Bad Blood

by Amity Cross

  “Okay,” X said. “Now we go.”

  We made our exit, returning to St Germain via a winding route and spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the neighborhood, casing the surrounding buildings looking for roof access.

  A few streets over we found the perfect place where we could watch the bar. It was high, the roof abandoned and had a direct line of sight to the rear entrance. X said it would do considering the time constraints and the pressure we were under. I took his word for it.

  Peering across the rooftops I caught a glimpse of the spires of Notre Dame and drew in a deep breath. For a moment I could pretend that I was here on a romantic getaway instead of missing out on all the things I wanted to see before I died.

  Because I might. Die, that is.

  X moved beside me, his gaze following my line of sight. I sensed he wanted to say something, but he remained silent. He knew more than anyone not to instill false hope into a situation. He was a numbers man in the sense he believed in the hard evidence. Romance was beyond him and so were dreams.

  He let me stare wistfully for a moment before saying, “We will come back tomorrow once the sun begins to set. Until then, we wait and watch.”

  My skin began to prickle in anticipation and I nodded, casting away my silly dream of romance. Tomorrow we’d make our next move.

  Let the chips fall where they may.

  Twenty-Two

  X

  They knew we were coming.

  The other thing that was passed between the two men were the words, ‘it is in place’.

  That was the gist of the two men’s conversation, but we already knew that, so I never told Mercy what they said.

  I spoke three languages. English, French and death.

  I always thought it was something the man from the room had taught me, speaking another language, but now I wasn’t so sure. Was my family French? Or did I learn it for a job or was I taught it in school? I never knew, but I could understand it, and considering our current location, it was an unexpected boon.

  If they knew we were coming, then I could use that to our advantage.

  Mercy crouched beside me in the darkness. We were on the rooftop we’d scouted the day before, the duffle beside me. Instead of papers, it was full of equipment. Vaughn had left us a pair of military grade night-vision goggles, which were proving extremely useful. I showed Mercy how to operate them and we took it in turns to watch the back entrance of the bar.

  There was nothing to talk about, so we sat in companionable silence, watching the streets of St Germain below. The night bristled with some unknown electricity, the sensation prickling along my skin. Perhaps it stemmed from the danger below or perhaps it was something else entirely. It was much too philosophical for a man like me. Hits were rarely so unpredictable…maybe it was that.

  Nine pm came and nothing. No sound, no lights and no movement. I wondered what their game was. If they were trying to lure us into a trap, it wasn’t working very well. Sykes didn’t know me at all.

  He was working alone on this one. The ‘truce’ that he’d had with Royal Blood must’ve been severed the moment I took off with Mercy. If it was still intact, then this would be going down much differently.

  We watched until the night deepened and the people out enjoying the evening started to go home. We waited until midnight and nothing untoward was happening at the bar. Maybe I’d been wrong and they’d just abandoned the place. Cut their losses and moved the meeting to another place.

  Mercy held out her hand and slapped me on the thigh. “Movement,” she murmured. “Two glowy green men with guns.”

  I raised my eyebrows and grasped her thigh in turn.

  Handing me the goggles, she said, “They’re just standing there. Waiting.”

  “Waiting for us, I presume.” I settled against the wall and peered down to the street below. Mercy was right. There were two men with semi-automatic weapons, but they weren’t stationed at the rear entrance, they were concealed. Waiting...

  Motherfucking assassins.

  I pushed off the wall and stood, not worried that they’d see me all the way up here. It was dark, we were partially obscured from their positions and it looked like they were only armed with guns.

  Mercy stood cautiously beside me. “Do we take them out?” she asked. “Or cut our losses?”

  I began to grind my teeth, anger rising as I formulated a plan. There were two men and two of us.

  “One each,” she said, her voice eerily calm.

  There was a hundred percent chance that this was a trap and I didn’t want her walking into that. This had ceased being a straightforward hit a long time ago. We were in unpredictable territory that even seasoned assassins got jittery with. Anything could be waiting for us down there. Anything. I could deal with it, but her? No, she had to stay put.

  “X, I can do it..”

  “No.” I shook my head.

  “I can do it.” She stared me down, her eyes cold, and I began to see the change in her more clearly. She was becoming like me.

  I grasped her shoulders and gave her a shake. “You need to do as I say, Mercy.” Her eyes widened. “Stay here.”

  “Why?”

  I let my grip slacken and trailed my hands up into her hair. My gaze flickered to her lips and I leaned down and kissed her. She melted against me, her hands fisting into the lapels of my coat. Deepening our embrace, I traced her lips with the tip of my tongue and she responded in turn. My need for her touch seared through me, my blood humming, my cock stirring.

  Pulling away with a heavy sigh, I whispered, “Stay here. Promise me.”

  For what I had in mind, she had to be far away. I couldn’t risk her being caught up in the aftermath. I had to be in and out like lightning.

  Her gaze softened, her lips swollen, and she nodded. “I promise.”

  I sighed, tension I hadn’t been aware I was carrying bleeding from my shoulders. “Wait for me.”

  She nodded again and I pulled my gun out, checking the cartridge and the silencer on the end. Mercy turned and retrieved something from the bag and a moment later, pressed another loaded cartridge against my chest.

  “Just in case,” she whispered.

  I knew this was the moment where people said ‘I love you’ before they left to be a hero, or in my case...be a monster. I didn’t know if that’s what I should say, so I said nothing. I cupped her face in my hand, running a thumb over her lips. Then, I turned and walked away.

  It was approaching one am and the streets were silent, apart from a few people who looked like employees from the surrounding restaurants making their way home. No eyes paid any heed and I moved silently toward my target. A shadow amongst shadows.

  If I were Sykes and I knew there was a hit out on me, I’d wait until there were no witnesses to eliminate the threat. He anticipated that we’d come looking regardless and therein laid the danger. If whatever waited inside that building didn’t kill me, the men waiting round the back would. Quick, clean, problem solved.

  I approached the rear of the wine bar silently, keeping to the shadows, acutely aware that Mercy was watching from above like a hawk. Some guardian angel.

  When I turned into the street where the targets were located, I backed against the wall, watching for movement. When I saw none, I made my approach, a meter at a time. Slow progress, but it meant that the likelihood of being spotted was close to zero. I had to be a ghost for my plan to work.

  Two bodies.

  Edging closer, I flattened back into the shadows as I caught movement at my three o’clock. The muzzle of a semi-automatic glinted in the orange glow of a street lamp in the distance and when the man who held it glanced toward my position, I got an eyeful of his face.

  It was the man from yesterday.

  I pulled out my gun, the end heavy with the weight of the silencer. Two bodies.

  He held a semi-automatic rifle in one hand, a cigarette in the other. I caught sight of his friend in the opposite doorway across the lane
. He had a similar firearm, his gaze much more on task than his chain-smoking mate.

  They really didn’t know who they were waiting for, did they?

  I didn’t hesitate and I didn’t think about it. I shut off the part of me that had slowly been coming back to life, the part that felt remorse, and I fired.

  I shot the alert one first, the bullet hardly making a sound through the silencer. He fell to the ground with a grunt and the other guy straightened up in surprise, cocking his rifle and looking for their assailant. I didn’t even blink. I aimed and fired, the bullet embedding into his head. Two shots, two bodies.

  Ten seconds and it was all over.

  They really had no fucking idea.

  Waiting a full thirty seconds in case one of them twitched, I moved forward and opened the rear door to the bar. It swung outwards with a creak that echoed into the silence around me. Nothing came out to greet me, so I peered inside, pointing the gun into the murky interior. No movement, no sound, no nothing.

  Glancing down, I stilled, my suspicions confirmed one hundred percent.

  A tiny wire spanned the width of the doorway, sitting at exactly ankle height. If I hadn’t been looking for it, I would’ve missed it.

  A tripwire.

  If Mercy went first without knowing what to look for, then we’d be splattered on the far wall, cooked alive. That’s why I wanted her to stay. She of all people had to make it out the other end alive.

  I glanced back at the two bodies in the street behind me and grinned. They didn’t know who they were dealing with, so it was past due that I gave them an inkling. It would buy Mercy and I some time, then piss them off royally when they found out the truth.

  Time for some fireworks.

  Mercy was livid by the time I made it back to the rooftop.

  “You were inside for so long…” she began to argue.

  I knew it was out of worry that her hackles rose over these things, but there was nothing for her to get her knickers so twisted over. This was my life, my job, my skill. There was nothing for her to fear.

  I pressed my fingers over her lips to silence her. “Never worry about me, Mercy.”

  She knocked my hand away. “You know I won’t listen to that.”

  I glanced up at the sky, but the city lights had dulled out the stars so only the brightest shone through.

  “What were you doing?” Mercy asked.

  “Disposing of the bodies,” I replied blandly.

  “Inside the bar?”

  “Give me your phone,” I barked.

  She shoved her hand in her pocket and pulled out the burner phone I’d bought for her yesterday. “X, what did you do?”

  She didn’t look pleased, but this wasn’t about making Mercy happy. This was about saving our goddamn fucking lives.

  “Cover your ears,” I snapped, snatching the phone from her.

  “You’ve got a lot of explaining to do,” she retorted, clapping her hands against the side of her head with a scowl.

  I snorted. A whole fucking lot of it in about one minute. Dialing the number for my burner, I tossed the phone on the ground and covered my ears.

  It took about thirty seconds for the call to connect and start ringing…and when it did, the night sky lit up, obscuring the stars.

  Couldn’t really see them anyway.

  Twenty-Three

  Mercy

  You see explosions in movies all the time.

  They’re big, spectacular and controlled. The hero runs from the scene of the blast, leaping out of the way of the fireball into safety.

  It doesn’t happen like that in real life. I wasn’t expecting the force...or the heat. X told me to cover my ears for good reason. I could feel the shock wave even up here in the clear air, a quarter mile from the scene.

  We watched the fireball drift upwards into the sky like some kind of metaphoric apocalypse, our arms jammed together.

  “That could’ve been us,” I said, my heart thumping wildly. I dropped my hands, the sound of cracking glass and flames filling the air.

  “Not today,” X replied, his expression stony.

  He was right. We’d cheated death yet again and I wondered how many times we’d have to do this dance before it was all over.

  X grasped my hand, pulling me away from the edge of the building, but I was fixated on the rising smoke. My blood felt thick in my veins and whooshed through my ears in a wild beat of adrenalin. This…this I wanted to do...

  I’d always felt a burning hatred towards Sykes, but this was something different. Could I watch him burn like that? Could I take pleasure in human suffering? Could I switch it off like X?

  The heat from the blast radiated against my face as fire began to engulf the upper floors and I stared at the carnage like a demon who’d finally returned home. It was exhilarating…mesmerizing.

  “Mercy,” X hissed behind me. “We need to leave.”

  I let him pull me away from the edge of the building and into the stairwell.

  Maybe I could flip the switch and become X’s equal. If what he said was true, if he really was a monster, then he was shaping me in his image.

  Once, the thought would’ve made me sick. Now it made me feel alive.

  Maybe I could be like that after all.

  Twenty-Four

  X

  Mercy was silent the entire walk back to the hotel.

  Her gaze darted here and there, her breathing heavy. I began to wonder if she was having another breakdown, or if she was aroused by the whole scenario. I’d basically shown her the size of my giant…ego...by blowing up that building with little more than a bit of rewiring and a mobile phone.

  We made it back without incident. We weren’t followed and our extraction went unnoticed. The first fucking thing that had gone to plan since we set foot on French soil.

  The moment the door to our room closed, Mercy launched herself at me. Her lips smashed against mine and I forced my tongue against hers, my cock instantly hardening.

  “Fuck.” She moaned against my mouth, her hands tearing at my coat. “That was such a fucking rush and I wasn’t even there.”

  Turned on it was. She pressed against me, grinding against my erection, our lips coming together.

  I was creating a monster, but I was so fucking hard it didn’t even cross my mind to take a step back. Never mix business with pleasure. I vaguely remembered the moment I’d straddled Mercy in her apartment, the moment I’d realized that I was contracted to kill her, and attempted to choke the life from her. That was the moment the lines had blurred… She made business my fucking pleasure.

  I’d tried to choke her to death and it had gotten me hard.

  I pulled at her top, ripping it up over her head, stripping her of her bra. Massaging her breasts in my hands, I twisted her nipples, getting off on her unbearable lust in the wake of such carnage. It felt so fucking good, so how was this wrong?

  I hadn’t felt the rush in a long time. I’d become stiff and mechanical in my work and with the arrival of Mercy, things had become new again. I was still changing, still evolving and fuck, it made me hard. It was her. It was all her.

  Maybe it was my cock talking or maybe it was just the adrenalin, but Mercy had brought me back to life.

  I pushed at her jeans and she at mine, desperate to feel her skin against my body. We kicked our boots off and our remaining clothes were flung into the darkness. My cock was free, aching to be inside her but before I could push her back against the wall, her hands curled around my shaft and began stroking.

  I hissed sharply as my balls flared with pleasure and Mercy purred against my lips. She pumped me furiously with her hand, her mouth moving from mine and clamping down on my left nipple. Her hand worked up and down, paying special attention to the tip of my cock. I was going to come in her hand if she didn’t let up soon. I could feel my release pooling in my balls, ready to coat her palm.

  Pulling her hands away, she mewled in protest and I shook my head. Scooping her up, her legs clampe
d around my waist, her pussy wet against my cock. Pressing her back against the wall, I pounded into her with a single thrust, our bodies joining with an audible slap.

  “Like this,” I grunted. “In you.”

  I held for a moment, relishing the feel of her body as she quivered against me, her breathing ragged. I drew back and thrust again, sliding into her warm pussy, getting off on the feel of her fingernails clawing into my back. She rolled her hips, fucking herself on my cock as I fucked her in turn, our movements desperate and uninhibited.

  My left hand grasped her ass, keeping her in place, and my right curled around her neck. I felt the urge to squeeze, to mark her again, to choke as I fucked, but her gaze met mine and I couldn’t do it. She murmured my name, swirling her hips and I let my grip slacken.

  Her hand found mine and pulled it to her mouth. Her warm, wet lips sucked on my index finger, her tongue caressing before she bit. Moaning loudly, I slowed my pace, fucking her deep and slow with my cock as she lavished attention on my finger.

  “Like this?” she asked. “In me?”

  In her… A wicked through passed through my mind. “On you…”

  I turned, carrying her in my arms, my cock sliding out of her pussy. Dropping her back on the bed, she stared up at me with her pretty blue eyes. Fisting my hand around my cock, I knelt before her, my gaze settling on her pink folds. Understanding what I wanted to do, she moved down the mattress until her ass was right on the edge, her legs spread wide.

  “On me…” she moaned, her gaze flickering to my cock and then back up to mine.

  I began stroking myself, curling my free hand around her thigh, feeling my balls begin to tighten. Mercy palmed her breasts, watching me jack off to her, and I pumped harder.

  I came suddenly, spilling onto her lower stomach and Mercy moaned, her fingers circling her clit, marking herself with me. So fucking hot…

  I covered her hands with mine massaging myself into her skin, against her clit… Mine.

  My cock still stood ready for more and I wasn’t about to let her go without her coming, too. Grabbing her ass, I pulled her onto me, burying deep into her pussy. She cried out my name, her head falling backwards.