Charlie stood there a moment, waiting for another attack. But everyone who’d come for her was out cold or still recovering.
Finally, she let out a long breath and turned her head toward the office they were all hiding in. Well . . . “hiding” might not be the right word since the whole fucking room was made of glass.
Charlie strode over to the office and shoved the door open. That’s when Max realized that her teammates were hiding behind her. Seriously! Hiding! Honey badgers!
But Charlie didn’t notice any of them. Instead, her gaze locked with Dee-Ann Smith of all people.
She pointed a finger. “Your husband and his uncle—”
“Had nothin’ to do with this,” Dee-Ann quickly said. Usually the woman spoke as slow as molasses but not this time. “None of these people work for the Group, BPC, or Katzenhaus. And they ain’t cops. The Van Holtzes kept their promise to you.”
“That better be true, Smith. Because I warned them. I warned them all.”
“I know. It wasn’t us. This was all them.”
“Them who?”
Smith shrugged. “Got me. Ain’t heard a name yet.”
“Fine.” Charlie’s eyes—which had thankfully returned to their boring brown—lasered over to Max and her hiding teammates. “You five—out. Now.”
Max’s teammates ran out of the room and Charlie turned, following them. She assumed Max would be right behind them and she was right. She would . . . in one second.
Max walked across the room and immediately Dee-Ann backed up, throwing up her hands. “Woman, do not kiss me again!”
“Awwww, Dee-Ann. What about our love?”
“Get your sister out of here before these cops get real cranky.”
Laughing, Max walked out and caught up with her friends and sister at the elevator. Her teammates were huddled together against the wall but Charlie was just standing there, quietly, seething. She was quietly seething.
Max decided to take over. “You guys find a cab when we get downstairs and we’ll—”
“No,” Charlie said, watching the numbers on the wall that told her which floor the elevator was currently on. “They’re coming with us.”
“Why?” Nelle asked, her voice ridiculously shaky.
Slowly, Charlie looked at the four of them over her shoulder and growled out between clenched teeth, “Because I said so.”
Max didn’t really think much about her sister’s statement until she realized that her teammates were silently crying. From fear.
Good Lord! The drama with these idiots.
chapter FIFTEEN
Rina knew she wasn’t alone. She was reaching for the light switch when she realized that she could see fine in the dark. Always could. She had to keep reminding herself that she wasn’t all that human.
So, instead of waiting for her eyes to “adjust,” she simply looked around her cabin and saw them. All of them. Most sitting on chairs or the chaise lounge or the desk, watching her. One of them, however, was holding her sister from behind, a knife to Tina’s throat.
“Hello, niece,” one of the older ones said. “I’m your aunt. By marriage, but still . . . You can call me auntie. Isn’t that nice?”
Rina sat up, but when she started to get out of bed, the one holding her sister pushed the knife into her neck. Not all the way, but just enough to bring blood and a bit of panic.
“Now, now. Let’s not forget we’re all ladies. Yeah?” her “auntie” said. “We’re just here to talk. You up for listening? I was told you two speak English . . . yeah? ’Cause I don’t know any Italian and I ain’t about to learn now.”
“Where are my men?” Rina asked, proving she spoke English.
“Those full-humans?” Her auntie laughed and the women with her joined in. “Yeah . . . they’re all dead,” she explained, her laugh abruptly ending. “You didn’t really think they’d stop us from gettin’ on your fine boat here, did ya?”
The woman pulled one leg up, resting her foot on her knee. She wore thick work boots like a man would. “We’ll make this fast, yeah? You see, little girl, this could have been a little skirmish between gods. But then you released the Kraken . . . didn’t ya? And now the Kraken’s running free.”
“What?”
“It’s Greek mythology. Thought you two would know that.”
“Italian,” she reminded them, punching her chest.
“It doesn’t matter. You released the Kraken, and now she’s going around, terrorizing the villagers.”
“I still do not understand—”
“Mairi,” another one said. “You let out Mairi.”
“Mairi hates us,” her auntie explained, “because we didn’t dig her out of prison. That’s what she wanted. And if it had been almost any of our other kin, we would have done it.”
“But Mairi’s a right bitch, ain’t she, Ma?”
“That she is, my darling girl. Our Mairi’s a right bitch. And you two let her out.” She studied Rina for a moment. “Do you know why we’re here, luv? Do you know how we found out where you are? Because Mairi told us. She wants us to kill you. And we could have, as you see. Poor Mairi, though, she keeps forgetting something about her aunties: Her uncles may be blood . . . but we’re just family. Married into this shit, didn’t we? We know we’re dealing with a right bitch and we don’t want her back. Because once she’s done with you two and those three illegitimate Yanks, she’ll be coming for us. She only told us where you two are because she wants”—she waved her hand, gesturing around the cabin—“all this tacky shit. And if she were any one of me other nieces, she could have it. But she’s the Kraken and we need her dead.”
The auntie stood and walked across the cabin. “So when I heard from her, I stopped and thought: Which is worse? Dealing with you two crazy cows, who blew up me husband and sons, or that psychotic cunt? That’s when I knew: I had three choices. One, I could just come here with me girls and kill ya both. Which, I have to admit, crossed me mind. Two, I could do nothing, and let Mairi kill ya when she’s done with the Yanks. Or three . . . I could let you know that the Kraken wants you dead. I went with three. And all I gotta say is, you two better get rid of her before she comes back here and gets rid of you.”
“We could hide,” Rina pointed out. “She will never find us.”
“Oh, you think so?” The auntie laughed and shook her head. “All this money you made and not a brain in either of your heads. She’s a badger. Finding shit is what we do. The farther underground you go, the easier it is for us to find ya.”
“You did not find us.”
“We weren’t lookin’, were we, girls?”
“Nah,” all the other women said.
“Do you know why, my Italian princess?”
Rina sighed. “Because we had the Kraken?”
“Exactly. And if we had liked the Kraken, even a little bit, you’d both be dead. Be grateful we don’t like her. That being said, she’s still family. Her uncles and cousins won’t want to kill her. Being loyal to each other is all we got when we have to go up against lions and hyenas and shit. You, however, don’t seem to have a problem with all that. So we’ll leave it to you.”