Don’t kill him!Katie snapped harshly into his mind
—brutally maiming the piece of shit, when a hand grabbed his ankle.Before he could kick free, Alexei was pulled up short by the first man he’d rammed face-first into the sink fallingthroughhis body.He didn’t evenfeelit beyond the odd sensation of air blowing across his body when there was no breeze present, and Alexei took a reflexive step back out of sheer shock.He glanced down, seeing that it was Sean who had a firm grip on his ankle.
“Donnelly twins.Cillian’s go-to assassins.They have cyanide needles in their fingertips,” Sean got out before withdrawing his phase power and letting Alexei go, spitting blood on the floor.
Need to scramble their memories.Can’t let them know we’re metahumans, Sean added over the mental links.
I’ll handle it, Katie replied.
Alexei ignored their mental byplay in favor of slamming his foot down on the first man’s hand and ramming his knee into the guy’s face.What teeth hadn’t broken during their first go-round absolutely shattered this time.Alexei dodged the swipe of his other hand, seeing the glint of metal at the tips of his fingers, the bioware a dark pattern beneath the skin.Alexei kicked the breath out of him before picking him up by the hair and shoulder and tossing him through the nearest stall door.The guy went headfirst into the wall, sliding down to sprawl over the toilet.
He didn’t move after that.
The second man got to his feet, hands raised, the snarl on his face marred by the jagged edges of broken teeth and a nose bent decisively off-center.Alexei let him close in, watching his hands and not his face, waiting for the minute motions that would telegraph his next move.He was more brawler than anything else; probably liked to get up close and personal with their targets to inject the poison, which was fine with Alexei.
The man lunged forward a couple of times, hands swiping out with poison-tipped fingers.Alexei dodged each attack and lured the man in close before letting loose.He grabbed the hand punching his way and snapped the wrist with a twist of his arm.The man howled, and Alexei cut him off by ramming his forearm into the guy’s throat.He collapsed to the floor with a raspy groan, gasping for air.Alexei gave him a hard kick in the head to keep him down.
At that point, shouts from security outside the bathroom door reached his ears, and Alexei raised his voice.“Need help in here!”
He turned and extended a hand to Sean as the bathroom door opened behind them and got stuck on a body, hauling the agent to his feet.Sean wiped at his mouth, smearing blood from his split lip over his cheek.Alexei grabbed one of the white rolled-up towels in a basket between the two sinks and waved it under the faucet until it was saturated with cold water.
Security finally pushed their way inside as Alexei gripped Sean’s chin with gentle fingers to clean the blood off his face and gently press the cloth against his split lip.
“Should duck next time,” he said.
Sean shot him a withering look before knocking his hand aside to deal with the mess Alexei had made.
09
TELL THE TRUTH TO SHAME THE DEVIL
Kyle stalked through the front door of the house and headed straight for Alexei, who was watching Trevor line Sean’s face with quick-heal patches and dab skin sealant on his swollen lip.The two were sitting on the couch, with Alexei standing nearby, so it was easy for Kyle to walk up and smack Alexei with a fist on his shoulder.
“>” he demanded.
Alexei shrugged.“>”
“>”
“>”
“>”
“>” Alexei made a face.“>”
Kyle scowled, grabbing Alexei by the back of his shirt and hauling him around.Alexei went willingly enough and suffered through Kyle’s visual examination without argument before reaching out to flick his finger against Kyle’s ear.
“>”
“>”
“>”
“>” Katie told them as she walked by, heading for Jamie.“I hope your lunch was better than ours, Jamie.”
“Clearly, it wasn’t as exciting,” Jamie replied.“Give me a sitrep.”
Kyle, assured that Alexei was fine, drifted back over to Jamie in order to join the impromptu debrief going on in the foyer.He didn’t like what he heard, especially since it seemed the men who’d started the fight had already been present in the Cavalier before their arrival.
