by S. M. Butler
Bea’s vision narrowed until all she could see was the man. She had to make sure she wouldn’t miss. Breath in. Breathe out. She couldn’t miss. Axel was her mission. She was charged to keep him alive and she’d never failed a mission before. She wasn’t about to start now.
“This is a little messier than I had planned, but it will have to do,” the man drawled as Axel bucked his hips, trying to get free. His arms flapped wildly, trying to find a way to break the guy’s hold, but the man didn’t relent.
“Who… are you?” Axel gasped out.
Who, indeed? This wasn’t Genevieve’s style. She wondered as her instincts kicked in, but she had to stop this. Then she fired, two shots in quick succession, straight into center mass. The man slumped over Axel.
Axel sat there under that man for a full minute before he tried to move. For a minute, Bea was scared she’d hit him. But then he somehow got enough leverage to push the man off. His arms and chest were coated in red. The crimson liquid reflected what little light was out here. Axel’s hands shook as he sat up, staring down at himself in horror. His hands slid along his chest, like he was afraid it was his, then his shoulders slumped as he realized he was okay.
“Shit, Bea? Are you okay?” His eyes turned, searching, and fell on her. She stood, frozen, as he regarded the weapon in her hands. The way she stood. And then his eyes slid up to her face, and the recoil was obvious.
Surprise. Maybe there was some disgust in there. She wasn’t sure.
She didn’t have time for his sensibilities, though. Where there was one, there might be another. She walked over and knelt by the body. She rolled the man to his back and looked at her handiwork. Two shots, center mass. Out of habit, she felt for a pulse. Satisfied she found nothing, she finally locked her gaze on Axel, trying to ignore the confusion in them. “Get inside the garage.”
He frowned. “What?”
Shit. He was in shock. That’s what the confusion was. She pressed her lips together tightly then repeated herself. “Get inside the garage. Now. There might be another.”
Her voice was cold and unemotional, even to her own ears. She hated him hearing that business tone of hers, but there were two assassins before. And one got away. And this guy wasn’t the one they’d seen on the cameras. Not to mention… It didn’t make sense that this one would be here alone.
Axel scrambled to his feet, his stare on her like he’d never seen her before and backed his way to the garage. Good. He shouldn’t ever turn his back on her. She was no better than the corpse at her feet. Hell, she’d been that guy before. Minus the dying part.
His hands shook as he unlocked the side door. While she watched him go in, she pulled out her cell phone and called Hardy. As soon as he answered, she started talking. “Someone came after Axel again. Got a body on the street.”
“I’m on it. I’ll send for clean up too. Where’s Axel now?”
“I sent him into the garage. The defenses are better in there.”
“Good call. I’ll head him off. Ghosts will be there in a few.”
She hung up and glanced around. There had to be someone waiting in the shadows, calculating if their odds were good enough to try. She kept her weapon down, listening to the night air. Her weapon had discharged loud and proud. It was a miracle the local law hadn’t woken up to it. Sheriff Hannigan was a good guy, a natural cop, but one look at this scene and her cover would be blown. He’d know exactly that she wasn’t who she said she was.
The silence surrounding her was deafening. It was how she knew Genevieve had been there, and now her secret was out.
“Where are you?” She whispered into the night air. “I know you were here.” Genevieve had an endless line of expendables—shit, Bea had been one of them once—so it was possible this man was one of them, but he didn’t match the profile. The question was… what was her old mentor waiting for now?
~*~*~
Axel stared down at his bloody body, the dark red coating his shirt, his arms, shit, it even went down to his legs. The shit was everywhere, and none of it was his. He swallowed hard as the scent of blood hit his nostrils. It was sticking to him, drying in the warm summer air. He felt dirty, gross. His entire body shuddered as he leaned against the metal wall.
His gun. He needed his gun.
He ran to his office, wrenching open the drawer and took out the box. He shoved the magazine into the weapon and loaded the chamber.
“Axel?”
He looked up sharply, raising his weapon. The office was dark, but runner lights all over the place illuminated just enough for him to see the dusty blond hair of his best friend. Storm gray eyes stared back him, as if they were assessing him.
Hands came up. “Axel, bud, it’s just me.”
“Chris?” He managed to gasp out.
“Come on, bro. Let’s put the gun down.”
“What?” Axel’s speech had apparently digressed into one-word sentences.
Chris walked over slowly, his hands raised as if he was in surrender, and lightly touched his arm. Axel stared down at it, not moving. He didn’t want to move. He wanted to stay here, because if he moved, then he’d have to contend with the fact that outside that door, there was a dead body. His hand tightened around the gun.
A dead body that Bea had shot without a second thought. Chris didn’t look surprised to see him covered in blood either.
“Are you here to kill me?”
“No,” Chris said softly. “I’m here to help you.”
Axel’s breathing turned shallow, and he fought the dizziness that pulsed over him. He tensed his muscles, trying to stay standing and worked through the vertigo as Chris gripped his arms to help him stay standing. At some point, Chris took the gun from his hands, but Axel couldn’t remember when it happened.
“Have a seat, bud,” Chris said, helping Axel sit into his office chair. “It’s going to be okay.”
Ghostly screams filled Axel’s head and he covered his face as if that would stop the past from coming back.
“Axel?” The distinctly feminine voice caught his attention. He snapped up his head to where he heard the voice, the vertigo dissipating like she’d willed it away for him.
She shut the door behind her, coating them into almost darkness again, though he could see every inch of her. He had no words for the beauty of her, standing there with her weapon in her hand, down by her side. Like she’d been born with it in her hand. An image of her shooting those Nerf guns slid into his head. She’d known exactly how to accommodate for the plastic gun. How could she have known that? Unless she was well-trained on real ones.
Her hair was mussed, and there was a huge bruise forming on the side of her head. A small cut bled at her temple, the blood sticking to the side of her face. All of it made her seem dangerous, more like a killer than the woman he’d always known.
She walked toward the two of them slowly, uncertain, as if he might reject her. But every step she took, his vision cleared more, his body woke up like it had been in a nap before she’d come into his life.
She stopped next to Chris and turned her head to address his friend. “I’ll help him.”
Chris didn’t look like he thought it was a good idea. He frowned. “You sure you got him? Looks like shock.”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
Shock. Yeah. That’s what was with the out-of-body experience here. He was in shock.
“I’ll help you,” Chris said as she took Axel’s hand. He stared down at their joined hands, though his were covered in blood he didn’t think was his.
“I said, I got him,” she snapped.
“She’s got me,” he added helpfully. The two of them looked at him, almost like they were surprised he’d spoken and then at each other. Something passed between the two of them. He knew that look between them was important, and damn if it didn’t make him jealous as fuck that Chris knew something about Bea he didn’t.
But what he did know, with absolute clarity, was that Beatrice Li was not a fucking receptionist
.
~*~*~
It was only a two second delay between Bridget shutting the door to her apartment and his bursting into a run. She was down at the end of the elegant hallway when he called her name.
She stopped, her shoulders tensed as she turned back to face him. “Nathan—”
“Don’t go. Please. Not for me, but for your brother. He’s going to need you, too.”
“I’m dead to him. It’s better that way,” she replied.
“No. What if… what if we told him the truth? What if you went to see him?”
Her delicate brow pinched together. Her head tilted curiously. “You want to tell him I’m alive? Why?” She scoffed. “Of course. Another game. Another way to manipulate him.”
“That’s not it.”
“Why would you tell him the truth, then? It’s been four years. There’s no real reason to tell him anymore.”
“Because I want you to stay, and I’m not above using him to get you to stay.” She turned to leave, but he wrapped his fingers around her slender arm. “Wait. You’re right. I was treating you as I did any other employee of mine. But you’re so much more than that to me.”
Her hazel eyes cased over him. “I’m listening.”
“You’ve always stood by me, even when I’m an utter jackass. You’re the only one who understands my need for my work. It’s who I am. It’s all I am.” He sighed. “But I’ve not stood by you when you needed it. I should have let you be with your brother months ago, when I recruited him.”
“You recruited him for me.”
“I said that. But the truth is… he was useful. He kept you with me. I made him a Reaper because of you. Because I need you.”
“How do I know you’re not trying to manipulate me now?”
“Oh, I most certainly am,” he said. “You see, I’ll do just about anything to keep you with me. I wanted to protect you, you know. I wanted to keep the messy side of my life away from you. When my wife was killed, I thought nothing would ever be the same. I thought… there would nothing else in my life that would be as important as finding her killers.” He met her eyes. “And then you were caught up in that bank with me, and everything… You are the closest thing I have to a friend in this world now. I will not let you leave me without a fight.”
“You’re literally insane, you know that, right?” She shook her head, disbelievingly. “Like, you should be institutionalized.”
“No doubt,” he agreed. “Will you stay? Please?”
“I have conditions.”
“Name them.”
“I don’t want to be your employee.” She put up a hand as he started to object. “We work together. No more secrets. I want the messy truth.” She paused. “And my brother…”
“I’ll tell him the truth,” Nathan said. “So, you will stay?”
“Will you meet my conditions?”
“Bridget…”
“The messy truth, the messy side of your life, or I walk, Nathan.”
He sighed. “You drive a hard bargain, Miss Muldoon.”
“I learned from the best,” she replied, smiling.
12
Shit. Axel didn’t look good at all. His color was pale, his eyes wide and his body covered in blood that wasn’t his. The man was in shock and his gaze followed her with wild fear. She slid the gun back into her dress pocket. He’d figured out she wasn’t exactly who she said she was, obviously, from the suspicion that grew in his eyes.
As Chris left them, she thought about the carefree way Axel had run around the festival today. That Axel was a completely different person than the one standing in front of her. She needed to find that Axel, coax him out so he stopped shaking and looking like he was going to pass out. Marine or not, the reality of being covered in blood that didn’t belong to him was a serious head fuck he wasn’t dealing with all that well.
He didn’t know about the lair, so she couldn’t take him down there, though really, that was the best place for him. And his apartment was out of the question, but they couldn’t stay there in the garage. It was too open, too undefended despite the security they’d installed, and it would be one of the first places his assailants would look for him. That left only one place to take him and fuck if that didn’t scare the shit out of her.
“Axel?” He was looking down at their hands, his long fingers shining with crimson wrapped around hers.
She repeated his name as she touched her free hand to his cheek.
His eyes locked on her, wild and panicked. Recognition didn’t flare in his eyes. It was like he thought he was staring at a stranger. And maybe he was. This was not the part of her that she’d ever expected to show him. She’d have given anything to go back to being the simple receptionist.
“You shot that guy.”
“Yes,” she replied.
“You killed him.”
“To protect you.”
“You have a gun,” he said, looking confused. “Where the hell did you even hide a gun in that dress?”
So, he’d noticed that. Maybe he wasn’t in complete shock. He was still tracking some things. Maybe it was his military training. God, it was amazing he wasn’t actually hurt, that the two men hadn’t broken their necks on impact. But she didn’t fool herself. Axel wasn’t in great shape. She reached for him, but stopped halfway there, pulling her hand back. Things were obviously flying through his head a million miles a second. Any second, he was going to snap out of this odd shock with something weird in explanation. She wasn’t sure how he was going to react to her when he did. “Let’s get you taken care of, huh?”
While she held his hand, she took a step toward the back door. She’d cased the area outside while Chris had been here and found nothing, but she hadn’t expected to find anything. Genevieve would be back, but it would take a bit, now that she knew Bea was alive. She would reevaluate her plan first.
“Where?”
“My place,” she told him.
His lip twitched. “I thought you didn’t like me.”
“I don’t,” she told him. “Come on. I’ll drive you there.”
He didn’t fight her as she pulled him toward the back door. From the door, it was only a few steps to the car she usually drove to work when she wasn’t on mission. It was the sensible sedan, the car a receptionist would drive to work.
She was fooling herself if she thought she could go back to being that woman now. She wasn’t that woman, no matter how hard she tried. She opened the passenger side door, glancing up at the camera she knew was watching the back of the garage.
Hardy would be watching them, if in fact he’d actually gone back down into the lair. It was likely he was hanging out in the shadows, making sure she got Axel out of there safely. Levi would be on the cameras.
Axel sunk into the passenger side. There would be blood in the interior, but the Ghosts would make sure it was clean before morning. She walked around to the driver’s side after Axel was situated and got in.
He was silent for the entire two minutes it took to drive to her home, lost in his own thoughts. Those two minutes felt more like two hours to her. She’d never known Axel to be so quiet.
When they got to her house, she came around and opened the door for him. He stared at her, his expression dull and lifeless without emotions. If she didn’t know better, she’d swear he didn’t recognize her. “You killed that guy.”
“I did.”
“Why?”
She set her jaw. “Because he would have killed you.”
“What does that matter?”
“I protect what’s mine.”
Shit. Hers? Where the fuck did that come from?
He didn’t ask any more questions, though. She wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. But he got out like he was satisfied with the answer and walked without help toward her front door like he’d done it a hundred times. He put a hand on the screen door and ran his fingers over the mesh as he glanced at the inside door. He laughed.
“What?” she asked a
s she came up to the door.
“You lock the door,” he replied as she opened the screen door, “in this town.” He laughed, a low, bass laugh that vibrated right through her. His eyes danced with amusement.
Okay. Her locked door was what knocked him out of his shock?
She inserted the key in the lock and turned. The lock clicked open and she stared at him. “Yeah.”
“You’re weird,” he said.
She rolled her eyes and opened the front door. “It’s practical.”
He followed her inside. “It’s still weird.”
~*~*~
Axel took in everything as they walked deeper into her house. Bea flipped some switch, bathing the room in warm yellow light as she checked through the house, like she was expecting someone to jump out at her.
Hell, maybe she was. He had to remember that she wasn’t who he thought she was.
Shit, even the townhouse wasn’t what he’d expected her to have. The place was stark. Everything in it had a function. It was in sharp contrast to the woman he thought he’d known. The clothes she wore to work were flowery and feminine. This place… it wasn’t that woman’s place. It was a stranger’s.
She waited in silence as he inspected the living room. But he was aware of her presence even as he turned his back on her. The room was covered with plain beige carpet, with a black futon and a black wooden coffee table in front of the futon. The coffee table was clear of debris, or really of anything. A fireplace in the corner had a mantle that had nothing personal on it. Shit. The whole room was like that. There were no photographs, no personal mementos that might have given him a clue as to who Beatrice Li was, or might have been once upon a time.
Did she have family? Did she have friends that she’d left behind, wherever she had come from?
Finally, she moved, and he turned to face her as she pointed down the hall. “Bathroom is down that way, all the way down on the right. There’s shampoo and soap in there if you want to clean up.”