Page 49 of Simon Says… Fight (Kate Morgan Thrillers #11)

K ate parked right in front of yet another warehouse, jumping out of the vehicle and running to the door.

She stopped, her mind racing, trying to think of all the things she needed to consider before she bolted in headfirst. Just as she was about to go in, her phone buzzed.

She pulled it out and whispered, “Hello.”

It was Lilliana. “Kate, Simon just called me. He was trying to go in a certain direction but couldn’t tell me any more than the street signs he could see, and then he just bolted off in that direction.”

“Shit.” Kate swore up a storm, as much as she could while whispering. “Now I’ll worry about him too.”

“We’ve got backup coming. Where are you?”

“I’m at the warehouse Oscar told me about. The door isn’t locked.”

“You wait for backup.”

“Yeah, and tell Rodney I waited for backup when he comes out of a coma with brain damage?”

“Not every head injury victim ends up with brain damage,” she added.

“No, but that’s what these guys are focusing on. They want other people to pay, like they have.”

“Shit. Kate, don’t do anything rash. I’m on my way, and we’ve got two black-and-whites coming.”

“Yeah, I won’t do anything stupid.” With that, she ended the call.

Now it wasn’t just Rodney. It was also Simon, but hopefully he was around and staying out of trouble.

Yet, knowing him, he would be right smack in the middle of it.

She slipped inside the front door and stopped, acutely aware of the complete and utter silence.

She headed toward the back of this massive building.

As she finally got to the far side, still moving silently, she heard voices.

“And now you can get started,” a man murmured.

But then another voice came, and almost immediately a chant began. “Fight, fight, fight.”

She swore, realizing what she would be up against. Two of them in the ring was not part of her plans. It was one thing to fight a single person, and a female at that, but it was another thing entirely to try and take on two women, much less two men.

As she approached the area where the chanting was going on, she heard a woman laughing, then the sound of a blow landing. Tamzen called out, “Bring him over here. That pretty face will have to figure out what life is really all about.”

Kate shook her head because she knew instinctively who the pretty face was.

As she stepped forward, she saw Simon unconscious on the floor.

And Tamzen’s brother was hauling him up into a ring.

It was a big deserted ring that had definitely seen better days, and somewhere along the line they had converted it or had kept it for their own use.

But the two of them were working together, and that was more than she really wanted to think about.

Rodney was off to the side, apparently unconscious. At least he didn’t appear to be responsive. But they were about to wake Simon up and have all kinds of fun with him.

Swearing at that, Kate stepped forward. “I thought you were supposed to be fighting me,” she stated, walking coolly toward the ring.

At that, both of them turned and stared at her.

Kate nodded. “For your first challenge, finding you, I got that beat pretty damn fast. Now, the next challenge is taking you on. But that doesn’t even seem to be a challenge at all,” she declared in a mocking voice, deliberately trying to get Tamzen to leave Simon alone and to focus all that ire on Kate.

She didn’t have a clue whether Simon was even in a position or had the skill level to take on either of these two, but it wasn’t what she wanted anyway.

She was more than ready to take a couple flying kicks at this piece of shit in front of her.

She turned to looked at Tambo. “You’ve been helping your sister murder people too, huh ?”

He frowned at Kate, then looked over at his sister and scratched his head.

“Yeah, your sweet sister has been lying to you,” Kate revealed, with a mock smile.

“All those men who you were helping her ditch, move around, get rid of?… They weren’t attacking her because she’s what?

… Beautiful, capable, or anything else? No.

She was attacking them ,” she announced, looking at Tambo’s face to see if there was any understanding.

He frowned and shook his head several times.

Tamzen looked over at her and laughed. “Do you really think anything you say will make a difference? My brother loves me,” she declared. “He knows who I am, inside and out.”

“You mean, he knows you’re a serial killer?” Kate asked, with a smirk. “Not that we’re counting or anything.”

“Those men were just useless,” she declared. “They were more practice than anything.”

“Yeah, I can see that. You were really picking on people who absolutely couldn’t defend themselves, so it’s not as if they were a challenge at all, right? You didn’t want a fair fight. You didn’t even give them a chance at a fair fight.”

Tamzen stiffened and glared at her.

Kate nodded, as she sauntered forward. “Spare me the details, but don’t lie to me now.

We are here after all. Nobody else will hear you.

It’s pretty easy to understand, to clarify what’s going on, because these men you specifically chose weren’t fighters.

None of them were. You are, your brother is, your uncle was, your stepfather definitely was, but something is going on here that you haven’t explained to Tambo. ”

He frowned at his sister and waited.

Kate snorted. “So, Tambo, you didn’t even think to question how many times Tamzen seems to run into trouble?”

He pointed at Tamzen. “She’s beautiful.”

“She is beautiful,” Kate noted, “but there are not that many stupid men out there. Okay, there are a lot of stupid men,” she corrected, “but not that many are going after your sister unprovoked, looking to give her beating. She’s the one doing that.

She’s the one locking them up, not even giving them a chance at a fair fight,” she explained, now facing Tamzen.

“Do you even untie their arms, or is that how you classify a fair fight?”

She glared at her. “Of course I do.”

“No, you don’t. We’ve found plenty of rope marks on your victims.”

“I had to tie them up at some point in time,” she muttered, with a shrug.

“And I suppose it depends on what kind of temper you’re in as to whether one was just a punching bag or anything approaching a fair fight.”

Tamzen glared at her. “You really think you’ll just come in here and ruin things? I’ll beat these two up, and you won’t stop me because Tambo here will take you on, without missing a beat.”

Her brother smiled, then he looked over at Kate and nodded. “Except I don’t hit women,” he pointed out to his sister.

She glared at him and yelled, “You will this time.”

He shook his head. “No, I won’t.”

Kate laughed. “See? It won’t be that way at all.”

“That’s fine,” Tamzen smirked, her tone silky. “He won’t have a problem beating these two then.” She turned and looked at Tambo. “Right? They’re not women, so surely you can do that.”

He frowned at her again, as if he didn’t quite understand what was going on.

“And yet why would you, Tambo?” Kate asked, trying to get him to see some clarity here. “This man,” Kate said, as she pointed to Simon, “did he hurt you?”

Tambo shook his head.

“Then why would you beat him up? It’s not like he even knows your sister. He hasn’t had anything to do with her and hasn’t hurt her at all.”

Tambo turned to Tamzen, clearly confused.

“We have to beat him up,” Tamzen stated, “but we could just kill him. That would suit me to a tee.”

Tambo frowned. “That’s not fair.”

“No, of course it’s not fair,” she agreed, with a chuckle. “And I really don’t care right now. Obviously”—she pointed to Kate—“we have a situation.”

“You do have a situation,” Kate confirmed, focusing on Tambo. “And the fact is, Tamzen’s the one who’s been bringing in these completely innocent victims, simply in order to hurt them, to kill them. They didn’t get a fair fight or even a chance to defend themselves.”

“Sure, they did,” Tamzen said angrily. “I untied them.”

“Yeah, after they were unconscious,” Kate replied in a mocking tone.

“It’s not as if you could take on anybody for real.

If they’re not bound, drugged, or nearly unconscious, you can’t fight.

That was part of the problem in the first place, right?

You’re just not good as a fighter. You couldn’t make the cut.

” Tamzen flashed red, and Kate poured it on.

“You used the fact that you were female as an excuse, but there are lots of avenues for women fighters right now,” Kate noted.

“You could have fought in a women’s division or something, but you didn’t, and why?

Because you weren’t good enough, and you knew it,” Kate mocked.

Tamzen stepped forward, her fists clenched.

Kate nodded. “Yeah, I see who you are. This isn’t about you getting revenge.

This is about you hating the life that you have, hating the fact that you’re not good enough,” she snapped.

“Hating the fact that Oscar didn’t want to fight, didn’t like being beaten up, and nobody could change his mind about it.

Hating that Tambo is injured, and even now his future is uncertain.

” Kate continued. “Not to mention Oliver, your ever-loving stepfather. But look at all this,… at everything you’ve been doing. It isn’t making anyone better, is it?”

Tamzen’s fists snapped opened and shut, as she struggled with her own rage.