Lethal

by Ava Kendrick

I’d never failed to complete a job.

  Never.

  No matter how dangerous the target; no matter how impossible the logistics. I was the guy who got shit done; the one you could call in a crisis.

  I glanced down at my pale, shaking hands. If any of my associates saw me like this…

  I’d failed. I’d been hired to kill a woman—one woman, with no military training. With no protection bar her friend and a hollow door I could have knocked down in seconds. I shook my head as I strode along the corridor and away from her. I saw it clearly now. She had the best defenses money could buy in this situation.

  She had my heart.

  I buried my head in my hands, trying and failing to see how the fuck that wasn’t a death sentence for the two of us. Sure, I’d convinced myself that doing the job myself was the best thing for both of us. But when it came to the crunch?

  I couldn’t do it.

  There was no way I could kill Cleo.

  No. Way.

  So I needed a new plan.

  I rested my head against the bricks; they felt cool against my over-loaded head. I had twenty hours tops, and that was only if the Soldier didn’t grow suspicious or skeptical and send someone else to do the job before the deadline was up. For all I knew, he had someone waiting outside the building already.

  I still didn’t know what I was going to do, but in the end my body made the decision for me. I pushed away from the wall and strode back along the corridor to Julia’s apartment.

  I banged the door again, holding my palm over the peephole.

  “Go away,” said a muffled voice on the other side.

  My heart hammered in my throat. “Cleo. Just hear me out.”

  I had no idea what I was going to say—I wasn’t the kinda guy who expressed feelings other than hunger and thirst. I didn’t even have the words to describe what I was feeling then anyway. But the Soldier’s deadline kept me glued to that door. I could go away and think about what I wanted to say, but Cleo might have been killed in the meantime.

  And I wasn’t going to let anyone get to her.

  I’d die before that happened.

  “Cleo,” I said, knocking sharply on the door again. “I really need to talk to you.”

  The door opened a crack. My stomach plummeted at the sight of her tear-stained face. My fault, I knew. But tears were better than the other option.

  “Please go,” she whispered. “I thought you’d gone already.”

  I shook my head. “I was leaving, but…”

  She started to close the door again and my mind raced. I could stall and keep it civil; wrap her in cotton wool and pretend like I wasn’t the big bad wolf. I might finally be able to talk her round after hours of dancing around the truth. But at what price?

  I pushed against the door, taking her by surprise. I stepped inside and slammed it shut behind me. Cleo was backed against the wall she’d fallen against when I pushed the door in. I swallowed back my guilt.

  She looked at me incredulously. Then her face fell. “I didn’t…

  Julia stepped forward, as if she was about to stand in front of Cleo. I held my hand out and shook my head. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

  Cleo opened her mouth to speak. I didn’t give her a chance.

  “We need to talk. You’re in danger.”

  She shook her head, the color in her face draining away.

  “We can see that,” Julia said, narrowing her eyes.

  Cleo shook her head. “Let him speak. We don’t have much of a choice, remember?”

  I frowned, momentarily surprised. I hadn’t expected her to hear me out that easily. “What do you mean?”

  She smiled bitterly. “Don’t pretend like you don’t know. I’m not stupid. I saw you with him. What were you doing with him?”

  My stomach plummeted. So she knew. I’d suspected it, but it hurt to hear her say it. Her eyes were cold and full of suspicion.

  “It’s a long story.”

  “So’s mine.”

  My eyes widened. “So you remembered?”

  She nodded. “Everything,” she said bitterly.

  I was silent; processing. I didn’t know the whole story, just what I’d been able to piece together from both sides. I wanted to ask her all about it—how she found out. How long they’d been together. What the fuck she was doing with an asshole like him. But we didn’t have time for that now.

  “We need to get out of here.”

  She shook her head. “No. I’m not gonna be pushed around like a fool anymore.”

  I frowned, trying to keep myself calm. I could have picked her up and carried her out, but I didn’t want to take that risk. She was bound to make a scene and I couldn’t risk someone calling the cops. That reminded me of something else.

  “You didn’t call the cops?”

  She shook her head, a smile playing at her lips. “No. Of course not. Why would I walk right into his psycho killer arms like that?”

  I swallowed, relieved that she was aware of the level of danger she was dealing with.

  “Good,” I nodded. “Good.”

  She shook her head. “Like you’re any better,” she muttered.

  I let that slide. What was I gonna do? Argue that I was better? Sure, I hated the sonofabitch, but that didn’t make me an angel.

  “Cleo,” I said slowly. “I understand if you hate me. That’s fine. But please listen to me. I need to get you out of here.”

  “I told you,” she said, slowly pronouncing each word with cold precision. “I’m not going to be pushed around like an idiot. How do you know him?”

  I rubbed my face. This was the part I wasn’t prepared for. Because how in the hell could I even begin to explain? I’d already accepted the fact that she was going to hate me forever.

  I don’t care. If she hates me, that means I’ve kept her alive.

  My stupid heart was getting in the way, telling myself I still had a chance with her. I wished it would fuck off back to wherever it had been hiding for the last ten years.

  “He called an associate of mine.”

  She raised an eyebrow.

  I shook my head. I felt more frightened than I ever had in my life. I’d faced down armed men and been less scared than I was right then, with the woman I loved looking at me like I was some kind of monster.

  I was almost thankful for the Soldier’s influence over the cops right then—if it hadn’t been for that, I knew, there would have been no way she’d even be speaking to me.

  “You know who he is?”

  She laughed sadly. “I remember everything. Right after I saw you with him… I guess the weirdness of the situation triggered something in my brain. Like my body needed me to know I was in danger.”

  My heart sank, but there was no denying it. She had it right. I was a threat. “You saw something.”

  She nodded. “I saw him kill a guy. Right there in our apartment.”

  I breathed in sharply. What a fucking idiot to mess things up with a woman like her.

  “Roman,” she said quietly. “Tell me the truth. Please.”

  I swallowed. That was it. My worst nightmare come true. But it was a relief in a way. I was tired of lying to her.

  “He hired me to kill you.”

  Her face literally fell. She took a step forward, as if she was going to rush out the door.

  “Wait. Hear me out. Please.”

  “What, before you kill me?”

  My pulse buzzed in my ears.

  “Cleo,” I said slowly. “If I wanted to kill you, I would have done it already without drawing it out like this.”

  She looked stunned.

  “It’s true. Cleo, I love you. More than anything in the world. But that puts us in danger.”

  Her lovely face was screwed up with skepticism.

  “I don’t expect you to do anything except hate me. But Cleo, please. I need to get you out of here. When he finds out I didn’t do the job he’ll send others.”

  She shook her head. “I don�
�t… This is all too fucked up.”

  She looked so lost. Every instinct I had screamed at me to take her in my arms and comfort her. But I was the last person whose comfort she wanted. I clenched my fists.

  Focus.

  “I know this is confusing,” I said, as levelly as I could. “And I’ll explain everything. But right now…”

  “Was it… Is that why you were hanging around in the bar? You knew?”

  I shook my head, horrified that she’d think that. “No, of course not.” Not being able to take her in my arms was killing me, it really was. But I needed her to walk out of there beside me, and to do it before it was too late.

  “You expect me to believe that?”

  I shook my head miserably. “I don’t expect you to believe anything. Just that if I don’t get you out of here soon…”

  “If it wasn’t a setup, why did he go to you? How did he know?”

  I shook my head. “That’s kind of my area of expertise,” I said, my voice barely louder than a whisper.

  Her eyes widened. “You’re some kind of… hitman?”

  I closed my eyes. It hurt to hear her say that. I’d never wanted her to find out. “Yes.”

  “So he asked you to get rid of his little problem. And it just so happened that you knew me already.”

  “Cleo, we need to—”

  “Answer me,” she snapped.

  “Yes. He hired me. I wasn’t expecting… When I saw it was you it broke my heart. But it was complicated. I couldn’t just turn the job down; it wasn’t like he’d just shrug and change his mind about killing you.”

  “You work together.”

  “No. No, no, no. I’d never met him before. I’d heard of him. He’s not somebody you want to fuck with. Which is why I need to get you out of here.”

  “He doesn’t know I’m here.”

  I rolled my eyes. “You serious? You don’t think he’s capable of finding you?”

  “But he never showed much interest in hanging out with Julia. He probably doesn’t know her name. He certainly doesn’t know where she lives.”

  I took a deep breath. “Cleo. You don’t understand. The Soldier. Ben. He’s one of the most dangerous men in this city.”

  She shivered and I immediately regretted saying that. “Sorry.”

  She shrugged. “Don’t be. I’ve got fucking terrible taste in guys. I know that.”

  I had to fight hard to stop myself from laughing. I loved that about her—she still had her dark sense of humor even though she must have been frightened to death.

  She glared at me and I looked away. I couldn’t think of a way to get us both out alive, and yet I couldn’t help thinking of ways to convince her to give me another chance.

  I had it bad.

  Just when I needed to keep it together and get us out of there.

  Fucking focus, Roman. Who cares if she hates you—the important thing is keeping her alive.

  “The short version, Cleo? He’s dangerous. Fucking dangerous. And you know what? I’m glad it was me he hired. Because if it wasn’t, you’d be dead by now.”

  Cleo seemed to shrink away; to fall into herself. Julia stepped closer and put her arm around her. I hated scaring her, but she needed the reality check.

  “I’m sorry for scaring you, but we’ve got to get away. Now.”

  “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

  “Cleo.” I stood and moved closer to her.

  “Stop. Enough,” Julia said, standing between us. “Enough drama for one day.”

  I snorted. “Drama? You call this drama? This isn’t some TV show. And if it was it’d be horror, not drama. The minute—no the second—the Soldier suspects I haven’t done the job, he’ll be here. And he won’t be interested in talking.”

  Cleo shivered.

  Julia glanced at her, then took a step closer to me. “Get. Out. I don’t want you here anymore. You’re upsetting her.”

  I looked from one to the other. I hadn’t wanted to take her by force, but it looked like I was going to be left with no choice. Who cared if she hated me for the rest of her life? At least I wouldn’t have another grave to visit.

  Just before I stepped forward to grab her, though, she spoke. Her voice was quieter than usual and she wouldn’t look me in the eyes. “Wait. Stop. Let him finish.”

  I exhaled loudly. “Please come with me. We need to disappear. Right now.”

  “How do I know…”

  I reached around my back and pulled out my Beretta. “Here. Take this.”

  She looked at it like I’d just handed her a live grenade.

  “You know how to use it?”

  She shook her head. “But you said we have time,” she said in a weak voice.

  I nodded. “Yeah. We do. Not much, though.”

  I took the pistol from her and showed her how to disengage the safety.

  “You’re saying I’ll need to shoot this?”

  “No,” I said through my teeth. “I’m saying that if giving you this gun is the only thing that’ll convince you to come with me, then you can have it. Will you come with me now?”

  “You’re sure you can keep me safe?”

  I smiled sadly. “Safer. There is no safe.”

  How could I explain it better than that? That by sparing her life, I’d effectively handed us both a death sentence.

  The Soldier would explode when he found out what I’d done.

  But it was the only way.

  Thirty-Four

  Cleo

  I stared at him in terror. “What do you mean, there is no safe?”

  His expression didn’t change. “I’m not gonna lie to you. We’re dealing with some very dangerous people.”

  I stared at him, wondering how in the hell he could be the killer he said he was. But he had no reason to lie to me, did he? He could have killed me several minutes before if he’d wanted to. Instead, he’d handed me a gun.

  “Where are we going?” I asked, standing away from the wall and trying to stop my hands from shaking.

  Julia looked at me like I was crazy, but she wasn’t there that night with Ben. I’d seen something then. It didn’t mean I trusted Roman, but I knew he was different from Ben.

  I realized something; something crazy. I trusted him. Despite everything he’d just told us. He was a killer. He’d been sent to kill me. Yet…

  For the first time since I’d found out the truth, I looked at him. Really looked at him. He glanced at me before I could look away. I shivered. Something stirred deep inside of me; a part of me that was impervious to logic and reason. How was it that this cold-blooded killer was capable of doing things to my body that no man had ever done before? There was a small part of me that wanted to ignore everything the danger and pull his shirt off.

  He cleared his throat. “We can’t go back to my place. It’s too much of a risk. And we can’t stay here.”

  “Where then? I don’t have any place else to go. Unless my dad’s place. But that’s in Seattle. And I’m not even sure they’d be—”

  “We’re not going there.”

  I looked at him to see if he was kidding. It didn’t seem like it. “My ex-boyfriend just paid someone to kill me. You, as it happens. And you don’t think we should maybe get the hell out of here?” My breath came out jagged and uneven. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d lost my temper, but I couldn’t hold back any longer.

  This is all so screwed up.

  “Cleo—”

  “No. You listen. We need to get the fuck out of this goddamn city.”

  “Cleo,” he said, putting his hands on my shoulders.

  I knew I should shrug him away; be repulsed by his touch. But I wasn’t. I couldn’t help the automatic response my body had to his strong hands. Jets of desire shot through me and I glanced away, not wanting him to see in my face the reaction he was still capable of stirring within me.

  He sighed deeply. “We can’t risk going anywhere he might find you. Okay?”

  I frowned. �
�Does that mean…”

  “When you’re safe, I’m going to need you to call everyone he knows about. Tell them to take a couple days’ vacation and…”

  My face fell—he must have seen that because he stopped talking and gripped my shoulders again.

  “It’s just a precaution,” he whispered, his blue eyes full of concern.

  I glanced at Julia, who’d been watching our conversation in silence, looking as stunned as I felt.

  “What about Julia?”

  He glanced back at her. “You can’t stay here, not until after this has blown over.”

  She frowned. “I’ve got no place else to go.”

  “Can’t she come with us?”

  He shook his head. “She’ll be safer if she doesn’t.”

  My heart began to race. Only days before I’d been worrying about finding a job. Now it felt like I’d been dropped headfirst into a damn thriller.

  “That moron from the bar,” Roman said.

  Julia frowned. “You mean Tony? What about him?”

  “Can you go stay with him for a couple days?”

  She hesitated. “We’re not even really dating.”

  He nodded. “Even better. Less likely you’ll be tracked to his place.”

  I felt relief wash over me. “So you have a plan.”

  He shook his head. “No. I’ve got someplace in mind, but I don’t have a plan yet.”

  “You want me to trust my life in you, and you’ve got no idea what to do?”

  He stared into my eyes. “I’m the best chance you’ve got, Cleo.”

  Thirty-Five

  Cleo

  I didn’t ask him anything else—what was the point when his answers were so cryptic? It was like he was speaking in riddles. I had so many questions I wanted to ask, but I just couldn’t think about it anymore. It wasn’t that it hurt to think about Ben. It was the opposite—every time I thought of him, I remembered how he’d looked at me in the apartment that night. All I felt was cold hatred.

  No, the thing that hurt most was that I hadn’t seen through his lies. If the police knew who he was—if he was a famous underground figure—why hadn’t I suspected a thing? To me, he’d been my slightly boring banker boyfriend. Not a gangster. Certainly not a killer.