Strikeforce (Book 4): Day's End Read online

  The women’s wing was filling up. We still had Raider, of course, plus a few other troublemakers who were serving out the time Amy, our legal/judicial person, had assigned them. Most of them weren’t bad, just careless or confused.

  I stopped in front of one of the cells near the end of the corridor. I didn’t look at the end cell. That had been mine. That had been where all of this had started, and I still, even now, wasn’t sure how I felt about all of it. If I’d never showed up at StrikeForce that day, trying to bust my burglary partner out, I wouldn’t be in this situation right now. Mama would still be alive.

  If I’d known, would I have done things any differently? If I’d put a little bit of thought into it, would I have done better? I’d probably still be happily robbing houses. Instead, here I was.

  Talking to assholes I would have rather been punching.

  “You called?” I said. Crystal sat shackled to her chair in the cell. She still looked as perfect and put-together as she had back when she’d been running StrikeForce at Alpha’s side. Her blond hair was still lustrous, and she was as calm as if she was sitting in her living room instead of a jail cell. Though, I guess, after a year, one would get used to it.

  “I’m surprised you came,” she said.

  “I was bored.”

  She smiled. “It must be hard for you, being trapped here. Wonder how that feels.” Her tone was light, but I could hear the bitterness beneath the words.

  “Eh. It’s not so bad. At least my ass isn’t shackled to a chair.”

  “But maybe it should be. Murder, Daystar? Really?”

  “Is there a point to this?”

  She sighed. “He’s not going to stop. You know that, right?”

  “Who?”

  “Killjoy.”

  I watched her, and, after a moment, she continued. “You’ve probably figured it out. I know Portia has. He’s working his way through the superhero teams. Destroying those he sees as a threat. He hates the hero teams, and he has for a very, very long time. It drives him.” She paused, then turned her head and finally looked at me. “He’s coming for StrikeForce. But he’ll bide his time. He’ll make sure he’s strong enough to make sure there’s nothing left. He will burn it all down, and dance on the ashes. And you know just as well as I do that when that happens, when he destroys everything this team has worked so hard to accomplish, the people of this city will cheer him on. It must be hard for you, to see the villains adored in ways you never could be.”

  “Well, not really. I never asked to be adored.”

  “No, you didn’t. You were fine being a two-bit thief.”

  “I was a little better than that, but yeah.” And then I laughed. “It must burn your ass that you and Alpha brought me in, and I put you here.”

  “If only we’d left you alone, as I recommended. I told him we didn’t need you.”

  “Ah, well. Twenty-twenty hindsight and all that.”

  “I was the voice of reason, and nobody listened. Killjoy was obsessed with you from during the time you started making a name as a burglar. He suspected, pretty early on, that the burglar and the flying chick who destroyed buildings was the same person.”

  “He’s the one who planted that idea with Detroit UnPowered,” I said, that piece of the puzzle finally slipping into place.

  “Yeah.”

  One more reason for me to want to smack Justin, AKA Detroit UnPowered. Granted, he hadn’t known who’d been using him as his own personal media mouthpiece, but he’d been so driven by the increased following and the money and new video equipment flowing in that he hadn’t really cared to ask.

  “He was obsessed with you,” Crystal repeated. “Killjoy.”

  “I know.”

  “He won’t stop,” she said. “Alpha was happy to work with him, but he always scared the hell out of me. There’s something not right about him. He will not stop. Not until he has what he wants, or one of you is dead. You know that.”

  “Well, he seems like he’s not in any hurry to face me,” I said with a shrug.

  Crystal laughed. “Do you think he’s as stupid as you are? You think he’s going to bust his way in here to fight you?” She laughed again, shaking her head. “No. When he comes, we are all screwed. You need to stop him. You’ve probably looked all over this area. He won’t be here. If I was the one leading this investigation, I’d start looking in England and Scotland. He has strong ties there. He had bases there.”

  “Why are you telling me this? What’s your game? What, is he really actually in Detroit and you’re just trying to waste my time?”

  “No. I’d just rather not die.”

  I watched her, and she rolled her eyes. “When he comes. When he shows up to burn StrikeForce to the ground just as he’s burned other teams to the ground, I’m dead.”

  “You were on his side,” I reminded her.

  “And we failed him. We screwed up. We lost control of you and you went on to undo just about everything he worked so hard to put together. He’s not a forgiving man, and I won’t die quickly or painlessly, because that’s not his style.”

  “You think we’re going to let you out because you helped us?”

  “No. I know better. I just hope you catch him before he shows up here. I’ve seen him torture people and it gives me nightmares to this day. I know what he’ll do to me. You’re my only chance of avoiding that.”

  “All that lust for power back in the day probably looks pretty stupid to you now, huh?” I asked, and she glared at me. “Was it worth it?”

  She looked away from me again. “Our only mistake was you. I still believe in everything we were trying to do. Super teams are a menace, a disease. Protecting humanity from powered people?” she said with a laugh. “We should be the ones in control. In a game of survival of the fittest, it’s clear who the superior humans are. We are above, better, than the rest of humanity. It’s just ironic how helpful they are; how, if we say just the right words, they’ll help us bring the hero teams down. They’ll help us ensure that they live the rest of their lives cowering before us, as they should. That was the dream. That was the goal. And Killjoy will make that happen,” she said, nodding, still looking at the wall and not at me. “My only regret is that I won’t be able to see it. I never should have followed Alpha. There were other options. And the second Killjoy grew stupidly obsessed with you, I should have walked.”

  “He wouldn’t have let you, though,” I said.

  She smiled. “I have the power to disappear. He never would have found me.” She closed her eyes, swallowed, then opened them again. “That was all I wanted to tell you. He’s coming for you and he won’t stop, and you’re all that’s standing between him and me so I really hope you stop him before he makes his move.”

  I stood there thinking. I didn’t believe her, necessarily. She was a cold-hearted bitch and a liar. The fact that she was worried about saving her own ass fit with everything I knew about her. The rest, I’d have to piece together later.

  “You made it sound like StrikeForce will be important to him, like he’ll take particular joy in destroying this team.”

  “Yes.”

  “Because you failed him?”

  “So many reasons. Alpha’s failure to control you, to turn you to our cause. Alpha’s failure to keep control of this team, which Nightbane and I will share the blame for, in Killjoy’s eyes. You. You’re here and this is your home and family and he’ll take pleasure in destroying everything you care about. All of that is a bonus. The real prize for him is your boyfriend.”

  I kept my face blank. “Huh?”

  “Caine. Surely you know there’s some history there.”

  I didn’t answer. I knew more of Caine’s history than just about anyone else. What bothered me, right this second, was how the hell she knew that there was anything between us. I kept it to myself. Verifying that I cared about him to her would be a stupid move.

  I knew that flat-out asking Crystal who our mole was would only be a waste of time, but
it was now abundantly clear that Crystal had been talking to whoever it was, that that person was keeping her updated on what was happening with the team as well as in the outside world. There was no other way she could have known a lot of the things she knew. And if I asked her now, right after she’d made a comment about Caine, she’d know that it had bothered me, that I cared about him. So I kept my mouth shut, for once.

  I really had to look at Daisy a bit closer. It was entirely possible that she was our mole, maybe. Close to Crystal, able to freely roam the building because she was staff. Right now, it was the only possible lead we had, and even I could admit that it wasn’t much of a lead.

  “I know they faced off, back when Killjoy was calling himself Raider,” I said after a moment. That part was common knowledge. It was everything before that that I knew Ryan wanted to stay buried.

  “They didn’t just face off. I mean, they did. They fought publicly and Caine humiliated him. Your boyfriend is not someone I’d want to trifle with.”

  “He’s not my boyfriend,” I muttered. Boyfriend wasn’t a big enough word to encompass what he was beginning to mean to me, but I definitely didn’t want her knowing that.

  “This whole plan… it’s not something new,” Crystal said. “He was ready to make this move almost ten years ago, to start taking out the superhero teams before they could get any real traction. Caine put a major hurt on his plans shortly after he joined up with StrikeForce. I’ve never seen Alpha as mad as he was when he heard about it.”

  “What did Caine do, exactly?”

  “Tracked down, rounded up, and arrested five of Killjoy’s top guys. Guys Killjoy couldn’t pull his plan off without. And he turned them over to one of the Canadian teams, instead of StrikeForce. He didn’t trust Alpha.”

  “He’s a good judge of character, I guess,” I said. “Mostly.”

  “Mostly,” she muttered. “The guys he took down, they were the keystone to Killjoy’s plans back then. And for years, nobody who could replace those guys would touch Killjoy, because they didn’t want to end up in the same place as that first group. They’re still rotting in prisons. Killjoy never was able to learn where they were sent,” she added. “So he changed tactics. Brought in Dr. Death and a few others. Went for the kind of strikes that are more like surgical accuracy than carpet bombings. Went for the money, because money can buy anything, even guys who don’t necessarily want to join you.”

  “Like Virus,” I said, thinking of my old burgling partner.

  “Like Virus. And others.” She laughed again, shaking her head. “Why the hell did I tell you any of this? You don’t stand a goddamn chance against him. I am so fucked.”

  “If it comes to him versus me, he’s going to suffer. There’s not a chance in hell he’s ever going to beat me.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Cocky, and not overly smart. Yeah, we are all screwed. Make sure you tell Alpha thank you from me, for getting me into this mess.”

  I was about to answer, but then I shook my head and walked away.

  “You hear all that?” I said quietly over my comm.

  “Yeah,” Jenson said. “We already knew we needed to find him. And we already figured that messing with StrikeForce was something he was saving for a special occasion or something, because he’s nuts. It’s very personal for him.”

  “And he’s not the type who lets things go,” I muttered.

  My comm beeped. “I’ll talk to you later,” I told Jenson. I tapped the button on my comm once. “Hey,” I said as I stepped onto the elevator.

  “Hey, yourself,” Ryan’s smooth, deep voice said. It sent an actual shiver down my spine, just hearing his voice, and I shook my head. Aside from my friendships with Jenson, Dani, Portia, and David, Ryan was the bright spot in my life amid all of the chaos. We’d grown closer over the past few weeks, despite me being an absolute bitch over being stuck at Command and all of the other insanity going on around us. He kept me sane, held me tight when I wanted it, and let me go when I needed it.

  There was a lot of letting go. I don’t do clingy well, I guess. The difference was, I always ended up coming back, no matter what else was going on. No matter how tired we were, how stressed, how pissed off, we always ended up back in each other’s arms. I couldn’t stay away from him if I tried, and to be honest, I wasn’t interested in keeping my distance anymore. He made me laugh, made me open up in ways I rarely ever did. He’d worked his way into my hard little heart, and I knew he would stay there until I drew my last breath.

  It was actually more than a little terrifying.

  “Are you training with Monster today?” he asked me.

  “Yep. I have like ten minutes before I’m supposed to meet him.”

  The elevator doors opened on my floor, and he was there, waiting for me, arms crossed over his chest, his warm brown eyes seeking out my gaze the second the doors opened between us.

  “Ten minutes isn’t nearly long enough,” he said quietly as I shut my comm off.

  I blushed, and then I laughed. Yeah. Big bad villainous psycho, and I blush like a virgin anytime he says anything remotely flirtatious.

  “I was talking about dinner. What did you think I was talking about?” he asked, grinning.

  I laughed again, and he pulled me into his arms. I pressed my face into his chest and just breathed, snaking my arms around his waist and holding him tightly.

  That was the only thing Crystal had said that actually worried me, that Killjoy had it in for Ryan. Because I could lose everything else… I could lose my job at StrikeForce, I could survive every one of my friends turning against me, I could even lose every cent I’ve ever managed to steal, and I’d be okay. I’d come back stronger and better. I’d evolve. But him? He was something else entirely, and I’d already seen what lengths I would go to to keep him safe.

  I’d do it all again.

  “You’re crushing my ribs, babe,” Ryan said, laughing, and I loosened my grip on him a little.

  “Sorry.”

  “Everything okay?” he took my hand and started pulling me toward my suite, and I unlocked it and let us in.

  “Fine. Just going nuts here. I want to find Killjoy and remind him what fear really is,” I said.

  “You are so metal,” Ryan said, and I rolled my eyes. “Seriously.” He sat down on the sofa and I followed him, straddling his lap. He groaned. “You’re trying to kill me now.”

  “No,” I said. “Just making sure you’re looking at me when I’m talking to you, because this is important.”

  He met my eyes again, all frivolity gone from his expression. “What’s wrong?” he asked again.

  “I want you to promise me that if you come up against fucking Killjoy, you won’t do anything stupid. Don’t take him on alone. Fuck, don’t even take him on unless you’ve got like five other people and preferably me with you. Okay? Promise.”

  He didn’t say anything.

  “This isn’t me saying that you can’t handle him, because I know you can.”

  He still didn’t answer.

  “Ryan.”

  “Jolene.” He blew out a breath.”Come on. You know I’m gonna fight him if I get a chance. You know that, right?”

  “And I am begging you to be smart. I never beg.”

  “I know.”

  “I’m doing it now. Please.”

  “What’s got you so spooked all of a sudden? We’ve already been over this shit.”

  I bit my lip. “Crystal asked to talk to me today, so I went down there.”

  “Okay. And?”

  “I knew you and him faced off back in your early days,” I said quietly, meeting his eyes. “I’ve seen the pictures. But you didn’t tell me everything. You didn’t tell me about how you totally foiled his big ‘take over the world’ plan the first time around.”

  “I didn’t realize I had. I knew I took a bunch of his top guys. I didn’t realize what he was planning to use them for. Not until we uncovered his partnership with Alpha, really.”

  “
Alpha knows who you are,” I said. “From before.”

  “Yeah. That’s why I hid anyone I care about.”

  “Killjoy wants revenge. On you. On me. On StrikeForce. He’s not going to give up. All of this shit Mayhem is doing now, these other superhero teams? It’s him leading up to taking a shot at us. At least, that’s what Crystal thinks, and I think she’s right. I’m just… it’s personal, with him and you, for many reasons. Me, there’s the obsession thing with. But you? You’ve done the thing he’d hate you for the most. You beat him, and you lived to tell the tale. He will want payback for that.”

  “Yeah, well he can come and try to collect. I’m not going to run from him, and I’m not gonna hide, and I’m not gonna hide behind a badass woman who can break men with a flick of her wrist. Okay? I’m not doing that.”

  “I’m not asking you to hide. I’m asking you not to go all macho and decide to face him alone. Because that’s when he’ll try to get you. Or when you’re out with one of the others.”

  He sighed and took my hands in his. “I’ll be careful. It’s second nature, okay? It’s hard to sneak up on me, and I see shit most people don’t see until it’s right on top of them. He’s not getting to me.”

  I looked down at our hands. His were so large they engulfed mine completely. Shelter. The thing I thought of most when he was nearby, besides being nearly struck dumb by how gorgeous he was, was that I’ve never asked anyone to make me feel safe. I’ve never expected that, and I’ve never gone looking for it. I can create my own safety. But he makes me feel warm, loved, respected in a way I only ever read about in romance novels. It’s the kind of feeling that seems too good to be true, and it’s mine.

  “I would be really, really messed up if anything happened to you,” I murmured.

  “That goes both ways. He’s not getting between us, Jo. Ever.”

  I nodded, and he brought my hands to his mouth, kissed my knuckles. “Do you really need to go work with Monster now?” he asked, and I laughed.

  “I promised. And I’m supposed to meet with Justin shortly after that.”

  “Ugh. That guy.”

  “He’s not so bad,” I said, patting his shoulder as I crawled off of his lap.