Riordan (17 page)

that? Come on, I’m not that stupid. He may not like me, but he’d never tell you to let me be

dead. No more than I would him. I might want to pull the trigger, but never would I let him die.

Where is he now? On the property, I’m betting.”

Tony laughed. Of course she’d know it. “He is. As are most of his team. They took a hit last

week and three are out. Not as badly as yours, but bad.”

“Have them investigated, too.” He nodded, thinking that she’d be right to want that after

this, but he’d already had them looked over. It had been done quietly and privately. “And I’ve

been thinking about something else, too. Danny. I want you to see into his background. It’s just

too pat that he’d come work for me just as this shit is going down.” Tony was surprised by that

but said nothing.

“I had him looked into when I found out that he was working for you.” She told him to look

harder. Making a note to do so, he watched her pace again. “No one but a few know that you’re

involved with the Harrisons. And I’d bring your aunts here, too. No point in letting them be used

against you. As well as I’ve put some people on the Harrison home as well.”

“I’ll take care of them. Call them off. I have someone that owes me, and I’ll talk to him.

Also, I’d like for you to not come back here. Not that I don’t trust you, but you could be hurt in

this.” He nodded. Tony had already thought of that as well. He wanted no one to get hurt in this

unless it was by his order. And he wasn’t ready to order that just yet. He was doing this by the

books, his books.

As she continued, he made notes. Riordan was making them as well, and when he got up

and left them, Storm sat down. She was going to tell him something that he was pretty sure he

didn’t want to know.

“I have two friends that I’m going to bring in to work with Burkhart. When they get here,

he’s going to pitch a fit. But I need to be sure about several things, and these guys can do it.” He

asked her if he knew them. “I don’t think so. Both are vamps that I’ve worked with before.

They’re not nice, rarely have anything nice to say, and are fucking bastards when they don’t get

their way.”

“All right.” He stood up. “I’m going to leave you my drop phone number. I know you know

the drill, but don’t use it more than once, and when you do, I’ll send you the new number.”

“I won’t call you. I’ll send someone.” He nodded, almost afraid to ask her who it would be,

but didn’t get the chance when someone was suddenly in the room. “This is Mason. Don’t fuck

with him and he won’t fuck with you.”

After shaking hands with the man, he knew why he wasn’t to fuck with him. He was an old

and very powerful vampire, despite looking like he was only about twenty, if that. When the man

demanded a taste, Tony wasn’t sure he wanted to give it to him, but Storm told him that was the

only way she would work with him.

The small bite wasn’t painful, but Tony knew that forever this man would be right there with

him. Maybe not physically, but he’d know his every mood, his every thought, and where he was

at all times. That could either be good or deadly. Tony wasn’t looking forward to finding out. A

short time later, they were all sitting down to dinner together, and that was when Burkhardt

showed up.

~~~

Viper moved along the woods. He had been here several times in the last few days, and not

once had he seen the woman or the man that was supposed to be this great love of hers. And he

could no longer rely on his inside man to help him. The man had served his purpose, and now he

was as good dead, which, to Viper’s way of thinking, should have happened months ago.

“She’s not here.” No kidding, he wanted to tell the man on the phone connection in his ear.

“I don’t think she’s coming in while I’m around the building. I’m thinking that she’s got this guy

to fuck now, and the business ain’t appealing as it was before. He’s got himself some big bucks.”

Viper didn’t tell him that Browning could have bought and sold Harrison several times over,

but then he was never one to tell all that he knew. Instead, he watched the building for the old

women. Why they weren’t under some male’s control was beyond him. Women were not to be

left on their own. It was high time that Browning knew that as well. And he was going to take

them today or know the reason why.

When the large vehicle pulled up in front of the building, Viper watched the men get out.

Military. He’d know that even if he didn’t see the guns they carried and the way they were

dressed. They had a way about them that told him that they’d been trained and trained well. And

they would never balk at killing someone if they needed to. Dead was better than living and

wounded.

It was then that he saw her. The picture that he’d been given all those months ago had done

little to tell him that she was beyond beautiful. He already knew that she was smart and cunning.

Viper had made it his business to know all there was to know about the woman. What he knew

about her, however, was very little compared to what he knew was yet to be found. The man that

thought he was directing this take down of the woman had no idea what kind of plans Viper had

for her. Nor did he think she’d be answering any of his questions.

Like, where did she learn to fight like a man? Someone had done her a great disservice to

train her like one of them. And he was going to find that person as soon as she was his. He didn’t

want to have her as a wife. Now that he could see her it was tempting, but she was not his type.

He liked his woman more subservient and mindful of their place. Viper knew that no matter how

many times he beat her, Browning would forever be the wrong kind of woman for him.

And where had her information come from that led to the bombing of his home? There was

no way that she’d figured this out on her own. Women did not have the intelligence to do

something like that. He’d been told that she’d been the one to order the airstrike, as well as the

elimination of the men that had not been killed by the blasts. They had been lined up and

murdered like they were nothing more than dogs that ran the streets.

She was slightly smarter than most women he knew, but she would not have been able to

figure out where to bomb them. And she’d known that he was living there, that he’d been on the

compound when it had happened. Someone was helping her.

“The aunts are leaving the building. I think they’re onto us.” Viper wanted to go to the

man’s hiding place—which was in plain sight as far as he was concerned, and he should have

been found out weeks ago—and kill the man. He was giving him updates on things that he could

see as plainly as he could see his own battered and burned hand.

The two older women came out of the building, and even if he had wanted to make them

dead for even being related to Browning, there was no chance of it happening. They were well

surrounded, in addition to the fact that they did not move as one unit as he’d seen done in this

country. They moved as if they wished to be a moving target, one that would be difficult to

catch. When the Browning woman paused before getting into the vehicle, he stilled.

She was looking right at him, or at the very least in his direction. As she stood there

watching, he tried his best not to move back deeper into the shadows, not to breathe too loudly,

even though there were ten yards or more between them. When she took a step in his direction,

then another and another, he slowly moved his hand down to his weapon and put his hand over

the butt of it. When she stopped, so did he.

There were less than five yards between them now. A mere fifteen feet separated him from

his prey. The woman that had nearly brought his entire army to ruin, the bitch that did not die

when she should have, was close enough to him that he could see the color of her eyes. When

she started forward again, he pulled his weapon free of the holster at his side and held it down.

This time when she stopped, he could see the smirk on her face and hated her all the more for it

and her arrogance.

“I have your scent now, Viper.” The skin on the back of his neck danced. His heart began to

pound all the harder for the quiet deadliness of her words. “I’m coming for you, fuck wad. And

when I find you—and there is no doubt that I will—you are going to suffer terribly at the hands

of a woman. How does that make you feel?”

Viper wanted to shoot her then. Fire upon her body until she was nothing more than a mass

of blood on the ground. But men came to stand beside her, too many for him to kill and get

away. And Viper would get away. Going back to his father to tell him what he’d done was all he

lived for.

She stood there for several more minutes. He knew that should anyone take two more steps

toward him, just small ones at that, he’d be found. Viper was sure of nothing else except that he

did not want to be caught on American soil after what he had done to so many.

Her laughter accompanied her as she backed away. The men went with her, their guns at

their shoulders, their aim on his location even though he was fairly sure that none of them could

see him. But at her command, he also knew that they’d fire until they hit him, and then it would

be over. Viper marveled at her smooth steps back, her innate ability to see where she stepped

without looking, and the way that she was as confident as if she were positive that he was right

where she was looking.

Viper knew then that he was going to enjoy killing her more than he’d ever thought possible.

And when he did, he was going to make sure the world knew that he’d done it. He would be the

most wanted man in the world when he was finished with the bitch Browning.

Moving back into the building that he’d been using for weeks now after they left, he knew

that there would be no way he could return here. Looking around, he didn’t see anything that

would indicate that he’d been here, or anyone for that matter, but he knew that taking care of the

man who worked for him and his cause, as well as her lover, was going to have to be taken care

of soon. Since he knew that access to the old women would be nil now, he had to work another

angle. And that would mean the men in her life.

Burkhardt was pissed. Riordan could see that, but he was pissing him off as well. When she

answered his question a dozen times, even he knew that she’d been bluffing when she’d told

Viper she could smell him.

“I don’t understand why you didn’t just open fire.” Good question the first four times he’d

asked her, but she had already told him why. But when she stood up, he could see that this time

was going to be an entirely different answer.

“And when we went in there and it was a bunch of kids fucking around in the building,

getting high, having sex, what then? I shoot the shit out of them, or you did, and then what the

fuck do you think would have happened then? Huh? Would you be there with me when we had

to explain to not only the police and the Feds what I did, but to the families, too? Oh sure, little

Pavlov had his pants down around his ankles and his dick in Porsche’s ass when they died,

because we didn’t take the time to fucking check the area properly before we opened fire on a

bunch of kids. Guess it sucks to be you. But hey, Burkhardt is fine with that because he’s a shit

head and doesn’t care so long as I tried to kill the bad guy.” Burkhardt glared at him when he

laughed, but Storm wasn’t finished with him as yet. “You are a fucking bastard. Has anyone

pointed that out to you?”

“Yes, my wife.” If asked, Riordan would have thought a woman would have killed him long

ago rather than be married to him, but he did sit down. “Okay, you have a point. But I still want

to know why you thought he was there. There had to be something that made you look in that

particular place.”

“I don’t know. I…you know that when Riordan and his brother Aedan went there, they

could smell him. And lucky for us the bastard left behind a water bottle that he might have drank

out of. We know that the scent on the bottle matches the one where I thought he was. That’s

more than we had before.” Storm got up and went to the makeshift information wall that they’d

put up. She didn’t turn around as she continued. “We also think that Brewer is in on this

somehow. Tony flagged two accounts that he thinks are his. And we have someone watching the

bakery.”

“Yeah, but we know less than we should going into this thing. For all we know he could be

one of your brothers-in-law.”

Riordan was out of his seat in seconds, but he should have just stayed where he was. His

father had moved, too, and had shifted at the same time. He had Burkhardt down on the floor

with his mouth wrapped around his throat, his huge cat pinning him down with his claws in his

chest. Storm moved to kneel down next to them.