Masked by Vengeance (Vega City Vigilantes Book 1) Read online

  “What are you—” The guy with the gun aimed in my face murmured to check guy.

  “No harm,” he said in response to his friend.

  No harm, what? Me? I thought in a mess of jumbled confusion as they continued through the last bit of bank customers, and the others collected the cash from the tills. As soon as they met with the head man, they turned and ran from the bank.

  None of us moved as we tried to process that we had just lived through a bank robbery, and several of the people around me burst into tears. I couldn’t tell if they were happy and relieved because it was over or upset by the fact their limitless black credit cards had been stolen.

  Before the police could arrive and interrogate us, I slipped away during the chaos and headed back for my apartment. Whoever the men were, they recognized me, and I was determined to figure out how. Within minutes of making it home, I found myself sitting back in my desk chair as I shot a message to Trace.

  4RC_4N63L: call?

  7R4C3: back already? Give me a minute to get the line swept

  4RC_4N63L: I’ll be here

  I sank against the backrest, the wood worn smooth from years of use, and waited, my gaze trailing over the piles of paper I had stacked on my desk. Flipping through the first few, I read through the reports I had found about my brother’s murder, looking for any possible connection between the robbers and his killer but came up empty. When Trace finally connected the call, I clicked on and put my headphones on.

  “So, let me guess, you were there when that robbery was going on?” His rich, warm voice was casual, but there was a bit of edge to it I didn’t fully understand, so I decided to ignore it.

  “Yeah, can you get me the security footage? Something weird happened, and I need to try to figure out who the men were,” I explained, continuing to look through my pile. I could hear Trace’s fingers flying across his keyboard as the clicking of his keys filled the silence.

  “You want me to watch it with you?”

  I hummed a yes as a camera feed filled my screen.

  “You sure? I’ll probably see which one is you if I have to figure out who they are.” I hesitated, my lips thinning at the thought of being exposed, but my curiosity was bigger than my need for secrecy. We’ve been talking for years, and he knows every inch of my body except my face. What difference will it really make? At this point, he knows everything else about me. Well, almost everything.

  “Roll it,” I commanded, my eyes glued to the door. It only took a few minutes until I walked in the extravagant glass doors, my hair messy despite my best efforts, and my outfit frumpy compared to the others’ designer labels and polished garments. Do I really hunker like that? I questioned as I watched my shoulders curl in, my arms crossing over my chest in an effort to be small. That’s definitely going to have to change.

  “Alright, robbers just arrived on site. Could they be any more cliché? They have a big van and everything,” Trace exclaimed. I rolled my eyes and focused on what I was seeing. An odd sense of disconnect filled me as I lost myself in the footage, my mind and emotions wiping away all conscious thought as I was swept back into the memory of that morning.

  “Right there,” I stated. “They had taken my check and said, ‘no harm’ before handing it back.” The video continued to roll, my confusion still growing at why they would leave me be.

  “No harm? All I could think is, if they’re not just a group of guys robbing a bank and actually work or know someone, then that person put you on a no harm list,” he explained, the clicking of his keyboard filling the silence again as I tried to process what he’d said, but I couldn’t do it.

  “I have no idea what that means, but I’ll trust your knowledge. Can you find out where they went after this?”

  “Of course, you’ll trust my knowledge. I have that photographic memory, remember? Basically, someone in a position of power, usually of a more… violent… enterprise, has a list of people or places not to be trifled with. I’ve seen it in play with the mafia and some cartels, and to answer your question, I’m already on it. Do you want me to corrupt that section of the video, so police don’t target you?” I ground my teeth, realizing that’s exactly what would happen if I didn’t take him up on the offer. I’ve worked too hard to stay off the grid. I don’t need to be in the spotlight now. No way am I going back to being a lab rat.

  “Yeah, if you could. Also, I took the bus today, could you do the usual wipe?”

  “Already erased your bus fare and the electronic payroll system this week, Angel,” he explained, making me smile. After all these years, he knew what I needed to keep my head down and under the radar. Lost in my thoughts to the tapping of his keys in the background, his sudden speech brought my attention back to him. “It looks like I found where they went. I’m not sure if it’s where they’re switching cars or their final stop, but I’ll keep an eye out and let you know when I find out.”

  “Alright, if they work for someone, can you set up some sur—” I started.

  “Surveillance? You got it. Catch you later?”

  We said our goodbyes, logging off simultaneously. My eyes landed on the drawing of a phoenix that was tacked to the wall, my chest squeezing painfully as I got up from my desk and turned away from the painful memories. Glancing at the clock, I determined I had time to get some cereal from the corner store before the sun went down.

  And when that happens? The real fun begins.

  The earlier misty drizzle had given way to cold, but my thick black thermal jacket and jeans helped keep the bite away. My hands were shoved into my pockets since the gloves were cheap and old, and two of the fingers on each hand had holes from wear and tear. With my hood pulled up, I kept my face bowed to hide the black mask that covered the top half of my face.

  A few times a week over the last few years, I’d gone out and strolled the streets in a small attempt to keep what had happened to me from happening to anyone else. I stuck to the outskirts of the city center, unwilling to go into the polished and pristinely kept area where the rich and elite lived. It wasn’t exactly a secret the upper crust of Vega City was rumored to be extremely fearful if not dangerously intolerant of Phenoms. In attempts to keep my ass out of the prison system and away from their “Phenom treatment methods,” also known as Redirective Therapy, I didn’t cross into their part of the city unless I absolutely had to.

  Besides, with bills to pay and miles between us and the one-percent in the heart of Vega City, who gives a shit whether the Legion Council and those they fawn over have skeletons to hide? They’ll fuck the rest of us over, the ones without money, regardless. The only ones who might not be seen as ‘less than’ in the eyes of the city’s rich and famous were those living on the East Side, but that’s only because it’s suburbia central while the rest of the city outskirts are worn down and poor. “A work in progress,” according to the Legion Council, their PR spin to make it seem like they didn’t ignore us, but to anyone who lived in the outer ring, it was clear we were on our own for survival. So, I kept my head down and my lightning ready.

  Turning the corner, the sight of a man clothed in all black hunkered in front of a door to a closed business pulled me from my musings. A few moments later, the lock and door gave way under his lock picking, and he slipped inside. Not my usual type of target, but it’ll work, I decided, walking toward the shop. Peeking around the corner, I saw him raiding the counters and shelves of the pawn shop.

  “Hey,” I called out tauntingly, “watcha doin’?”

  He whipped around to face me, ice-blue eyes—so light, they practically glowed in the dark space—landing on me before narrowing. The man wore a beanie and a mask over the lower half face, so the only portion of his face and body I could see were his eyes and the bridge of his tanned nose.

  “I suggest you leave, little girl. I wouldn’t want to hurt you.” His slightly accented voice was smooth as he took a step to face me fully. Reveling in the building electricity within me, the haunting sensation of static crackle
d over my skin as I sized him up. Compared to my five-foot-six height, he was at least half a foot taller with a wide chest and trim waist, but with his dark clothes, I couldn’t tell much more. He might be bigger, but a little lightning can bring him down to size.

  “Or you could leave, and we wouldn’t have to do this whole banter shit,” I sighed, straightening from my position of leaning against the doorframe. He chuckled, his long legs closing the distance between us. On edge from his approach, I couldn’t hold back the crackle of my power. The jolt of blue lightning sparked around my fingers as I pulled my hands from my pockets.

  “Ah, another Phenom.” His eyes crinkled as if he was smiling, but with the black bandana or mask around the lower part of his face, I couldn’t tell. “You could join me if you wanted. There are lots of things ripe for the taking for people like us.” I rolled my eyes at his terrible offer.

  “Yeah.” I dragged the word out skeptically. “I don’t think so. One, I don’t know you, and two, I don’t tend to take shit that doesn’t belong to me.”

  “Don’t worry, you’d get to know me real well if you come with me,” he murmured with a wink. I scoffed, growing increasingly irritated with this back-and-forth conversation, knowing I could be lighting some douchebag up if I wasn’t here entertaining this ass.

  “No. So, leave,” I commanded, urging my electricity to flare a little brighter. I hadn’t expected him to actually listen, but surprisingly he did as I asked before turning to me.

  “You win this time, Sparky, but you won’t be able to catch me every time I’m out and about,” he whispered before launching into the air. I gasped as a large pair of inky black wings erupted from his back, and he took off into the darkened night sky. Well, that was not what I was expecting tonight.

  Here’s to hoping I can find someone worth zapping to make up for that waste of time.

  October 8th

  Tuesday Night

  Kane

  “Sir,” one of my employees called out as he knocked, his head appearing a few moments later through the door. “The men are back.” Nodding, I got up from my chair, leaving the report on my desk behind to follow him to one of the lower levels.

  “Kane,” Silas’s voice caught my attention as he caught up to me. “All the inventory has been swept, and they were able to get about two hundred and fifty grand. Have three-quarters set to go through the shell corporations and into the set charity funds, a portion to cover costs, and the last portion to go offshore for saving funds,” he explained as we headed down the hall before stepping into the room where the five men who had just completed their job at Vega City Mutual were unloading their weapons for storage.

  “Everything run smoothly?” I questioned, looking around the room. All were nodding except two, whose thinned lips and averted gazes told me there was a story to be shared. Seeing their expressions set me on edge, and I stared at them until they finally explained what was going on.

  “There was a ‘no harm’ at the bank today,” Granger stated simply. “An Ever Quinn.” My heart stopped as a lead weight settled in my stomach.

  “Evera.” Her name slipped out unintentionally, my mind hitting me with flashes of Blue’s eyes and bright smile from one of the last times I’d seen her. Before everything went to hell.

  “Yes, that’s the one. Evera Quinn, blonde, kind of stuck out like a sore thumb,” Harrison took over with a snap of his fingers, recognizing the name. His statement pulled my attention to the here-and-now, instead of drowning in memories of her and Rett.

  “How so?” Silas questioned as I stood silent, my mind whirling with the fact we had been searching the globe for her while she was right under our noses. She must be off the grid. There’s no other way she could’ve hidden from our resources for so long.

  “You know the rich in this city, always looking like they just walked off a photoshoot. Well, Quinn was a bit more ragged looking. Her hair was messy, and she had some hefty dark circles. Clothes were really worn and didn’t fit all that well. Wasn’t entirely sure why someone like her was at VCM to cash a check when she easily could have gone to one closer to her job.”

  “Where does she work?” I bit onto the information like a shark, desperation fueling me. Blue had been in the orphanage where we could make sure she was safe from the threat against us, but the minute she turned eighteen, she’d disappeared, and not even our best hacker could find her. Years of not knowing where or how she was or if she was even still alive.

  “The Daily Grind Cafe over on the south side. Check wasn’t very big, only like fifty bucks, which is why it surprises me she would be at a mega millionaire bank.”

  Looking over, I could see the gears turning in Silas’s head, nodding at me before stepping out of the room. When I confirmed there was nothing else from them, I headed toward my office. Silas was already seated behind the desk, typing away on my computer. His fingers flew across the keyboard, and his eyes darted around the screen until he found what he wanted.

  “Here’s the footage,” Silas murmured, rolling back so I could watch. As soon as she walked into the frame, I knew it was her, my Blue… but this… this version of Blue wasn’t the same one I’d known. It was as obvious as night and day as I watched the grainy footage. She was all woman, her curves clothed in tight pants and a loose shirt with her signature blonde hair hanging to her collarbone. What made my chest squeeze painfully, though, wasn’t that she was an adult, but that even from the camera’s corner view, I saw her hunching into herself and avoiding eye contact with the people around her. My stomach rolled as Granger and Harrison neared her, but then something happened.

  “Wait, what?” I questioned when the footage shifted, blackening for a few moments before reappearing as my men were leaving. Silas rolled back to the desk, his brows drawing low as he worked in silence.

  “That portion of the footage was tampered with. I found the coding, and I’m pretty sure I can find out who,” he explained, not taking his eyes off the screen as he continued to type.

  “Do it,” I commanded, “Now that we have a workplace, can you find me a schedule?”

  “Already on it.”

  “Alright, send it to me when you find it and let me know when you figure out who fucked with the surveillance footage. I want to see them,” I ordered, walking toward the door. Silas’s typing stopped as he looked over me while I put my coat on.

  “What about Carson?”

  “Don’t tell him anything yet. I want to figure out what to do first before he finds out; otherwise, he’ll be hellbent on finding her and bringing her here. I don’t exactly want to scare her. She has to be hiding for a reason.” Silas nodded in agreement, turning back to work as I left the building, a plan to get her already forming.

  Can’t believe they found Blue, right here in Vega City.

  2

  October 9th

  Wednesday Midday

  Evera

  “I found something, ready to see it?” Trace asked as I slouched unladylike in my chair, my eyes unfocused as I stared off.

  The last two nights had been busts, and I was running low on sleep, so my energy levels were nearly non-existent after working my usual early morning shift at the cafe. Definitely, need to stay in tonight and rest.

  “Yeah,” I groaned, sitting forward until my forearms rested on the desk. “Anything I should know ahead of time?”

  “Uh, about that. Whoever called in the ‘no harm’ order is someone within The Syndicate,” he said hesitantly. My jaw dropped in surprise. What. The. Fuck.

  “I have no idea how they would have even found my name or why they would care, but I guess we’ll find out with this footage,” I muttered, my brain muddled from the shock of hearing that such an organization would know me.

  The Syndicate was legendary in Vega City. They were known for theft, robbery, and a shitload of other things I tried to not know about in my attempts to keep my head down. Even though I tried to stay out of it all, I knew there were lots of whispers about them going
up against The Legion Council, the top of the food chain within the city. It was no surprise a dirty organization like The Syndicate was going up against them. The members of the council and their practical army of followers known as Legionaries were as dirty as they came if rumors were true. Nothing like two battling it out for top bad guy. I didn’t put any stock into anything anyone said because my main goal was to stay out of the spotlight and to find my brother’s murderer. Let them all rip each other apart while I do what’s best for me.

  “They’re located here,” Trace explained, refocusing my attention to the screen as he pulled up a map on our secure server. It wasn’t too far outside of the city, but it was to the West, so I would have to take the bus or train to get there unless I wanted to walk the nearly ten miles. “I only got a bit of video footage since their system is fairly archaic—only a few cameras throughout the inside—so hopefully, we can see something. If not, I’ll do some more digging.”

  The interior of the building was dim, either from the lighting turned down low or only a few bulbs in the hallway. Trace sped up the feed when no one was walking in the halls. There were several people I didn’t recognize, so we continued through the recording until finally, there was a pair of men—one who was thin, pale-skinned, and tall with a head of blonde hair, and one who caught my attention. My vision tunneled, and my body dulled, numbing as I tilted my head. Is… that…? My brain took a few moments, but I knew this man with his bulging muscles, deep skin tone, bald head, and very familiar face—a regrettably familiar face that haunted me on the screen.

  “That…” I stuttered, leaning forward until my nose practically pressed against the screen. “Is there any more footage of those two?”