by S. M. Butler
Nathan’s mouth ticked upward, but that was all the reaction he got from the man. “Clear the room, please.”
The men shuffled out, but the woman remained for a moment. She looked at Nathan. “Is that wise?”
Nathan shook his head. “Probably not. Please wait outside, Miss Muldoon.”
The collective intake of breath from the rest of them was all Axel heard. Muldoon? Like Scott Muldoon? Axel hadn’t known that guy all that well since he’d only been around for a few months last year, but the mention of the name seemed to catch everyone’s attention.
The woman eyed Nathan. “You’re a real bastard, Nathan.” She turned on slick heels and headed for the door. She barely paused as she passed by Jordan and Chris, both of whom were staring at her like she had a third eye on her forehead. Then they slowly followed her out, like their curiosity had suddenly become the most important thing to them.
Nathan cursed under his breath but when he faced Axel, he was as stone-faced as he always was. “Come, Mr. Martinez. Let’s talk in your office.”
25
Bridget crossed her arms and pressed her back against the wall as the three Reapers stared at her. She couldn’t tell if they were looking at her like they’d look at her brother or if there was some other emotion involved. Damn it, she was going to kill Nathan for dropping that bomb on her like that.
Though she’d never seen any of them in person before, the three Reapers were just as imposing as she’d thought they’d be. Intense eyes. Wide bodies. This aura of something that made her want to go hide under a bed until they went away.
Levi tilted his head and his sky-blue eyes narrowed as he broke the uneasy silence. “Okay, I’ll bite. Muldoon, then?”
Bridget cleared her throat and raised her chin up. “Yes. Bridget Muldoon. Scott is my brother.”
“Is?” Allen hissed. “The bastard isn’t dead yet?”
Bridget glared at him. “No.”
“Good, then I can kill him myself,” Allen said, smiling with full teeth, but it wasn’t a happy smile. In fact, it sent chills straight to Bridget’s bones.
She met those dark eyes. “You won’t touch him.”
“Lady, there’s not one person in this world that can stop me.”
“Oh, I will,” she replied, trying to keep her voice even as they stood over her. It felt a bit like being bullied in the playground as a child, except she wasn’t a child anymore, and she knew things about these men they didn’t know she did.
Levi smiled, an eyebrow quirking upward. “The lady doth have balls.”
Allen shook his head. “I don’t see how you can, doll face.”
“Do you think I’m walking around with Nathan Hawk because I look good on his arm?” She asked him as she pulled herself to her full height. The three still had plenty of height on her but she’d be damned if she’d show weakness. “Scott Muldoon is under my protection and none of you will touch him.”
She stared each of them down as they assessed her. Maybe if she didn’t move her limbs, they wouldn’t see how shaky and scared she was. Though in her head she knew it wasn’t in their heart to hurt someone for the crimes of their family, the reality of being faced with the possibility was frightening and very in-your-face.
Hardy put a hand on Allen’s shoulder, and it was like Allen deflated. His shoulders went from super tensed to relaxed in one second. “She’s not him, Jack.” He turned toward her. “Scott’s not really welcome here, in case you couldn’t tell.” He held out his hand. “I’m Chris Hardy.”
Slowly, so she didn’t make the shaking in her bones obvious, she extended her arm and took his hand. As they shook hands, she managed a small smile. “I know who you are.”
“Nathan’s never brought anyone else around here before.”
She shrugged. “I’m a special case.”
“Must be,” Chris said, eying her up and down. “Scott mentioned once his sister died. So, if you died, how are you standing here?”
“I was shot during a bank heist four years ago. I was Nathan’s guinea pig for the Reaper procedure.” It was a coarse way of saying it, but it was true. “Except I forgot to die during the procedure.”
“You’re like us?”
“You might say you’re all like me,” she replied. “I know Nathan isn’t forthcoming with a lot of what he does. No one knows that better than I do.”
“That’s the understatement of the year, doll face,” Allen said. He seemed to lose interest in her as he stepped back and leaned against the opposite wall from her. He crossed his arms and scowled.
Having known Allen’s background, she’d actually expected the gruffness, but the way he’d wanted to go after Scott was less about revenge and more protective than she’d expected from him. He was going to great lengths to hide it, but she saw it.
“He’s not so bad, you know,” she heard herself saying before she could stop it.
None of them answered and she didn’t have the nerve to look up and see what they were doing. Also, she wasn’t entirely sure she was telling them the truth.
~*~*~
Bea forced her fingers to move, though it was getting harder and harder to do as time passed. The cuffs were cutting into her circulation, disrupting blood flow. Not to mention, her entire body ached, not just from the way she’d been standing there for hours, but also from what Genevieve made Liam do to her.
Her shirt was in tatters on the back, ripped to shreds by the whip he’d used. Her back felt like a blowtorch had been waved all across her body, particularly along her back and her ribs.
If she had the energy, she’d have hated the guy for it, but she knew better than that. Genevieve gave an order, and she was not to be disobeyed. She remembered that from her days of following Genevieve around like a puppy being housebroken. She had this way about her, of making you do whatever she wanted you to do, for that simple hope of being praised, or that one soft approving smile you hoped you’d see.
Bea’s eyes had watered involuntarily when the whole thing had been happening, and now her face felt tight, the tears had streaked down her cheeks so freely. She was alone for the moment, and she was glad of it. As much as the actual torture had hurt, the aftermath was so much worse. The wound on her shoulder hadn’t been treated either, but it had at least stopped bleeding as well. Even if she survived this mess, it was likely that stupid wound might be infected and kill her anyway.
She gripped the chains above her cuffs, testing out the tension. She blew out a long breath, trying to gather strength for what she was about to do. It was going to hurt.
She gripped the chains tightly and pushed her feet up, bending her body in half so her feet were close to her hands. Her entire body shook, threatening to give out the last of her strength. She clamped her jaw shut, her teeth grinding tightly against each other as she shifted her weight so that one arm held most of the weight. The cuffs dug painfully into her wrists as she felt along the outside of her boot.
Slowly, she managed to pull out two long thin metal pieces before she had to put her legs back down. She stood as still as she could for a long minute as she tried to breathe through the throbbing agony that followed her movements.
She gripped the metal piece inside her fist tightly as she heard footsteps in the darkness, echoing in the large expanse of the room. They were heavy, thudding steps, so not Genevieve. Her new puppy, then.
Confirming her thoughts, Liam’s large body broke out of the darkness, the moonlight coming from above them illuminating his dark hair and wide shoulders. His steps were slow, easy, confident.
But as his blue eyes fell on her, something else was in them. She wasn’t sure how to identify it, and that in itself, scared her more than anything. She could deal with the sadistic nature of Genevieve. God knew, she’d dealt with it all her life until she’d broken free of the woman. But this… she didn’t know what it was.
His head tilted in curiosity as he looked over her. She glanced down at his hands, but they were empty. His shirt was st
ill stained with her blood, spatters of it covering him. It didn’t seem to bother him.
“I’m not here to hurt you,” he said.
“Did you kill him yet?” She heard herself ask, but her voice came out disembodied, like she was already a ghost but hadn’t stopped breathing out of sheer stubbornness. She didn’t want to know the answer if Axel was dead, but some kind of morbid curiosity was driving her.
He shook his head. “No.”
“Are you going to?”
“Soon.”
Bea smiled sadly. “Soon? We’ll see.” The other Reapers would never allow Axel to give himself up to save her, no matter what. Nathan’s orders were clear. Axel was the mission. His safety was paramount. For whatever it was that Nathan needed him for, whatever reason Nathan had brought him to Jubilee, it was more important than her, and really, she was okay with that. At least this way, she could go out on her terms. She’d never surrender, never stop fighting, no matter how much she was restrained.
The man stepped closer to her, his eyes casing over her like he couldn’t figure her out. Shit, maybe he couldn’t. She wasn’t Genevieve’s little lost puppy anymore. She’d outgrown her cage and broken free. But part of her would always miss those little approving smiles Genevieve used to give when she’d done right.
“Will you mourn him when he’s gone?”
Bea met those disturbingly dead eyes, her brows shooting up in surprise. That was not a question a Genevieve-bred puppy would have. She shook her head. “I’ll be dead right alongside him.”
Liam shrugged. “I’ve always been told showing the… emotions you do makes one weak. Easy to manipulate.”
“Does it.”
“You don’t strike me as weak,” he replied.
“She must have picked you up so very young,” Bea whispered. The man didn’t say anything, which Bea took to mean that she was on the right track. “I was twelve. She trained me for four years before I slit the throat of my first ever mark. She wanted me to enjoy the power of holding that man’s life in my hands. I think for a while, I tricked myself into thinking that I did, but the truth is I’ve never really liked killing.” Bea groaned as she resituated herself as much as she could, still hanging from those cuffs. “Did you enjoy it? Your first?”
He shrugged. “It was just a job.”
“Do you remember it?”
“Yes,” he replied. When he didn’t expound, Bea let the conversation lapse into silence. It was strange to be with another of Genevieve’s proteges, knowing that she’d failed the woman years ago and she’d been forced to find another to be her lackey. Or maybe she hadn’t been forced. Maybe she had already had Liam stashed somewhere. Harry had been around for years.
“I didn’t enjoy it,” he admitted. Surprise heated her face. “I was good at it, though. Like what I did to you. I didn’t enjoy that either, but I’m good at it.”
Bea laughed, the agony of the action ripping through her body and choking off the end of the laugh. “Yes, you are.”
“How did you leave her?” He asked after a long silence. “How did you break free?”
She drew in a hard breath and exhaled before she answered. “Life with Genevieve is only a small part of the world. I was given a chance for a new life, so I took it.”
She could still remember the rough grip of the concrete wall she’d held on to while Nathan had laid out the choice for her. At that point, she’d already betrayed Genevieve and tried to run after she’d been discovered in the mark’s bedroom. Genevieve had caught her in hours. She could still feel the ghosts of the wind against her raw back. She could have been free of the world that night, but her own survival instinct had her accepting Nathan’s offer before her grip on the concrete slipped and she plummeted to her death. Either way, her life was done that day, and she’d have been good with either choice.
Maybe it wasn’t a choice, really. Well, that wasn’t right. It was a choice. Life or death. And it was a chance to do some real good. She’d been on the dark side of the world for so long, she wasn’t really sure what the good side looked like. Nathan might not have been the best advocate for good. God knew, he was complicated in ways she didn’t even know, but the men she worked with… They were good. Complicated as well, but good.
“Perhaps one day, I will have that courage,” Liam said, softly.
She didn’t answer. It was more fear than courage that drove her to that roof. Nathan was more dangerous than Genevieve on the best of her days. Yeah, maybe she traded one master for another, but with Nathan, she’d never felt trapped. Maybe it was being around the other Reapers, maybe it was being able to fly to another country and be able to do what she did best for Nathan.
Liam walked back into the shadows of the building. She wondered if Liam would enjoy killing her, if he’d make it quick, or prolong it to make her suffer.
She glanced up at her fisted hand. Now it was time to figure out how she was going to pick the locks of her cuffs when she could barely reach them.
~*~*~
Axel whirled on Nathan as soon as the door shut behind him. “Where the fuck have you been?”
Nathan glanced at his watch and sighed. “I had business to attend to.”
“They took Bea,” he said. When Nathan didn’t react, he clenched his fists while his chest burned. “Get her back. Now.”
“Miss Li knows procedure. You are the priority. She will expect us to protect you over her.”
“Fuck that!” Axel barked out. He picked up the letter tray that held the incoming invoices and threw it across the room. Paper flew everywhere. In the back of his mind, Axel thought Bea might kick his ass for that, but the reality was, she might not come back from this and that ate a hole into his chest so deep he wasn’t sure how he was still breathing.
How could he continue in this fucking small town without her around? For over a year, she’d verbally sparred with him, worked with him, kept the office running though he was a fucking disorganized pig. A kiss from her was like a kiss from an angel. How could he even step into this office if she weren’t here?
Nathan didn’t seem bothered at all as he leaned against the wall, his arms crossed in that oh-so-Nathan way that made Axel see red. “Mr. Martinez, that tragedy that led to your medical discharge from the Marines… you weren’t a victim. The victims are dead. You are not.”
“What the fuck does that have to do with her?”
“She is protecting you because the fact that you are alive makes you a witness. Those contractors… they committed a crime. One they have perpetrated a hundred times more over the years. It all traces back to that day. That was the first shipment. You’re the missing piece of the puzzle. That video you gave us unlocked everything.”
“I don’t care about that,” Axel ground out. “I care about Bea. I don’t want her to protect me. I want her with me. Right now. Here.”
Nathan sighed. “I don’t understand why my team is getting turned into Love Connection. Miss Li has a job to do. She’s doing it as we speak. You have to trust that I do have the best interests of the mission in mind. She trusts it.”
“What about her best interests?”
Nathan didn’t say anything.
“That’s what I thought.”
“Would you have your Marines have lost their lives for no reason?” Nathan asked. “You are the key to bring their killers to justice. Would you let them go unavenged, their killer free and clear?”
Axel turned to face his boss. He stared the man straight in the eyes. “It won’t change the fact that they are dead and have been for years and the dead don’t really care about being avenged.”
Nathan went silent, not even breathing. Axel had never seen the man speechless before, but he imagined that was what it looked like. Was that Nathan’s secret? Was he trying to avenge someone he’d lost?
“Bea is still alive,” Axel whispered, because if he spoke any louder, he knew it would crack. “We can save her. You need to use me to get her back. Because if you don’t get her b
ack, I will.”
“I don’t like ultimatums, Mr. Martinez,” Nathan said, quiet and angry. Or as angry as Nathan tended to show. He was a master of masking those emotions, to the point where sometimes, Axel wondered if he truly had emotions.
“Don’t look at it like one, then. It’s a choice. You can choose to help me get her back, or I can do it on my own.”
Nathan stared at him, his eyes calculating, no doubt running through every scenario in which he could find a way to get in front of Axel’s stupid ass plan. But there wasn’t any other way. He had to go, or Bea would die. She might still die. They both might. But Axel was prepared to try, at the very least.
“Do you know what she is? Do you know her past, her present? Her future belongs to me.” Nathan’s mouth turned up into a knowing smirk. “I will not release her from her contract just because you have fallen in love with her.”
“I know it all,” Axel replied. “And I don’t care. It doesn’t change what I have to do.”
“Foolish,” Nathan muttered. “Letting your emotions walk. It’s a weakness they will exploit.”
“It’s a strength I will exploit,” Axel replied. “You need me, Nathan. You need what’s in my head for whatever angle you’re working. You need the extra gun to get her back.”
“Mr. Allen will accompany you.” Nathan shook his head when Axel opened his mouth to protest. “That is nonnegotiable. I need you alive and well. If you insist on this foolishness, then you will take Mr. Allen with you. And he will pull you out the second he feels you are in danger, regardless of whether Miss Li has been extracted or not. Those are my terms. Take it, or I will lock you into a deep hole until this is done.”
Axel rolled his shoulders back and walked straight up to where Nathan leaned against the wall. His heart pounded hard against his sternum. He stopped his face inches from Nathan’s. “When this is over, I quit.”
Nathan smiled, like he knew something Axel didn’t. “We’ll see, Mr. Martinez.”
But purpose solidified inside him even as Nathan’s smug face saw differently. No matter what, he was leaving Jubilee this time.