Den of Mercenaries [Volume Two]

by London Miller

  “Thank you?”

  “Right.” She smacked her forehead with the palm of her hand. “You probably don’t know who I am. I’m Winter, the hacker. Keeper of all things electronic. Defender against all things cyber.”

  “Ada,” she returned, finishing with, “former accountant.”

  “I know all about you, including that Skorpion has a thing for you. What’s he like anyway? I’ve only met him a few times in person.”

  The men were all terrifying, honed killers ready to do whatever was told to them, but the women that made up the Den were … odd.

  Calavera had looked like what Ada imagined a female mercenary to be, but she hadn’t acted like it. Winter, on the other hand, wasn’t anything like what she expected of a hacker.

  And her personality was far too bubbly and kind for the likes of someone that worked for the Kingmaker.

  “Nice to meet you, and he’s … great.” Better than she probably deserved, really.

  “Wicked. Right, so since you’re going to be sticking around, I probably should give you a tour of the place.”

  “Oh, that’s quite alright.” There wasn’t any part of this place she was desperate to see, and more, she was still wearing the tracking anklets the Kingmaker had put on her, and the last thing she wanted to do was end up somewhere he didn’t approve and get tased for it.

  “Nonsense,” Winter said with a wave of her hand, not taking no for an answer. “It’ll be fun.”

  Winter babbled on, seeming oblivious to the man who slipped into the room with hardly a sound, staying by the door with his arms folded across his chest. His gaze softened fractionally when he looked at Winter, but hardened once more as his gaze shifted back to Ada and stayed there.

  She was almost too wary to blink, not wanting to chance taking her eyes off him for a moment. If she had to guess, he was the one Keanu had told her about—Syn, she thought his name was—so if he was here, Keanu mush have been back, but the last thing she wanted to do was ask him.

  He had the same sort of uncanny focus as the Wild Bunch had, but there was something decidedly more menacing about his presence compared to them. Whereas it had felt almost clinical in their efficiency to bring her from her office back to this compound, the way he was staring at her made her think he didn’t fancy her being here at all.

  Even well across the room, he managed to make the short hairs of the nape of her neck stand on end.

  She’d thought Keanu could be intimidating when he glowered, but this was ... he was something else.

  Noticing that she hadn’t spoken in a while, Winter paused as she glanced back at the door, and instead of fear, she actually smiled excitedly at the man.

  “Syn—”

  “Didn’t I ever teach you not to talk to strangers?”

  His ireful tone didn’t seem to bother her at all. “If I didn’t talk to strangers, I wouldn’t have ever met you, would I? Besides, she’s practically family, or why else would Skorpion bring her here and say she was off-limits? Stop your grumbling.”

  Where the hell had Ada been during that conversation? And what gave Winter the impression he wanted to keep her? Protecting her until the Kingmaker had what he needed was a part of his job—he wasn’t doing this because of his feelings for her … she didn’t think.

  “Don’t worry about him,” Winter said looking back at her. “I’d like to tell you he’s not usually this grumpy, but … he is.”

  Ada didn’t get a chance to respond before Syn was speaking again. “Where’s that Romanian cunt of yours? Still lurking about?”

  Those words meant absolutely nothing to Ada, but they managed to wipe the smile off Winter’s face. One minute, she looked as if she had never frowned a day in her life, now she looked glacial and ready to do him harm.

  “I gave you a pass the first, I don’t know, thirty times you’ve said that since you’ve been here, but it’s getting old. Knock if off.”

  Ada waited for the moment Syn snapped back—something simmered just beneath the surface of his skin—but he remained rooted in place.

  “Just a question. No need to get your knickers in a twist about it.”

  Something unspoken passed between the two of them, but Ada didn’t know either of them well enough to figure out what it was, but if she had to wager a guess, it had something to do with the Romanian Syn mentioned.

  She was quickly forgotten as the two glared at each other, their now hushed voices as Winter crossed the room still loud enough for her to hear.

  “You don’t have to like him, Syn, but you could at least not be a dick all the time. It’s not that hard.”

  The leather bracelets circling his wrists slid down as he unfolded his arms. “That wasn’t part of the arrangement, little miss. And no, I don’t like him, just so we’re clear.”

  “Are you serious? So what, if you can’t have me all to yourself, you’re going to make everyone’s life a living hell?”

  Syn shrugged. “You got wanted you wanted though, eh? Damn the rest of us.”

  “No, only you because you’re the only one that seems to give a shit about my sex life. In case you’ve forgotten, I’m an actual person, not just an extension of you.”

  “You’re right there, you made your loyalties quite clear.”

  “Jesus, Syn! Why does it have to be one or the other? Why are you being so fucking selfish?”

  “I’ve always been selfish though, haven’t I? I was being selfish when I saved your life at the bar and when I made sure you had everything you could possibly want, anyone else be fucking damned. But now that you’re not getting what you want from me, now you think I’m being bloody selfish?”

  As invested as she was in their conversation and all that it implied, Ada also wanted to sink into the couch cushions and become invisible. She shouldn’t have been privy to this. It was too personal. Too private.

  But thankfully, she was saved when the door came swinging open and Keanu stood there, his gaze coming to her first before going back to Syn and Winter.

  “You two having another lover’s quarrel?”

  Winter was the first to break the staring contest between her and Syn. “He’s an asshole and I’m done.”

  “Wouldn’t be the first time,” Syn shot back with a shrug of his shoulder.

  He didn’t blink as Winter stuck her middle finger up at him before leaving the room. Syn lingered for a moment longer, his frown growing more pronounced before he, too, left the room and walked the opposite way from Winter, reaching for the cigarette he had tucked behind his ear.

  “He’s terrifying, you know.”

  “Give it some time, he’ll grow on you. They’re just having a … thing.”

  “How was it?” she asked, slipping her hand into his as he helped her to her feet.

  “Could’ve been worse, but it’s handled. Now I just need to work through the remainder of the list.”

  “Tonight?” she asked, already thinking of the little room on the floor above.

  “Tomorrow,” he corrected. “Tonight, I’m taking you back to my place.”

  She thought of asking questions, but knew that if it wasn’t safe, he wouldn’t be suggesting it. “Are they going to be okay?”

  “Syn and Winter? This is their thing. They’ll figure it out.”

  Ada wasn’t so sure.

  Chapter 16

  Ada could hear the ocean as soon as she stepped out of Keanu’s car. Waves crashing into the shore, salt in the air, the soft cry of a seagull—it felt like home.

  The house itself was nestled amongst a line of them, all built with flooding waters in mind with steep stairs leading from the sandy beaches to the front doors.

  Seeing him walking ahead of her, Ada was struck by the reminder that not even a few weeks ago, he’d always made sure she never stood at his back, but now he didn’t even turn around as she trailed behind him upstairs.

  The thought made her smile because it meant, if only a little, he was starting to trust her.

  Once
he had the door open, Keanu turned off the alarm and without giving her a chance to take anything in, he led her through the foyer, across the living room, and into his bedroom.

  Though the jungle house was his, she understood now why it had still been used as a safe house. Nothing personal was there, not even in his own room, but here, she could see the evidence of the life he led outside the Den of mercenaries.

  Including the silver framed picture of him and Soleil. She couldn’t have been more than four years old, smiling happily as they sat on a Harley Davidson motorcycle.

  “Give me ten,” he said before disappearing into the bathroom, the shower cutting on soon after.

  As she settled on the bed, she wondered if he’d done anything to warrant his shower. She hadn’t seen any blood on him, but he had years of experience hiding it if he wanted to.

  It would be so easy to ask him once he was back in front of her, but it wasn’t a question of whether he would tell her, but rather if she wanted to know.

  She could just as easily leave it alone and not ask questions for her own peace of mind, but the idea of not knowing the danger he was in only seemed to make her worry more.

  Steam wafted out of the bathroom as the door came open again. Keanu walked out with a towel wrapped around his waist, another in his hand as he rubbed it over his damp hair.

  She didn’t think she would ever get used to the sight of him, as powerful and beautiful as he was.

  He grinned at her as he came over, undoubtedly aware of the effect he had on her. It wasn’t a walk per se, or even a strut, he prowled.

  The look he was sending her way made her acutely aware of what he had in mind, long before he got one knee on the bed and hooked his fingers around her ankles, dragging her down the bed to him.

  “I thought you needed to concentrate,” she whispered, dragging her fingers along the stubble on his jaw.

  “I’m multitasking.”

  * * *

  “Damn, I owe Syn a hundred bucks,” Winter said absently as she walked in behind her, her gaze bouncing from one thing to the next.

  “Why?” Ada asked before she had another thought. “Did Keanu send you here to babysit me?”

  Keanu had disappeared sometime in the wee hours of the morning, leaving her with explicit instructions to take it easy and not leave the house.

  Her new normal.

  For the last hour, she’d been upstairs passing the time when banging at the front door startled her to her feet. Figuring anyone that was trying to kill her wouldn’t bother with knocking, she’d quietly walked downstairs and checked the peephole—only seeing silver hair considering how short the girl was—and opened the door for Winter.

  She’d hardly waited for an invitation before she was walking inside, seeming as curious about Keanu’s place as she’d been.

  “Of course not, but even if he did, I’m an absolute joy to be around,” she finished on a mumble, opening a number of doors and peeking in. “I never took him for much of a decorator though.”

  “Have you never been in his place before?”

  “Skorpion is notoriously cagey about where he lives and his overall privacy. I mean, I hacked his video feeds once just to have a look around—don’t tell him about that, by the way—but I try to respect the mercenaries’ spaces and all that. Most of the time.”

  She hadn’t considered that they weren’t all just one big family considering how close they’d seemed back at the compound.

  “Is this what it’s always like?” Ada asked, not quite sure where the question had come from, but even still, she looked back, hoping Winter had an answer. “Do you just sit and wait?”

  Winter was young, evidenced by her style and the personality that had yet to be tainted by years spent experiencing life, but in that moment, she looked older, wiser. “This is the hardest part—not so much the waiting. Trust me, I’ve hacked into plenty of government websites to hunt down data and believe me that takes patience, but this … this isn’t waiting. This is hoping. You wonder whether they’re going to come back—whether they’ll be okay if they do. But as quickly as that thought is there, you say fuck it and hope they come back at all, hurt or not.”

  She sighed, glancing over at the door as if she couldn’t help herself. “I’d tell you it gets better—that you’ll stop worrying when he walks out the door—but I’ve worried about Syn for years and now Raz … it doesn’t get any easier. I still worry just as much then as I do now.” Her smile was a little sad and a lot wistful. “But that’s the life, isn’t it?”

  Ada was speechless, not sure how to respond. And more than ever, she wished Winter was wrong.

  Worse, she realized that because of her, he was back in it.

  He’d been enjoying his life with Soleil, being a father to her. He hadn’t needed to worry about men trying to kill him in public restrooms, or making deals with criminals to get out of a hit being put on his life.

  Now, he was right back in the thick of it.

  Because of her. It wasn’t just him she’d dragged into danger, but Soleil too.

  Somehow, she would make this right.

  She just needed to figure out how.

  “Wait, so you’re not with Syn?”

  “Oh, no, he’s like a brother to me. A brother I kinda slept with, but brother all the same. Wow, that came out wrong.”

  Despite herself, Ada laughed. “Is that why he’s … intense?”

  “Not at all. He’s a few screws loose of a whole machine. Is that a saying? No? Anyway, once you get to know him, he doesn’t get better, exactly, but you learn to ignore his temperament.”

  Ada wasn’t so sure about that, but Keanu seemed to like him just fine, so maybe he did grow on you … with time.

  Multiple footsteps in the hallway had her drawing in an audible breath and just out the corner of her eye, she could see the way Winter’s shoulders relaxed.

  Keanu was the first through the door, Syn not far behind. Her eyes quickly scanned over him from top to bottom, noting the small scratch on his arm, but otherwise, he was unharmed.

  The relief she felt was almost too much. And before she realized she was doing it, she was on her feet and reached for him.

  Confusion made his brows draw together, but the expression cleared quick enough as understanding dawned. “There’s nothing to worry about.”

  She wished she could believe that.

  She wished it was that easy, but she knew it would never be.

  Not when you were a mercenary working for the Kingmaker.

  “I’ll just be glad when this is all over,” she mumbled against his chest, not even sure if he’d heard her.

  But he did—he always did. “Soon, but you have to answer a question for me first.”

  She pulled away. “Ask me.”

  “Who all knew about the theft?”

  “No one … I never told a soul. Belladonna already knew. She came to me, as I’ve said.”

  “And no one else?” He looked puzzled.

  “No. Why are you asking?”

  “You gave me seventeen account numbers.”

  Something about the look on his face made her wary. “I did …”

  “But as far as I can find, only sixteen have issued some kind of threat to you.

  “Maybe the last hasn’t checked their account?” she suggested, though that didn’t sound right to her either.

  If sixteen knew, they all had to know—the news would travel far and wide—and considering the amount she’d stolen from each of them, it was unlikely they would just write it off with no repercussions.

  Examples always had to be made.

  “Which begs the question—” Keanu started before she finished for him, “—whose the seventeenth client?”

  * * *

  Make yourself at home.

  How could such a simple concept seem so terrifying?

  Ada might have been living out of a suitcase for more than a month now, and it would have been nice to feel as if she was stable for the f
irst time in a long while, but she couldn’t say how long that stability would last.

  She was overthinking those four little words he’d offered her before disappearing back out the door and for the life of her, she wished she wasn’t. Not to mention, now was not even remotely appropriate to be thinking about futures and possible relationships when there were people quite literally hunting her down to kill her.

  The last thing she needed to be thinking about was Keanu and the thing they shared.

  To put it out of her mind, she hung a few things away and set her suitcase aside before taking the assortment of clothes she’d worn down in Hawaii to the washer and dryer stacked in the room next to the kitchen.

  Once she had the first load in the washer, she ventured back into the living room and turned on the television just to have noise in the background as she tidied and found her way around by putting things away.

  By the time she was finished and the room smelled of lemon and vanilla, Ada wasn’t thinking of anything other than relaxing on the couch and closing her eyes for a bit.

  Until she heard a phone ringing.

  She sat up with her eyes narrowed, trying to pinpoint the source of the noise. It wasn’t a house phone, that she could see still sitting on the mantel of the fireplace undisturbed.

  Jumping to her feet, she hurried in the direction of it, finding Keanu’s duffel bag near the back door. Had he forgotten his phone? She could have sworn she’d seen him using his before he left that morning.

  She rooted through his clothes until she found a small bag—a bag that had her license, credit cards, and to her surprise, her phone sitting inside it.

  More surprising, however, was the name displayed on the screen.

  She remembered his rules about not using any electronic devices, and maybe later she would worry about whether he would be upset or not, but for the moment, she dug the phone out and answered the call.

  “Marie?”

  “Bloody hell it’s about time you answered. Are you here already or close by?”