“WHERE CAN we go that he won’t find us now?” I asked, glancing around at the guys in the cramped space of our new vehicle.
Knowing the car we’d nabbed after our mad escape would be reported stolen at any moment, Julius had managed to rent something else under one of his many aliases so that we could ditch the sedan we’d taken. He’d gone with a minivan, kind of dumpy-looking on the outside but at least a little more space than we’d enjoyed before. But between the five of us and Carter sprawled in the third row of seats, in the grips of the sedative but maybe not for much longer, it was still a tight squeeze.
We were parked in a suburban neighborhood on the outskirts of town, a stretch of trees on one side of the road and a sprawl of identical brick houses on the other. But I had no idea how safe we were even with the various stealth measures we’d taken. The Blood Hunter clearly had extensive resources at his disposal. He’d tracked us down more than once before, and now he was more motivated than ever.
Blaze could hack into any camera in the city, so it made sense that the Blood Hunter could do the same and who knew how much more. With squads of soldiers and untold numbers of criminals in his back pocket, did we really stand a chance?
“He could already know where we are,” Garrison muttered, echoing my thoughts. “We don’t know what he’s using to track us.”
“Could he be tapping into our phone signals?” Talon asked.
Blaze shook his head. “We’ve been constantly swapping out burners for a reason. I have a proxy set up that’s been redirecting our numbers every time we make a call or send a text—no one we’ve contacted has any idea what the real numbers are to trace them.”
And who would we be calling anyway? I had no family left to contact, and the men weren’t exactly friendly with anyone in the city. I didn’t have anyone’s phone number except theirs, the Maliks’, and…
My thoughts stilled around the idea that had suddenly occurred to me. “So if we call someone, they shouldn’t be able to track our location from the call in any way?” I clarified.
Blaze shook his head. “The phones are safe. But there are all kinds of other methods. Street cams, satellite footage, even random sightings can help narrow things down. He must have a lot of people out on the streets. One of them gets a glimpse of us, and it’s that much easier for him to connect the dots.”
“We need to stay on the move,” Julius said. “We can’t afford to stay in any place for very long—no more than one night, leaving the next morning.”
Garrison hummed to himself. “Do you think we should go back home to the apartment now? As far as we know, he still isn’t aware of our home base.”
His question caught me off guard. “We can’t go home until we find out how to take him down. If we run away now, he’ll either follow us or screw things up for us there too, or he’ll have the chance to solidify his position here. We’ve only just gotten him on the defensive.”
Garrison gave me a baleful look. “I’m not sure how much that was defensive vs. aggressive, sweetheart. I’m just saying it might be worth taking the time to regroup after all.”
He might have had a point, but I couldn’t stop picturing a mass of armed men bursting into the penthouse apartment I’d started to think of as my home too. My stomach twisted. “He’s out to destroy us now, and the only way to stop him is by destroying him first. We have to be close so we can take advantage of any opportunities we get.”
“Dess is right,” Julius said. “We entered a war, and now we need to finish it. Running off with our tails between our legs isn’t going to help us.”
They’d entered a war because of me. The guilt twined through my gut didn’t release even with his agreement.
The Blood Hunter had only been interested in me at first. My association with the Chaos Crew had pulled them into this mess, made them his targets too.
If he succeeded in killing them, it’d be my fault. I could have suggested we walk away as soon as I’d taken care of the Maliks, but instead I’d insisted on pursuing the other mysteries we’d encountered, and look where that had gotten us.
Maybe I’d never have been free of the Blood Hunter regardless, but that didn’t change the fact that I was responsible.
His interest in me also gave me a little bit of an edge, though, didn’t it? My fingers itched to grasp my phone. But I knew what the guys would say if I told them what I was thinking of doing.
I had to try. He’d never been willing to speak to anyone but me.
I wiggled my legs and reached for the door. “I need to go for a walk.”
Garrison sat up straighter. “I don’t think you should go anywhere alone right now.”
I cut a glance at him. “I need some space to think properly. I know how to look after myself.”
He grimaced, and I half expected him to argue. But then he simply reached behind him and offered me the pistol he’d grabbed from our reduced stash. “At least make sure you’re properly armed.”
I recognized the peace offering for what it was and accepted it, ensuring the safety was flipped on before tucking the gun into my waistband. Then I stepped out of the car and headed through the trees beside the road. No street cams or passersby where there weren’t any streets. I should be safe enough from prying eyes there.
What could I say to the Blood Hunter that might convince him to back off? How could I stop him from continuing to attack us when we had no intention of letting up on him? It might be an impossible problem, but I wouldn’t know what might come up until I tried. Maybe he’d let something slip that we could use.
I tramped through the woods for several minutes, putting plenty of distance between me and my men, until the trees gave way to a stretch of fields full of patchy grass and wildflowers. Insect life thrummed in the vegetation around me. I couldn’t see any buildings or vehicles from my current position. It felt secure enough.
I pulled out my phone and looked up the number on the card I’d photographed in case I lost the actual item. My finger hovered over the keypad for several heartbeats before I finally tapped it in and brought the phone to my ear.
He answered on the second ring, the low dark voice I recognized at once spilling through the speaker. “Hello?”
“It’s Dess,” I forced myself to say. “Decima.”
The Blood Hunter made a scoffing sound. “If you’ve decided to take me up on my offer after all, you’re too late. We’re well past the deadline I gave you. I don’t take on people who can’t follow simple instructions.”
I resisted the urge to grit my teeth. “That’s not why I’m calling.”
“What is it, then?”
“I’m calling to suggest that it’s in your best interests to back off on me and my crew.”
A startled chuckle carried through the line. “You want me to back off? After what your team has done to undermine my business?”
“We only went on the offensive after you blacklisted two of my men with the police,” I retorted.
The Blood Hunter didn’t speak for a moment, and I thought I heard the growl of an engine in the background. He inhaled slowly. “I told you that if you made the wrong choice, you’d regret it, didn’t I?”
I grimaced. “All you’ve done so far is make me even more convinced I made the right choice. You aren’t entitled to ruin my life more than you already have, and you aren’t in control of the crew or what we do. You don’t own us. And we’re going to hit back every time you try.”
“Correction,” he said with a small laugh. “I don’t own them—not yet. That tattoo on the back of your neck shows that I do own you, and there’s nothing you can do about that.”
I reached automatically to the back of my neck and rubbed my fingers where I knew the mark was branded into my skin. When I had enough breathing room to consider it, I’d need to shave the hair there and have the tattoo removed.
“Sticking your mark on a kid doesn’t make them belong to you,” I said. “I don’t belong to the people who brought me into this world or the person who stole me from them. I only belong to myself.”
“We’ll see about that, won’t we?” The Blood Hunter paused again, for long enough that my skin started to prickle with apprehension. “And what exactly are you going to do if I continue taking whatever steps I can to crush your little band of mercenaries?”
As if I’d reveal our plans to him. Hell, I didn’t even know what our next plans would be. We were basically flying by the seat of our pants here.
“All you need to know is that they’ll hurt as much as what we’ve already done—or worse.”
The Blood Hunter let out a soft but menacing laugh. “Do you really think you’ve done that much damage? A couple of minor irritations, like a mosquito taking little bites. Soon enough I’ll swat you, and my life will continue as usual.”
“Funny,” I said. “You’re awfully determined to crack down on us if we’re nothing more than mosquitos to you. I think we’ve hit you harder than you want to let on.”
“Do you now? You underestimate me, but then, you have all along, in so many ways.”
In the silence that followed, the engine’s thrum seemed to get… louder. But that didn’t make sense if I was hearing it through the phone while the Blood Hunter drove. Unless—
My gaze darted over the landscape around me. I picked out a figure on a motorcycle that’d just zoomed into view on a country road I hadn’t noticed, a few hundred feet distant across the field. My heart lurched.
It couldn’t be. How could he have located me so quickly? Blaze had said the phone wouldn’t be enough… But maybe the Blood Hunter had methods our hacker didn’t know about. How else could he have eyes on me?
Before I could wonder if it was just a coincidence, the motorcycle pulled onto the shoulder and the man riding it swung off it. He walked into the field straight toward me, leaving his helmet on. It looked fitting atop his broad frame. His hands appeared to be empty, but it seemed unlikely that he didn’t have some kind of weapon on him within easy reach.
I pulled out my gun, flicking off the safety, and walked sideways until I was close to the trees again. When the Blood Hunter was only fifty feet away, I raised it, hanging up the phone call. “Stop right there,” I shouted across the remaining distance.
He halted, cocking his head to one side. I didn’t need to be able to see his face to recognize the smirk that carried through his tone. “I thought you were so eager for a proper conversation, Decima. And now it bothers you that I’ve come at your beckoning?”
I didn’t want to show him how unnerved I was by his sudden arrival. “What do you want?” I demanded, holding the gun steady.
“I want you to realize who you’re dealing with and that you can’t win,” he said, with a snarl in his voice that he couldn’t quite disguise. Oh, we’d hurt his operations all right. He was absolutely enraged, as much as he was trying to hide it. “Your life is mine, and for your interference, I’m going to take the lives of your friends as well. It’s only balancing the scales.”
“Fuck you,” I spat. “You don’t own me, and you don’t stand a chance against us.”
I hoped that was right. His vehemence proved that we’d been doing exactly as we’d meant to do. We were weakening him.
I felt the Blood Hunter’s glower through his visor. “For what you’ve done, they won’t just be killed quickly. Your crew will be tortured for days. I will wipe them off the map when I find them, and it’s all because you tried to defy me.”
Maybe if I provoked a little more anger, I could get something out of him he didn’t mean to reveal. I pushed my mouth into a smirk of my own. “What’s wrong? Are you pissed that you can’t control your property as thoroughly as you thought?”
This time, the Blood Hunter’s laugh was chilling enough to send a shiver down my spine. “You don’t think I have full control over you? From the time you were a child, I’ve manipulated every part of your life. I gave orders to your handlers for years, sending you on missions to advance my agenda. I had you kill remorselessly, and I created that killing power inside of you whether you acknowledge it or not. And when I finished turning you into the killer I knew you’d become, I slaughtered everyone but your handler to spark your rage. Even your outside sources—the girl in the tech shop and the guy in the bakery. Everyone. I did that.”
I’d wondered what had happened to Jay and Scarlett. Now I had my answer. Even though I’d barely known them, my throat constricted at the thought that they too had been caught up fatally in this war that I hadn’t even realized I was fighting back then.
I jabbed a finger at him. “You failed. I’m still walking free. Your plans went to shit because you can’t control everything. Because nobody is that powerful.”
“I can’t?” he asked, and I could hear the smile on his face. “Maybe I didn’t account for the Chaos Crew taking you, but I sent out a call for their deaths, not because I thought it would work, but because I knew it would bring you closer. And when you finally trusted them, I let you come here where I knew they’d help you kill your family. I set up a failed bombing at Malik’s office to focus your attention on him. I’ve been guiding you for your entire life, and you never even noticed, did you?”
How could he possibly have known we’d come here when we had? It hadn’t been the bombing that had brought us here, and we’d nearly died getting the genetics information that’d allowed Blaze to match me with Damien Malik. The Hunter had to be bluffing. But he spoke with such confidence it sent the shivers deeper into my gut.
“From start to finish, I orchestrated your birth family’s destruction,” he went on. “You never suspected I was the one attacking your allies. You bought into the clues I left that pointed to your father as the culprit. I sent you running out to that home they kept hidden by kidnapping that man of yours, and you didn’t hesitate for a second. You thought you were protecting him from them when it was me all along.”
We’d put those pieces together, but it was still unsettling hearing the man gloat about it. I groped for something that would shatter his ideas of grandeur.
“I would have taken out the Maliks anyway,” I said. “I didn’t kill them because of anything you did but because of what they’d done. They really murdered those kids. They believed in torturing children. That’s why they died. You only gave me the clues I needed to figure it out and deliver justice. So really you were serving my agenda.”
Just as much as I’d served his, but I didn’t see the need to mention that part when he was emphasizing it so much already.
My reframing obviously pissed him off even more. He exhaled roughly. “And is your agenda also seeing the men you’ve allied yourself with dead? Killing them has always been a part of the plan—every second since the moment I found you with them. Their deaths will be your final punishment before you follow them.”
“Is that why you haven’t tried to kill me right now?” I taunted, my heart pounding faster as I all but dared him to try. “Because you want me to suffer through their deaths first? Or maybe you’re afraid you can’t match me after all. You told me that I’m the finest assassin you’ve ever known.”
The Blood Hunter guffawed. “You’re a fine soldier, but I’m your commanding officer. No single soldier is going to eliminate me, Decima. You can be sure of that.”
After everything, he was still confident enough to look me in the face while I held a gun on him and speak so arrogantly. My nerves wobbled. What if he could make good on his threat after all? Look at how easily he’d found me here. If he destroyed the crew…
He’d said he wouldn’t accept me as an employee now, but he might have been speaking out of anger rather than the full truth. If I offered to set down my weapon and go over to his side, was it possible he’d spare them after all?
But every piece of my body screamed against the idea of giving myself over to his manipulations. I couldn’t allow myself to become a puppet ever again. I had to trust that my men and I would find a way to defeat this monster.
I was just drawing in my breath to answer when his voice rolled out through his helmet again with a strange but far too familiar phrase. “Garlic milkshake.”
A prickling sensation rushed through my mind, my muscles starting to seize. A flare of panic followed, but in the same moment, I heard Julius’s voice, guiding me. Imagine a wave that washes over you without catching hold.
The conditioned command didn’t have to control me. I hadn’t let Noelle use it, and I wouldn’t let this psycho force my obedience either.
I pictured the wave sweeping all the phrase’s influence away, and my limbs loosened.
“You can be sure that I’m never going to stop fighting,” I snapped at the Blood Hunter, and pulled the trigger.
I should have known he was prepared for his gambit not to work. The Blood Hunter’s head jerked back, but only a few inches before he righted himself. The bullet had dented his helmet without coming close to penetrating the material. His hand whipped to his side, to a weapon he must have had concealed there, and all I could feel was how very vulnerable my body was in comparison.
Not knowing what other protective gear he might be wearing, I didn’t risk taking another shot while I left myself open. A sense of urgency was creeping over me that I needed to get back to my men anyway—we all needed to get out of here in case the Blood Hunter had called in others to join him.
I threw myself into the shelter of the forest and ran back toward the road. No sounds of pursuit came from behind me, only a cool, rolling laugh that made me sick to my stomach.
I could run away now, and we could keep running, but how long would it be before he hunted us down exactly as his name and his words promised?
