Atonement: The Hunter Mercenary Series (Book One) Read online

  “I watched a lot of movies when you left. I didn’t have anything else to do. That was a scene, and it looked like fun. Well, for the person doing it.”

  “That’s so wrong.”

  “We are working with two mercenaries. Now I fit in. They look at me and think she’s cute, or ‘look at Dakota’s girl’. Now I have street cred.”

  “Remind me not to make you mad.”

  She laughed.

  Rogue came out, cleaning off the machete.

  “Uh, what’s on that towel?” he asked.

  “Blood.”

  “Uh, whose?”

  He smiled.

  “You killed him?” Dakota asked.

  “Well, when he called her names, tried to bribe me to set him free, and turn against you, he lost his head.”

  “Literally?” she asked.

  “Yep.”

  “Don’t try to pin this one on Zayn,” Dakota said, pulling her toward the car.

  “Oh, I won’t. This was a special occasion.”

  “What?” he asked.

  “Welcome to the team, Sarah!”

  He stared open mouthed. “We are all going to Hell. That’s the only thing I can say.”

  “Yeah, because the last forty years were a pleasure cruise?” he asked.

  Okay, he had a point.

  It looked like they were up to five bodies, and it didn’t look like it was going to stop anytime soon.

  “Can I drive?” she asked. “I’ve always wanted to be the getaway driver.”

  “Uh, no. We aren’t cops. We can’t get pulled over…”

  She pulled his badge out of her back pocket and tossed it to him.

  “What’s this?”

  “I swiped it out of Marcus’s office. I wanted to have it to remember you. I have mine too.”

  Rogue laughed.

  “Will you marry me?” he teased.

  Dakota stared at him. “Really? I’ve had her back a few hours. Can you give me a week before you try to steal her away?”

  “I’m loaded,” Rogue said, winking at her.

  “You’re going to be loaded with lead if you don’t back off,” Dakota stated.

  “What? She’s like me but a chick. If that isn’t a sign from God…”

  “You can’t marry her.”

  She held out her hand and waited.

  “If you get a ticket, you’re paying it. Marcus will kick our asses.”

  She hopped in behind the wheel.

  She touched the dash. “I promise this won’t hurt, sexy.”

  “I hope not,” he said.

  She looked over at him.

  “I was talking to the car.”

  Rogue couldn’t contain himself. He was laughing so hard. This girl…she was definitely part of their team.

  “Now buckle up.”

  And they did.

  Thankfully.

  Sarah Valley drove it like she stole it.

  Well, like Rogue stole it—because he actually did.

  * * * H U N T E R * * *

  When they got closer to Chartres Street, she was hungry. Sarah couldn’t recall when she ate last, so they stopped. There was no doubt in their mind that Zayn could handle feeding Stella.

  Or trapping her in bed.

  So, they opted to grab burgers.

  Sitting at the table in the night air, she pulled out her tablet. “He said Chesky Jensen, right?” she asked.

  “What are you doing?” Rogue inquired, eating his salad and fries.

  “Running him.”

  “You think that’s his real name?” he asked.

  She laughed. “If you were going to pick a street name or just a badass name, would it be Chesky?”

  He found that funny.

  “Yeah, no.”

  “I’m willing to bet ice cream on this one that he’s using his real name because he thinks he’s safe.”

  Dakota agreed.

  There was a beep.

  “Yep. He’s in the system. I told you so,” she said, getting her wish. Rogue ordered her ice cream.

  “What does it say?”

  She pulled their chairs closer so they were flanking her. They all read as the information scrolled.

  “He’s a sicko,” she said. “They suspected him in the death of twenty girls who got ‘locked’ in a storage container. They were being shipped to the Middle East for sex.”

  That made both men sick.

  She scrolled through their names. That’s when it caught Dakota’s attention.

  “Wait. Search Zayn.”

  “Why?” she asked. “He’s a hired gun, not a woman killer,” she offered.

  “No, I want to see his family.”

  She did what he asked.

  There was a news story that popped up.

  ‘Chesky Jensen was arrested on the suspicion that he tried to lure a sixteen-year-old girl away from her family. He couldn’t be tied to Adsilla Thundercloud’s disappearance. He was released after a lack of evidence and witnesses.’

  “His sister was killed by this guy?” Sarah asked, knowing that was going to be bad news.

  “Yeah, what’s the date on that article?”

  She told him.

  He did the math.

  “He would have been almost fourteen. It was nearly two decades ago.”

  “We have to tell him,” she said. “He’s tied to all of this,” Dakota stated.

  He closed his eyes.

  While he knew that Zayn wanted to find the man who killed his sister, he didn’t think he’d like being blindsided. Chesky Jensen likely was the man who tried to have Stella taken.

  If he was stealing women, then the odds were not in the favor of Mercedes or Maia.

  They were likely gone.

  “Yeah, we’re going to tell him. I hope the Blackhawks like holes,” he said.

  Rogue agreed.

  “Why?” Sarah asked.

  “Did you see the ones in the living room?”

  “Yes. It was him?”

  “Yeah, and he was only mildly upset. We’re about to piss off a powder keg with a very short fuse.”

  “Oh man. That’s not good.”

  Yeah, she could say that again.

  Zayn was going to blow.

  Sooner, rather than later.

  Chapter Twelve

  W hen they arrived at home, they found Zayn on the couch as Stella was leaning against him. They looked to be taking a nice comfortable moment to just be together. He was cradling her against his body, and she was running her fingers through his hair.

  When he heard them coming, he pointed his gun at the doorway.

  “Thank God. I was wondering if you’d forgotten us.”

  “We stopped for something to eat.”

  He wiggled his eyebrows. “What a coincidence. I stopped for something to eat too.”

  Stella laughed. She couldn’t imagine how she was going to go back to medical school and leave him. Being near Zayn was so cathartic.

  “Jesus! Why does everyone have pussy on the brain?” Rogue asked.

  “Remember what I did to that asshole?” asked Sarah. “Do you want to be next?”

  “No, ma’am.”

  He moved out of reach just in case.

  “What happened?” Zayn asked.

  Okay, this was where it got ugly.

  “We found out who hired Austin Sharp.”

  He sat there, calmly.

  The three of them knew he wasn’t going to stay that way for long.

  “Why do you guys look like you don’t want to tell me something?”

  Here went nothing.

  “We stopped for dinner, and we searched the name we were given. You know him.”

  He lifted a brow. “Okay, how? I work in the seedy part of our city as a mercenary. OF COURSE I likely know him.”

  “Chesky Jensen.”

  He got up so fast, Stella fell out of his lap and landed on the other side of the couch.

  “If you’re fucking with me, I’m going to end you
,” he said, moving toward Dakota. “I’ve been searching for him since my sister’s murder!”

  Sarah stepped between them.

  She placed a hand on his chest.

  “Jesus! What does he lift? Cars?” she asked. “His chest is like a giant boulder.”

  “Bad time, baby,” Dakota stated. “That’s his hole punching face.”

  “Where did you hear that name?” he demanded, moving Sarah with his sheer size.

  “Austin Sharp gave him up.”

  “I have to go talk to him. I need to find that man. He’s the sicko who hurt my sister. He worked through Gus Cobb, and a string of others. I’ve never been able to get close to him. He’s a snake.”

  “Alleged,” Sarah said.

  Zayn spun, moving in her direction. “What did you say to me?” he raged.

  She took a step back and Dakota moved in front of her. “Stop.”

  He flexed his fingers.

  It was clear that he was doing battle with something bigger than just finding out the man’s name. Zayn was doing war with one hell of a demon.

  “Breathe,” Dakota stated.

  “I need to go out.”

  “Austin Sharp is dead,” Rogue stated. “You can’t go there and kill him, I already did it for you. He was part of taking Stella. He was likely part of the other business too. We’re working our way through his accomplices.”

  Dakota knew why Marcus and Ethan picked this particular mercenary for the team. Zayn was getting his information as they solved this. The man he sought was the man tied to this case.

  Shit!

  A heads-up would have been nice. Controlling a pissed off giant was no easy task.

  “I want Chesky Jensen’s head on a silver platter. NO! I want his whole body because I’m going to do exactly what he did to my sister! I’m going to cut him to pieces while he’s alive, and then feed him to the gators in the swamp!”

  They let him rage.

  They let him be angry.

  “Zayn.”

  “I need to go out.”

  He headed for the door. Meanwhile, Stella went to get up and follow him.

  “Don’t, Stella,” Rogue stated. “He needs a few minutes, an hour, or whatever. He can’t be focused on you. He needs to be focused on him.”

  She got it.

  “Will he be okay?” she asked, worried about him.

  “Yeah, he will be. Just give him space to work through all of this in his head.”

  She figured they knew him best.

  “Where do you think he’ll go?” she asked.

  Dakota didn’t have a clue.

  Rogue on the other hand…he knew. At one time, he would have gone there too.

  “Purgatory.”

  She was confused.

  “What’s that?”

  “It’s a bar that Charlotte Shaw owns. That’s where all the killers in this city hang out. That’s where I met her, and that’s likely how he became acquainted with her.”

  She looked worried.

  “He wouldn’t do anything stupid, right? I mean, he’s not going to risk himself, is he?”

  Oh, there was no doubt he would.

  Only, no one was going to tell her that.

  * * * H U N T E R * * *

  Purgatory

  He just wanted to be alone.

  Was that too much to ask?

  At that moment, he was toxic, nuclear, and a lit fuse waiting to go off. They all had their demons and Chesky Jensen was his. He loathed the man.

  Half of Zayn’s life was spent making money doing illegal things, and the other half was spent spending that money to find the man who killed his sister.

  He hadn’t wanted to be a killer when he was growing up. Zayn had wanted to go to college, play football, and maybe go pro. He had wanted to be a family man with a wife, kids, and happiness, but that day his sister’s killer took her…

  It changed everything.

  He didn’t join the military because he wanted to schlep a forty-pound pack through a war zone. He didn’t join because the pay was great.

  Zayn joined because he needed to learn the skills to kill people, and the military was happy to oblige.

  Then he came home, bitter, angry, and pumped to kill, and he took it private. He’d had to do horrible things to be accepted as a killer, and it was all because of Chesky Jensen.

  He wanted him so badly, that he’d handed his whole life over to the devil for a shot at him.

  Now he was resurfacing, and he didn’t have time to play games. Zayn needed the man dead.

  He needed a plan.

  So, in order to have space to think, to work out a plan, he needed a familiar setting.

  Basically, he had to get away from Stella. He didn’t want her seeing this side of him. He wasn’t happy he had a temper, or that beneath all of that, she would see his festering pit of hate.

  While he’d never let her be hurt by it, he had to face the facts. It was there.

  It lived within him.

  He didn’t want to hurt the woman he loved. She was all that kept him from sinking into that pit of hate and self-loathing.

  For now, he needed to be alone until he could work this out in his head.

  Who knew how long that would take?

  When he took a seat, Charlotte headed his way, pouring him some whiskey.

  “You look like hell.”

  “Yeah, well, when in Purgatory, look like you belong there. You don’t look so good yourself.”

  “Long day. Owning this place is a blessing and one hell of a burden all at once.”

  He could only imagine.

  Zayn kicked back the whiskey and then slid the glass to her with money. She pushed it back.

  “You know you drink for free. We go way back, Zayn. Do you want to talk about it?”

  He didn’t.

  But then again, she might know something he didn’t.

  “What do you know about a Chesky Jensen?” he asked, hoping she had anything that would help him find the man so he could destroy him.

  The question was followed by a crisp hundred.

  That she took.

  While she didn’t make her favorites pay for their cirrhosis of the liver, business was business.

  She tucked it away for a savings account for a rainy day.

  “He’s a fan of that floating bar. He doesn’t come in here. He knows better. While the dregs of New Orleans hang here, child molesters are not welcome. I don’t have many rules, but that’s my one set one.”

  Yeah, there went his blood pressure at the even mention of ‘child molester’. Chesky Jensen was that and so much worse. If evil could be born into one person, so dark, wicked, and full of vileness, it would be him.

  “I need to find him.”

  “You will. Scum rises to the surface. At some point, he’ll surface for air. You know how those mouth breathers are.”

  Hell!

  Wasn’t that accurate?

  When one of the waitresses headed his way and then patted him on the ass, he growled at her.

  “GO! Stop touching me!”

  She scurried away at the tone in his voice.

  Charlotte tried not to laugh, but it was hard. The poor girl was just trying to get him to see her.

  “She’s been trying to get your attention for two years. You should…”

  He stopped her. “I can’t. I’m with someone.”

  “Yeah, the word is you’re attached now.”

  “It’s true.”

  “Rich girl, huh?” Charlotte asked, wiping down the bar top with a rag.

  “Yes.”

  She picked up the bottle and kept pouring him drinks, knowing it was going to be a bad idea. A happy man shouldn’t be drinking away his sorrows in ‘Purgatory’. This was the place of sorrows and self-loathing.

  It was a place of hate and anger.

  She should know. She’d only found them there.

  “I tried shacking up with a rich guy once. He was tough to love. He had money,
guilt, and with plenty to spare.”

  “Rogue Ravenscroft?”

  She stared at him.

  Damn!

  It had been a long time since she heard that name, and it still hurt.

  “Yes, how did you…?”

  Well, it looked like she wasn’t the only one who heard things around New Orleans.

  “We’re working together. He and I are staying at the same place. I just left him.”

  She stared at him.

  A part of her wanted to know. The rest wanted to stick hot coals in his eye sockets and make him bleed.

  She was an idiot.

  “I see. How is he?”

  “Scared shitless of you.”

  That made her laugh.

  It wasn’t what she’d expected to hear. Honestly, she assumed he’d moved on.

  She had.

  There was someone in her life now too.

  Charlotte kicked back her own shot of whiskey. Who needed a liver anyway?

  “Are you really angry at him?”

  Was she?

  Honestly, no. That died the day he’d left behind the gift she cherished most. In his haste to leave, she’d found love.

  Still…

  Let him worry.

  “He bailed. He should be. He left us because his mommy made him sad.”

  There was no doubt who was angry, and who was bitter. They were both owning those names tonight.

  Then it hit him.

  Zayn lifted his drink and took a sip. Something caught his attention. “Us?”

  “I meant me. He left me all alone in this city, even after he told me he loved me. I’ll…”

  “Cut out his liver and feed it to him. We all heard that one. We give you points for creativity.”

  She stared.

  “Shit! You weren’t kidding. He is around.”

  “When did he leave you?”

  “Almost three years ago. We were shacked up at his place, then at mine, then his, and when we were at my place, he told me he couldn’t stay. He told me he couldn’t see me anymore, and he walked out, closed the door, and I never saw him again—just like that. He didn’t even look back.”

  That wasn’t the truth.

  She saw plenty of him every day.

  “Well, he’s the same old Rogue.”