Stripped Away: Shadow Destroyers Book 2

by Sydney Somers

  Darcy propped her foot up on the bench to adjust her shoelace. “Rae wasn’t kidding when she said I was in for a new working dynamic when I transferred in.”

  “How long have you been a Destroyer?” Right now she’d talk about dust mites if it would help take her mind off Braxton.

  “A year and a half. You?”

  “Six years.”

  “Was it bad?” Darcy reached behind her, interlocking her fingers to pull her arms back in a stretch.

  Quinn assumed the other agent was talking about the initial demon attack that triggered the gene mutation. “I didn’t kick any ass back then if that’s what you mean.”

  Darcy laughed, and Quinn was reminded of how lucky she was to work with people she got along with. Darcy had been around less than a week and already Quinn knew she was a great addition to their growing field office.

  Quinn pulled her hair back in a clip. “What about you?”

  Darcy’s eyes flickered for half a beat, then she tipped her head questioningly. “Will talking about me make the morning better?”

  She couldn’t help but wonder if the other agent asked the question to avoid answering or because she was picking up on the stray thoughts Quinn couldn’t quite keep a lid on. Given the way every demon and their brother seemed to be able to get a read on her these days, it wouldn’t surprise Quinn.

  Darcy held her hands up. “Not cheating. Promise.”

  Quinn smiled despite her turbulent mood.

  “So Jordan and Gage left this morning on individual assignments,” Darcy said. “Those two certainly have an interesting dynamic.”

  “I’ve always thought so.” Quinn dug out her bag and started to change. “Has Rae mentioned when she thought she’d be sending you out?”

  “Once she’s certain my skills are up to par with the rest of you.”

  “Hence the training session this morning,” Quinn surmised, swapping her shoes for sneakers.

  “Yeah. Should be interesting.”

  Something in Darcy’s tone caught Quinn’s attention. She opened her mouth to ask about that only to be cut off as the door to the locker room opened.

  Rae poked her head around the corner. “You two all set?”

  Deciding to be thankful for something to do other than catch up on the backlog of paperwork she’d been avoiding for days, Quinn followed them out. If she couldn’t be out in the field, working out in the training room was somewhat productive.

  Or so she thought until she emerged from the locker room and found Braxton standing in the middle of the mat.

  Rae glanced at Darcy. “I thought it might be beneficial to watch these two go a round or two. Assuming you’re up for it, Quinn?”

  It was the underlying reservation that Quinn couldn’t handle the skirmish that made her spine snap straight. “No problem.”

  Rae nodded. “Good.” She motioned Darcy to the side. “They’ve always been interesting to watch.” The passing comment was so loaded with speculation Quinn could only stare at her boss. Rae shrugged innocently, suddenly finding a scuff on the toe of her shoe infinitely more interesting.

  “You okay with this?” Braxton’s voice forced her to acknowledge his presence.

  Her stomach knotted as she met his gaze, nothing on his face giving away what was going on in his head. Not even a glimmer of what he’d told her earlier flickered in his expression.

  “It’s fine.”

  “If you want, I’ll go easy,” he said completely deadpan.

  From the corner of her eye she saw Darcy wince at the comment and underlying challenge. Quinn ignored the dig. She didn’t need to be baited. If nothing else Rae had just handed her the opportunity to let off some steam, and judging by the twitching of her boss’s mouth, Rae knew it too.

  “Weapon of choice?”

  “No weapon,” she answered, deciding she’d rather skip the buffer zone and go right in for the kill.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Suit yourself.” A devilish smile played across Braxton’s mouth before he made the first move, driving his arm forward to catch her in the side.

  Quinn glided effortlessly out of reach, swinging around to push him from behind. It was a move she’d had success with a hundred times when they’d sparred in the past.

  Today though, he was ready for it, spinning around to snare her wrist, and yanking her with him as he pitched forward. His ankle shot between hers as he turned, trying to send her to the mat ahead of him.

  Not this time.

  She wrenched hard on the grip he had on her, working free, but not managing to escape with her balance intact. Her knee barely scraped the mat before she was back on her feet, circling him.

  “Sure you’re not too sore for this?” he taunted, letting her glimpse the man she’d always enjoyed sparring with before everything fell apart.

  “When we’re done, I’ll let you know.”

  “Oh, you and I are far from done,” he vowed, making it perfectly clear he wasn’t talking about this impromptu match.

  She wasn’t in the mood for banter this morning. She wanted to kick his ass and wipe the smirk off his face. “I don’t know,” Quinn ventured, feinting to the right and then ducking to make a strike low on his left. “I’m not sure you’ve got what it takes to hang on.”

  With a surprising efficiency in anticipating her next move, he dodged and countered with a kick that grazed her hip. “I think I’ve got enough figured out to come out on top.”

  It was easy to smile when she had escaped a direct hit. “Being cocky has never been one of your strengths.”

  “Who needs to be cocky when it’s a sure thing?” Again he anticipated her, erasing her speed as an advantage.

  Thrown off balance, both physically and mentally, she failed to deflect his next attack. He was on her the second her back hit the mat.

  A flicker of triumph glinted in his eyes.

  “You’re getting in my head,” she snapped, annoyed that she wasn’t noticing it. It shouldn’t have surprised her, but it still pissed her off.

  Braxton shook his head. “No, you’ve just stopped trying to keep me out.”

  “What the hell does that mean?” she snapped. She didn’t wait for him to answer and brought her knee up to wedge between their bodies. She planted a foot and rocked up to send him sailing over her head.

  He rolled to his feet, barely taking a breath before coming at her again. Deciding to let him tire himself out for a bit, she made only enough moves to elude him.

  A knowing grin parted his lips. “Playing it safe changes nothing.”

  Her indelicate snort was anything but amused. “This coming from the rule-abiding Boy Scout?”

  “Call it an epiphany.”

  “Sounds insightful,” she mocked, switching around to come at him from behind. Like the other times, he was operating half a second ahead of her, keeping them on even keel.

  He jerked her against him. Hard. “Sometimes all it takes is the right motivation.”

  “Or fear,” she growled. She locked her leg around his ankle and toppled him backward. She escaped the hand that shot out to take her down too, but missed avoiding the fast sweep of his other hand snaking out to catch her heel at the last second.

  The air was knocked out of her on impact, and she scrambled to regain her footing.

  Braxton managed to throw his leg over hers, hovering over her to keep her shoulders pinned. “I’m not afraid of what I feel. Can you say the same?”

  She let herself go limp. “There is something that I’m afraid of,” she murmured.

  His brows gathered together, his gaze darting to her mouth for half a beat.

  With one last burst of speed, she jostled him off and had him face first on the mat, one arm wrenched behind his back, her knee pressed to his spine. “Letting you think you could take me today.”

  She backed away, wondering why he didn’t roll immediately to his feet to come at her. Her heart thumped viciously in her chest, but she was barely winded.


  “She’s all yours, Darcy,” Braxton said without meeting Quinn’s eyes, then strode towards the locker room.

  Quinn watched him go and noticed Darcy hesitated to join her on the mat.

  “Fuck!” Quinn stalked into the locker room behind him, skidding to a stop at finding Braxton leaning against the end of the row of lockers as though he’d expected her.

  She swiveled around, rethinking talking to him, and then changed her mind. “You’re not playing goddamn fair. You weren’t honest with me.”

  “Nope.”

  “For weeks.” She doubted he needed the reminder, but any excuse at driving that particular point home felt like a good move to Quinn.

  He nodded slowly, regret softening the tight lines around his mouth.

  Quinn swallowed, refusing to cave now. Damn it, she’d counted on him. Needed him like she’d never needed anyone, and he had kept the truth from her. “You never once let on the first time we were together, that it really wasn’t the first time.”

  “Guilty on all counts.”

  His agreeableness was starting to grate on her last nerve. “You’ve always been upfront with everyone, Brax. Everyone but me.”

  “You’re different,” he said gently.

  “So that means I deserve less consideration?”

  “No, it means it’s not always so black and white where you’re concerned. I wish it was. I wish I hadn’t made some of the calls that I have. Wished I hadn’t pushed you away. I fucked up, but I meant what I said this morning, Quinn.”

  The sincerity in his gaze burned a hole right through her resolve. Her insides trembled as she exhaled slowly. “And what do I do with that? I don’t want to love you right now, I just want to be—” She watched him grin. “What?” she snapped.

  “Nothing.”

  She scowled at him, dropping down on the bench. “I want everything to slow down. It seems like the second things look all right in my world something gets yanked out of place and all the cards fall.” As determined as she was, even she couldn’t guess if she’d be strong enough to pick them all up the next time.

  Braxton straightened. “If you need to be mad at me for a while to make things all right in your world again, I’ll deal with it. But not forever,” he said softly, and walked out.

  Quinn lay back on the bench and draped her arm across her eyes. Her heart warred with the hurt over him not telling her what had happened between them for two months. What if she hadn’t had the nightmares or if Cass hadn’t been taken? If they hadn’t been working together this time would he have faced what was between them, or gone on ignoring her until working in the same office became unbearable?

  Some part of her refused to believe it would have ever come to that. The same part that knew sooner or later she’d have to forgive him for the secret. It was either that or lose him altogether. The only thing that hurt more than reliving her parents’ deaths was imagining Braxton not in her life.

  Damn, she really needed a drink right about now. She didn’t realize she’d said that out loud until a voice answered back.

  “You buying?”

  Quinn bolted up on the bench, cheerfully screaming when she spotted Cass. She was on her feet, her arms around her sister before she’d even thought to hold back her natural speed.

  Cass’s arms were just as sturdy, threatening to cut off Quinn’s air supply. “You screwed up your hair.” Cass pulled back to tug at the end of the kinky black strands.

  “I know.” Quinn regarded her sister carefully, wondering what to say…where to begin. There was so much to say and yet she was terrified of the truth hurting the only family she had.

  “You know the truth now, don’t you?” Cass’s quiet question came out of nowhere. “About Mom and Dad,” she added.

  Anger rode hard in Quinn’s chest. “They told you?”

  Cass smiled sadly and shook her head. “I always knew deep down it wasn’t a car accident, knew that what I wanted to think was just a bad dream I had one night was somehow real.” She sank down onto the bench Quinn had vacated. “I remember watching you in those first days after we lost them, trying to figure out if you were like me and afraid to believe the worst of the two truths, or if you really believed Mom and Dad died in a car accident.”

  “You never said anything.” Not once had she ever given Quinn a reason to believe she had doubted what they’d been told.

  “Either I was crazy or they really did die at the hands of a monster and you were blessed not to remember any of it. For so long when I closed my eyes and saw it happen, I thought you were lucky that you didn’t have to remember it. When that thing broke into my house and came for me…”

  Her heart squeezed for what her sister had endured alone. “All this time…” Quinn broke off, too floored by the change of events to continue, and at the same time it made so much sense. The way Cass had become so withdrawn, how she wanted to get out from under the people who took care of them in the weeks immediately after their parents’ deaths, wanted them to be on their own.

  “I can remember Dad trying to fight them off. The way he moved and fought. You’re like him aren’t you?”

  “Yeah.” The information in Rae’s files showed their dad had been initiated by a war demon. Years later it made sense why Quinn never once remembered her father ill or ever needing to take a sick day.

  “The way you moved a minute ago, your obsession with weapons you always tried to dismiss, and then Drew…”

  “What about him?” Quinn demanded, ready to hunt down the womanizing Destroyer if he’d so much as breathed wrong in Cass’s direction.

  Her sister laughed. “Nothing like that. I mean I could tell he was different and I saw his sword. Plus you two have the same tattoo. I didn’t sleep with him to see it if that’s what you’re wondering,” she added as Quinn’s jaw dropped. “Dad had one too.”

  Quinn frowned. “He did?” She could remember he’d sported a small tattoo on the back of his shoulder blade. She recalled they’d teased him about getting it touched up so the image was clear, and he’d only laughed at them.

  “Not like yours,” Cass clarified, “but one with a sword with a flame around it.”

  Since every field office often had their own version, it made sense his tattoo would have been different from the two she had. The reminder jogged her memory, and at the same time made Quinn wonder over what other details she may have let herself forget about her parents. Guilt churned in her stomach. “I only wanted to keep you safe, Cass.”

  Anger gleamed like burning glass in Cass’s eyes. “That’s why you colored your hair. You never left my house. You stayed to wait for it, didn’t you?”

  Quinn ducked her head. “Yeah.”

  Cass brushed her finger across the small scar at the edge of Quinn’s forehead. What sounded suspiciously like tears clogged her sister’s throat. “Were you hurt?”

  “Not that time.”

  “Sorry to interrupt,” Rae said quietly from the doorway, “but we have a briefing in a few minutes that can’t wait. Cass, you can hang out in the personal quarters I already pointed out.”

  “Sure.”

  Rae turned around, but Quinn called out to stop her boss.

  “I thought you wanted to keep Cass tucked away?”

  “Braxton pointed out that it was easier if you all stuck together than having Cass and Drew isolated.”

  “Brax said that?” The same person who had initially agreed with Rae on the subject?

  Rae smiled gently. “Some things are more important than playing it safe.” She left them alone once more.

  “We’ve got a lot to talk about,” Cass said, reading Quinn’s mind easily.

  The weight bearing down on her chest lightened. “Yeah, we do.”

  * * *

  It took everything inside Braxton not to stare at Quinn throughout the briefing. If he didn’t think it would make her even angrier, he’d push at her mental shields just to test them. Something was different there. No longer did he feel so close
d off from her. Both disappointed and pleased, he’d sought out Darcy before his planned stint on the training mat, and had asked her to probe at Quinn’s mental shields.

  He had feared everything that happened had left her mind too vulnerable for the telepath Scion that Braxton wasn’t convinced had moved on. To his surprise Darcy hadn’t been able to get a fix on Quinn during the entire match. He had, however, picked up on exactly what she intended to do more than once during their sparring. Which led him back to the same question.

  What was different?

  He listened to Rae, half processing her status update on the continued network-wide investigation into the potential moles, but studied Quinn from the corner of his eye.

  He hadn’t intended to be that rough with her earlier, afraid to aggravate some of her injuries. Instead it had turned into a competition that meant so much more than just winning a single match. He just couldn’t be sure which one of them had come out of it the victor.

  I don’t want to love you right now.

  He smiled at the memory, wondering if he was reading too much into a comment said in the heat of the moment, wondering if she really did love him.

  “Did I say something amusing, Agent Murphy?”

  He shook his head, not missing the curious smirk on Darcy’s face as she shot Quinn a sideways glance.

  What had he missed?

  “Braxton?”

  “Yeah?” he answered distractedly, forcing himself to pay attention to Rae. “I’m good.”

  His boss watched him for another second, then satisfied he was with her, patched Jordan and Gage into the rest of the briefing.

  Braxton saw Darcy sketch something on the notebook she’d flipped open in front of her.

  He leaned forward to see across the table. “What’s that?”

  “A fish,” she silently answered back, the muscle in her cheek twitching as though she fought a smile. She pushed the notepad in between her and Quinn.

  Quinn looked at the page and rolled her eyes.

  Rae crossed her arms. “Am I missing something this morning?”

  Neither Darcy nor Quinn was fast enough to hide the drawing before Rae snapped it up. She arched a perfectly sculpted brow. “What’s this?”