Dying Commitment (Lucky Thirteen)

by S. M. Butler

  “I used to want to be a princess.”

  “You?” He blinked. “Like a tiara and princess want and everything?”

  “Yeah. I had a collection of princess dresses and tiaras and had fantasies of marrying Prince William.”

  He snorted, trying to hold in laughter.

  “Don’t laugh!”

  “I can’t help it. This is priceless.” He guffawed, which caught the attention of several other patrons. My cheeks burned with embarrassment. He lowered his voice. “You, the woman who breaks into military grade, multi-million dollar computers and hits every target center mass with her eyes closed… wanted to be a princess?”

  “I knew I shouldn’t have said anything,” I scowled and crossed my arms over my chest.

  “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’ll stop.” He took a cleansing breath, broke out in giggles, and took another breath to stop it. “It’s just… when did you have time for princess fantasies?”

  “You know, I wasn’t always about studying and work. I was a pretty normal kid… mostly.”

  He smiled at me. “There’s nothing normal about you. So what changed? When did you go from princess to spy?”

  “I’m not a spy.”

  “The question stands.”

  “I was really smart, like super smart with computer science and math and engineering principles. I got the attention of a politician, who offered me a full ride in this really prestigious academy for gifted students. It was high school and college in one. It was a fantastic opportunity for me to do things I loved. I jumped on it.” I stopped, because after school was when I met Jack. He was my field trainer. And I had been naive.

  Dylan must have sensed the change in me because he cleared his throat. “You know what we need?” He picked up the dessert menu and pointed to a picture. “This double Swiss chocolate cheesecake.”

  I grinned at him, because that was indeed, exactly what I needed.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Cadence

  Dylan was waiting for me outside with my jacket, but I had to pee so bad. I didn’t think I could walk home like that. So while he went outside, I went to the bathroom. But when I got out of the stall, strong hands grabbed me and pulled me back against a hard body.

  “Miss me, sweet pea?”

  I froze, only for a second, as I processed the sound of the male voice and the words he spoke. I thrashed, trying to get free of him, but his grip was like iron. Tears pricked at my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. Not with him. His hand covered my mouth, but I tried to bite it without success.

  Then the glint of silver caught my eye and the cool length of a steel blade at my throat made me stop. “Calm down, Cady. You know you’d be dead if I wanted you to be.”

  My chest heaved with exertion from fighting him. I breathed from my nose, angrily trying to catch my breath.

  “Now, no screaming, but that’s not really your style, isn’t it, Cady baby?” His voice purred over me, deceptively soothing. “Let’s talk like civilized folks. I assume you know why I’m here?”

  He slowly released my mouth but the knife stayed at my throat.

  “You couldn’t break my encryption.” A sense of pride brought a smile to my face, even though Jack was holding me. He wouldn’t have come unless he needed me, and showing up himself was incredibly risky.

  “You’ve gotten better. At least with the programming, you have. Your taste in men has gone downhill. Isn’t he a little young for you, Cady?” He laughed. “Your type was always older, wasn’t it?”

  “You’re imagining things.” I pushed at his arm, but he didn’t budge. Damn it. Being smaller than most guys, I always had a rule that I couldn’t let them touch me, and yet, I’d ruined that by letting Jack sneak up on me. “He’s a good guy. Brave. Trustworthy. Unlike you.”

  Jack chuckled again. “You’re still not learning. I had to do what I had to do. He will too. He’s one of those duty-bound types. You’ll always come second to him.”

  I couldn’t reach my gun. It was tucked against my back. Still, I tried to talk to him so I could split his attention off from what I was doing. “Yeah, you never had that problem, did you? And yet, I still came in second. Or was it third? Do computer files count as your mistress?”

  “Easy there, sweet pea. I’ll take that gun.” I wanted to curse up a storm as he lifted my gun from its hiding place. “Did you really think I wouldn’t know you’re armed?”

  “Go to hell.”

  “Cady, what you don’t get is that there’s a story behind everything.”

  “Don’t justify yourself to me. I’d rather you killed me right here.”

  “I could.”

  “Yes, but you won’t. Because you need my decryption program. You stole my laptop, full of government secrets, and you can’t even read any of it.”

  “Your first level was easy. But you did that on purpose, didn’t you?”

  “Call it nostalgia,” I said. I’d used a version of my old program on the first level of encryption. One that Jack would have figured out. “Guess you weren’t prepared for that next layer.”

  He growled and swung me around, shoving my face into the wall. My cheek stung hard against the cold tile. He grabbed my wrist and twisted my arm to my back, his other hand on my neck, holding me in place. “I need that program. You don’t understand, Cady. I have to have it.”

  “I understand just fine. You want something I have. Just like always with you.”

  “This is business. That’s all.”

  “Yeah. And as soon as I give up my end, you kill me. That’s not hard to see.”

  “I don’t want to kill you. I never did.”

  “Liar.” He was standing too far back and at an angle for me to kick him, shielding what he knew I’d go for.

  “The program, Cady. Where is it?”

  “Fuck off.”

  He removed his hand from my wrist, releasing my arm, but the hand returned, sliding the knife up my neck. I shivered. “I can hurt you, Cady. I can push your limits like no one else. You know I an. I don’t want to do it, but you know how good I am at getting what I want.” His lips were close to my ear, his breath tickling the new hair along my hairline on my neck.

  Anger shuddered its way through me. He’d used me years ago. He’d seduced me to get what he wanted and then when he had it, he took off, leaving me in a bloody pool. That was not going to happen again.

  I braced my palms on wall and pushed back into him, hard. He didn’t expect it, and stumbled back. He swung the knife at me, slicing into my arm, and in return, I kicked him straight into his side, just below his ribs. He grunted and fell to the ground. I jumped over him and ran for the door, holding my now bleeding arm.

  “Cady!” He yelled at me. “Don’t do this! I don’t want to kill you!”

  I stopped and turned. He had a gun in his hand, a small pistol that probably fit in his pocket. I swallowed and faced him. “I don’t know why you’re hesitating, but here’s what I do know. If you were going to kill me, you’d have done it by now.” I grabbed the door and ducked out of the room. Two gunshots roared over me, but neither one came close to me. The restaurant restroom was close to the exit so I didn’t even wait for patrons to ask me questions about the noise before I ran out the front door.

  I’d been expecting there to be Giroux goons outside, but there was just Dylan, who was heading back toward me. That was odd in itself. Why would he come here alone? I grabbed Dylan by the hand and whirled him around, away from the restaurant.

  “No, don’t go back. Let’s get out of here!” Other people started pouring out of the restaurant. Guess they figured out what gunshots sounded like.

  “You’re bleeding!”

  “Come on!”

  He ran with me. I didn’t know where I was going. I was just running, so when he pulled me off the path and into the water gardens, I didn’t argue. He pulled me into the bushes besides the waterfall and we ducked down against the rocks.

  My chest heaved, and I took deliberate
long, deep breaths to slow it down and to slow my racing heart. A few minutes passed, and no one passed us. Dylan glanced down and frowned. “You’re bleeding. What happened?”

  I looked at my shoulder. At least the knife didn’t cut the shirt. It was just my skin. “It’s not deep. It’ll heal.”

  “Still, it’ll probably need a couple stitches.”

  It stung like hell already. I leaned back against the cool rock. “I’m fine.”

  “What just happened?”

  “Jack just happened.” I snapped. My temper was simmering just below the surface. I was in control, but it was tenuous. I didn’t think my first meeting with Jack after five years would leave me so riled up, but I wanted to punch cute things.

  “He was there?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And that’s all you’re telling me?” Dylan’s face fell into anger, swift rage overtaking his usual joyful features. “Really?”

  “You were the one who wanted to take a night off!” I hissed at him. “See where that got us?”

  “Someone’s coming.” As soon as he said that, he planted the angriest kiss over on me. I knew why he did it, and he kept the back of his head toward where he thought the person was coming from, yet I still melted into him, returning that kiss with equal fervor. Meanwhile, another couple, obviously having the same idea, stumbled past us, giggling and feeling each other up at the same time.

  Once they passed, Dylan pulled away, fire and heat dancing in his eyes. He glanced out at the rest of the park. “Think he followed us here?”

  “I don’t know,” I said, honestly, trying to regain some semblance of control over my body. Instead, it was screaming for more of Dylan’s touch. “He was alone.”

  “None of Alex’s guys with him?”

  “No.” We sat in silence for a few more minutes before I broached the subject again. “He wanted my decryption program. He has the laptop Afonso stole but he can’t break the coding.”

  “What kind of information is on it?”

  “A bunch of things that Stephen had me working on for Thirteen, related to Giroux Enterprises.”

  “So, if he gets that, then he’ll have our moves against Giroux.”

  I shook my head. Dylan wasn’t understanding. “It’s all encrypted. Jack is Alex’s personal assassin. He’s not after our moves against Giroux. That’s not his style. He stops the threats by coming after the people making the moves. He’s after us. He gets into that laptop and he will go right down the team roster.” That made my heart ache because as much as I’d tried to keep myself separate from the team, I couldn’t. I’d developed a fondness for them. They were all like little boys when they got together, but as a team, they were one of the best I’d ever worked with.

  “I see.” Dylan sighed. “You think he knows where we’re staying?”

  “I don’t know anymore. He could have killed me at any time, Dylan. But he didn’t.”

  “He needs the program.”

  “It’s more than that. I feel it.”

  “Let’s back to the room, get you fixed up, and we can get out.”

  I wasn’t really happy that Dylan was making sense. But my emotions were going wild. Seeing Jack again brought up everything I’d been repressing, trying to forget. My heart was pounding, fear turning to ice within my veins. I hated that he’d caused such a reaction in me. I didn’t want him to have that power over me.

  “Cadence?” Dylan palmed my cheek and turned my head to face him. He had concern in his eyes. “You all right?”

  “Not really,” I said, my stomach churning. It came on suddenly, and it had never happened before. And before I knew what was coming, that double Swiss chocolate cheesecake had returned and it wasn’t nearly as good as it was the first time.

  ~*~*~

  Dylan

  We were on the train back to Ville Couronne. Boudin was a small, peaceful community, and with Jack’s flashy entrance at the restaurant, the whole place would know us within hours. So we left after a quick shower for both of us and bandaging up Cadence’s arm, which was indeed not as bad as I thought it was.

  It was only an hour long ride but Cadence had passed out pretty fast, snuggled against my shoulder.

  Was this whole op a bad idea? Jack Allen seemed to know exactly what we were doing all the time. I wasn’t even sure he wasn’t sitting on the train watching us. I glanced around. There was only a woman on the other side of the car and I assumed that wasn’t him. She looked passed out too.

  I had my phone in my hand. I could call for backup, get Cadence out of Valonia, and Jack would never be able to stop it. But there was nothing to stop her from running off and coming back on her own, this time really alone. She’d feel as if I’d betrayed her as easily as Jack had.

  I set my phone down.

  I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t betray her trust like that, especially not when it was so tenuous. She’d barely begun to trust again. But I did need some help. I picked up the phone and dialed.

  And set the phone down again.

  Cadence’s problem stemmed from how important this guy had been to her life. I remembered graduating from BUD/S. I didn’t know anyone. The two guys I’d gotten close to there had washed out. One had broken his arm, and the other had quit, unable to take the stress of the training. My parents had shown up, but mostly so they could be seen. But after six months with SEAL Team One, Thirteen had picked me up.

  I was so green back then. Naive. Innocent.

  That mission that I met Cadence on, I’d been a cocky asshole. And she’d put me in my place, though I’d never have let her know it. I knew then that she was going to be mine, somehow. I just hadn’t known how incredibly difficult she’d make it for me.

  But here she was, sleeping in my arms.

  I’d tear down the world to protect her from her demons, even the real life ones. And that would mean I would need to do this. Even if she hated me for it. I sighed, and slid my body out from beneath hers, gently lowering her to the seat. She stirred and her eyes fluttered open. “Where are you going?”

  “Bathroom,” I lied. “I’ll be right back. Go back to sleep.”

  “Okay,” she said on a sigh, her eyes already closing. We’d bandaged up her arm, but I could see the red starting to bleed through. We needed to get to a safe place, because she needed stitches.

  I left her there and slipped into the restroom, locking the door behind me. I dialed the number on my phone and pressed send.

  It rang twice before Murphy answered. “Yeah, you better be calling to tell me you’re on your way home, you sonovabitch. Addison will kill me if you and Cadence aren’t here for the wedding.”

  Shit. I’d forgotten about the wedding. It was still a month away wasn’t it? I counted the days we’d been gone. Shit. It was in less than three weeks.

  “Are you there, you asshole?”

  “I’m here. I’m still out of the country.” I sighed. “I need some help.”

  “What kind?”

  “All contacts here are compromised. They’re getting killed off before we can get to them. I need one that wouldn’t be in Cadence Long’s history at all.”

  “Oh, is that all? Do you know how much time that girl spent in Valonia? She’s practically a citizen.” Murphy sighed. “Let me get to a computer really quick. Hang on.” He shuffled around, and I heard a female voice in the background, though I couldn’t make out what she was saying.

  I counted back the hours. It was late morning. They should be up already, right?

  “Okay. Hang on.” I waited, hearing the clicking of the keys through the phone. “Okay. Got one for you. You have to go to the palace, though.”

  “Too many people.”

  “Not the main building. It’s the outer ring, where the servant houses are in the back.”

  I frowned. The servant houses? “Okay. Who am I looking for?”

  “Charles Devereaux. He’s one of the assistants to the royal family. He’s a friend.”

  “You have a spy in Valoni
an royalty?”

  “No. One, he’s an assistant, and two, he’s just a friend. Not a spy. He helped me out once.” Oh, there was more to that story than Murphy was saying. But I wasn’t going to push it then. “Just tell him I sent you. You’ll be fine.”

  “Thanks, Murphy.”

  “And get back here soon. If you’re not here in the next week, it’s likely that Addison may hire Lucky Thirteen to come extradite you.”

  “Oh, are we for hire now? Do we work on commission?”

  “Fucking smart ass. I’m going back to bed.”

  “Isn’t it the middle of the day there?” I asked.

  “Yeah. So?”

  Oh. Oh. That’s how it was. “Tell Addison I said hi.”

  “And ruin the mood? Fuck no.” The line clicked off. The bastard hung up on me. I was half wanting to call him back, but I figured then he might hire someone to off me if I did.

  I left the bathroom and went back to where Cadence was, but now she was awake. I slipped into the seat next to her as she sat up.

  “Are we settled?” Cadence yawned.

  “Yeah. Murphy gave me the name of a friend of his. We’ll go straight there after the train comes in.”

  Her eyes turned suspicious. “You called Thirteen?”

  “No, I called Murphy, who by the way, said if I don’t show up at the wedding I’m a dead man walking.”

  She laughed. “I forgot that was coming up.” Her smile faded. “If you need to get back… You should go. I can handle this.”

  “Shut your face,” I said. She blinked, like she hadn’t expected me to say that. “You have to go with me. To the wedding. That’s my payment for this little trip.”

  “What?” The look on her face, in all its incredulousness, was priceless.

  “Come on, Cadence. Think about it. Murphy’s getting married. Brody’s already married. Bonham’s married. Don’t let me be the One Single Guy in a room full of crying women.”

  She stared at me, blinking like she didn’t comprehend, and then she started laughing. “Oh, my god…”

  “It’s not funny!”

  “It kinda is.”

  “Well, I didn’t have time to go looking for a date to shield me. Someone made me travel across the world.”