Alex Ambrose closed his eyes against the headache that throbbed viciously behind them. He began taking long, deep breaths and struggled to sit up straight. His training took over, and he felt his headache dissipate slowly. When he could think clearly again, the question he hadn't had time to answer demanded his attention.
Someone had targeted Joe Hall's family, but why? Joe doesn't know anything about the weird stuff that happens around me, he thought, so why would he call me instead of an ambulance?
Obviously, someone was trying to send Alex a message. A warning? he wondered, Or a threat? He opened his eyes and watched Joe and his family breathe deeply and evenly. To anyone who didn't know better, they'd look like they were sleeping. He fiddled with the bottle of water he'd used to administer his improvised antidote with and tried to make sense of the situation.
Suddenly, he realized that he wasn't alone. He was being watched, and he hadn't noticed. The faint scent of cherry blossoms was all the warning he had before a dark figure rushed at him. Almost faster than his eye could see, a hand sped toward Alex's jaw. It would have broken his neck if it had landed, but Alex dodged it. In the same motion, he swung his left hand in a wide arc, catching his attacker's arm. The momentum of Alex's defense flung the attacker across the living room, crashing through the opposite wall into the dining room.
This is the trap, he thought grimly, and moved toward the dining room. Whoever had set this all up knew he'd use his own inner force to save the Halls. He was supposed to have completely exhausted himself so that he'd be an easy target. An easy kill. If he hadn't used the seed, he probably would have been.
Alex was right. That's exactly how Harvey Kingston had planned his attack. It was how the Ghosts operated. Why risk a head-on attack when you can ambush a weakened opponent? But the Ghosts also liked to make sure they had contingencies in place. And Kingston may prefer a sneak attack, but he isn't afraid to fight face to face.
Kingston rolled to his feet gracefully, shedding plaster dust and debris, and danced backward as Alex approached. With a grin, he reached behind him and flung both hands toward Alex. Tiny blades flew at Alex like darts. Each one was coated with one of Kingston's special poisons, a particularly nasty little beauty that caused rapid tissue decay. One drop would make Alex's skin start to rot while his bloodstream carried the poison to his vital organs, which would then start to liquefy. It was gruesome, and Kingston never got tired of using it. Alex moved in a blur. Almost effortlessly, he managed to dodge each one.
Despite himself, Kingston was impressed. "Okay," he said with a chuckle. "I wasn't expecting that. Walton's intel is incomplete. He knows you're a martial arts expert, but none of us expected you to be an actual master." He and Alex moved in a slow circle, waiting to see who would make the next move.
He knew Alex was herding him away from the Halls to avoid collateral damage, but that didn't matter. The Halls were the bait, and they had served their purpose. "Walton underestimated you. Murdoch underestimated you. I underestimated you. You're full of surprises."
Alex seemed utterly calm, almost bored. "Kendall Payne underestimated me, too," he said. "I'm used to it. Another Ghost, huh?"
Kingston nodded.
"Why go through Joe and his family to get to me?" Alex asked with a sneer. "What made you so sure I'd come to help them or that I'd even get here in time? Seems like kind of a gamble, and you played a weak hand."
"Yeah," Kingston said with a grin, "about that." Keeping a close eye on Alex, he slowly reached into a pocket and held up a smart phone. The screen lit up to show a group of men on a boat. Jonah Walton stood calmly in the frame holding a woman's arm in a tight grip. She was disheveled and a bruise was forming under her left eye. Alex recognized her immediately.
It was Rose Scott.
Her hands were bound behind her back, but she struggled against her captors.
"You might as well let her go," said Alex flatly. "Holding her isn't going to do you any good."
"You think we won't kill her?" Kingston asked with a smile.
"I don't think it matters. If she dies, she dies. She doesn't mean anything to me anymore." Alex's face was utterly blank.
"You'd watch her die? You don't strike me as the heartless sort."
"I told you—she's nothing to me. What does it matter if she lives or dies?" Alex said indifferently.
Joe and Rose as targets, Alex thought. It doesn't make any sense. He couldn't help but wonder whether or not Debbie was safe. The Chamber of Commerce has a lot to hide, and he didn't know how far they'd go to do it. Debbie was Alex's real weak spot. Rose was just a face from his past. If he could convince the Ghost he didn't care about her, she might make it off that boat in one piece. Keep your eyes on me, Ghost, he thought.
"You expect me to believe you feel nothing?" Kingston said.
"If you're going to kill her, kill her now. I'm getting bored," Alex said blandly. He leaned against the wreckage of the wall he'd thrown Kingston through and picked at the edges of the shattered plaster.
Rose's voice wailed from the phone's speakers. "Alex! What are you saying? I'll never forgive you! I can hear you. Please don't let them hurt me. You can't be so cruel!" She began to sob. Her voice was filled with pain and fear.
"Enough of this," Alex said and flung a shard of plaster from the wall. It zipped through the space between them, hitting the phone with pinpoint accuracy, shattering the screen and knocking it from Kingston's hand. Alex couldn't show that he cared about Rose. He couldn't afford to.
Kingston grinned. Alex was a master of martial arts, but Ghosts knew how to hold their own. Taking advantage of Alex's moment of distraction, Kingston launched his next attack. Moving with incredible speed, he darted forward in an unexpected charge. He could see Alex hesitate as he tried to anticipate Kingston's strike. Careless. Kingston didn't hesitate at all.
Like the wind, he flashed toward Alex and spun around him in a tight circle. As he moved, a sharp blade slid into his hand from a hidden sheath in his sleeve. He slashed at Alex's throat, but Alex spun with him, avoiding the strike.
Kingston had planned for the dodge, knowing it would leave an opening for the blade he'd hidden in his opposite hand. He rolled away, and put some space between them. He had managed to cut through Alex's shirt and leave a thin cut on his arm.
The expression on Alex's face was one Harvey Kingston would remember with pride. Not every toxin was meant to kill an opponent right away. Where was the fun in that? The one on these blades was a delightful combination of fast-acting hallucinogens, paralytics, and neurotoxins.
Alex watched in disbelief as Kingston's body began to flicker like an old movie. His vision couldn't track Kingston's movements. Every time the Ghost moved, an after image would remain. As he circled Alex, he left a slow-moving shadow of himself. In moments, Alex was surrounded by dozens of Harvey Kingstons. All of them smiling cruelly and holding knives in both hands.
Strobing lights and shadows made it hard to distinguish which was the real Kingston. The Ghost attacked in a spinning whirl, slashing high and low. Dozens of shadows holding short knives came at him. Alex had no way to fight back. After a flurry of slashes and stabs, the attack stopped. Alex was covered in shallow cuts. All of them stung, but none were fatal. Kingston was toying with him. Unable to speak, barely able to stay conscious, Alex fell to his knees.
"Everything dies, Ambrose. You're no exception." The Ghost was mocking him. "Those cuts won't heal, you know. If you don't bleed to death first, your heart will give out in three days." He crouched beside his fallen opponent. "My poisons are the deadliest in the world," he said proudly, and plunged one of his knives into Alex's gut with a laugh.