by S. M. Butler
He lifted his head and stared at the picture on his desk. It was the last picture he and his wife and daughter had taken together, a selfie in London when he’d been there on a business trip. The three of them blissfully unaware that two days later, they would be dead, and he would be alone. What would they think of him now? The man that he'd turned into?
He imagined his wife with slightly longer hair, with little wisps of gray running through the dark tresses. But her smile would always keep her young. His daughter would be nearly seventeen, practically a woman. Perhaps she would have favored her mother. Instead, she would forever be that seven-year-old in the picture.
He’d built everything in the name of avenging his dead family. And yet, he was no closer to finding out who the finger behind the trigger had been than he had been a decade earlier.
3
Need you downstairs in fifteen minutes.
“Are you kidding me?” Bea grumbled as she headed for the shower. She’d barely had time to walk in her front door before Hardy was texting her. How in the world did he know she was home already anyway?
Usually this meant Nathan was hanging around for a meeting or something. There was no way she was going into that room with all of them wearing fifteen-hour-plane-ride stink. She stripped and took what Hardy called a “boot camp shower” then got dressed and put her hair back into its normal thick black braid and let it hang.
She probably should have cut it, but she’d never managed to have to nerve to get more than a trim. She pulled it back when she thought she might end up in a fight and tucked the braid away. While she didn’t have a use for a lot of dresses or scrappy shoes, she loved her hair.
She groaned as the first twinges of sore muscles hit her as she headed down the street to the entrance of the lair. She hadn’t kept up with repelling as much as she used to. Obviously, she just didn’t seem to have a use for it unless she was killing someone.
Working out on the treadmill or in their little gym downstairs didn’t seem to work out the same muscles she used scaling the side of buildings, and Texas wasn’t really known for its mountains.
Being a Reaper was exhausting in ways that were completely different from the freelancer life. It was way harder on her body. She still had tightness in her leg from where she’d been shot last year trying to escape the Lewis mansion. Even the accelerated healing program couldn’t get rid of all the aches and pains of a body wearing down.
Sunlight beat down over the heating asphalt and gravel crunched beneath her feet as she walked back toward Hawk’s Automotive. She moved quickly and managed to slip into the garage without seeing Axel. Actually, the mechanic was nowhere to be seen, which wasn’t really all that unusual when they didn’t have any vehicles in for service. He was probably—
She stopped herself short. She didn’t care two shits for where Axel was. In fact, this was probably a blessing, because then she didn’t have to deal with him coming on to her or flashing his arrogant grin at her.
She glanced behind her to make sure the man hadn’t snuck up behind her before she pressed her palm to the scanner that opened the hidden entrance to what Nathan affectionately called the office. The door was between two tall shelves of parts and gears. The door slid open, separating from the wall like something out of a science fiction movie. Or a James Bond flick. Except even James Bond wouldn’t know about this place.
She waited until the door shut behind her. The last thing she needed was a civilian stray being able to sneak into the facility, which was why she always waited for the door to shut. Then she trekked her way down the hallway that opened up on the other side of the door, her footsteps echoing into the silence.
~*~*~
The rest of the team was already in the briefing room when she walked in. Chris Hardy stood with his back against the wall, leaning. He watched over the room like the leader he was, his eyes open and unhurried, but cautious.
Sitting in front of him, Jordan Levi was cleaning his fingernails with the tip of a knife, his feet propped up on the U-shaped meeting table, his blue eyes intensely focused on what he was doing.
Jack Allen eyed her, his dark eyes canvassing every bit of her as she sat down next to him. Not in a sexual way, though. He did the same thing to the guys too. Like he was searching for something inside her. Maybe he was looking for whatever it was that Nathan saw in them.
“You’re late,” he said finally.
“Fuck you, too, Jack,” she replied, sitting down in her seat. She tried not to think about the empty seat beside her, the one Scott Muldoon had sat in. It had been months since he’d been taken away by the Ghosts at Nathan’s request. Months since the betrayer had been seen or heard from.
The guys didn’t even seem phased by his absence, which made her think that maybe she was fucked up in the head to be missing Scott. She had to be, because she also still wanted to put a bullet between his eyes.
“You smell like a plane,” he said.
“So what?” Damn it. She already needed another shower.
“Where do you go on these trips of yours anyway?” Bea glared at Jack, her temper simmering in her blood to a boiling roll. But it quickly fizzled to guilt. No, she didn’t answer to Jack and she didn’t owe him an explanation, but it still left a gaping hole in her chest to lie to men that had saved her life more than once. But Nathan had expressly told her not to inform her team of what she was doing for him.
They’d already been betrayed once, though and she’d spent the last year of her life in this town. The guys, as exasperating as even Jack was, had made the transition from her old life so much easier.
“Miss Li takes her orders from me, Mr. Allen,” came the familiar voice of Nathan as he walked into the room. “Just as you do.”
Bea would never get used to the way he just managed to appear at just the right moments. It was unsettling. From the way Jack shrunk down into his seat, he felt the same way. Nathan just had that way about him. None of them knew where he went when he left and most of the time, unless there was a big mission, he left them to their own devices.
“So… to what do we owe this honor, Nathan?” Chris pushed off the wall and sunk into the seat next to her. She fought the instinctive recoil. It wasn’t about him, though. It was the fact that it was open for him to sit in. She glanced at the man. He didn’t look all that honored to her. “We came back from France to haul some guy from Axel’s apartment downstairs.”
Someone was in Axel’s apartment? Bea straightened her spine. If someone had keyed into the fact that Axel worked with a bunch of super spies, he could be in a lot of danger.
“Mr. Martinez called this morning. Seems my mechanic has a little bit of a situation on his hands. He was attacked as he was returning to his apartment this morning. One of the men escaped but he shot the one we have in custody.”
“Who hired them?” Bea heard herself asking. She shouldn’t have cared, but she didn’t like the idea of someone hurting Axel. Whether he knew who they were or not, he was still part of the Company they all served.
“That is unclear. I need one of you to get me answers.” Nathan paused to look at each one of them in that inquisitive way he had when it felt like he was reading their minds. “Mr. Allen, I assume you’ll take charge of the interrogation?”
Jack growled. He didn’t seem happy with that plan, but he nodded curtly. Interrogation was one of Jack’s strengths but there was some underlying resistance to it he had. Something in his past, maybe? Not that he’d ever talk to them about it. They all had their own secrets, though, didn’t they?
“Good,” Nathan replied. The screens around Nathan came to life, filled with photographs of Axel’s apartment. But the living room was a mess of broken glass and blood. Trails of blood led to the bathroom and to the front door. She frowned. “Was he hurt?”
“Cuts and bruises from shattering glass. One bigger gash in the shoulder but he’s fine. I sent him to our approved physician for treatment while the Ghosts take care of the apartment. He’ll b
e back in a few hours.” Nathan speared her with a glance. “This was a professional hit. It was not someone just trying to assault him or break into his apartment. Someone sat across the street and shot at him. Then tried to finish him off with military grade equipment. Night scopes, Kevlar vests that are impossible for civilians to get. The only reason Axel managed to take one down is because he shot him in the shoulder first. The chest shot did nothing but bruise. These men were well funded.”
“Why would someone go after Martinez? Who is he, then?” Jordan asked, his turquoise eyes narrowing. The man’s voice was lyrical usually, that light Irish lilt of his heaven on just about any woman’s ears. But now, it was gruff, and had a hint of danger laced through.
“He’s my mechanic.”
“People don’t put out hits on mechanics,” Hardy said.
“He was also a Marine. I’m looking into his service file to see if there’s anything there that might be responsible for this, but he’s been out for nine years. I find it difficult to believe that he would be a target now for something nearly a decade before.” Nathan sighed, then nodded like he’d decided something. “In the meantime, I would like you all to keep an eye on him. He’s not to be left alone, at any cost. Constant surveillance.”
“You’re going to protect him?” Jack asked.
“I protect what is mine, Mr. Allen.”
“Why don’t we just ask him what he knows?” Jordan’s brows pinched into a frown.
“He can’t know about this operation. But… I also don’t want him killed.” Nathan’s eyes landed on Bea.
She frowned. What was that look for? She wasn’t going to kill Axel. Well, not unless he tried to kiss her or something. And it was more likely she’d just kick him where it counted first.
“He’s going to get suspicious if we all start following him everywhere,” Hardy replied.
“Bea could get closer than any of us,” Jack said, grinning. Bea shot him a cold glare, but he ignored it. “The boy is half in love with her already.”
“Jack, I will shoot you,” she ground out then added, “in the balls.” Axel was not in love with her. He was in lust with her. She turned him down regularly, which probably just elevated her to “challenge” status.
“I’m inclined to agree, Mr. Allen,” Nathan replied. “Miss Li and Mr. Levi, you’re on protective duty for the time being. The rest of you figure out who was hired for the hit, what our new guest has to say about it, and how many we’re facing.”
“Nathan, no.” Bea shook her head. “I can’t.”
“Unfortunately, he does have a soft spot for you, which makes you the best person to stay close for longer periods of time. Mr. Levi will back you up.” Nathan paused. “I don’t have to tell you about professional distance, though, do I?”
“No,” she grunted. The last time one of her team was put on close detail, it was Hardy, and he ended up falling in love with the woman. That wouldn’t happen with her, but obviously, Nathan was wary of it.
Not that Nathan should complain. Abigail still helped them out occasionally, though she had little to do with politics since her adopted father had been killed in prison, after she’d exposed the world to his dealings with arms dealers and warlords. Hardy didn’t want her that involved in their world, and Bea didn’t blame him one bit for that. If she ever fell in love with a civilian, she’d never want them anywhere near this place.
But luckily, that was never going to happen. Love wasn’t something someone like her could have and she didn’t want it.
“Good. Do what you need to do but stay close. I’m sure whoever hired the hitters knows by now they failed. They’ll try again soon.” Nathan slid a flash drive over to her. “Mr. Martinez’s service record, his family history. Full background workup. Use it.”
She nodded and fisted the drive in her palm. Bea glanced up at the screen where the cameras from the garage were streaming. They had them all over the buildings the Company owned, inside and out, even in Axel’s apartment, though they stayed out of his bedroom. For that, she was immensely glad. She didn’t want to know anything about his sexual conquests.
“Ah, looks like Mr. Martinez is back,” Nathan said, his lips curling into that wry smile he had. His eyes were on the screen to the far right, which was still streaming the current camera in the garage. On the screen, Axel was working on that stupid motorcycle he loved, the one that would probably never run. But he tinkered with it in his off time, when they had no other business around. It was a small town. They didn’t usually have a lot of business as it was.
She blew out a breath and stood up. Best to get this over with. As she started for the door, Nathan called her name. She turned to face him.
“Keep Mr. Martinez in sight at all times. I don’t care how you do it.”
“What’s so important about him?” she asked, not caring if he was bothered with her questioning him. She was past the point of caring.
“He’s part of this team. His death would shine undue attention on us here.”
Nice, Nathan. Nice and vague.
She cased over him, looking for something to tell her it was a bad idea. But instead, she saw someone different than she expected. A human being worried about the team he built. What he wasn’t saying—what he wouldn’t ever say to any of them—was that they didn’t leave anyone behind, and that extended to the mechanic that didn’t even know he was a member of the team.
4
Nathan crossed his arms as Allen interrogated the prisoner. This was getting nowhere. He didn’t really need to be here for this. Jack Allen was an accomplished interrogation specialist. But if he left, he would have to look at Miss Muldoon, and remember what exactly he’d done to her baby brother. She had no idea the monster that lived inside him.
“I’m surprised you’re still here.”
Nathan glanced at Miss Li as she walked into the observation room. “Where would you expect me to be?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. You usually don’t stay here this long. You throw out some orders and you’re gone.”
Was he really like that? He supposed he was. He had a finite number of hours and he never wanted to waste them with frivolous pursuits. Miss Muldoon kept him on a tight schedule because she knew he liked it that way. But because this was about Axel Martinez and Martinez was tied to his family’s murder somehow, he’d asked her to clear his schedule for the day.
There were answers here. He knew it.
“Nothing to say?”
He glanced down at the woman beside him. Her face gave away nothing. Her dark eyes watched him like they might try to take him apart. There was no love lost there for him in those eyes. He’d never given any of them a reason to like him. He didn’t need them to like him. He needed them to follow his orders, something they sometimes had trouble with.
“Perhaps I like watching Mr. Allen work,” he replied evenly.
She shrugged. “I guess.”
“Why are you here?”
“Because of him,” she said, nodding to the prisoner. “You’re not going to get answers by torturing him, you know. He’s trained for it.”
“You think Genevieve is involved?” Nathan asked. Miss Li never mentioned her old mentor anymore but that didn’t mean the woman didn’t weigh on his Reaper’s mind. How did one forget the person that raised them, even if that person wanted them dead?
“She has to be,” Li said. “Harry was never one to act alone. It’s her style to send the lackeys before she tries herself. She likes to figure out the weaknesses first.”
“So, we’ll be seeing her?”
“Possibly. If she finds out I’m alive…” Li trailed off as she swallowed. “Part of our deal was that she never found out. That I stayed dead to her forever.”
“If that happens, we will deal with it.” It would be exceptionally hard to assassinate an assassin, but it could be done. They’d managed to kill Jean Giroux last year and that man had been a recluse. Like anyone else, they just had to find the right lure.
Nathan had a feeling he had the right lure for Genevieve as well. But before that happened, he needed to know Genevieve’s role in his family’s murder as well. Perhaps she was just a hired gun at this point, but she had to know who contracted her. Nathan was a patient man, most of the time.
“Right.” Li sighed. “I’m headed up to find Axel.”
“Please do,” Nathan replied. “I’ll make sure they keep you informed if this man says anything useful.”
“He won’t,” she said. “Trust me.”
As she left the room, Nathan flipped on the speakers and the prisoner’s screams filled the room. He felt no sorrow for what the man was experiencing. He was a throwaway piece in the overall game at this point. Of course, that didn’t mean he wouldn’t milk any information he could from him before throwing him out with the trash. Or maybe he’d bury him deep in Company holdings until he proved useful again.
~*~*~
Axel grabbed the nearest rag to wipe his hands clean, but it only minimally took off the black grime that coated his hands. He was never going to get that damn bike running, but he couldn’t manage to stop working on it. It was the last thing he had from his old life. It was the only real possession he didn’t let go of when he left the Marines.
Usually, working on it helped to relax him, but today, nothing was helping. His nerves were shot completely to hell, and all he wanted to do was drink himself into a stupor and hope all of his worries went away by the time he came out of it.
Nathan said he’d take care of the guy that attacked him. He believed him, but something wasn’t right about it. When he’d come back from his appointment with the doctor, his apartment was clean, all the blood was gone, and there was no sign of his prize prisoner. And now, that fucker wasn’t returning his damn phone calls. He’d talked to that same woman at least ten times now.