Chapter 02
“Next time you pull me out of bed for this, I will put a bullet between your eyes. I mean it.”
She slammed her fist against the car.
“Fine,” Anna said irritably. “What is it?”
“A few flowers and My Mate nearly fell apart. Maybe I haven’t given him enough to feel secure.”
My reputation with Nicholas was poor, and I’d left him with trauma.
“I need work,” I told her. “I want to buy him a pair of cufflinks. Consider it a peace offering.”
“You have him locked in your apartment. What’s he going to do with cufflinks?”
“They look beautiful.”
Anna rolled her eyes. “You’ve got terrible timing.”
“Everything’s been going to Nike.”
I heard this name.
Nike was a top–tier killer. The name alone carried weight in our world. He’d taken impossible jobs and survived More
bounties on his own head than anyone cared to count.
“He’s barely worked in six months, and his blood money could last him ten lifetimes.”
The rumors had run all over the place, retired, dead, and all.
“He was quiet. Until now.”
I pulled on my gear for this job. “Big target? Massive bounty?”
Anna shook her head. “Neither.”
“Word is, he heard the target was a homewrecker. And he took the job.”
My fingers stilled on the buttons. “He’s hunting… a homewrecker.”
‘Wait, did he come out of retirement because someone destroyed his family? It was almost too dramatic to be real.‘
There was always something that
connected elite killers: they all longed for Something permanent.
As I moved out, Anna’s voice came through the COMM.
“Shade, stand down. Nike already finished it.”
Nicholas read Me the Moment I walked through the door. “You’re upset?“
“Yeah, kind of… Someone took my job. The payout was significant.”
The target this time wasn’t only a fetus. It was already a child.
He pulled me in. “You’re great. That guy’s a jerk.
“I have money. It’s all yours.”
“Thank you.” I nuzzled into his chest and breathed him in.
But I wouldn’t touch his money. I wanted to buy him a gift with the Money I’d earned Myself.
Soon enough, another job surfaced.
This time, my target was a male who built his empire on his wife’s bloodline but spent years poisoning her while cheating on her.
He knew what he was, and he knew Someone might put a bullet in his head, so he never attended any parties.
I walked into the reception room, dressed in a secretary’s uniform, and Anna’s voice came through the coMM. “Shade, all cameras have been looped.”
I cut the line at the sound of footsteps in the hallway. “Later.“
I expected Charles, but it was my “boss“, a blond, blue–eyed Man.
“Ms. Jenny, there you are.”
Every hunting instinct in me said this man was trouble. I knew I was right the next second.
“A Mask crafted to match the secretary’s face. You’re good, Shade.”
A bad feeling settled in my gut. ‘He knows Me. He’s Nick!‘
I kept talking, stalling for time. “Nike, if I’d known you’d already claimed this one,l wouldn’t have wasted the time.”
The poisoned pin was in my hand before the sentence finished, but Nick was faster. He grabbed my wrist, and the pin dropped neatly into his other palm.
He had my arms wrenched behind My back, and his hand pulled my face. “Any last words?”
Nick saw My face, and he stared at me, transfixed.
I hit him in the gut. He grunted and went down, and I went with him, straddling his chest, one hand braced against his chest, the other pressing My gun between his eyes.
“You have no idea what I can do,” I said.
Nick looked glassy–eyed. His hands slid to My waist, his fingers digging in with a pressure. “Shade, I think I love you.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Nike, hands off. I’m already taken.”
“Taken?” Nike tested the word as if he
were tasting it. An eyebrow arched.
He pushed himself up, closing the distance between us, his breath warm against my face. “He doesn’t have to
know. We could be lovers.”
I cocked the gun and Moved it to his chest. “I could end you right here, and no one would ever know.”
The Muscle flexed under the barrel. He was absolutely doing it on purpose.
“Babe, you better not. For your own sake.”
Footsteps echoed in the hallway again. Nike Moved and had me off the floor.
“Let me hide!” I whispered.
And then he was folding me into the I hollow space beneath the desk, one hand
cradling the back of my skull, pressing Me in close against him.
I struggled a little, and he gave me a look that clearly shut me up.
Charles’s voice oozed through the door as it opened.
“Blake, why does it smell like flowers in here? Are you hiding someone? Let Me guess where she is?”
The heat radiating from Nike’s thighs was unreasonable. I had nowhere to go. I turned my head and let it rest against his thigh.
Nike pushed his fingers into My Mouth, while his other hand tangled in my hair. I had no time to react, and Made a sound I will not describe.
His eyes went half–lidded. A satisfied look spread across his face: head tilting back, lips parting, breath coming soft and irregular. He looked like he’d had an orgasm.
Charles didn’t come any closer. His laugh was knowing. “You two are having a time. Fine, fine, I’ll come back when you’re finished.”
The door opened and then closed again.
Nick, still thinking with the wrong head, hadn’t bothered to open his eyes.
I pressed my gun to his, and he pulled me out from under the desk. “What if you lose Me?”
The next second, Anna’s cranky voice detonated in My COMM. “Shade, Charles is dead.”
Impossible. Nike’s been with me the whole time.‘
“Impaled on his own sword in his office. You’re clear.”
I was cleaning up the scene while Nike still hit on me. “Miranda, how are things between you and your boyfriend?” he asked. “So, you and him, serious?”
I fixed him with a cold stare. “I love him. Don’t come near him. And don’t think | won’t kill you just because you’re Nike.”
Nike froze, and then the smile came back, wider than before. “You know, most people don’t rave about their husband in front of their admirer?”
He leaned in, lips brushing my ear. “I’m going to be very jealous.”
I drove my elbow into him hard, and Nick let out a muffled grunt of pain.
I passed Nicholas in the hallway when I got home. His eyes tracked Me, and I followed his gaze down. I reached into my
chest pocket and pulled out a hotel room keycard.
‘Nike. You’ll so regret that.‘