Darling Wildfire (Red Rabbit #2)

13

GRAHAM

ROME, ITALY

“Wolfe—you’re with me,”

Tex said. “Sakari, Knox—around back.”

We were stationed a block away from the warehouse in Rome, ready to cripple the last of three warehouses Vetticus used to house Atrox inventory. Over the last week I’d helped Tex and his crew take down the others. They were quick jobs—in and out. We’d take out the guards, rig explosives and light the entire thing up.

Tex and I crept towards the structure and split off from Sakari and Knox. I stood at Tex’s shoulder, scanning the area while we waited for the other two to get into position around back. There was one guard having a smoke near the door, illuminated by the soft glow of the street light nearby.

“In position,”

Sakari said over comms.

“Copy—let’s go,” Tex said.

He motioned to me and we jogged towards the front door as soon as the guard had his back turned. Tex came up behind him, wrapped his arms around his head and twisted savagely. He carefully set the dead man down and I gripped the handle of the door. He nodded and I pushed it open. We worked our way inside the warehouse. It was quiet and dark. We systematically swept the first few areas. I saw two men standing around near some pallets talking. Tex signaled to sneak up close to them but gunfire rang out in the warehouse giving up our element of surprise.

I raised my gun and took out one of the guards while Tex shot the other one. With lethal precision we took out all the guards and regrouped in the middle of the warehouse space. Sakari dumped a large duffle bag at his feet and started pulling out explosives.

Tex shoved a canister of gasoline into my hands and I went off to one of the far corners. At first I thought the gasoline was excessive since we were rigging the entire thing to explode, but these men were nothing if not thorough. Plus, they liked to watch the show afterwards and gas plus explosives definitely was something to see.

I sloshed gas around the space, dragging my face covering up over my mouth and nose to avoid the fumes. Even so, it reeked of gas by the time we were all backing out the door.

“Want to do the honors with this one?”

Tex handed me a box of matches.

I took them and struck it, watching the flame burn bright. I may not know what it all meant, but this was in my blood. Chaos, destruction—delivering vengeance to the people who had wronged the ones I loved.

I dropped the match and hesitated briefly, entranced by the flame. So beautiful, yet destructive.

Then Tex was grabbing me by the vest and hauling me away. We ran a few blocks where we’d left the SUV and piled in. Sakari pulled out an electronic device and pushed a few buttons.

A moment of delay and then three explosions in quick succession rumbled and we saw the fireball explode up into the sky as the building went up in spectacular fashion.

“Boom,”

Sakari said.

He always looked way too excited to blow things up.

I went with Tex later to pick up food. I only had a few hours before I had to fly back to New York for Kaelin’s art show. This week had been nonstop and I was exhausted. But it was the good kind of exhaustion I always got from a job successfully completed. Still, I was looking forward to showing Kaelin just how much I’d missed her this week. Plus, I couldn’t wait to see her in whatever stunner she was going to wear to her gallery showing. Tex pulled me back from my thoughts that were progressively getting dirtier by the minute.

“Thanks for the help this week,”

he said. “I’m glad you’re on board.”

“How’d you fall in with North?”

“I was working for this other security company, on a job—escorting some foreign ambassador—when shit went down. Like, shit hit the fucking fan,”

he emphasized. “I ended up getting taken with the ambassador and held for what was the longest twenty-four hours of my life. The fuckers ended up decided I wasn’t useful to them so they took me out to the yard with two others in my crew and started executing us.”

He shook his head. “Straight up, on our knees, bullet in the brain type shit. They killed the other two men and the gun was leveled at me next. I was ready for the end, man. I was convinced that was it. And then North was there.”

Tex chuckled. “I used that opening to attack the gunman. Took him down with my hands behind my back—killed him with just my legs. Got my hands in front of me and started helping them clear the place. But man, North and his crew came in and basically annihilated everyone in what felt like minutes. It was the most spectacular display of military precision I’ve ever witnessed. They worked so seamlessly together—North was a beast—”

Tex grinned at me. “Nyx came up to me after. He cut me out of the zip ties and said, ‘Need a clean pair of panties, dude? That was a close one.’”

I laughed with him because that sounded just like Nyx.

“North came in from outside: ‘That your handiwork out there?’ I nodded and Nyx held up the zip ties. ‘Took them all down with his hands tied too, boss.’ North looked me over then nodded. ‘You want a job?’ Naturally I accepted on the spot and that was that. Been with him ever since. He’s one of those men who is ruthless—I mean, he has to be a psychopath or something—but he cares about the men around him. I wouldn’t want to cross him, that's for sure. He’s a dangerous man who I owe my life to many times over at this point. He’ll have my loyalty until the day I die.”

Everyone seemed to have similar stories about North. I’d seen first hand the way he operates during the Red Rabbit job and getting to work beside him then I knew what Tex meant. Tex was right but at the time I thought North’s edge came from a disregard for everything. Turns out, it wasn’t that at all. He cared about his people and his people only and he would protect them at all costs and dole out retribution in the process.

“North is a complicated man,”

I muttered.

Tex’s laugh rang out as we grabbed the bags of burgers and headed back to the car.

“Truer words have never been spoken, my friend. He is that.”

“So, what about Sakari?” I asked.

“Sakari we found while on a job in Japan,”

Tex said, his smile dropped and he grew solemn. “It’s not really my story to tell honestly but he was in a bad situation and when we found him—”

Tex shook his head. “Somehow he’d fought his way through the building he was in—and like the ninja he is, he was up on a damn roof. North, Atlas and I had followed him up there just in time to watch him take a hit I was sure had killed him. North was about to get the same treatment when out of nowhere, Sakari sends one of his throwing stars into the guy and saves North’s life.”

Tex looked at me as he started the car. “After that job, you best believe North had us training in martial arts for months. He doesn’t like close calls.”

We drove the rest of the way in silence, each of us lost in our own thoughts and when we finally pulled back up to the safe house, Tex turned off the car but didn’t get out right away.

“Look, I know you’ve just joined the club, and while I wasn’t at the Red Rabbit job, I heard about it—”

he shook his head. “What’s going on with all of this—it’s definitely not my place to disclose—but I’ve seen the way he looks at Kaelin and the way he talks about what the three of you have going on—”

Tex grinned. “It’s important to him. But so is this and he won’t be able to move on until it’s over.”

I nodded. “I know.”

And I did know. Intimately.

Revenge was not something you could set aside and move on from until it was over. There wasn’t a high road. There wasn’t the option to forgive, forget and move on. It was a rage and a compulsion that simmered and eroded everything inside you until it was your entire existence—it was in every breath, every action, every thought.

But the problem was, with that consuming you, it was easy to lose yourself. By the time it was over, there was no telling who you’d be when the dust settled. And that was what I was worried about: who would he be when this was over? And would there be anyone left to care?