more before this was all over. And it was all worth it.

I rose into the sky and flew as quickly as I could toward Command. The cool air cleared my head and relieved the dizziness. Maddoc was a dead weight over my shoulders. He wore too much cologne, and I rolled my eyes. I had no problem with a good cologne, but why did some guys think they had to bathe in the shit? But I guess it fit with Maddoc, overdoing everything. That whole overcompensating thing. I let my mind focus on that, rather than Damian’s end.

Command came into view, and I picked up my speed a little, ready to get in there and get him secured. I reached the entrance bay, and the the two guards on duty stared, eyes wide as I landed.

“Do you need any help, Daystar?” Dalton asked.

“No thanks.”

“Nice job,” the other guard, Morris, said with a grin. I nodded, then carried Maddoc toward the elevator, took it down and made my way toward the detention facility. As I walked through the corridors, I earned more than a few stares. A couple of the guards followed me, ready to help if Maddoc woke up. When I entered the detention facility, Samantha, our new lead guard, stared at me open-mouthed.

“I didn’t know he was coming in,” she said.

“Neither did I. Got lucky. Where are we taking him?”

Samantha snapped out of it and hurried toward the men’s wing, to the cell at the end. The one with reinforced doors and walls. The same one Maddoc and I had battled in the day his dampener had malfunctioned. Or, as we suspected, the day someone had messed with his dampener somehow so he’d have a chance to get free. One more thing we still had to figure out.

The other detention guards stared as I walked past. We’d tripled the number of guards in the facility since the day Maddoc and the others had been broken out. I dumped Maddoc in the chair in his cell, and the guards went to work adding stronger dampeners, clamping his wrists and ankles to the chair after changing him into a detention uniform and inserting a catheter.

Nobody was going to give him a chance to get loose again. He’d be fed via IVs and he’d piss through a tube. I didn’t even feel bad for him, even though I’d been in a fairly similar situation when I’d first been taken by StrikeForce. I’d sworn then that it was a messed up way to keep people under control. Most of those we detained now could move freely around their cells. Toilets and sinks had been installed. Lower risk detainees were kept that way. People like Maddoc, though… we couldn’t take any more chances and I had zero qualms about it. We had him until he gave us some answers. Once he did, we’d turn him over to the Tribunal just like we were planning to turn over all the rest. They could deal with it.

I was watching the guards finish securing him when I glanced to the side to see Portia hurrying toward me.

“Holy shit, it’s true,” she said, staring at Maddoc. Then she looked at me. “How?”

“I got lucky,” I said. I filled her in on what else I’d found at his house, and she put a hand on my arm, trying to comfort me. We both turned to look at Maddoc.

“I’ll send a crew for cleanup,” she said. “And we’ll deal with any funeral arrangements. Did he have anyone else?”

I shook my head. “Not that I know of.” We stood in silence for a while, watching the guards working on Maddoc. “I’m going to need answers out of him,” I said quietly.

“I know.”

“I’m going to need some leeway. Preferably without Amy all over me about his rights.”

“I’ll make sure you get it. Just don’t kill him,” she added in a quieter tone.

“I won’t.”

She looked at me dubiously.

“He’s no good to me dead. There might be more to get out of him, and I’d be really pissed if I realized that after he was already dead.”

Portia shook her head. She opened her mouth, then closed it and shook her head a little. “I don’t want to know,” she said.

“Nope.”

“He’s pretty beat up,” she said. “Are you okay?”

I nodded. “He’s mostly that beat up because I was trying to get answers out of him and, you know, he’s stupid so he wasn’t giving anything at first.”

“Just admit that you kind of enjoyed hitting him. I know I would.”

I laughed, and it turned into a wince. Which, of course, she noticed.

“You
are
hurt.”

“I’m fine. He got a couple of good hits in. I just need some sleep.”

“Go to the med wing.”

“I—“

“Look, I am mostly fine with not knowing what the hell you’re doing out there. But the fact is that you’re on my team, and I need you in top form and you can’t be if you’re in pain at something as benign at laughing. Get your ass to the med wing now.”

I gave her a sharp salute. “Yes, ma’am,” I said, and she rolled her eyes. I picked my mask up from the table I’d set it on. “I’d feel better with closer eyes on him considering what happened last time,” I said.

“I’ll have someone at this end of the wing 24/7. No way is that mess happening again.”

I nodded. “Thanks.”

“Med bay then sleep,” she called as I started walking away, and I waved at her over my shoulder.

I got to the med wing, and Dr. Ali, who was the team’s head doctor, surgeon, and all around medical genius, was on duty. She shook her head and whisked me into a room. I peeled my uniform off and she had me strip down to my underclothes. I explained what happened and she felt around a little. When she pressed on my ribcage, I drew in a harsh breath.

“Okay. X-ray,” she called out to someone else, and a moment later someone was waving this weird wand-thing over me.

“Stop fidgeting,” Dr. Ali murmured, her eyes on the screen that, I guess, was displaying whatever the x-ray wand was capturing. I tried to stay still, but then I looked up to see Ryan standing in the doorway, watching me.

“Three broken ribs,” Dr. Ali said, shaking her head. “What did you do, get into a fight with a Mack truck?”

“Something like that,” I said, my eyes still on Ryan. Dr. Ali turned, noticing him, then looked back at me.

“Do you want him to leave?” she asked me, and I shook my head. Ryan seemed to take that as an invitation to come in. He stood near the other side of the bed.

“I’m going to tape your ribs. It’s all I can do, and I’m counting on the quick recovery you all seem to have to do the rest. I’m also keeping you overnight for observation.”