Disruptor (24 page)

“Nah. Had a lead about a Russian girl just
started working at a strip joint in Cabrini but it wasn’t her.”

“How’s Sveta holding up?”

“She’s pissed. If it were up to her, every
last Bratva soldier in the city would be dead.”

“Hard to argue with that.” Dani knew from
bloodlust. Damn right. Even knowing it would cost her Kevin, the
temptation to kill bad men like Bessonov was strong.

“I don’t want a war. That’s not good for my
community or my business. I just want to find this Tatiana girl and
keep her out of trouble.”

“Tell you what, Miles. You keep looking for
Tatiana, and leave trouble to me.”

Housecat leveled a finger at her. “You’re not
allowed to call me that.”

“It’s a nice name.”

“Yeah, at least it’s not generic, like
Ghost.”

Dani took a pen and a sticky note pad from
his desk and wrote the number to her cell phone. “Call me if you
get anything.”

“I’m not your sidekick.”

“No, I already got one of those,” she said as
she walked to the window. “You’re an informant.” She smiled
sweetly. “Miles.”

“Get outta my place.”

Once back on the street, Dani checked the
time on her phone. Still another couple of hours before Kevin would
be finished for the night at the shelter. She scrolled through the
hashtag, looking for something to keep her occupied.

Dani didn’t know what she was doing. She’d
been trained to fight at the lab, and they’d tried to train her to
follow orders with far less success. But searching for a missing
person, or a bad guy for that matter, and doing any kind of
investigative work – those were not things she’d learned. She had
no idea how to do any of that. Asking for help bothered her less
and less. She just wished she could do more than throw a punch.

Something new popped up on the hashtag and
suddenly throwing punches seemed like the perfect plan.

Come get your bitch #cabrinighost

Attached to the tweet was a picture of
Tatiana.

The phone buzzed with an incoming call,
startling Dani.

“You seeing this shit?” It was Housecat.

“Yeah.”

“Bessonov wants to take you out. I hope you
got an army to go with that sidekick.”

“Got any idea where I can find him?”

“Last time any of my people saw him, he was
headed into Lincoln Heights.”

“Where your people can’t follow without
risking a war with the Bratva.” Shit. She really did need her own
crew. “Can you at least text me the addresses of some hangouts for
the Russians?”

“On it.”

She ended the call and took off for Lincoln
Heights. Would Bessonov want to make it hard for her to find him?
Dani didn’t think so. The better question was, would he want backup
or would he want to take her on by himself? She wasn’t afraid to
face a bunch of Bratva soldiers but she knew she had a better
chance of getting Tatiana out alive if she went one on one against
Bessonov. He would know that too, but what would his ego
demand?

Three text messages chimed in rapid
succession. Dani read the addresses from Housecat and did a quick
internet search for directions to the first. It was a private club
in a brick building with boarded up windows and an armed guard on
both the front door and the back. There was no way in she could
discern that didn’t involve a fight from the word go.

The ability to see through walls would have
been a nice enhancement. Whatever, this place didn’t feel right.
People were going in and out wearing date night clothes and music
seeped out every time the guard opened the door. Not the place for
a showdown. She moved on to the next address, a bar and pool hall
with a quieter clientele but nearly as busy. The third address was
two blocks from the brownstone she’d torn through just days
ago.

The smell of smoke still permeated the area.
Images of that night flashed through Dani’s mind. How many did she
kill? God, she couldn’t even remember what the news reports said
about it. Or maybe she just didn’t want to. Her feet moved her
toward the spot before her brain could exercise veto power. What
was left of the building was a black hulk of caved-in brick and
debris marked by fire, water, and smoke damage. Dani stood in the
street, not far from where she’d climbed into Kevin’s car, and
stared. Forced herself to remember.

Two shots center mass in one man.

The same in another.

One to the head.

Again.

Again.

Again.

A length of rebar planted in one man’s
chest.

More once she’d reached the brownstone’s
ground floor.

Thirteen dead in gangland violence
,
read the headline.

Thirteen.

Jesus. She’d killed thirteen people. They
were criminals, yes. Human traffickers. Still, that didn’t give her
a pass to take their lives. To take the law into her own hands.
She’d killed them, not to save herself or anyone else. She could
have gotten out of there before it got so out of hand. She could
have made different choices. Instead, she’d let rage and a thirst
for vengeance turn her into a murderer. The lab, using her as a
test subject without her consent. The traffickers who’d sold her to
the lab. The foster parents whose horrific betrayal of trust sent
her into the streets. Those were the origins of her rage, but she
couldn’t blame them for the deaths any more than she could blame
them for her leaving Molly. She, Dani, had committed these sins,
and she had to atone for them.

She dropped to her hands and knees in the
middle of the street and vomited. Thirteen people. She was a
murderer. A killer. How could she ever atone for that? She should
find a police station and turn herself in. The thought of it made
her stomach heave again. Because the cops wouldn’t keep her long.
The lab would send someone and she’d belong to them again. Maybe it
was selfish and wrong, but that was a nightmare she couldn’t
stand.

Dani straightened and wiped her mouth on her
sleeve. She didn’t want to be a killer. That was why she’d escaped
from the lab in the first place, so she wouldn’t be sent on
missions that required her to kill. They’d decided that’s what
she’d be best at, and here she’d gone and proved them right. Hot,
sickening shame filled her. She didn’t want them to be right about
her. She was more than just a killer, she had to be.

An electric snap sounded, followed by a
buzzing rattle. The sound of a stun gun. Next came a muffled cry of
pain.

Bessonov was close and he had Tatiana with
him.

Dani stood. Fine-tuned her hearing to
pinpoint their location. The electric buzz came again and she had
it – the house directly across the street from the brownstone.
Trash littered the small patch of overgrown yard. A corner of the
roof dipped inward precariously. The windows were boarded up, the
façade covered in swirls of graffiti. Definitely abandoned, maybe
used by squatters if they weren’t run off by the Russians. She
circled the house on stealthy feet, checking entrances and exits,
listening carefully.

They were on the second floor, in a room in
the back left corner of the house. Sneaking in was unlikely to
work. The place was made of rotted wood, guaranteed to creak and
crackle with every step. So why bother skulking around? She had
speed too, so why not use it? She double checked their location
then moved back across the street to give herself some room.

Her personal best in the lab’s training
facility was a two-minute mile. A speed of thirty miles an hour.
Since her escape she hadn’t gotten near that fast, mostly so she
wouldn’t be noticed. Right now there were no witnesses and someone
who needed help, so Dani pushed herself into running at
super-speed.

It took barely any effort at all to get that
fast. Dani crashed through the front door, leaving it splintered
and hanging on its hinges. The walls were a blur. She took the
stairs two at a time, barely feeling them under her feet. A short
hall, another door left damaged, and she found herself face to face
with Ilya Bessonov once more.

The stun gun lay forgotten on the floor. He
held Tatiana to him with a knife at her throat, a line of blood
already welling under the sharp edge. Her eyes were wide with fear,
face drained of color.

“You got my message,” he said.

Dani activated the camera in her left eye and
snapped a photo with a blink. “Sorry it took me so long to get
here. You didn’t include an address.”

“Couldn’t make it too easy. Where’s the fun
in that?” He sank his fingers deep into the flesh at the juncture
of Tatiana’s neck and shoulder. The girl cried out and struggled
against his grip. The movement caused the knife to bite into her
skin, sending red trickling down her neck.

“You got me here,” Dani said. “Let her go and
we’ll finish what we started the other night.” The only thing
harder for her than downloading was bringing the video camera
online and keeping it going. Dani did it now, struggling with the
interface for a moment and hoping like hell it didn’t show in her
face.

“We’ll get to that.” He shoved Tatiana to her
knees, one hand on her shoulder and the other holding the knife at
the back of her neck. “You killed a lot of my friends that night.
And for what?” He jerked on Tatiana’s hair. “Trash like this?”

“Goddamn it, she’s a person.” Anger uncoiled
like a waking cat.

“So were they, you bitch,” he snarled,
pulling harder on Tatiana’s hair until he got a sharp cry from her.
The sound of her pain brought a smile to his face. “This bitch is
property. Until her debt is paid, she belongs to us.”

Dani’s breath came in ragged puffs. Keep the
anger down, she thought. And her own guilt. Those things weren’t
important right now. Keep him talking and keep the video recording,
until she could safely get Tatiana away from him.

“Who’s us? Your Bratva pals? You’re just a
soldier for them. Why so loyal?”

“Just a soldier?” Bessonov spat, his own
anger bubbling to the surface. “We are a brotherhood. There is no
just
to it.”

Dani shook her head. “Some brotherhood you
got there, making money by luring girls into sex trafficking. So
how’s this work? Bring them into the country with promises of
modeling contracts, then put them to work as prostitutes? Is that
it?”

“They owe a debt to us for bringing them
here. If the pretty ones work it off on their backs, so what?
Better than the shit holes they came from.”

“You come from a shit hole too? Because you
stink of it.” Her body shook, rage trying to get the best of
her.

Bessonov yanked on Tatiana’s hair hard enough
to move her body backward several inches. He leveled the knife at
Dani and said, “You’ll stink of blood and piss by the time I’m done
with you.”

She could take him now. She was fast enough,
and he was as distracted by his anger as she was fueled by hers.
But she had more in mind than just a beatdown. “That’s a shitty way
to run a business, what you did. Those two girls Polina and Masha
can’t earn money for your pathetic brotherhood since you killed
them.”

“It was worth killing them just to keep other
bitches in line. Nobody runs and gets away with it. You run, you
wind up dead like those two.” He released Tatiana’s hair and
smacked the back of her head so that she fell forward onto all
fours. “Like this one, and that bitch who thinks she’s safe in
Belmont.” He waved the knife at Dani. “Like you, for getting in my
way.”

Dani launched herself at him. She batted away
the knife easily and knocked him to the ground. His head bounced
off the floor and he was slow to get up. Dani took advantage of
that and rushed to Tatiana. “Sveta’s in Belmont,” she whispered.
“Go to a club called Dirty South and ask for Housecat. You’ll be
safe there.”

Tatiana tried to speak but she was shaking
too hard. Dani touched her shoulder. “Go!”

Bessonov rolled over and struggled to sit up,
blood seeping down his forehead. That was all the motivation
Tatiana needed. She ran from the room. Dani kept her hearing
focused to make sure the girl got away with no problems. Her
attention momentarily occupied, she didn’t see Bessonov swipe the
knife at her leg until it was almost too late.

The knife edge slid across her leg just above
the shaft of her boot, the reinforced denim of her jeans keeping
her skin safe. She was going to have to thank Kevin for that. She
kicked Bessonov, the steel toe of her boot making contact with the
inside of his wrist. He screamed, dropping the knife.

“You’re no hero.” Holding his wrist, he
climbed unsteadily to his feet. “All those bullshit stories.
Beating up muggers and saving little girls. The truth is, you’re no
better than me. You’re a killer, too.” He laughed. “They shouldn’t
call you Ghost. They should call you Killer.”

Dani curled her hands into fists. “Shut your
fucking mouth.”

“The Cabrini Killer. Yeah, I like the sound
of that.”

Something snapped inside Dani. She sent the
Russian into the wall with one vicious punch. The drywall caved
under his weight and he perched awkwardly, half sitting in the
wall, head lolling to one side.

“That’s right, killer. Just like that.”
Bessonov spat blood then laughed.

Dani put everything she had into a right
hook, then a left. The first blow broke his nose, the second opened
an ugly cut over his cheekbone. It reverberated through her
knuckles, all the way to a place inside full of rage and hate and
shame.

“You killed thirteen people that night.
That’s more than I’ve killed.”

She grabbed him by the throat, pulled him out
of the wall, then pummeled him repeatedly. One hit after another,
until his face began to resemble hamburger and her hand
throbbed.

“You might even make me number fourteen
tonight.” He grinned, lips and teeth covered in blood. “But those
two bitches will still be dead.”