Page 20 of K-9 Justice

Her stepfather had returned to the small space in her head where she’d buried the memories of him. At least he’d been good for something after all this time. She managed to untangle her ankles from the rope, but the filaments of torn muscle in her shoulder wouldn’t like what came next. Hiking her hands above her head, she slammed them down against her thighs with as much force as she could muster. The zip tie broke. Setting sights on the door, she fought through the dizziness closing in and locked on her pocketknife stabbed into the drywall there. “That’s mine.”

Crusted blood stained the handle and blade, but it would be enough in the coming fight. Because this wasn’t over. Throwing open the door, Ivy stepped out into a black expanse of warehouse. Her ankle ached under her full weight, but she couldn’t stop now. She had a family to protect. Every cell in her body homed in on picking up the threat before it slapped her in the face. A single fluorescent light flickered at her left, and she scanned for movement.

“You were right, Sebastian.” Her words bounced off the sheet-metal walls, and the confidence in her voice invigorated her to keep moving. “You and I have unfinished business.”

No answer. No sign of Max or Carson. It would be easy to panic if she let herself, but she’d just conquered one of the demons that kept her up at night. Now it was time to face the second. Gripping her pocketknife in her nondominant hand, she pressed her back into the walls of whatever room Sebastian had held her in. “Come out, come out, wherever you are.”

“Are you sure you want to play this game, little girl?” Sebastian’s answer felt far away and yet too close at the same time. “The last time I checked, you weren’t cut out to face me.”

She’d sustained a good amount of injury hung upside down as his personal punching bag. Her brain could be messing with her, but Ivy got the feeling her perception hadn’t changed. Sebastian knew this warehouse better than she or Carson. There were spaces he’d most likely created to track his enemies, watch them, ambush them. He wouldn’t be so lucky today. Memories of that voice threatened to slow her down, but she’d already made up her mind. There was no turning back.

A shadow shifted in her peripheral vision.

She didn’t hesitate. She arced the blade of her undersized weapon.

And hit something soft.

“My pocketknife says otherwise.” Ivy fisted Sebastian’s collar and dragged him into the light. Victory charged through her as pain creased into his face. “This is for Nafessa Piel.”

Agony seared through her side. Exposing a thin saw blade where her right kidney used to be.

“And this is for stabbing me two years ago,” he said.

She stumbled back, forced to leave her pocketknife in his shoulder.

And dropped to her knees.

* * *

“No!” Carson watchedon as though things unraveled in slow motion.

Ivy pressed a hand to her side. Then turned her gaze to him down the length of the maze of in-progress automobiles before going limp. She hit the floor with nothing more than the sound of a feather landing lightly.

Everything in him froze. His worst nightmare had come to fruition. He’d lost her. Carson’s bellow filled the entire warehouse.

Sebastian wasn’t ready for the rage boiling over inside of him.

Carson raced to close the distance between them. He swung the heavy-duty wrench with every ounce of control he had left. Sebastian dodged the first attempt but couldn’t avoid the second. Metal connected with bone in a sickening crunch that would haunt Carson for the rest of his life. The man he’d once considered a mentor within the cartel—a friend, even—had taken away the only person he had left. There was no one left to ground him to this life. His father had left when he’d been a kid; his mother had died after an infection started eating her from the inside. The FBI wanted nothing to do with him, and the men and women he’d fought beside on the battlefield were six feet underground. And now Ivy. Taken by the very person he’d saved from being buried under megatons of rock, cement and steel.

He swung the wrench back for another blow. To end it.

Only Sebastian wasn’t ready to accept his fate. The cartel soldier caught Carson’s wrist, but the wrench’s momentum ripped the tool out of Carson’s hand. It skidded across the cement and was lost to shadow in an instant.

A fist rocketed into Carson’s face. Once. Twice. Lights exploded behind his eyes, but it wouldn’t slow him down. Sebastian held on to his wrist. Except there was more than one way to win a fight. Carson thrust his forehead into the bastard’s face.Sangre por Sangre’s most fearsome killer fell back, releasing his hold with a groan. Another fist came at him, and Carson raised both forearms to block it.

“Max,bring!” Retrieve. The K-9 leaped from her hiding place with a sharp protest, vaulting for Ivy. She’d never had to pull an entire person out of a hostile situation before, but Carson had his faith placed in her. It was the only way they were all going to get out of this alive. The German shepherd latched on to Ivy’s boot and started jerking Ivy out of sight.

“I’m going to cut you and gut you for what you’ve done, Rojas. You should know better by now. No one escapesSangre por Sangre.” Sebastian added some distance between them, swiping the back of his hand beneath his shattered nose.

“What did you just say?” That phrasing. He’d heard it before. No. He’d read it before. Carved into the backs of four women, one of whom had been killed a mere two days ago. But…it wasn’t possible. Was it? The man standing in front of him—who’d served as his recruiter and guided him through the ranks of the cartel—couldn’t be the same one he’d been searching for all this time.

“There’s no saving Agent Bardot. Even if you make it out of here alive, I will hunt you both for the rest of your lives.” Sebastian’s threats were more growl than words now. “You will never be safe. You will never have a future. I’ll make sure of it.”

Agent Bardot. Not Ivy Bardot of Socorro Security. Sebastian had known Ivy since before she’d founded her private military contractor operation. But it didn’t matter what the son of a bitch called her. Every second Carson wasted here was another second Ivy didn’t have. She’d been stabbed. He didn’t know how badly, but he’d lived through the experience enough to tell him there was a chance she could bleed out if he didn’t get to her.

“We’ve survived worse than you.” Carson kicked out. His heel connected with Sebastian’s midsection and sent the cartel soldier straight back into a tool bench.

“You have no idea who I am, do you, boy? What I can do to you and your partner?” Sebastian grabbed for a section of chain coiled on the surface and whipped the heavy metal. He was grabbing for anything and everything. Always putting his own survival first. It was a wonder Carson had gotten this far withinSangre por Sangrewithout seeing it until now. “You’ve never known the kind of pain I will bring down on you.”

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