HER LAST KILL

by S. M. Butler

  “I’m right about this. I know I am. We find out where those containers went, and we can figure out who got them when they came to the States. Maybe it’ll lead us to whoever wants me dead.”

  “It could work,” Chris agreed. “Let’s let Sierra work for a bit. We’ve been in here for hours. You need food. So do I. Okay?”

  Axel nodded absently, but the last thing he wanted was to leave. He’d been in here, concentrating on how exactly he was going to find his would-be killer that he’d been able to table just about everything else in his life.

  Like Bea.

  Who now shot into his consciousness with a vengeance, like she didn’t appreciate being ignored for hours. But she hadn’t wanted to be anywhere near him, did she? She’d made that clear. He was good for sex, but anything more than that tangle in the sheets was too much.

  ~*~*~

  Pete’s Diner’s neon lights were so bright they cast a blue glow on the inside of the building as Chris and Axel sat in the booth closest to the door. Axel fidgeted under the table. He didn’t feel at all hungry, but Chris had insisted. Honestly, he couldn’t even remember the last time he’d eaten.

  He couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. He couldn’t put together the puzzle of why someone wanted him dead, but that wasn’t the only thing on his mind.

  “What’ll you have, honey?”

  Axel glanced up as Chris rattled off his order to Yvonne, Pete’s wife and head waitress. She turned toward Axel expectantly. “I’m good.”

  “He’ll have the same,” Chris said. Yvonne smiled and took their menus, wandering off to wherever Yvonne wandered. Chris looked at him. “You need to eat something.”

  “Fine,” Axel ground out. “How long were we down there?”

  “A few hours.”

  “I didn’t realize it had gotten dark.”

  “So, you and Bea, huh?”

  Axel’s eyes shot to Chris, who had sat back in his seat with arms crossed and smirk on his face.

  “We are experts in intelligence, Axel. Did you think we wouldn’t notice?”

  “Um, I didn’t think about it, actually.” He shrugged. “Doesn’t matter anyway. She’s made it pretty clear it’s not happening.”

  “Do you know the one thing that all of us has in common? Me, Jack, Jordan, Bea…”

  “What’s that?”

  “We all assumed that we were destined for a life alone. That we’d had our chance and this new afterlife, for lack of a better term, was our punishment for wasting our real lives.” He rested his elbows on the table and leaned forward, his fingers folded together neatly. “You picked a woman that’s basically a female Jack Allen.”

  Axel snorted. “Did I.”

  “You know I picked them, right? Me and Nathan. We sat down and hammered through hundreds of files.” Chris sighed. “She’s a good person. She’s got a heart. But she protects it ferociously.”

  “Don’t I know it,” Axel grumbled.

  “Abigail is the best thing that ever happened to me, you know?”

  “Don’t get sappy on me, Chris. I will fucking punch you.” Axel wasn’t in the mood for some kind of weird “it’ll happen for you, too” bullshit speech. His fiancée wasn’t a member of a secret organization with a dark and murderous past.

  “I’m just saying… Abigail had to see past what I was to see who I was.”

  “You think I don’t see her?” Axel shook his head. “She’s all I see.”

  “Give her a little time, then. She’s got shit to figure out, too.” Chris smiled as Yvonne dropped off their food, refilled their coffees before running off again. “In the meantime, eat. You’re going to need your strength to keep up with Bea. She’s a beast.”

  “What?” Axel stared at Chris. “You and she didn’t…”

  “Fuck no. She’d kick my ass halfway to France.”

  Axel snorted. He glanced down at the stack of pancakes and the hash browns, eggs, and bacon piled on the plate. He looked at Chris. “How do you eat this shit?”

  Chris held up a slice of pancake and shrugged. “Happily. Next time order your own fucking food.” He shoved that piece into his mouth and made ridiculously exaggerated moans.

  Axel grabbed his fork and the plate and held it over Chris’s while he dumped the hash browns onto his plate. Then he shoved the plate with the pancakes on it over to him as well. Chris grinned and dug in. Axel forced himself to eat the eggs and the bacon. Not that he didn’t like it, but he wasn’t feeling like food in that moment.

  It was the quiet part of the night for Jubilee, the streets mostly deserted, the diner equally so, only a few people milling around. This was what Axel liked about this town. This moment, when things were quiet. People were winding down for the day, most had gone home. Tonight was movie night at the bowling alley, so a lot of folks were going to be there. He hated the idea that he might have to leave this stupid town. After so many years here, he’d really come to call the place home.

  Chris’s phone ringing pulled him out of his thoughts. Chris bought the thing up to his face. “Send it.” He listened for a minute, his expression darkening. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good news. “We’re on our way back.” He shoved the phone back in his pocket and pulled out his wallet, dropping a twenty on the table. “Come on. Let’s go.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “Jordan can’t find Bea.”

  Axel’s heart dropped straight to his toes, his stomach rolling. “What? How? Why?”

  He followed Chris out of the restaurant, not missing the cautious way Chris was moving now. He stayed close, almost constantly touching Axel’s shoulder as they walked.

  “Chris!”

  “Jordan called. Her phone goes straight to voicemail and her tracer won’t triangulate her location correctly. Something happened, but we don’t know what yet.”

  Axel stopped shock-still as he processed what Jordan said. His Bea was missing. Wait, not his. But… Fuck it. She was his woman. He didn’t care what she had done in her life. All he cared about was that she’d put her life on the line for him. She had come clean to him. The idea that something might have happened to her because of him… No. He wasn’t going to let that happen.

  “Axel.”

  Axel looked at Chris.

  “We need to get you somewhere secure. It’s likely they took her to draw you out.”

  Axel shook his head. “They can have me. Just not her.”

  Chris sighed. “No, they can’t. Let’s go.”

  Axel let Chris pull him along until something caught his eye on the ground. He stopped, let his eyes travel up to the car they stood beside. He walked around to the street side of the car and knelt. “Wait, look.”

  He fingered the holes along the fender, just above the headlight. Chris sighed loudly. “Bullet holes.”

  “Someone shot at someone else here.”

  “One thing Bea doesn’t do is miss,” Chris agreed.

  Axel nodded, his stomach dropping down so fast a wave of nausea coasted over him. “So, it had to be Bea they were shooting at.” He moved back to what he’d seen on the sidewalk. Slivers of plastic and glass littered the ground. Then he saw the blood. Someone had bled pretty badly right there. But it was what sat in the puddle of crimson that caught his attention. A small bladed star… stained with blood. The moonlight bounced off it, creating an almost ethereal glow.

  “Fuck,” Axel whispered as Chris knelt down beside him. “If someone that was not Bea was shooting toward this place…” His heart seized, his blood turning to icicles in his veins. He didn’t even want to think about it.

  Chris was already shooting out texts. A second later, his expression grim, he touched Axel on the shoulder. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

  “But Bea…”

  “We’ll find her, Axel. We need to go, though. Right now.”

  23

  Bridget stood inside the observation room as they brought her brother into the interrogation room. He looked so much different
than she remembered. His dark brown hair was longer, still as straight and thick as she remembered, though. His hazel eyes sunk into his skull more than she remembered. His frame was much thinner. He looked exhausted.

  “Ready?” Nathan asked.

  “I think so,” she said, breathing out. “Thank you, Nathan.”

  “For what?”

  “For letting me do this.”

  “We’re partners now, correct?” he said. “I don’t let you do anything. You do what you feel is right. Not sure this is it, but it’s your decision.”

  Bridget inhaled deeply, trying to cleanse the nerves from her system. This new Nathan took some getting used to and she was still trying to gather courage to talk to Scott. What would Scott say? What would he do? Would he be angry with her? Would he hate her for lying? Or worse, when he realized she was the reason he was recruited, would he despise her very presence?

  “Bridget?”

  She glanced at Nathan. His face had turned concerned. “Yes?”

  “It’s been three minutes since you’ve said anything. Are you sure you want to do this?”

  Three minutes? She cleared her throat and nodded. “Yes. He’s my brother. I need to do this.”

  She stepped closer to the door that led to the interrogation room, next to the observation window. Scott wouldn’t hurt her. Yes, he was going to be pissed, but he’d never hurt her. Everything he’d done, he’d done to protect his family. He just hadn’t known she was alive, is all.

  She took a breath, trying to calm her thumping heart. She hadn’t seen him in person in four years, not since she woke up in a bed in Nathan’s medical facility as a dead woman. She rolled her lower lip into her mouth, biting into it with her teeth lightly.

  She could do this.

  She had to do this. Not just to recover nine-year-old files, but for her own well-being. And for Scott, who needed his big sister again.

  That seemed to give her the strength she needed. She pushed herself forward, sliding her palm onto the palm print scanner. The door clicked open. She steeled herself, rolling her shoulders back, and stepped into the room.

  Scott’s head was down when she closed the door behind her, his elbows resting on the table. His dark hair fell forward, obscuring his face from her. He wasn’t restrained. Cuffs weren’t really needed. Even if he tried to escape, he had a new tracker in his body. He’d agreed to go back to work for Nathan.

  “Nathan… did you miss me that much?”

  “It’s not Nathan,” she said, almost in a whisper.

  He raised his head as she leaned against the closed door. She saw the exact moment when he recognized her, when the sarcastic smirk slid away from his expression. His hazel eyes widened, his mouth fell open. His back stiffened and then his eyes narrowed into anger.

  “What kind of bullshit game are you playing?”

  “Hello, Scott,” she said softly.

  His head whipped to the observation glass. “Nathan, you mother fucker. Of all the fucking asshole things to do…” He pushed away from the table and shot to his feet as he glared at her. “I don’t know who the fuck you are, but I’m not playing this game.”

  “This isn’t a game or a trick, Scott. It’s me.”

  “Bridget is dead. She died four years ago.”

  “Like you did?”

  He froze, his big body tense with fury. He shook his head. “There’s no way. I was at the funeral. I saw…” He let out a roar of frustration and slammed his hand against the glass. It didn’t even bend under the impact. “Nathan, you are a fucking son of a bitch. My goddamn sister?!”

  “It’s not a trick, Scott. It’s me.”

  “Tell me you didn’t choose to be a Reaper. Please tell me you’re not.” His shoulders slumped as his expression turned pained.

  She swallowed. “I’m not. Four years ago, I was shot in during a bank robbery. I died on the operating table. But the real story is that Nathan saved my life that day.”

  Scott blew out an uneasy breath. “Did he hurt you? Did he fucking hurt you?”

  She shook her head. “No.”

  “You’re alive? Really?” He didn’t seem to be processing it well. She stepped toward him, but it seemed to agitate him more. He took a step away from her. “You can’t be her. She died.”

  She sighed. “What can I do to convince you?”

  “Tell me something. Something only she would know.”

  “You have a scar on your right shoulder.”

  “So what?” he spat. “Lots of people have scars.”

  “Yours is from that ridiculous go-cart you built in the seventh grade. You crashed it and the corner of it cut into your shoulder. You were afraid Mom would see it, so you asked me to help you. Neither of us ever told her.”

  He didn’t move a muscle. “That’s easy to figure out.”

  “Is it? While I was fixing your stupid wound, I told you that you need to stick to computers. Because your mechanical ability was—”

  “Non-existent,” he finished. He stared at her. “How? What the fuck, Bridget? Why didn’t you come home?”

  “For the same reason you didn’t.”

  “So, Nathan did to you what he did to me? To the other Reapers?”

  She hesitated before she nodded, “Sort of.” She had the improved memory, the enhanced senses, everything that made them Reapers. The only difference between her and them was that she had no combat experience, and no desire to learn. She wasn’t the fighter Scott was, and it was clear in the first month that she wasn’t needed in that respect.

  “I’ll fucking kill him for this,” he growled.

  “He didn’t hurt me. I didn’t feel any of the pain. I was unconscious for the entire procedure. I woke up two weeks later. The day of my funeral.”

  “I was there,” he said.

  “Yes. You sat next to Mom.”

  “You were there?”

  “I wanted to say goodbye.”

  He came around the table, approaching her like he was afraid that she might vanish into thin air at any moment. He stopped, only about a foot from her and reached out to touch her face. His hand trembled as his fingertips slid down her cheekbone, like he thought she’d vanish before her very eyes. Then she was in his arms, his heavy muscles squeezing her so hard she found it difficult to breathe.

  “Bridget…” he murmured. “Shit. It’s you.”

  Letting out a sob, she buried her face in his chest, inhaling that scent only her brother had ever had. She’d always thought it was the soap he used, but he hadn’t had access to his usual stuff while he’d been a prisoner. No, it was his natural smell and it brought her more comfort than she’d thought it could as her arms slipped around his small waist.

  “I can’t believe you’re alive,” he whispered, his face buried in her neck. His big body shuddered against her. He might have been her younger brother, but he’d grown up large and bulky. It felt a little bit like a bear hugging her, and she’d never felt anything so good. She closed her eyes. He held on to her for what seemed like forever, but she didn’t mind. She hadn’t realized just how much she’d missed her baby brother. He’d been close, but so far for so long.

  Then he pulled back, his eyes searching over her. “Why are you here now? Nathan doesn’t do anything without a reason, and that would include you.”

  She sighed. “Actually, I need your help.”

  He all but fell away from her, breaking physical contact as he dropped back into his seat. In a heartbeat, her brother was gone, and what remained was a burned operative filled with suspicion. Bridget sat down across from him, wanting so much to see her brother again. “With what?”

  “Something only you can do, Scott,” she replied. “Daniel Lewis worked for a man we think is trying to kill someone we need to protect. I need to find out where containers that came into the States nine years ago went, and who they were delivered to.”

  “What’s in the containers?”

  “It doesn’t matter. I need to know who they were for.”r />
  He rubbed the back of his neck and looked down at the table. Locks of his dark hair fell over, obscuring his face from her. But between the strands, she could see the pinch of his brow in a deep frown. “You’re working for Nathan.”

  “I’m working with Nathan,” she replied.

  “Then you know what I did. You can’t trust me, Bridget.”

  “I will trust you, Scott. You’re still my baby brother.”

  “Nine years is a long time. Plenty of time for things to get lost for good,” he stated. “It could be a dead-end.”

  “Yes, it could be. But I need to follow up on anything I can. Lives depend on it.”

  “They always do,” he replied, releasing a hard sigh. “If I do this, I do it for you, not for him. I’ll need Internet access. Is he willing to allow that?”

  “Actually, you’re going to be accessing the source directly. We think the files may still be analog.”

  “That’s why you need me. Because I’m not just a computer guy. Because I can break in and because I’m disposable.”

  She shook her head. “Never disposable, Scott.”

  He shrugged. “Not to you, maybe.”

  He glanced at the glass to the side of the two of them. She purposely did not look there. She knew he was thinking of Nathan, and maybe in some way, that was exactly how Nathan thought of it. Scott had betrayed his team once, and if he got killed trying to gain information for them, it would be less of an issue than if it was an active Reaper.

  She’d just gotten Scott back. She wasn’t about to lose her baby brother again, no matter what crime he may have committed. She would watch out for him this time, in a way that she couldn’t before.

  ~*~*~

  Nathan did not like this at all. Why had he agreed to this again? He didn’t like that this work had dragged his Bridget into this situation, into a world she was better off not knowing about. He’d manipulated her as easily as he had her brother, and he hated himself for it. Keeping her safe was a priority, though. Right under finding his family’s killer.

  Maybe it would have been kinder to let her die that day instead of saving her and bringing her into this messy world of his. The selfish side of him threw that thought out as soon as he’d thought of it. No. His life was better with her in it. God knew, his Company wouldn’t be what it was without her efficiency and talent. He wouldn’t be as close to his family’s killers as he was without her.