Kiss of Midnight_ A Midnight Breed Novel - Lara Adrian [1011]
“Agent Freyne,” Mathias Rowan said, a warning that went unheeded.
“It’s not like he didn’t have it coming, right, Chase? I mean, shit. The kid was Rogue, and there’s only one good way to deal with that. Same way you deal with a rabid dog.”
As determined as the other Agent was to taunt, Chase seemed equally determined to tune him out. “Over there,” he said to Brock, pointing to indicate a trail of heavy spatters tracking away from the scene.
Brock nodded. He’d already spotted the path the runner took. And as much as he personally wanted to leap on Agent Freyne and take the smug bastard down a peg or ten, if Chase was able to ignore him, Brock would do his best to do the same. “Looks like our live one ran off toward the docks.”
“Yeah,” Chase agreed. “Judging by the amount of blood he’s spilling, he’s too weak to get far. Fatigue will take him down in under a mile.”
Brock looked back at Chase. “So, if the area’s been swept and no one has found him yet—”
“He’s got to be hiding somewhere not far from here,” Chase said, finishing the thought.
They were about to head out in pursuit when Freyne’s chuckle sounded from behind them. “Putting a bullet in the kid’s brain was an act of mercy if you ask me. But you have to wonder if his mother felt the same way … seeing how you killed her son right in front of her.”
Chase froze at that. Brock glanced at him, saw a muscle ticking dangerously fast in his rigid jaw.
While the rest of the small group moved out of the immediate area, Mathias Rowan stepped in front of his Agent, fury vibrating off every inch of him. “Damn it, Freyne, I said shut the fuck up and that’s an order!”
But the son of a bitch just wouldn’t stop. He navigated around his superior, putting himself right in Chase’s face. “Elise is the one I pity in all of this. That poor, sweet woman. To have lost your brother Quentin in the line of duty all those years ago, then you take her only child before her eyes. I guess it’s no surprise she’d look for comfort somewhere—even among the thugs of the Order.” Freyne made a vulgar sound in the back of his throat. “Fine-looking female like that could have had her pick of eager males in her bed. Hell, I would have gladly sampled some of that. Surprised you never did.”
Chase let out a roar that rattled the ground. In a blur of movement that not even Brock could fully track, Chase launched himself at Freyne. The two big males crashed down to the gravel and snow, Chase pinning the Agent beneath him, pounding his fists into his face.
Freyne fought back, but he was no match for Chase’s fury. Observing it up close, Brock wasn’t sure anyone could stand up to the feral rage that seemed to pour out of Chase as he landed one punishing blow after another.
None of the other Agents made a move to stop the altercation, least of all Mathias Rowan. He stood back, silent, stoic, the rest of his subordinates seeming to gauge their response on his. They would have let Chase kill Freyne, and whether that killing was deserved or not, Brock couldn’t allow the brutal scene to play out to its seemingly foregone conclusion.
He stepped up, put a hand on his fellow warrior’s churning shoulder. “Chase, my man. It’s enough.”
Chase kept hammering, even though Freyne was no longer fighting back. Fangs stretched huge in his mouth, eyes blazing with the amber fire of his rage, Chase seemed unwilling—or unable—to bring the beast in him to heel.
When one of those bloodied fists recoiled to strike another blow, Brock caught it in his hand. He held fast with all his strength, refusing to let the hammer fall again. Chase pivoted a wild look on him. Snarled something raw and nasty.
Brock slowly shook his head. “Come on, Harvard. Let him be now. He’s not worth killing, not like this.”
Chase glared hard into his eyes, lips curled back off his fangs. He grunted, animalistic, then swung his head back around to look at the