I’d gotten so carried away I’d forgotten about his shoulder.
I moved carefully so that he was settled against the pillow and I was perched above him. His hand ran down my stomach and found that spot I’d wanted him to touch again. When his fingers dipped inside, I could barely keep it together.
As I neared my peak he pulled his hand away and cupped my hip.
“Not yet. I want it all, Ava.” His husky voice slid over my skin like velvet. “I want to taste you first and then I want to be inside you when you finish.”
He gripped my hips and pulled me over so that I was straddling his chest. He urged me further up and I found myself face to face with the wall when his tongue moved against me. I let out a ragged breath and gripped the headboard. He was agonizingly thorough, dragging it out until I was panting, my hips bucking, but still he held me firmly in place.
When my breathing became too fast he’d move to a different spot. It was sweet torture. When he touched his teeth against my inner thigh I whimpered and my knees gave out.
He held me upright, waiting for me to collect myself. Slowly he brought his lips back to my center. This time he didn’t fight the rocking of my hips against his face. His tongue moved faster, and his fingers pulled me closer. I knew I was moaning, but I couldn’t stop. I was close to the edge, so very close when he pulled away from me. He was breathing heavy and seemed to be fighting himself, trying to slow things down.
“The condom is on the shelf.” He spoke the words against the skin of my leg. I pushed the hair out of my face and reached up.
Once I had it I moved back down his body until I was between his legs. I took him in my hand and watched as his muscles tensed. When I bent to put him in my mouth his eyes never left mine. My hair fell between us and he gathered it at the back of my head so he could still watch me. His breathing was heavy and his hips strained underneath me, I pulled back and brought my mouth to the juncture of his thighs and bit gently just as he had done to me.
“I can’t take much more, Ava.” My name came out on a hiss.
He found the condom and ripped the package open. When he was ready, I straddled his waist and guided him inside.
His groan was worth all of the torture he had put me through. I moved slowly, getting used to him. His hands gripped my hips, urging me to move faster. He strained under me and I let all restraint go.
This might be the only time I had with Owen and I was going to enjoy every bit of it. This beautiful, broken man, who told me the most beautiful things. The man that had taken a bullet for me and didn’t even want my thanks. But I could thank him in other ways.
As I neared the peak I let my head fall back and closed my eyes. I wanted to remember this. All of it. Even the smell of mothballs.
He clutched my hips at the same time that I fell over the edge, his body slamming into mine as he found his finish. I collapsed against his chest, my body still rocked with aftershocks of pleasure.
His hands stroked my back and hair.
“Thank you.” He pressed his lips to my temple.
“You don’t have to thank me, Owen. You never have to thank me.” I repeated his words against his shoulder.
“I’ll try to remember that next time.” Humor laced his words and I smiled even though he couldn’t see it.
“You do that.” I gathered my strength and rolled to the side so I wasn’t squishing him.
He swung his legs over the side of the bed and took a minute to clean himself off. I watched as his naked rear walked across the room to grab a towel from a small cabinet I hadn’t noticed on the far wall. He brought it back to me and straightened the blanket. When I lay back down, I felt sated and happy.
Which was an unfamiliar feeling after the days filled with anxiety. He slid in beside me and pushed some of the hair out of my face.
“I think I’m starting to remember why it’s nice to wake up next to someone.” His face was relaxed, a content smile curling his lips.
“Only when they aren’t trying to kill you, of course.”
“I dunno, love. I wanted you so bad I thought it might kill me.”
Heat flooded my cheeks and I rolled my eyes. “Geez. You’re mushy.”
“I’ve learned a lot of new things about myself in the last few days.” He picked up a lock of my hair and rubbed it between his fingers.
“Like what?” Curiosity had me watching his face carefully.
“Apparently I’m a sucker for brunettes with big blue eyes and an American accent.” His gaze was thoughtful, his eyes distant as he really contemplated it. “I’ve been all over the world, seen lots of things, met so many different people, but I wasn’t really living. Like you, I was just existing. Doing the only thing I thought I was capable of.”
“That’s pretty deep.” I tilted my head. “Between the running and the gun fights, when did you have time to come to that conclusion?”
“While I pretended to be busy doing things on the internet in Oxford.” He tugged my hair gently. “I also decided that I really hate soup.”
I laughed loudly and covered my mouth with the back of my hand.
“No, really. I hate soup. Hate it. If I never eat another bowl of soup again, it would still be too soon.” His smile was infectious. “I do, however, really like your smile.”
“Yours isn’t so bad either.”
I reached up and touched the bandage on his shoulder. We’d knocked it askew. “Did we hurt this?”
“I’m fine.” Amusement rippled across his face.
“You think we can just hide in here for a few days and pretend the rest of the world doesn’t exist?” I leaned back on the pillow.
“I’d settle for a few more hours, but I doubt we can spare that. You’ll always be running if we don’t deal with Maria. You deserve a life better than that.” He settled down next to me and I snuggled up against his chest.
I must have drifted off, because the next thing I knew someone was pounding on the bedroom door. I jerked awake and clutched the blanket to me.
“Put your clothes on and come downstairs. I’ve got information.” Mavis hollered. She pounded on the door a couple more times for good measure before I heard the clap of her high heels on the stairs.
MAVIS HAD A laptop set on the kitchen table. Video footage of a woman getting into a black car played across the screen.
“You can’t see her face,” I said. “But that doesn’t look like the same Maria that I met for the hit on Song.”
Ava shook her head. “I think I would have remembered meeting someone like her.”
“She might have been traveling incognito.” Mavis sat back in her chair and cupped her tea with both hands.
“No, people with that kind of money have a way about them. It’s not something they put on and take off like a jacket.” She leaned closer to the screen. “If she was wearing a tattered wizard cloak, she would still hold herself differently. That isn’t a humble woman, that’s a woman that fought for her success, and won’t let anyone forget it.”
“You get all that from ten seconds of a black and white security clip?” Mavis looked Ava over the rim of her tea.
“Look at the way she expects people to be where they’re supposed to be. She never breaks stride when heading for a door; she knows someone will open it in time. She knows everyone will be doing their jobs, because they can’t afford not to. Anyone higher up in her business would be kept on a short leash, though. She’d want to make sure they didn’t forget who was in charge.”
I looked at Ava in surprise. I knew she was insightful, but hadn’t realized just how much she picked up on.
“Organization, not business.” Mavis sat forward. “She has her hands in anything that will make her money. It’s broken up and scattered amongst her people, but it all goes back to her. Her biggest money makers are the casinos and the girls, but she also dabbles in fine art.”
“She collects antiques?” Ava slumped back in her chair.
“My information just mentions that sh
e collects fine art. I don’t know if that’s oil paintings, statues, pottery, or pictures of boogies.”
“Boogies.” Ava raised an eyebrow.
“From your nose.” Mavis looked away as if the whole idea was distasteful and she hadn’t brought it up to begin with.
“She’s worked really hard to keep a low profile.” I rubbed a hand along my jaw. I needed a shave. “I’ve never heard of her.”
“Neither have I.” Mavis reached forward and pressed a button on the computer. A different video started playing. “She’s good at weeding out who will get her what she wants but still be controlled. Marcus only cares about money. Unless she stops throwing jobs his way, he’ll be content.”
“No, eventually he’ll set his sights higher.” My stupid big brother. This woman would mop the floor with him.
The woman walked on the screen flanked by a well fed man and well-dressed woman—obviously a subordinate by the way she stayed one step behind Maria at all times.
“Can you freeze that?”
“That’s Mr. Song.” Ava pointed at the screen.
“That’s the man you were supposed to kill?” Mavis paused the video. “Your contact was named Maria?”
“Yes. She was a tall brunette woman.”
Mavis snorted. “A coincidence?”
Owen shook his head no. “You and I both know those don’t happen. I couldn’t get a bead on her. She never stated that she was the person that was paying me, but if that was someone’s secretary, I’d hate to meet her boss.” I looked at the profiles of both women. “A real cold fish. If I had to pick one of them, I would say that Maria really was named Maria. I wouldn’t bet that she wasn’t one of the women on that video though. They have similar traits.”
“What do we do now?” Ava looked at me and then Mavis.
“We find a way to get close to her.” I nodded my head at the screen. “That’s the hardest part.”
“Then what?”
“We ask nicely what the hell her problem is.” Mavis narrowed her eyes. “And what she’s done with Laura.”
“And when you say ‘ask her nicely’…”
“We don’t take no for an answer.” I met her eyes and waited as she processed what I meant. I wasn’t in the business of harming women, but if I thought I had to kill Maria to keep Ava safe, I wouldn’t hesitate.
Someone knocked on the back door and I slid out of my seat and pulled Ava with me. I pushed her against the wall and stood in front her, my gun in my hand.
“Relax. It’s Kenny.” Mavis stood up and walked to the door. She was holding a forty five in her left hand. Where she had been hiding that I wasn’t sure.
“And Kenny is?”
“Someone with a very promising future in electronics.” Mavis opened the door and a skinny lad walked in. He nodded his head at me and handed an envelope to Mavis.
“This is the list?” She looked at him.
“There isn’t a list. They pick them one at a time.” His voice was high, but I’d judge him to be at least eighteen. If he managed to bulk up, he’d be someone people would avoid.
“An algorithm?” Mavis opened the envelope and flipped through the pages.
“Not that I can find. No random generator, no algorithm, not an employee with any sort of preferences.” He shrugged. “Maybe they throw a dart at a map.”
“Helpful as always.” Mavis closed the envelope. “They won’t be able to tell you were in there?”
“No.” His chest puffed out a little. “I hacked harder stuff than that before I was ten.”
“This is serious, Kenny. These are bad people.”
“I’m not an idiot, Aunt Mavis. I looked through all of their stuff. I know they’re bad people.”
Aunt Mavis? I felt Ava peek around my shoulder to watch the family reunion.
“Damn it, Kenny. I told you not to call me that in public. It makes you a target. How am I supposed to believe you’re taking this seriously if you can’t remember that simple rule?” She stood on her toes and poked his shoulder. He backed a step away. I didn’t blame him. I’d only seen Mavis lose her temper once and that time she had calmly told the guard she was pissed before putting a bullet in his chest.
“Do we gotta kill them now?” He looked over at us and I felt my eyebrows rise.
“I swear that if I ever see my sister in the after-life I am going to strangle her.” She threw the envelope on the table and put her hands on her hips. “No. We don’t ‘gotta kill them.’ They’re good people. If you need help and you can’t find me, you find Owen. And if we were going to kill them, we wouldn’t want to announce that and start a panic.”
“Yes’um.” His cheeks turned red and he looked anywhere but at his tiny aunt.
“Just go in the living room.” She shook her head.
The boy made feet for the front of the house.
“Aunt Mavis?” I holstered my gun and moved so Ava could escape the tiny corner I’d stuck her in. She rolled her eyes at me and went back to her seat.
“Shut up, Owen.” Mavis sat back down and opened the envelope. She started separating the pages into stacks.
“Any other siblings?” Ava sat down and craned her neck to look at the pages.
“No.” Mavis ground the word out.
“How long?” In the five years I’d known Mavis I never would have guessed she had a kid tucked away somewhere. I guess in my world you never truly knew anyone.
“Eight years.” She sighed and looked up at us. “Do we really have to do this?”
“Yes.” Ava answered the same time I did.
Ava’s voice took on a kind tone. “Obviously, Owen didn’t know about him. We need to be able to trust you.”
“Fine.” She lowered her voice. “My sister died and I got the kid. Et cetera, et cetera. The end. Stop prying.”
“I’m sorry you lost your sister.” Ava was smart enough to not reach out to touch Mavis. I could see all of the muscles tensed along her neck and shoulders. “It must’ve been hard to lose her and find yourself in charge of a ten year old.”
“Eight year old.” Mavis looked up. “He’s only sixteen. His father was the bloody Green Giant. He’s been taller than me since he was nine.”
“How did you manage to take care of a kid?” I tried to keep the disbelief out of my voice. “Our job isn’t exactly something you can list on the contact form for his school.”
She cocked her head to the side, almost like a bird. “Assassinating people isn’t my only business. When things were bad I didn’t need to work. I only took the occasional job when I needed to let off steam. Now that he’s older it’s easier.”
Huh.
“You can tell you two are close.” Ava smiled. “He might be taller than you, but he still looks up to you. And it must have been nice to have someone to come home to.”
Mavis smiled a little. “Sometimes. Other times I’d come home to find out he’d done something stupid, like getting kicked out of a private school.”
“Being a parent would be hard.” Ava shook her head.
“You have no idea.” Mavis cleared her throat. She handed me a stack of papers. “Previous places the casino was held. Illegal gambling never goes out of style.”
“You think this is the best way in?” I glanced over the list. Geneva, Moscow, Hong Kong, Singapore, Morocco, Samoa, Quebec. It didn’t look like they avoided any particular countries.
“It’s invite only. Everything else we would have to infiltrate slowly over a couple of years.” She looked at me. “We don’t have that kind of time.”
“And how do we get an invite? And how do we know Maria will be there?” Ava leaned forward. Her hair fell in her face and she shoved it out of the way. I had flashback to this morning, when all of that hair had been hanging in my face while she moved on top of me.
“Maria is always there. And they seem to send the invites out to prominent businessmen and women. People with connections. Though it looks like those people are allowed to bring guests with them
as well.” Mavis slid some photos of people dressed in finery walking out of an abandoned building. “’Hey, come with me to an illegal casino that’s full of sex slaves and expensive drugs.’”
“They’re compiling blackmail.” Ava pursed her lips.
“Exactly.” Mavis’s eyes flicked in my direction. She wasn’t easily impressed.
“Why would they go?” Ava looked from me to Mavis.
“Brains.” Mavis shrugged. “They lack them.”
“Are they really all that stupid?”
“No. Some of them don’t care. Some of them are shady anyway. For a lot of them, it’s pride. Something to boast about.” I spread out the pictures. “A lot of them are bored. They’ve seen it all, done it all. This is exciting. Forbidden.”
“What? They don’t watch reality TV like everyone else?” When she smiled it lit up her face.
Fuck, I had it bad. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt like this. Maybe as a teenager, but no, even then it wasn’t more than overworked hormones. Ava was different. I liked the way her facial expressions changed as she’d read that stupid Christmas book. I enjoyed watching her think, for fuck’s sake. Who sat around and watched someone else think?
“Owen, dear, we’re not in remedial health class. There’s a lot more at stake than your GPA right now.” Mavis slapped a paper down in front of me.
It was a list of flight numbers.
“Zone out on your own time.” She tapped the paper. “Do you notice anything about the numbers?”
“I’m going to guess they correspond with the list of casino locations,” I said. Mavis rolled her eyes. She was brilliant, gorgeous, and clearly missed out on a career as an angry librarian.
“Oh, you’re awake now. I thought I was going to have to ask Ava to step out of your line of sight.”
“Get on with it.” I frowned.
From the corner of my eye I saw Ava look down at the table with a small smile. God, I didn’t deserve to be in the same room as her, but she’d let me love her this morning. I’d fallen asleep with her in my arms and I wasn’t sure I could go back to not waking up next to her.
The Accidental Assassin (Assassins #1) Page 17