Oh my god, it has happened, a new chapter!!!! Finally finally finally! I know, i suck, whatever.
Recap:
So, we got our girl, Jade, who's the daughter of an assassin and is trained to be an assassin. Her mom dies, she makes Jade promise to give normal life a shot so she does.
Jade somehow manages to make a few friends, Michelle (cheerleader), Elle (badass), and Jackson (Hottie). Everything is going nicely until Grant shows up after which point, we find out that there's a price on Jade's head and a man named Lemon wants her dead or alive but preferrably alive.
Enter Reed, the man who was once like a father to Jade and was her mother's boss. Reed let's Jade know that she's part of an experiment, one that involved other babies raised to be killers. Most people suspect that Jade knows about these kids and because they're such a hot commoditiy, she is too.
Jade meets Georgia and Chris, two other assassins and convinces them to help her take down Lemon so they can live a normal life.
Jade leaves Jackson behind to chase Lemon down and attacks him good, taking out a bunch of his people and damaging his empire but he escapes. Reed shows up to help them and just when everything seems super duper, Reed drugs Jade and emprisons her for a month.
Turns out, Reed is a greedy sonofabitch and wants the experimental kids for himself.
Jade manages to escape and Jackson is stunned to find that she's not dead. They begin a relationship but general Ryder, Jackson's dad, knows what Jade is and asks her to give him up. She tells Jackson that she likes Tally and breaks things off with Jackson.
Lemon makes a reappearance and kidnaps Abby just as Jade is about to tell Jackson her true feelings.
Jade ends up getting shot in the shoulder and killing Lemon but Jackson sees the whole thing go down and when general Ryder shows up to clean up the mess, Jackson figures out why Jade told him that she didn't want to be with him.
Jade decides to find the other assassin kids but before she can go find them, they find her, using her sister's life as a bargaining chip, they get her to agree to work with them and Jackson and Grant follow along.
On a mission to kill Bertrand Fernandez, an arms dealer, Jade fails to kill the man and realizes that Jackson doesn't belong in that life so she makes a phone call to General Ryder and with the help of a fellow assassin, Bea, they make sure the general knows where to pick up his son.
Jade manages to convince Jackson that she couldn't be with him anymore, that he'd become a burden to her and Jackson leaves while Jade resigns herself to her fate as a killer.
And there you have it, recap complete!
Enjoy!!!
Chapter Twenty-Six
Two months later...
“You know,” I said mildly, flicking the syringe in my hand, pushing the air bubbles out of the needle even though it didn’t matter.
The air bubbles and the solution within were both lethal.
“You should’ve just died of natural causes when you had the chance.”
I looked down at the man lying on the white, sterile bed in front of me. His eyes were open wide but the tubes in his throat were keeping him from speaking. I glanced at the monitors as they started beeping furiously.
“You’re scared of me?”
He nodded slightly.
“So you remember me?”
Another nod.
I let out a sigh and gave my head a sad shake. “Should’ve lied about that one.” I frowned. “Or not. I’m still going to kill you.” I pulled on the tube connected to the IV, pumping fluids and nutrients into his veins. He was about to get something besides nutrients. “Even if it wasn’t me, it would’ve been someone else, you know that right?” He nodded slightly, resignation lighting his dark eyes. “Lots of people wanted you dead. You made way more enemies than friends in this life.” I brought the needle closer to the injection spot but paused feeling a small stirring in my chest, something like guilt breaking through the never ending coldness that had settled over me for the past two months. “Still, I would’ve preferred to avoid this whole situation.” I shrugged and placed the needle into the receptacle. “Sorry,” I muttered, pressing on the syringe and dispensing the lethal solution, watching as it moved through the tube and into his veins.
Bertrand Fernandez was dead before I left the room.
“So, did you do it?”
I ground my teeth together as I moved swiftly through the crowded New York streets.
“Jade, you there?” Honour said in my ear. I turned down the volume on the cell phone.
I made a noncommittal sound.
“Oh good, I thought I lost you for a second there.”
“What do you want?”
“Did you do it?”
“Yes.”
“I’m so proud of you! I’m throwing you a party when you get back. I scored some tequila! Let’s get dee-runk!”
“I’m hanging up.”
“What? Wait, tell me about it. I’m bored. Was it hard to get to his room? Were there guards? Were you seen?”
“I’m almost at the hotel,” I said, spotting the building half a block away.
“What? That fast? Did you take a cab?”
“No.” I let out a long breath, feeling bone tired and irritated. “It wasn’t like I had to perform a complicated surgery. Everything went exactly as planned, the whole operation took a total of six minutes.”
“Well yeah, it would’ve been easy for me but I just thought you’d linger, maybe agonize over your decision. You know, stop at a church, talk to a priest, find god, beg for forgiveness for what you were about to do. Basically, be sad widdle Jadey-poo, the reluctant assassin who lost her lo─”
I ended the call and turned off my phone as I walked the rest of the way to the hotel. My strides long and purposeful as I moved through the sliding doors and into the lobby and on the elevator, I glanced over at the family standing next to me. The woman caught my eye and gave me a polite smile while the man looked down at his son, warmth shining from his eyes, his arm wrapped around his wife.
There’d been a picture of Bertrand’s family in the hospital room.
Forget it.
The elevator doors slid open and I pressed the door open button as the family got out.
“Thank you,” the woman said, giving me a grateful smile.
I smiled in return but quirked an eyebrow when her gaze lit with alarm just before the doors slid shut again.
“Oh,” I said, seeing the grimace on my mouth in the reflection of the shiny metal door. My smile wasn’t exactly friendly.
Well, I’d just killed a man.
I winced as the thought stabbed through me. There it was again, the guilt.
Bertrand was evil. He killed people for fun, transported weapons to help kill more.
Did his family know?
I groaned and shook my head, forcing the now familiar coldness to settle over my heart, numbing my conscience.
By the time I made it back to the room, I was calm again.
“You’re back!” Honour wailed, launching herself at me and I sidestepped, letting her slam into the closed door behind me. “Damn it, Jade, I’m just trying to be a good friend.”
She raced around to face me, placing her hands on my shoulders and giving me what she probably thought was a sympathetic smile but her eyes remained cold. Like mine.
“You must be sad, your inner sense of justice offended by killing a helpless man but trust me, that’ll pass. How badly do you feel?”
I blinked at her, staring her down and letting that coldness filter into my eyes as I slowly reached up and removed her hands from me.
She quirked an eyebrow and a slow, satisfied smile stretched across her lips. “Not too bad, then.” Leaning forward, she whispered in my ear, “Welcome to my world, Jade.”
I rolled my eyes and pushed past her, flopping down on the double bed with a long sigh. I’d been working nonstop for the past two months, collecting intel, planning and infiltrating but I had avoiding making any actual kills.
Until today.
“So that’s it?” Honour asked, flopping down next to me on her stomach, propping her head on her hand and giving me a considering look. “No water works? No mental break down? I expected you to be mourning the loss of your conscience but you look like you’re ready to take a nap.”
“Excellent powers of observation,” I mumbled, letting my eyes drift closed. “Now piss off.”
She hmphed and pushed herself off my bed, kicking the mattress before stomping towards the door. Before she made it, her phone rang.
“What?” she snarled as a greeting. “Tally! I hate her!”
I rolled my eyes at her petulant tone, not for the first time realizing that there was something deeply wrong with Honour. She could be so childish in some ways but she was the most cold blooded killer of all of us.
She genuinely liked it.
“Fine,” she snapped, stomping towards me and nudging my leg with her foot. “Tally wants to talk to you.”
With a sigh, I sat up and reached for the phone which she shifted out of my reach, taunting me with a gleeful smile on her face.
“What’s wrong with you?” I mumbled, sitting up straighter to extend my reach but she avoided me again.
Gritting my teeth, I narrowed my eyes at her and in a blur of movement, lunged at her, hitting her with the flat of my palm on her chest, sending her flying onto the bed behind her, gasping for breath.
Before she managed to regain her composure, I had the phone out of her hand and myself locked in the bathroom. “What is it?” I asked Tally.
“Did you finish it?” he asked, cutting to the chase.
“Yeah.”
He didn’t say anything for a second and when he spoke, his voice was softer. “Jade, are you okay?”
“No. I’m trying to take a nap but you and Honour seem morally against it.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about.”
“Look, I finished the job I was supposed to do and I signed up for this. I know what I’m getting into.”
After a pause, he said, “Okay. Get some rest. We have lots of work ahead of us. I’ll see you in the morning.”
Without bothering to say good bye, I hung up and walked nonchalantly out of the bathroom, tossing the phone onto the bed that Honour was still sprawled across.
Lots of work...
I squeezed my eyes shut and rubbed my temples as my head started to pound. An image of the picture on Bertrand’s bedside table flashed across my mind making me grit my teeth.
“Where’s that tequila?” I grumbled, knowing that any sleep I managed to get right now would be filled with images of Bertrand and his family.
Honour sat up straight, a sly smile curving her lips. “You want to drink with me?”
No, what I wanted was to forget where I was, who I was for a little while. “Not really but I’m bored and there are no other alternatives.”
“All right!” she said cheerfully, rubbing her hands together in anticipation, clearly unbothered by my words.
With smooth, graceful movements, she rose from the bed grabbed a bottle of tequila from her bag, tossing it to me without looking.
I caught it easily and unscrewed the cap as Honour brought two glasses over and sat on the bed across from me. She handed me a glass and I splashed some vile smelling liquid in it before handing it to her.
“Cheers,” she said, raising her glass and I rolled my eyes but followed her motions, clinking our glasses together before tilting the liquor down my throat.
“Disgusting,” I spluttered, wincing as the liquid left a trail of fire down my throat.
“Yeah but it gets the job done,” Honour replied, refilling both our glasses, not bothering with the cheers this time before sucking back her shot.
The second shot wasn’t as bad and by the fifth, I didn’t even taste it anymore.
“You know,” Honour said, her eyes bright and a bit watery, her smile not quite steady. “I’m mad at you.”
“Oh yeah?” I grinned over at her, not caring that this girl wasn’t my friend or even close to it, at this moment, she seemed a-okay.
“Definitely. Aren’t you gonna ask me why?”
I let out a sigh, recognizing the gleam in her eyes for what it was. Honour liked drama and she wanted to start some with me right now. With a shrug and another shot, I said, “Okay, why are you mad at me Honour? I must know.” I snorted, accidentally splashing some tequila onto the carpet.
“You made Ryder leave.”
I froze with the glass halfway to my mouth, my eyes latching onto hers as my heart stopped beating in my chest and my vision went blurry.
“He was something else. Those eyes that would flash silver whenever he got mad, that deep voice, those gorgeous lips that were made for kissing and that body...” she let out a dramatic groan, tilting her head back and licking her lips. “The boy was fine.” Her eyes opened and she leaned forward to send me an accusing look. “And you scared him away.”
My fingers tightened on the glass as I struggled to keep my cool exterior. “This conversation is over,” I said quietly, my tone deadly and if she knew what was good for her, she’d shut the hell up right now.
She just grinned her sadistic little smile that sent chills up my spine. “I would’ve had him. He was already starting to enjoy this life and with a bit more coaxing, he would’ve been mine.” She leaned forward even more until her lips were right next to my ear. “He would’ve been mine in every way,” she whispered, her tone laced with innuendo that made me see red.
“Shut up,” I ground out, planting my hand on her shoulder and shoving her back.
Her hand that wasn’t holding the glass of tequila lashed out, catching me across the cheek. She let out a gleeful peel of laughter, falling back onto the bed and holding her belly as her giggles went on and on.
“You’re so noble, Jade,” she said between giggles, propping herself up on one elbow to look at me. “So willing to sacrifice your life in order to save your little sister and the rest of your family but you know what? The good girl routine is getting old. Your boyfriend was getting sick of you already, anyone looking could tell.”
She sat up again and my glass started to shake, liquid sloshing over the sides, landing on my skin but I didn’t notice. “Sometimes his eyes would rest on me and I could tell what he was thinking.” Her lips stretched into a self satisfied smile. “He wanted a taste, Jade. It was only a matter of ti─”
I was straddling her with my hands wrapped around her throat before I even registered that I’d moved. “He would never want you,” I hissed, leaning in close and tightening my grip on her throat until her face went red. Still, she grinned up at me, infuriating me even more. “You’re twisted, Honour,” I said coldly. “Somewhere inside of you, your wiring went all wrong and now you’re just a crazy bitch who gets her rocks off by killing people.”
“What about you?” she croaked when I loosened my grip enough to let her suck in a shallow breath. “You think you’re better than me because you’ve only killed two people and they were ‘evil’?”
Somehow she managed to look casual as she raised her hands, making quotation marks in the air, ignoring my fingers wrapped around her throat like a very tight necklace. “It’s better than killing without caring at all, without remorse.”
She shook her head. “You keep thinking that but what about all those people your mom killed? You stood by and watched, no, not watched, helped her kill people and you didn’t bat an eye just because you didn’t deliver the last blow.” She smirked, her dead eyes lit with satisfaction. “Face it, Jade, you’re just as twisted as the rest of us, just as guilty and just as damned.”
Her words hit me somewhere deep and my grip loosened completely. With an impatient wave of her hand, she knocked me to the side and I ended up on my back on the mattress beside her, staring up at the ceiling, searching the stucco for salvation.
“It’s better if you just embrace it, trust me. The nightmares will go away if you get rid of your pesky conscience. In this business, it’ll only get you killed anyway. Besides, a part of you already has embraced it. A part of you completely forgot that you’ve been an accessory to murder more times than you can count.” She tilted her head to the side and sent me a smug look. “Whose wiring is faulty now?”
With a strangled sound, I lurched up and jammed my feet into a pair of shoes before leaving the room.
Stumbling down the hallway, I tried to make the world stop spinning but the tequila was having none of it.
“I hate you Jose Cuervo,” I muttered as I began feeling nauseous.
But was I nauseated because of the booze or because I’d just been told in no uncertain terms that I was a monster?
Questions, questions.
I slammed my hand down on the elevator call button and waited. When the silver doors slip open, I groaned out loud to see a family of four standing there with polite smiles on their faces. When I still didn’t get it, the man reached out and held the door open for me.
“Are you getting on?” he asked, his eyes lit with concern.
“Yeah,” I replied, stepping onto the lift, wondering what he would think if he knew he’d just invited a killer into a tiny mobile box with his children.
“You don’t look so good, honey,” the woman said, her eyebrows slanted in concern as we started moving down and my stomach pitched.
“I feel awesome,” I muttered, wondering why anyone would ever drink.
She shifted back and wrinkled her nose, obviously smelling the alcohol on my breath. “You know honey, alcohol isn’t the answer you’re looking for.”
“You think?” I snarled, glaring at the woman who hastily retreated, stretching her arms out to protect her kids.
There I went again, scaring children, acting like a monster, when was I ever going to learn?
Better to just embrace it...
I rubbed a shaking hand over my face. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to snap at you,” I said, straightening my spine and nodding at the family just as the doors opened.
I rushed out, smoothly slipping past the people in the lobby until I was outside where I promptly lost my lunch into a garbage can.
People gave me a wide berth as they walked down the darkened sidewalk on the busy downtown street.
I was making friends all over the place tonight.
Maybe throwing up in public didn’t help my social status at all but it helped clear my head so as I walked blindly down the streets, I had an unimpeded view of my faulty wiring.
As much as I hated to admit it, Honour was right. I’d conveniently managed to forget that I had helped kill, in one way or another, a whole plethora of people that I knew nothing about. My mother and I had gone on more missions than I could count and I’d been there, disarming security systems, incapacitating bodyguards, even rendering the target immobile so my mother could take them out. I was just as guilty as she was, just as much as killer as any of us.
But for some stupid reason, I’d felt above them, better than them because I wasn’t quite as deep yet, not quite insane enough to say, yeah, I’m a killer, what about it?
I’d rarely lost a wink of sleep over a kill in the past because I had never actually pulled the trigger.
Even Honour had nightmares.
So maybe she was right. Maybe the only way to survive this sort of life was to accept the fact that I was a monster and get over it while killing more and more people.
The only problem was, I didn’t like it.
I liked hanging out with my family on Sunday mornings, eating pancakes and watching movies. I liked listening to Elle as she filled me in on all the drama that had managed to slip by me during the school day. I liked seeing Michelle get stressed out because I wasn’t popular and I liked listening to music with Jackson after school.
Maybe I was born to be a killer but I’d had a brief moment in time where I was just a normal girl and it had been perfect.
My ears perked when I heard footsteps following me and I realized that I’d walked into a darker part of the city. There were very few pedestrians and I could hear the sounds of bumping bass from a nearby nightclub, probably an underground type of place.
When I turned a corner and the footsteps increased in speed to catch up to me, I had no doubt that they were following me.
Did it have any connection to Bertrand? The security cameras had been set to loop the same footage from the hour before and I’d worn a hat to cover my face. The large coat I’d had on was in a dumpster somewhere a block away from the hospital and now I was wearing a light jacket over a plain, dark red t-shirt and a pair of faded jeans. My hair was loose, hanging nearly to my waist and the hat was in the same dumpster as the coat.
They couldn’t have recognized me so maybe these were your garden variety thugs?
“Hey baby, slow down,” one of them called out.
Oh yeah, garden variety for sure.
I glanced over my shoulder and saw that these thugs had been fed well and clearly knew what a dumbbell was.
There were three of them and they were all about the same size: huge.
“We just want to talk.”
“Yeah right,” I mumbled, picking up my pace a bit.
“Not really,” one of the three said softly but my acute hearing caught the sound and when they laughed as if it was the greatest joke of all time, a quiet rage burned through my veins.
Better to just embrace it...
I slowed my steps, casting an exaggerated panicked look over my shoulder. “What do you want?” I shrieked, making sure they could hear the fear in my voice.
“You look lost. We could give you directions.”
More sick laughter that had me gritting my teeth.
When I spotted an alleyway up ahead, I broke into an easy run and purposely trapped myself amongst the garbage bins and dim lights.
“Why you running from us?” one guy asked, stepping in front of the other two, clearly the leader of the little group of thugs.
Only, they weren’t little.
I shrugged. “Instinct?”
He shook his head and gave me a sad look. In the dim lighting, I could barely make out his features but I could tell that he wasn’t going to be gracing the covers of GQ anytime soon. “See, if you hadn’t run we may have helped you find your way. But now my friends are offended. They don’t like it when pretty girls run away from them. We’re just going to have to convince you that we’re nice guys.”
The two lackeys snickered and elbowed each other. “But boss,” one of them said between snorts. “We’re not nice.”
The guy in the front tilted his head to the side in consideration. “We’re not, are we?”
They all laughed like they’d heard the best joke ever and I just rolled my eyes, tensing my muscles and preparing for a fight. A fight that I wanted, dammit.
I heard the soft sfft of a switchblade sliding out of its casing and I adjusted my stance slightly more sideways, giving a smaller target in case they decided they wanted to try to stab me.
Not that they’d get the chance.
I felt a smirk stretch across my lips as adrenaline mixed with the alcohol in my system creating something akin to recklessness but I didn’t care. This is what I wanted, this driving pulse hammering through my veins blocking out everything else, every thought and emotion, every memory of the picture on Bertrand’s bedside table.
I sucked in a deep breath and grinned at the guy. “So, let’s say this was any other night and I was any other victim, what’s your first move?”
One of the thugs moved around his boss and lumbered towards me, his knife pointed towards my midsection. I winced as I tracked his awkward movements. He stumbled slightly as he tried to step over a box but didn’t quite lift his foot enough. “Give me your purse, bitch.”
I blinked and raised an eyebrow at him. “I’m not carrying a purse.”
“Then give me your money.”
I shrugged. “I don’t have any.”
Stumped, the guy glanced over his shoulder at his boss, looking for directions.
The second lackey leered as he moved to stand next to his knife wielding friend. “Well if she’s got no money, maybe we could just have some fun tonight, what do you say, boss?”
“Not a bad idea,” the boss said, stepping towards me, the three of them using their bulk to intimidate me. “Take off your jacket,” he said in a hard voice that obviously had worked well for him in the past.
“No thanks,” I replied easily. “In fact, I’m going to do you guys a favour. Let me leave now and I won’t hurt you.”
After a beat of stunned silence, they broke out into fits of deep laughter, slapping each other on the back in hilarity.
“Oh, that was funny, sweetheart,” the leader said, his eyes flat and cold as he straightened once more. “Now be a good little girl and take off your jacket.”
“Just to clarify, this means you’re not letting me go, right?”
“Take. It. Off,” Switchblade ground out, taking a menacing step towards me.
I shrugged. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
When Switchblade lunged at me, I twisted sideways, using both hands to twist his wrist, forcing him to let go of the small weapon, kicking it away as soon as it clattered to the ground.
“Wha─?”
I cut him off with an upward thrust of my hand, breaking his nose on the base of my palm before he even had the chance to see if I was moving.
He shrieked in pain and lashed out blindly as involuntary tears clouded his vision.
From the corner of my eye I watched his friend lurch towards me, his hands prepared to encircle my neck but I ducked easily crouching low and tripping him, using his own momentum to sent him flying into Switchblade while the boss looked on with a stunned expression on his slimy face.
As his two henchman attempted to right themselves the leader’s wide eyes lingered on mine and whatever he saw there scared him. With a quick exhalation of breath, he turned on his heel and ran, heading towards the mouth of the alley.
I glanced down at the two who were still trying to figure out what had happened and before either of them could stand up, I’d leaned over and knocked them out with a well placed pinch on the neck.
I caught up to the leader just as he reached the mouth of the alley. Using the momentum from my run, I leapt into the air and kicked him in the back, sending him sprawling across the dirty pavement with a groan.
I stood to the side as he struggled to his feet, all his bulk making his task harder. When he was standing again, he made a move to run but I shifted so that my back was to the street.
“What do you want?” he rasped, his eyes darting around in panic and I felt a flare of satisfaction to know that he was scared of me.
“Isn’t this about what you want? Why did you run after me?” I crossed my arms over my chest, looking deceptively calm even as rage burnt through me and my hands tingled with the need to wrap around his neck, to cut off his air supply.
“We...we were going to mug you, beat you up a little.”
“And how’d that work out for you?”
He shook his head, swallowing compulsively as he jerked to the left, looking for an escape but finding none. “How was I supposed to know you were some sort of freak?”
“Really? You’re insulting me now? Do you really think that’s smart?”
He just shook his head, his massive chest rising and falling rapidly.
Someone needed to work on their cardio.
“Just let me go.”
“I just have a couple more questions.” I stepped closer to him and lashed out with my fist, splitting his lip in one smooth move. He tried to retaliate but I blocked his punch easily, pinching a tendon in his meaty wrist, making his whole arm numb.
“What did you do?” he asked, taking a step away from me, clutching his numb arm in his still working hand.
“I’m the one asking the questions.” A deep sense of shock rolled through me as I heard my own voice. It was completely cold and totally...deadly. “I won’t hurt you if you just answer me honestly, okay?”
He nodded his big head eagerly, stopping his retreat.
“Have you done this before? Cornered someone, mugged them and beat them?”
Another nod.
“What about what you were going to do to me if I hadn’t been a ‘freak’? Have you asked another girl to take off her jacket?” His nod was more hesitant this time and I had to clench my hands into fists in order to stop myself from lashing out. Releasing a long breath, I looked right into his eyes, knowing the answer before I even asked the question. “Did you make her go further than that?”
“Y-yes,” he said after a moment and the word was barely out of his mouth when I attacked.
Over the past two months I’d been working with trained killers to hone my skills and I’d been seeing improvement. I’d become more stealthy, making each hit more powerful without expending any unnecessary energy.
I forgot about my training when I leapt at the guy in front of me, tackling him to the ground, already landing vicious blows on his face and body by the time we landed. I stopped thinking and any hits he managed to land were inconsequential as the rage burning in my veins reaching a boiling point and I simply lost my mind.
“No,” he moaned, his arms falling limply at his sides as I landed another punch on his battered face, my fist coming back reddened with his and my blood.
I wrapped my hands around his wide neck and squeezed but it didn’t last long. I’d only been strangling him for a moment when I lurched backwards ending up on the opposite side of the alley as him, my heart beating rapidly as my wide eyes latched onto his bruised body. He curled onto his side, instinctively protecting his vital organs just in case I decided to come back.
I stepped away from the wall I’d plastered myself to and mumbled, “Get a real job,” before walking out of the alleyway.
I stared down at my bloody hands remembering all the other times I’d seen them like this. “Get used to it,” I mumbled to myself, sucking in a shaky breath as I tried to brush of the feelings rolling through me. I was disgusted with my own behaviour, hating myself for wrapping my hands around his throat like it was second nature.
It was second nature.
My head spun and I couldn’t see straight so when I came across a telephone booth, I stepped inside, closing the glass door behind me, wishing it was just as easy to shut out my thoughts.
I picked up the phone and slipped a few coins in, dialling a familiar number without thinking.
“Hello?” Abby said, her voice like wave of cold water, bringing me back from the edge. “Is anyone there?”
I closed my eyes and let out a slow breath through my nose. God, it was good to hear her voice again. Last time I’d seen her she’d been so pale, lying on that stretcher.
“I’m hanging up.”
I bit my lip to keep from saying anything and when the phone disconnected, it felt like a kick to the stomach.
But when I stood up straighter and hung up the phone, I felt marginally better, slightly more human. Maybe I was a monster, a killer but at least I’d done one good thing. I’d saved my sister. I would do it all over again if given the choice.
With that thought, and Abby’s voice in my mind, I walked back to the hotel room to face the rest of my life.
Now that I’d made my first official kill, there would be more and I’d be expected to do it without a hint of hesitation or conscience.
I thought about the thug I’d beaten to a bloody pulp a few minutes before and realized that whatever conscience I may have had, it was gone now.
The next day, we met up with the rest of the crew to prepare for our next mission and aside from a slight headache, I felt the same as I’d been feeling for the past two months, cold, numb, unemotional.
“You look like shit.”
I narrowed my eyes at Grant as he gave me a frank perusal. “Did you drink last night?”
I just shrugged.
“She got totally trashed,” Honour said excitedly, leaning across me to grin at Grant in satisfaction.
Grant’s eyes flashed with irritation before switching to disappointment as they rested on me. “You let her get to you?”
Embrace it...
“No.” Yes.
“Then why’d you drink? You never drink.”
“Seemed like a good idea at the time.” I shrugged.
“Because she got to you.”
It wasn’t a question because both of us knew he was right. Finally, Honour’s taunts and jabs had found their mark and my conscience had taken the blow. It might never recover.
“Can we focus please?” Tally said from the front seat of the van, his voice laced with impatience.
“Oh c’mon, Tal, do we really need to go over this again? We’ve done this same job half a dozen times already. I think we know the drill, we go in, we kill the bad guy, we get out. Wham bam, thank you ma’am,” Honour said, smirking and crossing her arms over her chest.
“Just shut up and listen, okay?”
Honour rolled her eyes but everyone stayed quiet while Tally went over the plans once more. Essentially though, she was right. This mission was fairly cut and dried, if a bit more intricate than the others.
Garrett Frost worked under Bertrand Fernandez and had been high up on his hit list. Frost was greedy and ambitious combined with the fact that he was as cold blooded as criminals come, well, let’s just say Bertrand had definitely subscribed to the whole “keep your enemies closer” philosophy.
Now that Bertrand was out of the way, everyone expected Frost to take over in his stead.
We had other plans.
“Logan and Honour are on point for this one, the rest of you, any questions?”
Everyone remained silent as the van stopped in a secluded area about a mile from Frost’s house.
“Good,” Tally said and we all piled out.
Another van pulled up beside us and the door was flung open, revealing Bea and Vance along with a wall of high tech computers and military grade equipment. The two of them would be commandeering Frost’s surveillance system for the evening acting as our eyes that could conveniently see around corners.
My gaze connected with Bea’s and I saw a touch of sympathy in their copper depths. Over the past couple months, we’d avoided each other more or less probably because of what we both knew would happen if we didn’t. We’d become friends and that was something neither of us were willing to do again. Friends were for people who had futures.
“Jade.”
Tally’s voice made me stop in my tracks as I exited the van.
“What is it?” I asked, quirking an eyebrow at him as the rest of the crew faded into the shadows of the forest lining Frost’s estate, their dark outfits blending seamlessly with the night.
“I just wanted to make sure everything’s going...okay with you. Or at least, as okay as possible under the circumstances.”
“Oh, you mean because I killed someone yesterday?” I shrugged as if it were no big deal, as if it weren’t eating me up on the inside. “I’m fine.”
He narrowed his eyes on me, searching for a chink in my armour but he’d find none. “Okay,” he said finally, reaching out to brush a strand of hair that had come loose from my bun off my face. “So,” he said, his tone becoming less serious as he leaned slightly towards me. “You over him yet?”
My heart lurched at the reminder of Jackson but I kept my face expressionless. “Why?”
He shrugged, his lips quirking into a half smile. “Because I never quite got over you, Jade.”
“Try harder.”
“No.”
I straightened my spine and looked him right in the eye. “Jackson was willing to give up his entire life for me. He would’ve let his father believe that he was dead just so he could stay by my side and I was just as willing to give up everything for him.” I leaned slightly closer, making sure he got the message loud and clear. “So no, I’m not over him yet and I never will be so you might as well stop asking.”
His eyes flashed with hurt as he took a step back but he didn’t look defeated. “I’ll stop asking...for now.”
I shook my head and started walking away, getting ready to be an accessory to murder once again.
“Eventually, you’ll forget about him, Jade.”
I ignored him even as a flutter of panic settled in my stomach at the thought. If I forgot about Jackson, forgot about the way he’d made me feel then it would mean that the girl who fell in love with him was gone forever and I didn’t want to lose her.
I pushed the thought from my mind as I moved swiftly through the dense forest, ignoring the branches that whipped across my face and snagged on my long sleeved shirt.
I stopped when I reached the edge of the forest, Frost’s mansion in sight. I spotted my entry point and was already mentally taking down the guard at the door before Tally’s voice sounded in my ear, giving us the okay to begin.
I moved swiftly and silently over the grass, keeping to any shadows that were at my disposal and in a blink, I was next to the guard and injecting him with a drug that would make him very asleep for the next few hours.
“Sorry buddy,” I muttered as he crumpled to the ground. I’d been drugged too many times not to feel a bit sympathetic for the guy but a pressure point was never guaranteed. Some people woke up earlier than others and we couldn’t take the chance at this point.
“Check four, clear,” Bea’s calm voice said in my ear, indicating that I could get in now and not worry about being ambushed by another guard.
I knelt in front of the door, picking the lock quickly, not worried about any alarms because they’d already been disabled by Vance. Remotely.
The kid was a genius.
What he lacked in social skills he made up for in incredible nerd skills that made missions so much easier.
I moved quickly through the hallways that were like a maze lined with expensive pieces of art and sculptures. Frost wasn’t the type of man to be humble about his wealth. No, he had no problem displaying his vast fortune, all of which was obtained illegally.
Looks like I wasn’t the only one with a failing conscience.
However low my conscience got though, I knew I could never stoop to the depths Frost had stooped to. Apparently Bertrand’s jobs hadn’t been enough for Frost so he’d taken to transporting other cargo across borders. Cargo that was living, breathing and terrified out of their young minds.
Word on the street had it that Frost was into human trafficking and now that Bertrand was out of the picture, he was looking to expand.
Too bad he’d never get the chance.
I softened my footsteps as I neared Frost’s inner sanctum. By now, he knew that his cohorts were being killed one by one so he was heavily guarded. Thanks to Vance’s voodoo magic when it came to anything electronic, we had a live feed of all the men Frost had at his disposal.
And there were a lot.
Grant and I were in charge of the guards outside of the Frost’s hidey hole and there were twelve of them roaming the hallways, highly trained and ready for us but they had no idea who they were really dealing with.
“Thirty seconds,” Tally said in my ear as I pulled the night vision goggles that we’d...acquired from a military compound a couple weeks back over my head.
“Ten seconds.”
My muscles tensed as I listened to the footsteps drawing nearer, noting the heavy treads, knowing this guard was a giant of a man as the floorboards creaked under his weight.
“Go.”
The power to the house went off and I made my move, turning a corner into a small hallway, taking out the hulking guard that had been in the middle of a yawn when the place had been plunged into darkness.
His mouth was frozen in an elongated O as he looked curiously up at the ceiling, obviously wondering if the light bulb had burnt out.
He didn’t wonder anything else as I snuck up behind him and hit a sensitive nerve at his neck, sending him tumbling to the floor with a loud crash.
I jumped over his prone body and raced down the short hallway which opened into a larger room filled with the remaining ten guards.
I heard the sounds of Grant’s footsteps as he entered the room from another hallway but I never hesitated as I moved in on my prey.
Adrenaline pumped through my veins furiously as I took down one guard after another, blocking wild swings and disarming guns before they had a chance to fire.
I jumped to the left when one of the guards finally got their wits about them enough to pull the trigger of an automatic rifle, sending a stream of bullets in my general direction but he was essentially blind in the dark, going by the sound of dropping bodies and fists connecting with flesh as Grant and I rapidly made our way through the parade of goons.
A guard screamed when a bullet caught him in the leg and the gunman paused, obviously realizing what he’d done.
Grant disarmed him while he hesitated, sending a strong jab to his neck area, knocking him out instantly.
Someone grabbed me from behind, yanking me towards their body and snaking their hand around my throat. My heart didn’t even change pace as I smashed my head back into the guy’s nose, hearing a crunch and a grunt before the grip on me loosened. I took the opportunity to go limp, dropping to the floor and rolling to the side just as he blindly swung a dagger, nearly catching me across the face.
I rolled until I was in a crouched position and tried to keep my breathing quiet as the guy lurched towards me, his eyes searching frantically in the dark room.
Something must have tipped him off to my location because he lunged at me, his dagger flashing but I sidestepped easily, grabbing his arm at the wrist and near the elbow, twisting until the bone snapped, forcing him to drop the dagger.
He screamed and I put him out of his misery, pinching a pressure point in his neck, knocking him out.
I swiped his dagger though, the ornate handle catching my eye and I wanted to take a closer look at it later. I tucked it into the waistband of my pants and faced Grant whose breathing was slightly accelerated and when our eyes connected, I couldn’t stop the grin from spreading across my lips, his hand gesturing to the pile of guards lying prone on the floor.
Okay, so I wasn’t completely immune to the rush of this kind of work. The adrenaline pumping through my system, the constant threat of danger, a part of me loved it.
My smile disappeared when I heard the telltale “pop” of a gun with a silencer on it coming from the double doors Grant and I were standing in front of.
I gritted my teeth against the wave of guilt that threatened to swamp me. I had to remind myself that I was a cold blooded killer and Frost was a man neck deep in the slave trade who probably didn’t even know the meaning of the word ‘guilt’.
We listened to the sounds of a fight then it was silent.
“Mission complete,” Tally said in my ear and with a nod in Grant’s direction, we headed towards our respective exits.
I froze when I heard the sound of Honour’s laughter through the double doors, the noise grating on my nerves even as it sent chills up and down my spine. She’d just killed a man and she could still laugh like it was nothing? How twisted did you have to be?
How long until I found it just as easy?
I shook my head and took a step towards my exit when one word caught my complete attention and had me flattening my body against the wall right next to the door. “Ryder.”
My heart stopped beating as I strained my ears to hear more of her conversation with Logan.
“Now’s not the time to talk about this.” Logan’s stern voice, lowered in warning.
“Oh come on, everyone’s dead or unconscious and where else am I going to talk about it? We have to keep it a secret from Jade or she’ll go ballistic,” Honour said, her tone light and trouble free.
Their footsteps came closer to the door and I realized that they were leaving through a different route than they’d come in. They were going to walk right by me.
Hastily, I ducked behind a huge vase that was probably priceless, slowing my breathing to the point where it wouldn’t be heard.
“I just wish I could see the look on her face when she realizes that I killed her boyfriend’s daddy.”
“Shut up,” Logan growled as the doors opened and they picked their way through the bodies, not even glancing in my direction.
“Lighten up, will you?” Honour said, aiming a punch at his arm but he dodged it easily, his spine stiff and his expression taught. “I’m just saying, she’s funny to mess with is all. Besides, the general has it coming. He should’ve never gotten involved in─”
“Enough,” Logan snarled, glaring over at her as they reached the hallway I was supposed to be long gone from now.
“Fine,” she grumbled. I could no longer see them and their footsteps were fading but I’d heard enough. “Just make sure you get a good look at her face when she finds out, okay? You need to be able to describe it to me.”
I clenched my hands into fists as their footsteps faded completely.
My brain was scrambling to make sense of what I’d just heard. Honour was going to kill General Ryder. Jackson’s dad, the gruff but kind middle aged man who could run five miles easily, who’d warned me away from his son in order to keep him safe from me.
I couldn’t let that happen.
I needed to warn him somehow, to protect him but the only way I could do that was if I got there before Honour which meant I had to leave now before anyone realized what was happening.
Maybe if I was lucky they’d think I’d sustained an injury, that I hadn’t gotten away from Frost’s men.
I crossed my fingers as I mentally tried to figure out the best way to get out of there. What I needed was a car and I had no time to be discrete about it.
Setting my shoulders, I strode towards a new hallway, one that would bring me deeper into the house but would also bring me closer to the garage where Frost had kept his many vehicles.
I just needed to get out of this house without being found and without dying.
That wouldn’t be too hard, right?