by Tabatha Kiss
“I was gonna say,” she smirks. “You’ve always had a knack for taking care of yourself. It’s a good talent to pass on.”
I fight that awful churn in my gut. Lying is second nature to me. That doesn’t mean I enjoy it. “Thanks, Grams.”
“And men?”
“What about them?”
“Don’t tell me a cutie like you can’t snag one.” She points a finger. “Especially not when a beast like your brother can find a girl.”
I chuckle and look down. “I haven’t exactly been baiting that hook lately.”
“Well, why not?” she pauses. “Are you a lesbian? It’s okay if you are, honey. I won’t judge. In fact, a few of my favorite memories from my youth include me and my friends experimen—”
“No,” I cut her off. “No. Not a lesbian, Grams. I’m just… very busy with work.”
“Well, if you ask me, it’s about time for you to start getting very busy in the bedroom.”
I blink. “Grams…”
“How old are you?”
“Uh…” I think hard. “Twenty-six?”
She ticks her tongue. “By the time I was your age, I had a seven-year-old.” She points a wrinkled finger at me. “Find a man, toss up your legs, and start making some babies.”
I cringe at her words. “Grams. Please, no…”
“I’m not saying it’s required,” she says. “There are many perfectly happy people out there without children and I respect that. However, in all the years I’ve mentioned this to you, you have never said the words, Grams, I don’t want children. Until you do, I reserve the right to bug you and your mother would have done the same.”
“And why aren’t you bugging Elijah about this?” I ask.
She cackles. “Oh, I will.”
I breathe a laugh. “Grams, I…” The words linger on my tongue but I can’t seem to force them out. Nailing down a man and firing out kids is something reserved for normal people with normal lives. I’ve never thought twice about that but now that Snake Eyes is gone…
“I’m not ready for that kind of thing yet,” I say.
She smiles. “Okay. I won’t mention it again… until next year.”
I nod, offering her a little hope. “Maybe next year.”
“Lilah!”
My grandfather walks in with his arms outstretched. I instantly laugh at his baggy golf pants and the silly hat hanging off his head.
“Hey, Gramps.”
I stand up to hug him back and he gives me a weak squeeze. He’s aged the most of both of them but they’re still so warm and spry. Not nearly as cold and decomposed as their doctored death certificates claim they are.
When you join Snake Eyes, you’re dead to the world. Our grandparents already buried our mother. We weren’t going to make them go through that again.
We couldn’t leave them at the lake house by themselves for various reasons, among them being Gramp’s deteriorating health, so we put them here under new identities. Attachments are dangerous in our line of work and we didn’t want anybody using them against us. They’re as dead to the world as we are. It’s the safest thing for them and they’re happy here. They’d be happier if we visited more often but doing so would only draw suspicion.
“How long will you be staying this time?” Gramps asks as he takes a seat next to Grams.
“A few days,” Elijah answers. “We’re both cashing in on some vacation days.”
“Good for you.” He stops to slap Grams’ hand. “Oh, we should introduce him to—”
“That new nurse!” she says over him.
Elijah deflates. “Guys, no.”
“Oh, but she’s so pretty!” she continues. “Long blonde hair, big blue eyes. Good teeth. And she’s hosting bingo night tonight! You have to stay and meet her.”
Elijah looks at me, drawn to the grin stretching across my face. “Maybe some other time.”
“Well,” she throws up her hands, “I just want to make sure my grandbabies are taken care of.”
“We take care of each other, Grams,” I say. “Always have.”
“And you always will but you can’t give each other everything. All twins split up eventually.”
I look at Elijah. He stares back at me looking about as jaded as I am. “We won’t,” I say.
He nods in agreement. “Seems pretty guaranteed.”
“In that case,” Grams sits back and sighs, “the two of you are in for some awkward wedding nights.”
***
We stop at a gas station down the street to fuel up our bikes on the way to the hotel.
“I’m gonna grab a drink,” I say, popping onto the curb. “Want anything?”
Elijah shakes his head. “No, thanks.”
I step inside. A bell jingles over my head, drawing the eyes of the young kid behind the counter. He barely nods as I pass by but I feel his stare lingering on me for far longer than necessary. I ignore it and split down the aisle to the line of glass doors along the back wall but the prickle on the back of my neck remains.
I look over my shoulders towards the windows, catching sight of Elijah outside with our bikes. His face is glued to his phone while he waits for me, fingers swiping and poking at the screen. I glance up at the corner mirrors but the cashier’s gaze has also dropped.
I open the door at the edge of the aisle and reach inside for an iced coffee.
“Hello, Lilah.”
I freeze in place the moment her voice touches my ears.
She lingers over my shoulder, standing a few inches taller with her three-inch heels. Her black hair flows down to her navel on one side. She slides her white sunglasses off her nose and drops them into the breast pocket of her blue suede jacket. Chic and trendy. Bright colors and poised to youthful perfection.
Not what you’d expect from a deadly assassin but that’s exactly what Snake Eyes is all about.
I leave the coffee be and close the door. “Hello, Myra.”
Every powerful person has a right-hand man. The Boss of Snake Eyes is no different. No one speaks to the Boss directly. Myra is her eyes, her ears, and, occasionally, her trigger finger if the occasion calls for it. When she talks, you’re not talking to Myra. You’re talking directly to the Boss herself.
She smiles at me as if we’re old friends. “How are you?” she asks.
I glance over her shoulder to the parking lot to check on Elijah, but he’s none the wiser. “I’m still alive,” I say. “That’s something.”
“So it is,” she nods with understanding. “And your brother?”
“Elijah’s fine.”
“I meant Dante.”
I take a silent breath, pulling in every telltale sign I could possibly have. “I don’t know.”
Her smile deepens, barely cracking her porcelain features. “You haven’t heard from him?”
“No,” I answer. “Not since the exposure in February. You know that.”
Myra shifts her pointed toes. “I find that hard to believe.”
“It’s the truth. He contacted us that morning. We were supposed to meet up but he never showed. I don’t know where my big brother is. I really wish I did, believe me.”
“That’s too bad,” she says, reaching into her briefcase for a pack of cigarettes, “because his silence is very loud. Too loud, according to the Boss.”
“What do you mean?”
She pauses for a moment, her eyes flicking between her precious drag and the annoying cashier, before silently turning and leading me towards the restrooms in the back. I follow her into the ladies’ room and she flicks the lock with a hard nudge.
“Lilah, where is Fox Fitzpatrick?” she asks, balancing the cigarette between her lips as she lights up.
I furrow my brow. “I don’t know.”
“Your search turned up nothing?”
“Our search led us to Los Angeles,” I recount. “We found no sign of Mercer or his squad. We had a possible lead on Fox, but that turned out to be a trap set by his little hacker buddy. He wasn’t there and we a
ren’t entirely sure where he’d be.”
She eyes me with an impatient twitch. “Then, what brings you all the way out here to the Show Me State?”
I shrug. “We’re on our way back to Chicago to look for Dante again.”
“You’re abandoning your mission?”
“We’ve received no orders since February…” I say slowly. “The organization is gone.”
“Lilah, I assure you that’s not true. We’ve had a few setbacks—”
“Getting exposed is a pretty big setback.”
She exhales some long-winded smoke at me and I hold my breath. “That doesn’t change the fact that you have a job to do and I’m struggling to understand what you stand to gain by lying to me.”
“Myra, I’m not—”
“I’m just going to cut to the chase here,” she interrupts. “I have a theory and right now, every word falling out of your mouth is confirming it. That doesn’t look good for you or your family.”
“What theory?”
“That your big brother is helping Fox and you’re covering for both of them.”
I shake my head. “No.”
“Fox and Dante were always thick as thieves…” she muses.
“My family has been nothing but loyal to the Boss. Dante would never help Fox escape like that.”
She raises a brow. “Escape? Do you think our organization held him hostage?”
I pull back. “I didn’t mean that—”
“Fox Fitzpatrick joined voluntarily, just like the rest of us.”
“Yes, ma’am. I misspoke and I apologize, but you’ve got the wrong idea. Dante isn’t working with Fox.”
“How can you be so sure if you haven’t seen nor heard from him in months?” she asks, tilting her head.
I swallow to wet my dry throat. “I just know.”
“Well, don’t take this the wrong way, Lilah, but the Boss can’t make decisions based on your biased instincts regarding your kin. She makes decisions based on factual information. And this is what we know to be fact…” She leans forward. “Fox is missing. Dante is missing… and Spencer is dead.”
Spencer. Dante’s partner for his undercover assignment in the Zappia family. He tried to kill Lucy the morning Snake Eyes was exposed. You can imagine how Dante reacted to that.
“I don’t know anything about that,” I say.
“I sincerely hope that’s true,” Myra says, unblinking, “because it looks like Dante burned every bridge he had that morning and made a rather clean getaway… almost like he knew what was coming.”
Heat fills my cheeks. “He didn’t know—”
“Prove it.” Her face softens. “Lilah, I came to you personally because I respect the value your family brings to this organization. I’d hate to lose you.”
There’s only one way to interpret that last part. I try to keep my eyes steady on her but they end up falling to the floor between us instead.
Myra slips a hand into her briefcase. “As of this moment, your entire family is under suspicion of treason; you and Elijah included, as the two of you seem to be the only agents who have gone after Fox to come back alive.” She gives a calm smile. “You can imagine how that looks from my shoes.”
I bite down, refusing to speak and risk incriminating myself even further. Not that the United States Constitution matters much in this situation but I, at least, want to increase my chances of walking out of this bathroom.
“It would be in your best interest to find Dante as soon as possible and clear his name,” she continues, retrieving a thin file from her case. “The truth will come out and the more loyalty your family exhibits, the better off you all will be.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Now… that said…” She holds the file out to me. “I have a mission for you.”
I blink. “A mission? What kind?”
“Just another one of the Boss’ various loose ends,” she says. “Tying up as many of those as possible these days.”
I open the file and instantly catch a familiar face looking back at me from a photo. Thick, blonde hair. Shiny, blue irises. A chiseled, fairytale prince face that I’ve beat on before.
I roll my eyes. “Archer.”
“You know him?”
“I’ve bumped into him once or twice. Last I saw him, he was in LA. Any idea where he is now?”
“Oh, he’s here, actually.”
I look up from the file. “He’s here? Why?”
“From the looks of it,” she muses, “he’s trailing you.”
“Why?”
“I wouldn’t know, but find out and shut it down. We don’t need bounty hunters tracking our agents. Mr. Allen has officially overstayed his welcome in this world.”
I close the file. “I’ll take care of it.”
“I know you will. Make it fast.” She pauses by the door. “Or slow… whichever is more fun for you.”
“Okay,” I nod.
“Like I said, Lilah…” she says, her eyes soft. I’d almost call them caring if I didn’t know what she was capable of. “The Boss is giving you a second chance to prove your family’s loyalty. Most don’t get that. Especially nowadays.”
“I understand.”
“Say hello to Elijah for me.”
She drops the cigarette to the floor and crushes it with her heel as she walks out of the bathroom without glancing back.
Dammit. She’s right. All of this looks suspicious as all hell. Snake Eyes gets exposed and Fox’s old drinking buddy immediately kills his partner and goes missing? Even I would start pointing fingers if I didn’t know any better. Dante did all of that for Lucy but Snake Eyes doesn’t know about her. If Myra caught a whisper of her existence or about how he strangled a fellow agent to save her, she’d be on the Boss’ list of loose ends in a heartbeat.
I can’t let that happen. Lucy’s the best thing to ever happen to my brother. She’s family and if there’s one thing we’ve always put before Snake Eyes, it’s that. Dante wants out of this life; to leave the organization behind in favor of a blissful happily ever after with Lucy and he’s going to get it.
For all intents and purposes, Dante Hart is gone for good.
Which means I have to prove my family’s loyalty the old-fashioned way.
I flip the file open again. Archer Allen stares back at me from an old ID badge. MI-6. British Intelligence turned bounty hunter. I have no idea how a guy like this ended up on the Boss’ shit list, but it’s not my job to ask questions.
It’s my job to kill.
I head back out to the parking lot and slip the file into my bag before Elijah has a chance to look up from his phone.
“Hey, check this out,” he says, gesturing to his screen. “Two bedrooms. Two baths. Good neighborhood.”
I raise a brow. “What are you talking about?”
“An apartment for us.”
“Where?”
“Here.”
“Here?”
He glances up. “Why not? Grams and Gramps are nearby. We’re finally able to see them more often. If we’re going to settle somewhere, it might as well be here for a while.”
I lean against my bike and cross my arms. “And this has nothing to do with the hot nurse they want to set you up with?”
“Well…” he shrugs, “playing doctor is my specialty.”
“Gross.” I grab my helmet.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, why?”
“You went in there for a drink and came out empty-handed.”
“Oh. I just… changed my mind,” I say, thinking fast. “I’ll grab something at the hotel.”
He furrows his brow. “You sure that’s it?”
I push the habit down; the one screaming at me to involve him. My twin and I have worked as a team ever since the day we were born but it’s different now. Elijah deserves a shot at a normal life, just like Dante. It’s what he’s always wanted. He’s not like me. The day we were recruited into Snake Eyes, I was excited. He was terrified, but he’
d do whatever it took to keep our family together.
I nod. “Yeah. You know, you should take Grams up on that offer tonight. Double date bingo.”
He squints at me through his bangs, taking the bait. “You think so?”
“Why not? Sounds fun. I’ll hang out at the hotel, eat my weight in room service, take a bath…”
“Be careful now, Lilah,” he laughs. “You wouldn’t want to accidentally have some fun.”
“That is my fun.” I slide the helmet on and sit down on my bike.
Taking out Archer Allen solo will be easy enough. Elijah doesn’t have to know about it or Myra’s threat to our very existence.
Luckily, if Archer really is trailing me, then all I have to do is stay out in the open long enough. He’ll come to me.
And besides, Elijah’s right.
I might accidentally have some fun.
Chapter 5
Archer
The hotel lobby is mostly deserted. Every time I glance up, I’m blinded by the golden sheen mirroring off every surface of the place. Even the chandelier above the entrance glitters like a damn jewelry store. These Botsford Plazas are gaudy as all hell but it doesn’t surprise me at all that Lilah Hart likes to travel in a bit of luxury.
I keep my face obscured behind a wrinkled magazine I borrowed from the adorable girl behind the front desk. She’s flashed her long lashes at me since I sat down several hours ago but I’ve got my eyes set on something a little more mature.
The twins check-in around seven-thirty in the evening.
My eyes land on her immediately. I grip the magazine tighter to keep it from slipping between my fingers and watch as the two of them fetch their room keys from the front desk. I’m too far away to hear the girl as she says the room numbers but I may be able to sweet-talk that information if I really need to.
Lilah glances over her shoulder in my direction and I dip low to avoid getting caught. Blood rushes to my head, stirring the adrenaline in me and I smile to myself. I wonder if she can feel me looking at her. Could see sense me this morning, too?
Her voice finds my ears and I peek out to find them standing across the lobby at the elevator. They chat quietly as they wait and I keep my head down to avoid the reflective surfaces.
Finally, they board the lift and the doors close behind them. I toss the magazine aside and stare at the numbers above, waiting to see what floor it stops on.
