Arrow to the Soul (26 page)

She shook her head. “I am Arrow now. Only Arrow.”

He pulled her to him and she relaxed against his chest, head tucking into his neck. “Rest, Saya. We’ll argue tomorrow.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

Bullet watched Rand walk up the stairs to his room. He had not spoken to her in three days. Her heart hurt. The heart he’d made beat again hurt now. Because of him.

She followed him up the stairs wondering where the urge to do so came from. If he did not want her surely she could handle that. Why chase after him when he’d made it so apparent he wanted nothing to do with her?

“I had Juana make up your old room,” he said in a low voice as she entered the room she’d been sharing with him since she woke from her time in Joseph’s water pit.

“Why?” she asked.

His shoulders tensed and he stepped to the door. “Be gone when I get back.”

“Why?”

His navy blue gaze speared her and Bullet felt it then.
Fear
. What would she become if she lost him? She hated him because he was her weakness now.

His eyes widened. “You would ask me that?”

Her stance went loose and he raised a brow at her before he sneered.

“I would know why you don’t want me anymore,” she spit out and then rubbed her chest. Over her heart where it hurt the worst.

“You lied to me, Bullet.”

She closed her eyes against the ugliness of his tone. He’d called her Bullet. “I didn’t lie to you, Mr. Beckett.”

His eyes widened and disbelief flavored the air. “You said you wouldn’t follow Arrow.”

She lifted her chin as anger sliced through her pain. “And I didn’t.”

“Yes you did,” he bit out.

She shook her head. “I followed you.”

His mouth opened and closed twice as if the words he wanted to say were stuck in his throat. “I cannot fucking believe this,” he said, and he turned on his heel.

“I told you, Mr. Beckett,” she called out.

He stopped in the hall and she stepped out, watching as he turned around faced her.

“I told you what would happen. You are mine now and nothing touches what is mine. I set up in those mountains because you needed protection. My sisters hold my loyalty. But you, Mr. Beckett, you hold my heart.”

He went to his knees and she walked to him, cradling his bowed head to her stomach as his strong arms wrapped around her back and squeezed.

“Do you know what I went through when I saw you coming out of the forest, Gretchen?”

The pain in his voice made her knees weak.

“I cannot let them hurt you. If the world burns because I lose you, innocents will die.”

“Do you think it would be any different if I lost you?” he asked her. “Your body has not had time to heal.”

“I am a killer, Mr. Beckett. It is all I know, but now I have you. You cannot hold me tighter and expect me to change.”

He stood then and pulled her his arms. “You have become the reason I breathe, Gretchen.”

“And I will make sure you continue to do so. Do not ask me to sit at home and wait. My place is beside my sisters, beside you. I have always told you there will come a time when my duty to my sisters will call. But never will my duty to them trump what you mean to me. That is all I can give you. Take it or leave it.”

He stared at her for a long time, seeming to weigh her words and then he smiled, though not with his mouth…with his eyes. And she knew.

“Do not break me,” she whispered as he lowered his head.

“Never,” he said.

Then he took her kiss and later her body, and Bullet was affirmed.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Arrow came out of the black in a rush of fear. Her body didn’t move, only her mind, flying outward, determining risks.

“You’re awake, then?”

Dmitry Asinimov.

“I’ll get Adam,” he said, and left the room.

Arrow opened her eyes and sat up slowly before removing the intravenous feed from her arm. She taped a cotton ball over the small wound left by the needle and carefully got off the bed.

There were unisex clothes in the drawers beside the bed. She put them on and carefully stepped to the door. No footsteps sounded and she opened it, leaving the room and taking the stairs up to the top level of the house.

She needed Adam. His name was a call in her heart she could not deny. She needed his arms holding her and she needed the light. The sun shone outside, bright in this state of Virginia, and she thought it would be a place she’d like to live for a while.

If she weren’t destined for death.

“Saya,” his beautiful voice called from the end of the hall.

She turned and walked to him. He opened his arms and she stepped into them, shuddering against his warm body, trying to climb
inside
him. She lifted her leg and he hefted her up so she could settle them both around his waist. He grunted once and she wondered why, but then he turned and walked with her wrapped around him straight to his room. He lowered them both to the bed and turned on his side, continuing to hold her tight.

“You should have waited. I was heading your way.”

She inhaled him—cedar and citrus. Her mouth watered. She had killed just days ago. She needed to live even if just for a little while.

“I have waited my entire life for your warmth,” she said against his neck.

He pulled her tighter into him and it didn’t matter to her that she was weak in that moment. She needed this. She needed
him
.

“I saw you there, hurt, and I wanted to kill them all. I’ve never felt so out of control,” she admitted.

His hands traced up and down her back, under the T-shirt she’d thrown on. “I came after you.”

“I didn’t want that. I had a job to do. Another step on the path to destroying Joseph Bombardier. It wasn’t your path to follow me.”

“You never asked what my path was, Saya,” he said, and she heard the tension in his voice.

Her heart raced. This man rearranged pieces of her. He rippled her calm waters and sent her running from a truth she couldn’t face.

Not yet.

She had too much killing left to do.

There was a single question she needed answered. “Why did you follow me?”

“Had you asked me that morning I would have said I followed you in anger. But the truth is much deeper than that and I don’t know that you’re ready to hear it.”

She kneaded the muscles of his back, trying to pull his strength into her. This man was strong. “Tell me,” and in her voice was her plea.

“I think I was given to you for a reason, Saya,” he said as he pulled away slightly and brushed her hair off her face.

She needed a shower, knew she looked a mess, but the mask on his face was one of wonder. Arrow felt beautiful as he stared at her. Her breath locked in her chest because that was
her
wonder. “Why?”

He didn’t release her gaze. “Because you fear the dark and I can walk it with ease.”

She remembered fighting with him the first night she’d come to this place. She’d wondered how he could see her move so easily. She’d always found the darkness a smothering blanket. She moved in it out of necessity, but it took a piece of her every single time.

“What do you mean?”

“I am of the Sioux tribe. It is my belief that The Great Spirit grants each of his children gifts. From the time of my first spirit walk, I could see in the darkness. I think He gave me that gift because of you.”

Arrow couldn’t stop the tears from leaking then. They fell with abandon, whisking away her heart and giving it to the man who lay so strong beside her.

“I do not believe in God or your Great Spirit, but should I meet Him in the afterlife, I’ll thank Him. Because He placed you in my path, I’ll bend to my knees and thank Him,” she said solemnly.

He inhaled sharply and then grabbed her chin, angling her head up so his lips could take hers.

It stung. Her lips were cut, chapped, but his were a balm against them. Her tears continued to fall.

“You saw me kill Wang?”

“I did.”

She nodded and rested her head once again in the curve of his neck and shoulder. “Would that I could have made him suffer for what he did to Ching Lan.”

“Perhaps your
Oni
are handling that for you,” he murmured at her hair.

She smiled. “What do you know of the
Oni
, Mr. Collins?”

“It’s a long flight to Beijing. Lots of time to read,” he answered, and his own smile was in his voice.

Arrow didn’t have a response for that so she sighed instead, feeling the weariness crawl up her body. “I need to sleep.”

He wrapped her tightly against him. “I will hold you and keep the darkness at bay.”

She didn’t respond, but as sleep covered her, she knew one thing irrefutably: she trusted Adam Collins.

And as much as a killer could love, Arrow did.

•●•

Adam waited an hour until her breathing settled into a deeper rhythm and then tucked the covers tight around her and headed down to the library. He needed a drink and answers.

“I’ve already poured you a scotch,” Rand said from the window that overlooked the front of the enormous house. “She’s sleeping?”

Adam nodded, threw back the snifter of amber liquid, and felt the burn down to his soul. “She walks a line I’ve never come close to,” he told his friend.

“Bullet does as well,” Rand responded. “I want Bombardier’s heart in my hands.”

Adam nodded once again. “I want to kill him over and over and over. You didn’t see her in that cell, Rand. There was nothing I could have done to prevent her from killing Wang. And she fucking did it with
ease
. It about destroyed me.”

Rand glanced at him, pity riding his gaze. “I talked with Ken earlier.”

“I think he has the boy,” Adam said as he poured another glass of scotch.

Rand’s eyes widened. “Goddamn it,” he breathed out.

“But I have no idea where he’s hidden him. I don’t know who that boy is to them, but he’s important and if Ken has him, they will kill Ken to get him back.”

Rand grunted. “No more than the son of a bitch deserves. Why would he have the boy?”

“That day in Beijing, you didn’t see him. He was insane. Wang’s guard was coming and Ken was questioning the woman. She refused to tell him who the child was, said she didn’t know. And then Ken disappeared, the woman was killed and I was left to clean up the mess. That mess was Blade. Ken didn’t come back with us. He met us at the airport once we landed in Virginia. I have no idea where in the hell he was immediately after we captured Blade.”

“Why do you think he has the boy?” Rand asked.

“A feeling,” Adam answered. “Nothing more than a feeling.”

“Any idea who the boy is?”

“None. But he has importance to Bombardier and all of First Team. That’s all Arrow speaks of—‘the boy is mine’, ‘the boy is ours’, it’s a constant refrain. I think she’d lay down her life to get him back.”

The thought of her doing that made rage bubble inside Adam’s gut.

“You’re invested in her?”

Adam remained silent.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Rand said.

Adam took a deep breath. “I would kill for her.”

“You already have,” Rand reminded him.

“I’ll burn the world down for her,” he said firmly.

Rand barked out a laugh. “Now you sound like Gretchen.” He took a deep breath and sat down behind the desk. “Bombardier has gone to ground. He hasn’t returned to Arequipa. The list Gretchen gave us has already been cut in half. The President of China was the tenth name. It’s been a month since we pulled Gretchen from that fucking pit. Her sisters move like a wildfire.”

“They were molded to kill. It is little wonder they’re efficient,” Adam mused.

Rand nodded and rubbed a hand down his face. “We’ll need to speak with them. See if they’ll divulge anything. And Ken…goddamn him. I can’t get in touch with him at all. Raines is doing his best to track him.”

“There’s more to all of this than eliminating The Collective for them, Rand. I cannot put my finger on it and I’m sure we’ll get shit from Gretchen and Saya. I’ll begin tracking Ken, as well.”

Rand’s eyebrow lifted. “Saya, is it?”

“She is more than a killer.”

“What happened to Aziveh?”

Adam cursed and clenched his fists. “She is still there.”

“But now there is Saya,” Rand said astutely.

Adam nodded. “I’m going to check the perimeter. Maybe check in with our guest.”

“He’s secure. I just checked—nothing is getting to that motherfucker, I guarantee it. I’m going to bed. We’ll meet up in the morning.”

Adam walked out, looked up and down the hall, swore he smelled plum blossoms, but shook it off. She was asleep. He wanted to make sure the men were doing what they should to make everything safe. So she could continue to rest peacefully.

•●•

Arrow rubbed her chest, over the spot where her heart used to be. She’d been soulless her entire life and now her heart was gone as well. He still yearned for Aziveh. It was in his tone. “She’s still there,” he’d said.

She’d come down in search of him and heard more than she was sure he wanted her to. They thought Ken had the boy. And Trident had a guest. Interesting. But his words about Aziveh ripped her two.

What was she expecting? She was a killer. Arrow had no reasonable expectation for normality. Bullet may have found something more than death. That did not mean it was meant for Arrow.

She headed back up to the room he slept in and crawled back into the bed. She pulled his pillow close, hugging it in lieu of him and berating herself for her stupidity.

Then she waited for him to return.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

He came back with the dawn. Cedar and citrus and something quintessentially Adam assailed her senses and she licked her lips. She had not slept, so when he covered her body with his she didn’t hesitate to open herself to him.

He kissed her collar bone, her neck, her ear, and finally the corner of her mouth. He didn’t speak and neither did she. She returned his kisses with her own, licking up the column of his throat, biting his jaw, and then rimming his ear with her tongue.