Page 57 of Kai (Alpha Heroes #13)

Kai

“Howdy, kiddo.” Levine flashed me a hateful, gruesome grin. “I remember you saying you had a deal for me, you know, back at the dinghy, when you fished me out of the water?”

A glance at Cece showed her face contorting with fury.

“Do you remember the good cop, bad cop plan we talked about earlier?” she whispered so that Levine couldn’t hear us.

I nodded, then studied her face, trying to follow the explosive chemical reaction that was no doubt igniting inside her head.

“I call dibs.” Cece crawled off the bed and reached for the door. “I’m the bad cop.”

She stalked out of the berth with her hands fisted.

Oh, shit.

Cece was on the warpath. Would she be able to control her temper? Was she gonna be an asset or a liability as we worked to squeeze out the information we needed from the merc?

I ripped off the tape, pulled the IV needle out of my vein, and threw the blanket aside.

As fast as I could manage, I scooted down to the edge of the bed.

I was still wobbly on my legs when my feet hit the deck, but I braced my knees and forced myself to stand.

A glance at my Tak revealed Levine remained secured and stationary.

I grabbed a pair of board shorts and finagled them on. The berth spun around me. Fuck, but I was dizzy. I snatched my Tak, and also my Glock and my medkit. After strapping on the holster that held my Ka-Bar, I forced my legs to move. The pain meds weren’t working well.

Suck it up, Marine .

When I topped the short flight of stairs, Levine shifted his defying sneer from Cece to me and leered at the sight of the bandage glaring on my bare chest.

“There you are, soldier boy.” Eyes gleaming with pride and glee, he chortled out a sarcastic snort. “Looks like my knife wasn’t too far off the mark. Next time, I’ll be right on target.”

“Asshole,” an infuriated Cece hissed, going into her fighting stance and flexing her knees. “There won’t be a next time.”

She tore into the merc, landing a series of controlled toe jabs on his sides, where I’d bound his ribs earlier. The fury burning in her eyes was real, and yet she showed admirable restraint for someone whose glare showed she wanted to beat the shit out of the assassin in our midst.

He, of course, cried out as if she’d kicked him in the balls, cowering, cursing, and squealing. Turned out his screams weren’t booming at all. They were like him—piggish, loud, and unpleasant.

“Get this bitch off me!” He slumped in the corner, making himself a smaller, more pitiful target, putting on a show as if he was Cece’s feeble victim instead of her ruthless would-be assassin. “She’s vicious. Do something!”

“Not my call.” I stopped mid-shrug when my pectoralis major screamed. “And by the way, you call her a bitch again and you’ll regret it.”

“I got your point,” he pleaded with Cece, keeping up his performance, feigning weakness even though I knew it was all pretend. “You don’t like it when I hurt him.”

“You bet I don’t.” With a last poke, Cece took a step back and glowered at the man.

The cabin spun around me. I refused to faceplant in front of Levine. Ignoring the merc’s dramatic pleas, I set my stuff on the galley’s island, opened my medkit, and after lifting my pre-loaded sedative syringe in the air, made a big show of pressing the plunger.

A single transparent drop swelled at the tip of the needle. It conveyed my message to Levine better than words. The injection was ready to go. If the fucker gave us trouble, it was nighty-night for him.

“If you put me down, we won’t be able to talk,” Levine warned, watching Cece and shrinking further into the corner.

I settled the syringe on the counter and strapped my Tak to my forearm. Glock in hand, I padded to the upholstered chair. On the way, I smirked at Cece. “After trying to kill me, now this motherfucker wants to talk.”

“Let’s kill him.” Cece flashed a feral grin that would’ve frozen Levine’s soul if he’d owned one. “Or maybe hurt him a little?”

She bumped the merc’s wounded leg with the side of her foot.

“Fuck!” Levine hissed as I eased down on my chair.

“Did that hurt?” Cece demanded, pacing in a horseshoe pattern around the cornered merc.

“Yeah, that hurt, mistress of torture.” He dropped his chin to his chest with a humility that proved to be false when he whipped up his head and flashed Cece a sinister grin. “If you take as good as you give, you and I will have a blast.”

I gritted my teeth until my jaw ached. Not only was he a murderer; he was also a brazen son of a bitch. His suggestive tone didn’t faze Cece. She continued to pace around the merc while he perused her as thoroughly as she assessed him.

“You’re one sizzling hot commodity, girl.” The cuts and bruises that swelled the merc’s face accented his leer and made him look even more macabre. “I’d seen pictures of you, but Cersi Astor in the flesh? Glorious. You’ve got the ass, the boobs, the moves—”

“If you wanna keep breathing, I suggest you shut the fuck up,” I advised, my voice stiff.

“What he said.” Cece glared at the worm at her feet.

Tied as he was, she had the skills to take him out with a single strike, and yet she was toying with him. She didn’t intend to inflict lasting harm, but he didn’t need to know that. Cece’s goal was to play her “bad cop” part and scare the fuck out of him. That last task?

It wasn’t gonna be easy.

“I’m gonna ask you a question.” I scooted to the edge of the chair, leaned forward, and, ignoring the pain, clasped my hands. “You’ll tell me the truth or we’re done here. Do you read me, Jack? ” I demanded, stressing the “J” and the “K,” turning his name into a virulent sound.

“Gotcha.” The brute’s Adam’s apple bounced like a basketball up and down his thick neck. He put on his poker face, but I’d gotten his attention.

“Are you wearing a tracker, Jack ?”

“No.” His protuberant eyes darted from me to Cece as he kept tabs on both of us.

“Hard to believe.” I contemplated the fucker before me. “Li is a control freak. He’d wanna know where you are.”

“I’m no longer his animal,” the merc bit out. “I’m free now.”

“You have an interesting take on the concept of freedom.” I eased back in my chair, suppressing a wince.

“You’re pissing outside the pot if you think your boss will spare you if you guide him to us.

I have it on good authority that Li and his techies have wiped out every record of your existence, including your bank accounts. ”

Levine hid his shock quickly. He was gonna be a tough motherfucker to turn.

“So, yeah, you’re penniless and you don’t exist anymore,” I continued, watching him closely. “Are you sure you’re not wearing a tracker?”

“They implanted it in my hand, between my thumb and index finger.” His throat bobbed. “I cut it out before I stole the Cessna.”

I remembered the bandaged cut I’d found on his hand. It had the right appearance, but when dealing with Li, nothing was a slam dunk. My instincts alerted me to danger. Maybe it was the blood loss. Maybe not. I had to make sure.

“You say you don’t have a tracker, and yet, that big bad helo shot you down,” I pointed out, my voice dripping with skepticism.

“The tracker must’ve been in the Cessna.”

The merc tossed a wary glance in Cece’s direction. She came to a stop and stood next to me. She braced her feet apart, crossed her arms, and studied the man’s face with narrowed eyes.

Levine’s ugly frown emphasized the sorry state of his face. “Why the fuck are you staring at me like that, bitch?”

“Eyes on me, Jack-off .” I snapped my fingers, reclaiming the man’s attention. “And last call for manners. If you disrespect the lady again, I’ll punch all your teeth out. That’s a promise. Now, why do you think the tracker was on the aircraft?”

“In hindsight, stealing the plane was too easy,” he said.

I had to admit I’d had the same thought.

“I found it parked by the fence,” the merc explained, so much more talkative now that his life was in our hands. “The plane was fueled and ready to go.”

“Idiot.” I rapped my fingers on the upholstered arm. “You didn’t think about that before you got on the damned plane?”

“I was in a rush,” Levine grumbled, his tone defensive. “Your crew was on my tail, and I had to pull a quick escape. Li recalled my guys yesterday. Not me. Just my guys. I knew what that meant. A few of my guys stayed behind out of loyalty to me—”

“Or because you promised them something.” I challenged his bullshit. “A tall stash of cash, a chance to kill, and the spoils of war, of course.”

The smirk that bloomed on the merc’s lips suggested I was right on.

“You sent them to attack Tracker Team.” I’d known all along that the merc would need a distraction to steal away from Tracker Team, but rage sizzled through me, cold and controlled.

“You told your murderers they could keep the weapons, gear, and resources they found wherever my team set up shop. To encourage your killers, you put a price on my teammates’ heads. ”

“Don’t take it so personally.” Levine offered an ugly smirk. “I’m just doing my job.”

My money was on my team, and yet I had no idea if the attack had hurt anyone, if it was still in progress, or if it had set my crew back and fucked up our rendezvous schedule.

“Kai?” Cece asked, her eyes gleaming with concern.

“The guys know what they’re doing,” I reassured her. “Fuckface here sent his men to die while he stole the Cessna. Why did you do that, Jack ?”

The fucker took a deep breath. “I had to do something extraordinary if I wanted to survive Li, something heroic.”

I scoffed. “There’s nothing heroic about you, Jack-shit .”

“I’m an employee, just like you are,” Levine shot back.

“Yeah, no.” I shook my head. “We’re not the same.”

“I had to find Cersi before Li killed me,” the merc said. “He must’ve guessed the only option left to me was solo searching for her. He may have facilitated my escape to kill me.”

“Or to get you to guide his team of criminals to us,” I suggested.