Darkest Day (StrikeForce #3) Read online

  “Where do you expect me to keep them?” Portia asked Daemon.

  “Come on. You have tons of room here,” Daemon said, wincing as Dr. Ali wiped at his arm. “I need to know they’re safe. They’re not safe anywhere out there.”

  “We’ve been breached before,” I said.

  “Yeah. You have a mole here, but you already know that, I think,” he said to me. I gave a short nod. It was something I’d already suspected.

  “Don’t suppose you know who it is?” Portia asked, and he shook his head.

  “Killjoy never let on who it was,” he said. “But you definitely have one. Whoever it was helped them get in that day you fought Killjoy and the rest of them. I guess whoever it is is sharing info with Killjoy too, but like I said I never found out who. I’m trusting you to keep them safe,” he repeated.

  “And you’ll help us,” Portia said.

  He nodded. “I’ll help you. Lock me up, keep them safe, and don’t let that psychotic fuck near any of us. That’s all I ask.”

  “What about your family?” I asked.

  He let out a low laugh. “I’m as good as dead to them now. I don’t care. Just bring my daughter and her mom here so I know they’re safe.”

  “Where are they?” Portia asked.

  Daemon gave us a location, a rural area in the northern part of the state.

  “Daystar, can you and Caine handle it?” Portia asked me. “We’ll finish getting him patched up and into a cell.”

  “I want to be there when you question him,” I said.

  She nodded. “You earned that. Just hurry up and get back here with his kid.”

  I turned and went to the door.

  “Official uniform, please,” Portia called after me.

  “Fine.”

  Ryan followed me back up to my suite without a word and waited in the living room while I changed in my room. When I came back out, he was standing near the couch looking down at all of the files I’d been going through.

  “It’s been a hell of a day,” he said quietly. I nodded. Just a few hours ago, I’d fled from his suite feeling like the walls were closing in on me. Before that, the scene at the bank. And before that, we’d been assigned new partners.

  “It feels like it’s been about five days,” I said. I pulled my mask on and we headed up to the flight bay. Portia had called up ahead of us and the crew was getting one of the mini jets ready.

  It took us less than an hour to reach the location Daemon had given us.

  “If this is a trap, I swear I’ll kill him myself,” Ryan muttered, the first words he’d said since we’d gotten into the jet. Then he huffed out a breath. “Is there any point in asking you why you went over to Daemon’s tonight?”

  “Killjoy called and he seemed to think we had Daemon already, which told me he was worried about what we might get out of him. So I went to see if there was anything we’d missed in his house the first time around. Daemon had a whole box of evidence sitting there with my name on it, and he was there, begging me to turn him in, like he’d been hiding, waiting there for me. And then Killjoy and Raider showed up and Killjoy told Raider to kill me.”

  “And what did he do?” he asked.

  “He left.”

  He turned his head and glanced at me. “Raider’s strong, but he had to know that she wasn’t a match for you.”

  I nodded. “I think she was set up. He wanted her taken in.”

  “What? Why?”

  “I mentioned to him when he called that she and Render and Maddoc were working on shit behind his back. And I knew from before that it wouldn’t sit well with him. She was totally set up.”

  “And he clearly doesn’t want to kill you,” he said thoughtfully.

  “Not yet. That’ll change the harder we push him, I think.”

  Ryan landed the plane silently in a field behind a narrow white farmhouse. There were lights on in the lower rooms. Ryan gestured for me to go ahead, and I stepped onto the porch and knocked.

  A few moments later, the door opened, and I was staring down the barrel of the rifle.

  “Deena,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady. Ryan was tense behind me. If she started to squeeze the trigger, I had to hope he’d hear it and we’d both get out of the way in time. I was pretty sure I wouldn’t survive that kind of injury. “Sal sent us. He wants us to move you and Charlie to safety.”

  “You’re Daystar. Who’s that?” she asked.

  “Caine. My team member. Sal is at StrikeForce Command. He turned himself in to try to stay alive and keep you and Charlie safe. His old team mates are looking for both of you to get to him. If you want to call Sal, please feel free to do so, but we need to get moving.”

  She swore and lowered the gun. “He said he would try for this,” she said, waving us in. “I didn’t think he’d actually do it. I’ve been trying to convince him to go to you guys forever.”

  She walked into a room off of the living room and came out carrying a small girl wearing pink pajamas, her face mostly covered by a mop of unruly dark hair. In her other hand, she carried a large duffel bag.

  “You were packed?” Caine asked her.

  “Sal said this might happen. I don’t want to waste any time. Just please get us out of here,” Deena said. “Please.” She was trembling, and her daughter, Charlie, was holding on tight, tiny arms clasped around Deena’s neck.

  “Okay. Come on,” I said. Ryan started turning off lamps and took the bag from Deena, and I hurried her out the back door and toward the field where we’d landed the plane. We got them secured in the jet, in the seat next to mine, both Ryan and I keeping a close eye out for anyone who might be coming out of the shadows at us. I knew that neither of us were afraid to face any of Killjoy’s people, and we probably both kind of wanted a fight more often than not, but not with a kid present. Once we were all in the jet and Ryan took off, I felt like I could breathe again.

  “So you’ll probably be living at Command for a while, until we get all of this figured out,” I said. “Under some surveillance, as I’m sure you can understand. Daemon isn’t exactly someone any of us trust.”

  Deena nodded. “I can’t blame you on that.”

  “How long have you known him?” I asked.

  She smiled, and it was a sweet, gentle smile, not at all what I’d expected from a woman involved with a guy like Daemon. “We’ve been together off and on since we were about fourteen. Always breaking up then getting back together, always swearing one another off and then kind of incapable of staying away.” She shook her head and looked at me. “You have to believe me. He’s not a bad person. He’s done some terrible things in the past few years. He’s lost his way, become desperate and angry. But there is good in him. A lot of it. It’s in Charlie, just as much as his powers are.”

  I stared at her. “She has Daemon’s powers?”

  Charlie nodded. “They’re not very strong, but I wonder if it’s because she’s so young? Anyway, she has them and it’s another reason we were both determined to keep her protected from everyone, including StrikeForce. But I started pushing him to ask you for help after I saw you handle that firestarter girl in Detroit a while back. You actually seemed to care, and I told him I trusted you more than I’d trust any of the jerks he associates with. Especially not his family.”

  I tried to calm down and keep my voice even. “And his family? That last name…” I shrugged.

  “They’re exactly who you think they are,” she said softly. “And he’s been nothing but a weapon to them, from the moment his powers first came on.” The bitterness in her voice was strong.

  “Are they funding Killjoy’s team?” I asked her.

  She shrugged. “I don’t know about that. If I had to bet, I’d bet on yes, but Sal tried to keep me out of his family’s business. For obvious reasons,” she added.

  We rode the rest of the way to Command in silence, and when we got back, Jenson and Amy took Deena and Charlie up to their new suite. Portia met us when we made our way to the
prison facility.

  “Guys. Go to sleep. You’re dead on your feet and so am I.”

  “We need to question him,” I said, stifling a yawn.

  “He’s not going anywhere,” she said. “I’ve got three guards on him, just like I have on Maddoc. You two are no good to me like this. Caine looks like shit and I’m guessing you don’t look much better.”

  “Thanks,” Ryan said sarcastically, and Portia smiled.

  “Go to sleep. When you’re up and around tomorrow, we can talk to him.”

  “Where did that evidence box go?” I asked her, and she sighed.

  “In your suite. I know this is your baby. I just provide the manpower, equipment, food, medical care—“

  “Okay. I get it. I appreciate it. Thank you,” I said with a laugh, and she rolled her eyes.

  We all got back on the elevator again, and Portia and I got off on our floor after bidding Ryan goodnight. Portia went to her door, then glanced at me.

  “Sleep, woman. I’m not kidding.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” I said. I let myself into my suite and sat down on the couch. I pulled my mask off, then grabbed the box Daemon had left for me and started going through what was inside.

  The sun was shining through the windows in my living room when I finally lay down, tossing the last of the documents aside. The Detroit Mafia was funding Killjoy’s crap, just as I’d feared. Daemon had mostly been kept out of the loop, but he’d apparently been pretty good at snooping around to get this evidence to me. There were lists. Lists of people Killjoy had taken out as favors to the Giannotti family, including some politicians, police officers, and even a hero from Chicago who’d apparently started poking into things since he suspected something was up and Alpha wasn’t doing anything about it.

  The Giannotti crime family was also heavily involved with both Alpha and StrikeForce. It had been a partnership from the start: the politicians that the Giannotti family had in their pockets made it so that the local government was very hands-off where StrikeForce was concerned and in general agreed to look the other way.

  Dr. Death had been a distant cousin of Daemon’s. His real name had been Joseph Sciotto. In the files Daemon had put together for me, there was some mention of a daughter, but her name and exact age and location were unknown. One more loose end we’d need to tie up, I thought as I closed my eyes.

  What felt like seconds later, there was a knock on my door and I groaned. I got up and stumbled to the door, glancing at the small security screen. Jenson. I opened the door and she took one look at me and ordered me to go take a shower so we could go down and question Daemon. I did, gratefully, and fifteen minutes later, we were sitting in Daemon’s cell with Daemon, Ryan, Portia, Amy, and David.

  He filled the rest of them in on most of what had been in the files he’d given me. Portia looked sick, and Amy didn’t look much better. Jenson mostly looked pissed.

  “All of that is in the files he gave me. I’ll turn those over to you later today,” I said to Portia, and she nodded. I turned back to Daemon.

  “Do you have any idea where Killjoy is?” I asked him. It was all I really cared about, for the most part, my dreams of destroying him motivating me more than anything else seemed to anymore.

  “I have no idea. He always just kind of showed up and then took off. He never told us where he was going or for how long. I think he liked keeping us on our toes,” he said.

  “You must have some idea about where he went,” I pressed.

  “I seriously don’t. Killjoy’s not exactly forthcoming. I don’t even think Raider knows where he went, and she’s still married to the guy, as far as I know.”

  I turned and glanced at Ryan, and he gave a small nod. Daemon’s heartbeat hadn’t changed. He was telling the truth about not knowing.

  Damn it. I decided to change topics.

  “When I took Maddoc in, he let something slip, like he thought that maybe the injection Death had given to Killjoy was unstable or becoming unstable or something. Do you know anything about that?”

  Daemon blew out a breath, his dark eyes flicking up to my face. I still had my mask on. I wasn’t comfortable with him seeing my face. Trust would be a long time coming, and I sure the hell wasn’t there yet. “I don’t know for sure. It seemed like he was starting to lose it a little, but to be honest, I couldn’t tell if it was the effects of that injection or if it was due to losing you. They both kind of happened at the same time, the final injection and you two parting ways. He’s been different since then.”

  “Different how?”

  Daemon shrugged. “Erratic. Easy to piss off. Fine one second and then ready to kill whoever happens to get in his way the next. I know that as far as making him stronger and giving him a bunch of crazy powers, Death’s injection worked, okay? He can fly. Teleport, turn invisible. Super speed, additional strength. He has some electro or energy powers or whatever the hell they are that they took from Virus. So he can do pretty much everything.”

  “And yet he was dead set on getting my blood,” I said.

  “You outpower all of us. He knows that,” he said. “And more than that was the fact that it was you. He was all into the idea of having your blood flowing through his veins, pumping through his heart.”

  “Jesus Christ,” I muttered.

  “So, obsessed, you’d say?” Jenson asked him, and Daemon nodded.

  “What do you now about a nurse he murdered at Detroit Receiving?” I asked quietly.

  Daemon was silent for a moment. “Death murdered her,” he finally said.

  I nodded, not saying anything.

  “Killjoy ordered it. I know that was your mother. Killjoy and my family made sure her name didn’t get out. The story was buried, thanks to my family’s contacts in the newspapers.”

  “I wondered why there wasn’t more out there about that. Especially about Daystar showing up afterward,” Jenson said.

  Daemon nodded. “He wanted her kept out of it,” he said with a shrug.

  “What we need now are locations. Any houses, facilities, properties you know of that Killjoy went to or owned or was involved with. I didn’t see anything like that in the files you had,” I said.

  Daemon nodded, the gave us a couple of addresses, pointed out locations on the map on David’s tablet.

  “Is he trying to replicate the injection Death developed?” Portia asked.

  Daemon nodded. “Of course. Last I heard, he had my family on the look out for geneticists who might be able to replicate it. He’s determined to be the most powerful one out there.”

  “Was he augmenting the powers of those on his team?” I asked, remembering Raider and Maddoc’s uncanny ability to take a hit.

  “I’m not sure. If he was, I never got anything like that. But I wouldn’t be surprised.”

  “You’ve been a total dick. You’ve pushed innocent people to their deaths, for fun, on some accounts,” David said to Daemon. “What’s your play now?”

  “Both my daughter and the woman I love are being targeted to get to me. And I am fucking done. I’m tired of running, tired of hiding, tired of being at some dipshit’s beck and call. I’m tired of being expendable. I’m tired of getting my ass kicked. I just don’t want to do it anymore. And, yeah, I don’t want to die. And I would be dead soon if I was still out there. Either Killjoy would have managed to track me down eventually or my family would have found me and put a bullet in my head. I’m done,” he repeated.

  We talked to him for a few more minutes, and then we started leaving his cell. David and Portia went to get more information on the locations Daemon had given us. Jenson looked at me.

  “If I don’t eat soon, I’m going to hurt someone,” she said in a dry tone.

  “Let’s eat, then. I feel like I could eat a whole tub of that chocolate ice cream.”

  “Not if I get to it first,” Jenson said. Then she gave me a sly look. “Besides, I think you have a few things to fill me in on.”

  I groaned, and she laughed as we wa
lked toward the residence tower.

  Chapter Ten

  Jenson and I made our way through the maze of underground corridors from the detention facility to the residence tower.

  “You held it together okay there,” she said. “I wouldn’t have minded punching him hard.”

  I shrugged. “He’s already given us more than I thought he would. And as much as I’d love to think that if I just hit him enough, he’d give up Killjoy’s location, he really doesn’t know. Caine verified that he wasn’t lying about that much at least.”

  “I wondered about Killjoy and the injection Death gave him. It sounds like he’s pretty volatile.”

  “He is,” I said, remembering his phone call from the night before. I sighed and dug my phone out of my pocket. “I meant to let you listen to this.”

  “He called you again?” she asked, staring at me.

  “That was why I decided to check on Daemon’s house again,” I said, handing my phone to her. “He kept it short, so there’s no way we could have had the time to run a trace on it. He’s being careful now.”

  “Well, he’s scared. Good,” she said.

  “Makes our job harder though,” I muttered. She pressed the button to play the recorded phone call and and held it up so we could both hear. She leaned in, and there was Killjoy’s first calm, then enraged voice, threatening me, warning me to stop poking my nose where it didn’t belong.

  “Jesus Christ,” Jenson muttered. I shoved my phone back into my pocket. “Did you tell Caine about this?”

  I gave her a look, and she laughed. “Of course not,” she said, shaking her head.

  “I told him he called. I didn’t tell him exactly what he said,” I told her. “What’s the point? Give him one more reason to worry or want to be around every time I leave Command?”

  “I’m glad you told me about it,” she said. “He’s clearly unbalanced.”

  “To say the least. Evil, too.”

  She nodded, and we finished making our way toward the residence tower. “Is there any point in reminding you to be careful? Or that, you know, you don’t have to go out and do the solo thing?”