Phantom Warriors: Linx (3 page)

Tabby
rubbed the back of her hand on her pants’ leg,
then
scowled at him. “Don’t do that again,” she hissed like an angry kitten. “I’m
not one of those bimbos you hooked up with in the club.”

“I--”
was all he managed to get out before she backed away.

“If
you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay away from the Molotov Club. Sergei
won’t forget what you’ve done,” she said. “He’s a vindictive bastard that gets
off on hurting people. Kind of comes with the job description.” Tabitha turned
to leave, but stopped short. “Why did Boris call you,
Tchort
?”

Linx
frowned in confusion. “I know not what that means.”

Her
eyes narrowed. “It means ‘Dark God’ or devil. Though I think in this context,
Boris was calling you a demon.”

“Perhaps
he was referring to my devilish appearance.” He waggled his eyebrows.

Tabby
scowled. “Yeah, I don’t think so.”

Linx
shrugged. “I do not know him, but Boris struck me as a superstitious man, who’d
be afraid of his own shadow if it tapped him on the shoulder.”

She
rubbed the back of her neck. “That’s probably it,” she said, but it didn’t
sound like she believed him. “See
ya
.” Tabby walked
away.

“Where
are you going?” Linx called after her.

“Home,”
she said. “You should do the same.”

Tabby
left him standing on the sidewalk. Not only had she brushed away his kiss,
she’d also dismissed him.
Linx had never been dismissed by a
woman in his life
. Not even when he was young and inexperienced. He
watched her fade into the distance. And decided he didn’t like it or her one
bit.

*
* * * *

Chapter
Three

Sergei
Belovich
watched Tabitha Shelley pull the man out the
door. He’d had a bad feeling about the guy ever since he’d laid eyes on him.
His suspicions rose, when the man intervened on Tabitha’s behalf. Were they
working together?

He
wouldn’t put anything past her. She was determined to get her beloved sister
away from him. She still didn’t understand that once someone was his, they
stayed his until he
let
them go. The
woman was becoming a pain in his ass. Sergei should’ve killed her long ago. It
would’ve made controlling Taylor much easier.

The
spot between his shoulder blades itched. A sure sign that trouble was on the
way. Was it the stranger who’d only moments ago tried to walk out the back door
with two of his strippers? Or was something else coming?

Sergei’s
mother had always told him that Romanian gypsy blood ran through his veins. He
hadn’t believed her until that same itch saved him from a bullet. Now he paid
attention.

He
didn’t like the man. Sergei could’ve easily chalked the whole thing up to
jealousy, given the man’s striking good looks, but that wasn’t it. Something
about him seemed
off
.

A
cold breeze brushed past him and Sergei turned expecting to see someone
standing behind him, but no one was there. His eyes narrowed as he carefully
scanned the smoky bar to locate the cause of his sudden unease. Other than the
regulars, who’d been coming in for years, nobody stood
out.

Sergei
tried to shake off the feeling of being watched, but it clung to him like a
maggot on rotting flesh. He surveyed the room once more, then turned back to
the woman he’d been bedding for the last few months. He still enjoyed Taylor’s
body, but he didn’t appreciate the baggage she brought with her or her clinginess.

She
was getting too attached and that wouldn’t do. He demanded compliance and
monogamy from his women, but emotions complicated things. Sergei didn’t do
emotions. He’d learned that lesson from his mother early on. And monogamy,
well, that was one-sided, too.

Sergei
rolled his shoulders as the hair on his neck prickled. His flame-haired pet
looked at him expectantly as he returned to his seat. “Your sister is bad for
business,” he said softly, but he saw her flinch all the same. “I can’t have
her coming in here causing a scene.”

“I’ll
talk to her. That’s all she wants.” Taylor petted his arm in a soothing fashion,
though the touch did little to douse his temper. “I’m sure once I do, she’ll
leave you—leave us—alone.” She scooted closer, allowing her ample
bosom to brush against his chest.

Sergei
rubbed a knuckle along her soft cheek and felt his cock tighten. She really was
beautiful. Fortunately, there were many more like her in the world. “I’ve
already given you enough time. You said you’d handle her and you haven’t. Now
it’s my turn.”

Tears
filled her hazel green eyes. “Please Sergei, give me another chance. I know I
can get through to her.” She choked back a sob.

He
grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled it tight. Taylor whimpered, but did
not cry out. He’d taught her not to, no matter how bad the pain got. “For you,
pet, I’ll do this one thing, but it will cost you because
nothink
in this world is for free.”

“Whatever
you want, baby.” She gulped and nodded quickly. “I understand.”

“Do
you?” He yanked harder on her hair.

“Yes,”
she hissed.

“Good.”
Sergei said, but he had no intention of keeping his word. He looked over Taylor’s
head at Boris and nodded. Boris’s jaw tightened, but he nodded back,
then
walked over to the two men seated at the bar.

*
* * * *

Linx
remained invisible as he listened to the man’s conversation with Tabby’s sister.
He had snuck back into the club to see if the furor had died down. He thought
it had…until he approached Sergei’s table.

It
was uncanny how much Taylor looked like her sister, Tabitha. They weren’t
identical, but their mannerisms were similar. But that’s where the resemblance
ended. Tabitha was a fighter. Linx couldn’t imagine her putting up with being manhandled
like Taylor was doing. She barely whimpered, which meant Sergei had been
abusing her for a while. Or maybe, she was the type of woman who liked it
rough. He certainly did on occasion.

Linx
watched her plead with Sergei to leave Tabitha alone. He’d agreed, but
something in that look raised his hackles. Sergei didn’t seem like a man used
to keeping his word. Linx left the spot he’d been standing in and walked over
to Boris. He didn’t understand the language Boris was speaking, but he caught
the words
ten minutes
. His whole body
tensed. Something was very wrong. He could feel it on the air, even without the
use of his whiskers.

The
two men rose from their bar stools ten minutes later. Tall, heavy and oddly
lacking any discernable necks, the men ambled out the door. Linx may not have
understood what they were saying, but some things—like danger, were
universal. He was determined to follow them.

Linx
slipped into the car with the men. The man in the passenger seat kept looking
over his shoulder as if he sensed his presence in the back seat.

“What’s
wrong, Alexei?” the driver asked.

Alexei
rolled his shoulders. “
Nothink
.”
His accent thick with nerves.

“Then
why do you keep looking behind us? Are we being tailed?” The man shot a glance
into the review mirror. “I don’t see anyone.”

Alexei
shook his head. “I told you it was
nothink
, Viktor. I just want to get this over with.”

“Do
you have the address?” Viktor asked.

“Da.”
Alexei punched it into the car’s navigation system.

Linx
sat quietly, staring out the window as the city rushed by him. The men hadn’t
spoken since they put in the address and he preferred it that way. He’d only
studied English and had no idea what language they were speaking. He could
bring out his translation device, but they didn’t seem the type to spill
anything important.

The
men drove for thirty minutes. The skyscrapers faded into a quiet neighborhood
dotted with small colorful homes. They turned right on Tulip Street,
then
slowed to a stop.

Linx
wasn’t sure what they were waiting for, but like all hunters, he was patient.
The men stared at a peach colored house on the left-hand side of the street. When
the light in the front of the house switched off, they made their move.

*
* * * *

Tabby
had been studying her lock picking ‘how to’ books for the past hour and half.
The instructions were clear. She was pretty sure she could now pick a basic
lock. If today had proven one thing to her, it was that she wasn’t going to get
to her sister through a frontal assault. There was no doubt Taylor had seen
her. Tabby had noted her twin’s wide panicked eyes a second before Boris blocked
her view and lifted her off the ground.

In
her heart, she’d begged Taylor to come to her rescue. Instead, her twin had
grabbed Sergei’s arm and all but climbed onto his lap, ignoring the chaos
happening at the front door of the club.

It
had been a slap in the face to Tabby. Made worse when Sergei had shoved her
sister aside and started across the room. She shuddered to think what would’ve
happened if Linx hadn’t intervened.

Suddenly
an image of her dark-haired, blue-eyed savior flashed in her mind. Boris was
right to call him
Tchort
.
He was a dark god.
A demon in black jeans.
Once she’d
gotten a good look at Linx, Tabby had been determined to ignore her attraction
to him. And it had worked for all of a minute.

She
knew she’d done the right thing by sending him away, but for some reason it
still bothered her. Not that she would’ve ultimately said or done anything to
act upon her attraction. She wasn’t like her sister.

Instead,
Tabby used Taylor’s rotten taste in men as a ‘What Not To Do’ guide for her own
life. If she found herself really attracted to a man, Tabby considered it an
ominous sign and ran the other way.

She
didn’t date bad boys. She wasn’t drawn to dangerous men. The fact that Linx
tempted her to break her steadfast rules was an
anomaly
. One she’d just as soon forget. Give her a boring,
unattractive man any day of the week and she’d jump at the chance to date him.
Unlike Taylor, Tabby prided herself for being in control of her hormones and
her personal life.

 
“What personal life?” Tabby snorted. Ever
since her twin had hooked up with the Russian mobster, her life had been in a
tailspin. She’d spent the last six months trying to sort through the mess that
was Taylor. Six months? More like twenty-six years.

Had
it really been that long? Tabby’s shoulders sagged. She was tired. Tired of
this dance that she and Taylor had been doing. Tired of always being the
responsible twin. Tired of always coming to the rescue, when her sister messed
up. When would it be enough? When would she get a chance to have a life?

Like
so many relationships before, Taylor had convinced herself that she loved
Sergei and that he loved her back. She was the only one who couldn’t see that
she was being used. Bad enough that her sister had began stripping for the
mobster.

The
Taylor that Tabby knew would never do that, not without being heavily
influenced.

Tabby
hated that she was beginning to question whether she really knew her twin at
all.

Stripping
was bad enough, but it was only a matter of time before Sergei talked Taylor
into running drugs for him. That’s what he’d done with his last girlfriend and
look what had happened to her. Tabby’s mind flashed to the photo of the young
woman, who’d been found bludgeoned and tossed into a dumpster. He’d discarded
her like garbage because to him, she was trash.

She
couldn’t let Sergei do that to her twin. If she couldn’t reach Taylor directly,
then Tabby would just have to find proof of Sergei’s illegal activities. Maybe
if she had enough proof to take to the police, they’d finally be able to arrest
Sergei. She looked at the lock-picking kit next to her instruction book. What
was that old adage? It takes a thief to catch a mobster or something like that.
There was more than one way to save her sister.

Tabby
turned the light off.
 
She had made
it halfway down the hall, when something crashed through her front door into
her living room. She turned her head to see the unmistakable silhouette of
Viktor and Alexei, standing in the darkness.

Tabby’s
heart hit her knees,
then
ricocheted into her throat.
She raced back down the hall toward the kitchen, her sock-covered feet silent
on the carpet. Her only hope was to reach the backdoor before the men spotted
her.

“I
take bedrooms. You search rest of house. She’s here somewhere,” Alexei said in
a thick muddled accent.

Viktor
grunted.

Tabby
felt along the countertop, until she found her kettle. It was still hot from
the tea that she’d had earlier. She waited, trying to hear over the blood
pounding in her ears. The door to the kitchen slowly opened. Tabby didn’t
hesitate. She slammed the kettle against Viktor’s head, sending hot water
careening over his face.