I couldn’t believe I was actually thinking that and not planning to do something about it.
I straightened up about to move but something caught my attention on the opposite side of the building.
No, not something…
Someone.
I looked over and saw a man mirroring me, standing twenty feet away. The guy straightened up and sipped on his drink.
It took me less than a second to recognize him and I dropped my cup.
Balthazar Kane?
No… it couldn’t be.
Yet… it was.
It was!
It fucking was.
God it was him. I’d been searching the globe for him for the last five years and there he was. Right within my line of sight.
Jesus.
It was him. The asshole who killed Claire.
Adrenaline sparked inside me like a match thrown on a tank of gasoline and I moved on instinct, my brain set on default to kill the motherfucker if I ever saw him again.
However, the fucker moved away from the balcony the minute I made a run for him.
The bastard was walking though.
Walking, knowing I wouldn’t get to him because he was in a fucking different building altogether. I’d have to magically leap from building to building to get to him.
Bastard.
It was always a game with him.
Always. Always knowing I’d never catch him.
Didn’t stop me from trying though.
Not. At. All.
I ran through the atrium connecting the buildings and jumped over the stairs because of the buildup of people.
I looked around everywhere.
Everywhere I could look, I looked.
Everywhere I could think of that he’d go to I looked but he was nowhere to be found.
Gone…
Just like that. He was gone.
Gone…
Fuck… this was what he used to do before.
When I was an agent tracking him this was what he’d do. Except, he didn’t just appear like that and you’d see him, or run into him.
He only appeared when he allowed you to see him. That was how he worked.
You’d see him and be left with the question that was now on my mind.
Why had he wanted me to see him?
What the fuck did it mean?
Whatever it was, it was part and parcel of what would happen next.
Just like last time.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Xander
Six years ago….
Tension filled the air.
It was actually stifling and honestly the first time that I’d felt this way since joining the unit.
I’d served as a Marine in Afghanistan for four years prior to this. Those were some rough times and I’d seen things I never imagined. Stuff I wouldn’t forget.
People died. Friends died. Acquaintances too.
It almost got to the point where I was scared to get close to anybody because that guy could be dead by nightfall. I could have been dead by nightfall.
It was a different world though. Completely different where I was actually thankful for rules.
Rules were something I’d hated all my life but damn, did I ever wish for rules as an agent sometimes. Especially when we went on these black op missions. I wasn’t sure it was right to call them black op though.
They were a little more than that to me.
This guy Balthazar Kane was a real son of a bitch. In all my time as a marine I’d come up against some real evil bastards.
This guy though… Jesus, he didn’t care what he did to get his job done.
I looked around at the members of my team as our truck pulled up on the edge of the village in Kazakhstan.
Claire, Paul, John, and Lucas. They all looked like they were ready to go in for the kill.
“This is as far as I go,” Darren declared. He was our driver. I’d met him once before. That was, Russia and it was my first taste of Balthazar and his Spades. Like Balthazar the spades represented the power of darkness. Everything they did was a game. They liked to tease and taunt.
On that mission one of them cut off Darren’s right ear and tied him to a tree with it taped to his mouth. They branded a message on his chest too.
Hear no evil.
That was what it said. They only left him alive to send the message and screw with us.
There was no wonder why he didn’t want to go any further than here. It was out of harm’s way.
“Why?” Claire asked. Her voice although filled with an edge of apprehension, was controlled.
I gave her a hard stare as did Paul.
“We have better cover of darkness here. A clear path if you need to escape,” Darren answered. The tone of his voice said don’t fuck with me, and on this occasion I was inclined to agree. He was a guy who knew what he was talking about. He knew the terrain and the area well. If he said that this spot was good for him to stop and wait I believed him.
“It’s too far,” Claire countered.
“Claire, I don’t mean to be a prick. But he’s right,” Paul cut in. He pointed over to where the village began just past the thicket of trees. It was just at the stage where evening was approaching, so we could still see. “The trees give us cover, especially if we have to split up.”
“I don’t want us to split up. There was sighting of Balthazar in this area. We have to get the scientist. It’s balls to the wall, grab and fucking go when we get him. I can’t allow that bastard to get the research.”
She looked to me and I kept quiet. She always did that and I always kept quiet when I didn’t have a solution, or my own take on what we should do.
I wished she wouldn’t do that because people knew we were a couple and it got me in trouble when I agreed with her.
On this occasion I didn’t agree, I didn’t disagree either.
She was in charge of us. I got that. I got that we had to follow her command but damn it to fuck, did she ever push the limits.
Still…wasn’t that the same thing I’d loved about her?
Balls to the wall, grab and go. That was what she’d said, like it was that easy. Those daring ways of hers were the same things that made me fall for her from day one. The sixteen year old girl who stole my heart and led me to this path.
And, what did I expect from Jack McLaren’s daughter?
Jack was a legend. Hard to follow. I didn’t think anyone could follow in his footsteps. She sure came close, however, and she wanted to get Balthazar Kane’s ass real bad.
Putting the team’s lives in danger was not a good idea though.
She looked away from me and back to Darren. “Drive closer. We get closer and do as I say when you get the signal.”
Darren started up the engine again and kept his opinions to himself.
It was best to, especially given the circumstances. It was why I was keeping my silence too. Our last mission was a bust.
We were supposed to be escorting Vlad Hanflick, a Russian scientist, to the U.S. We were supposed to provide safe transit for him and his research. His highly desired and coveted research on cold fusion.
The mission went to hell when his assistant was murdered. There was a raid on our facility by Balthazar and his spades.
That was two weeks ago and the result was a split. Vlad ended up fleeing the facility with one of our teams, and we didn’t know where they went. Days ago the team he’d supposedly fled the premises with had been found dead by the river.