“Marie, I need you to find the nearest restroom and wait in there until I get to the airport.”
“Why the hell would I do that?”
“Because I’m asking you to, please. Just do it. I’m on my way now. If someone tries to talk to you that doesn’t work for the airport, run as far as you can, I’ll be there soon.”
“Jesus, Ada. What’s happening?”
She’d tried to keep the panic out of her voice, but she was too afraid of what this meant. Whoever had summoned her here already had a head start and there was a chance that they were already there waiting.
She needed to go.
“I’ll be there as soon as I can. Just stay hidden, okay?”
She hung up without waiting for her sister’s reply,
She didn’t care that she was dressed in pajamas and didn’t have any shoes on, she ran through the house, searching for keys—any keys—that she could find. A set hung from a hook in the kitchen, and as she ventured down into the garage, she found three cars lined up side by side.
She hit the key fob until the headlights of one flashed in the darkness. It was an older car whose engine growled once she shoved the key in and started it up.
It was a forty-five minute drive to the airport, less if she put her foot down and ignored every street sign until she got to the airport, but in the mean time, there was one other thing she needed to do.
Keanu had made her memorize his number in case she ever needed to contact him. Though she’d thought it was a bit silly at first, now she was grateful he had.
As she came to a red light, she dialed his number and put the phone on speaker, counting down the seconds as it rang and rang until finally, the call connected.
“Should I even ask how you found this?” he asked, sounding more amused than he did angry.
“Someone tricked my sister into coming here,” she said without preamble. “She’s at the airport now and I took your car, but I don’t know how long it’ll take me to get there. And—”
“Ada, you have to slow down, babe. Take a breath.”
She sucked in an audible one, resisting the ridiculous urge to cry. Tears wouldn’t help her now and she had no time for them. “Marie is here. Someone pretended to be me to lure her here and I have to get to her before they do.”
“Where are you now?”
“On the interstate,” she answered just as she merged to do just that.
“When you get her, go directly back home, you hear me? I’m on my way.”
He didn’t say if, he said when, and already that made her feel marginally better. “If something were to—”
“Nothing’s going to happen. Don’t even finish that thought. I’m too far away to get to you in time or else I would handle it. Breathe, okay?”
Ada nodded, though he couldn’t see her, furiously wiping away the tears starting to spill over.
It would be fine.
Marie would be fine.
Keanu stayed on the phone with her until she arrived at the airport, parking in the first available spot she could find, then taking off across the lot toward the front entrance. Despite her desperate need to run through the airport calling for her sister, she knew it wouldn’t do her any good if she was detained by security.
Instead, she called Marie again and tried to remain calm.
“Are you here yet?” Marie asked the second the call connected, just the sound of her voice enough to quell some of her panic.
“I’m at the front.”
“Alright, I’m coming that way now.”
Words couldn’t describe the worry and fear she felt each second that passed as she waited to see her sister in the faces of the crowd. She had never really been the praying sort, but now, her heart in her throat, she prayed to whoever was up there that her sister would be okay.
It couldn’t have been more than a minute, though it felt like hours, before Marie appeared, an Adidas hat covering her dark hair as she lifted her hand in a slight wave, though her expression was a mix of confusion and relief.
“What was all that about?” she asked once she was within reaching distance.
Ada didn’t answer, just pulled her into a quick hug, breathing out a sigh of relief before she gripped her hand and practically ran them out of there and back to the car.
Only once they were safely inside with the doors locked and driving off did she finally take a second to take a proper breath.
“Jesus, Ada,” Marie said as she snapped on her seatbelt. “Are you on the run or something?”
Her fingers tightened around the steering wheel. She knew she couldn’t withhold the truth anymore, that she had to tell her the truth if only so she knew to be cautious.
“I have a confession to make,” she whispered, though she knew Marie could hear her, “but you’re not going to like what I’m going to say.”
“Go on then.”
“You know I work as an accountant, right?”
“For rich arseholes. Yeah, I know. Mum told me.”
“That’s not quite the truth.”
And before she could talk herself out of it, Ada spilled everything.
Over the course of the drive, as she confessed to every detail of the last five years, Ada expected her sister to frown, tell her how much an idiot she’d been, or even ask questions at the very least, but Marie did none of the above.
She sat in silence until they pulled back up to the beach house where Keanu was already waiting, leaning against the Mustang with shiny blue paint. He, at the very least, was able to get a reaction out of her as she blinked twice
As she parked, Ada made no move to get out, nor did Marie.
“Say something, please.”
“Is he the … mercenary, did you say?”
“Keanu,” she said again, “and he is.”
“Just so I’m clear. You stole a bunch of money to pay for dad’s care and to keep us afloat for the last year, and your boyfriend is a mercenary that works for the man threatening you. Is that right?”
“In so many words, but Keanu isn’t my boyfriend.”
“No?”
Unfortunately. “No.”
“Then he must be getting paid an arse load of money to do all of this. I have to say, the story you just told me was wild from start to finish,” Marie said thoughtfully, unbuckling her seatbelt. “At least now I won’t get a lecture from you about smoking pot.”
Ada might have laughed if she wasn’t so relieved. “You’ve started smoking?”
“Oh, don’t look at me like that. There’s literally a mercenary standing over there with God knows what in the trunk of his car. If I wanted to do cocaine, you still couldn’t talk.”
And to think, she’d thought she wouldn’t respond well.
“But seriously,” Marie went on, her expression serious. “What do we do now?”
“Dad’s care is—”
“I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about you. You said there are people out there trying to kill you and hurt me, at the very least, considering they brought me out here too.”
“Keanu is handling it.”
“Well, it’s about time I meet him, isn’t it?”
Marie was out of the car before she could respond, happily walking up the driveway to his side. Even from her vantage point, she could see the surprise in her little sister’s eyes as she realized just how massive he actually was. His face morphed into a smile as she got close before he was pulling her into a hug.
As Ada was walking up, she caught the end of Marie asking, “How many more of you are there?” before looking back at Ada and mouthing, ‘I’ll take seven.’
“We’re going to find you someone nice and boring.”
Marie pouted playfully as she started into the house behind Keanu. “Why do you get to have all the fun?”
Keanu showed her to one of the spare bedrooms before coming back to Ada, his presence enough to ease the rest of the anxiety she felt.
“It’s almost over,” he whispered
before pressing a kiss to her lips.
“I wish I didn’t feel so helpless.” This was her mess to clean up, yet she was the only one that seemed to be staying out of harm’s way.
“You’re doing exactly what I need you to do,” he said as if he could read her thoughts. “As long as you’re safe, I can concentrate.”
“Okay.” She thought of what Marie had said in the car. “How much are you getting paid?”
“Hmm?”
“For me. For this. How much does the Kingmaker pay you to be my bodyguard and work out arrangements with the—”
“I’m not getting paid for that, babe.” His gaze darted over her face before his expression softened. “Why don’t you ask me what you really want to know?”
It was right there on the tip of her tongue—whether what they had meant to him what it meant to her—but before she had the chance to ask, his phone rang, ending the moment.
Seemingly reluctant, he glanced at his phone. “I have to take this. Stay—”
“In the house. I know the routine. Come back in one piece.”
With one last quick kiss, he was back out the door. Ada stood there for a long while looking after him, thinking of everything that had yet to be said before she sighed and went in search of her sister.
Chapter 17
Driving home, Keanu couldn’t have looked down for more than a second before his gaze was back on the road—and on the man suddenly standing in the middle of the street, an assault rifle in his hands.
He slammed his foot on the brakes, a low curse leaving his lips as he twisted the wheel at the last minute, narrowly avoiding mowing the crazy bastard down. As he came to a jerking stop, his heart pounding in his chest, he ripped off his seatbelt and got out of his car, ready to lay into the man who was stupid enough to be standing in the middle of the road at night.
For a second, he thought maybe the man wanted to die, that he’d been waiting for someone, anyone, to come down this road unaware and slam into him, but as he turned, his mouth already opening with what he wanted to say, the headlights illuminated the man and one look at him told Keanu he’d been wrong.
Dressed all in black, a war vest on his chest, and an assortment of weaponry strapped to his chest, he wasn’t standing there because he expected to die.
The Jackal, as he’d been dubbed by the Den.
He killed without leaving any trace behind, and even though he had never publicly claimed any of the kills, his signature was clear.
Most looked like accidents, but others … others were brutal and the body was nearly unrecognizable.
For a time, Uilleam had thought it was the Jackal who’d murdered Karina—it fit his kill history after all—but that was back when they’d thought his handler was a man named Elias Harrington. Back when they still thought Karina was a victim of Uilleam’s hubris.
This man, who no one had been able to find—and there were a lot of people looking for him—was also the only man to have nearly succeeded in killing Uilleam several years ago. Cold and efficient, he’d been able to pump six rounds into the man’s chest before Keanu could even turn to see what was happening..
If he hadn’t tried to murder him, Uilleam might have tried to recruit him.
But, the mysterious assassin was also responsible for the capture of Grimm—a mercenary who’d disappeared off the face of the earth years ago after a run in with him.
They were still looking for him now.
Very slowly, Keanu reached for the gun he kept on him, glad the car provided some cover for what he was doing. Even if there hadn’t been a multimillion dollar contract on the man, he would still be trying to bring him in alive.
The Jackal had a lot to answer for.
“I wouldn’t, if I were you,” a lyrical voice called. “When my life is threatened, he has a tendency to overreact. When his life is threatened … well, I’m sure you could imagine what he might be capable of.”
That voice.
One he hadn’t heard in years, but one he could never mistake.
He turned, peering over the hood of his car at the woman perched on the trunk of the idling Bentley on the side of the road. Her dress was as white as the car, stark in the dark of night.
A part of him hadn’t believed it was true, not entirely—not when he’d thought he knew with a churning stomach how her face looked when it was caved in—but the woman now approaching him didn’t look like she had ever been hurt a day in her life.
She also didn’t resemble the girl she had once been, and she definitely didn’t look like the handler of a man who killed without emotion.
“It’s been quite a while, hasn’t it, Keanu?” Karina asked, speaking to him as if they were old friends. “The last time I saw you, you were asking if I’d give him a second chance to break my heart. Are you regretting that choice yet?”
“Good to see you alive, Karina. Or should I be calling you Belladonna.”
Uilleam hated when others used his name—only answering to his moniker. Would she be the same?
“Karina is fine,” she said with a casual wave of her hand. “Others care about those silly little names, I don’t. Besides, we’re old friends, aren’t we?”
What was most unsettling about her, besides the fact that she was living and breathing and talking, was the fact that she looked virtually the same since he’d last seen her.
A little older and a little colder, but the same.
Uilleam hadn’t found her body on his own, Keanu had been with him and had felt the revulsion and sadness her death sparked inside him.
Even he hadn’t been able to shake the image of her on that floor, unmoving, her face a mess of blood and bone.
“Friends don’t try to kill each other,” he reminded her.
Her laughter was soft as she shook her head. “If I wanted you dead, we wouldn’t be having this conversation, would we? As I told Luna, I don’t mean either of you any harm.”
“But you do mean Uilleam harm. If you’re trying to hurt him, you’re trying to hurt me. I can’t let that happen.”
“I’ve always found your blind loyalty to those you care for admirable—it’s one of those qualities so rarely found in people these days. Sometimes, they don’t even deserve it.”
“Is that your game? To turn people against him? Even if you wanted to, he’s earned it—you of all people should know that.”
She’d been around in the early days—before there was a Den. Back when Uilleam was still trying to make a name for himself and only kept Skorpion around instead of an entire team of mercenaries.
They’d watched his rise together, and she knew more about them than anyone.
“You don’t know, do you?” she asked, looking genuinely curious. “You don’t know what he’s done to you or the others to get you exactly where you are.”
Keanu had plenty of practice schooling his features, making sure he never gave himself away, but there was only so much he could hide from the woman staring at him.
“No, you couldn’t possibly know. If you did, you wouldn’t be working for him. I dare say Luna is far more forgiving than I thought she’d be, but matters of the heart are always difficult to handle, and Kit always did have a way about him.”
Her words were a carefully poised trap, one meant to tempt him into falling down the rabbit hole they presented. He didn’t intend to give in.
“Is that why you’re here now?” Keanu asked a question of his own. “You’ve stayed hidden this long, what’s changed?”
“That’s for me to know, I’m afraid, but I can tell you that I’ve come to make a bargain with you.”
He laughed without humor. “Not the first time I’ve heard that.”
Her smile never wavered. “Except I’m not asking you to work for me, rather the other way around.”
“You want to work for me?”
“I’m giving you a chance that I don’t offer many others.”
“What, to come over to your side?”
Her smile sl
ipped as she regarded him. “Only one of us can make it to the end of this, Keanu. I wouldn’t want you to be on the losing side.”
“It’s only a matter of time before he finds you, Karina. What do you expect will happen once he does?” He stepped toward her, and out the corner of his eye, the Jackal took a step toward him. “Whatever fucked up thing the two of you have—it should be kept between the two of you.”
“Agreed, but he’s not quite playing fair though, is he? If he’s brought you back into the fold, that means there’s only a matter of time before you’re sent to bring me in. Or am I wrong?”
He didn’t respond. Couldn’t. She was right.
“He still loves you, ya know. A part of him doesn’t even think you’re alive.”
A flash of emotion crossed her face. A spark. Something that proved she wasn’t so unaffected as she claimed to be.
But it was gone a split second later. “Love makes you weak—it was a lesson he taught me well. I’ll give you forty-eight hours to make a decision.”
She turned then to walk back to her car. “Oh, and to give you something to think about. Tell me, what on earth would make Ada’s sister come to a city she’s never stepped foot in without actually talking to her sister. Who would have something to gain by doing so? Food for thought, I’d wager.”
*
Wars weren’t always started because of violence.
Sometimes, all it took was one small, insignificant bit of information that churned the waters, and though Keanu had driven away unharmed, Belladonna’s words still played in the back of his mind, forcing him to contemplate a possibility that made his fingers tighten around the steering wheel of his Mustang.
She was good, not because she threatened him, but because she’d been able to make him do the one thing no one else had when it came to Uilleam.
Doubt.
There were two things about Uilleam Keanu was absolutely certain. He was ruthless, willing to do whatever it took to get what he wanted and he played with lives the way he played a game of chess.
Most people were insignificant pawns to him, just pieces to be moved around and manipulated, but they had been close—or as close as anyone could truly get to a man like Uilleam.
Den of Mercenaries: Volume Two Page 18