by K. A. Linde
“I’m sorry,” she whispered deliriously.
“Why are you apologizing?”
“For Penelope.”
“She needs no apology.”
“Still sorry.”
Beckham kissed her temple. “Don’t worry about Penelope.”
“Okay.” Reyna sighed. “Will you do me a favor?”
“Perhaps.”
“Hold me?”
He crawled into bed, his movements as lithe and predatory as a panther. His hands moved around her body. Her back pressed into his chest. They fit together perfectly. As one.
“Another favor?” she mumbled.
“Hmm?” he breathed into her ear.
“Stay through the morning?”
“It is morning.”
“Stay all night.”
“For you.”
She sighed deep in her throat and then let the tension finally leave her body.
* * *
—
Reyna awoke with an arm around her waist, and a body pressed against her back. She rolled over to find Beckham perfectly asleep behind her. A statue carved out of stone. Adonis in the flesh.
She had always wondered if vampires slept. She had never seen Beckham do it. Of course, he had a bed in his room back at the penthouse, but beds could be used for multiple things. She was well aware.
Her fingers traced the contours of his face. Allowing herself to forget for that moment the horrors of yesterday and the new nightmares she would face when she left this room.
“Keep doing that and we’re never leaving this bed.”
Reyna smiled. “Is that supposed to get me to stop?”
His eyes slowly opened, revealing the dark depths. He reached out and captured her hand in his. Then he brought it to his lips and kissed her.
“How are you?”
She shrugged. “You’re here.”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t know you slept.”
“Sometimes,” he admitted. “We don’t need to as much. Just like eating. It rejuvenates us. Though we can go much longer without.”
“It’s not fair that you look exactly the same when you wake up, and I look like a bomb went off,” she said.
He tugged her closer. “Does it matter what you look like when you still have a sharp mind, quick wit, and fragile human heart when you wake up?”
“And here I thought my heart was hardening.”
“I dread that day. Your struggle, emotion, and humanity are your best qualities. It makes you who you are.”
“It also makes all of this so hard,” she whispered. She hated admitting how she felt. That she knew she would have to face the day once they left this bed.
“Be glad that you feel at all. For so long I did not.” He frowned. “You asked me once what changed me. Why I decided not to continue as I had for so long. I didn’t give you the whole truth.”
Reyna frowned. “What do you mean?”
“The camera came second. The truth is that I know what you’re going through, because I lost a sister.”
“You had a sister?” she whispered.
He nodded once. His eyes were very far away. “Bronwyn and I were very close. When I was changed, I changed her as well. Brought her into this world.” He paused with a sigh. “Made her my second.”
Reyna covered her mouth. Oh, God.
“Yes. She was murdered in a turf war. I mourn her death every year. She was my only real family. On the fifteenth anniversary of her death, I went to the home that we grew up in. I sat there and watched a new family in the property. A young brother and sister playing together, and I remembered that innocence. I wanted to find that again.” His eyes bored into her. She hardly breathed. “I started taking pictures soon after that, searching for it. I joined Elle hoping this rebellion would reveal it. But it wasn’t until you arrived that I knew you were everything I’d been seeking. You were then and you are now.
“I love you,” Beckham told her. “I have loved you since the first time I saw you, since you defiantly bared your neck to me while you trembled, and as you fought for the oppressed every way you could, and every moment you see me for who I am. I love you. I will always love you.”
“I love you too,” she released on a breath and then she kissed him. Because no other words could do justice to the way her heart expanded.
Chapter 35
Telling Laura about Brian destroyed any of those lingering happy feelings from when she had awoken with Beckham. Drew had been the one to utter the words, but Reyna had held Laura’s hand. She’d been there when Laura fainted and collapsed backward. And when Laura came to she sat with her while she sobbed and held her arms around her stomach. Their child growing inside of her without any knowledge of what might happen to its father.
She would have sat there all day if she wasn’t required to report to Sydney’s meeting.
“I’ll stay with her,” Drew promised, taking Reyna’s seat.
Not that Laura was responding to anyone. But still he took her hand in his and sat there with his bad shoulder and all.
Reyna dragged her defeated body upstairs and found Meghan pacing back and forth in front of the closed door. “What’s going on?”
“There you are!” she cried.
“I’m not late.”
“It’s not that. It’s Jodie.”
Reyna sighed. “What about Jodie?”
“Reyna, she’s gone.”
“Gone?”
“I’ve searched high and low. She wasn’t in our room when I went to sleep. She didn’t sleep in her bed. All of her clothes are gone. I don’t know what to do.”
“Fuck, how did she even get out? How is that possible?” Reyna demanded.
“I think she snuck out behind the security team last night. I don’t know any other way she could have gotten out.”
“Christ, she told me that she wanted to leave. I thought I’d convinced her to stay.”
“This isn’t your fault, but, ugh!, I don’t know how to find her or where she would even go!”
“She went to find June,” Reyna answered. “You gave her that address, right?”
“Oh,” Meghan said, releasing her breath in a huff. “Of course she did. We were going to check it out to make sure it was safe and to see if she still lived there. But we didn’t have the resources yet. And now…” Meghan shook her head.
“I know. Now we’re screwed.” Reyna frowned. “Maybe you and I could go?”
“We’re needed here and she doesn’t trust anyone else.” Meghan ran a hand through her hair. “Hell, she doesn’t trust me. I did everything I could. And still…”
“We can’t let her go.”
“I know,” Meghan said, defeated. “We’ll have to find her after all of this.”
Reyna hated to admit that Meghan was right. If Jodie had been here, they might have been able to use her. To figure out how to make her a valuable part of the team. But Jodie had never wanted that. She’d been distrustful even when people proved to be trustworthy. Reyna didn’t want to abandon her friend, but they had five days to pull off the hit of a lifetime. They needed every second they could get.
* * *
—
Reyna spent the next four days in endless meetings, hammering out all the details of the plan. Every contingency plan. Every exit. Every single way things could go horribly wrong and blow up in her face. And she never wavered.
When she wasn’t in meetings, she was on the treadmill or on the firing range with Gabe. He’d given her a crash course about how to fire a weapon. She was far from a pro by the end of the week, but at least she knew a bit more about what she was doing. She would never be faster or stronger than a vampire. But a gun could level the playing field a bit.
“It’s not going to kill them,” Gabe rem
inded her, adjusting her stance again. “But you’ll slow the fucker down.”
She fired over and over again. She missed as often as she hit the target.
“Aim for the biggest sections. Torso is going to be your best bet. Don’t try to get fancy. You want to keep them from reaching you or disable them enough to get away.” He righted her arm. “Try again.”
So she did. Over and over.
“Good,” he said.
“Gabe,” Meghan said, popping her head into the firing range. “I need Reyna.”
“That’s all the time we have.”
Reyna swallowed. “I’m not good enough.”
He tipped her chin up. “Worst-case scenario only. If all goes as planned, you won’t even need this.” He released the clip and broke the gun down. “I’ll be there. Try not to think about anything else.”
She nodded. “Okay. Okay.”
“Now go get pretty.”
“I’m already pretty,” she teased as she hurried toward Meghan.
“Come on. We don’t have much time. We need to get you cleaned up.”
They took the elevator to a room outfitted to look like a dressing room. Two bags were hanging against the far wall. There was a dresser full of makeup and hair products and brushes and every color of lipstick imaginable.
“Whoa,” Reyna whispered.
“Yeah. I have a slight hair and makeup obsession.” Meghan pointed at the chair. “Now, sit. I have to make you presentable for tonight.” Meghan tossed her a button-up shirt. “Put that on so you don’t mess up your hair.”
Reyna felt stupid letting Meghan pretty her up. With everything that had happened, looking pretty was low on her priority list. Laura was a shell of her former self. Drew refused to leave her side. Jodie was gone. Brian was gone. She hardly saw Beckham. Everything was a mess. But tonight would be the start of a new world. Tonight would change everything.
* * *
—
Several hours later, both Meghan and Reyna were done up in an appropriate enough fashion to be presentable for Penelope’s New Year’s Eve ball. Reyna wore a black sequined dress that was poufy from the waist down with pockets that allowed her access to the thigh holsters that held a Glock on each leg. Meghan wore a slinky gold glitter dress that sparkled with every movement. She looked like a 1950s movie star.
Tony came in for the final touches. They each had an earpiece, microphone, a hidden camera in their bodices, and a diamond-encrusted ID bracelet that doubled as a tracking device. She felt a little bit James Bond.
Meghan took a deep breath when Tony finally left. “Are you ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.”
“One last thing,” Meghan said. She handed Reyna a box. Inside was a delicate black lace mask with sewn-in beads and glittery sequins.
“Wow,” she whispered.
Reyna let Meghan secure it to her face. When she looked into the full-length mirror, she hardly recognized herself. She looked like some dark ethereal creature.
Death.
She was death.
Come to claim her next victim.
Meghan nodded her approval. “Killer. Ready?”
Reyna put the mirror down and smiled grimly. She was ready.
A knock on the door surprised them both. Meghan checked her watch before answering. Washington was standing on the other side.
He seemed out of breath. “I know that we don’t have much time, but I need a word with Reyna.”
“Now?” Meghan asked in exasperation.
“Only a minute. It’s important.”
Reyna raised her eyebrows in surprise. What could be so important that Washington had to speak to her now? They were about to leave. She couldn’t imagine anything he had to say that would change her mind.
“Five minutes and then we have to go,” Meghan said, crossing her arms over her dress.
Reyna stepped out into the empty hallway and closed the door. “What do you need?”
“I had to come tell you that I have results for you!” he said enthusiastically. “It’s a scientific breakthrough.”
Reyna frowned in confusion. What was he talking about?
“I realized that I’ve seen blood like yours once before. Very early on when I was first studying blood type matches. Actually, the very idea came to me because I found a perfect blood match.”
Reyna tilted her head to the side. “A blood type match? Aren’t there millions of them?”
“Yes. But this was a blood match.”
“Okay,” she said in confusion. “What’s the difference?”
“A blood type is exactly what everyone already knows. But a blood match is a snowflake. It’s a fingerprint. It doesn’t have to match the blood type. It matches the blood composition itself. As far as I’ve ever seen, it is an extremely rare, one-to-one match between two people’s blood.”
Her heart stopped beating. “What exactly are you saying?”
“I’m saying that the reason that Beckham can sense your blood has nothing to do with him drinking it. William shouldn’t be able to sense you. Because there is only one perfect blood match for you.”
Reyna held up her hand. “Wait, you’re telling me that Harrington can’t sense me?”
“As far as I know, no. Though you should still be on your guard tonight. There might be more to your blood than I know,” Washington warned with a stern look. “But the fact that you and Beckham found each other is truly incredible.”
“Wait so…Beckham is my…blood match?”
“A once-in-a-lifetime match. I never even considered looking for it again, because it’s so uncommon.”
“What does that even mean for us?” Reyna asked. Her brows furrowed beneath the mask. The composition of their blood was the same? It sounded odd. Was it even a good thing?
“I believe the concept is very similar to a soul mate,” Washington told her.
“Soul mate,” she said, the breath rushing out of her.
“Yes. Your one true match. Beckham claims to be able to sense you at a great distance. Have you ever been able to sense him?”
Reyna shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
Though…had she ever tried? There had always been an awareness of Beckham. The knowledge of him. The feeling of him. They had clicked. Even from day one through her terror.
“Though…I don’t know. Something.”
“Well, we’ll do more testing with it later. I simply wanted to bring you the news and wish you luck. Be careful out there.”
“I will.”
She turned back to the door with her head in a daze as the realization washed over her of what Washington had said. Soul mate.
“And Reyna?”
“Yes?”
“Don’t underestimate William.”
Reyna’s heart hardened around the words. Harrington. She needed to keep her head in the game. She was out to destroy the destroyer.
“I won’t.”
She hurried back into the dressing room and Meghan quirked an eyebrow at her. Reyna waved her hand as if to say she would tell her later, and they left.
A stretch limo was waiting for them in the parking lot. Reyna couldn’t help but let her eyes widen in shock. She’d never been in a limo before. Somehow despite all the grandeur that constantly pervaded Beckham, a limo still managed to make her giddy.
Gabe stepped out of the backseat. “Ladies.”
Reyna’s jaw dropped. Only a few hours ago, he’d been training her to shoot, wearing a faded black T-shirt and black sweats. Now he looked…like a gentleman. He wore a slick black tuxedo. His red hair gelled to perfection. His green eyes as charming and devious as ever. A plain black mask dangled from his hand.
“After you,” he said, gesturing inside.
Meghan clearly noticed how good he l
ooked, but hastily slipped into the backseat without a word.
“You clean up nice,” Reyna said.
“I could say the same about you,” he said with a characteristic wink.
She knew it was to lighten the mood and she appreciated it. She gave him a small smile before pulling the folds of her dress in and entering the limo. Gabe slid inside last. Reyna hated that Beckham had had to arrive at the party without her, but they couldn’t exactly show up together.
The door slammed shut. Then they were off.
No one spoke on the drive. Even Gabe’s normal chatter was absent as fear clogged the car.
Reyna was glad for the anonymity the masks provided. She worried for Meghan. Her face certainly had been on the cameras the day that she had broken Reyna out of Visage. And Gabe. If Everett had guessed that he knew Reyna, would Harrington know that the Irish mobster Gabriel O’Connor and the rebel Gabe were one and the same? These were questions she didn’t have answers to. Like would Harrington be able to sense her? Washington said no, but still he wasn’t sure.
She bit her lip and tried not to think about it. There was nothing that could be done now. What would be would be.
Traffic stilted their limo at every turn. New Year’s Eve in the city was a nightmare. People had started to line up outside at the earliest hours of the morning. Penelope had told Sydney it would be awful getting everyone in, but she had originally intended for this to be something different than what her late father had done. She still intended to activate the midnight ceremony live on television, but she wanted something for her special guests earlier in the evening.
Eventually they made it through. Gabe insisted that the crowd would help them. It gave them cover if anything happened. But Reyna just saw the mass of people as a barrier. She remembered what it had been like to get caught in a riot outside City Hall. She shuddered.
As planned, Reyna and Meghan latched onto either side of Gabe and approached the ball as his eye candy for the night.
“Invitation?” a man said, standing outside of the ballroom.
Gabe produced the invite from his jacket pocket and handed it over.