Agony, page 19
“This might just work in our favor,” Fisher said when an idea started forming.
“How so?” Crow was the first to jump in.
“I go in and take Boston with me. He might give me the distraction I need to take out Tanis.”
“He’s fucking sixteen,” Steel pointed out.
“So?” Boston sounded belligerent and scared.
Fisher thought quickly. “Then how about Azrael?” The youth had a slender build that Tanis liked and Azrael looked young enough to pull off being younger than he was.
“Another kid?” Viper asked.
“He just turned eighteen,” Fisher said. “And it’s desperate measures. We need to get Mikey and your Steven out of there.”
“Don’t ever let Real know,” Steel muttered.
“Do you think you can pull it off?” Viper asked.
Fisher squeezed Justice’s hand beneath the table. He was proud of the fact that the man had kept his cool and not tried to control everything. He knew it was going to be short-lived when he next spoke.
“I’ll die trying.”
And right on cue, all hell broke loose.
“No fucking way,” Justice snarled.
“It makes sense,” he countered, trying to interrupt the ongoing storm.
“No.” The man’s jaw ticked when a muscle bunched.
Fisher took the man’s hand and led him away from the audience that was gathering.
When they rounded the corner down the long hallway, Fisher shoved Justice against the wall and crowded in close. The man’s hand went to the back of his head, fingers carded into the hair at his nape, but he’d tied it back earlier so the band stopped his searching fingers. He tipped his head back and gazed up into Justice’s face.
“I go in with Azrael, who takes the focus off of me when we get to the bunker, and I take down Tanis after he gets the door opened.”
“What if you’re cuffed?” Justice snarled.
“I’ve gotten out of them.”
“What if it’s zip ties behind your back?” The stubborn tilt of the man’s chin let him know this might take a while and time was not something they had.
“I’m small enough to step through my arms.” He smoothed both palms over Justice’s massive chest. “You trust me, don’t you?”
“Of course.” The man frowned and jerked him closer. “It’s others I don’t trust.”
“I’ll have Crow with me.”
“That does not make me any happier.”
“Why?” he laughed.
“I’ve seen the way he looks at you.”
“He does not,” Fisher snorted and pulled the man’s head down.
“He better not,” Justice said and kissed his mouth.
It wasn’t a long kiss, but it was a possessive one, and Fisher’s stomach did flip-flops.
“We can do this.” His heart was in his throat. He’d never felt this way before about another human being and now that he had, he was going to try and hold onto it come hell or high water. “I have you to come back to.”
That didn’t seem to register at first and then Justice’s eyes glittered and he was held tightly again before being placed a few inches away.
“How are you going to let us know when to breach?” Justice grumbled, looking like a little kid.
“Crow will take me and Az in and when Tanis takes us to the bunker, Crow will alert you.”
“That’s the plan,” Crow said from a few feet down the hallway.
Justice rounded on the guy. “How are you going to know when the bunker door is opened when you can’t even get close?”
“I’ll take out Garrett and whomever else is in my way,” Crow said and there was no mistaking the promise in the man’s tone.
Viper came around the corner with Stone and Justice released a sigh that signaled his internal war was over. Oh, the man didn’t like it, but he wasn’t going to object.
Fisher smiled up at Justice. “Let’s get this done.”
“Then barbecue at my place?” Justice reluctantly smiled back.
“I’m in,” Fisher teased.
“I’m down for some barbecue,” one of Crow’s men said, rubbing his hands together.
“Wait until you see the spread he has,” Fisher said to those gathering around as he jerked his thumb at Justice. “It will definitely fit everybody here.”
And before Justice could do more than grumble about wanting alone time with him, plans were made.
Viper then told them to clean up, get some rest, and that they would head out at dusk.
“I’d let you carry a weapon concealed, but Garrett is going to want to pat you both down,” Crow said as he pulled up to a posh country estate located one hour and twenty minutes from Ventura.
Not only was Stone bringing every available member of Erebus with him, but Savage and Thane would be on site. Dave had called Real and the Genesis commander was on his way, bringing with him the men he had available.
Azrael was adamant that Real not be told of his involvement and because the youth was legally an adult, they left that up to Stone to handle.
As was his way, Stone didn’t let in on his thoughts. However, the man pulled one of the thinnest bulletproof vests ever made over Azrael’s head. The vest resembled a casual t-shirt and Stone tucked the boy into a dark pullover to cover it all up.
“Be smart,” Stone told the Azrael. “Keep your mouth shut and play along.”
“And then I can shoot him?” Azrael asked.
“Get him to open that bunker door and you can shoot him twice,” Stone promised, and the men standing around smiled when Azrael did a fist pump.
Fisher drew Azrael aside just before they loaded up.
“What?”
He looked into the boy’s bright eyes.
“You need to be prepared. Tanis is worse than Solomon…so he might…reach for you,” he said, placing his hands on Azrael’s shoulders.
A hardened look that shouldn’t have been there filled the eighteen-year-old’s face.
“I know and I can take it. I’ll wait until we get in the bunker and then I’ll end him.”
The words sounded so much like someone else that Fisher had to smirk.
“You’ve been listening to Real.”
Azrael flashed him a cute smile and blushed. “All the time.”
“If anything goes sideways, you stay behind me and you get down. You hear me?” Fisher said and waited for the boy to nod before he released his grip.
Now, faced with the rolling iron gates of Tanis’ estate, Fisher wondered if he’d made the right decision bringing Azrael along.
Fisher moved his hands within the confines of the zip ties that Crow had placed on both him and Azrael. This way, Crow said it put their hands in front, and hopefully nobody would change it.
Floodlights illuminated the gated area, guard shack, and the front of the building that served as a home and facility. Tanis had moved up since the last place Fisher had seen the man live in. It didn’t matter how much money the dick had, he wouldn’t be around much longer to spend it.
Crow eased through the gates and drove down the long driveway.
Several armed guards didn’t step into the light, but Fisher knew they were there. The gleam of weapons here and there signaled that Tanis wasn’t taking any chances with his fortress.
Crow parked and shut off the engine.
“Here we go,” the soldier said when three hulking guards stepped up to the vehicle.
There was no going back now.
Breaching the place took some planning and they gathered several blocks from the place.
The Erebus assassins on site were Stone, Steel, Savage, Thane, Rogue, Wrath, Echo, and Ice. Plus two new people he didn’t know, but Savage introduced them as Bones and Falcon.
When Real showed up, everyone was careful to keep Azrael’s involvement quiet. That had been Stone’s call and he told them all that he would handle the repercussions.
Real brought with him Memphis, plus two men the man introduced as Gray and Dallas.
Steel gave Justice a salute and walked over to his team. Since Crow was entering the house with Fisher and Azrael, another man Justice didn’t know was handing out orders. He’d heard that Viper had returned to Washington on business.
Calling for Axel, Justice headed toward the group crowded around Savage along with the rest of Erebus. The dog sat at his feet, alert, eyes locked on him.
As expected, they were given minimal instructions—Savage wasn’t one for long drawn-out plans.
“Our job is clearing the inside of the building once Genesis clears the outside. You’re assassins. When we get the word, do what you do,” their boss said and Justice was fine with that.
He was going to get a bird’s eye seat though. Along with the rest of the assassins, they followed Genesis and watched as Real’s team used high-powered rifles to take the outside guards out.
Their only warning was the red dot on the chest or head. Along with Crow’s team and Genesis, they took out numerous guards as if it were child’s play.
He couldn’t help but worry about Fisher and how the man was handling being so close to his perpetrator. On one hand, it had to be terrifying and on the other, it had to be empowering knowing that Tanis would soon draw his last breath.
It didn’t help him, he felt powerless waiting and he hated it.
The only thing he could do was to be ready when Crow pushed the alert button hidden in his belt.
Real signaled the all clear and Justice ordered Axel toward the wall. The dog took a running leap and climbed right up the wall until he was at the top. Along with Erebus, Justice scaled over the wall and dropped to the ground below with his dog glued to his side.
Moving toward the house, they disappeared like mist.
When Fisher walked into the interior of the estate, it was nice, he thought. Well, as nice as a person could call the home of a diabolical madman.
Before he was ready, he was brought into a large study and there was Tanis.
Faced with the monster of his past, his first thought was that the man had not aged well. Lines creased his face and his pallor was sickly as if he didn’t get enough sun.
Beyond that, he felt nothing. No rage and certainly not the fear he’d had as a boy. Perhaps the rage would come, he thought, but for now, he studied Tanis much like he’d study a bug he hated.
“Fisher…” The man’s voice hadn’t changed one bit from the smarmy sing-song tone he’d used on him as a boy—as if that made it okay with what the man had done.
“What do you want?” His tone was deliberately belligerent and Crow shoved him forward.
“You,” Tanis said, moving toward him and when the man reached him, he lifted his hands as if to cup his face.
The look in his eyes stopped the man cold and his hands dropped before they could touch him.
“I want you back,” the man said.
“No.” He knew if he gave in too easily, Tanis would become suspicious.
“No?” One eyebrow quirked and amusement filled the man’s eyes.
“That’s what I said.”
“Perhaps I’ll give you some time to think about it.”
Now, those words rang a bell and that meant the cage. He tried not to tense, but this time, he didn’t manage it and Tanis smiled, sensing his fear.
Crow pushed Azrael forward and since Tanis’ attention had been solely on him, it took the man by surprise.
One look was all it took. Those black-brown eyes fixed on Azrael and widened at the beauty of the boy.
“Oh my…where did you come from?” Tanis cooed, stepping toward Azrael.
“They were together, so I had to bring both,” Crow said, looking bored.
Tanis fingered Azrael’s shoulder-length, silky black hair and then shot a glance to Fisher’s waist-length mass of darkness and glee filled the fucker’s eyes. He knew that look, Tanis was dreaming of them both at the same time, but that was never going to happen.
Azrael jerked away from Tanis’ hand like a wild thing.
“You did good, Crow,” Tanis said, and then turned back to Fisher. “Now, let’s get you both settled.”
Garrett moved from in front of the closed door and Crow, along with Tanis, took him and Azrael from the room. Garrett closed the study door and followed behind them with an automatic weapon in his grip.
“I can’t be here,” Azrael said in a high-pitched voice.
Garrett shoved the teenager forward down the passage.
They headed down a long hallway to the back of the house, through a locked door, and then down two flights of stairs. This basement was deeper than the one he’d been in previously.
“I know what you’ve been doing all these years,” Tanis said as they walked.
“What’s that,” he murmured.
“Killing for a living.”
Wrong, he wanted to say, but he tipped his head as if in agreement.
The hallway wrapped around beneath the house until they were back under the study, he guessed.
The sick fuck would get off on having his victims beneath his feet all day.
They reached the end and it was there he faced an iron door that reminded him of a bank vault.
“I don’t want to put you in there, Fisher,” Tanis sighed.
“Then don’t.”
When the man’s eyes searched his, Fisher kept his gaze neutral, his face blank. The last thing he needed was for Tanis to see his hate.
He needed that door opened; he had a barbecue to get to after this mission was completed.
“What do you really want, Tanis?”
The man’s eyes lit up with pleasure when he used his name, which he’d never done before.
“I want you to be my partner.” Tanis reached out and fingered a long strand of his dark hair.
“And get out of my shitty apartment, live here, and help you do what?”
“I’m edging into Solomon’s old business,” Tanis said.
“That’s my line of work,” he frowned for show.
“Exactly.”
He studied Tanis for a long moment and then nodded a bit reluctantly. “I can give it a try as long as you don’t boss me around,” he said, poring it on.
Tanis smiled, pulled a gun from the back of his pants that had been hidden beneath the suit jacket he wore, and handed it to him.
Fisher gripped the gun, keeping the barrel pointed downward.
Garrett moved closer and pointed the automatic rifle at his head.
“Good. Now for your first assignment, kill Crow.”
“What the hell?” Crow said, lifting his hands. “I just brought you these two.”
“I know and thank you, but this is Fisher’s moment.”
Fisher’s mind raced. Fucking hell. Now what? Tanis had effectively turned the tables on him.
They had to get that bunker door open and they needed Tanis to do it.
Fisher turned toward Crow, thinking of where he could shoot the guy and not cause death or too much damage.
He needn’t have bothered with that because Azrael went ballistic.
“I can’t be here!” Screaming at the top of his lungs, Azrael ran toward the bunker door and slammed against it, sobbing and banging his hands on the heavy iron with dull thuds. “Let me out. Let me out!”
He, including Crow, Garrett, and Tanis, was taken aback. When Azrael slid down the door to his knees and showed no signs of slowing his breakdown, Tanis took action.
“There, there, I’ll let you out,” Tanis soothed the boy with the lie and lifted the sobbing Azrael up from the ground. Easing the boy toward Garrett, Tanis turned to the vault.
With his eye to the laser, his thumb on the mechanism, and his voice activated, the bunker door locks disengaged and rolled open with a deep resounding clunk. Once the locks were done, the door popped open automatically.
“I have a nice bed for you to sleep in,” Tanis told Azrael and took him back from Garrett.
The door swung wider beneath Tanis’ hand and Fisher got a look at the room. It stretched probably fifty feet with cages lining each side. Some were filled and others were vacant. Each cell had a bed that looked comfortable and Fisher didn’t need to imagine how Tanis used those beds. The boys of various ages jumped to their feet and some gripped the bars, others cowered in the back of their cells in fear.
Crow hit the button on his hip that was hidden in the man’s belt and Fisher knew the calvary was coming.
Now they only had to get—
Crow launched at Garrett and Fisher lifted the gun to shoot Tanis, only Azrael was in the way.
“Get down,” Fisher ordered Azrael, but Tanis snatched the boy before he could move.
“Let him go,” Fisher snarled.
Tanis kept his head behind Azrael’s, not giving him a clear shot.
“Can you get down?” Fisher said exasperated and Azrael grinned, a gleeful gleam in his eyes.
Oh hell, this was not going to go well.
Fisher could hear the thundering footsteps of the team coming down the hallway.
Real came through the door along with Stone and Steel and several darkly dressed men.
Garrett’s firearm discharged with a tat, tat, tat, as Crow knocked it out of the man’s hands. Fisher had no clue where the rounds had gone.
The next moment, Garrett and Crow locked in a wrestling match that was brutal and deadly, and he was tempted to turn his weapon and shoot Garrett in the head. He couldn’t though, because more than likely, Tanis had a weapon down here.
And he couldn’t get dead, he’d promised Justice.
A few things happened simultaneously. Azrael spun around and head-butted Tanis, knocking the man away.
Justice slammed through the door at the same time and fired, shooting Garrett somewhere, not killing the man because his screams of pain filled the room. Crow lunged free of the big fucker and kicked the guy in the head, knocking him out.
The room grew noisy and filled with snarls and sobs from the caged boys.
Tanis backhanded Azrael in the mouth and sent the slighter boy flying against one of the cages.
Justice grabbed him around the waist and spun him around, taking his aim from Tanis. Not that he could have shot the guy because someone was now in his way and that someone was Real.
