by Amity Cross
I didn’t recognize her at all.
What was Weiss up to? This woman looked…normal. She was beautiful, but normal.
She slid into a new looking black sedan, and a moment later, the engine flared to life and the headlights switched on. The car reversed smoothly from the driveway, and I turned my face to the side as it passed. Waiting until she’d reached the corner, I turned the keys in the ignition and did a sharp U-turn, keeping my lights off until I’d spotted which direction she was headed.
I followed her from a distance, keeping one eye behind me and the other on her car as she drove through Exeter.
She ended up in the town center, parking in a side street. I coasted past her position and found a spot at the opposite end of the lane. Watching in the rearview mirror, I spotted her walking across the lane, the indicators flashing as she pressed the lock button on the fob.
I slid from my car closing the door softly and lifting the handle so it would lock. My ride was old, a vintage muscle car that was black and dangerous but lacked the computerized technology that most new models had. Mercy loved this car.
Pushing her from my mind, I flipped the collar up on my jacket to combat the chill on the night air and followed the woman onto the High Street. She had yet to make me, so I kept at it, leaving a good distance between us. If she were to glance back, then I’d look exactly like any other man on the street. On his way to someplace…to meet friends at the pub, or on his way home to his girlfriend. Just any other guy. It was an absurd notion, but I played the part.
Ahead, the woman slowed, not once checking her surroundings, and stared into the window of a coffee shop. Warm light spilled out onto the street, and I crossed to the opposite side of the road to wait and observe. I ducked into a dark alcove, my view uninterrupted.
It was a little late to be indulging in coffee and cake, but the Starbucks was still open and serving. She pushed through the glass door and began talking with the cashier. A moment later, she handed over some money, moved to the end of the counter and waited for the barista to make up her order.
The woman glanced at her phone and her head rose sharply as her name was called. A brown paper bag and a takeaway cup were placed on the counter and she collected them. It was a normal, everyday occurrence. Coffee and cake. Lots of people did it, so why was this woman important enough for Weiss to give me her address? There had to be something I was missing.
The woman sat at a table by the window, pulling a muffin from the bag and sipping on her drink. Fishing around in her handbag, she brought out a pen, and smoothed out the paper bag and began writing.
My brow furrowed. It could mean anything. There were a dozen explanations I could think of off the top of my head—she was a businesswoman, or a writer with a sudden flash of inspiration, but experience told me to err on the side of caution and to wait and watch.
She sat for at least ten minutes, drinking her coffee and writing, before she rose. Leaving her cup behind, the muffin only picked at, she balled the paper bag up in her hand. She glanced at her phone, then around at the patrons in the coffee shop and left. A few paces down the street, she dropped the bag into the bin and moved off.
It was then that it hit me, the force of it like a full-on sucker punch to the gut.
I’d just witnessed a dead drop.
She was Intelligence.
Chapter 9
X
She’s with me.
I stared at the text message from Vaughn and scowled.
I sat behind the wheel of my car and watched the woman drive away. After her dead drop, she’d walked around the block, doubled back and only then had returned to her vehicle. There was no doubt about her identity now.
I was rattled, and I was never rattled. If what I was suspecting was true, then Intelligence had gotten wind of my existence. Mine and Mercy’s.
Fuck. Weiss had known and had sent me right into their lair. Was that his game? Capture? I would’ve thought handing me over to Royal Blood would’ve been more his style. It would be more painful than a federal prison.
I waited fifteen minutes before turning the key in the ignition and making my way back to the distillery. Ample time for the woman to disappear. Knowing Mercy was safe with Vaughn made relief wash over my senses. Another new emotion to add to the ever increasing list.
The distillery was dark from the outside, but as I knocked on the door, Hawkes was waiting to open it for me. Nodding sharply, I strode toward the makeshift office at the back.
Mercy glanced up as I entered, her expression cold. She was still pissed at me, but I softened slightly at the sight of her. Vaughn was in the background, but I couldn’t even see him…my senses were full of her.
“Where were you?” I asked, my relief coming across as anger.
“Where was I?” she scoffed. “Where were you?”
Vaughn began to laugh, and I glared at him out the corner of my eye. “No arguing kids,” he said. “Go back to your secret hideout and bump uglies. That’ll make everything better.”
“Asshole,” Mercy declared and rose to her feet. To me she said, “Are we going now?”
I nodded.
Vaughn cleared his throat. “What are you doing with Weiss?”
Narrowing my eyes, I decided it was too much to go back and question him just yet, not with Mercy the way she was. “I’ll be back for him.”
“I’m going to have to start charging you rent, you know.”
“Then charge me.”
I gestured for Mercy, and we left the office before Vaughn could complain anymore. It was his gift. I never wanted it so the fucker could just deal with the storage. It was past time to go back to the cottage and face the music with Mercy. Either, we’d argue about what she’d done or sort this shit out. She couldn’t take off again, not without a way to contact me. I didn’t like what it did to me.
“X?” I stilled at the sound of Vaughn’s voice. Just as we were about to leave him behind, too.
I turned as Mercy continued through the door and moved outside to the car.
“Just a heads up,” Vaughn went on. “While you were out, Hawkes got some intel that suggests Royal Blood have been sniffing around.”
“No doubt they’re trying to find out what happened to your houseguest,” I replied.
He grunted. “Just keep your eyes open.” Meaning, he didn’t want me to lead them to him. No problems, I didn’t want to cross paths with them either.
I nodded. “So are Intelligence.”
Vaughn’s eyes widened.
“Weiss sent me directly into their path,” I went on.
“Did they make you?”
“Give me some fucking credit, Vaughn,” I retorted. “I don’t know what they want or who they’ve got tabs on, so watch your ass.”
He nodded his understanding and moved away from the door, letting it close heavily behind me.
Mercy was leaning against the side of the car, watching my approach, no doubt having tried to overhear my exchange with Vaughn. As she pushed off and straightened up, I stuck the key into the lock, but her hand came down on mine before I could let her in.
“I’m not sorry,” she said.
“I know you’re not.” I turned the key, her hand falling away.
“I will defer to my own conscience,” she continued, “whether you like it or not.”
Sighing, I lifted my free hand and trailed a fingertip down her pale cheek. “Who said relationships were easy?”
Her lips curved into a small smile. “No one, ever.”
“I know I require patience…”
“Loads of it.”
I narrowed my eyes and opened the car door for her. “I’ve never had anything to protect before.”
She smiled again and placed a chaste kiss on my lips. “I know.” Then she slid into the seat, effectively ending the conversation. A forced agree to disagree.
Closing the door, I rounded the car as she leaned over to unlock my side. Patience was a fucking virtue, and I needed a
lot of it where Mercy was concerned, but it went both ways. We were two overpowering personalities, and no doubt we’d butt heads over everything. It was our first real fight. How fucking normal could you get? Real normal, unless it was an argument over a violent interrogation.
We drove back to the cottage in silence, and as we pulled up into the yard, the first flakes of snow for the winter began to fall. Standing out in the open, Mercy held out her hand, catching a few pieces in her palm.
For a moment, I could almost forget the bullshit of the last two days. For a moment, it was just us and the simplicity I wanted. It was like all those moments we’d spent during the autumn sitting out in the yard on the fallen tree, staring up at the stars and talking about nothing and everything all in the same breath.
The night felt heavy, the air thick with ice, and everything felt extremely close. My boots crunched on the gravel as I moved next to her, our breath vaporizing in puffs in front of us.
Sliding my arm around her waist, I pulled her close and covered her mouth with mine. She responded instantly, her hands trailing up my chest and around my neck, holding me against her. When her lips parted, I deepened our embrace, my tongue twining with hers. Just as suddenly as the mood took me, I pulled away.
“What’s that for?” she whispered, her voice sounding loud in the muffled air.
“A reminder.”
She peered at me and shivered.
“Come,” I said. “I’ll get a fire going.”
“That’s it?” she asked, clinging to me.
I breathed deeply, watching the snow stick to her hair. Single, unique flakes of ice. “For now.”
“I want to talk about it,” she said, her gaze searching mine.
“Tomorrow. Right now, I’m…You're back. That’s enough for now.” I couldn’t manage to get the word glad past my lips.
She cringed slightly. So she hadn’t missed it then.
“Tomorrow,” she echoed.
X marks the spot.
I sat in a chair with my elbow resting on a tabletop, a ballpoint pen in my hand, absently scribbling on a pad of paper. I was at The Gambler’s Inn and it was quiet, which meant it was past closing. My gaze rose as the door opened, and Weiss walked in.
“Fuck,” he cursed as he realized he wasn’t alone.
I smirked at him. “Were you coming in here for a wank after hours? Want me to leave?”
“Dirty prick,” he said with a scowl. “What do you want?”
I tossed the pen aside, realizing I’d covered the page with crosses. “I’m bored. I need a job.”
“All-fucking-ready?” Weiss exclaimed. “You only got back from a job yesterday.”
“It was too easy.” It’d been in and out. Clean and simple. I wanted something more…difficult.
Weiss rolled his eyes. “Bloodthirsty bastard. They trained you almost too well, you know that? I’m getting sick of hitting your reset button.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Reset button?”
“There are things Greggor wants you to do but not remember.”
“Why the fuck do I care?” I didn’t care what I did for him as long as it ended up with someone being dead at the end of it.
Weiss shrugged. “Who the fuck knows?”
“When do I get to meet him?” It’d been years since I was named by The Watchman, and I hadn’t met the illusive Greggor once. I thought I was a brother.
“All in good time, X.” Weiss nodded toward the door. “You want a job or you want to complain?”
I rose to my feet. “Give me the fucking job.”
Weiss opened the door, and we stepped into my room. The room where I’d been trained all those years ago. Glancing over my shoulder, the door had dissolved into the wall that bore my obsessive compulsion. The millions of tiny x’s scratched into the surface. The entire room smelt like piss and shit. My own fucking filth.
X. X. X. X.
The walls were covered in them.
A whimper broke the silence, and I turned to find a person on their knees in front of me, a brown hessian bag pulled over their head. The man in the hood…
“What is this?” I asked as Weiss held out a gun to me. “I’ve been through this before.”
“Don’t question it, X,” he replied. “You know how they hate that. Unquestioned compliance is what they want.”
With a scowl, I snatched the gun from his hand, clicked off the safety and pressed the barrel against the hessian bag. Right where I estimated the temple to be. No hesitation, huh? I pulled the trigger, the boom of the shot loud in the enclosed space.
The body crumpled, and I glanced at Weiss, who nodded once. “Good.”
“Who was it?” I asked, glancing at the person I’d just murdered.
“Does it matter?”
I frowned. It wasn’t meant to…
Blood seeped through the brown hessian and pooled onto the concrete below. The body was female. I could see the curve of her breasts against her tattered shirt, the slightness of her waist. Leaning down, I reached out with trembling fingers and tugged at the hood.
I jerked backward as I saw who I’d killed. The man in the hood, a test of loyalty… Who was he? Who had they made me kill so I could leave that room and claim my name?
I stared down at Mercy and knew it was bad.
Her eyes stared back at me, her beautiful blue eyes…and they were ice.
I sat straight up in bed with a gasp, my eyes wide, my skin beaded with sweat. My racing heart was beating painfully inside my chest as I gulped in lungfuls of air.
I'm in the cottage, I’m in the cottage, I'm in the cottage. I repeated it like a mantra, trying to grasp onto some sense of reality.
“X?”
I rubbed my eyes, trying to clear the remnants of my dream from my waking mind.
“X…” came her more worried, yet persistent voice.
Her hands came to rest on my back, and I jerked away. “Don’t.”
“What’s going on?”
It felt like ice. Her hands felt like ice. I knew they were warm, comforting, but they hurt. I’d never reacted to her touch in such a way. “I don’t know.”
I did know, but I didn’t want to acknowledge my weakness, even though she’d pledged herself to me at my worst.
My past was catching up with me.
“X…” She reached out for me again, her expression full of worry and I threw the covers away and stood before she could take hold.
Mercy stared at me, the hurt plain in her eyes. The air was clammy against my sweaty skin, and for the first time, I was ashamed of my nakedness in front of her. My strength was faltering.
Ignoring her silent pleas, I strode into the bathroom and turned the shower on, twisting the hot water tap as far as it would go and adding a dash of cold.
Not waiting to test the temperature, I stepped into the flow as steam billowed into the room. The water pounded against my back, the heat searing my skin. Pain and sex anchored me in the here and now. I needed to be here. Present. I couldn’t make any mistakes, not now. There were too many variables, and things were no longer as clear-cut as I had hoped it would be.
Be the man you were trained to be.
Monster, murderer, emotionless, empty, soulless…devil.
It felt like an age before the bathroom light flicked on, and Mercy stepped into the shower behind me. I jerked, my head rising as awareness flooded my senses.
“Shh…” she murmured, running her hands up and down my back.
It wasn’t a memory. It was a fucking omen. Death and pain awaited us, and for the first time in my life, I didn’t know what to fucking do.
I turned sharply, wrapping my arms around her as my mouth found hers. I kissed her roughly, forcing my tongue against hers. I needed her. I needed her body. She was real…this was real.
I pressed her back against the tiles, my cock hardening against her stomach, and she lifted her leg, wrapping it around my hip. I knew what she wanted, what she was trying to give me, but I wanted somethin
g else. Something a little more selfish than she deserved, even if I was in the middle of another episode.
With a growl, I pulled away and grasped her hips, my fingers biting into her skin. It was becoming red underneath the hot water, the temperature a little too much, but she didn’t complain once. I knew she liked the pain. In that way, we were the same.
Without so much as a word, I turned her around and lifted my right hand to the hair at the nape of her neck. I pressed forward and pulled her back with my left, forcing her ass against my crotch.
“You know what I want,” I hissed, beginning to grind against her.
She opened her legs and wiggled against me, complying as I knew she would. Letting her hip go, I fisted my cock and began stroking the head against her pussy, shuddering as spikes of pleasure ebbed through me. This was so fucked up, but fucked up was all I had. It was the only thing I could grasp onto.
Rolling the pad of my thumb around her puckered hole, I ignored her clit, ignored her cunt and went straight for the thing I ached for most. Pressing my thumb inside her, she gasped, her palms hard against the wall in front of her. Twisting my other hand into her hair, I held her tight to keep her from flinching away as I invaded her body from behind.
Removing my thumb, I positioned my cock, desperate to feel the moment when I filled her with my orgasm. She stood without complaint as I stretched her little by little, her moans growing louder and her breathing sharper. She pressed back as I pressed forward, and soon I was balls deep in the one place that would forever be mine. I’d be the first and last.
Letting go of her hair, I ran my hands up and down her back, shaking as I held onto my release, relishing the feel of her tight little ass around my cock. Yes, this made me feel a lot better.
I began to move, slowly at first, easing out as her muscles clenched before pushing back in. Tightening my grasp on her hips, I guided her over my shaft, concentrating on my pleasure, focusing on this. This moment was all I had.
