The Assassin in Blue

10. Give Up

His words set a queezy feeling into my stomach, I wasn't sure if it was from the way he was holding me so close to him or from the definite confirmation that he knew.

He took a step back when I twisted myself up so that we were back in our original position: face to face. He was taken aback for a second, but recovered quickly. He grasped my hand in his and pulled me closer by the waist. "Well, Mr. 'I know so' I assume you know why I'm here then," I whispered, as to not draw any unnecessary attention.

"Care to share?"

His mouth was plastered into a straight line, there were no signs of play. Our faces were merely centimeters apart as we continued to dance inconspicuously along with the other people.

The shadows of the mask hid his eyes from me, the stormy grey mix I had seen in the cupcake shop burned through the darkness and replaced the shadows under the mask, in my mind.

Despite his seductive behavior he didn't try to charm me with a nice smile or a flirtatious smirk, he had the whole 'sexy but stern' persona about him, unlike his friend, Levi, who was more of the flirtatious and obnoxious type.

"Hmpf, I'll keep it simple. You," I gave him a pointed look, running my hand up his abdomen and felt every ripple underneath. "Climbed your way into window, you killed man, you left out said window. Man never signed my paper, therefore my money- poof. Gone. Now, you owe me," I snarked. "And what's up with you and blue?" I released his hand and untucked his navy blue silk tie from his suit, the color was starting to pesterize me. "You know other colors exist, right?"

I stalked around him, dragging my hand along his torso. I let my fingers fall to the waistline of his slacks where the heavy metal of a gun sat. "I'm not the only one prepared, I see."

In one slick movement, he tucked his tie back in with his fingers and took my hand in his again as I came around to his front side. "This is over money," he sneered lowly. "How much is worth the chase, Ms. Moore?"

"Two thousand. And you shot my car."

"So you aren't crazy, just stupid," be concluded in a soft, quiet, but surprisingly intimidating voice. His tone was flat, the flat tone that said he looked down on me, as if he were better. His hand traveled down my waist in a smooth manner that sent an alert to my senses.

I stomped on his foot.

The only sign of a reaction I got out of him was a slight muscle twitch in his jaw, not exactly the reaction I was going for, but it was something.

I used my angry whisper voice, "Don't give me that face. It's a lot of money, I was so pissed I wanted you dead. But at this point you could just pay me back with a little interest and take the bastard back."

A new song started and everyone was back into a routine dance.

"Don't peg me for a pawn, I won't give you a dime. You took a hostage, now that's a real problem."

"Listen, we" I gave him another pointed look and then snapped my head to the side as it was a part of the dance. "Already had a real problem the moment you hauled yourself through that damn window. I know what you do for a living. You have plenty of money, if you were really so smart you'd pay me and be done with it."

"This is about more than money now."

He released my hand and I was ready to go into self defense mode for whatever he was going to do.

I went still when he lifted his hand to push the stray hair back and curl his hand around the back of my neck to pull me closer. A quick note I had taken— he liked to use tension to as advantage of duress. "Give up," he let out lowly.