Phantom Warriors Volume 1 Read online

  “Perhaps he was referring to my devilish appearance.” He waggled his eyebrows.

  Tabby scowled. “Yeah, I don’t think so.”

  Linx shrugged. “I do not know him, but Boris struck me as a superstitious man, who’d be afraid of his own shadow if it tapped him on the shoulder.”

  She rubbed the back of her neck. “That’s probably it,” she said, but it didn’t sound like she believed him. “See ya.” Tabby walked away.

  “Where are you going?” Linx called after her.

  “Home,” she said. “You should do the same.”

  Tabby left him standing on the sidewalk. Not only had she brushed away his kiss, she’d also dismissed him. Linx had never been dismissed by a woman in his life. Not even when he was young and inexperienced. He watched her fade into the distance. And decided he didn’t like it or her one bit.

  * * * * *

  Chapter Three

  Sergei Belovich watched Tabitha Shelley pull the man out the door. He’d had a bad feeling about the guy ever since he’d laid eyes on him. His suspicions rose, when the man intervened on Tabitha’s behalf. Were they working together?

  He wouldn’t put anything past her. She was determined to get her beloved sister away from him. She still didn’t understand that once someone was his, they stayed his until he let them go. The woman was becoming a pain in his ass. Sergei should’ve killed her long ago. It would’ve made controlling Taylor much easier.

  The spot between his shoulder blades itched. A sure sign that trouble was on the way. Was it the stranger who’d only moments ago tried to walk out the back door with two of his strippers? Or was something else coming?

  Sergei’s mother had always told him that Romanian gypsy blood ran through his veins. He hadn’t believed her until that same itch saved him from a bullet. Now he paid attention.

  He didn’t like the man. Sergei could’ve easily chalked the whole thing up to jealousy, given the man’s striking good looks, but that wasn’t it. Something about him seemed off.

  A cold breeze brushed past him and Sergei turned expecting to see someone standing behind him, but no one was there. His eyes narrowed as he carefully scanned the smoky bar to locate the cause of his sudden unease. Other than the regulars, who’d been coming in for years, nobody stood out.

  Sergei tried to shake off the feeling of being watched, but it clung to him like a maggot on rotting flesh. He surveyed the room once more, then turned back to the woman he’d been bedding for the last few months. He still enjoyed Taylor’s body, but he didn’t appreciate the baggage she brought with her or her clinginess.

  She was getting too attached and that wouldn’t do. He demanded compliance and monogamy from his women, but emotions complicated things. Sergei didn’t do emotions. He’d learned that lesson from his mother early on. And monogamy, well, that was one-sided, too.

  Sergei rolled his shoulders as the hair on his neck prickled. His flame-haired pet looked at him expectantly as he returned to his seat. “Your sister is bad for business,” he said softly, but he saw her flinch all the same. “I can’t have her coming in here causing a scene.”

  “I’ll talk to her. That’s all she wants.” Taylor petted his arm in a soothing fashion, though the touch did little to douse his temper. “I’m sure once I do, she’ll leave you—leave us—alone.” She scooted closer, allowing her ample bosom to brush against his chest.

  Sergei rubbed a knuckle along her soft cheek and felt his cock tighten. She really was beautiful. Fortunately, there were many more like her in the world. “I’ve already given you enough time. You said you’d handle her and you haven’t. Now it’s my turn.”

  Tears filled her hazel green eyes. “Please Sergei, give me another chance. I know I can get through to her.” She choked back a sob.

  He grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled it tight. Taylor whimpered, but did not cry out. He’d taught her not to, no matter how bad the pain got. “For you, pet, I’ll do this one thing, but it will cost you because nothink in this world is for free.”

  “Whatever you want, baby.” She gulped and nodded quickly. “I understand.”

  “Do you?” He yanked harder on her hair.

  “Yes,” she hissed.

  “Good.” Sergei said, but he had no intention of keeping his word. He looked over Taylor’s head at Boris and nodded. Boris’s jaw tightened, but he nodded back, then walked over to the two men seated at the bar.

  * * * * *

  Linx remained invisible as he listened to the man’s conversation with Tabby’s sister. He had snuck back into the club to see if the furor had died down. He thought it had…until he approached Sergei’s table.

  It was uncanny how much Taylor looked like her sister, Tabitha. They weren’t identical, but their mannerisms were similar. But that’s where the resemblance ended. Tabitha was a fighter. Linx couldn’t imagine her putting up with being manhandled like Taylor was doing. She barely whimpered, which meant Sergei had been abusing her for a while. Or maybe, she was the type of woman who liked it rough. He certainly did on occasion.

  Linx watched her plead with Sergei to leave Tabitha alone. He’d agreed, but something in that look raised his hackles. Sergei didn’t seem like a man used to keeping his word. Linx left the spot he’d been standing in and walked over to Boris. He didn’t understand the language Boris was speaking, but he caught the words ten minutes. His whole body tensed. Something was very wrong. He could feel it on the air, even without the use of his whiskers.

  The two men rose from their bar stools ten minutes later. Tall, heavy and oddly lacking any discernable necks, the men ambled out the door. Linx may not have understood what they were saying, but some things—like danger, were universal. He was determined to follow them.

  Linx slipped into the car with the men. The man in the passenger seat kept looking over his shoulder as if he sensed his presence in the back seat.

  “What’s wrong, Alexei?” the driver asked.

  Alexei rolled his shoulders. “Nothink.” His accent thick with nerves.

  “Then why do you keep looking behind us? Are we being tailed?” The man shot a glance into the review mirror. “I don’t see anyone.”

  Alexei shook his head. “I told you it was nothink, Viktor. I just want to get this over with.”

  “Do you have the address?” Viktor asked.

  “Da.” Alexei punched it into the car’s navigation system.

  Linx sat quietly, staring out the window as the city rushed by him. The men hadn’t spoken since they put in the address and he preferred it that way. He’d only studied English and had no idea what language they were speaking. He could bring out his translation device, but they didn’t seem the type to spill anything important.

  The men drove for thirty minutes. The skyscrapers faded into a quiet neighborhood dotted with small colorful homes. They turned right on Tulip Street, then slowed to a stop.

  Linx wasn’t sure what they were waiting for, but like all hunters, he was patient. The men stared at a peach colored house on the left-hand side of the street. When the light in the front of the house switched off, they made their move.

  * * * * *

  Tabby had been studying her lock picking ‘how to’ books for the past hour and half. The instructions were clear. She was pretty sure she could now pick a basic lock. If today had proven one thing to her, it was that she wasn’t going to get to her sister through a frontal assault. There was no doubt Taylor had seen her. Tabby had noted her twin’s wide panicked eyes a second before Boris blocked her view and lifted her off the ground.

  In her heart, she’d begged Taylor to come to her rescue. Instead, her twin had grabbed Sergei’s arm and all but climbed onto his lap, ignoring the chaos happening at the front door of the club.

  It had been a slap in the face to Tabby. Made worse when Sergei had shoved her sister aside and started across the room. She shuddered to think what would’ve happened if Linx hadn’t intervened.

  Suddenly an image of her dark-h
aired, blue-eyed savior flashed in her mind. Boris was right to call him Tchort. He was a dark god. A demon in black jeans. Once she’d gotten a good look at Linx, Tabby had been determined to ignore her attraction to him. And it had worked for all of a minute.

  She knew she’d done the right thing by sending him away, but for some reason it still bothered her. Not that she would’ve ultimately said or done anything to act upon her attraction. She wasn’t like her sister.

  Instead, Tabby used Taylor’s rotten taste in men as a ‘What Not To Do’ guide for her own life. If she found herself really attracted to a man, Tabby considered it an ominous sign and ran the other way.

  She didn’t date bad boys. She wasn’t drawn to dangerous men. The fact that Linx tempted her to break her steadfast rules was an anomaly. One she’d just as soon forget. Give her a boring, unattractive man any day of the week and she’d jump at the chance to date him. Unlike Taylor, Tabby prided herself for being in control of her hormones and her personal life.

  “What personal life?” Tabby snorted. Ever since her twin had hooked up with the Russian mobster, her life had been in a tailspin. She’d spent the last six months trying to sort through the mess that was Taylor. Six months? More like twenty-six years.

  Had it really been that long? Tabby’s shoulders sagged. She was tired. Tired of this dance that she and Taylor had been doing. Tired of always being the responsible twin. Tired of always coming to the rescue, when her sister messed up. When would it be enough? When would she get a chance to have a life?

  Like so many relationships before, Taylor had convinced herself that she loved Sergei and that he loved her back. She was the only one who couldn’t see that she was being used. Bad enough that her sister had begun stripping for the mobster.

  The Taylor that Tabby knew would never do that, not without being heavily influenced.

  Tabby hated that she was beginning to question whether she really knew her twin at all.

  Stripping was bad enough, but it was only a matter of time before Sergei talked Taylor into running drugs for him. That’s what he’d done with his last girlfriend and look what had happened to her. Tabby’s mind flashed to the photo of the young woman, who’d been found bludgeoned and tossed into a dumpster. He’d discarded her like garbage because to him, she was trash.

  She couldn’t let Sergei do that to her twin. If she couldn’t reach Taylor directly, then Tabby would just have to find proof of Sergei’s illegal activities. Maybe if she had enough proof to take to the police, they’d finally be able to arrest Sergei. She looked at the lock-picking kit next to her instruction book. What was that old adage? It takes a thief to catch a mobster or something like that. There was more than one way to save her sister.

  Tabby turned the light off. She had made it halfway down the hall, when something crashed through her front door into her living room. She turned her head to see the unmistakable silhouette of Viktor and Alexei, standing in the darkness.

  Tabby’s heart hit her knees, then ricocheted into her throat. She raced back down the hall toward the kitchen, her sock-covered feet silent on the carpet. Her only hope was to reach the backdoor before the men spotted her.

  “I take bedrooms. You search rest of house. She’s here somewhere,” Alexei said in a thick muddled accent.

  Viktor grunted.

  Tabby felt along the countertop, until she found her kettle. It was still hot from the tea that she’d had earlier. She waited, trying to hear over the blood pounding in her ears. The door to the kitchen slowly opened. Tabby didn’t hesitate. She slammed the kettle against Viktor’s head, sending hot water careening over his face.

  He screamed, then let out a flood of Russian curses as he fell to the floor.

  She didn’t wait for him to recover. Instead, Tabby ran for the backdoor and pulled. The door didn’t budge. She’d locked it…and her keys were in the living room. Her gaze darted around the room. Viktor was already beginning to recover. No way would she make it past him before he grabbed her.

  She could hear the pounding of heavy boots coming down the hall. Soon there would be two of them and she’d be dead. Tabby scanned the room once more and spotted the window above the kitchen sink. It was small, but she was sure she could fit.

  She ran over to it and flipped the latch, unlocking the window, then pushed with all her might. The window frame creaked, then began to rise. Tabby climbed onto the sink and stuck her legs out the window. Viktor struggled to his feet and rushed her.

  Tabby screamed, then screamed again, when she felt strong hands clamp down on her hips and pull her outside. Oh my god, Alexei had her! She was as good as dead. Tabby struggled, punching and kicking like a wildcat. His grasp loosened and she nearly fell, but never hit the ground.

  Instead, Tabby found herself cradled against a hard chest. She looked up and saw Linx, his expression grim as he ran. A multitude of questions flooded her mind, but they could all wait until they were safe.

  “We need to get to my car,” she said.

  “Where is it?” he asked.

  “On the street.” She pointed to the green Honda.

  “Keys,” he gritted out.

  Tabby’s heart sank. Like the keys to the backdoor, her car keys were also in the living room, hanging from a set of neat hooks. Then she thought about the other books she’d read. Could she do it? Did she dare try? What if Viktor and Alexei caught them before she could hotwire the car?

  What choice did they have? Linx couldn’t run all night, especially carrying her.

  “We don’t need the keys,” she said, praying that it was true.

  * * * * *

  Linx took Tabby to her car. His heart had nearly exploded in his chest, when he’d heard her cry out. If she hadn’t managed to squeeze out the window, he was pretty sure she’d be dead. He didn’t want to think about. If he did, he’d only anger the beast. And he didn’t think Tabby would appreciate that side of him after what she’d just been through.

  Every instinct told him to stand and fight. But he wouldn’t. Not if there was a chance that she’d be injured in the process.

  She grabbed a rock and busted out the back driver’s side window of her car. Linx frowned as she opened the front door and slid to the floor under the steering mechanism. Tabby reached into a hidden compartment on the passenger side and pulled out a metal instrument, then popped a piece of plastic off the column.

  A minute or so later, she’d combined wires and slammed the metal instrument into the slot where the key normally went. She turned it a few times. On the third try, the engine roared to life and her radio blared. Tabby shut the radio off, then turned to look at Linx, her eyes wide with fear.

  “Get in. They’re coming.”

  Linx jumped in and Tabby sped off, barely giving him time to close the door. He glanced over his shoulder and saw Viktor and Alexei run to their car. Their headlights flashed and a low growling hum filled the air as they started their vehicle. They spun the car around in a perfect three hundred and sixty degree turn, then quickly gained on them.

  “Hang on,” Tabby said. “This might get rough.” She cranked the wheel to the right and the cars back tires spun to get traction.

  “Where are you going?” Linx asked. If she just stopped the car, he could take care of the men behind them. He didn’t mind given what they’d intended to do to her.

  “The police station. No way will they follow us inside,” she said.

  Linx wasn’t convinced. “They seem pretty determined. What have you done to anger them so?” he asked.

  “I haven’t done anything other than try to get my sister away from that scumbag, Sergei. What were you doing here?” Her face paled. “Did you come with them?”

  Linx wasn’t sure how to answer. Yes, he’d ridden in the vehicle with the men, but no, he wasn’t with them. At least not in the way that she was implying. He couldn’t exactly tell her the truth. He knew Tabby wouldn’t believe him. Linx needed to find out what was going on. There had to be more to the story than
she was telling him.

  He pulled out his weapon and pointed it at the car behind them.

  “What are you doing?” Her head jerked to the side so she could see him. “You can’t just shoot them. Someone will see you.”

  A car honked.

  She barely avoided a collision.

  “Keep your eyes on the road,” he said.

  Tabby did as he asked, though given the covert glances she shot his way she didn’t want to. “We’re almost to the police station. If that’s a gun, you’d better put it away.”

  “It’s not a gun. It’s a camera.” Linx aimed his magnetic pulse weapon. Viktor’s and Alexei’s engine died instantly. The car slowly rolled to a stop. “You can slow down now,” he said. “They are no longer behind us.”

  “What did you do?” Her knuckles were white as she slowly eased her grip on the steering wheel and relaxed her foot on the pedal.

  “Recorded their license plate,” he said. It was a lie, but a believable one.

  “Can I see it?” she asked.

  “See what?” He looked at her.

  “The camera.”

  “I’d rather you didn’t. It’s a very sensitive piece of equipment,” he said. “Now let’s go somewhere that we can talk.”

  * * * * *

  Tabby knew he was lying, but right now she didn’t care because whatever he’d done had gotten Alexei and Viktor off their backs. She tried to slow her breathing. That had been close. Sergei was obviously done messing around. “You really should’ve stayed out of this mess.”

  “If I had, you’d be dead.”

  She flinched as the truth struck, then slowly met his eyes. “Sergei Belovich is a very bad man. He doesn’t forget, when someone wrongs him. And he never forgives. If Alexei and Viktor saw you…”

  “They did. I made sure of it.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “I’m not.” Linx looked at her, his gaze piercing her soul, then he slowly grinned. Two amazing dimples appeared on his cheeks, making Tabby’s heart flutter and her breath catch, but the warmth of the smile didn’t thaw the chill of his stormy blue eyes. “Sergei and I have one thing in common, I don’t forget either.”