Dying Commitment (Lucky Thirteen)

by S. M. Butler

  I was almost passed out by the time Cadence returned. Sex with her was always amazing, always exhausting, but this time… it felt different. It felt like… more. I didn’t think either of us intended it that way. It had just happened. We were going to have a hard time going back to the way things were, if we even could.

  She rustled in her bag and then came back over to the bed.

  “Come here,” I told her, holding out an arm to envelope her back in.

  She slipped into bed with me, and curled up at my side.

  “You okay?” I asked when she didn’t say anything.

  She nodded. “Yeah. Just thinking.” She smiled at me and I lifted my head to kiss her. Her lips were warm and full against mine. God, I loved the way she kissed. “I’m gonna get some sleep.”

  Having real emotions was something new for Cadence. I could see that in the way she moved, and the way she curled next to me. Maybe it was arrogant of me to say so, maybe even delusional, but she wanted to love me, and there was something there that wasn’t letting her yet. I wasn’t sure what it was. I could sense it though. I wanted to knock it down, and tell her it was going to be all right.

  The foundation of that wall she built was Jack Allen. Once we took him down, she’d be able to relax and move on. I was convinced of that.

  I fell asleep thinking about ways to prove to Cadence that love was worth fighting for.

  When I woke up the next morning, Cadence was gone and her place at my side was long cold. I blinked and tried to rub my eyes, surprised when one of my hands didn’t move. I groaned, and then forced myself to look at the bedpost where my arm was stuck.

  She didn’t.

  She couldn’t have.

  But the shiny silver cuffs were proof enough. She’d done it a-fucking-gain. My lips tingled with the after effect of the sedative she’d slipped me. I growled and sat up quickly, regretting that as I wavered just sitting there. That shit she used was strong. And she’d been sneaky about it this time. I didn’t even feel it when she hit me with it.

  “Goddamnit, Cady.”

  I glanced around, looking for where she left the key, but didn’t see it anywhere. Surely she wasn’t going to leave me trussed up here like this, cuffed to the bed and naked. I yanked on the iron headboard, but the cuffs didn’t budge from it. These were the double lock kind too, which meant they were harder to pick.

  The door opened and Charles came in. He seemed nonplussed as he walked in. He dangled a key on a chain. “The lady told me hand you this when you woke.” He gazed over me, his eyebrow raised in serious disapproval.

  “What? You’ve never seen a guy handcuffed to a bed?”

  “Perhaps I will leave it on the nightstand and you can retrieve it after I am not around to see it.”

  “Goddamnit. When did she leave?”

  “This morning. About four hours ago.” He started to leave, but turned around to add, “I’m not supposed to tell you this either, but your friend is headed somewhere dangerous.”

  “No shit,” I grumbled.

  “I might suggest checking out the south quarter of the city.” He cleared his throat. “I might have heard her talking to someone on the phone.”

  “Why are you helping me?” I asked him. “You don’t even know me, and we boinked on your sheets last night.”

  “Like I said, strip the sheets.” Charles’s nose wrinkled. “Listen, Eamon would not send someone to me he did not trust. He told me ahead of time that you were coming. He also said the girl was a flight risk.”

  Fucking Murphy. How did he always know everything? He was like a mini-Master Chief, always knowing everyone’s business, and knowing when someone was slightly unstable, like Cadence.

  But flight risk or not, I had to go after her. I had to keep her safe, even if it meant I had to keep her safe from herself.

  ~*~*~

  Cadence

  Atrix was one of the most modern restaurants in the north quarter of Ville Couronne. It got tourist attention, was in all the high society papers as The Place To Be. I even heard the food was amazing. I’d never eaten there, but I’d spent some time in the underbelly of that particular beast before my cover had been compromised and I’d been taken to Aruguay. Because it was also one of the prime locations to find the shadiest of criminal underworld. Valonia as a country was peace-loving, with a strong military and a rich culture and history. But no country was free of Giroux influence. In the case of Ville Couronne, that influence was centered around Atrix. And that made it my new favorite place.

  My face was probably well known there, so it probably wasn’t the smartest thing I’d ever done, but I was out of options. I had to let Dylan go. He had done enough for me. He’d made me feel things that I thought were impossible after Jack crushed me. He’d made me human again. But now I needed to not be human, to be cold and ruthless.

  I slipped around the back of the building. This was the loading dock. There were two doors and a loading door that probably was used for all kinds of illegal activity that the cops couldn’t prove. One was a well-used entrance and exit, probably going straight into the restaurant. The second one probably went to the back offices. Giroux wasn’t dumb enough to have an outside exit straight into his underground dungeon.

  I checked out the building next to Atrix. World War II period, solid brick and mortar. Three stories. I could sit on top of the building and pick off Jack when he came out, but I wanted to see his face when he went down. Gunning him down on the street wouldn’t work. It was sloppy, and too many bystanders.

  The hair on the back of my neck prickled. I pulled my gun out and whirled around just as I heard the click of a machine gun charging. I froze, my gun out, as two more weapons charged. I faced three of them, laser sights pointed directly at my chest.

  “Gun down, sweet pea.”

  This was why working alone had its disadvantages. If I’d had backup, I’d have bet he could have picked them off before they found me. But at least no one would get hurt because of me.

  I had to wonder if bad guys had a dress code. All three of Jack’s guards had a very nice suit on, all with black shirts and a dark gray tie. Maybe that was to hide the blood when they shot people at close range. There was a fourth, standing next to Jack, his hands clasped in a relaxed fashion in front of his body.

  “Gun down, now.” At Jack’s insistent tone, I met his dark eyes. There was no room for negotiation. If he really wanted me dead, it would have done it already. Which meant he needed me alive for something. Maybe my laptop, since he’d attacked me to get the decryption program. Maybe that would keep me safe long enough for me to get free. I flipped the safety, and slowly put my hands up. I set it down on the ground, and straightened up.

  “Take your jacket and holster off.”

  “If you wanted me to do a strip tease, all you had to do was ask, Jack.”

  He almost cracked a smile on that stone facade. “Would you?”

  “Fuck no, I wouldn’t. But asking is polite.”

  “Do it, Cady. We don’t have time for games.”

  “Right,” I said. Slowly, I shrugged off my jacket and dropped it to the ground. I took off my holster and let it fall as well.

  “Hands on your head. Step back from them.” I did as he said, holding my hands clasped on my head. The large man next to him stepped forward and searched my jacket and holster. He stopped on the holster and pulled something small off it. He took it back to Jack.

  Jack inspected it and chuckled. “A tracker, Cady? Really?”

  A tracker? Oh, hell, that was how Dylan had caught up to me. Jack threw it on the ground and smashed it with his heel.

  “No backup. That’s an amateur move, sweet pea.”

  “What do you want, Jack?”

  “We’re going to take you inside, through the front door. There’s a lot of innocent patrons in there right now. It’s the lunch hour. So I suggest you not call attention to yourself. I’d hate to have to clean the restaurant.”

  The threat did what he’d
intended. The shiver ran down my back.

  “Now, you and I and Gene are going to go right through the front door, and you’re going to act like nothing is wrong. If not, we light up the restaurant, blame it on terrorists and collect the insurance payout. Then things won’t be so pleasant for you. Do we have an agreement?”

  I swallowed hard, fear sliding up my throat and making me nauseous. Slowly, I nodded. “Fine.”

  “Good.” He motioned to the guards, who all lowered their weapons. He stepped close to me, so close I could smell his aftershave. It was the same kind he’d used five years ago.

  ~*~*~

  The Atrix was a pretty nice place for a den of evil. But most of its patrons weren’t aware of its criminal roots. I glanced to the right, directly into the camera that hung there, facing the door. If Jack was here, then it was likely that Alex Giroux was too. From everything I’d learned over the last two years or so, Jack didn’t do much without Alex’s approval. He was no more than a lapdog assassin.

  The three of us moved past the hostess stand and headed toward the back. Jack had a nice hold on my arm, relaxed but tight. Nothing to alarm anyone looking at us. But what did you expect from a former spy? He knew people. The other guy, the one with the tattoos… That was a different story. He was no more than a goon, good for muscle and breaking bones. No finesse.

  A few seconds later, two more men appeared near the back door, in matching suits to the big guy in front of me.

  Jack grinned at me, malevolent and smug. “Mr. Giroux will see you now.”

  “I bet he will,” I said. “Lead the way?”

  He led me toward the back of the restaurant. The door was off from everything else, looking more like a fire exit, but it was locked to the public. He pulled out a small key he used to unlock it.

  Faced with these guys, I was pretty much leaning toward the whole “big mistake” aspect, but I’d already started down this path. I had to keep going. I couldn’t second guess myself. I had to end this nightmare I’d been living in for so long. Maybe then, I’d deserve someone like Dylan. Unfortunately, I knew for sure that I’d never deserve Dylan himself.

  There were boxes all piled up around the walls of this room. In one section, another door, which the big man opened and gestured for me to enter. I swallowed, my heart pounding as I entered. It was a stairwell, descending into darkness that left me cold and ended opening out into a large room with a table and two chairs. There was one man at the table, who stood as I entered. His dark eyes regarded me carefully, suspicion in his gaze as he set his hands on his hips.

  “I didn’t believe it. After how much trouble the US went through to steal you away, and here you walk right back into our clutches.”

  “How very villianish of you to put it like that, Alex.”

  “You will not be leaving this time,” Giroux replied, smiling in that smug way that made me want to kick him in the crotch.

  “That’s not my goal,” I said. “I’m not here for you. I’m here to see Jack.”

  Alex’s eyebrow rose. “Now, that’s interesting. Why should Jack talk to you?”

  “That’s between me and him,” I replied, flicking a glance behind Alex. Jack had taken his place behind Alex and had been silent since we entered, his arms cross over his chest.

  Alex was a handsome man, but not excessively bulky. Actually, he was quite wiry.

  Jack was not. He was strong, and it looked like his muscles had grown since we’d last seen each other. The way he’d gripped my arm also proved that. His face was sunken, hollow of any emotion that might have tied him to the old Jack I’d once known. I hadn’t gotten much of a good look at him before in the bathroom when he’d attacked me. Now that I saw him so close… he was barely the man I’d known.

  “Jack, she’s yours.” Alex smiled as he turned his body to include Jack. Jack didn’t move. Didn’t say a word. I’d expected the cocky, egotistical behavior he’d shown before, but right then, he looked like he hadn’t wanted to see me at all. “You know what I want from Miss Long, yes?”

  Jack nodded. “Yes, Mr. Giroux.”

  “See that I get it.”

  Orders? Jack sucked at taking orders. Or at least he had. Now he simply nodded, and Alex walked up to me, close. His gaze swept over me. “I’d appreciate you making this easy on me. If you cooperate with Jack, perhaps you’ll survive as well as you did when Lucky Thirteen came for you three years ago.”

  He started to leave when I decided to push that knife into his side. “Addison’s doing well.”

  He froze with his back toward me.

  “Cady—” Jack started to talk but I cut him off.

  “Actually, she’s getting married in a couple weeks. Did you get your invite?” His fists balled, his body shook with barely leashed rage. “Well, maybe it’s in the mail still. You know how international mail takes forever.”

  He turned, rage apparent on his face and stalked toward me. I didn’t move, determined not to let him make me back down. “She and the fiancé are so incredibly perfect for each other. It’s a little obnoxious, especially at night when they fuck like bunnies.”

  He tried to backhand me, but I ducked and his hand sliced through the air. I swept my foot behind his knees, which knocked him off-balance and he hit the ground in a matter of seconds. Jack grabbed me before the guards did, twisting an arm back and his other hand gripping my bangs tightly. He yanked my head back so my neck was exposed.

  God. That was so worth it.

  “Sorry, fucker. Couldn’t help myself,” I said through clenched teeth, laughing. Jack tightened his grip. “On second thought, I’m not really sorry.”

  Alex got to his feet, his body trembling with fury. I braced myself for the hit to come, but it didn’t. He turned back to Jack. “I expect results soon. Any way possible.” He whirled away and stormed out of the room.

  Silence fell over the room as the door slammed shut. I couldn’t really move, not with Jack holding me as he was. He released me, shoving me into the guards, who grabbed my arms and held me tight.

  Jack’s footsteps echoed in the silence as he came near me. He stopped directly in front of me, his arms crossed, his face still scowling. His eyes swept behind me. “Get out.”

  No one moved.

  “Seriously, you two. Let her loose, and get the fuck out of the room.” Slowly, the grips on me lightened. I pulled away from them as soon as I could and watched them leave. The door shut behind them, and then I was left in the room, alone, with my worst nightmare.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Cadence

  Jack hadn’t moved, not once since his goons had left the room. He stared hard at me, the scowl embedded deep on his face. Finally, he shook his head. “You’re still reckless. Impulsive.”

  He turned away from me and walked back to the table. My laptop was on it, open to the home screen I’d created in the encryption process. They were still trying to get into it. I breathed out an inward sigh of relief. I’d lied a little to Dylan. There were secrets on that laptop. Not all of them were on the hard drive, because it was a government laptop. I wasn’t even supposed to use a portable drive on it.

  “I told you to go home. I told you not to come.”

  “You stopped being able to give me orders when you shot me in the chest.”

  “Even then you couldn’t take orders. You were supposed to die, Cady.” A rueful laugh escaped him. “I could have spared you all this.”

  “Spared me? Is that how you justify yourself?”

  “Alex is a monster. I was trying to protect you.”

  “Protect me?” I scoffed. “Be straight with me. What now? What happens now? Are you going to kill me again?” Because I was going to have a serious issue with that. I kinda liked the living thing.

  “There’s so much going on you have zero fucking clue about,” Jack sneered. He leaned over the table, staring at the blinking cursor on the screen. “You’re such a goddamn little girl.”

  “A little girl you fucked. What does tha
t make you, old man?” I replied. It was a little crude to say it that way, but if he wanted superiority over me, he wasn’t going to get it. Maybe one time I’d given him that superiority over me, but I was fresh out of school. And I’d had months of physical therapy to think about what he’d done, what I’d done wrong, and how I could make sure it wouldn’t happen again.

  “A goddamned idiot.”

  Well that wasn’t exactly what I expected him to say. I slid into the seat across from where he stood and caught his eye as he leaned over the table. “What happened to you, Jack? You weren’t this person.”

  “You’re too trusting, Cady. That’s your problem.”

  Ha. Dylan would have argued with that.

  “No. That’s not it, Jack. You were different. From the moment we met you were different than that day you shot me.” I swallowed. “I accept that you’re probably going to kill me again. And this time, it will likely be permanent. But at least be straight with me before you do. Give me that.”

  Silence followed. The only sounds were from the restaurant beyond us and our own breathing. Jack took in a deep inhale. Letting it out slowly, he sunk into the other chair. “I had to do everything I did. I didn’t have a choice.”

  “Bullshit. There’s always a choice.”

  “You’re so goddamn naive, Cady. Even now, I’d have thought you’d have figured it out by now. But you’re just a kid still.” He shook his head. “Sometimes, you have to do things that… you really don’t want to do, so you can save someone you love.”

  I didn’t say anything, but that got my wheels turning. Wasn’t that what I was doing with Dylan? Cutting him out so I could save him? Because if he knew where I was, he’d have stormed the place. But maybe that wasn’t exactly what Jack meant. “What does he have on you, Jack?”

  “What?”

  “What does Alex have on you? It’s gotta be something huge for you to forget everything you’ve ever believed in, to walk out on a lifetime of work like it was nothing.”

  “You always were a smart girl, sweet pea.” Jack leaned back in his chair. More quiet between us. Finally, he pulled out his wallet and slipped a picture toward me. It was of a pretty girl, maybe 14 or so. Long blonde curls, with high cheekbones.