Eye of the Falcon (Psychic Visions #12)(97)

They walked straight through to the pub, finding a man blocking every other option of exit. They were shepherded toward the main room. As she walked in, she pounded the bar gently and said, “It’s mighty cold out there today. May I have a coffee please?” and she kept on walking, searching the room.

On the far side, her gaze landed on a bloody Panther and Tiger, seated at a large table, their backs to the wall. They were both pinned between two large men, seated on either side of them, surrounded by another six seated on the opposite side of the table before them. After the hot coffee was delivered to her, she walked straight over to the eight guards, her gaze going from one to the other, fury burning in her heart.

“Which one of you removed Panther’s tooth?” she asked in a harsh voice.

The man nearest to Panther snorted and said, “What’s it to you, bitch?”

Issa threw the hot coffee full in his face. He roared and bounded to his feet. He tried to flip the table to get at her, but the other men jumped up from the table to stop him.

She rocked on her heels, crossed her arms, and said, “So this is your code?”

She didn’t know where her bravery came from, but she remembered the words. Whenever her dad had been angry at the men, he’d asked that question.

All around her a hush fell.

Wiping his face, the man glared at her and sat back down.

She turned slowly, recognizing some of the faces she’d seen when she had first arrived and others she’d known from the past. “I don’t know what this is all about or why you’ve tortured my friends. I don’t know why you kidnapped me and tortured me. I don’t know why we were shepherded here and given no other choice but to be in this room with you all. I don’t know what you want. But I do know one thing. My dad would’ve been ashamed of each and every one of you.”

Dead silence filled the hall.

*

Eagle let out a silent whistle. He’d never admired her more. When she had said she was a straight shooter, she had meant it. She brought out all the issues right at the moment, so they could deal with this right now. What she’d done to the man who had hurt Panther was something Eagle would never forget.

He’d figured they were all as good as dead right then. He’d seen the shock on Panther’s face when she’d stood up for him. It wasn’t something any of them were accustomed to seeing. They’d been fighting their own battles for a long time. But now they had a pint-size champion with unchartered skills.

Everybody in the room studied her warily. Having invoked her dad, the leader of the smuggling group from twenty years ago, she’d also invoked memories that both haunted and hurt. This could go either way.

Eagle glanced at Hawk to see him staring at Issa with respect. Eagle understood the feeling.

Clouds moved in overhead, making the room even more dark and gloomy.

“Where is he?” she snapped. “Is he not man enough to show his face?”

Several of the men gasped and shuffled uneasily. And then she heard a sound. Eagle watched her face as the color slipped away from her cheeks. She took a deep breath, squared off her shoulders, and crossed her arms. And Eagle realized this was the asshole who’d kidnapped her.

There was a weird click, like a snap of fingers, but not quite. Two men in the hallway stepped out of the way, and slowly a wheelchair wielded its way forward. Behind the boss, pushing the wheelchair was an older man. He looked to be mid-seventies but was probably a decade younger.

Issa stood strong and glared at the newcomers.

Eagle tried to keep watch on the newcomers too. They had eyes for no one else but Issa. When they were halfway across the room and only a few feet from her, the wheelchair-bound man said, “Where is it?”

She threw her arms wide and said, “Where is what? You tortured me for weeks, trying to find that same answer.” She lifted her gaze from his and turned toward the old-timers in the room. “Did you know that’s what he did? Did you know he kidnapped me after I returned home from cleaning out my mother’s house? She had died only five days earlier. He threw me in the back of a truck, carried me to his lair, where he systematically sliced my skin, kicked me over and over in the same places, fractured multiple bones, burned my breasts with lit cigarettes, and withheld food and water for days on end. And left me without a blanket for the cold nights. And then, when I finally outwitted his men and escaped, I was shot twice. But I am here.”

Her voice hardened. “I am here now, and the blood of my father runs through me. And I’ll be damned if I’ll take this kind of abuse anymore.” She glared at the crippled man in front of her. “And, Liam, there is not a goddamn thing from you that I want.”

Eagle straightened. “Liam? Your brother?” There was such a wealth of disgust in his voice that, when he turned to look at all the other men in the pub, at least twenty of them, not one would look him in the face. “This is the type of men you are? You do remember Issa was no more than a six-year-old child when she was here last? That she’d lost all three of her brothers—supposedly—and her father, and, twenty years later, just days after losing her mother, she was tortured for weeks on end. And you protect this man? You tortured my friends for his gains? I’ve walked this earth. I have served with good men. I have faced war, and I have faced assholes like you. How do any of you live with yourselves now?”

Liam opened his mouth and roared, “Stop this drivel.”