Hired Hunter (The Rover 2)

“Jump out of a helicopter, Zoey. Fight all these bad guys while I park the car, Zoey,” I mumbled to myself and faced Esteban again.

He hadn’t flinched from his spot.

“Where’s Fin?” I asked, sure he could hear the exhaustion in my voice.

He motioned with his fingers and five guards marched forward from the shadows, dragging Fin behind them. They threw him onto the ground, face first, and he didn’t move.

“Carry the unconscious man and save the day,” I continued my murmuring tirade.

I sheathed one knife and kept the other one at the ready. “Can we just skip the mind games and get to the point where you tell me what you want?”

A scream ripped through the air and across the clearing as more guards dragged forward a struggling woman. Her hair hung around her in a massive tangle. I would recognize her anywhere.

“Sol,” I whispered.

“You ask me what I want, Zoey. I am here because I want to know what you want,” Esteban said.

I hung my head for a second and then looked up at him again. “Me? I just want to take my friend home and go to bed.”

“Come with me. I’ll give you the grandest bed you’ve ever lain in.”

I shook my head. “Hard pass on that. I like my bed at home just fine. I also have a no controlling psychopath in my bed policy, and I have no doubt any bed you’d give me would mean I’d have to welcome you into it as well.”

The grin which split his lips told me everything I needed to know.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Again, a hard pass. Thank you for the offer, but I’m just going to take my friend to his house and then go home to my own bed. If you think it would be cool, I’ll take his sister too. Then we can all leave here and no more of you henchmen have to die. I bet that life insurance payout is getting pricey.”

Fin twitched on the ground, but I kept my relief to myself, maintained my tired, indifferent facade to Esteban. I simply needed to buy enough time for the captain to get back.

Esteban inclined his head and gave a little shrug. “If that’s what you wish. We’ll keep on like this until you change your mind.”

I palmed my other knife just as two mages closed in behind me. Damn it. One grabbed my wrists, and the other seized my head. I couldn’t shake them off. A spike of pain shot down through my brain like someone put a nail gun to my forehead.

I screamed and dropped to my knees. The mages followed me down, still holding me tight between them. Each of my knives slipped from my fingers, and another mage stepped up to take one of them. I watched through a haze of tears while he inspected the knife and then brought it to my throat.

The mage standing behind me and pressing his hands against my head was in my mind. He tightened his grip and my body went limp between them. I had zero control over anything as pain raked through me.

“You can’t have me,” I forced out between my gritted teeth, “so you ensure I’m broken so no one else can?”

Esteban crouched in front of me. “If that’s what it takes, so be it.”

His gaze scanned across my face. Tears rolled down my cheeks, a red haze seeped across my vision. The bastard was the kind of villain who enjoyed watching someone die, seeing the light leave someone’s eyes.

“Offer still stands,” he said, whispering as if sharing a secret.

“Fuck. You,” I said, blood spitting out from my lips.

He leaned in close, his lips only an inch from mine. “That’s what I’m trying to do, Zoey. I thought that was pretty obvious. Come to my bed and I’ll spare your friends, for now.”

I had nothing left in me to speak, so I hoped my hatred of him showed in my eyes. Darkness closed in at the edges of my vision, and then something pinged in my chest.

Fin’s magic I’d completely forgotten about since I’d arrived.

I dragged my eyes to his prone form, the surrounding guards not noticing the twitch of his fingers into the dirt. Unlike last time, I didn’t throw myself open to the magic. I tugged it and let it flow into me. Then I twisted it into something sharp enough to cut, to wound, and jabbed it right into the mind of the mage clutching my skull.

He screamed and reared away from me. The other mage tightened his grip as Esteban stood and took a couple steps back. The one with my knife struck out to slice it across my throat, but it felt as if someone gently ran their finger across my skin. He pulled the blade away and stared down at its edge.

I focused on the blade. It shook in the mage’s hand, then swung toward him and split his neck open. The mage hit the ground hard, taking the one holding me down with him.