Last Kiss Goodnight (Otherworld Assassin) (20 page)

How strange to think he could be happy—something he’d never really experienced before, even with
his beloved parents, for he’d always felt as if something important were missing from his life—while trapped in a cage. But he was.

“This girl has only brought trouble to his door,” Dr. E groused. “How is using her to escape wrong?”

“Hurting someone else, no matter who they are or what they’ve done, just to get what you want,” X replied, “is what’s wrong.”

“Get off your pedestal!”

“Why? The view is better.”

“Shut up,” Solo snapped.

“But—” Dr. E began.

“Now!”

Fear returned to Vika’s plum eyes, darkening the purple to a sickly black. “If that’s the way you’re going to act, I’m out of here!”

“I wasn’t talking to you, you have my word,” he rushed out before she could take a single step.
Must do better
. So easily frightened, this woman, though she immediately bucked up and issued some kind of verbal attack. He liked that about her. She had courage, and though she might be knocked around, she would never stay down.

“Well, then, who were you talking to?” she demanded. “I mean,
to whom
were you talking?”

Like he could really answer that. “I’m sorry for startling you,” he said, and placed the toast at her mouth.

She chewed, swallowed—and asked the same question again.

Would she leave if he continued to refuse? “What if I said I was talking to an invisible man?” he asked, amazed he’d admitted that much. He was at enough of
a disadvantage already, and not even Michael, John, or Blue knew about Dr. E and X.

“I might believe you,” she replied, and she sounded sincere.

Shocking.

And a huge relief. He was glad he hadn’t tried to lie. Eventually, even the smallest mistruth would catch up to a man, a tangled web of thorns that would leave him cut and bleeding. In fact, Solo had always told his mother the truth about everything, even her cooking. Not to be cruel, but because he had respected her too much to feed her an untruth.

A small smile lifted the corners of Vika’s mouth.

Just as before, the smile lit her entire face. She looked as though she’d swallowed the sun. His heart banged against his ribs, his blood heated, and oh, he fought the urge to gather her in his arms and hold her. Just hold her.

“I think you’re as weird as me,” she said, then took another bite of the toast and motioned to him with a tilt of her chin. “Or is the proper phrasing as weird as I am? Anyway, your turn.”

“I’m embarrassed for you,” Dr. E said. “You should—”

“He told you to shut up!” X climbed up Solo’s ear, stomped across his head, and jumped onto his left shoulder. He grabbed the once-beautiful blond by the ear and, as Dr. E yelped, disappeared.

I owe that man a lot more than another thank-you.

And the girl, if he was being honest. Solo took a bite of the toast. “I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, Vika.”

Another smile, this one not quite as bright. “I wish I could do more.”

“I don’t want you to do more. I don’t want you to risk yourself on my behalf again.”

She blinked rapidly. “Are you trying to protect me? The girl who is not bound by shackles?”

“Yes. I vowed I would.”

“And you always keep your promises, you said.”

“Always.”

The rest of the tension drained from her, and she said, “That is very sweet of you.”

A female referring to him as “sweet.” A novelty he quite enjoyed. But she hadn’t promised not to risk herself, had she.

“So is your name really Solo?” she asked.

“It’s Solomon, but my friends call me Solo.” He should have given her the same Bob Fred alias he’d given Criss, but he liked the idea of his name spilling from those heart-shaped lips.

“And you’re fine with me calling you that?”

“Yes.” More than.

“Even though we’re not friends?”

He nodded. A smoother man would have said something like “We are friends” or “I would love to be your friend,” but the words would have sounded false coming from him. He didn’t actually want to be her friend. He wanted to use her . . . he wanted to save her . . . and he wanted to have her.

She thought it over, nodded. “Very well. Solo.”

Reality was far better than supposition. “About
Audra,” he said, and she paled. “What do you know about her tattoos?”

Her head tilted to the side, her expression resigned. “She tried to use one against you, didn’t she?”

“Yes.”

“Matas taught her a little about black magic. Ever since, the spiders come to life and bite whomever she desires. And oh, it’s painful. Makes you sick.”

“You have been bitten?”

“A few times.”

Strike three, Audra.
“Listen, you’re in trouble. Your father suspects you’re the one who’s been feeding me.”

Her knees buckled, and she would have collapsed if he hadn’t reached out and grabbed the hem of her T-shirt to steady her. How light she was. At her strongest, she would not be a match for his weakest.

“Can’t I ever avoid a break?” she asked with a tremor.

Avoid a—Wait.
“You mean
catch
a break.”

“Why would I want to catch a break? You catch a ball. You break bones, homes, and hearts. And now, I must go.”

Not yet. He wasn’t ready. “Free me, Vika.” The only thing he’d ever begged for was the lives of his adoptive parents, and that had gotten him nowhere. Still, he might beg for this. “Let me protect you better.”

Her mouth opened, closed. Once again she shook her head. “I can’t.”

“You can.”

“No. I’m sorry,” she said, shaking her head all the
harder for emphasis. “And I know, I know. My refusal means you’ll go back to being a rude little giant . . .”

Uh, that expression made absolutely no sense.

“. . . and you’ll start issuing death threats again, but I have to remain with the circus for a while longer. I just have to.”

“Why? Jecis beats you. Why not leave him before he has a chance to hurt you again?”

“You don’t understand. I can take a beating, I can, but if I leave before I’ve—just before,” she said, stopping herself from admitting something she didn’t want him to know, “Jecis will find me and kill me,
as well as
the otherworlders.”

“You’re his daughter.” His precious.
His beloved,
Solo remembered, and had to grit his teeth to prevent himself from cursing. “He wouldn’t kill you.”

Another small smile, this one sad at the edges. “He wouldn’t mean to. Wait. I take that back. Maybe he would. To Jecis, leaving the circus is the ultimate betrayal and deserves the ultimate punishment.”

“But you want to?” He gripped the bars. “Leave, I mean?”

Hope glittered in her eyes, and she nodded. “I do.”

His own sense of hope bloomed. “One day, this circus will be destroyed. Jecis has hurt too many people not to be hurt himself. That’s a spiritual law, and spiritual laws are always enforced. The longer you stay, the more likely you are to be caught in the crosshairs.”

“One day,” she parroted hollowly.

“Yes. Free me, Vika, and that day can be today. I’ll take care of him. He’ll never hurt you again.”

Shame obliterated what remained of the hope. “I can’t let you do that.”

“Why not? Do you love him?” he asked.

“When he’s an evil man with no goodness left inside him?”

That wasn’t exactly an answer.

“No,” she finally said, “but he’s also my father. I can’t. I just can’t. And besides that, you would have to kill Matas, too. Otherwise, he would come after us and the same fate would befall us all.”

Solo would happily take care of Matas.

“And
then,
after both men are dead, and I have no means of protection,” she said, “you would leave me out there in the big, bad world to fend for myself, penniless, helpless. You wouldn’t mean to, I know. I can tell you’re a good man. But you have a life out there, one that doesn’t include the zoo owner’s daughter, and you would eventually cut me loose.”

“No—”

“You would also sentence the other captives to death,” she interjected. “They would be slaughtered simply to punish me.”

“I would come back for them.”

“Yes, but would you make it in time? No, you can’t guarantee that.” She turned her head away, trying to end the conversation the only way she could.

Solo latched onto her wrist, giving it the barest squeeze to bring her attention back to him. “I will leave
your family alone if that’s what you want.” He would hand them over to Michael, and the end result would be the same, but she didn’t need to know that. “I’ll release the otherworlders and take you with me, and you’ll never have to fend for yourself. I have money. I can take care of you for the rest of your life, if you so desire.”

Her gaze searched his features. “I . . . I actually think you mean that,” she said.

“I do. And I’m willing to vow it.”

“Don’t,” she said with a shake of her head. “I don’t want you morally bound or anything like that, when there’s a huge problem with your plan.”

“And that is?” he said, urgency riding him hard. He would have a solution, whatever it was, and she would free him. She had to free him.

“The cuffs.”

“They aren’t actually a problem. I have a friend who can remove them.” John could remove any kind of shackles.
If he’s still alive.
The thought irritated him. He was. And that was final.

“You’ll lose your hands.”

“They’ll grow back.”

A moment passed. She shook her head, as if his words were too odd to keep inside her head. “The real question is, can you reach your friend before Jecis finds you? And what about the other prisoners in the meantime?”

He popped his jaw. He had no immediate solution for that, which meant he had to try another angle. “Do you like the life you lead? Hiding under mobile homes? Sneaking food to prisoners?”

Growling low in her throat, she slapped at the bars. “No, but I have a plan. A plan that will work better than yours, thank you. I just have to wait for the perfect time.”

Ah. Her mysterious plan. “There will never be a more perfect time than this moment. I’m here. I’m willing.” He spread his arms to draw her attention to a hard-won strength far superior to her father’s. “I will do what I say I will do. I will save you, protect you. And why would you care about the others, anyway? They hate you.”

Back up went her chin. “Here’s a little lesson you should probably take to heart. Anyone who returns hate for hate is no better than my father, and I won’t trade one monster for another.”

How dare she compare him to Jecis! Even though he had done the same to himself. He wanted to yell at her.

He also wanted to hug her.

He definitely wanted to kiss her.

“If you walk away from me, Vika, you condemn me to death.” A stretching of the truth, and a definite manipulation, but why not? Everything else had proved futile.

The flush drained from her cheeks, leaving her as pallid as Dr. E. “I spend every spare second searching for the key to the cuffs. I have for years, in fact. I’ll find it. I
will
free you.”

The announcement floored him. For years, she’d said. She’d been trying to help the captives
for years
.

Solo reached through the bars. She flinched, but didn’t dart away. With anyone else, he would have taken such a reaction personally and raged. But with her, with her past, he knew better and allowed himself
to trace his fingertip along the curve of her jaw. So soft, so smooth.

Her breathing quickened—but she still didn’t leave.

He wasn’t going to convince her to do what he wanted. He knew that now. She was too stubborn, too blinded by the merits of her plan. And there
were
merits. There just weren’t enough.

He would have to join her. For now. “I’ve studied the cuffs. The key is probably metal, with a slender belly and two fat ends. Look for something in the shape of the letter eight.”

“I will,” she rasped, and licked her lips. “And thank you.”

His arm fell to his side. If he continued to touch her, he would give in to his urge to cup her nape and tug her forward. To steal the air from her lungs. If that happened, he would stop listening for her father.

She backed away from him. “This is our last day in the city. After the last show, we’ll pack up and leave. Jecis will keep you here, wanting you nearby during your first trip. I’ll return to you when I can.” A nervous laugh left her. “
If
I can.”

With that cryptic statement, she spun and raced from the area, never glancing back.

“Why—” he began, only to slam his lips together. She couldn’t hear him.

He punched the bars. He hated his captivity, yes, but deep down, a part of him hated watching that woman walk away more.

Fifteen

A man of understanding will acquire wise counsel.

—PROVERBS 1:5

V
IKA WEIGHED HER OPTIONS.
Her father suspected she had been feeding Solo. He would question her, intimidate her, and he would discern the truth. There would be no hiding it; there never was, and she’d known that before she’d acted. But still she’d been unable to stop herself from helping the injured otherworlder. Even now, it wasn’t a decision she regretted. He had warned her about what awaited her, despite the fact that she could have packed a bag and left him in the dust.