Den of Mercenaries

by London Miller

“I wasn’t speaking to you.”

  Aidra was a professional—more professional than anyone Kit knew, but since they had started this work with Carmen and Ariana, she had made it a point to get under Ariana’s skin at every opportunity.

  “Yet I answered.”

  “One day, your usefulness will run out, and once it does, I’ll make sure that you’re put down.”

  Aidra, who had suffered torture the likes of which no person should have even lived through, didn’t even blink. “Good luck.”

  “You stupid little—”

  Before she could finish, Kit grabbed Ariana by her arm, dragging her from the truck and over to the elevators, not caring that she was tripping over the ridiculous high heels she wore.

  Once the elevator doors were open, he shoved her inside, leaning in just enough that he could press the button for the floor she was going up to.

  “Do you always treat your women like this?” she asked. Though she now wore a smile on her face as if this were all a game.

  “Trust me—you’re not mine.”

  She nodded down at the black band that circled his finger. “Maybe I’ll look for who is then and get rid of her.”

  Kit knew she was trying to incite his rage, to piss him off enough to make him react, but just the thought of her thinking that she could go up against Luna was laughable.

  “I invite you to try. You won’t like what you find.”

  He turned his back as the doors started to close but not before she yelled, “I’ll have you one of these days, Nix.”

  He wouldn’t count on it.

  “Do you remember that Lebanese drug trafficker who wanted me to become a part of his harem?” Aidra asked once he was back in the truck and they were pulling off. “I actually would prefer his company to hers. She’s insufferable.”

  “Because of your loyalty to Luna,” Kit murmured, removing his phone from his pocket.

  He still had another twenty minutes before he could make the phone call he’d been thinking about since the moment he saw Luna enter the box with Uilleam.

  “I’m loyal to anyone who’s loyal to you,” Aidra said. “Besides, she doesn’t act like a royal cunt.”

  “Aidra …”

  “It’s not an insult if it’s the truth.”

  “I don’t think that’s how it works.”

  Rolling her eyes, she turned to better face him. “Anyway, step one is done, right? What’s next?”

  The plan had always been for Caesar to die, even Carmen knew that, but now that the ball was rolling, it was time to implement the next step.

  “We have to destroy Ariana—and no, you don’t get to kill her.”

  Not yet.

  Chapter 4

  “You know … The Kingmaker is kind of hot in a way—like you don’t know whether he wants to fuck you or kill you,” Winter remarked thoughtfully, standing in front of the floor-length mirror, examining the tattooed sleeve of roses down the length of her arm.

  Luna frowned.

  While she would have been the first to admit that Uilleam was unreasonably attractive, he had turned into something of a brother figure to her and that dampened the whole sexy thing she had once thought he possessed.

  Oblivious to her slight disgust, Winter glanced back at her through the mirror. “Does your hubs look like him?”

  Same intensity in their eyes though the color differed.

  Same brooding nature …

  Same surly disposition …

  They had the same eyebrows?

  “A little?” Luna settled on saying, though it came out sounding more like a question.

  “Huh.” Winter plopped down on the couch, toeing off the white Doc Martens boots she wore as she then tucked her feet beneath her. “What are family dinners like? Knife play at all? Oh, are there any other brothers? ’Cause while slightly terrifying, I’m obviously attracted to crazy.”

  Speaking of crazy … “How’s Syn, by the way? Last I heard, he was over in Eastern Europe.”

  At the mention of Syn’s name, Winter rolled her eyes. “He’s as good as he can possibly be. You know, hunting and killing things is how he gets his rocks off. Oh, and annoying the hell out of me.”

  Syn could be a bit … unreasonable when it came to Winter.

  “But we’re not talking about him—we’re talking about the mystery man that I didn’t even know existed until like … weeks ago.”

  Luna shouldn’t have been surprised that word had gotten around so quickly that she was married, and to The Kingmaker’s brother nonetheless. Of course, no one in the Den particularly cared about this information—unless it directly involved them—but Winter wasn’t like them.

  She was helplessly curious, always wanting to know every little detail, but that made sense since she did work as a hacker. She thrived in information.

  “I hope not,” Luna answered, thinking about her question.

  There were many secrets about the Runehart family that even she still didn’t know, but she really did hope that there wasn’t another brother.

  Two was enough.

  “I mean The Kingmaker’s family has to be pretty interesting, right? Considering … well, him. And they’re probably far more fun than Syn, anyway.” Winter looked disgruntled as she said, “Only thing he wants to do is tell me what to do, who to do it with, and when I can do it. Shit is super annoying. It’s not like I’m a child or anything.”

  Every member of the Den had a handler, but since Winter wasn’t officially a part of it—for reasons no one was really sure of—she didn’t answer to The Kingmaker like the rest of them.

  She answered to Syn.

  And that was one person Luna didn’t think even she wanted to answer to.

  He was already a little crazy—he hadn’t handled his training very well—and he was prone to violence at the slightest provocation, but with Winter, he was a different force altogether.

  “Do you know the last time I got to leave that godforsaken home he sent me to? Do you? More than a year. Anytime I have to do an assignment, it’s right there in the damn living room. I need privacy,” Winter ranted, grabbing the bowl of popcorn she’d procured the minute she was in the house. “He’s always watching me—probably is now, too.”

  Her eyes narrowed, Winter scanned the room then stuck her middle finger in the air and waved it around.

  “Trust me,” Luna said with a laugh. “Syn isn’t surveilling you—in here, at least.”

  “Yeah, whatever. He’ll be around once he finds out I’m here. Anyway, business. Who’s next on the hit list?”

  Once Uilleam had dropped her off, leaving her with the file he’d been telling her about before they got there, she wasted no time in going over as much as she could before Winter arrived.

  There was little inside that she hadn’t known before, but once she got to the last subject, his name had been unfamiliar.

  “Roger Fitzpatrick,” Luna said, handing over the folder. “He’s an investment broker for a private bank in San Francisco. The Kingmaker seems to think that he’s the money behind Ariana’s diamond boutique.”

  Originally, Luna had thought Carmen financed the business, or even Caesar, but after going over banking records, the numbers didn’t add up, and the only thing that could be found that matched the transfer numbers led back to Roger—it also helped that with Caesar out of the picture, it made it far easier to comb through his business records.

  Pulling out a bulky laptop from the backpack she carried, Winter set it up on the coffee table, flexing her fingers as she opened it up.

  Her silver hair glowed under the light of the screen, making Luna wonder if she had refreshed the color since the last time she had seen her.

  She hadn’t known what to think of the hacker when they first met—Winter had only been fifteen at the time—but in the time since, they had grown closer. In part because Syn trusted that Luna wouldn’t get her into too much trouble and because she was one of the only other females in the Den.

  Plus,
she had started looking at Winter as the younger sister she’d never had.

  “I’m assuming his records are harder to get to?” Winter asked as her fingers flew over the keys, shifting through five different screens before Luna could even lean forward and see what she was doing.

  “He says it has something to do with the bank,” Luna said, remembering bits of what Uilleam had told her on their ride back here. “But due to international banking and all that, he couldn’t get everything.”

  “You know, I think it’s totally cool that he trusts my abilities. Maybe I should ask for a raise. Most blackhats don’t go for less than a few grand for what I do.”

  “Good luck with that.”

  “Maybe you could put in a good word for—”

  The doorbell sounding had Winter cutting off as her eyes widened, looking at Luna then back toward the door.

  “Go ahead,” Luna said, even as she reminded herself of the familiar weight of her knives at her wrists. “Probably The Kingmaker bringing another file.”

  But that was doubtful, even she knew that.

  Though he had a tendency to pop up whenever he wanted, he would have called first.

  Then again, no one else knew she was here … except for Kit.

  And just the thought of it being him at the door had her heart kicking up, anticipation thrumming inside her.

  Seeing him at the theater had done very little to combat her need to be near him, but she hadn’t expected that he would show up this soon, or at all for that matter.

  Even so, she palmed one of her knives, staying light on her feet as she approached the door and checked the peephole, and promptly relaxed, a trace of sadness filling her when she realized who was standing on the other side.

  But that sadness was overshadowed with curiosity. “What are you doing here?” she asked once she had the door open.

  Standing on the threshold looking every bit as fearsome as the day she met him was Tăcut—one of the Wild Bunch.

  His lips quirked as he saw her, the closest thing to a smile she would ever get from him before he touched the top of her head with his hand then stepped around her.

  His version of hello.

  “By all means,” she said, though she was secretly happy to see him since it had been so long. “Come right on in.”

  She knew he wouldn’t respond—no, he couldn’t respond—but she talked to him as though he could anyway. At first, she had wondered if she should treat him differently because of his inability to speak, but she had quickly learned that if she talked to him as if he were like anyone else, the tension in him would relax.

  Walking him back into the living room where Winter was still seated, she whipped silver hair over her shoulder as she looked back.

  “Holy shit.”

  Had the girl actually looked afraid, Luna might have hesitated, but Winter was staring with unabashed appreciation.

  Tăcut was tall and broad all over, with dark hair that was cropped close to his head, bringing out the prominent cheekbones and cut of his jaw. It was rare that Luna saw him outside of the gear he usually wore, but she also hadn’t seen him in eighteen months—things changed.

  “Winter, this is Tăcut.”

  Tăcut, whose brow furrowed at the sight of Winter, gave a short salute.

  “It’s awesome meeting you,” Winter said shuffling to her feet, sticking her hand out with very little care that she didn’t really know him. “Are you one of the Den too? I haven’t heard of you.”

  Tăcut gave a single nod of his head.

  Now it was Winter’s turn to look confused. “Does he not talk? Do you not talk?” She punctuated the question by touching his arm—and if Luna thought she saw correctly, she gave his bicep a little squeeze too.

  “He can’t,” Luna explained.

  “Like can’t can’t or just forbidden.”

  Luna didn’t know the story behind what happened to him—Kit had always said it wasn’t his story to share—but Luna had always wondered what had warranted someone removing Tăcut’s vocal cords.

  “No, he physically can’t.”

  Tăcut’s gaze went to Winter as Luna finished speaking, maybe waiting to see her reaction, but if he was expecting pity, he didn’t get that from her.

  If anything, she looked impressed. “Wicked. So do you know sign language?” she asked, even as she signed the question as well, shocking both Luna and Tăcut.

  Watching his expression shift from impassiveness to surprise then to the closest thing to a smile Luna had ever seen, Tăcut signed back.

  “Huh.”

  “What?”

  Winter was still studying Tăcut with a tap of her finger against her chin. “I got the gist of what you’re saying, big guy, but you lost me in there.” Now, she looked at Luna. “Where’s he from?”

  “Romania?” she asked as a question to him, and when he nodded, she nodded. “Romania.”

  “My Romanian is a bit rusty, but Tăcut … that means silent, or something like that, right?”

  He nodded.

  “You know, you’re pretty hot for a sort of scary, silent Romanian.”

  Tăcut blinked as though he wasn’t sure what to do with her, but his stance relaxed, and unlike when Luna had first been around him, he seemed rather amused by Winter.

  “So why are you here?” Luna asked.

  Digging into the pocket of his jacket, he tossed her a phone—one that was sleek and reminded her of one of the devices Kit used.

  Nearly to the second that he handed it over, the phone started ringing in her hand, and this time when she read the caller ID, she wasn’t disappointed.

  “Where’s Fang?” Luna asked once she had the phone to her ear, and she was walking out of the room. “You usually send him to do your bidding.”

  “Disappointed?” came Kit’s reply, the sound of his voice making her smile in a way she felt down in the pit of her stomach.

  There were no words adequate enough to describe how much she missed him—how one day with him just talking had been enough to ease a lot of the anger she felt. And seeing him tonight hadn’t helped that ache at all.

  Already, she wished he was there with her, where they could talk and laugh and just be together.

  She missed being with him, sharing the same air he breathed, and the way he could take over a room without ever speaking.

  Luna missed him.

  “Not disappointed, just curious.”

  “Tăcut was free tonight, and I need Fang for something else tomorrow.”

  “I don’t mind,” she elaborated, lowering her voice. “It’s nice to see him … even if it isn’t for long. It’s not for long, is it?”

  With the way everything was going with The Kingmaker, not to mention the surveillance she knew was still on them with Elias, she doubted Kit would venture any closer. They had to tread carefully.

  “I’m afraid not,” Kit said regretfully. “But things are going to change very soon.”

  Of that, she had no doubt. There were still some details of the assignment that she didn’t know, especially whatever roles Kit and Uilleam planned to play, but she didn’t doubt that with the pair of them working together, Carmen or Elias would be around for very long.

  “How’s my mother?”

  In the nearly two years that Kit had been working for the Rivera family, this was the first time Luna had asked about not just what he did for them, but his thoughts on them as well.

  “Would you be upset if I said I’ve thought of exactly seventeen different ways to kill her without leaving a mark?”

  Luna laughed harder than she should have. “Is it that bad?”

  “What do you remember of her?”

  Not expecting the question, she fell silent, giving it some thought.

  It was hard trying to associate the two versions of Carmen Rivera she knew, though there was only one she was intimately familiar with.

  There was the mother who had cooked her meals, made her smile, and the warmth she had exuded …
but was that reality or just the memories of a girl who hadn’t known any better? Because over the years, those memories had tarnished a bit.

  No longer did she see Carmen speaking with loving affection, but rather with narrowed eyes and her lips turned down at the corners.

  “Distant memories,” Luna settled on saying. “Why’s Tăcut here, or rather what’s this phone for?”

  “In case you want to speak with me,” he said, and there was a hint of something in his voice, something that told her he wasn’t quite sure if this was true or not. “You can probably guess that we can’t be seen together, not yet. Right now, Elias has focused most of his attention on me and has grown a bit lax with his surveillance on for the others.”

  “Is that why the two of you are making your moves now?” Luna asked, realization dawning.

  It made sense, though she hadn’t put it together yet.

  While Elias had given Uilleam the green light to finish the job with Caesar Rivera and had ultimately given him permission to kill Carmen as well, he hadn’t actually given a timeframe for when her usefulness would run out. It could have been tomorrow or ten years down the line.

  “You asked me to fix it—I’m fixing it.”

  A hint of a smile touched her lips at his words. “Then I’ll do my best to keep away from you.”

  “Don’t try too hard, love. I do have another question for you, though,” he said. “D’you miss me?”

  Now, she was really smiling. “How is that relevant?”

  “It’s always relevant to me.”

  She thought of lying, but she had never been able to lie to him—and he always had a knack for seeing through them. “I’ve always missed you, Kit.”

  He made a soft approving noise before asking, “And where would you like to take our second honeymoon?”

  “Second honeymoon? I can’t even see you, and you’re already making plans for the future?”

  “Because there has never been a time when you wouldn’t be in it. Now, answer the question.”

  Luna thought of their last honeymoon, of the short time they had spent basking in marital bliss before she had been called home for a job and everything had fallen to shit.

  “Somewhere without cell reception,” she said, smiling when she heard Kit’s laughter.