The Laughing Assassin [Assassin's Diary] (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Jennifer Willows

  “I’ll be back shortly,” he said to her and looked at the guard again. “She is not to be touched in any way while I speak with the patron.”

  The guard nodded as if he understood, but Jaden didn’t hear the man verbally confirm the request. That was enough to put her on high alert. “Sun and Fire, take Mr. Blue’s slave to the waiting room.”

  Two perfectly matching bookends of women walked with her back down the corridor. They wore no clothing, save a set of manacled anklets that sported bells like the ones that belly dancers preferred. The women both had hair dyed fire-engine red that fell to their hips, and each had a matching brand on the right shoulder. The symbol was strange, but she knew it from somewhere. She couldn’t recall, and she decided to let the sense of déjà vu pass while she thought her next move out.

  Jaden kept her head low and watched everything around her, and she felt the beginnings of an idea tickle her brain. The women stopped and opened the door to a small room just on the outskirts of the spiraled labyrinth of hallway. The red twins bade her to sit and wait as they left the room, though her instincts told her that they were given instructions to stand outside of the door. She looked around the room covertly in case she was being watched and plotted escape from the plush dungeon prison.

  But her gut told her that she couldn’t wait any longer and that something was terribly wrong. She had to leave now. Whatever happened, she had to get to Jonah. He may have only been out of her sight for fifteen minutes, but Jaden had a bad feeling about the entire setup.

  Chapter Fifteen:

  Best Laid Plans

  Jonah knew he was being set up for something, though he wasn’t sure what. His identity was tight, and he knew the original performer, Lanham, couldn’t have rolled over on him. The man was still in lockdown with some of the away team. But if not Lanham, then who set him up?

  He walked alongside the guard and kept his ears and eyes open for any knowledge he could glean from the surroundings. Jaden was all that mattered. At the moment, he had no choice but to leave her nearly defenseless and alone. The handful of twists and turns he had to take to make it to where he was headed were simple, and he could make his way back to her, no matter how he had to make it happen. Jonah would kill every person on this island bare-handed to make it happen.

  She was on the other side of the dungeon, but she could take care of herself just as well as he could. And that was the only thought that kept him sane. When he was directed to a small doorway just to the left of where he and Jaden performed, he was sure he was about to be ambushed.

  But when the door opened he saw an older man, maybe in his fifties or even sixty-five with good living. He knew this man from somewhere. The man still wore his mask the same as Jonah did. All possible clues to identities were closely concealed with the execution as the leader of this group was smart and wily.

  “Have a seat and cigar, Mr. Blue.” Jonah didn’t want to sit down, as the single chair was poorly positioned and his back would be to the door.

  But he knew he had little choice. If he moved the seat, he may have to answer questions that may not be in the man’s mind this moment or give his training away. “So I can presume you are Mr. Black?” At the man’s nod in agreement, Jonah continued. “I’ll take the seat, but no cigar. Thank you anyway.”

  “They are Cuban. It’s your loss.”

  “I don’t personally smoke, but the smell is not offensive.” The man gave a large belly laugh as he puffed the fat stub of tobacco. The pungent scent of the smoke let Jonah know that it was indeed a Cuban, and the best quality at that.

  “I saw that nothing at tonight’s showing was to your liking. That actually distresses me, as your payment was a discount from your personal purchase.”

  “No. The women tonight were for the most part naïve or spineless. Plus, I like my slaves with a bit more meat on their bones. Makes it easier to mark their flesh. Perhaps we can see next time what you have to offer.” Jonah thought that this may work out perfectly. It would leave him an open window of opportunity to return to another auction, and maybe the next time he could have a Special Ops team clean up behind him. Then the team could end this mess once and for all.

  That was until the next one arose from the ashes of this group and started the process all over again. But next time, Jonah planned to let someone else deal with it.

  “Ah. You mean like the one you performed with? She has heavy curves, and she is richly sensual. Which actually brings me to the reason for my request”—the man smiled as if he asked politely, when in fact he made a demand that Jonah reluctantly acceded to—“for this unsolicited meeting. I want your slave.”

  “Excuse me, but she is not for sale at any price.” The query took him aback slightly, as he wasn’t expecting it. He had a feeling that this would require more than a firmly spouted simple brush-off to quell, however.

  He was right. “Everything has a price, and she would be a pleasure to break. Name yours, Blue.”

  “My slave was not brought here to be auctioned. She came as a guest of the compound.”

  “Not even five million dollars would change your tune?”

  “Not even then.”

  “Ten?”

  “It doesn’t matter what you offer. She is not for sale. I came to make a purchase, not to sell any of my own stock. She is perfectly trained to my liking, and I will not waste my investment in her and train another.”

  “What about for the night?”

  “Not even then.” Jonah stood and bowed before the man. “If that is all?”

  “You should have taken my offer. At least then I would have some reason to trust you. I know one thing…” The man’s words trailed off into the air as if he waited for Jonah to take the apparent bait the lack of words offered.

  It couldn’t hurt to play the game by the man’s rules. Jonah would just change them later when it was feasible. “Yes?” he queried, and left the nature of the response just as open-ended as the statement it answered.

  “I don’t know who you are, but I do know who you aren’t.” No sooner than Black finished speaking, Jonah knew that his odds of escaping this mission unscathed were slim to none. But how?

  “I don’t understand.” Jonah didn’t, and the statement was as innocuous as possible.

  “That would make sense, considering that I haven’t explained it all to you.” Black shrugged one silk-clad shoulder. “No matter. All I do know is that I found a woman specifically requested by my entertainer, yet there was not one bid on her by the man who made the request. That in itself is a reason for concern. Especially when I think of the favors I had to call in to bring her here.”

  Fuck! Jonah thought, Lanham had truly found a way to set him up, and all without ruffling the cozy nest he had as evidence. The one simple piece of information was crucial, and Jonah didn’t have it, nor did the man offer it up during any of the conversations they had. I will slit Lanham’s throat for this.

  Who did Lanham want? Was it Iris? Or the meek blonde? What was her name?

  Jonah tried a quick descent into levity with a small joke. “I decided not to purchase her, and I didn’t see that it was an issue. You certainly made enough money in the bidding that my lack of participation was no deterrent from her sale.” The attempted levity seemed to fall flat, as if the punch lines were lost amid the weight of the truth and the lies built in to his cover identity.

  “That is true, but I rigged the bids for you to get her at the agreed-upon price. Not to mention, that was very disrespectful. I was forced to use favors that I wanted to hold onto for a later date with some influential persons to capture the most prized Princess Jewel and pluck her from her white bed filled with stuffed animals. Not to mention that she would have gone for much more if her true identity was revealed. So I lost in more than one way, due to your change of heart.” Until now, Jonah had no idea the first girl, dubbed “Iris” was actually Jewel Oxendine, a former child star, heiress, and current cosmetics mogul whose products were worn by almos
t any teenaged girl in dozens of countries across the world.

  There had been rumors about her recent disappearance, though none were substantiated, and it was assumed Jewel was on sabbatical. But it appeared that everyone, especially the tabloids, were wrong.

  The young woman was reputed to be a virgin, although claims were made frequently about many males who supposedly had the privilege of divesting the girl of her chastity. And now, America’s sweetheart was in the hands of monsters who would have no problem using the beauty until her mind and body became housed as separate things entirely.

  Not to mention, his cover was blown sky high. The mission was screwed, and he was fucked, with a capital F.

  Jonah heard the door open behind him, even though the heavy wood made no true sound. But when he turned to face the threat, he was outnumbered five to one. He had seen worse odds, but he would have to be tricky about it due to the guns they all trained on him.

  Jonah had to own up to the disgust that rolled over him as one of the interchangeable steroid junkies cuffed his wrists behind his back. Before he was led away, Black gave a last order.

  “Remove that mask, will you? And make certain to leave something for me to interrogate later.” The command chilled Jonah to the bone as he tried to cobble a plan that would leave him and his operative alive to see another day. When the satin fabric was lifted over his face, Jonah battled the urge to squint, as if the unveiling left him blinded by sunlight.

  Black gasped audibly at the reveal, and the errant inhalation was a mere hiss of air that spoke volumes. But the sound seemed stunned to Jonah’s ear, and in that moment he learned something of vital importance. Black knew who Jonah was. And the relationship between them was more than that of simple acquaintances, or that of a person who read the newspaper and had seen him on the society pages during Jonah’s notorious youthful antics.

  “Actually…” Black paused as if unsure what he was going to do next. “Take him away. But don’t hurt him just yet. I want to ask him something first.” The men complied, but their handling of him was rougher after the request was made by their employer for an eleventh-hour appeal.

  But that still left the question, who was Black exactly? And just how did he know Jonah?

  As much as Jonah paid attention to the world around him, he couldn’t determine who Black was. Nothing about the man rang a single bell. What was visible around the edges of the domino could belong to tens of thousands of white males between the ages of thirty and fifty across the known world. Black’s voice was not even distinctive enough to make a determination as to the man’s real identity. But if he lived through this, Jonah would find out who this man was if it was the last thing he did.

  As Jonah was certain he knew the man before him personally. Black could have very well met his sister MacLeigh and decided to take her the same way he’d taken Jewel. And his family would have never known that the monster responsible lurked within their midst. Who was he? The question peppered him over and over until he had a headache from his own mental bludgeoning.

  It would take him only a minute to pick the lock on the handcuffs with the links holding the shirtsleeve closed, but at least five more to dispose of the men. In that amount of time, there would be additional reinforcements rallied. Not to mention that he had to get back to Jaden before he could make his great escape. And every second that passed by reduced the already-slim window he worked with.

  Damn it, Jonah thought as he balled his fists in frustration. He just needed some of the men behind him to pay a little more attention to something aside from him. Even a moment’s diversion would do, but he knew one thing for sure. Jonah couldn’t afford to let the guards take him to wherever they were headed. If he was herded to the chosen location, his chances of escape would be reduced to nil, as they would have all the advantages instead of just some.

  He caught a whiff of vanilla, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. Jaden was near. He could feel her, smell her. How did she manage that? Only a split second later he heard a sickening crunch that could only be one thing. He had heard the pop of broken necks several times before, and usually it was an up close and personal type of sound. The best way he could describe it was the crunch of a chicken wing, when the cartilage was torn away from the bone during consumption.

  But just a second after the crackle of vertebrae, all hell broke loose. There were two guards in front of him. Both turned swiftly, they pointed their weapons behind him, and he knew they were gunning for her. But she had a handle on the situation. From the pained grunts and meaty thuds, he knew she used one of the men behind him as a shield and the man took each bullet aimed at her.

  Jonah crooked his ankle and pulled the guard to his left off of his feet. The falling guard took his companion out by accident on the way down, and the other guard tumbled to the ground. He gave a swift punt with his leg to the man’s chest that sent the unlucky recipient into the brick wall to his back. The man didn’t bother to get up, as he was incapacitated with a healthy blow to the head on the way down.

  He dislocated his shoulders and looped his arms around his head so that he could get the limbs in front of him where they could be of some use.

  Jaden had quickly disposed of the other three guards, and as she turned in his direction, he saw the one man left aimed his weapon at her. Everything seemed impossibly slow in that moment, and his body raced through a quagmire of quicksand into action. Jonah no longer had time to free himself, and he jumped, a ricochet of motion using the wall as a catapult with his arms extended. The full force of his body rammed the guard in the side and sent them both flying. Jonah saw the gun change directions as the guard jostled from the blow. The man’s hand squeezed the trigger pointed toward him, and he knew that he was about to take a bullet.

  “No!” he heard Jaden scream as she fired a quick retort with her weapon, and he tried to turn, but the projectile was faster than he was.

  He crashed to the floor, and the first thought he had was that he got lucky yet again. The bullet passed through his shoulder, and if he was a hair slower he would have been shot in the neck.

  But on second thought…

  Jonah could feel himself bleeding much faster than he could really stand to lose. Jaden dropped her stolen gun at his side just before she ripped the sleeve from his shirt and wrapped the fabric under his armpit then tied the cloth wicked tight over the wound.

  When she finished cobbling together his makeshift tourniquet, Jaden helped him stand up. His motions were clumsy, and he mentally blamed the floor slick with his blood. But that excuse was exposed for the thin lie it was when she grabbed the gun with sure movements and no hesitation. As they walked away, she tucked the semi between her breasts in the bandeau top. He only had enough time to hope she had the safety on before she shot herself.

  It hurt like hell, but hopefully the quick tourniquet would be enough to slow the blood loss. She grabbed his uninjured arm with her free hand and kicked her shoes off. She ran fast as the wind, navigating the turns and twists in the labyrinth as if possessed. She refused to let him slow down and even dragged him even at some points.

  When they were close to the exit, she put a finger to her lips and opened a closet door just feet from the entry.

  “Wait here.” She only took a split second to pick the lock on his cuffs before she handed him the pistol, still warm from her skin, and kissed his fingers on both hands.

  Before she could turn away, he stopped her. “No, Jaden, don’t go. Just let me come up with a plan. We can make this work.” He hated the fact that he was too weak to help her the way she needed to be helped. There had to be something he could do, even injured as he was.

  “Jonah, all you can do right now is slow me down and get us both killed in the process. You’re lucky to be standing right now. You’ve lost too much blood, and we left a very noticeable trail.” With those words, she was gone, and the scent of vanilla slowly vanished with her departure. He knew she was right. Even now his heart beat much
too fast, and the flurries in his vision told him that he needed medical attention.

  One minute turned into two and then five. Jonah was worried, and he was fading fast.

  * * * *

  Jaden knew Jonah was going to be worried, but her plan would work. All she had to do was backtrack to her shoes and lead a few false trails along the way. The faux tracks were created with Jonah’s blood and her own bare feet. She didn’t have the time to make the dead end of tracks too intricate, but the added step should have given her the few extra minutes she bartered for.

  Jaden knew what she was looking for, and she opened the door to the basement exit. It wasn’t at the same end of the subterranean floor as the closet she left Jonah within, but Jourdain had one just like it in his compound. As a matter of fact, it was the one she used to gain entrance to the deceased’s lair in the first place. Security measures always were for people breaking in, but not usually for those exiting, and she hoped that she was right in this case as well.

  Along with the guns she had taken from the dead guards, she had also taken the man’s phone. She texted Armand and Juliette with the emergency message and her personal agent code, as they would be the only members close enough to help her with Jonah.

  The reply message was brief and distorted from code, but it let know her what she needed to, namely the GPS position tag for rendezvous and the ETA of their arrival. Jaden ran back through the basement and got ready to roll a few heads. The operations room was close-by, and she needed to get the data first. The security office she passed by on her search for Jonah, and she had already sent out a fake message to patrolling guards to check a problem on the south side of the isle amid the departing purchasers. Although luck shone on them, as half of the hired men were in the process of transporting the buyers and auctioned stock off the island. That was the only reason there was as little opposition as there was before, and she was sure her ruse would be discovered shortly.