Page 85 of Lust
Her lips flattened into a hard line.
“Friends of the Lazarus family,” she said.
The tip of his gun lowered on instinct. She became a blur of action. He blinked, the rain poured, and then he was on the ground disarmed with a forearm held against his throat, cutting his air. A forkedsaidangled from her hand, perilously close to his face. He hadn’t even seen her draw the weapon. If she wanted him dead, the point would be in his throat, and his next of kin would be getting a visit from a uniformed officer.
He held his palms up in surrender. She eased the pressure.
“You’re no friend,” he accused.
A slight curve tilted her lips. “They just don’t know it yet.”
And then she was gone.
Fuck.
He scrambled around for his gun. Found it. Got to his knees and scoured his surroundings, blinking through the downpour. Gone. The ninja with the crucifix and red face mask was gone.
Jesus Christ.What the hell was going on?
He pulled out his cell, intending to call the number he’d taken from Lilo, but before he’d had a chance to dial, the phone was knocked from his hand. Twisting around, he lifted his gun, then lowered it.
One of the Seven loomed over him, virtually twice the size of the ninja, in a Deadly suit, but not the same one they’d worn before. This looked like beaten up leather. Strapped to his chest was a weapon’s brace. A sword hilt and the handles of some other stick weapon peeked over his broad, muscular shoulders. Not Sloan, then. Purple face mask. From the scowl of disapproval in his eyes, Joe guessed it was Parker.
“Are you insane?” Voice modification failed to hide the note of derision in his tone. “The light from your cell marked your position. You’re lucky it was me.”
Fuck offdanced on Joe’s tongue, but there was no time for tempers.
“A woman in a ninja outfit,” he said, pointing to the plant. “There was a crucifix on the front of her clothes.”
Parker cursed loudly. “Sinner. They’re here.” He whipped his gaze back to Joe. “You see any more of us, warn them the Hildegard Sisterhood is here.”
“She said she was—”
Parker ran off.
“—your friend,” he finished to the air.
Goddammit.
These assholes had no idea how to work as a cohesive unit. Communication was key, yet they all worked on their own prerogative. They would fail if they couldn’t trust each other.
If two had already gone, the chances he’d get through unseen were getting better by the second. Joe trusted the guards had been taken out. He wasn’t waiting anymore.
He jogged closer to the plant. Halfway to the outbuildings, he heard a sound he’d never forget. Liza’s blood-curdling scream.
Joeran.
Gunshots started firing.Pop. Pop. Pop.
He kept running. Only a few more feet to the safety of the buildings.
The roar of a motorcycle grew louder behind him. His heart leaped into his throat. He was surrounded. The silhouette of a soldier above the warehouse spotted him. Raised his rifle. And fired.
Crack!
Joe shut his eyes. Nothing. He should be dead. In pain. He patted down his front, wet from the rain, and frowned. Even with kevlar, he’d feel the hit. The motorcycle roared past. Joe glimpsed two dark-clad riders, the one at the rear stared intensely at Joe, his hand out and making a fist. Blue face mask. Joe looked back to his front with a gasp, hardly able to believe his own eyes. Suspended before his face, catching drops of rain, was a spinning bullet halted by an unseen force—Greed.
The bullet dropped impotently to the dirt.Holy shit.
