Midnight Lies (Tasarov Bratva 2)

EMERY

Isabella cries again when she sees Travis. “Thank you, Mama,” she says over and over again, her hand tight in Travis’s fur.

I know it’s wrong, but I feel smug about being the one to have found the dog. I’m the weakest link? Joke’s on you, Adrik.

Petty, I know. Guess I’m petty.

But maybe if he’d gone a little slower, the woman would have caught him in time to save him from wandering around the streets all night. He’s still not back, as a matter of fact.

“I’ll never let you get away again,” Isabella whispers to Travis. “Ever. You’re safe.”

It’s precious how much she loves the dog. Making friends has always been hard for her. Kids are nervous around her wheelchair, and she’s afraid to join in. But Travis loved her unconditionally from second one.

“Travis came back just in time,” Stefan says, smiling at Isabella. “It’s about to rain cats and dogs outside.”

“Cats and dogs?” Isabella asks, her face all screwed up.

“It’s an expression, princess.”

I look out the front windows. They’re mostly boarded over with advertisements for liquor and neon signs, but through some of the gaps, I can see the beginnings of a nasty storm pattering against the cement.

“Has Adrik come back yet?” I ask.

Stefan shakes his head.

“So shouldn’t someone go find him? Tell him Travis is okay?”

Stefan shakes his head. “He told all of us to stay here and watch Isabella.”

I want to tear my hair out in frustration. If Adrik told these men to jump off a cliff, there’s no question they’d all do it happily. Robots, every single one of them.

“He’d probably like to know he doesn’t need to wander around in the rain,” I insist.

“Probably,” Stefan agrees. But based on the way he lounges back in his seat, his eyelids growing heavy, it doesn’t seem like he plans to do anything about that. Maybe if he hadn’t drunk half the bar, he’d be more concerned.

Suddenly, the television hanging over the bar lets out a high-pitched alarm. I turn around just as a red alert banner pops up in the center of the screen.

Severe Weather Alert. Flash Flood Warning. Stay off the roads. Seek higher ground if necessary.

“Shit,” I hiss.

Isabella gasps at my word choice. I wince and smooth my hand over her forehead. “Sorry, honey. But there’s a big storm coming.”

“Yeah, there is. Look at the radar.” Stefan whistles. It sounds like his tongue is slightly too big for his mouth. “That’s a whopper.”

The news is playing the radar on a loop, showing a massive red storm system spiraling towards us. As if on cue, thunder booms and the lights in the bar flicker.

I read the rest of the weather warning under my breath. “ ‘… heavy rain, damaging winds, and tennis-ball-sized hail.’ Jesus, someone has to go get Adrik!” I turn to Stefan, but he’s just staring at the screen, his eyes glazed over. “Stefan! Someone has to go get Adrik.”

He shakes his head. “He told us to stay here, and we—”

Before he can even finish, I turn on my heel and move towards the door.

Everyone is so busy watching the television or ignoring it all and drinking themselves into oblivion that no one stops me as I step through and head outside.

The rain is pounding against the pavement. It sounds like a drumline right in my ears. Within seconds of stepping outside, I’m soaked through.

“No point turning back now,” I mutter.

I duck my head against the rain and sprint down the block in the direction Adrik was heading when I saw him last. He could be absolutely anywhere, so I try to think like he would. If Adrik was searching for a dog, where would he look? What would be his strategy?

He’d probably circle around the immediate area and then spiral outward, increasing the search radius with every turn. Or at least, I hope that’s what he would do. Because that’s what I’m gonna do, and I’m gonna end up as a drowned rat if it doesn’t work out.

The rain plasters my hair to my head and soaks my pants. They hang loose on my hips, making it hard to run. But I move as quickly as I can, my head on a swivel as I loop around the block once and then start on the next spiral.

No one is on the streets now. As I pass restaurants and businesses, a few places even throw the door open for me.

“Customers can shelter here,” an elderly woman calls after me, though I barely hear her through the pounding rain. “Buy something small and get out of the mess!”

I wave her off and keep running even as lightning branches through the sky. The world turns white for a moment.

I keep searching. A third loop, a fourth.

By my fifth pass, I’m tired. My lungs are burning, and the road I’m on is deserted in a way that makes the hair on my neck stand up.

There are doors set into the bricks, but no signage. No advertisements or placards telling me what anything is. If a hitman needed a storefront, this is where he’d set up shop.

I’m slowing down, frustrated and questioning my whole process. But just as I slow to a light jog, I catch a shadow in my peripherals. A very big shadow.

I whip around just as a hand clamps tight around my bicep.

“Get off!” I scream, jerking back.

My foot slips on the wet pavement, and I tip backward, screaming again. But large hands catch me, keeping me from landing flat on my back. “Would you relax?”

I recognize the deep grumble instantly. I wipe the rain out of my eyes and look up at Adrik.

He’s in a dark jacket with a hood pulled down over his head, casting his face in shadow. His blue eyes are bright and his sinful mouth is turned down in a frown.

“What the fuck are you doing out here?” he growls, setting me on my feet.

“Looking for you!”

He rolls his eyes. “I didn’t need to be found. Stefan texted me.”

“Why didn’t he say that before I left?”

Now that I think about it, I did leave in the middle of Stefan’s sentence. Maybe he was going to tell me he had it all under control.

“Because you should have listened and stayed at the bar,” Adrik snarls.

I narrow my eyes at him. “I was looking for you so you wouldn’t be out in the rain, asshole!”

His arm is still wrapped around my waist. I’m looking up at him as water drips off the ends of his dark hair. His shirt beneath the jacket is soaked, the top few buttons opened to reveal his chest and a patch of dark hair. Every piece of clothing clings to him like a second skin.

I feel like a waterlogged hamster, but Adrik looks like he just stepped out of one of those insane fragrance commercials that don’t make any sense. He’s photoshoot ready.

And he’s about to respond when lightning flashes across the sky again, followed half a second later by a bone-shattering peal of thunder. The ground rocks under my feet and Adrik pulls me against his chest.

Then the hail starts.

Penny-sized ice bullets crackle against the sidewalk, coming faster and faster by the second. One hits me in the head, and I yelp.

“Shit.” Adrik throws open his jacket and holds it over my head like a wing. “Come on.”

He leads me down the narrow, deserted street to the only doorway with a canopy hanging over it. It’s a red fabric overhang that looks like it’s original, not only to the building, but to the city itself. Maybe to the whole damn country. Whatever the case, the thing hasn’t been replaced in ages and I can already see pre-existing holes and tears growing larger from the pounding rain and hail.

“We have to get inside,” I say.

“No shit.” Adrik looks up and down the street, calculating, assessing.

The pounding of the hail grows louder as the penny-sized ice balls increase to quarters and then silver dollars. Somewhere in the distance, I hear a severe weather siren going off.

“Is this the apocalypse or something?” I yell over the din.

Adrik spins around and bangs on the door behind us. It’s glass, but cardboard has been taped over the inside so we can’t see anything. And after thirty seconds of knocking, it’s clear no one is answering.

“We have to make a run for it,” I say. “Maybe there will be something around the block. A restaurant or something we can duck into?”

Adrik looks back towards the street, and I follow his gaze just as a piece of hail the size of a golf ball smashes into the cement and rolls to a stop at our feet. Unlike the earlier hail, this piece isn’t slush. It’s solid ice. Deadly, in the hands of a vengeful weather god. Even a short walk around the block might be too dangerous to attempt. But what other choice do we have?

“Cover your face!" Adrik yells to be heard over the storm.

I think he’s going to lead me into the hail, so I do as I’m told. I throw both arms over my face and squeeze my eyes closed.

Then I hear a shattering sound.

I peek under my arm and see Adrik kicking out the lower pane of glass in the door in front of us.

“Hey! What are you—”

He bends down and slides one leg into the door. Then he reaches up and grabs my good hand. “Follow me.”

“Adrik! This is breaking and entering. It’s trespassing! We can’t—”

My words are lost to the sound of metal scraping against brick as the tiny canopy hanging above us is violently wrenched from the building and sucked spiraling into the sky. I try to follow the trajectory, but rain and hail pelt me from all directions.

Adrik pulls on my arm and a second later, I’m through the door and in a dark, strange hallway.

He positions me behind him while he looks around. His arm is still around my waist. For a change, I don’t mind it. I’m shivering and a little freaked out by the intensity of the storm. Not to mention the casual felonies we’re committing.

“Where are we?” I whisper.