The Puppet Assassin [TTR sequel]

The Puppet Assassin - Ch 39 [the eye of the storm]

I took a deep breath and inched back. “I know you are proud of me but do you respect me?”

“Of course.” There was no hesitation.

“Can we try to compromise?”

He pressed his forehead against mine and sighed. “I’ll buy you a cell phone with my number on speed dial. Always tell me where you are going and with whom. Tell me if you’re meeting anyone. Let me take you to places and pick you up. If I call you and you miss it, call me back as soon as you can. If you don’t call back after two hours, I will come looking for you.”

“Should I write this all down?” I asked wryly. As he chuckled, his breath skimmed over my face. I loved being close to him.

“If that’ll help you remember, then yes. Because I mean every word.”

“I’m glad that you gave in.”

His fingers weaved through my hair, holding my head still. “I trust you. I respect you. I love you. You give a good argument, puppet.” He trailed kisses over my cheekbone. “Now I have to retrieve my man-card by kissing you senseless.”

“We should argue more,” I said softly, his lips lightly touching my jawline was making me lightheaded.

“I look forward to it,” he said and bit lightly on my lower lip. “As long as I get to win some.”

“If this is how you act when you lose, I can’t imagine your reaction to winning.”

He chuckled and covered my lips with his.

** **

We arrived home to find Liam, Kayli, James and Dan at home in the kitchen. Connor and Garth were cooking meat on the barbeque outside and Luke was on an intense phone call in the living room. Larkin went straight outside, muttering about interfering assholes that everyone would most likely have heard. Kayli immediately pounced on me.

“B’s gone back to Australia,” she said with a roll of her eyes.

“Oh, bugger,” I said distractedly. Liam had fixed a firm gaze on me as soon as I’d stepped into the room and I wanted to know the reason for it.

“Yeah and I’ve got to thinking that I need female company, you need female company, therefore one plus one equals two!” She gave me a mischievous grin.

I gave her a bewildered look. “Huh?”

“We need to hang out more. You need to get out of this house.”

This couldn’t have come at a better time. “I agree.”

I stiffened when I saw Liam approaching us from the corner of my eye. He still intimidated me. “How are you feeling lately?” he asked, his arm wrapping around Kayli and pulling her against him. She smiled and lifted her hand to hold his at her side.

“I’m fine.” I stared at him, at loss of what to say.

I saw his fingers clench suddenly. “Morse was flushed out earlier today.”

That was fast. “That’s good news.”

Liam frowned. “He shot himself before any of my officers could stop him. We’ve lost the holder of any information pertaining to the blood-witches. But that’s not important to you.” He rubbed his eyes. Now that I thought about it, he looked tired. “Morse is dead, Scythe is answering some difficult questions and you no longer need to worry yourself about either of them.”

No one was going to take me back to the assassin training complex. I breathed a heavy sigh. But what did that mean now? Luke had no obligation to ‘keep me safe’. I didn’t have to stay here but I couldn’t really go anywhere else. I didn’t even want to leave. But I was still sleeping in the guest room. Weren’t guests supposed to leave at some point? Even if they were sleeping with one of the more permanent residents?