Page 383 of Hell Hath No Fury
She tipped her head to one side, eyes big and black as twin voids. “I know everything about the Seven Song Triad. It’s my job to know. I emailed the footage to your R3d W4rr10r account along with an email chain between Murphy, Herald, andsomeone who works for the Triad. You’ll be able to put them away with this.”
After all these months, I finally had what I needed to lay my mum properly to rest, so why did I feel off-kilter and wrong? Why hadn’t she told me any of this in the beginning? Had we truly met by accident or had she sought me out from the beginning?
What in the world did this swan of a girl want with me?
Upstairs, the shouting intensified and there was a sudden, wall tremblingboom.
“We need to leave, now,” I said, shaking myself out of my stupor and resolving to press her for answers later. “Your brother is holding them off.”
She nodded, securing the strap of her bag across her torso. Together, we started jogging up the stairs, but she hesitated before the door, head cocked as if waiting for something.
A moment later, there was an explosion from within her glass cage and a smile flickered at the edges of her mouth.
“Let’s go,” she said, pushing me forward.
I cracked open the door to peer into the hall and was immediately faced with a Chinese man, his gun halfway raised to shoot me. Before I could properly process my response, Aaron’s gun was lifted, its black eye trained on the enemy.
He shouted something in Mandarin before I could get the shot off, but it pierced him through the right side of his chest, taking him to his knees. I hesitated, but Swan didn’t.
She pushed out from behind me, grabbed the still-hot gun and shot the man in the head.
“Come on,” she encouraged, turning on her heel to sprint down the hall, white hair flying like a pennant.
I followed, slinking down the hall to the door to the restaurant.
A massive man covered from fingertips to neck in tattoos with a mess of unruly golden-brown waves scowled at us from the doorway, bulging arms crossed, a gun in each hand.
“You didn’t think to fuckin’ call?” he demanded.
I looked over my shoulder at Swan who blanched at the sight of him before she recovered herself.
“You’ve been through enough. Aaron and I didn’t want to pit you against the Seven,” she picked up the thread of an argument they’d obviously had before.
“So you sent your brother in to get killed bein’ some kinda hero?” he countered with an arched, scarred brow. “You drag this outsider into it instead’a involvin’ people who give a shit.”
“You don’t know me,” she spat, suddenly angry, turning to me with the crazed eyes of a threatened swan about to turn deadly. “Neither of you do.”
“Nah, but I know Aaron,” he declared. “And that’s enough. He’s family, you’re family.”
“You’re not my fucking champion,” she almost spat. “No one is.”
“He might be,” he retorted, jerking his bearded chin at me. “Your brother damn well is. What’s a couple more knights at your round table, huh?”
“I didn’t ask for this,” she said, softly now.
And she looked so small, this girl with such skill and notorious fame. So small and scared I couldn’t help but throw an arm around her shoulders and tuck her into my side, as if I could act like some human shield.
She shivered hard against me and stiffened, but didn’t move away.
The man called Zeus smiled grimly. “Get outta here. Get safe. And when you got space, I hope you get there are people ’ere who’d give a damn ’bout you if you let ’em.”
He started forward with an odd sort of hulking grace, reaching for a fuckinggrenadethat was attached to his belt. He moved passed us, but I turned my head to watch him stalk toward the kitchen.
Swan tugged me forward by the arm with sudden urgency.
Behind us, I heard Zeus shout something before another explosion rocked through the building. Smoke billowed out behind us as we pushed into the dining room.
The same old man sat watching his drama on the little television, but he didn’t stir as we whipped through the room and out the front door.
