Phantom Warriors: Linx (2 page)

“I
said, put her down,” Linx repeated. This time he allowed the threat to hang in
the air.

Boris
unceremoniously dropped the woman he’d called Tabitha. She landed on her hands
and knees with a thud. “You should’ve left it alone. Now I’m going to have to
ask you to leave, too.” The bouncer reached out to grab Linx, but he was no
longer standing where he’d been only seconds before. “What the?” The bouncer jerked
his head around to find him.

Linx
leaned against the bar, waiting for the big man to locate him. He felt more
than saw the two men at the bar rise from their stools. The gun oil clinging to
their skin tickled his nose. He glanced over his shoulder and gave them a
warning glare. The men tensed, then looked over at the man who’d been sitting
against the wall. Fighting with humans was almost too easy to bother with. Linx
knew he could have all of them disarmed in seconds.

From
the corner of his eye, he saw Tabitha slowly stand and brush off her hands. She
truly did have glorious hair. His fingers itched to touch it, to see if it was
as soft as it looked, though he didn’t know why.

Other
than her long locks, the woman was utterly unremarkable. He glanced at her,
then at Nadia and Eva, whom
he’d
left standing by the
back door. The dancers were definitely more his type, but for some reason he
couldn’t abandon her. She
needed
him.

Boris’s
eyes narrowed, when his gaze landed on Linx. “How did you get over there?”

Linx’s lips quirked.
“Given your lack of speed, it wasn’t
hard.”

The
bouncer’s face flushed with blood and he glanced toward Sergei. He must’ve
gotten some kind of cue because the bouncer nodded, then took a swing at Linx’s
head.

Linx
caught his arm, stopping the motion with one hand. “You really don’t want to
fight me.” He could feel the shift burning through him and fought hard to tamp
it down. Linx had no doubt his eyes were glowing as his beast peered out at his
would be opponent.

“What
are you?” Boris strained to break his hold.

“A
man,” Linx said.

“You
are no man. Release me,
Tchort
.”
Boris spat. Sweat broke out across his brow and he trembled. The rank odor of
fear reached Linx’s nostrils. The beast inside of him perked up even more.
Instead of giving in to the fear, the bouncer blustered on. “Do you have any
idea who owns this bar? You’re bringing a whole lot of trouble down on your
head, and for what? Some chick that you don’t even know?”

Linx
stilled. He was right. Why was he fighting for a woman he cared nothing about?
Perplexed, Linx released him and turned to walk away.

“Watch
out!” Tabitha cried, but it was too late.

Boris’s
meaty fist caught him upside his temple and spun him around. Linx shook his
head and a growl rumbled from his chest. He took a step toward the bouncer,
intending to show him how a Phantom Warrior fights, but the woman with the
glorious hair stopped him.

“Are
you insane? Let’s go!” Tabitha yanked him by the arm. Her warm touch sank into Linx’s
muscles and sent an odd shock zinging down his spine.

She
looked over his shoulder, fear widening her dark brown eyes. Linx followed her
gaze. Sergei now held the weapon he’d smelled earlier and was marching toward
them.

Linx
wasn’t concerned, but it was more than obvious that Tabitha was, since her
scent soured. He wrinkled his nose and let her lead him away. Linx stopped at
the door and glanced back wistfully. The two dancers he’d planned to bed didn’t
follow. He watched the women hurry out the backdoor as Sergei approached, their
names already fading from his memory.

*
* * * *

Chapter
Two

Tabitha
Shelley released the stranger she’d dragged out of the bar,
then
kept walking. She didn’t check to see if he would follow. Now that he was safe,
she didn’t care.

What
was he thinking? He could’ve been killed.

She
covered two more blocks, listening to the sound of her labored breathing and
pounding heart. Tabby turned back to make sure that she wasn’t being followed
and was surprised to see the man right behind her. He was so quiet that she’d thought
he’d bailed on her.

In
the dark, he’d been handsome, but in the fading sunlight the man was positively
stunning. His denim blue eyes practically glittered, when they narrowed on her.

“Sorry
about that whole mess.” Tabby wasn’t sure what else to say. She’d really
botched this one. And she’d been so sure that her ruse would work.

If she hadn’t heard her sister laugh,
then she might’ve made it.
The sound of Taylor had caused her to raise her head, giving sharp-eyed,
dimwitted Boris Chernov enough time to recognize her. All she’d been able to do
was catch a glimpse of Taylor sitting next to Sergei
Belovich
,
a
brigadier
in the Russian mob, before
Boris stopped her.

It
hadn’t helped that she’d also been distracted by the sudden appearance of the
stranger. She stared at him. He had a face worthy of distraction and a body to
match. And from that swoon-inducing smile he was giving her, there was no doubt
that he knew it.

Yet,
he had to be more than a pretty face. Truly shallow people only looked out for
themselves. They didn’t jump in to rescue complete strangers. And they
certainly couldn’t make it seem like it was something they did every day. Which
meant he was either too stupid to live or he had ties to the mob.

Was
it possible that he was a
Pakhan
? He didn’t look like a typical mob boss. She glanced
at his forearms. He didn’t appear to have any tattoos. Maybe he was a
Brigadier
like Sergei and worked as an
intermediary controlling the criminal cells for the boss? But that didn’t seem
likely either, since Sergei preferred to take care of business himself. He
wouldn’t ask someone to step in for him, would he? Was he a new enforcer?

Tabby
felt the blood drain from her face as she took a step back to really look at her
rescuer.

His
black T-shirt hugged plentiful muscles, leaving little to the imagination. The
top had been paired with matching jeans and military grade combat boots. Unless
he’d shoved a gun into his snug pants, he wasn’t armed.

Tabby
glanced at the front of his pants and suddenly wished that she hadn’t. Her mind
flashed to the two strippers he’d been with. That explained his current
condition. Or maybe he just got off on fighting. Either way, her gut told her
that he was trouble. The sooner she dumped him, the better off she’d be. But
before she did that, she needed to know a few things.

“What
were you thinking back there?” she asked.

His
dark brow arched. “I could ask you the same thing. From what I could tell, you
have had zero combat training.” His voice had no discernable accent as he
chided her.

Definitely
not from around here or Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, where the Russian mob made
their US home base. Could be that he’d come in from California, but his skin
didn’t have the color of someone who’d spent a lot of time in the sun.

Tabby’s
face flushed. “I know plenty about fighting.” She’d been fighting to get her
twin sister back from Sergei for over six months now. But of course, that
wasn’t what he’d meant.

He
stepped closer. “Then why didn’t you fight, when he picked you up? There were
plenty of moves that could’ve incapacitated him.”

Her
hands settled on her hips. “Not sure if you noticed, but Boris is huge. Hulk
huge.” Besides whatever maneuver he was referring to
hadn’t
been covered in the hand-to-hand combat books that she’d read. Of course, Tabby
couldn’t exactly tell him that. He could be working for Sergei or one of the
other bosses in the area. So she said the first thing that popped into her
head. “He caught me off guard.”

The
man snorted in disbelief.

“It’s
true. I’ll prove it,” she said. “Try to choke me.” Tabby braced herself,
then
motioned to her throat.

He
blinked slowly. “What?”

“I
said try to choke me.” She made the universal sign for choking.

His
brow furrowed. “I will do no such thing. You are a woman.”

Tabby
rolled her eyes. “I’m surprised you noticed given the acute case of silicon
boob blindness you seemed to be suffering from when I came into the club.”

*
* * * *

Linx
didn’t know exactly what she meant, but he could tell from her tone that she’d
just insulted him. So this was the thanks he got for saving her. It wasn’t his
fault that he hadn’t known she was a woman until her hat fell off. He glared at
her. She dressed like a man and screeched like a Harpy.

Until
now, he hadn’t encountered any women on Earth like her. And for that he was
eternally grateful. Since one of her on the planet was enough.

He
allowed his gaze to wander. From what he could tell, she didn’t have large,
perfect breasts like the others. Hers were smaller. More compact.
A mouthful at most.
Her thick waist led to hips that were
definitely fuller than the dancers.

Yet,
standing here before him with her burgundy hair glistening in the sunset and
fire burning in her dark brown eyes, he’d never seen a woman look quite so
feminine
. How had he missed the fact
that she was a woman? Maybe he was right about his temporary blindness.

“Why
were you fighting a man three times your size?” he asked.

“I
wasn’t fighting. I was trying to sneak into the club.” She looked at him, her
gaze far too assessing for his comfort.

“Why?”

“That’s
none of your business.”

Linx
tilted his head. “You made it my business, when you cried out and I had to step
in to save you.”

Her
jaw clenched. “I could’ve handled Boris. I just needed more time,” she said. “I
never asked for your help. You took it upon yourself to intervene.”

He
shook his head in amazement. “I suppose that’s true. But the fact that you
didn’t ask for my help either makes you insane or stupid.”

Her
nostrils flared. “I am
not
stupid.”

“So
you’re insane.” That made the most sense given what he’d witnessed of her
behavior thus far.

“Guess
that makes two of us, since you just pissed off an under boss in the Russian
mob,” she said, as if that should mean something to him.

Linx
couldn’t quite figure her out. Tabitha was full of bluff and bluster, yet he
could smell the fear clinging to her pale skin. Like a good soldier, she didn’t
allow it to stop her from her mission. He just couldn’t figure out what kind of
mission a woman like her could be on.

“What
were you doing in there?” he asked, this time using a gentler tone.

She
crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. For several seconds, she
didn’t speak.

“The
sooner you tell me, the sooner I’ll leave you alone,” Linx said.

That
seemed to brighten her mood, which in turn soured his. “I was looking for my
sister.”

He
stiffened. “Was she one of the women I was with?” The idea left him feeling
oddly uncomfortable.

“No.”
Tabitha shook her head, sending her hair into her face. She quickly scooped it
out of the way. “Taylor is Sergei’s girlfriend. At least that’s what he calls
her. She’s more like his sex slave.”

“And
you know this how?” His discomfort grew.

“Because
she won’t return my phone calls. Won’t answer her email,” she said in
frustration.

Linx
frowned at her. “That doesn’t mean that he’s holding her against her will. It
just means that she doesn’t want to speak to you.”

“Do
you have any siblings?”

“No.”

Tabitha
sighed. “Then you wouldn’t understand. Taylor and I are close. We’re twins. We
aren’t identical, but I can sense when something is wrong. And something is
definitely wrong.”

Her
distress bothered Linx. “What is your name?” he asked, though he’d already
knew
the answer.

“Sorry.”
She blushed. “My name is Tabitha. Tabitha Shelley. My friends call me Tabby.”

“Tabitha.”
He let her name slide across his tongue. “Tabby…like the cat?”

She
rolled her eyes again. “Yes.”

He
grinned to himself. “I am called Linx.”

“Like
the cat?” she asked teasingly.

His
smile widened. “Very much so.”

She
held out her hand. “Nice to meet you.”

Linx
took it, but instead of shaking her outstretched hand, he brought it to his
lips and placed a chaste kiss on the back of her knuckles.

“What
are you doing?” Tabby snatched her hand back.

His
brows rose in surprise. Linx had never had that kind of reaction from a woman
before.