The Tracker Read online

The man hesitated, then nodded slowly. “Okay. Come in.” He motioned us forward.

  Cautiously we stepped forward, entering the suite.

  There were several people in the room, sitting on couches and lounging around the room in various states of undress, all of them obviously high. Scantily clad women, half-naked men. Eyes glazed over. It disgusted me, seeing people who allowed themselves to be controlled by a substance other than their own mind. I had a strong abhorrence to any mind-altering substance. Control was key to survive in this world. These people were nothing but puppets, slaves to the drug that controlled their minds.

  A big black man with dreadlocks lounged in a recliner against the far wall, his unusual golden eyes catching my attention. He rose from the chair and came toward us. His attire was extravagant, flashy. Lots of bling bling. Lots of facial piercings. Nose. Lips. Eyebrows. Ears. He was about my height, but more solidly built. At six-two and two-hundred-ten pounds, I was not a small man, but I didn’t possess this guy’s bulk. He had a good twenty pounds or so on me.

  “You’re The Tracker?”

  I hesitated, then nodded. “Yeah. You Gunner?”

  He walked around me, his gaze raking me up and down. He nodded. “I’ve never met a dreg before. You look tough. But you’re not as big as I expected.”

  I snorted. “You think size matters? I could knock you flat on your ass before you even knew what was happening.”

  The guard who’d let me into the apartment stepped forward threateningly, pointing a gun in my face. I didn’t flinch. He didn’t scare me. I could take him down along with his boss.

  Gunner chuckled. “That right?”

  I motioned to Gordon. “You see my partner over there? He’s as big as you. Maybe a little bigger. And I guarantee he’s a lot meaner.”

  The man’s eyes flashed with interest. He chuckled. Then he inspected Gordon with a critical eye. “I could use a couple of men like you. What’s your price?”

  I shook my head. “We’re not for sale. I need information. I’m looking for a sixteen-year-old girl with dark hair and hazel eyes. Name’s Eliza. She disappeared a few weeks ago. I was told you were the last person seen with her.”

  Gunner cocked a pierced brow. “What do you want with her?” His gaze raked over Jessica and a slow smile spread across his face. “Ah…she’s your sister, isn’t she?”

  Jessica nodded. “What did you do to her?” She pointed her gun at Gunner and, surprisingly, her hand didn’t shake at all. But he just cocked a brow, unperturbed.

  He turned back to me. “She hired you to find her sister, didn’t she? Well, you’re a little too late. I sold her a few days ago.”

  Jessica gasped. She lifted the gun higher, pointing it in Gunner’s face. “Where is she?”

  I reached over and gently lowered the gun. “Easy Jess,” I whispered. “Let’s not get you killed before we find Eliza.”

  She swallowed hard, her gaze locking on mine. Right now she was too emotional. She could accidentally shoot someone, and I didn’t want that someone to be me or Gordon. She didn’t know how to keep her cool under pressure like Gordon and I did.

  “You know, there’s a bounty on your head, Mr. Tracker. One hundred grand.” Gunner turned to Gordon. “And one on your head, Mr. Gardener. Sadly, only ten grand for you. Ten grand is pretty pathetic for a big motherfucker like you. You must truly be worthless.” He eyed Gordon’s prosthetic. “You’ve only got one leg.”

  Gordon scowled. “I can move faster with my prosthetic than most of your guys can run on two normal legs.”

  Gunner glanced at me. “That true?”

  I nodded. “Yep. Don’t let his handicap fool you.”

  “Then why’s he a dreg? Why was he discharged?” Gunner’s gaze narrowed on me. “Why are you a dreg? What’s your injury?”

  “He only has one lung. Not that it stops him. He’s still a tough bastard. Me?” I tapped my skull. “I’m loco. You know, crazy.”

  Several of the gunmen snickered.

  Gunner narrowed his eyes. Then he moved back to his recliner and lowered his bulk into it. He motioned a voluptuous black girl forward. She leaned over and whispered something in his ear. He nodded and she stepped back.

  He turned his strange golden gaze to Gordon. “The bounty on your head is guaranteed whether you’re brought in dead or alive. Ten grand ain’t shit to me. It’s hardly worth the effort of trying to kill you. But I can use a man like you. Your size alone makes you worth more to me alive. People won’t want to fuck with you. I’ll pay you handsomely to come work for me. I’ve got a huge drug empire that needs protecting, plus I’ve been dabbling in the skin trade, and it has me constantly needing guards to protect the merchandise to make sure they don’t escape. What do you say? Want to die today? Or would you rather come work for me?”

  Jessica tensed. I kept a hand over her gun to prevent her from trying to use it, while Gordon used his large body to protect her from all the guns pointed at us. In a shootout, he and I would go down before she did. But right now, the idea was to prevent a shootout. I wanted to get all of us out of here alive.

  Gordon glanced at me, his expression unreadable. But I knew what he was thinking.

  Time to plant a seed.

  Gordon was brilliant when it came to getting out of tough situations. All he had to do was “plant a seed” in the enemy’s mind, and watch it grow and fester into something bigger. Something that would allow us to escape with our lives still intact.

  Gordon had come for the sole purpose of protecting Jess. He’d see her safe to the very end, no matter the risk to himself. If that meant pretending to make a deal with Gunner, Gordon would do it. He would plant a seed that hopefully helped us get out of here alive.

  Gordon nodded at Gunner. “I could use a job. In fact, all of the dregs are currently unemployed. For the right amount of money, they’ll all probably come to work for you. How much you paying?”

  Gunner’s eyes flashed with greed. I could see the wheels turning in his head. He was imaging how powerful he would become with all of the dregs under his employ. He grinned. “Ah! Perfect. You can convince all of them to come work for me?”

  Gordon glanced at me. “We can try.”

  The voluptuous black girl returned to Gunner’s chair and handed him a bong. He inhaled deeply, puffing smoke into the air, then handed it back to her. His gaze shifted to me.

  “Looks like your partner’s my employee now. But your situation is a little different. The bounty on your head is a nice one. I can buy a good amount of drugs with a hundred grand.” His gaze narrowed on me. “But I’d rather have you working for me. What do you say? Want to work for me, Mr. Tracker? I’ll pay you well. If you refuse, well…I’ll just hand you over to the men who are hunting you and make myself a quick hundred grand.”

  Jessica gasped. She opened her mouth to say something. I grabbed her arm and shook my head, then whispered in her ear, “Keep quiet. Gordon planted a seed. Now, we just watch it grow. Let us handle this.”

  Her gaze darted to mine, and then I could see that she understood. She swallowed hard and nodded.

  I pretended to consider Gordon’s offer. “I’m in need of a job, actually. I’ll come work for you. If the price is right.”

  “What about my sister?” Jessica piped up, glaring at Gunner. “Who did you sell her to?”

  Gunner chuckled. “I’ll tell you what, Mr. Tracker. I’ll give you the name of the man who purchased her sister when I get an agreement from all of the dregs to join my army.”

  Gordon and I exchanged a glance. The seed had sprouted and was rapidly growing. Gunner’s greed was taking over. He actually believed he might have the opportunity of owning all the dregs. Moron.

  “I’ll have to go talk to the others.” I glanced at Gordon and the look in his eyes said that was the right thing to say. I was helping the seed to grow. Good.

  Gunner grunted. “No can do. If you leave, then how do I know you’ll even come back? Don’t you have cell phones or something
?”

  Gordon and I exchanged another glance. “Yeah. But they’re in a place where we don’t get cell service. If I want to talk to the other dregs, I’ll have to go to them.”

  Gunner glanced at Gordon, then back at me, contemplating. “Okay, then. I’ll just keep the girl hostage until you return. I can tell she’s important to you. Otherwise, you two wouldn’t be protecting her so fiercely.”

  I tensed. Shit. That was not doable. If it were just me and Gordon, we would have already tried to fight our way free without having to plant any seeds. But Jessica was here. And there was no way in hell I would risk her life. We had to use the seed and let it keep growing, or none of us would get out of here alive.

  Gordon nudged me with his arm. I turned and met his gaze. If we could read each other’s mind, that would certainly be helpful right now, but unfortunately, our dreg connection didn’t go quite that deep. What was Gordon trying to tell me with that look?

  Follow his lead. Nurture the seed. Urge it to keep growing.

  Gunner sniggered. “Or I can just kill the girl right now. She’s not worth anything to me.”

  I let out a fierce growl. “No. You’re not fucking touching her.” I took a step toward the smug bastard lounging in his chair like a king, wanting to smash his ugly face in, but his guards moved forward, their guns pointed at me, halting me.

  Don’t be an idiot. Don’t let your emotions dictate your actions.

  I’d never been emotionally involved on any mission before. Jessica’s presence was screwing everything up. Fuck. I shouldn’t have let her come.

  Gunner laughed and motioned to the guards who were behind Gordon and Jessica. They moved forward and reached for Jessica, obviously to try to pry her away from Gordon. But Gordon stood firm, keeping his arm tightly around her waist, his gun pointed at them. “Try it and you die, motherfuckers.”

  Goddammit. The situation was getting out of control.

  “It’s okay,” Jessica whispered. “I’ll stay so you can go get the others. I’m sure they’ll want to work for Gunner. They all do need jobs.” She sounded so convincing, she even had me believing in the lie.

  “No.” I turned to glare at her. She was not going to risk herself. I wouldn’t let her. She stared me down for several heart-stopping seconds, then faltered under my glare and lowered her gaze.

  “She’s my sister,” she whispered. “How else will we get the name of the man who has her?”

  “I don’t give a fuck,” I snapped. “You’re not staying. They’ll have to kill me first.”

  Gunner’s eyes filled with interest. “This is utterly fascinating!” He let out a loud chortle. “A lover’s spat!”

  “I’ll do it,” Gordon said. “To show our willingness to work with you, I’ll stay here until he comes back with the other dregs.”

  What? No! That would be suicide. The seedling was now rotting, its growth decimated by distrust. Some seeds grew better than others. Some enemies were more difficult to convince than others. Gunner was obviously a tough sell. He wasn’t going to just let us all walk away.

  Fuuuck!

  I eyed the gunmen closest to me. How quickly could I take them out? There were four of them around me. Twice as many around Gordon and Jess. They were typical thugs. They thought their weapons—their guns—were everything. Holding those guns made them feel powerful. They didn’t understand that I didn’t need a gun. I was a weapon.

  But Jessica was here. If I attacked, she could easily be killed in the scuffle. And though Gordon was a fierce warrior, I wasn’t willing to risk his life, either.

  Gordon eyed Gunner. “We’re soldiers, remember? That’s all we know. We need someone to lead us, to give us a job, a mission to do, or we get bored. Why don’t you and I talk about a price while Tracker goes to convince the others to come aboard? Regardless of whether Tracker convinces the others or not, you’ve still got the two of us working for you. And if he does convince the others to join, then you’ll have nine dregs. Nine. Think about how powerful that will make you.”

  Gordon had just watered the shriveled seedling. Would it be enough for it to regrow?

  Gunner’s eyes lit up. The greed returned in full force, his eyes flashing with excitement. “Yes, I want all nine of you.” He pointed at Gordon. “You’ll stay here as a show of goodwill that you won’t try to fuck with me.”

  Goddammit. I couldn’t leave Gordon behind. It went against everything I’d ever been taught as a soldier. A soldier never left one of his own behind. Ever.

  Just let the seed keep growing. Gordon is good at this kind of thing.

  Yeah, but I’d never left him behind before.

  “No one’s staying behind.” My gaze bored into Gunner’s. “You’ll just have to take our word for it.”

  For the first time since leaving the mansion, I began to regret my decision to allow Gordon to join me. What if I got him killed? The other dregs would never forgive me. They wouldn’t understand. None of them had ever been willing to risk their lives like this for a woman. For each other, yeah. That was a given and part of our everyday life. But for a woman? An outsider? Never.

  Only Gordon and I understood that.

  Gordon tapped my arm. I turned and met his gaze again. He gave a slight negative shake of his head, warning me to back down and let him do this. He wanted to fulfill his vow to protect Jess, and the only way he could do that was to sacrifice himself for her. He wanted to watch this seed grow into fruition.

  But fuck, I couldn’t just leave him here.

  What choice do you have? It’s either him or Jess.

  You can fight your way out of here. Kill them all!

  No. It’s too dangerous. Jess could die. You all could die.

  Gunner didn’t care about the bounties. He wanted to use us to become powerful. But what if something happened while I was gone? What if they killed Gordon before I came back?

  “The only way I’ll be able to convince the others to join your army is if my friend is alive and unharmed when we come back,” I said at last, stressing the word “unharmed” as I turned back to Gunner. “We’re a close-knit group. If one of us is harmed, the others will seek revenge. Do I have your promise not to harm my friend?”

  Gunner contemplated me for a moment. Then he nodded slowly. “We’ll keep Mr. Gardener entertained here until you return. He and I can talk wages, start the negotiations. But I’m not giving you forever. You’ve got twenty-four hours to convince the others and come back. If you’re not back by then, I might just decide to kill your friend and collect on the bounty instead.” His gaze hardened as it bored into mine.

  Fuck. I wanted to kill this bastard. I wanted to rip his throat out with my bare hands. He knew he had all the power here. He didn’t trust us, but he was greedy enough to do this deal in the hope he would soon have control over all the dregs. I would have to take advantage of that. The only thing saving us right now was the seed Gordon had planted in Gunner’s mind. Gordon had suggested to Gunner that the dregs needed a mission, someone to lead us. As long as Gunner believed he might be able to control all the dregs, we could make this work.

  But if the seedling began to rot and die, then we would be screwed.

  “Yeah, I got it,” I growled out. I had no choice but to leave Gordon here. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  Gunner nodded, a gleam in his eyes. He clapped his hands in glee. “Perfect. I’m looking forward to working with you two. And the others.”

  Gordon stepped toward me, then gently passed Jessica across the distance to me. Wrapping an arm around her waist, I urged her toward the door. “Let’s go.”

  Gunner’s men parted to let us pass, then followed after us with their guns pointed at us the entire time.

  I glanced back at Gordon and sent him a silent promise.

  I’ll be back for you.

  Ten armed men ushered us out of the apartment and down the stairs, their guns trained on us the entire time. It was all I could to not to kill them all and go back in for Go
rdon.

  They waited until Jess and I were outside, then went back in the building.

  “We can’t leave Gordon there!” Jessica clutched at my arm, her eyes filling with tears.

  “I can’t fight them all off, Jess. You saw how many of them there were.” I strode for my bike, ready to enact the plan that was rapidly forming in my mind. Gordon would have to keep nurturing the seed and convince Gunner that I would be back with his own personal army of dregs, an army that would make him powerful. “Come on. Let’s go.”

  Jessica stared after me.

  “Gunner thinks I’m going to get the other dregs and that we will all come back, eager to work for him. But we’re really coming back to free Gordon. And kill Gunner.”

  She nodded slowly and hurried forward, relief crossing her features. “That was brilliant of Gordon. I could literally see the idea forming and taking shape in Gunner’s mind. He’s good.”

  “Yes. Gordon is a genius.”

  Gunner didn’t know he’d been played by the best. The seed had been planted in his head and now it was growing, festering, feeding upon his greed and thirst for power.

  When I came back with the others, Gunner was going to die.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Jessica

  As soon as we arrived back at the underground maze, Tracker told me to go to his apartment while he went to talk to the other dregs. Despite Tracker’s reassurances that everything was going to be fine, I’d sobbed quietly on the way back, worried sick about Eliza and Gordon. Was Eliza okay? Would Gordon still be alive when Tracker went back for him? Tracker had placed his hand comfortingly over mine, and that simple touch had given me strength. We would find Eliza. And the dregs would rescue Gordon.

  Less than twenty minutes after leaving me in his apartment, Tracker was back. He went straight to his bedroom and slammed the door without saying a word to me. His meeting with the other dregs must not have gone well. My heart squeezed. What had happened? Had they refused to help him? What would he do now? Deciding it was best to leave him alone to figure things out, I turned on the big-screen television and tried to find something to watch. But all I could think about was whether or not Tracker would be able to free Gordon and if we’d ever find Eliza.