by Amity Cross
She began to protest, but he led her from the room, leaving me to do the most boring job in the entire world in peace.
Settling down on the couch, I began reviewing the footage X had recorded overnight, looking for holes he might’ve missed. Like he always said, the only step that mattered was the foundation. Without a solid plan, the shot never hit its mark.
As of a few hours ago, we only had one bullet in the chamber…and we couldn’t miss.
**
I spent most of the night and morning reviewing the footage from Hawkes’s dash cam. Lorelei paced for a while until Vaughn took her away. From the orgasmic sounds that echoed from upstairs, they’d had the time of their lives, and it only made X’s absence that much harder to tolerate.
As for the task at hand? Talk about boring as fuck.
The only discernible way into that house was with a sledgehammer, and that was if we could manage to scramble the security system. I assumed X had come to the same conclusion, but I wondered if he’d noticed the van that had passed his location at the same time morning and night for the past two days. The markings on the side made them as Speedy Cleaning Services, a boutique business that was located in North London. It had a very rich client list that—after minimal digging—included several high profile properties. Among the addresses was the one X and Hawkes were currently sitting out the front of.
Once I was ready to go back into London and meet up with them, I decided to take the initiative and get a way in that would allow me to gather much more intel than watching from the other side of the six-foot-high fence would.
Naturally, I’d stopped by the cleaning service and had a pink fit at the way they treated their female staff. Low wages, slutty uniform, and an owner with a wandering dick. They might as well start up a side business whoring out poor girls from Eastern Europe on temporary work permits the way they were going. Total assholes, but I got in with a little flirting and a horrible Ukrainian accent and got what I needed to screw over Damien Allaire.
When this operation was all said and done, I’d get Jackson to hack into their servers, plant a virus to screw up their cash flow, and get Immigration on their asses. Served. Them. Right.
I parked the car the next block over and walked the rest of the way to X’s position. Sliding into the front passenger seat, I said, “Where’s your boyfriend?”
“Where have you been?” he asked, ignoring my quip.
“I had to make a pit stop at the cleaners,” I replied, not biting either.
“The cleaners? What am I missing?”
“While you were sitting on your ass perving on Allaire and his boyfriend, I found a way in that would allow me to move around the house freely.”
“Do go on,” he drawled, understanding flashing in his eyes. “This is going to be good.”
“I reviewed the footage you’ve been sending and noticed the cleaning service rolled in every day at the same time, so…I’m the new maid,” I declared. “I go in, wave my feather duster around, vacuum up some ode de asshole, and stick some of the bugs Jackson gave us around the joint. You listen and take notes. Bam, intel gathered.”
X grunted his impressed grunt, and I opened my jacket, revealing my back and white maid’s outfit.
“Do I look French-maidy enough?” I asked, giving him a suggestive wink.
He raised an eyebrow, giving me the once-over. “That’s the uniform?”
“Archaic, right? But sexy.” I made a kissy face. “I’ve got the schedule. I swapped out a shift with one of the regular girls, and I’m meeting her partner around the back in fifteen.”
X scowled.
“What?” I asked, bumping my shoulder against his. “I thought you’d be sporting a semi at the fact I’m so talented at my job.”
“I just don’t like you going in there on your own. What if they recognize you from Paris?”
“Neither of them saw me, and no one saw us take Allaire’s daddy.”
“But one of their guards might have,” he shot back.
“X, believe me when I say, they won’t be looking at my face. Not in this getup. And if they do, all they’ll see is the scar.” Outside of Section Seven, no one looked me in the eye. They all stared at the burn down my cheek, the one The Watchman put there with his hot poker of doom. People saw the ugly, puckered, mark and didn’t see any further than that.
He snarled, his expression darkening.
“Settle down,” I said, making sure I had the listening devices stashed in my pocket for easy access. “You’ve trained me better than any asshole at MI6 could have. I know every countermeasure inside out and back to front. I have to be able to stand alone on these things when I have to.”
“I know,” he replied. “I’m still going to be protective of you, Mercy.”
Leaning over, I pressed a light kiss on his lips. “Right back atchya.”
Making my way around the block to the rear of the house, I saw the van had already arrived for the day. It was parked in the driveway with the back doors open. A woman in a maid’s uniform stood waiting with her hands on her hips. She was a slight little thing with long legs and a pretty face, her fiery red hair done up into a tight braid. I’m sure she excelled in more than polishing silverware looking like that.
When she saw me, she glanced at her watch and shook her head. Knowing I was still ten minutes early, I approached her, well and truly ready to get inside and get this show on the road.
“You’re Hilda?” she asked, and I began to regret the hasty alias I’d chosen. “I’m Gertrude.” Then I took it all back.
“I don’t know why they gave me you,” she said, giving me the once-over. “Mr. Allaire is very particular about who he lets into his home.”
“It was cleared with Mr. Harner,” I said, feigning stupidity.
She rolled her eyes and gestured for me to follow her into the house. Once inside, she snapped instructions at me and shoved a feather duster into my hands.
“Mr. Allaire likes the library kept immaculate. Do you think you can manage to dust the shelves without breaking anything?”
Patronizing bitch. “Yes,” I replied, playing dumb.
Gertrude snorted and jabbed a finger toward the stairs. “First floor, second door on the right hand side. Don’t dawdle.”
Making my way up the grand staircase, I rolled my eyes. Poor dear Gertie seemed very focused on Allaire’s needs, and I suspected she offered some fringe benefits, like getting down on all fours, hitching up her skirt, and using more than the vacuum cleaner to suck up the dirt.
Wandering into the library, I had to shake my head at the grandeur human trafficking afforded this asshole. Mahogany, leather, and gold. I couldn’t believe people like this existed outside of the movies. I seriously expected to find a white Persian cat roaming the place, one that Allaire stroked while cackling manically while basking in the glow of his diabolic business practices.
Doing a lap of the room, I stopped by a table that held a crystal decanter full of brown spirits and several glasses. Seemed like a good place for conversations between men doing bad guy business stuff. Reaching into my pocket, I took one of the little bugs and stuck the round device under the edge of the table.
To the side of the room was a pair of double doors that sat slightly ajar. Tiptoeing across the plush Persian rug, I peeked through the gap and saw it was the study. A huge desk with a computer sat in the middle, and a brown leather lounge setting was positioned before it. There was movement within as the far door opened, and I ducked out of view.
Brandishing the duster, I began the task of dusting the billion and one shelves that I knew Gertrude had given to me as part of a good old hazing ritual. Little did she know that it was right where I wanted to be. This was the part of the house where a man conducted his business, and if I were lucky, there would be a little something something next door as I worked.
“I don’t know why you insist on speaking English.”
I hesitated slightly at the sound of a male voice, w
hich had a very French accent attached, before continuing to dust the shelves, the feathers tickling the spines of all the classics. Moby Dick, Van Helsing, Jane Eyre. This guy either had eclectic tastes or he just liked the old-school library look.
“I like to know and understand my enemy, Damien. Speak their language, eat their food…walk their streets. Stalk them as they stalk me.”
Holy fuck. Allaire and Lafayette were having a little heart to heart in the next room.
I didn’t know if the bug I’d planted in the library would pick up their conversation and relay it back to X, so I had to linger for as long as I could without getting caught. This could be the moment that changed everything.
For a split second, the idea of getting the bastards now flashed through my mind. They were both in the same room and unaware that they had an intruder in their midst… But how the fuck was I going to kill them when I was unarmed? I could make a slapdash attempt at making a crude grenade or bomb with some of the chemicals stored in the kitchen and the van outside. Maybe I’d get lucky.
I shook my head. No, that was out of the question. It’d make a lot of noise, and I might not be able to make it out without it being in a body bag. It would piss X off no end.
It sucked, but I had to lay low, gather intelligence, and get the hell out so I could get them another day. It was the game. Knowing when to take a gamble and when to stand down.
“My man Ballinger hasn’t delivered on his promise,” Allaire replied. “He seems to have gone…missing.”
There was a slight hesitation, and I realized he was afraid of Lafayette. He ought to be. The guy had a reputation for doing away with those who didn’t follow through. A ‘no loose ends’ kinda guy.
“Then you understand he’s already dead,” Lafayette replied, his thick accent making his words sound twisted. “It’s lucky I decided to pay you a visit, no? It seems you have a problem that you’re having trouble containing.”
“I have men out searching for her,” Allaire countered, a hint of panic in his voice.
“Being stalked by the specter of Royal Blood is bad for business,” he said absently. “That’s why I’m here to perform an exorcism, Mr. Allaire.”
Oh, he’s changed his tone to formal pleasantries now. This guy was pissed to the extreme.
“I have assassins of my own, Lafayette.”
Lafayette began to laugh, and the sound chilled me to the bone. It was the laugh of a ruthless man, one who had no remorse, no light, and no respect for anyone but himself.
“Assassins that missed.”
“But—”
“You underestimate me,” Lafayette drawled. “I will have Lorelei Lansford. I will finish what I began so long ago. I will break her spirit until she begs for death. She will be fucked, abused, flayed, and tortured until she is nothing but a shell. Then I will sell her to the highest bidder. I have some clients with particular tastes who would delight with some live bait to bleed and fuck as they see fit.”
“Even though Greggor is dead?” Allaire asked. “You’d still go through with it?”
There was a creak and the sound of clinking glasses. “Mr. Allaire, let’s get one thing straight. I always finish what I start.”
Stifling a gasp, I retreated out of the library and hightailed it downstairs. It was too risky sticking around and casing the rest of the house, not when I could be discovered and delivered right to the feet of the man we were tasked to bring in. I wouldn’t be able to fool Jacques Lafayette. I wasn’t sure how I knew, but I knew. Some shit just didn’t need to be fucked with. As far as I was concerned, intel was gathered and then some.
I found Gertrude in the sitting room.
She glanced up and scowled when she saw me. “You can’t be finished already.”
“I quit!” I declared in my horrible accent.
“You what?” she asked, her mouth dropping open.
“FYI, you’re a bitch,” I added for good measure. “And it only took one second to figure out you suck Mr. Allaire’s cock for pocket change. He might have money, but you can do much better, darling.”
I tossed the feather duster at her and stalked out of the room, through the kitchen, and out the rear entrance. Grabbing my coat from the van on my way past, I made a beeline for X.
Lafayette’s threat was very real, and by the sounds of it, it was only a matter of time before he got what he wanted. I knew a man like him once, and it had only been X and our budding love that had saved me from his clutches. It was my life all over again, but this time, it had a worse consequence attached. There was no way I was letting that French fucker get his hands on Lorelei. Not in a million years.
I wrenched open the car door, making X jump and reach for his gun. When he saw it was me, he relaxed.
“Mercy? What—”
“X,” I said, closing the door behind me. “I think we need to strike now.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, his brow furrowing with confusion.
“Lafayette is here for Lorelei. He means to finish the job he started. He’s going to break her mind completely and sell her to the highest bidder.”
X hissed, thumping his fist on the steering wheel. “Fuck. I thought we had more time up our sleeves.”
“Nope. We need to go in there like yesterday.”
At the thought of her going back to the place she’d been imprisoned—after all she’d been through with her father and finding Vaughn again—I felt like throwing up. I couldn’t let that happen to her.
“X,” I said, turning to face him. “We need to kill Lafayette. It’s the only way this will ever be over for her. You know there’s no other way.”
“Behind her back?” he asked.
“If we have to.”
“Your funeral,” he drawled.
“Whatever it takes, X,” I murmured, turning my gaze onto the house. “Whatever it takes.”
Chapter 24
Vaughn
There was one thing I hated most in this world, and it was feeling powerless.
I’d called X for help with Lorelei, and it seemed to have only made things worse. Whatever he’d said to her the night he and Mercy arrived changed something in her, but keeping us on the backbench while they went out and stalked the prey that was her right to stalk? That was the worst thing they could’ve done to her.
Lorelei was agitated. I saw it in her movements, in her eyes, and heard it in her words. She was a coiled spring inside, a ticking time bomb.
When I woke, Lorelei had left, and Mercy had already gone back to London.
Pulling on my boots, I wandered through the cottage, but Lorelei wasn’t inside. There was only one other place I knew she’d go, and it was the place that connected her to her past and her future.
Lorelei was standing in the middle of the shed, her arms wrapped around her waist. Her back was to me, but I knew she was aware of my presence. She was staring at the stain on the concrete that I’d been unable to scrub out of existence. It looked like nothing more than a patch of oil, but we both knew what it was. Ballinger’s blood.
“I’ve never gone that far before,” she murmured. “I’ve always been very…clean.”
“It’s understandable given the circumstances.” She turned sharply, and I pulled her against me before she could anger any more. “Considering what he did to you.”
She sank against me, her fingers curling into my woolen jumper as she laid her cheek against my chest.
“What did X talk to you about the other night?” I asked selfishly.
She replied without hesitation. “He told me about him and Mercy. How he was contracted to kill her but ended up loving her instead. How she helped him.”
I grunted, tightening my grip around her body.
“I don’t understand what feeling is,” she went on. “Not yet.”
“I know,” I replied. “We’ll have all the time in the world to figure it out after this is over.”
“I hope so because I want to be with you, Vaughn.”
&nb
sp; I closed my eyes, scarcely believing that she was uttering the words I was so desperate to hear. I loved her more than myself, but even in my most depraved state, I could never force her to return those feelings. She might not ever love me, but could I settle for something as simple as want? It seemed like a poor substitute, but there was no doubt in my mind. I was hers forever whether she wanted me or not. I was hers ever since the moment she ran into me on the street all those years ago.
She was mine in life, death, and rebirth.
She was my forever.
She was my master.
“You know how I feel about you,” I replied.
“I don’t like it,” she said.
“What?”
“Waiting. Relying on others to lay the foundation. I can’t rest easy not knowing all the details. I need to be out there.”
I took a deep breath and rested my cheek against the top of her head. I’d get her what she wanted, even if that meant fucking over X and Mercy to do so. They answered to a higher power these days and would do the same to us. If it was good enough for them, then it was more than good enough for The Hangman.
The only power I answered to and respected was Lorelei.
“We’ll get him,” I said. “Whatever it takes.”
She raised her head and looked at me, her gaze melting mine even further. Resting my forehead against hers, I cupped her face in my hands, stroking her skin with my thumbs. Leaning forward, I caught her mouth with mine and kissed her gently, giving myself over to her intoxicating taste.
The sound of a car in the driveway pulled my attention from her. It could only be X and Mercy returning, or at least, one or the other.
“I’ll just be a moment,” I murmured.
She nodded, allowing me to leave her in the shed to think over the pieces of her lost memory.
I found X and Mercy inside the cottage.
They glanced up as I entered, and I almost hesitated when I saw their expression. They’d found out something. Something big. Something they looked rather reluctant to share with me.
