Deceptive Treasures: Slye Temp Book 5 (24 page)

Chapter Thirty-One

Jin clamped her eyes shut as she allowed Tanner to pull her into the building. During the two seconds it took for her to adjust to the sudden darkness, she was blind to everything around her
.

But not afraid because of the man who held her hand.

Just because he’d told her his name and agreed to let her talk to the doctor.

Even without her eyes, her senses clued her into her surroundings
. First she caught the smell of rot and mildew from a building left to deteriorate.

She opened her eyes
. An overhead light burned further into the building, but she couldn’t see past piles of ragged plastic bags. Old clothes and household goods spilled out of holes torn in the bags.

A wooden ladder missing two steps had been leaned against the side of permanent shelves that extended four feet from the exterior wall.

Tanner squeezed her fingers, drawing her attention up to him. He pointed a finger at her, then at a place to hide behind a stack of wooden pallets.

Her instincts were telling her to stay with him, but she’d agreed to do as he said and had to prove to Tanner that she could be trusted to keep her word
. She nodded and moved silently to the place he’d indicated.

When she turned to watch him as he walked off, she caught a movement above his head that drew her gaze
.

Two black shadows dropped straight down.

“Up,” Jin yelled as she shoved away from where she hid.

Tanner twisted his head up to see what was coming and someone grabbed Jin, swinging her around so she couldn’t see Tanner.

She used the momentum of being swung around to slide her feet as though she were falling down, throwing her attacker off balance. He shifted his feet to keep steady. She clasped her hands on his arms and used that leverage to swing up, kicking her heel into his balls.

He sucked in a deep breath and howled, releasing her.

Perfect. The beauty of Ninkodai was that it was all about real-life fighting and winning and survival.

Not about style.

Grunts and fists pounded bodies behind her. She hoped Tanner was getting the best of his fight.

Jin was on her feet and battering her attacker with a series of hits that jarred her shoulders. She might as well be attacking a brick wall
.

Someone shouted over where Tanner fought two people. She had to help him.

Her attacker wasn’t moving quickly, but he managed to scissor his legs at hers and knocked her feet out from under her.
Never assume your opponent is down!
Herr Faust shouted in her mind
.
Her head bounced on the floor.

Her former Nindokai instructor would have punished her severely for that error.

She hadn’t made that mistake in many years, but her worry for Tanner had distracted her. Pain shot through her head from where it had met the concrete.

Herr Faust’s words shouted
.
Ignore the pain. Always keep moving or prepare to meet your death.

Jin’s attacker grabbed at her, fisting the front of her shirt and yanking.

Panic rushed her brain at memories of another attack. She slammed his arms upward and lunged away from him, scrambling to get free.

The shirt tore
.

That sound took her back to the one and only time she’d faced rape.

Jin had feared her instructor. Rumors claimed Herr Faust had raped and then killed two female students as examples when they lost focus and could not keep fighting.

Failure was not tolerated when training as an Orion Hunter
.

One look into Herr Faust’s empty eyes had been to stare at death calling, taunting
. He’d pounced on her the one time she’d failed to gain her feet immediately. He’d clawed at her clothes, ripping them, threatening to rape her if she did not win that fight.

Or was it
this
fight?

Terror raced through her
. Memories swamped her, pulling her under.
Herr Faust was here.
He would make good on his threat.

Jin was up and hammering her attacker over and over with rapid hits, deflecting his strikes when she could and suffering abuse from the ones she missed
.

But she was not going down again.

Spinning away, she intentionally stumbled and turned, hesitating a second and breathing hard to draw him in.

The face of her instructor ghosted through her mind, taunting her at how he would enjoy her body.

Herr Faust came at her.
No, this was not her instructor
.

She shook off the confusion
.

Everything slowed until she could see the telltale lead of her attacker’s strike
. His boot swung high for a crushing blow.

Wait ... wait ...

Instead of taking a defensive move, Herr Faust had taught her to do the unexpected.

She held her ground.

As her attacker’s boot raced toward her head at a deadly speed, Jin bent backwards. She had amazed her demanding instructor by being able to bend backwards far enough to touch the floor with her fingertips, push off and whip her body up quickly.

That signature move had prevented Herr Faust from ever taking her to the ground again
.

She executed it now and came up under her attacker’s kick, grabbed his leg and twisted, snapping bone at the knee
.

His scream of pain burned her ears
.

He hit the ground face first, threatening to rape her first then kill her slowly.

Blinding rage tore through her.

You will never harm another student, Herr Faust.

She straddled his back, grabbed his head and wrenched with a gush of energy that gave her more strength than she’d believed possible.

He stopped screaming.

The sudden silence echoed through her mind.

Adrenaline rushed through her in a tidal wave
. She stepped back, staring at his body. It was wrong. Herr Faust was much bigger and his hair had been blond.

Footsteps pounded toward her.

She spun and, out of pure instinct, raised her hands, prepared to fight.

Tanner came running around the corner like an avenging angel with blood coursing down the side of his face
. “Are you okay?”

“Yes.”  But shaking started in her core
. She’d killed a man.

He dragged her into his arms
. Her hand landed against his chest where his heart was beating as fast as hers. He hugged her and breathed out, “I thought they had you.”

Tanner was scared for her
? That pushed a warm pulse inside her, helping to steady her, but her heart clenched at taking a life. She whispered shaky words. “I told you I could defend myself.”

But she had not had to kill a man before now
. Why were tears stinging her eyes? This man had attacked her.

Nausea gripped her every time she thought about twisting his neck.

Pulling back, Tanner took in her face and kissed her forehead. “You sure as hell can.”  Then he took her in more closely. “Are you really okay?”

She struggled to breathe
. Herr Faust would have laughed at her weakness. “I ...”  She licked her lips and tried again, her words barely making a sound. “I killed him.”

Tanner hugged her to him again
. “I’m glad you did. He would have killed you.”

Swallowing was difficult. She never wanted to do that again, but she would if it meant protecting her sister
. Or Tanner.

He was rubbing his hands up and down her arms
. Her teeth chattered. He said, “It’s shock, darlin’. Just breathe and take it easy.”

His hands were warming her skin, but the cold was deep inside
. He told her, “We have to go.”

She understood
. “I will be fine.”

He bundled her close and walked toward the door
.

She stopped
. “Wait. What happened to the two who attacked you?”

“Dead.”

A sick feeling licked at her. “What about Dr. Wong?”

Tanner tightened his hold on her
. “He’s dead.”

“No
! I need him.” She yanked against his hold. Why would they kill the doctor?

Then it dawned on her
. “They used Dr. Wong to lead us here.”

Tanner said, “Possibly.”

They knew who she was. Knew she was here. Knew she was helping Tanner.

Trusting Tanner’s plan instead of her own had ruined her, and would get him killed. She should have left that first night instead of waiting for him in his Suburban, but she had been sure that trusting him would save her sister and innocent lives.

That decision had cost everything.

She jerked out of his arms and backed away
. “I have nothing. No way to find my sister. We have no deal.”

Chapter Thirty-Two

Tanner shook his head at Jin
. “I’m sorry about losing the lead on your sister, but we can’t have this conversation here. When someone doesn’t hear from the men sent here for us, those people will send more muscle.”

She backed up almost to the point of stepping on the body of the man she’d fought
.

The one she’d killed
. Then gone into shock over.

Jin was one dangerous woman to cross and right now she was pissed as a wet hen about her sister
.

Tanner hated that for her, but his mission had always overruled her personal one. “We have to go before we lose Har
. He has to be at the other location.”  He reached for her arm and she hugged her crossed arms tighter against her chest, stepping out of his reach.

Bone deep emotional pain had her pulling in all her defenses
. She was fighting shock. This was not the time to reason with her.

He went to the door and opened it to look outside. “Let’s move.”

She swept past him so quickly he should be shivering from the chill in her wake.

Outside, he caught up to her and put a hand on her shoulder to stop her before they reached the street.

“Do not touch me.”

“We can’t go out there with your clothes ripped and me bleeding.”

She seemed to finally notice the condition of her clothes. The minute he’d taken out his second attacker, Tanner had been terrified that she was gone or dead. When he’d found her with her clothes torn half off, he’d wanted to kill someone.

But she’d managed to do that on her own.

And without falling into hysterics even if she was struggling with the responsibility for someone’s death. He still remembered the first time he’d had to use deadly force. It had shaken him up badly.

Jin was one helluva woman
.

What had she been through in her life to be trained to kill? Whether she’d intended to or not, she had the expertise to finish someone off.

But at the moment, she was dealing with ending a life and losing the first real chance she’d had at finding her sister. Tanner wanted to wrap her up in his arms and take her back to the hotel where he could hold her and keep her safe.

His phone buzzed
. He wrenched it out of his pocket, checked that it was Dingo before he answered. “We’re on the way.”

Dingo said, “Don’t
. Someone cut the woman’s throat the minute she stepped through the door. I was maybe sixty seconds behind her. But I found Har.”

“And?”

“He’s dead, too.”

Tanner reached up to rub his forehead and made the mistake of touching the cut
. He dropped his hand. “Same on this end except they were waiting for us here.”

“Still got Jin?”

“Yep. Let’s meet back at the hotel and come up with a plan.”

“I’m on my way, but right now?
She’s
our plan.”

Tanner knew where Dingo was going with this but hoped he was wrong
. “What do you mean?”

“They clearly were waiting to grab her or kill her
. She’s more important to this Orion attack than she’s letting on. She has to come clean or it’s time to hand her to Sabrina for some answers.”

Tanner had no doubt that Sabrina would get whatever they needed out of Jin, because she hadn’t spent the last couple days watching Jin ride an emotional roller coaster
. If Tanner was being honest with himself, he was no longer objective. Not one damn bit. This would be the time to step back and let Dingo decide what to do with her.

The minute Tanner did
that, he could use his conscience for target practice because there would be nothing left of it.