Assassin's Mark

by Ella Sheridan

  My guess? At least a hundred.

  Onscreen, a hand went up in the audience. “Other than the photo, do you have any further leads at this time?”

  The officer frowned. Was he really looking for me, or was he another pawn for my father to use? “We cannot comment on that directly.”

  Another hand. “Councilman Roslyn, do you believe this kidnapping is related to your gubernatorial candidacy?”

  My father adopted an appropriately contrite expression. I had to hand it to him—it even reached his eyes.

  “Yes, we do. The timing is not a coincidence. But make no mistake.” He stared directly into the camera, wearing the same sincere, intense mask that always made an appearance when he was in public. I shuddered. “My daughter’s safety is my first priority. She should be returned to her family, not used as a pawn.”

  “Does that mean you will withdraw from the race, Councilman?”

  “Of course not. We don’t give in to terrorist threats.”

  So much for me being first priority. Of course, it hadn’t escaped my notice that a murdered daughter would do more for my father’s campaign than a kidnapped daughter. The sympathy vote was a powerful element in any election.

  Eli crossed his arms over his chest. “Tell me you covered your ass, Levi.”

  “I’m the one who taught you, remember?”

  I tucked that bit of info away to think about later. “But you said he hired you, right? So he knows who you are.”

  Levi shook his head, his eyes still intent on the screen. “No such luck, little bird. He knows what I look like and how to contact me. Not the same thing.”

  “And he has all the resources money can buy. How long before he figures the rest out about you?”

  “Long enough.”

  “Do you intend to kill me?”

  I hadn’t meant to ask. I mean, who really wanted to know ahead of time that they would die when their captor finished toying with them? But my tightly strung nerves couldn’t wait any longer.

  “We don’t kill the innocent,” Eli barked. “That’s what got us in hot water in the first place.”

  Levi slashed a hand at his brother. “Shut the fuck up.”

  Eli didn’t, though. “We’re not the ones you need to worry about, Abby. Just consider this a vacation from your life. You’ll get back to the real thing soon enough.”

  “A vacation where I’m drugged and humiliated?” A strangled laugh escaped. “It’ll take more than words to reassure me of my safety, Eli.”

  He shrugged, the lack of emotion in his eyes giving me little hope. “Considering the bastard you have for a father, we’re probably doing you a favor, sweetheart.”

  “Eli!”

  Levi’s shout startled me; a jerk of my hand set my glass wobbling. I focused on grabbing it, on gathering my dishes in shaking hands, on hiding my emotions by turning my back to the men as I walked to the sink. I wouldn’t get any help from Eli any more than I would from Levi; I knew that. Still, despite his cool, calm, deadly air, Eli had argued against kidnapping me. That had to count for something, didn’t it?

  His brother lured you into bed, took your virginity, and is now holding you against your will. Counting on anything—or anyone—connected to Levi is even more foolish than going to bed with him.

  I growled at my conscience to shut the hell up and reached for the dish towel to dry my hands, keeping the brothers at the edge of my sight.

  “Remi’s the one we have to worry about,” Eli said, almost too soft for me to catch across the room. “They can’t track you, but they might connect a recent gunshot wound to your successful getaway.”

  “That why I need you at the hospital.”

  “Levi—”

  He turned on Eli, menace in every line of his body. It was like watching two bulls face off, neither willing to back down. My breath caught in my throat.

  “The only way to keep you both safe is to eliminate the threat,” Levi grated out. “I’ll do that or die trying. No more discussion! Now get back to the hospital and stay aware. I’ll keep you updated.”

  Eli snapped his mouth shut, not looking my way as he stalked to the door. His body blocked my view of the keypad as he entered the code, unfortunately. I stuffed my disappointment down deep, but Levi’s smirk when I turned his way said he knew it was there all the same. Bastard.

  And speaking of bastards… My father once more took the mic. As I watched, he motioned a younger man forward—a tall model-worthy blond. Perfectly groomed and perfectly stoic. The perfect right-hand man for the governor of Georgia. The sight of him sent ice through my veins. There was only one reason for him to be at the press conference—to play the victimized fiancé and cement his position in the would-be governor’s new cabinet.

  No, Dad wouldn’t do that. He wouldn’t.

  “Mr. Pellen, how do you feel about your fiancée’s disappearance?”

  “No!”

  The denial left me without thought. Only when the word echoed in my ears did I realize the ammunition it could become. I closed my eyes, scrubbing them hard at the sound of Levi’s footsteps growing closer.

  “What do you mean, no?”

  I dropped my hands to stare blankly at the screen. “No, I’m not engaged.”

  Levi scoffed. “Of course you are. Your father announced the news last night.”

  What?

  My swollen tongue refused to utter the question, but my brain sped forward, working overtime to sort the threads, reveal the truth. When it hit me, I gasped, choked.

  “You knew, didn’t you?” My resignation came through loud and clear, answering my own question without Levi’s help. “Last night, when you came to the Full Moon, you already knew what he’d planned.”

  Levi’s heat reached me first, that familiar warmth that filled me with despair. When his breath brushed my ear, I gave in to the instinct to hide and closed my eyes.

  “Of course I knew, little bird. I know what brand and size panties you wear. I know exactly how the silk looks when it cups the curves of your ass. You bet I caught that conversation about your father’s arrangement.” A nip of my earlobe sent a zing of shock through my body. “Kyle Pellen is a cold prick, by the way. You could do better.”

  Arguing was pointless, but I couldn’t help myself. “I didn’t agree to any engagement.”

  Levi shrugged. “What Daddy wants, Daddy gets.”

  “Except when it comes to you, I guess.”

  The words were bitter. I hated that, hated revealing even the tiniest bit of myself to the man at my side, but there was no holding back. He’d bared my body against my will; why not my emotions too?

  A broad, hot palm settled on my stomach, easing the roiling tension there, gentling me like a mare to her stallion. The too tight confines of my throat didn’t quite strangle my bark of protest.

  “Shh…”

  The sexy rumble of his voice broke my threadbare restraint. I bolted.

  Levi didn’t follow me.

  I ignored the disappointment swirling in my gut, right where he’d touched me, and instead watched him cross to the computer desk. It took two tries to get my question out. “What are you doing?”

  He jerked the mouse. The screen came alive. I’d never seen the program he opened, couldn’t follow what he proceeded to do. I needed to know, though. My life could depend on it.

  “Levi?”

  He growled at the interruption. Head tilted barely to the side, he directed his words at the desktop. “What?”

  “What are you doing?”

  A sarcastic grin played around his mouth. “I’m upping the pressure, little bird. Time to watch Daddy lose his cool for once.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Levi went to work—on what, I had no idea. Columns of numbers lined his computer screen, though they didn’t look like dollar amounts. We settled into a companionable impasse, if that made any sense, Levi at his computer and me on the couch, watching. I might not understand what I was looking at, but I wanted to stay
aware, to see any surprises coming.

  That didn’t mean I could stay silent.

  “If you don’t need me anymore, why am I still here?”

  I caught half of the smirk that took over Levi’s lips as he continued to type. “You’ve seen too much, Abby. I could never let you go now.”

  “That sounds like a line from a really bad movie.”

  His gaze slid to me briefly before returning to the computer monitor. “It is.”

  The TV was still running, now back on regular programming. I grabbed the remote off the coffee table and began flipping channels. “No Netflix, huh?”

  Levi snorted, gaze glued to his computer screen.

  “Right. Old-school it is.” A quick search showed local channels playing game shows and soap operas. I happened on something old enough to be black-and-white and settled there, remote in hand, butt on the couch. We could’ve been an old married couple occupying the same room in companionable silence, if not for the fact that I couldn’t leave. Oh, and that my companion was a killer.

  Surreal didn’t even come close…

  Only one thing gave me any clue as to the ongoing saga outside our eerily calm oasis: the second monitor, this one on the opposite side of Levi’s desk. He turned to it periodically, the angle of his shoulders allowing me to catch a glimpse of a camera feed showing a white room occupied by a narrow hospital bed. The man in the bed looked too big to be lying there, unmoving, a tube and oxygen obscuring most of his face. But his matted hair matched Eli’s, who passed occasionally in front of the camera.

  So this was Remi.

  I might be reluctant to draw attention to myself at the moment, but the three men wormed their way into my thoughts so insidiously I couldn’t ignore them. Every time Levi returned to whatever he was working on, I caught the tension around his eyes, the frown, the clenched jaw. Had it been anyone else, I’d have said it was worry or fear, but on Levi?

  I glanced at the hospital feed again. Maybe fear wasn’t too far off.

  Family loyalty was as foreign a concept to me as an assassin’s life was. It had certainly never been a factor in my own—Dad had bought my first boyfriend, just like he’d arranged my marriage without my permission. Hell, he hadn’t seemed to blink at receiving naked, drugged pictures of me, tied and helpless. What would it be like for these men, so used to violence and danger, to care enough about their brothers, to worry about their safety? To protect each other against the world instead of abandoning the people closest to them?

  I couldn’t wrap my head around it. I shouldn’t want to, either. Levi was as bad as my father. Wasn’t he?

  When the light began to fade from the windows far over our heads, Levi stood and stretched. I jerked my gaze toward the TV, unwilling to indulge the impulse to drink in his taut body, unwilling to give him another weapon to use against me. I’d given him enough last night. And this morning. Why couldn’t he be old? Ugly? Violent? That last was relative, of course, but I couldn’t deny that he hadn’t truly hurt me. I just wished I could forget the look in his eyes last night as he’d touched me before the mirror, the moment when he’d realized I was a virgin. There had been too much care then, even if he’d faked it. Knowing what he would look like if he wanted me gave him an in I knew he’d exploit if he needed to. And I doubted I’d be able to resist, even knowing it was a lie.

  The scuff of Levi’s boots drew my attention to where he stood beside the couch.

  “I’m headed out for dinner. Any requests?”

  “Does it matter?”

  “Doesn’t have to,” Levi said. The even tone of his voice, dripping with patience, settled like scalding water on my head. I bit down hard on my tongue.

  “Fratelli’s it is, then.”

  My eyes went wide. Fratelli’s was my favorite, my go-to restaurant when I came home late from class and knew Dad wouldn’t be home. The Italian restaurant was too lower-class for the next governor of Georgia, but their melt-in-my-mouth pasta and authentic sauces filled the hole inside me that had always craved home-cooked meals around a family dinner table, one that wasn’t covered in gold-plated china and crystal.

  Levi chuckled, and the knot of anger in my stomach returned.

  “If I come home with Fratelli’s, are you going to find something else to bash my head in while I’m gone.”

  I arched a brow in his direction. “If it meant I could keep all the food for myself, I’d cut you in a heartbeat.”

  Wait, was I really joking with a hit man? With my kidnapper?

  This isn’t supposed to be fun. He’s not a good guy, Abby.

  But then, neither was my father, apparently.

  “So we’re somewhere near Fratelli’s then?” I didn’t remember any warehouses in that area.

  Levi threw me a crooked grin over his shoulder. “That would be telling. Maybe, maybe not.” Each step toward the door made his words harder to catch. I strained for each one, praying for a hint, something I could use against him. “Am I driving straight there? Does that mean you can calculate where you are based on the time it takes me to return. Did I order online somehow and arrange to meet someone somewhere along the way? Are they bringing the food to our door and I’m only pretending to leave?” He pulled the door open, paused, glanced at me. “The computer is password protected, by the way. I wouldn’t try using it if I were you.”

  “You’re not me,” I snapped. Levi had likely never been kidnapped, taunted, used.

  I swore sympathy lit in his eyes. “No, I’m not. But I am telling you the truth, Abby.”

  “Shut up, Levi.”

  A chuckle drifted back as he closed the door behind him. Jerk.

  I did try the computer, but he was right—it was locked down tight. Same with the door, again. Since attacking Levi when he walked in the door would likely end up the same way this morning had, I decided to reserve my final shard of glass for an opportunity that had a better chance of winning. One where Levi was unaware—if that was even possible. With my luck…

  I paced the confines of the room until Levi returned. The aroma of creamy alfredo, melted cheese, and warm bread accompanied him, proclaiming the freshness of the food, but I refused to try to calculate how fresh. As Levi had so patronizingly pointed out, there were any number of ways to fool with the timeline. Instead I sat at the table and dug in, feeding my hunger and stuffing the questions away for later.

  One great thing about constant takeout and the lack of real dishes? No cleanup. Levi even put the leftovers in the fridge and threw away the trash. I retreated to the bathroom to go through my usual nighttime routine—with all the same supplies; how creepy was that?—and avoid a few more awkward minutes in Levi’s presence. Coming back out, I jerked to a stop mere seconds before slamming into Levi’s broad, bare chest.

  “Time for bed.”

  Hell no. “I’m not tired.”

  “Of course not,” Levi said. “It’s not even eight. But I have things to do.”

  Did that mean he wouldn’t be joining me? Please, God, let that be what he meant. I definitely wouldn’t be disappointed. Really.

  “What kinds of things?”

  He smirked but didn’t answer, gripping my wrist instead. Why did his fingers have to be so long? No matter how I twisted and turned, those overlapped digits stayed strong, clamped relentlessly onto my fragile joint. By the time he’d dragged me to the bed, I was panting hard and wishing I’d left my bra and jeans on. Granted, the tank-and-shorts pj combo covered all the important bits, but I still felt oddly naked despite the cotton obscuring my skin.

  “What are you doing?” I asked, hating the whiny edge to my voice. When I caught sight of the handcuffs on my side of the bed, the whine turned into panic.

  “I’m ensuring that I have a safe night’s sleep. It seems you have some tricks up your sleeve.” Levi nodded toward the dresser. There, lying on top, was the second shard of glass I’d hidden inside the toilet tank.

  A hard bump sent me tumbling onto the bed on my back. “No! Levi, no!” I
scrambled backward across the bed. “You’ve got everything. I don’t have anything else that might hurt you, I promise.”

  Those fingers clamped onto my ankle and pulled. Levi wasn’t even breathing hard as he leaned over me. Cold metal circled my wrist, then snicked shut. “And this will make sure of that, won’t it?” He threaded the chain around a slat in the headboard.

  “No!” I tugged, felt the metal bite into my wrist. “That hurts.”

  “Then stop pulling. I’m not going to worry about you smothering me in my sleep.”

  “I’d smother you while you’re awake if that was an option. Why wait?”

  I had my uncuffed hand outstretched as far as I could get it, trying to evade Levi’s capture. I should’ve known he never took no for an answer. He was more like my father than he wanted to admit. Rather than fighting, he simply laid over me, his heavy weight forcing me still and preventing me from breathing all at once. Panicked instinct had me lifting my legs, kicking up, bucking, anything to get free, get air.

  “Uh-uh-uh.” Levi rolled, his legs covering mine—and just like that, our bodies lined up. I hadn’t realized the wrestling had excited him—or me—until that moment, until his rigid erection settled against my core and a thrill of pleasure shot through me. Levi used that moment of distraction to secure my second wrist.

  I let myself go limp beneath him. “Is this the only way you can get any?”

  His breath washed across my throat as he nuzzled the sensitive skin there. “I don’t need tricks to get pussy, little bird.”

  “Could’ve fooled me.”

  Levi propped himself on his elbows above me. “I didn’t need them last night, now did I?”

  I closed my eyes, turning my head away from what I was sure was a gloating face. “Just leave me alone, Levi.”

  A slight squirm settled his hips more firmly in the cradle created by my spread legs. “Believe me, I’m trying. There is nothing more risky than sleeping with a mark, but…”