“Let the others know we have a late night mission tonight and be ready to move out of the townhouse when I say so.”
•●•
A quiet knock on the door woke Rei. He was on his side holding Skyla’s soft, warm, and very naked body tightly against his equally naked one. She moved her bottom a little, settling deeper against his cock. No surprise—his cock sprang alive immediately. He pressed his mouth on her shoulder while his hands moved over her perfectly firm breasts and taut stomach and began reaching for the treasure down below. Then the knocks came louder. He knew Skyla was exhausted by their marathon of lovemaking throughout the afternoon and evening. When they were finally sated with each other, they had sneaked down to the kitchen for food, but before he knew it, he had her spread out on the kitchen table, tasting the cream pie on her body before bending her over the kitchen table and taking her fast and hard from behind, like a starving man again. When he carried her out of the kitchen, she was half asleep in his arms. What he would give to carry her like that for the rest of their lives together. He gave her a soft, gentle hug and quietly got out of their warm bed. He grabbed his robe from the chair next to the bed, shrugging it on while opening the door. He was about to ask what was so urgent when Sloan’s fully-armored appearance stopped him mid-sentence.
His brother took a quick look over his shoulder, obviously seeing Skyla’s slumbering form under the sheet. He spoke quietly. “Tory just reported in. He saw Antonio and Fernando leaving the hotel together, heading downtown. Our guess is they’re heading to the Federal Reserve building again. Tonight is the last night of the negotiations before the president’s announcement of the New Deal in D.C. tomorrow.”
He nodded at his brother. Now or never. “Gather all our men except those on guard duty for the house. And find Knox. We’ll move out in five minutes.”
His brother raised his chin toward the room. “What about her?”
“Skyla’s asleep, exhausted from these past few days. She’ll be safe here with the remaining men patrolling the grounds.” A touch of emotion passed through Sloan’s eyes, eyes much like his own, except they were blue-gray, and now there was a hint of sorrow in them. But it was gone too quickly for Rei to be certain of it. There was no time now to dissect what Sloan was thinking. He trusted his brother would let him know of any problem he needed to be aware of.
He turned back to the bedroom and closed the door quietly. The fire pit was dying down now, and the room had become chilly. He wished he could climb back in bed with Skyla, make love to her again and again, until they were both exhausted. But he needed to neutralize the assassination attempt and deal with Fernando once and for all so that Elizabeth—Skyla—would finally be safe from the sick son of a bitch.
Skyla looked so young and innocent in her sleep, just like the Elizabeth he remembered, and nothing like the woman she had become. Bending down, he pressed a soft kiss on her mouth. His let his lips linger on hers longer than he should have. His cock was firing up again, just from tasting her silky soft lips, inhaling her warm scent. With great effort, he finally pulled himself away and went to the dressing room to get ready for the hunt.
•●•
Skyla was dreaming, not the black nightmare she had so often had after the coma but a sweet dream in which she and Rei were back home in the twenty-first century, living a normal life together. She was slowly waking up from the dream and was smiling when a whisper of movement by the window on the far wall froze her smile. Her combative instincts kicked in. Her hand reached for the gun underneath the pillow but found nothing there. Dammit, she was not in her room! She could sense the movement coming through the window now. Quietly rolling off the bed, she broke into a run for the connecting door to her room. But before she could push her feet off the lush carpet, all hell broke loose outside of the townhouse. Gunfire erupted, and a heavy stomping of boots sounded outside of the room. Whoever was inside the room no longer bothered to stay quiet. The dim light from the dying amber fireplace showed several men inside the room, closing in on her. Skyla swiftly kicked up both of her legs, connecting ferociously with hard muscles and bone. An oompf sounded in front of her followed by the loud thud of a body hitting the floor. Not waiting to see if there were any other threats coming at her, she pumped her legs and rushed into her room where her weapons were.
“Where is everyone?” she muttered to herself while grabbing her sweat pants and tank top off the dresser by her bed. It was strange that neither Rei nor Knox had charged in already. Had they gotten hurt while she was asleep? Not possible. She knew both men; they would die before letting anyone get this close to her, and she would have been woken up by the sound of any fierce fighting inside the townhouse. The only explanation left was that neither of them was in the house, which made no sense at all. Knox was her partner; TSCAA agents worked in pairs, and he wouldn’t have left her behind without telling her first. But she had spent all afternoon and evening in bed with Rei. It would have been hard for Knox to get to speak with her during those hours. The memories of how neither she nor Rei could contain their hunger and lust for each other made her blush all over again. He had made love to her ferociously and in every imaginable place they could find. Her instincts shook her. No time, must get out of here. Where were Rei and Knox?
Just as she was pulling out her Glock and her backup weapon from the drawer, both the connecting door and the bedroom door burst open. She spread her arms and pointed both guns straight at the men standing at the doors. Half a dozen of them in black garb spilled into her room, forming an offensive half circle with their rifles trained on her. Then an older man, dressed not in combat gear but in a suit, stepped through the bedroom door. The lights in the hallway shadowed his face. She held her handguns tightly, ready to shoot, even though the odds were stacked against her. She forced her heart to beat more slowly while assessing any possible weaknesses among the men standing in front of her. She had no doubt they would shoot her if she so much as moved a finger. Before she could come up with a counter-offensive plan, the older man slowly stepped out of the shadow. Gunfire from outside lit up her room intermittently. When the first shard of light casted on the man’s face, her blood turned cold.
“Elizabeth, at last.” The man curled up his lips into a cruel smile. He had the audacity to step up to her, reaching his hand out for her, raking a finger down her cheek. Fear permeated her; she was frozen by a fear that she had never wished to remember and had only had glimpses of in her blackest nightmares. Now the fear was right in front of her, gripping her tightly as the man laughed, an evil, confident laugh, laughing at her.
“Do you think I’d have stopped looking for what was mine, my dear Elizabeth?” And before she could master the overwhelming terror, two men seized her arms, squeezing her wrists with such force she was lucky no bones were snapped. The weapons fell out of her hands. The sharp pain jostled her from the black, bottomless pit of fear.
“Fernando.” The agent in her stood firm, and her voice dripped with repugnance and contempt. She refused to let him see her fear; she had firsthand knowledge of how much Fernando relished seeing the fear in his prey’s eyes. Then everything went dark.
•●•
Rei and his men surrounded the Federal Reserve building, ready to storm the place even if it meant blowing their cover in this time period; Rei no longer cared for subtlety nor for the gods’ edict of secrecy. He had to finish what he should have finished centuries ago, no matter what the cost would be. He was about to give his men the go signal when he saw a figure staggering in their direction from the waterfront. His men also saw the approaching figure and redirected their weapons toward it. Then one of his men shouted, “It’s Brandon.” The sight of his man half-bloodied, staggering toward them, sucked the air out of his lungs. Brandon was one of the men left patrolling the grounds at the townhouse.
Skyla…
“No.” He rushed down the street and caught Brandon just before his man fell to his knees. A few of his men followed him and formed a
protective circle around him and Brandon. He grabbed his best sniper’s shoulders. “What happened?” he demanded.
“We were attacked. Men came out of thin air, surrounded the townhouse.” Brandon winced while clutching his hand over the bleeding wound on his right arm, his rifle arm. “The four of us were pinned down by heavy gunfire behind the kitchen for about ten minutes, and then the intruders were all gone.”
“Skyla? Herbert?” He knew he shouldn’t be shaking Brandon when the extent of his injury was unknown.
Brandon looked straight into his eyes with pain and regret. “Herbert is okay. He was holed up in his room.” Then he swallowed hard. “But Skyla is gone. We searched everywhere inside and outside of the townhouse. All we found were her weapons on the floor in her room.”
“No…” Rei wanted to howl. It couldn’t be. He was supposed to keep her safe, to finish what he hadn’t centuries ago. It was a trap, a diversion so Fernando and his men could take her.
A demanding voice boomed behind him, “What happened? Is Skyla okay?” That was Knox, who was with another team waiting at the back of the building. He sounded as frantic as Rei felt. Rei looked up and saw the man’s face overcome with fear, very much like his own.
Before Knox said another word, he stood up and said quietly. “It was a setup.” Then he looked toward his brother, who was standing with the rest of his men, weapons in hands. If Rei had been in a clearer state of mind, he might have been warier of his brother. His brother was actually a colder, more cunning adversary than he was. But he did not care at all. He charged at him, crying out in agony and rage. And Sloan did not stop him, did not step aside from his flying fists. His brother did not even try to block the double blows Rei was pounding on his jaw and abdomen. “Why?” he yelled out, punching his brother again and again. Sloan staggered and fell on the ground, but he did not duck; he didn’t even try to block Rei’s onslaught of fury. If his men had not pulled him off, Rei would have killed his own brother right then and there.
His chest was heaving from rage at the betrayal by his own flesh and blood. He violently shook off the men who were still trying to hold him back. He looked down at his brother, whose proud, handsome face was oozing with blood from his severe blows. “Why?” His voice was shaking. He was still clenching his fists while fighting his baser instinct to pummel his brother for betraying him, for betraying his men, putting them all in danger. And he silently swore to the gods that if anything happened to Skyla or any of his men died from this, brother or no brother, he would kill Sloan with his bare hands.
“Why?” he asked again.
Sloan looked up at him, his eyes devoid of any expression, and raised his hand to wipe the blood off his nose and mouth. “Why? Because you’re leading us to damnation again, just like you did to our family and to our country. All again for the same woman!” Sloan was practically shouting. He got up and stood nose-to-nose in front of Rei. He turned his head to the side and spat out more blood. “Brother.”
Rei was surprised, yet not surprised, to hear such contempt in his brother’s voice. He had suspected Sloan had blamed him all these centuries for the fall of their father’s empire, for the deaths of their family and their countrymen, but never once had his brother said anything to him. Not once in the all these centuries had his brother said anything to him about their past, their loss, their eternal grief. Sloan always had his back through the countless battles over the centuries. Rei had never doubted his brother’s loyalty. He trusted his brother; his men trusted his brother. The taste of betrayal was so bitter that Rei had to swallow back the bile forming in his throat.
Before he could demand whether his brother had lost his mind, Sloan spoke again, pleading with him. “You must let Elizabeth go. She’s not worth sacrificing your life again, and you have our men’s lives to think of.” His brother grabbed his shoulder, shaking him. “She’s not worth losing all our souls. The gods will damn us all.”
A long stretch of silence passed. Rei finally said. “Leave. You’re not my brother anymore. Don’t let me see your face again. And if Skyla’s harmed in any way, I’ll hunt you down.” He curled his fists tightly at his sides, knowing otherwise he would begin pummeling his brother again. “You hear me? Leave!” This time he roared.
His brother stared back at him with disappointment and grief. The kind of grief Rei had seen only once in their lives together, when they had gone through the battlefield at the Last Battle, looking for survivors and finding none.
His own brother. They were the only two left of the royal line of the once-great Serbian Empire. Now he was banishing his own flesh and blood, the only family he had left. He said again, quietly, “Leave.”
He turned his back on Sloan, walking back to Brandon and Knox. For a brief moment, his men didn’t move. They were not sure what had just happened. For the first time in five hundred years, they saw Rei booting one of his men out, his own brother no less. But they recovered soon enough and followed Rei’s retreating shadow.
Once they were back at the townhouse, Knox went straight to the kitchen. Before opening a time-traveling portal, he turned to Rei. “Find her. Both of your destinies are held in your hands. But remember, she’s stronger than you think. I’ll come back with the team from the Agency.” Before Rei could ask him what he meant about both their destinies, Knox was gone.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Skyla slowly opened her eyes, the back of her head throbbing with a dull ache. She tried moving her arms and immediately realized they were held above her head. She tilted her head upward very carefully and saw her hands were bound together in leather against an iron headboard. She was in a sitting position on a soft feather bed. Kinky, she thought to herself…if she weren’t tied up against her will and if it had not been Fernando’s sick smile she’d seen just before something blunt hit the back of her head. She gave a sharp yank on the leather binding, but of course there was no give. The room was bare, no furniture except the bed she was in and a wooden chair not far from the foot. Exposed stones lined the walls, and a small window sat high above on the wall opposite of her. The room looked almost like a dungeon, a holding cell in some medieval castle. No… Could Fernando have taken her back to Florence, to his time period?
Then she heard the bell toll. She knew the booming sound all too well. She hadn’t heard it since she was a young girl. It was from the bell tower of the Duomo in the center of Florence. She and Papa had attended mass at Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, the locals called it Il Duomo, every Sunday. There was no doubt that Fernando had taken her back in time, to the time she was from, to the past she could no longer escape. A tidal wave of panic and fear was slowly choking her, choking Elizabeth. She bit down hard on her lower lip and drew blood on purpose, hoping the pain would have her agent’s instincts come alive. The fear was Elizabeth’s, from the girl who was helpless against a monster. But Skyla was no longer that girl, without the power to save herself, to save those whom she loved. Elizabeth was her past. Skyla was well trained for combat and covert operations. She had seen monsters and fought them. She was not afraid of another sick pervert, even though this psycho was after her personally, after Elizabeth. She could handle it, and no one would die on her watch.
Skyla forced her meditative breathing exercise to kick in. Finally, her racing heartbeat slowed down, and the roaring blood noise in her ears gradually subsided. Now that her head was clearer, she knew it was only a matter of time before Fernando would come for her.
Unlike the modern day metal handcuffs, there was really no way for her to pick the leather binding. It was sturdy and wide, covering almost a third of the length of her forearms. The leather was wrapped and sealed tightly with no visible opening. The chain that held up the binding was inserted inside the layer of the leather. She doubted even Houdini could get out of this. Fernando came prepared. He must have learned that part of Agency training included lock picking. Dammit. Now what?
Before she could continue her escape plan, the door creaked open. She
held her breath, expecting Fernando to walk through the door. Time’s up. She could feel Elizabeth’s fear taking over again. She took a deep breath in and mentally repeated to herself, to Elizabeth, that she was no longer the helpless girl Fernando expected. She would be okay. She could protect herself just as she had many times before on Agency missions.
It was her cousin walking through the door instead. Skyla let out the breath she didn’t know she was holding. A slight reprieve, definitely better than the alternative. Skyla frowned at him, waiting for him to try smooth talking her into going to Fernando’s bed willingly, as he had done so many times before when Elizabeth was still innocent, when Elizabeth still believed in happily ever after. To her surprise, Antonio just stood there staring at her. If she had not known better, she might have sworn she saw guilt and regret in her cousin’s chestnut brown eyes. They shared the same deep, dark brown eyes inherited from their fathers’ side of the family.
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