Page 12 of Sadist (The Triarchy Collection #1)

I pointed at Zichen. “Take him, and get back to headquarters,” I said coldly, lights flickering behind my eyes. I blinked and wiped at them to try to clear my vision.

“What about you?” he called as I took a last look at the car, furious at myself for letting this happen. Ignoring O’Malley, I turned and ran, not caring if they got out before the sirens reached them, and not willing to risk drawing attention by staying together.

My phone buzzed in my back pocket before I had even made it two blocks, after lifting a hoodie from a clothesline that had been drying in a nearby front garden.

I had the deep hood pulled up over my head, and the hem came down past mid-thigh and covered the blood and filth I was coated in enough to not draw too much attention.

I was already seizing up, wincing as I reached to pull my phone out.

“What the fuck happened out there?”

I had never heard concern in Erryn’s voice before, and it took a moment for my sluggish brain to realize what the edge of panic in her voice was.

“You approved a fucking mutiny, Erryn,” I hissed. “What the hell were you thinking?’

“Zichen lodged a handover this morning that was signed off by you,” she said coldly. “I assumed you had it in hand.”

“Assumption really bit you in the arse this time because Vanguard never had any intention of getting his daughter back,” I said, anger making my words sharp.

“That was an assassination, and if I hadn’t been steamrolled by Zichen trying to stroke his ego up the food chain, we wouldn’t be so royally fucked right now. ”

There was a muffled curse on the other end of the line.

“That’s all you have to say?” I bit out.

“Get yourself to a medic,” she said, before the line went dead.

“I need you to stay in that bed, Lancaster.”

I gave the medic who had checked me over a dark look as I tugged my stolen hoodie on over the plethora of bandages I had been wrapped in.

I had small cuts and grazes everywhere, and a concussion, but nothing I couldn’t recover from away from the clinical lights and uncomfortable slab that passed as a bed here.

“The other two?” I asked, picking up my weapon and phone.

“O’Malley has a fractured tibia that is being set as we speak. Zichen didn’t wait to be cleared to leave,” he said, frowning at me. “Look, you have a moderate concussion, I really must object?—”

“Object all you want,” I interrupted. “I want my own bed.” Giving him a nod, I pushed my way out of the small clinic The Triarchy maintained. I headed straight for the parking space in the underground lot that Erryn had messaged was to be my replacement car, and grimaced.

“Funny, Erryn,” I muttered as I looked at the powder blue Volkswagen Beetle with absolute disgust. Message received, loud and clear. I had talked to her like shit…and this was the consequence.

There was no way. Nooooo fucking way I was going to be caught dead with this in my garage. But my head hurt…hell, my whole body hurt…and I wanted my bed very badly.

Looking up at one of the many cameras down here, I flipped it off, knowing she’d be getting peak enjoyment out of this, then reluctantly slid into the car.

I did the normal forty-minute drive to the industrial area where my building was located, in thirty, and the sun was already setting as I drove up to the nondescript garage door that led into the lower levels.

I punched in the code, my eyelids feeling heavier by the second as I waited for the metal door to slowly rise.

Lights in my rearview were my only warning to brace before a vehicle slammed into the back of the Beetle, the small car being easily shunted through the opening garage, spinning slightly to block the ramp leading to the first level.

For the second time in one day, my world erupted in noise and pain as this time the vehicle plowed into my passenger side, pushing my car up the ramp and into the open space above in a screech of metal and tires.

I swore, kicking my door open as the car spun then threw myself out of it, the breath whooshing from my lungs as my already tortured body hit the ground rolling.

Doors slammed, footsteps echoing through the enclosed space, and I struggled to my feet in time to see Zichen rounding the back of the vehicle, his gun trained on me.

“You fucking bitch,” he hissed, and I lunged to the side as he fired, the bullet barely missing me as it hit the concrete behind.

Hogan—the large Irishman who’d had his arse handed to him by me more than once in combat training—came for me from the right, his preferred knife palmed in his hand as he tried to aim it for my neck.

I ducked under the swing, coming up under his arm and delivering a hard punch to his kidney that had him buckling, before disarming him and slicing his hamstring with his own blade in quick succession.

Fisting his hair as I turned, I used his body to shield me from Zichen’s second shot, his body shuddering with the impact as the bullet hit home. Drawing my gun, I dispatched Kier and Richmond—two more of Zichen’s usual crowd—efficiently, before scanning for more.

“You want to explain what the fuck you are doing Zichen?” I yelled, ducking behind the mangled remains of the Beetle. “Now I’m going to have to kill you, which honestly, is more effort than I can be bothered with right now.”

“Loxley terminated me.” His voice came from over the top of the car. “The fucking favoritism that cunt shows you is insanity. Maybe if she opened her legs for the rest of us, we’d get a red carpet through the ranks too.”

I ignored the flicker of anger his words ignited, leaning to look under the car for movement. His shadow moved forward behind the front tire, and I straightened, pressing my back to the car as I thought for a moment.

“If I’m on a pedestal, it’s not for my skills between a woman’s thighs,” I called, trying to keep him talking.

“But I’d work on your aim before you attempt more complex arts like trying to find a clit.

Your fine motor skills need improvement.

” I glanced under the car again to see he had moved toward the back of the vehicle, though I still couldn’t get a clean shot of his legs.

“I’m going to fuck your carcass and leave it tied up with a pretty bow for Loxley as a severance present,” he yelled, and I smiled, checking the magazine of my gun. Two bullets left, and I couldn’t get to the bodies of the others without exposing myself.

“How are you still breathing if you were terminated?” I called.

He scoffed. “She sent Hogan to do it. Clearly the bitch underestimates loyalty.”

I hummed under my breath as I eyed the fallen men. One less job for me then, won’t have to track those fuckers down.

“Worked out well for them,” I taunted, leaning onto my side and extending my gun under the car.

“Maybe if you had been a patient little princess and waited for me to show you how the adults organize hand-offs, this would have gone differently.” I closed one eye as my head spun, and took aim at the foot he left exposed.

His scream rang out the second after I fired as my bullet blew out his heel, and I was up, sprinting around the car before he could gather himself.

He was on his knee, blood pooling around his ruined foot, but he had the sense to keep hold of his gun, and he fired the second I rounded the nose of the vehicle.

The shot went wide, but I didn’t have time to think about how close that had been as I returned fire, the headshot I had intended only clipping his ear as he moved just in time.

I lunged for him, closing the gap as he took aim again, but I caught his arm and pinned it to my side as my hand closed around his throat and squeezed, sliding through the blood running down the side of his neck.

He twisted, and I screamed as hot, deep pain shot through my leg, causing my grip to loosen enough for him to move and slam my head into the side of the vehicle.

The world tilted for a moment, my already concussed brain struggling, and I looked down to see the blade he had plunged into my thigh.

I spat in his eyes, reaching down to rip the blade out and thrust it up under his jaw with a satisfying crunch, his body convulsing once before going limp.

I slumped against the side of his vehicle, breathing heavily as my head slowly righted itself, breathing through the wave of nausea that came with it, before slowly hauling myself up.

My leg flared as I put weight on it, cursing to myself as I hobbled to the wrecked Beetle and leaned through the shattered window to retrieve my phone—which now had a huge crack through the screen.

Excellent. What else could go wrong today?

Erryn answered on the first ring.

“What’s wrong?”

God, she was really losing her bite at the moment.

“Next time you terminate, make sure you don’t send one of their bromances,” I said, groaning as I hobbled toward the row of cars at the back of my garage. I flipped open the pannier of my motorbike, pulling out a small can of spray paint.

“I’ll put a termination order out on Hogan too,” she replied, her tone colder than ice. “Seven agents have gone dark since the termination order was placed on Zichen.”

“Well, I’ve dispatched three of them, plus Zichen.

No need to thank me,” I retorted, hobbling back to Kier and Richmond and spraying a three-pointed crown on their chest. My calling card.

The bodies would be returned to The Triarchy morgue, and that signet would serve as a warning to the other agents who might decide to follow in Zichen’s footsteps.

God have mercy on them if it was before I’d had the chance to take a shower.

Blood was running under the fabric of my jeans uncomfortably, the inside of my leg wet with it, and I swayed, waiting for the new wave of dizziness to pass before I moved to Hogan, painting him with the same design.

“Body location?” Erryn asked. “And you should still be with the medic, Theodora.”

“My bloody garage, Erryn,” I replied, darkly. “I want a biohazard team for the bloodstains.”

“You’re slurring your words,” she said after a moment.

“So would you if you had been blown up, hit by a stationary vehicle, and stabbed in quick succession,” I retorted, looking up at the camera that swiveled my way suddenly.

I saluted it mockingly with the can of paint to my brow as my head began to swim alarmingly.

“Oh…and Erryn. The Beetle was a lovely touch, but maybe send something a little more resilient this time.”