Assassin's Mark

by Ella Sheridan

  If Levi realized what he’d said—or the sheer ridiculousness of the words—he didn’t show it. He seemed oblivious to everything but Eli and his computer, his frantic clicking providing a staccato counterpoint to my footsteps as I paced behind him. “Call the nurse in when you’re ready,” he said. “I’ll make sure she’s the only one at the station. You drive, and she can take care of Remi.”

  “How do you know?” Eli asked with a worried glance at his brother.

  “I know. Don’t worry about her; just steal an ambulance and go, damn it. I’ll take care of erasing your tracks. No one will know where you end up.”

  Eli quit arguing. Finished with his own things, he circled Remi’s bed, gathering what equipment he could put on the narrow spaces on either side of his brother, avoiding the major stuff. No more than a minute passed before he lifted the call button, glanced into the camera, then pressed down firmly.

  Levi switched back to his view of the nurse’s station. Though I had no idea how he’d accomplished it, the blonde was the only one at the desk now. She glanced to her right, presumably at the signal from Remi’s room, then stood.

  She was tall. It was an incongruous thought, but it hit me all the same. Tall and curvy; her scrubs couldn’t hide that fact. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail that allowed me to see her face, all pale skin and innocent eyes. Had my eyes looked like that when Levi found me? They didn’t now.

  I pushed the thought away and held my breath, the heavy beat of my heart loud in my ears.

  Levi clicked off the nurses’ station, splitting the screen between Remi’s room and the view of the hallway just as the nurse came into view. Behind her, at the bend of the corridor, a door opened and a tall, dark man stepped out. Black clothes, black shoes, light skin, but it could barely be seen because the black ball cap he wore obscured his downturned face. Something about his body language, the way he held himself reminded me of someone, something…

  A whimper escaped before I could clamp my lips shut. He reminded me of Levi.

  I wasn’t the only one to pick up on the threat. Levi’s shoulders went tight, just like my lungs. “Eli, target approaching. She’s got a tagalong.”

  Eli had been intimidating standing here in the room with me, almost as intimidating as Levi, but the knowledge that they were killers, dangerous men, had remained in the surreal part of my brain, known but not truly understood. Even on the grainy camera feed, though, I could see the mask drop down, see him go into warrior mode. His expression hardened, his body seeming to expand as tension built. Walking to stand behind the door, he reached for his belt, removed a knife, and flicked it open, the silver catching the bright hospital lights as he waited.

  My lungs burned, protesting my held breath.

  The door to Remi’s hospital room opened, its solid surface blocking Eli from view. The nurse entered.

  Without warning, Eli’s hand snaked out to grab her wrist. A hard jerk pulled the woman out of the way as her shadow followed her into the room. Eli’s knife flashed as the blade struck the man in the chest.

  Eli’s opponent grunted, bowing around the knife, but the penetration was off—the blade didn’t go in like it should. Levi cursed, but I wasn’t sure why. My gaze was glued to the screen as Eli pivoted his blade and slashed across the man’s neck, just missing as his opponent flung himself backward. Eli followed, and the fight was on, not just for Eli’s life, but his brother’s. The two men wrestled for the knife, their hands both fisted around the handle, their legs and elbows and heads becoming weapons. I’d never seen a no-holds-barred fight for survival; the brutality shocked me. The fact that both of them managed to avoid the knife? Even more unbelievable.

  The nurse didn’t appear to have the same issue. Even as the men toppled onto Remi’s legs, she was rounding the corner of his bed, bending at first one end, then the other. Eli shoved his opponent into the opposite wall, and the woman used the opportunity to shift Remi’s bed into the far corner of the small hospital room. It wasn’t much of a buffer, but she gave him what she could, then climbed up to crouch over her patient’s legs, drawing something from her pocket.

  Eli’s head jerked in her direction, taking in the changes in a single glance. His eyes went dark and dangerous as he gripped his opponent’s arms, shifted to one side, then threw a leg behind the other man’s. Off-balance, the attacker fell back, his head and shoulders landing once more on Remi’s bed. Like a snake striking, the nurse stabbed down quickly, revealing the needle in her hand. Whatever she injected the man with worked immediately—he slid down to the floor next to the bed, not making a sound as Eli kicked him hard in the ribs.

  Levi released a pleased grunt. “Get him out of there, brother.”

  Eli dragged the now unconscious attacker out of the path of the bed. His mouth formed the words I’m trying, asshole, readable despite the lack of sound. Levi chuckled.

  The sound was cut off when a red warning box appeared on the computer screen in front of him.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “Daddy’s on the ball.”

  Levi’s tone held a note of admiration, a warrior seeing the brilliance of their enemy’s move in battle. I really didn’t want to know what my father had done to earn the admiration of an assassin, but I did want to know what would fuck up my life next, so I asked.

  “What now?”

  “Derrick has scheduled a press conference. Apparently your situation needs an update.”

  Sure it did. Or Derrick needed to keep his face—and his “concern” for his daughter—in the news.

  The fact that he was holding another press conference didn’t surprise me. What did was that I could care less. It would all be lies anyway—about me, certainly about him and how he “cared” about his daughter. It wasn’t worth listening when you couldn’t trust anything that was said. But apparently Levi felt the need to listen, because he clicked the on button for a blank monitor to his right and, moments later, what looked like a live feed from the same press room the last conference had occurred in appeared on the screen. The grainy texture and forty-five degree angle told me this was likely a security feed Levi had tapped into. The faint murmur of voices and a few moving figures in the seats came through, but no one stood onstage—the meeting hadn’t begun. Yet.

  I turned away from the screen. The desk. Levi. Nothing made sense anymore, and that fact didn’t change no matter how much I paced. My father had always been a liar, but not about me. Or so I thought. Bad men were always bad, but Levi and his brother were trying to save their sibling from someone who’d…what? Wanted to torture a man in a coma? Use him as bait? Simply question him? Would he have hurt the nurse? He’d followed her into the room; surely he couldn’t have left her as a witness to criminal activity. Which was worse, that their mystery man might’ve hurt her or that Eli had kidnapped her?

  I didn’t know, and the lack of answers was pounding against the inside of my skull so hard a gallon of Tylenol probably couldn’t ease the pain of it.

  “Be still,” Levi snapped.

  The command startled me out of my churning thoughts, igniting the anger that lay in wait just beneath the surface of my control. “Fuck off.”

  I realized my mistake immediately. My muscles went tight, my chest squeezing with fear. But the blow my instincts screamed was coming, didn’t. Levi turned in his seat, so so slowly, to pin me with that silver gaze. Molten silver now—he was as angry, or angrier, than I could ever be.

  “Sit. The fuck. Down. We don’t want to get the handcuffs out again, do we?”

  A chill shivered down my spine. Hadn’t we learned our lesson about the handcuffs last night?

  I stared at Levi’s stone-hard expression. No, apparently not.

  One dark eyebrow arched. I scurried toward a chair, shame eating at my insides.

  He didn’t wait for my butt to hit the cushion. He didn’t have to; my obedience was expected, therefore it would happen. He turned back to the screen and his brothers with a quiet grunt of satisfaction that m
ade me wish I had something hard to throw at his head, like a brick.

  Levi probably had a steel plate for a skull anyway, knowing my luck. Asshole.

  While I simmered in irritation—and admittedly, a little fear—Levi went back to work. He focused on his computer screens and Eli’s occasional comments through his cell with narrow eyes and a clenched jaw. I got it, even if I didn’t want to: he needed to keep his attention on his brothers, and I was a distraction. That didn’t mean I liked being afraid.

  But I focused on the computer screens too, watching the trio’s progress on the video feeds over his shoulder. Eli and the nurse seemed to race through the bowels of the hospital, one at each end of Remi’s bed. Levi typed rapid-fire on the keyboard, clicking the mouse faster than a striking snake, and though I couldn’t tell definitively what he was doing to help his brother, I assumed he was in some way clearing their path just as he’d made certain the nurse he wanted for Remi had answered Eli’s call. Halls miraculously cleared. Locked doors opened. And in the half-empty garage, an ambulance stood parked in a dark corner. I couldn’t help noticing that Eli now wore a hat very similar to the man he’d fought, his face hidden, only the nurse identifiable. He knew what he was doing, just as Levi did. A professional.

  My headache resurged with a vengeance, tightening around my skull like a vise.

  Remi’s eyes never opened as they loaded him into the ambulance. I waited, breathless and conflicted, for the nurse to argue, to run, but she kept her focus and her steady hands on her patient the entire time. Only when Eli went to close up the back doors did she speak.

  Levi growled at the minute delay. “Get her secured and get out of there, E. You’ve got sixty seconds.”

  If Eli responded, I couldn’t see it. I didn’t see the handcuffs either, not until one was wrapped securely around the woman’s wrist. Eli secured the second to the rail of Remi’s bed, then shut the ambulance doors.

  Relief and disgust surged like bile up the back of my throat. I turned away from the desk as I swallowed back my nausea. Only the sound of Derrick’s voice brought me back to awareness.

  It was anticlimactic, really. There was nothing new on the abduction—big surprise. So why was Derrick holding a press conference?

  As if asking the question flipped on a light in my brain, I knew. “He’s establishing an alibi, isn’t he?”

  Levi grunted a response. When I stood, turning toward the desk, I could see what looked like traffic camera feeds on the monitors to Levi’s left. He scanned them continuously, maybe tracking Eli’s progress through the city. How would they hide an ambulance with so many eyes on the roads? If Levi could follow it, surely someone—

  Why the hell are you worrying about that, Abby? Worry about seeing where the ambulance is going, to your location!

  As if I’d shouted out loud, Levi clicked a button, and one by one the feeds turned to static. I should be surprised—absolutely nothing in my life was under my control, right?—but I couldn’t help the burn of tears at the backs of my eyes.

  “Establishing alibis is what we do,” Levi said, flicking a glance at my father on-screen. “If we’re not good at covering our tracks, that is.”

  If you’re not a pro, in other words. Hardly comforting.

  “Councilman Roslyn,” a female voice called. Levi’s spine went tight and straight, the air around him seeming to vibrate with sudden excitement. I didn’t know why, and I really didn’t want to remedy my lack of knowledge, but, again, zero control…

  I moved to stand behind Levi so I could see the screen on his right.

  “Yes, Ms. Downing?”

  Derrick was staring at a petite blonde reporter, consternation creasing his brow.

  “Councilman, it seems the abduction of your daughter is not the only concern plaguing your run for governor of the state of Georgia. Our office received a tip this morning that a substantial donation was made from your account to a business we know from FBI sources is considered a front for mob activity. Care to comment?”

  A mottled red flush rose up Derrick’s neck, into his cheeks—not embarrassment. Rage. I held my breath and glanced at Levi. Pleased gray eyes locked with mine.

  “See? You have to be good at covering your tracks,” he said.

  I didn’t answer; I couldn’t. The flood of emotion that swamped me right then was too heavy, too confusing, too…everything. Satisfaction, anger, loss, worry, fear—it crashed into me like a brick wall tumbling down, smothering me, making it impossible to breathe. I couldn’t fight it, couldn’t hide from those all-knowing eyes, so I did the only thing I could. I retreated. Turned around without a word and walked out of the living room. The bedroom was quiet, especially with the door closed, but even so I climbed onto the bed, curled up, and dragged the covers over my head.

  Then, like a child, I closed my eyes and pretended I’d disappeared.

  Chapter Seventeen

  It was the shouting that woke me. Shoving the blankets off my face, I blinked hazily as the ceiling came into focus and the noises from the living room began to make some sense. When I realized exactly what they were, I shot to my feet.

  Bad move.

  I must’ve slept deeper than I’d thought, because it took a couple of minutes to gain my equilibrium, but then I was moving toward the door, my heart pounding in my throat. Instinct urged caution, but I needed to know, to see—that Levi was here, safe; that Eli had gotten his brother here all right; that the woman he’d coerced was unharmed. Of course, from the sounds of it, her lungs were performing above and beyond expectation, so…

  The living room was chaos. Eli struggled to guide the bed Remi still lay on toward the back wall of the warehouse while Levi struggled with the nurse. She, apparently, had no problems fighting her way out of her captivity. Of course, she hadn’t been drugged like I had, but still, I envied her her courage. If forced to lay bets on who would win, I might actually consider betting on her.

  Levi lost his patience quickly, gripping her arms tight and shaking her. “Shut the fuck up and do your job before I decide you’re more trouble than you’re worth!”

  The woman went still, glaring up at him through the tousled strands of her thick blonde hair even as she cringed away from his hold. I didn’t blame her. Levi’s capacity for either bullshit or distraction seemed to lower in direct proportion to his brothers’ involvement and/or safety, as seen by the way he’d snapped at me earlier, the one and only time he’d lost his temper since I’d been here. That look directed at me would’ve had me wetting my pants, effectively wiping out the urge to interfere on my fellow captive’s behalf. I circled the couple warily and went to help Eli.

  Remi lay still, not even a flutter of his long blond eyelashes indicating that he knew he was being moved. Eli’s mouth tightened at the sight of me, but he moved to Remi’s head without a word, maneuvering his end toward the back wall as I took my place at Remi’s feet. We worked together, Eli pulling and me pushing, until we reached the wall near the end of the kitchen cabinets. A mechanical whir sounded, and a section of the wall recessed, then slid to one side.

  What the…

  Eli continued backward as if nothing unusual had occurred. I glanced over my shoulder at Levi. He was staring down the nurse, but his left hand had lifted, pointing toward us, holding what looked like a key fob. A remote. One that opened a door I hadn’t been able to find no matter how hard I’d looked—God, had it only been two days ago?

  Remi’s bed slid smoothly through the opening.

  The nurse’s footsteps echoed as she marched in directly behind me. Guess Levi won the stare down.

  “We have to get him still and stabilized,” she announced. Barked orders lashed the air as everything from the position of the bed to the lack of tables to hold the equipment were questioned. Apparently the stare down was the only thing she’d conceded.

  Eli positioned the bed headfirst against a side wall, the light from a high window spilling onto Remi’s blanket-covered feet. The nurse immediately bent ove
r him, one hand on his chest, the other beginning to move equipment from the bed to the floor. “Tables!”

  “Demanding little thing, ain’t she?” Eli smirked, but I noticed he hustled for the door. I moved to the opposite side of the bed to help settle Remi in. Levi stood, a silent, intimidating presence as the three of us made short work of arranging his brother’s new room.

  “Eli.”

  Eyes still on Remi, Eli fished in his jeans pocket at Levi’s demand. Only when he pulled out a set of keys did he turn for the door and rush out. The nurse, whose name tag I now noticed said MARRONE, ignored everything but her patient. Because he was the only thing she could control? I’d certainly felt that way, though with fewer options. I wanted to reassure her, to tell her no one would hurt her, no matter how much of a badass Levi seemed to be, but she wouldn’t believe me, not right now. I knew that all too well.

  “What now?” I asked, automatically adopting the hushed tone people used in hospitals and funeral homes. Levi had no such compulsion.

  “We wait,” he said gruffly.

  Nurse Marrone’s head whipped around. “I am not waiting here.”

  “Well, you’re not going anywhere, so…” Levi shrugged.

  Beneath the flush of anger, the woman’s face went sheet-white. “I’m not waiting. I have a daughter. I have to go home. You’ve got two choices: let me go, or I'll make your life a living hell until I escape.”

  Levi crossed his arms over that broad chest, one eyebrow arching as if the nurse amused him. “Only two choices? I could think of a few more.”

  I was actually beginning to understand him. Scary thought. Our new friend didn’t, and Levi’s statement lit her shortened fuse like a fire-breathing dragon lighting a candle.

  She charged.

  Levi cursed.