“She’s changed you.”
Yes, for the better.
“You can’t have the job and the girl, Asher,” Asher recalled Krone spitting, his gun ready to steal Cora from him forever. “and you can’t have your life without the job, so choose. You either choose her and die with her, or choose The Company and live.”
He had chosen Cora; and the fear that they could still both die, as Krone had threatened, was what was slowly killing them both.
All those thoughts evaporated when he opened the door to their apartment.
Cora sat on the floor assembling some electronics with tools and wires strewn all around her and a look of determination Asher hadn’t seen in some time. He had missed that look.
“Cora?”
“Genevieve,” she corrected. “But tonight you can call me Cora because I am on the hunt.”
“The hunt?”
“Some lowlife is selling cigarettes to kids, and maybe Genevieve would sit back and let it happen but not Cora, so you can call me Cora but only for tonight. Shouldn’t take me longer than that to catch this snake, not once I get him on film.”
“Do you know the laws in Denmark? They may differ from Florida’s,” Asher pointed out.
“Film is film,” Cora grumbled. “If I catch him on film doing something shady on a certified surveillance camera then the whole world is in agreement that it’s evidence.”
“If you say so.”
“I do. I say so.”
Asher smiled again, but his beard hid it. It was nice to see her so spirited, and exactly what Asher had been hoping would happen when she discovered her Valentine’s Day surprise.
Cora stood with her surveillance camera fully assembled. “I’m going out to install this thing somewhere.”
“May I come?”
She looked up and the purse of her lips slackened. “Is it a good idea for both of us to be drawing this much attention to ourselves?” she asked hesitantly.
Honestly he didn’t know, but he did know he was tired of the fear, and tired of seeing it eat away at the woman he loved. Plus, he wanted to be close to her while she still looked like her old self. “If Cora is back, then so is Asher.”
She smirked at him, and this playful grin made his chest tighten with nostalgia and hope. I miss you Cora, come back to me, but it was gone almost as quickly as it had formed.
4
Dangerous Lovers
In their attempt to be as inconspicuous as possible, Cora and Asher bundled up to fight the evening chill and to prevent any of their features from being seen and recorded. They walked from the apartment, unable to purchase a car without valid ID and citizenship. Cora had considered reaching out to her old contact back in the States who was a counterfeiting genius. But Brett was one of her few friends while she’d lived in Miami, and so, was definitely under surveillance.
She’d grown so used to the Florida heat that the cold got to her, even after all the months spent in Denmark. She shivered as the wind cut through her many layers and cursed her thin skin. She kept thinking she would get used to the cold, but still she had to wear multiple layers of socks in thermal snow boots.
Asher was following her as she approached the school, his steps as silent as ever. The steps of a predator. He was stoic as he assessed their surroundings for any possible danger or onlookers. Cora peeked from beneath her hood to look for a proper place to hide the security camera, once Asher grunted the “all clear.”
“Two cameras, both turned away.” He pointed to two security cameras mounted to the school’s brick walls. One was facing the wall while the other was obstructed by a tangle of red heart shaped balloons.
“You’d think they’d notice that,” Cora scoffed.
“Schools aren’t well known for their security,” Asher pointed out.
“Maybe the security guard is who is selling cigarettes. It would be a good cover for communicating with the kids.”
“Maybe,” Asher agreed.
Cora circled the courtyard and decided the most opportune place to get a full view of the building was in a tree planted in the center of a concrete circle. The concrete had been carved just for it to grow unperturbed, even if it was growing in a seemingly inconvenient place.
She didn’t need to ask for Asher’s help, as in touch with her as he was, he was already against the tree with his hands interlaced in front of him ready to boost her up. She smiled sincerely into her scarf as she granted his gloved hands the underside of her dirty boot.
He lifted her to spring onto the nearest branch and she wrapped her arms around the thick limb awkwardly. She grunted as she tried to shimmy her way up and finally released a gasp as she lost her grip and fell back onto the ground, laughing at herself. “I used to be able to pull myself out of people’s burning basements and the window was higher than that branch. Now I can’t even climb a tree! My body has had it too good for too long.”
“It’s just out of practice,” Asher suggested. “Or, there isn’t enough incentive.”
“What better incentive could there be than preventing kids from becoming addicted to nicotine?”
“Me.”
She turned to him, but barely had time to react before his hard hands were wrapped around her shoulders and her back pressed into the bark of the tree. She immediately went as soft and pliable as wax beneath his grip. He had the power to melt her, relax her with just a flicker of those striking blue eyes, or light a fire in her gut so intense she feared she might choke on the flames as they licked through her body.
For a moment they just stayed as they were, her backed into a tree and him pinning her there. They stared at each other, rekindling that fire that had dwindled, smothered by fear and pain and loss. It quickly reignited.
He looked so different now, she realized. His hair was overgrown, the beard he had once kept so cleanly trimmed now full and unkempt in all its glory. His body, too, had changed. He had once frequented many gyms to keep in shape enough to assassinate quickly and efficiently, but now he worked an honest labor job, which kept him solidly built, but not as toned as he had once been.
She looked past those changes in him, knowing there were many changes in her too. She focused on his eyes. Those ocean-blue eyes that were so striking to her were now hidden behind curtains of hair, but they were still there, and they were still Asher’s.
They had both been changed by Asher’s company, but they were still each other. Still Asher and Cora.
As if sharing the same thought, both of their gazes gravitated towards one another’s mouths. She expected that first contact to be gentle, but instead it was fierce. She groaned against his lips, feeling all the pent-up desires he had felt these long months on the run.
Her arms remained trapped by her sides and rather than struggle, she arched her back as far as his restraint would allow so she could just brush her torso against his. She broke the kiss first, letting her head loll back against the rough bark so he could have full access to her throat. His lips trailed down the sensitive cord there, but it was his breath coming in desperate gasps that gave her shivers.
He released one of her shoulders to grab at the zipper of her jacket, tugging it down forcibly to reach beneath it. He could take it all the way off for all she cared, she was hot now. Steaming in her heavy attire, her body begging for freedom.
He did not grant her wish, at least not yet. He came back to his full height, his breath a billow of smoke all around her, but despite the out of breath gasps, his expression remained unchanged from the passive cool calculation it always was. Too intense for most, but for her it just made her core tingle more, her anticipation growing.
“Why is this incentive for me to climb? Why is this something I want to get away from?” she asked breathlessly. A sly smirk slid across her expression. The first he had seen in months.
His stoic expression however, did not change, other than a mischievous twinkle that developed in his icy eyes.
“Because if you don’t get that bony ass up
that tree to plant that camera and catch this lowlife, I am going to spank it.”
Cora’s smirk merely broadened into a smile. “Oh no,” she said sarcastically. “Anything but that.” But she did turn away from him, arching her back ever so slightly to give him a good view of her not bony ass.
She again tried to shimmy up the tree and Asher granted her fifteen seconds before he delivered on his threat. One smack to that sensitive section of her rear where her thigh and hip connected. She yelped, then laughed earnestly.
“You just want to grab ass,” she accused.
“Less talking, more climbing,” he said gravelly.
She dug her boot into the bark, which splintered off beneath her weight, but after a few tries, she had worn a divot into the side of the wood and lifted until she could reach the branch again. “You know, if you want to touch me, all you need to do is ask.”
“Do I really need to ask to touch something that is mine?” he responded and she felt his hand on her leg, his hot fingers scorching her even through her protective fleece covering. He wasn’t holding her still, but she still hesitated before pulling away from his touch to continue her climb.
She didn’t want to be rid of his touch. She hadn’t realized how much she had missed his intimate caresses, and how she had been too distracted and overwhelmed lately to give him proper attention. A pinch of guilt had her swallowing. It had taken them chasing bad guys to really feel alive again. They had been living in limbo this entire time, living in fear of what could be coming rather than embracing what their life could be now. They’d been hiding and it had made them forget who they were, and what they meant to each other.
Realistically, chasing bad guys was how they had first met, so Cora supposed it made sense that would be what made them feel truly themselves again.
With lots of grunting, Cora managed to drag herself onto a stable branch and sit out of breath and only partially because that was the most exercise she had done in months. Her skin felt tingly and her chest tight with desire. She wanted Asher’s hands on her again, preferably beneath the layers of clothes. She was willing to sprawl out in the snow right here and now.
Reining in all her focus, she managed to find a break in the twigs enough for the camera to see, but not enough for it to be incredibly noticeable. She placed it strategically, then dropped from the tree and stepped back to examine her work.
“Practically invisible,” Asher commended and Cora smiled.
“Of course it is, I’m a professional.” Or at least I was, her smile faltered a bit at the thought and some of that adrenaline from his touch eroded away. This was just revisiting the past, that’s all this was. It wasn’t her reality anymore.
Asher was coping better with change given he’d never truly enjoyed murdering people but Cora had loved being a bounty hunter. She had loved bringing drug dealers, domestic abusers, rapists, even murderers to justice. She had hunted the streets of Miami for the biggest, baddest prey there was. She had been fearless, but now she was just afraid. Krone had put fear where there had once been none and now she didn’t feel like the predator she was, but nervous prey, and though she knew it wasn’t fair, part of her still resented Asher. Resented him for ever being involved with The Company that had uprooted both of their lives. The Company that was hunting them down and making her feel like prey.
No matter how good you are, there is always someone better, and Krone had been better, and she was just afraid of more of him arriving to finish what he had started.
She traced a finger over a scar on her wrist, something she did subconsciously when she felt anxious and afraid, or when she just remembered what Krone had done to her. The memory resurfaced at the strangest times.
“Cora?” Asher asked quietly, sensing the shift in her.
“Let’s get back,” she started, biting back that last word: home, because that cold room was not her home.
5
One Day to Heart Day
Asher thought about Cora as he helped Gregor throw lumber into a neat pile. She had been whimpering in her sleep again, and one stroke of her flesh had his hand coming back wet with her sweat. Her heart was hammering, he could feel it where his fingertips traced her skin. Krone had done more than torture fear into her, he had tortured out her confidence in herself. She was afraid and homesick and he hoped what he had planned for her would help her overcome this trauma. And his own guilt at her facing this trauma because of him.
The men were silent as they worked, but Asher was overly aware of Gregor’s watchful eye. Finally, the large man asked, “Valentine’s Day tomorrow, ready?”
“Almost everything is in place. I have a Valentine’s Day Utopia built in that hotel.”
“Paying for more than one night?” Gregor asked, surprised.
“I had to get set up. Everything needs to be perfect.”
“Trying too hard,” Gregor grumbled. “Making other men look bad.”
Asher didn’t comment and both men went back to stacking wood in silence. Asher had filled the room with balloons and rose petals, stocked the fridge with champagne and strawberries. He was following every Valentine’s Day cliché he could find so he could create a new tradition with his woman. She had left her life behind for him, what little family she had were gone and friends she had considered family she’d had to turn her back on for their own protection. She had gone through hell for him, so the least he could do was show her it wasn’t for nothing.
Asher was her family now, so they would start a new tradition together.
“I need to leave early today to finish setting up.”
Gregor rolled his eyes. “What could possibly be left for the setting up?”
Asher smiled over the stack of freshly cut wood. “It’s a process.”
Cora had to suffer through three more heart manicures where she stamped little hearts on their previously chipped nails to prepare women for their upcoming dates. Many couples went out once a year, and “heart day” was it for them.
She didn’t see why so many needed a holiday to go out and celebrate life, she had once celebrated life every day she still had it. She’d take herself out if she so desired, drink before five o’clock, go on dates and play little games with her love interests. She remembered playing such a game with Asher. Hide and seek, only he didn’t know her name and she had worked tirelessly to find his. It was an unspoken game. A game to see who could find out the most about the other. Naturally, she had won, so here she was being hunted by his company for digging too deep, discovering too much, and “bewitching” him.
“Ouch!” Cora’s customer said when Cora filed a bit too intensely.
“Sorry,” Cora muttered. She was so tired of being scared and angry and sad. She was so tired of stroking her scars as an anxious tick, and glaring at people who happened to see them and thought she had put them there herself. She was tired of the nightmares of Krone standing over her with a blade. She was tired of missing her old life. Maybe she should talk to Asher about taking her out for Valentine’s Day. Maybe it was what she needed to start enjoying their new life as ordinary people.
A beep from her phone interrupted her thoughts. She glanced down and to the endless irritation of the client, tapped the screen to see what had caused the device to chime.
The camera outside the school had picked up activity. It was motion activated so obviously this had occurred several times already, but every time she still scrambled to check it. Was it him?
It wasn’t. Motion activated also meant one twitch of a branch had the thing recording. She would have to watch the footage back later and she expected that most of it would be just twigs swaying in the breeze.
This part she did not miss about being a bounty hunter. Though there were times the adrenaline was so fierce she feared she would never come down from it, there were many times as well when she was simply sitting in a car, watching a building for hours with a cold cup of coffee. Sighing through her annoyance, she returned her attention to her client.
“You don’t believe her?” asked Flora’s client, dropping her voice down to a whisper.
Flora only shrugged. “I just believe she over dramatizes things. I talked to the man. Didn’t seem the type. He was polite, civilized, and between you and me, he was pretty attractive. If you’re into the mountain man thing that is. He said he was handing out lollipops while he was checking the grounds for pests or something or other.”
Cora resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “You’d be surprised how many attractive, charming people have skeletons in their closet,” Cora pointed out. “In my experience, all of them do.”
Gloria came in and stepped up to the front, so Flora ignored Cora and raised her voice in a chipper greeting. “Gloria! What are you doing back so soon? Are your nails already chipped?”
“No, I just decided to go with something a little more festive.”
Flora’s lips pursed, probably mourning her beautiful design just painted yesterday. The scowl was short lived however, because money was money, and Gloria clearly had a lot to spend. “All right, sweetie, just take a seat and I’ll be right with you.”
“Actually Flora, I was hoping to get some fresh blood to do a little artistry.” Cora glanced up and found Gloria’s eyes on her. “Geneva, right?”
Cora’s limbs stiffened, a red flag waving in her brain. Why is Gloria taking such an interest in Cora? Could she be from The Company? She was there when Cora went sprinting out of the shop after a man thought at the time to be dangerous, and she had heard Cora’s Jersey accent as she often forgot to hide it.
Cora forced herself to calm down, that icy coolness slipping into her rigid body and forcing it to relax. She had always been good under pressure, and had always been a star at improvisation. “Genevieve,” Cora corrected.
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