Bone Deep (24 page)

“I will make this right,” he vowed.

She shook her head sadly. “There is nothing to make right, Dmitry. Just love her and she will be what she was meant to be before Joseph took her and transformed her into a killer.”

He pulled Bullet to him and kissed her forehead in thanks. She allowed it and Dmitry knew she’d given him another gift.

She began to walk away but turned back. “She will always be a killer. Only you have the ability to help her be more.”

Dmitry watched her leave and ran a hand through his hair. His hand ached but his fingers were healing well. Another two weeks in the cast and he’d remove it and begin physical therapy.

He walked back into the infirmary and sat down in the chair he’d taken up residence in the last two weeks. He watched her breathe and rubbed his chest. She barely moved, the fear still holding her mind.

But he was there now and he would protect her. Joseph would never touch her again. He watched her until his eyes closed and sleep weighed him down.

And then he dreamed about her.

In other world news, Russian President Vladimir Putin vows to find the people responsible for blowing up the east wing of the Kremlin. No one has stepped forward to take responsibility though Moscow has assured the Russian people they have everything under control.

Bone listened to the news report and nodded. Blade. Her sister had made sure the cell and tower she’d been beaten in had been destroyed.

“Would you like to see the babies today?” Bullet asked from the doorway.

“Not today,” Bone answered.

She was getting stronger every day. The infection was gone and her injuries healing well. Joseph hadn’t broken any of her bones—but he had cut and whipped her until her flesh burned and bled. The gunshot wound to her thigh was also much better. It hadn’t hit anything vital though it continued to hurt like a bitch.

Bone was growing antsy. With the exception of Arequipa, she’d never been in one place this long. She’d been in Virginia for a little under a month and it made her skin crawl to think of how vulnerable they were not moving from place to place.

It would have been much easier had Dmitry not been present. Indeed, she’d spent most of the last two weeks avoiding him.

The days had been easy. She trained and he did whatever it was he did for Trident. But the nights were…difficult. The darkness somehow shed light on her memories and the feel of his hands on her body, the taste of his mouth on hers and the sound of their breathing as they’d strained together in ecstasy was closer, louder. She’d tried turning on a light. She’d attempted meditation. But nothing took those memories away and Bone had finally given into the realization she didn’t want them to go anywhere.

Should she have a future she would need to fill it with those remembrances of his body on hers. It would be all she had to warm her frozen heart.

He had left a few days ago with Adam and Rand. He hadn’t said a word to her. No doubt, she mused, they were headed to Sydney. Because of their endgame and the slight difference in their motivations from First Team’s, her sisters remained here.

It still blew her mind that Bullet and Arrow had settled enough to be together in one place for very long. But as Bullet said, if Joseph was coming for them, better they were together than separate at this point.

The men of Trident had headed to find Nodachi. He had the boy and the boy was First Team’s. Nodachi could run and he could hide, but Blade would find him and it would be on then.

“They will be returning tonight, but they haven’t found Nodachi,” Arrow murmured.

Bone snorted and glanced at her sisters. “I don’t care when they return. What have you two become? All you’re missing is knitting needles and yarn.”

Bullet laughed and Bone’s jaw dropped.

“It doesn’t happen often so make sure you remember it,” Arrow told Bone.

“Fuck you both,” Bullet remarked shyly.

“The Kremlin was Blade’s work.”

Arrow glanced at her, her eyebrows lowered and a frown tugging her mouth. “You need to train.”

Shock coursed through Bone. “Why do you say that?”

“Because you’re rambling,” Bullet offered. “Telling us things we already know.”

Bone shrugged and got up, walking to the window and glancing out. Why she picked that moment to look out the window she had no idea, maybe it was intuition or the universe giving her a heads up for all the shit it had given her over the years. Whatever the reason, she didn’t miss the glint of sun on glass.

“Scope, ten o’clock,” Bone said dropping down and crawling to the space between the two huge picture windows in the study.

“Another one, two o’clock,” Bullet’s hard voice came from the doorway.

“Get down,” Arrow called.

Then Bone heard a sound she’d heard many times before but only in war zones. As the RPG screamed through the window and detonated, everything went silent. Shrapnel bit into her skin and her vision hazed. Gunfire sounded and as she looked for her sisters, she saw Arrow down on the ground, not moving, eyes closed.

She crawled to her, her surroundings shredded and still unable to hear anything but continued gunfire and incessant ringing.

“Bone!” It sounded as if her name floated to her from a thousand miles away. She looked left and saw Raines there gesturing her toward the doorway.

“Get the babies in the panic room,” she ordered. Smoke poured through the room now and she made it to Arrow, pulling her by the underarms to the hallway.

Bullet had disappeared but then she was there, her rifle in her hand and her eye to the scope.

“Raines! Take Arrow to the panic room,” Bone commanded.

“But—”

“We do not need you here. Take Arrow to the goddamn panic room and lock yourselves in. You keep them safe!” Bone yelled in his face.

He didn’t hesitate, just scooped an unmoving Arrow into his arms and took off disappearing down the hall before he took the stairwell down to the panic room.

“You’re sure the panic room is a separate entity from the house?” she asked Bullet.

“Yes. They have their own air flow system and it’s completely underground. They will be safe,” Bullet assure her.

She fired a single shot and glanced at Bone. “There are at least thirty men out there, Bone.”

Bone pulled her knife from its scabbard at her back. She was not in good shape but she’d fought with worse. “Are they Joseph’s?”

Bullet nodded. “They move like soldiers. I’m guessing U.S. Special Forces.”

Fire licked up the walls behind them and Bullet grimaced. Bone slid to Bullet’s side, grabbed the pistol from her sister’s pants and turned to her. “Let us kill them,” she said with a grin.

“Kill them all,” Bullet said viciously.

Another RPG rocked the house and the men were on them. Bone did not wonder where Raines’ men were. They were not here so it did not matter.

She met the first soldier through the door with a knife to the chest. The second with a bullet to the head and the third with a punch to the throat. Behind her Bullet picked off man after man but still the smoke writhed and the men kept coming.

She heard Bullet grunt and Bone turned, firing a single shot and knocking the man who’d attacked her to the ground. Bullet kicked him in the head and he dropped like a stone. Bone was lifted off her feet by another one and she head-butted him until he let her go. She slid between his legs, raised her knife and drove it home in his femoral artery.

How many she killed she didn’t know, her only thought was to eliminate as many as possible. Bullet continued to reload and fire but they were overwhelmed. It was something Bone had sworn she would never be again.

“Never again,” she whispered. She tapped into her lust and stoked her rage, fanned the flames until all she knew was the clawing need for death. Pain was eclipsed by the desire to kill and she stepped willingly into its embrace.

She turned, slid her gun to Bullet and she took them on with her strongest asset—her hands. Because she moved so fast, and because Bullet kept them busy dodging her shots, they couldn’t track her. For every punch or kick she received she eliminated two men. She punched throats, took out eyes and broke several necks and still they poured through the doorway, soldiers in full camouflage.

They’d known the men of Trident weren’t here and they’d struck. Nothing about that was good.

“Run, Bullet,” Bone yelled.

Bullet did not answer and it was then she saw Bullet on her knees, a gun to her head, her gaze narrowed and promising death.

Bone rushed the man, dodging the bullets they fired at her, taking several winging gunshots to various parts of her body before she reached the man threatening her sister. She ran until she reached him and then she jumped, grabbing his head in her hands and twisting her body at the same time she twisted his head.

It was enough to crush his spine and weaken the surrounding tissue enough to decapitate him on the spot. She gained her feet, standing in front of Bullet and holding the dead man’s head in her hands.

The soldiers stopped and it gave Bone enough time to grab two grenades off the dead man’s flak jacket. She tossed his head to his fellow soldiers, pulled the pins and threw those as well.

“Run!” she yelled at Bullet.

Bullet was already gone, heading through the hole in the wall and hitting the hallway that lead to the panic room. The front of the house continued to burn and the smoke was heavy but they were close. They had made it halfway before a tall man stepped from the staircase that led down to the room.

He wore a smile and held a semi-automatic rifle in his hands, cradling it to his chest. This was their leader. “I’m so glad y’all joined the party,” he said.

Bone stopped and breathed in deeply. His accent reminded her of Grant. She heard the remaining soldiers coming up from behind them. She angled her body so she could watch them and the leader. Bullet did the same.

She took the man in with a single glance—trained but not experienced. His skin was smooth, his hands unmarked and soft. His stance was easy but not fluid. He was decidedly unprepared for the war he’d wrought today.

She cocked her head and continued to stare at him. “I’ve been here for a little while now and I still have no fucking clue what a ‘y’all’ is, Bullet. It’s a burning question I’d like an answer to.”

Bullet had blood running down her cheek. Bone had three separate gunshots, two that had winged her arm and one, deeper, which had dug a piece from her side. Her strength was evaporating with the blood falling from those wounds. This needed to get done quick, fast, and in a hurry.

Bullet looked at her and grinned. “I believe, sister, it is ‘you’ and ‘all’ combined in a perfect redneck combination.”

Bone nodded. “Ah, I see. Well then, sir,” she addressed the man who appeared to be the leader. “I’m glad y’all came too. My days had become quite boring.”

“Now, ladies, I’m just here to talk. This can go civilly if you’ll let it,” he said with a placating smile.

Bullet snorted. “You could have knocked. It doesn’t get much more civil than that. Rand will be really pissed you fucked up his house.”

Bone hummed her agreement. “How about you, Bullet, are you pissed?”

Bullet bit her lip and nodded her head. “Come to think of it Bone, I am pretty fucking pissed.”

The man spread his legs, his stance wide. His soldiers stood at least ten feet from them now. Bodies littered the floor behind them and the house continued to burn. She tsked and then tsked again.

“What is it, sister?” Bullet asked calmly, as if they were having a simple, everyday conversation.

“I’m thinking these fine, upstanding American soldiers have zero idea who they’re dealing with. Tell me, sir, did you tell them this mission was unsanctioned and just who you were coming here to murder in cold blood?” Bone asked him inquiringly, her tone level and still pleasant.

“I am here on orders from the President of the United States of America. You are hereby determined to be enemy combatants and you can either surrender your weapons or die here at my feet.”

Bone sighed. “So much for talking.” She wiped a hand down her face and wiped it on her pants. “Look, the whole surrender or die thing might work for y’all,” she said, making sure to get the inflection just right, “But that doesn’t work for me.”

Bullet shook her head. “Me either.”

“And besides,” Bone continued, “I have no weapons on me.”

She slid a foot closer to him and the bastard was so ill trained he didn’t even notice.

“Now see, I know all about y’all. You’re killers. Assassins. And Rand Beckett has been harboring you here. You’re plotting and planning terror on American soil. That makes you the enemy. Surrender or die,” he finished.

Bullet nodded slightly. Bone winked at her and between one breath and the next, Bone was behind the leader, his head in her hands.

Bullet now held his rifle pointed directly at this heart.

The sound of every gun the soldiers held chambering a round was almost lovely to hear.

Bone pushed the leader to his knees. “You came into this house, threatening innocents. That was your first mistake. Your man holding a gun to my sister’s head was your second. Now how do you recommend we resolve this, sir?”

He opened his mouth and Bullet relocated the rifle to press deep inside it.

“Well, lookee there, Bullet. You done shut him up but good,” Bone said in the best damn hick accent she’d ever heard. “Call your men off. Now,” she whispered in his ear, voice dead. She allowed the promise of pain to linger in the notes and he stuttered in a breath.

He tried to speak but the barrel of his rifle prevented it. Bullet made an impatient noise and removed it.

“Retreat,” the man ordered immediately.

The soldiers lowered their weapons and began streaming out from an enormous hole in the side of the house

“Stand up,” Bone ordered roughly.

He stood. Bone pulled his hands behind his back, cuffing them with her own, and then she led him to the destroyed doorway. “This is how it’s going down. You will cooperate and for every order I give that you disobey or do not hasten to perform, I will make you suffer. Let’s start off easy, shall we? Have your men go to their knees and raise their arm to clasp behind their heads.”