“My employer will be upset. Until next time, Shadow.”
“Until next time,” she agreed softly, watching him disappear. At the same time, earth came up around her, walling her away from the world. She knew it was Quinn trying to protect her. She also knew Naseem would be long gone and impossible to catch now.
As she stood secure in the earth, she considered what had just happened. If she had been nearly hit by the Triad, that meant two others, somewhere on the planet, were also targeted. That’s how they worked. They rarely did missions together, as a team. They were like a club. They did synchronized hits together, any time, any where. If one member was seen taking someone out, you just needed to wait for news to break about two other deaths.
She’d never run into them before, not professionally. She’d met them at a few parties Axel had thrown. Funny enough, she’d known who they were, but since Shadow had no face, they hadn’t known who she was, standing at Axel’s arm. His arm candy, the woman who took care of his son. His whore. Certainly not his assassin.
And she knew that for a fact. They had once asked him to introduce them to Shadow, so they could meet another assassin who had made waves in their industry. Purely professional, maybe even as allies.
She’d been standing there as they inquired and Axel just laughed them off, shaking his head.
“Shadow likes her privacy,” he’d answered. “If she wants to reveal herself, she will.”
She never had. She’d never wanted to be one of those who found pleasure in the work.
“Sawyer!” Quinn called out, pulling the earth down. She turned to him, but didn’t move. He threw his arms around her. “Where is he?”
“Long gone. He wasn’t going to test trying to take me out with you coming.” She looked back out into the darkness. “Don’t let the wolves go after him. They could get hurt. He won’t think twice about killing a nuisance.”
“Okay.” He whistled, and in a split second, both wolves were right next to them.
“Was anyone injured in the house?” she asked.
“No. You appear to be his only target.” He growled in frustration. “How did I not know? I know when anyone is here.”
“I’ll explain when we’re safely in the house.” Not like the house was really safe anymore. Not with assassins showing up in her fucking bedroom. The house only had space for one assassin, and that was her. “Let’s go.”
She should have been freaking out, but a calm had settled over her. This was it. Her identity outed, people wanted her dead. She’d known it would come to this. She faced it with a stone cold attitude. If they wanted her dead, they were going to have to try harder.
They walked back in silence. For once, she had a feeling that Quinn was deferring to her. She was the expert on the matter. Assassins were her bread and fucking butter.
And it kept ringing in her head.
Someone wanted her dead and they hired the Triad to do it. Which meant they wanted more than just her dead. Already, she could smell the conspiracy. There were going to be bodies in the morning. Those would tell her a lot. The who’s, the when’s, and the where’s.
Her mind was racing as they left the woods and she saw the rest of the team on the porch.
“You shouldn’t have chased after him!” Zander yelled and she sighed, weary of it.
“I nearly had him,” she retorted patiently.
“He was here to fucking kill you!” he roared, pointing a finger at her chest as she walked up onto the back porch. “And you ran off alone into the woods after him!”
“Everything is fine,” she snapped, losing her patience already. “I knew what I was doing.” Softer, she reached out to him. He worried. He wanted her safe and she couldn’t begrudge him that. “Remember the trust thing, Zander.” She kissed his cheek. “Thank you for worrying. It all happened quickly and I was following my instincts.”
“I know,” he sighed, kissing her back on her forehead. “God. A fucking assassin.”
“Yeah,” she whispered, glancing back out to the dark woods. Still the adrenaline from the encounter didn’t abate.
“We’ll talk about it inside,” Vincent interceded, glaring at her. She scoffed at his face, pushing through the group to get inside. “Basement. It’s the most secure thing we have.”
She turned and went down the stairs. Her blood was pumping too hard through her veins now. She’d met with an opponent, a professional rival, and they had both walked away. That never happened in her world. It was why she always considered herself lucky to never have to deal with another assassin. They were fights she could have very easily lost.
She went into the entertainment room and just stared blankly at the far wall, her mind still racing.
What really bothered her? The rush of adrenaline, the taste of her old life back in its purest form. She kind of liked it. This was nothing like the vast unknowns of the Amazon. She hadn’t know the place well, or the people, including her opponent.
But this felt like something else. And whatever that was, she kind of liked it.
“Why did you run out after him?” Vincent demanded as the guys flooded the room. “Why not just let him run?”
“Because I could catch him,” she answered softly, still staring at the wall, her mind going back to that moment. She’d felt rage at being the target. How dare he come into her home and try to take her out. She’d felt like it was her duty to chase down whoever it was and catch him. It would have solved a lot of problems. “And I nearly did, until I realized who it was. Without a weapon, it became a much more dangerous game at that point.”
“Who was it?” he asked. She noticed none of the other guys were even trying to say anything. Vincent was being the leader, the chess player, looking for how the pieces moved and wondering where he needed to put his own.
“Naseem.”
Something clattered at the small bar. Elijah cursed and she dared to glance at him, watching him wipe up whatever he spilled.
“The wind of death,” Vincent murmured, looking away from her. “Damn. That means-”
“There will be two other deaths tonight and somehow, they’re connected to me,” she finished for him. “Quinn, that’s why you had no idea he was there. Sombra could smell him, which is something he can’t mask, but the three Magi of the Triad can mask their magic so it feels like there’s nothing there. You have to look for the spot that’s too empty. It isn’t natural. Look for that, and you’ll know where one of them is.”
“Sombra could smell an intruder and pulled you out,” Jasper mumbled, sitting down in one of the recliners.
“Explain everything,” Vincent demanded, crossing his arms. She had seen this before. It had been a long time since he’d been like this, now that she thought about it. When they met, he was like this. All business, all focused.
But then, when they met, she had been similar to how she was tonight. Silently waiting for her chance. Plotting. Considering. Her mind racing over all options and ideas, just like his was.
“I felt his weight on the bed, just slightly. He was careful. It wouldn’t have woken me up. I sublimated to avoiding the dagger that would have buried itself in my chest.” She felt clinical repeating the encounter to Vincent. Detached from it. “Sombra attacked him then, and I got across the room and reformed. She got a bite off on him, shoulder or arm. I could see blood from it. He must have been too distracted by her to grab me with his control over air. He phased down into Zander’s room. I followed him all the way into the woods. He stopped in a clearing and I stayed out of any of his possible range. That’s when I saw who it was.” She looked down at her hands. She’d forgotten to grab a weapon.
Rusty. She really was. She wouldn’t have done that before. “Naseem is a dangerous man, but he’s not a fool. Once he realized I had backup coming, it was over.”
“Why didn’t he just suffocate you?” Vincent asked. He leaned against the back wall of the entertainment room, those dark olive green eyes pinned on her.
“It’s
a slower way to kill. I would have woken up, and a fight would have started anyway.” It seemed simple to her.
“It also takes a lot of power to manage something on that small a scale with air control. It’s very exact and that’s not normal for us. Axel could do it easily, but I’m not sure most of us with that elemental control can.” Jasper leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees. She watched him cover his face, rubbing it. “We’re lucky he didn’t, either way.”
“He might have also wanted to send a message, giving me a bloody death in my own bed…like I gave bloody deaths to other people. It would have been something he was hired to do, though. The Triad doesn’t pick personal fights. They are too professional for that.” She chuckled darkly. “I even asked. He was hired, which meant they all were. So it’s not like those three want me dead, but they are paid to make it happen. And this is going to happen again. They aren’t going to let me slip away; it would ruin their reputation. They will work to complete the hunt.”
“We need to get to a safe house. I’d say we’re safe until dawn, maybe even the day, but we won’t be spending another night in this house.” Vincent pulled out his phone and began to dial. “I’m calling James to get the ball rolling. Someone turn on the news. Keep an eye out for any high-profile deaths or murders.”
“Vincent. He didn’t tell me how he knew where we were.” She felt he needed to know that. It was a big, gaping problem.
“I figured. It means there’s a bigger leak in the IMPO or the WMC than originally suspected. The person who ratted you out to the press didn’t know our official location. Someone higher would, though. Consider that.”
She didn’t like the implications of it. There was someone in New York that they couldn’t trust. They had already figured it was pretty much them against the world, but this meant someone in power in the IMPO or the WMC. She had no idea how long the list was about who knew what.
“How many people know where we are?” She hoped it was a short list. Something easy to deal with.
“Thanks to you being here? Way more than normal.” He sighed as they all listened to the phone ring on the other end. James wasn’t picking up yet. “Dozens more than normal. In case you killed us and ran or something like that.”
“Fuck,” Elijah groaned.
“I can’t fucking believe this,” Zander muttered.
She could agree with both of those sentiments, but still, something in her kind of liked the adrenaline that refused to leave her.
Vincent must have noticed, his eyes seeing all too much. “Go to the gym with Zander,” he ordered.
She didn’t say anything as she walked out of the entertainment room and entered the gym across the hall. Zander barely kept up with her. “Need to hit something, Sawyer?” he asked, grabbing her before she made it to the mat.
“Yeah, I really fucking do,” she snapped. “Someone tried to kill me tonight and I couldn’t even get my fucking hands on him. Sure, how it ended was actually the safest way it could have, but damn! I could have had him and I forgot to grab a fucking weapon.”
“Then hit me,” he told her, spreading his arms.
“Get on the mat,” she growled, then she added something softer. “And thank you.”
“Always. Sorry for yelling at you, by the way.”
“Don’t be. I was stupid enough to forget a weapon. You were well-justified.” It galled her to say it, but she had fucked up. Next time she wouldn’t.
And there would be a next time.
Something in her liked the idea of that, too.
15
Quinn
Someone had encroached into his territory and he’d missed them.
Quinn held onto that fact as he settled down in a recliner next to Jasper. Elijah fell into the one on his other side. They were all staring at the news going in front of them, hoping anything came up that they could understand.
But he was distracted by his mistake. An assassin coming for his female had walked into his territory and nearly killed her. Sombra had saved his mate’s life.
It caused anger to curl in the pit of his stomach. He’d never messed up so terribly, not even in the Amazon. Not ever. He didn’t get fooled or tricked like this. He was the most powerful Magi in North America that wasn’t a legend. This wasn’t supposed to be possible, him getting fooled by a cheap trick.
“Quinn, are you okay?” Elijah asked softly.
“No. I’m going to kill this Naseem if I ever see him again.” He meant every word of it.
“Me too,” his friend agreed. Quinn could hear the passionate truth in the quiet words.
“I can’t believe I was tricked, Elijah. I can’t believe it. No one has ever come onto this property without me knowing. No one, not even her. If anything, the more powerful the Magi, the better I know they’re there. He’s supposedly powerful and I had no idea.” Quinn bared his teeth as he looked down at his hands.
“No one knew, Quinn. No one could have known. Don’t let this get to you.” Elijah threw an arm over his shoulder. “No one is blaming you. We’re all fucking shaken. We all missed that someone was in the house.”
Quinn closed his eyes, growling. Elijah was right, but he needed to do something. He couldn’t just sit here in the quiet while Vincent tried to get ahold of James. He couldn’t just watch the news. “I think I should go out there and track him.”
“Absolutely not,” Vincent snapped from across the room. “We’re staying in this house, with each other, until dawn. No one is going out there to see if he’s still around.”
Quinn turned and looked at Vincent through the space between his recliner and Jasper’s, snarling. Vincent stared him down, the phone still to his ear. He resisted the urge to rumble the earth beneath, remind Vincent who was the more powerful Magi. He knew if he did it, Sawyer would feel it and come in, wondering what was wrong. She would agree with Vincent.
“Do you understand me, Quinn?” Vincent asked in a hard voice that Quinn hadn’t heard in a long time. Something else was on their leader’s mind. That meant this went beyond just an attacker and other possible victims. He wondered what Vincent was hiding. There was something, even if it was just a suspicion of his, that he hadn’t shared with the rest of them.
“I do,” he answered, looking away out of respect. He reached for his wolves, who were upstairs with Sombra. None of them wanted to come down. They were patrolling the house, finding the intruder’s scent and his path through the house. They were making sure no one else came in without them knowing.
Shade touched him back through the bond, a comforting brotherly poke. The wolves were okay. They would protect their cat if someone came back.
He cracked a small smile at that. Their cat, as Sawyer was his. They had competition. Kaar was also quite taken with the jaguar, even though she continuously tried to eat him. Not seriously, or the raven would have already been a snack, but more to torment the poor bird.
He liked the distraction of the animals. They knew something happened, and they had a reaction. Protect the pack. They knew he couldn’t tell if the man was there, so they would pick up the duty. It eased him a little.
“Fucking James. Finally!”
“You woke me up at three in the morning, why?” James groaned back. Quinn turned back to Vincent. The phone was on speaker for them to all hear.
“Naseem of the Triad broke in less than an hour ago and tried to kill Sawyer. She’s fine, he got away. No one was injured in the event except him. Sombra apparently got a bite in.”
There was silence from James.
“You’re kidding,” he whispered, sounding very awake now. Quinn could only imagine the shock their handler was feeling. The poor man was going to have a heart attack one day.
“No. And we don’t know who the other two victims might be. It wasn’t any of us. Only Naseem was here.”
“We need to get all of you in a safe house,” James said. “You know that already. What have you already planned?”
“I’m going to giv
e us until tonight to get out of here. I’m keeping everyone locked down in the house until dawn, then we need to move quickly to get everything we need for an extended stay away. And a move. We can’t live here anymore, obviously.” Vincent ran a hand through his hair. “James, you need to find who the other two victims are.”
“I will. I’ll also pick the safe house personally and only tell-”
“Tell no one. The Triad was hired, which means someone with wealth and power called for this.”
“How do you know they were hired?”
“He told Sawyer it was professional, not personal. That told her what she needed to know. To them, she was just another hit.”
Quinn was glad that Sawyer understood the terminology. He was catching up, but she was the expert on these sorts of things. For a moment, he realized he was on the back foot in the situation. She was the expert this time, not him. He was rarely the expert at anything concerning criminals and murders, but this was purely her domain like the Amazon had been his.
“Well, damn,” James muttered, barely loud enough for the other Magi to hear him. Quinn even had to strain his ears. “I’ll go into the office and find the Director immediately. He’ll need to know what happened, and it gives us a warning that two more either just happened or will happen before dawn. Fuck. Godspeed, you all. I’ll text you when I’m safely at the office and call after I’ve talked to Thompson.”
“Godspeed,” Vincent replied, hanging up. Quinn knew he didn’t believe in God, but he didn’t ask why he said it. “I’m going to check on Sawyer and Zander. Then I’m going to go upstairs and pack my bags. I recommend you all start doing the same.”
“Roger that, boss.” Elijah stood up, elbowing Quinn in the process. “You can help me, then we’ll get yours done.”
Quinn didn’t respond, standing up to follow Elijah out of the room. They glanced into the gym as Vincent went inside, to see Zander and Sawyer sparring. Jasper hobbled behind them.
“Did you get your leg on right?” Elijah asked, looking back.
“No, I was moving too quickly.”
The Redemption Saga Box Set Page 116