Assassin's Game

by Ella Sheridan

  Then I worried for a whole new reason.

  Eli always could read me well. “We’ve got some new friends going with us. It’ll be okay.” He leaned closer, lowered his voice playfully. “We won’t kill anyone.”

  I smiled even as my heart squeezed. “As long as you don’t let anyone kill you,” I warned, my gaze shifting from him to Remi and back again.

  “Absolutely not,” Remi said, his arm around Leah. “There’ll be six of us; we’ll be fine.”

  “Who’s staying behind?” Levi asked, frowning.

  “Maris,” Eli said. “We’ve got things covered, and I get the sense she doesn’t go into combat situations. Not that this is a combat situation,” he assured me. “She’ll be fine downstairs while we’re out.”

  They were leaving some girl in the basement? Doing what, twiddling her thumbs? They’d said these were allies—were they telling the truth or lying so I wouldn’t worry? “Leah can sit with her. Or bring her up here. There’s no need for her to sit down there alone.”

  “No,” Levi said, his tone like sandpaper. I kept my eyes on the rest of my family, unable to bear looking at him. Seeing his pain—pain I’d caused. Or my body had caused. Either way, he was hurting almost as much as I was.

  Because I was losing our child. I knew it even as Leah encouraged me to hope. Some instinct, something devastated in the center of my soul told me the truth: it was only a matter of time.

  I’d keep you if I could, little one.

  I closed my eyes against the tears that threatened to spill over again, then opened them wide. “I’m stuck in this bed and she’s stuck in the basement. Bring her up here and we can be bored together.” Anything to distract me from things I couldn’t bear to think about. To feel.

  Eli stood up after a quick squeeze of my hand. “Maris is sweet. I think you’d like her.”

  I could feel the looks crossing the room, the people I loved communicating silently as if I couldn’t feel their thoughts, worries. Fears. Leah’s gaze shifted from Levi to me. “Maybe she’d like a snack.”

  Her raised eyebrow made it a question, and even though I’d rather swallow glass than food, I nodded.

  Remi and Eli said goodbye, and I watched as they followed Leah out the door.

  “Abby, I don’t—”

  “Just stop, Levi.” Was that exhausted voice mine? “If you were that worried about her, she’d never have stepped foot inside the gate.” I rolled onto my side, away from him. “Of course, I’m sure you’re getting restless without your nightly venture to God knows where. Maybe you should’ve gone with Eli and Remi.”

  Levi couldn’t have known I needed him. And there were certainly more important things to focus on than our relationship. I told myself that, but beneath the agony tearing up my heart, I realized there was something else crouching, waiting to bite: anger.

  Levi was in front of me in a flash. His face was ghastly white, a sick sort of pale that matched the way I felt inside. Shock. Pain. The knowledge that, no matter how much he wanted to, he couldn’t protect us from this. It lurked in his eyes, haunting him—and now I’d implied he should leave me alone so he could hunt.

  It was mean; I knew that. And yet somewhere inside me, I couldn’t help wondering if it was what he wanted.

  I closed my eyes to block him out, block out the questions, the emotions, the reality I couldn’t escape from. How much longer would this take? How long could I endure before I broke?

  The bed shifted as he climbed on, and I felt his long body nestle close enough that his heat reached my chilled skin. Closer, until his limbs brushed mine and his arm came around me and his breath ghosted across my cheeks. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I would give anything—”

  My fingertips on his mouth stopped the words. “I know.” I dragged my eyelids up. Molten steel stared back at me. “I know.”

  “Abby, I—” His brow wrinkled, and for the first time since we’d met two years ago, he looked...uncertain. “I never meant for this to happen.”

  I dropped my hand from his face. “You didn’t cause this, Levi. Nothing caused this. It is what it is.” No matter how much my heart screamed to make it stop. “I just...”

  “Just what?”

  “I need you here.” The words wobbled as a cramp knotted my stomach. “Don’t leave me. Please. I can’t do this alone.”

  Working an arm under my shoulder and the other around my hip, Levi pulled me tight against him—and for the first time since I’d found out I was pregnant, I felt safe. My body recognized his and relaxed into him, letting him take my weight, letting his strength seep into me.

  “You’re not alone, little bird. I won’t leave you again.”

  The words pulled my scattered pieces back together. It wouldn’t last, but for now, it was what I so desperately needed. I pushed closer and closed my eyes to wait.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Nix —

  “Nice car.”

  Eli wiggled his brows in a way that had me struggling to hold on to my serious, we’re-on-an-op face.

  “Sometimes you have to blend in.” He patted the dash of the elderly Toyota Corolla he’d retrieved from the mansion’s extensive garage. “Her engine’s worthy, no matter what her outside says.”

  “Her outside doesn’t say much, that’s for sure.” I pulled my gaze from the grin that popped up on his gorgeous face, the one that did weird things to my insides, to stare at the dark road ahead. We were following Sullivan’s town car—or rather, the tracker attached to his car. Rhys and Monty were taking advantage of the target’s absence to do the physical search of his home that neither team had managed yet. Remi and Titus were waiting for us at the secondary location we’d scouted to stage Sullivan’s accident—the one that would convince X, if temporarily, that our target was dead.

  That left us. Eli and me. Alone. In a car, in the dark, for several hours.

  The knowledge was like an itch under my skin, screaming at me to get away. Eli got to me like no man ever had—and the fact that I was beginning to like it, even anticipate it had me looking for escape. Or a distraction. Anything.

  “Just how old are you?” I blurted into the silence. A reminder to myself as much as a question. I knew how old he was, actually. Too young for you, Mikaela.

  Eli was aware that I knew his age—a smart mercenary never went after a target without research. He didn’t rub it in my face, though. “Old enough to know what I’m doing,” he said.

  The words made my stomach flutter. I bet.

  “The three of you were born fairly close together.”

  Eli’s smile turned downward. I could see the grief on his face, knew its source. His parents’ murders.

  “My mom and dad wanted their kids close,” he said. “At least that’s what Levi says.”

  “You don’t remember?” I asked. “Your uncle—”

  “He didn’t raise us.” Eli’s voice rasped with emotion. He hastily cleared his throat. “Levi raised us. I was nine when my parents died. I have a few memories of my own, but mostly flashes. Scents. Impressions.” He shrugged. “Not conversations, really.”

  “Your uncle sent you to a boarding school, right?”

  Eli’s snort didn’t agree, even if his, “Yeah,” seemed too.

  “He didn’t?” I asked.

  Another person would’ve missed the barrier that fell between us, someone less observant. We’d spent the past day and a half drawing lines to keep our teams safe from the other—and, on my end, to keep the way Eli affected me from everyone. But on an op, trust was key, and we had to start building it somehow.

  “Eli.”

  I didn’t miss the way he wouldn’t look at me, and I didn’t think it had anything to do with keeping his eyes on the road.

  “We’ve been fairly transparent with you and your brothers,” I pointed out.

  “You didn’t really have much choice.”

  Thanks to you, cocky bastard. Not that he hadn’t earned the right to be cocky. “If you guys have
as much to lose as we do, at some point the secrets have to start getting told.”

  “Maybe.”

  Tension held his body tight for a couple of minutes as he navigated a blinking red light and a turn. I could see the moment it eased the slightest bit, but only when he started to speak did I let my held breath go.

  “Our public story is that we were raised in a boarding school up north. The truth is”—he cleared the gravel out of his voice—“we ran away. Levi raised us on the streets.”

  I thought back to the research Maris and Monty had pulled. “But...” Jesus. “You weren’t even teenagers when your parents died. Why run away?” And how the hell had they managed to survive at that age, alone?

  Eli flashed me a look, part steel and part amber fire, before turning back to the road. “We ran away before he killed us too.”

  Their uncle had killed their parents.

  Immediately memories of Maris at that age hit me, how fragile kids were, how vulnerable. “And”—I swallowed hard—“you went...?”

  Eli shrugged, the movement not at all casual. “Nowhere to go.”

  Holy...fuck. How had three preteen boys survived on the streets?

  I considered what I knew about the three men and shook the question away. Survival and necessity were great teachers. I understood that. And if they’d been underground until Levi emerged last year to accept his inheritance? That was a long time to survive in this profession. No wonder X had the confidence to pit them against an ex-Delta Force team. “So you all—”

  Eli put up a hand to stop me, his frown full of regret. “I’ve told you all I can, Mikaela. I’m sorry. They’re not only my secrets to tell.”

  He hadn’t actually told me much, but I didn’t argue. I kept my silence until we parked a mile out from where Sullivan’s car had stopped. We left the Corolla behind—I’d return for it when our target was secure—and footed it toward the location for Sullivan’s...well, whatever the hell he was doing. I kept my head focused and my gaze off Eli’s very fine ass as I followed him. The plan was to tranq the driver, allowing Eli to take his place. We’d keep the driver in the trunk while I waited in the dark back seat for Sullivan to enter the town car.

  “He’ll notice me,” I’d argued when we came up with the plan.

  “No, he won’t,” Eli had said. My three guys had smirked but hadn’t taken a side.

  “Why not?” I demanded.

  “Because Sullivan is having a nice long play session,” Eli pointed out. “And that means sex. Most men are lazy after sex. Their attention is lax. That makes them easy to jump.”

  I couldn’t help digging at him. “Are you speaking from experience?”

  He’d glanced at the faces watching us spar like a tennis match and shrugged. “Ask me later and I’ll tell you, Mikaela.”

  The man drove me nuts.

  We arrived in minutes within sight of the car, parked down the long driveway of an isolated ranch surrounded by woods. I could clearly see a figure in dark clothes leaning against the front fender. Our driver. Periodically a pinprick red glow lit up his lips.

  The dart gun was good at a hundred yards, but Eli had told me he preferred fifty to ensure an accurate hit. Circling the property, we made our way into the woods at the back and then, keeping an eye out for cameras or extra security, we rounded the house to come to the corner closest to the front end of the town car.

  Eli dropped to one knee, out of the driver’s direct line of sight. I covered his back, keeping my eyes open and moving, not settling on a single image that might distract me. It took seconds for Eli to sight our target and take his shot.

  The minute the trigger was hit, Eli ran forward. Tranqs didn’t take out their target ASAP—there was certainly time to yell before the ketamine put your system on ice. Anywhere from thirty seconds to four minutes, sometimes. The driver had just long enough to be distracted by the sting of the dart and look around before Eli tackled him to the ground.

  Between the two of us, we kept him down and quiet until he passed out. I gave him a second shot, one that would last longer than the ketamine we’d used to put him out. Then we tied his hands and feet together and settled him as comfortably as possible in the trunk.

  “Now we wait,” Eli said, the satisfaction of success warming his words. I climbed into the far corner of the back seat while Eli took the driver seat, the ball cap the driver had worn covering his hair. Somehow the shadows only made the edges of his face sharper, the mystery turning handsome into something I couldn’t look away from. Secrets had always pulled at me, made me want to solve them, and Eli was no different. It was part of what made him so dangerous.

  The silence became heavier the longer I watched him in the mirror. Occasionally our eyes met, and the same satisfaction I’d heard earlier was there in his reflection—and still I couldn’t look away. Mostly to distract myself from the heat but also because I was curious, I said, “I’m surprised Levi sent you both on this mission without him.”

  Eli had lit a cigarette to strengthen the illusion of him as the driver. Without looking back, he flipped ash out the open window. “Leave it, Mikaela.”

  I’d never heard his voice that sharp, but it didn’t deter me. I’d faced down killers; Eli had never felt like a threat to me. I wasn’t sure he could. “Your brother reminds me of me, Eli. I wouldn’t send my team on a mission I hadn’t at least planned, knew every aspect of. He doesn’t strike me as the type either.”

  All true. And all totally irrelevant. I wanted to know what was going on, and not just because it might affect our mission. I wanted to know because this family was starting to intrigue me. Which was probably bad, but here in the dark, waiting, I found I wasn’t too concerned about that.

  Silence passed for a long time, Eli occasionally flicking the slow-burning cigarette outside the window. Finally he glanced at me in the rearview mirror. Sighed hard. His lips went tight. “If it was a choice between Maris and the mission, which would you choose?”

  I cocked my head. “That depends on the circumstances.”

  The clench of Eli’s jaw didn’t ease. Fine, I could wait.

  I knew I had him when his chin sank and he ducked his head to let out a deep breath. “Abby is pregnant,” he said quietly.

  “Oh.” I thought about Levi’s sudden exit, the fact that not once in two days had he come back downstairs. Remi’s and Eli’s body language... Something was wrong with Abby or the pregnancy. “That I can understand.”

  I turned to stare toward the house Sullivan was holed up in. “Doing what we do isn’t really conducive to family. At least, fragile family. Children.” I’d learned that with Maris.

  Eli flicked the cigarette out into the grass. “Sometimes life hands you something too precious to let go of.” The words were soft, but I felt their intensity in my chest. “You make sure you are as good as you need to be to protect that preciousness. Period. We always have”—his gaze met mine once more in the mirror, searing me with his conviction—“even when it was just the three of us. We’re not stopping now.”

  I believed him. I also knew that kind of resolve could get him killed. “You’re too soft for this job if you believe that, Eli.”

  He smiled that cocky grin that made my heart thump harder even as it irritated the fuck out of me. “No, I’m just that good.”

  The tension in the car broke, and I could breathe again. I rolled my eyes. “That’s what they all say.”

  A laugh escaped those perfect lips. “You won’t be saying that when I kiss you, Mikaela.”

  Shock jolted through me. “We won’t be kissing.” Definitely not.

  He turned, one arm draping over the seat, and when I met his eyes, I swear I gulped. I’d done the one thing I knew better than to do, ever—I’d challenged an alpha.

  It took a moment, but the fire in his eyes softened. Amusement mixed in. He nodded thoughtfully. “Fine, I won’t kiss you—”

  The tight band around my chest eased even as disappointment sparked.

&
nbsp; “—until you ask me to.”

  “Ha!” This time it was my grin that was cocky. I might fantasize about what those lips would feel like on mine, but I was nothing if not disciplined. “That will be never.”

  Eli widened his eyes. “Wanna bet?”

  I searched for a catch but finally shrugged. “What do I get if I win?”

  “An orgasm,” Eli said, tone all what else?

  “Really?” I laughed, more to get the hitch out of my voice than because I was amused. “Doesn’t sound like such a big prize to me.”

  “From me? It definitely is.”

  So full of himself. I wouldn’t touch that with a ten-foot pole. I also couldn’t get the smile off my face. “What do I get if you win?”

  His grin was wicked. “Multiple orgasms.”

  Good luck. No man had been able to give me multiple orgasms; I just wasn’t built that way, I guess. “Not happening, Eli.”

  “Oh, it’s happening, Mikaela. And when it does, you’ll never doubt my word again.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Eli —

  I’d never worked with anyone but my brothers. I shouldn’t be comfortable working with Mikaela now, but it felt more like this was our hundredth mission than our first. And playing with her? She made my heart light and my dick hard, even in the middle of an op. The sound of her laugh... Jesus. No way had I only known she existed in this world for a few days; surely I’d known her forever. And yet there were still so many corners of her to explore.

  Corners and curves.

  I shifted in my seat, trying for the tenth time—unsuccessfully—to get more comfortable in the tight confines of my fatigues.

  “Here we go,” Mikaela murmured from the back seat.

  I’d put up the window earlier when the rain started to fall. Now, glancing toward the house, I saw Sullivan making a hasty exit out the front, his head down against the wind. “Showtime.” I threw Mikaela a grin over my shoulder as I opened my door.

  My big black umbrella added to the protection the driver’s cap gave me. I watched Sullivan approach—his body language, the direction of his gaze, his pace. The man went everywhere like he was supposed to be there ten minutes ago. Now, he moved slow and certain toward the car, relaxed, languid. Even in the rain.