Love Like Blood: (Royal Blood #5) (12 page)

P
eering
out the greasy window of the shithole hotel room Mercy and I had rented in South London, I contemplated the conversation I’d had with Hawkes hours before.

Truthfully, I’d been surprised I was able to contact him at all considering the plight of his employer and his back from the dead assassin.

“When I said to call Hawkes, I didn’t realize it would be so easy,” Mercy declared from behind me. “I didn’t know you had him saved as a favorite.”

Turning, I raised my eyebrows at her quip. “I didn’t expect it to be so easy either, but after Bristol…” I shrugged.

“I know,” she said. “I was just expecting a little more resistance. Or a little more silence.”

“It is what it is, Mercy. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“Yeah, yeah. So we just have to wait?” she asked.

I crossed the tiny room in two steps and sat on the bed beside her. She had the laptop resting on her knees, scrolling through news websites looking for clues.

“He’ll get in touch with Vaughn, relay my message, and if they want our help, then they’ll ask for it.”

“That’s not very proactive.”

“It’s called trust, Mercy,” I scolded her. “When you’re in the wind like they are, it’s all they want.”

“I have been ‘in the wind’,” she said, air quoting. “When you met me, I was blowing a gale.”

“Then you should understand and have a little patience.”

“You know that’s my greatest weakness,” she said, smirking at me. “I want everything now.”

I ran my hand through her hair. “That I know.”

“I still can’t believe you told him everything,” she said, leaning into my palm. “About Section Seven, your past…”

“I couldn’t be duplicitous about it,” I replied, stroking my thumb over the burn scar on her cheek. “Not if we want to convince everyone involved that Vaughn and Lorelei being assets is the best course of action. That kind of work needs one hundred percent trust. There’s no room for error, or they will just disappear at the first sign of a double-cross.”

“You’re so smart,” she said dreamily.

Dropping my hand, I rolled my eyes. “There’s no need to butter me up, Mercy.”

Laughing, she turned her attention back to the computer, leaving me to wonder at her ability to laugh and make jokes in the middle of a mission. I wouldn’t necessarily call Vaughn a friend, but he’d been an ally in the past when I’d had nowhere else to turn for assistance. That had to count for something. And Hawkes? He was part of the overall package by default.

“We’ve got a hit,” Mercy exclaimed, breaking my thought pattern in half. “Attempted kidnapping this morning in Brixton. Fifteen-year-old school kid waiting at a bus stop reported she was attacked by a man. He tried to drag her away, but allegedly, she was saved by a man and a woman who told her to run.”

“Is there a description?”

“The man had blond hair, and the woman had short, curly brown hair and apparently, beat the shit out of the kidnapper.”

I sighed, knowing where this was going.

“You have to admit that Lorelei and Vaughn have something to do with this now,” Mercy said, rolling her eyes. “I know it’s not irrefutable proof, but it’s too coincidental. It happened like five blocks away from here. This, we have to take on faith.”

“Faith is a hard pill to swallow,” I said blandly.

“Think about it, X. Attempted kidnapping, the description of the Good Samaritans… The man must’ve been someone working for Lafayette.” She shuddered and closed the laptop. “Acquiring goods.”

“And what would we gain by looking into this story?” I asked. “The kid is underage so her name is off the record. Trying to get security footage is a bust without Section Seven resources…unless you know a hacker, who might want a few spare bucks. Even if we tag the Samaritans as Vaughn and Lorelei, then what? I can’t see how we can track them from there.”

“Any lead is a good lead when we’ve got shit all,” she snapped.

“I know all the tricks, Mercy,” I said. “If they had a car, it’d have fake plates. If—”

“I get it,” she interrupted, thoroughly pissed off. “We have to wait for Hawkes.”

“I don’t like it either, but we’re backed into a corner. Yes, it could be them. Gardener operated out of this area, which would indicate the intel he gave Lorelei had something to do with operations in Brixton and surrounds. Still, tracking the incident this morning will only have us running in circles.”

She raised an eyebrow. “So you’re a man who trusts now?”

I turned my gaze away from hers, her barb hitting me with an accuracy that made my resolve waver. The life I’d led with Royal Blood as a cold, unfeeling killer made me a monster that never trusted a soul apart from my handler. Remembering the last time I’d seen Weiss, I narrowed my eyes. There was only one way that story was going to end and that was with a bullet between his eyes. I’d like to say I’d reveled in killing the man, but he’d had my back over the years. It was twisted, but there had been a sliver of regret in my actions.

“It’s logical,” I murmured, falling back on old habits.

Mercy shifted next to me, sliding her body over my lap until she straddled me. Her hands cupped my face, and her lips brushed against mine.

“Don’t pull that hitman bullshit on me,” she whispered, letting me know she’d sensed the change in my demeanor. “The past is done. Over.”

Grasping her thighs, I stood and flipped her back onto the mattress, which squeaked loudly. Covering her body with mine, I kissed the crook of her neck.

“Now this is a good way to pass the time,” she said through a heavy sigh, her hands finding their way underneath my clothes to caress my back.

Ignoring her, I felt my cock begin to stir and began moving against her slowly, my lips traveling along her skin until I found her mouth. Her tongue met mine, and she kissed me greedily, her taste overwhelming my senses as it always did. Mercy Reid could be a smart-mouthed piece of work—she knew all the buttons to press to piss me the fuck off—but she held my heart, and I held hers. She was the only person in the world I would allow to talk to me the way she did. I wouldn’t entertain it, not even from Mei or the director of Section Seven himself.

Tearing my lips from hers, I shoved her top up and yanked her bra down, trussing up her perfect tits. I sucked her right nipple into my mouth and rolled my tongue over the hard bud. She moaned and arched her back off the mattress—forcing herself against me—begging for the sharp sting of my teeth against her flesh.

Just as I was about to give myself over to nothing but the sensation of fucking my one true love, the burner phone began to ring shrilly.

“
Fuck
,” I muttered, my cock feeling tight in my jeans.

“You better get that,” Mercy said breathlessly, still working her crotch against mine.

Rolling off her, I grabbed the burner phone and answered it, my cock throbbing in protest. “Yes?”

“X.”

“Vaughn?” My cock suddenly went soft.

“You sound surprised,” he replied.

I glanced at Mercy, who’d sat up and was fixing her bra and top. “You sound strung out.”

“I hate to admit it, but I’m at an impasse,” came his tired voice.

“Really? I hear you’ve been quite busy.”

“So have you. Hawkes tells me you and Mercy have been moonlighting for MI6.”

“Well,” I began. “We’re off book with the off book right now.”

Vaughn scoffed, “Didn’t take you long to piss off the powers that be, huh?”

I rolled my eyes, sensing that nothing much had changed where he was concerned. The man was always fishing for a bite.

“Let’s cut to the chase, Vaughn. We both have a common goal, and we can get there a lot faster and efficiently if we’re on the same team.”

For a long moment there was nothing but silence on the other end of the line. “I’ve got a problem. Well, not so much a problem as an issue…”

“They’re the same thing,” I retorted.

“I hate to say this,” he said, ignoring my smartass comment. “But… I need your help.”

I hesitated at the morose tone in his voice. He hadn’t mentioned Lorelei yet, and knowing how he’d held a torch for the woman since she’d supposedly died, it was slightly worrying.

“It’s Lorelei.”

She was like me. Conditioned to be a killer for her father, Greggor, until the moment a crack had appeared in her mind. A crack that I suspected was widening out of her control…which was the only thing that had prompted The Hangman to contact me.

I could be a smug bastard about it, knowing her mental instability had given us an in to their operation tracking Lafayette, or I could use the heart I’d grown and offer to help the woman Vaughn loved.

“She’s not coping,” I said, my gaze meeting Mercy’s.

“Her behavior is becoming more erratic every day. The memories her father took from her… Fuck, it’s bad, X. I don’t know if I can help her.”

Mercy moved to sit next to me and laid her hand on my thigh.

“Tell me more,” I said.

“First, she wanted to take over Royal Blood, and then she wanted to track Lafayette. That was until she stopped a kidnapping in broad daylight.”

“A kidnapping?” I asked, glancing at Mercy who was leaning forward, listening to the conversation with interest. If she could hear Vaughn on the other end, she didn’t mention it—like I’d keep her out of the loop, anyway. Knowing I had to admit to her that she was right about the news report once I’d hung up, I narrowed my eyes.

“She was tracking a man she believed was selling women to Lafayette,” Vaughn went on. “She turned out to be right, but then she foiled his attempt at taking a kid. A fucking kid, X. Not more than
fifteen
.”

“Sounds like a win-win situation to me,” I said, not getting where this was going.

“For the kid, yeah. Not for her. She got a lead out of him, but he triggered a memory in her, and she just… She snapped and butchered him, X. There was fucking blood and body parts everywhere. Then she wanted me to help her hack the body up and dissolve the pieces in acid. That’s fucked up even for me. Fuck, even for
you
.”

“Thanks,” I drawled.

“You know what it’s like,” he pleaded. “She’s…”

I wanted to say
going insane
, but that wouldn’t help anyone. I’d come apart a little more
gently
in the early days, and I’d had Mercy from day one. She wasn’t from my past, she was from my future, and I suspected that was the issue with Lorelei. Vaughn represented a past she didn’t remember or necessarily want. Most of all, he represented the life she’d lost.

“I’ll make you a deal,” I said. “I’ll help you with Lorelei if you allow Mercy and I to help track Lafayette.”

“How is that a good thing for me?” he asked. “Lorelei wants to question him, and then give the fucker the slow death he deserves. You want to bag him alive. It’s not going to work.”

“So you assume,” I retorted. “What do
you
want, Vaughn?”

“I want to give Lorelei her every desire.”

Of course he did. He was devoted to her even in death, so why should now be any different?

“I don’t see you having much choice,” I went on. “I came out of my conditioning in once piece and as sane as any man in our line of work could hope to be. I can help her find her way, and so can Mercy. Lafayette’s life is a matter still open for discussion. Either you’re in or you’re out.”

“Cut to the chase, why don’t you,” he drawled.

“As I see it, you have limited time…for both problems.”

I waited as Vaughn mulled over my offer. There was no way he’d say no, not when he’d already resorted to contacting me. He couldn’t handle Lorelei’s changing mind on his own, and it would be too much of a risk to keep trying when he was failing. Losing her twice wouldn’t be an option.

“All right,” he said. “But if you try to pull anything X, I’ll kill Mercy first.”

“Good luck with that.”

“We’re in Devonshire,” he snapped. “You should come immediately or not at all.”

The line disconnected, and I let the phone fall into my lap.

“Did you have to be such an asshole?” Mercy asked.

“I’ve dealt with Vaughn on and off for years,” I said to her. “You know how he works from when he helped us get into France and that bullshit with Weiss. How could you expect anything more than that?”

“The way he spoke to Lorelei,” she said as the phone beeped with a text message. “In Bristol, she came to our cell, and he convinced her to help us escape, and he said—”

“I would forget what he said. Those words are theirs.”

She immediately clamped her mouth shut, and I opened the message to find Vaughn’s location.

“They’re going to help us find Lafayette?” she asked after a moment.

“Yes.”

“But Lorelei will want to kill him after she’s gotten what she needs,” she exclaimed. “We’re meant to bring him in alive.”

“Maybe,” I mused. “But maybe we’ll give her what she wants and get them out of this in the process.”

She shook her head as she realized what I meant to do. “You’re going to play them, aren’t you?”

“For their own good. If what I have in mind works, they’ll both be spared from a life in prison. Any life they can spend together is better than being alone in darkness and filth.”

Lorelei would get her truth and believe her captor dead, Lafayette would be incarcerated and his organization dismantled, Vaughn would get to live his life with the woman he loved, and Section Seven would be pissed off but gain a powerful network of intelligence. It just had to play out the way I intended, or we’d all be on the chopping block.

“I hope you’re right, X,” Mercy murmured.

I grimaced and rubbed my eyes, already feeling the strain of being back in the spy business where duplicity was master. I hoped I was right, too.

W
hen I opened my eyes
, I was alone.

I was curled up in bed, Vaughn’s scent clinging to the sheets. It was daylight outside.

One hundred and thirty-five. One hundred and thirty-five. One hundred and thirty-five
.

The sound of footsteps echoed up the hall, and a moment later, Vaughn appeared in the doorway. Leaning against the frame, he watched me as I stretched.

“Did you sleep okay?” he asked.

I sat up, eager to know if he’d taken care of the mess I’d left behind in the shed.

“It’s done,” he said, sensing my thoughts. “You slept a long time.”

“Why didn’t you wake me?” I complained, eager to begin tracking Allaire.

Vaughn sighed and crossed the room, sitting beside me on the bed. “You needed your rest. It’s been a long couple of days.”

I rolled my eyes. “There’s too much work to be done to sleep.”

He hesitated, watching me with a careful expression. “Lorelei… Do you remember what happened in the shed?”

I blinked. “Of course I do.”

“Then tell me.”

Tell him?
Tell him?
What was this, report time? I told him last night. It had thrown me, the memory surfacing of Ballinger, but it had confirmed everything my father had said about Lafayette, only it was like it had happened to someone else.

“You think I’m weak?” I exclaimed. “Seriously, Vaughn?”

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “Not at all.”

“Then what do you care?”

“I care about you,” he said, turning his gaze to mine. “Last night you were…” he trailed off, his brow creasing.

Was he concerned I was going off the deep end? Was he
concerned
he would have to force me into some mental institution?

“Were what?” I hissed.

“You were muttering the same number over and over, begging me to help dismember Ballinger’s corpse like it was just some inane thing on a to-do list. You were… I don’t even know. What do you expect me to think?”

Turning away, I scowled as the memory that had surfaced while I’d been questioning Ballinger began to tug at the edges of my mind again. I’d had awful, brutal things done to me at the hands of my captors, The Watchman, and my father, but I’d done just as many to other people.

“I remember what I saw,” I said, trying to restrain my rage. “I remember Ballinger’s face, I remember pieces of what The Watchman did to me, I remember my body count…but most of all, I remember all the things I’ve done. Which is worse, Vaughn?” I turned to face him, my gaze catching his blue eyes in its thrall. “How would you deal with all of that?”

His expression softened as he raised his hand and cupped my cheek. “Lorelei…”

I leaned into his touch, my eyes fluttering closed.

“You scared the shit out of me, you know,” he murmured. “I didn’t know what to do to help you, so I made some calls…”

My eyes flew open, and I jerked back, knocking his hand away. “What?”

“Xavier Blood,” he said.

“You didn’t!” I exclaimed. He could be working against us, plotting to take me down in the wake of Royal Blood. He’d torn my father’s heart out with his bare hands. There was no way of knowing where his true intentions lay…

“Lorelei,” Vaughn murmured, trying to calm me. “I know you say you’re coping, but that’s not what I saw last night. He’s survived the deterioration of The Watchman’s conditioning. He can guide you where I can’t.
I don’t know how to help you
.”

I stood, wrapping my arms around my middle.

“Don’t you think it’s possible that you only
think
you’re in control?” he asked.

He thought I was lying to myself? Unknowingly tricking my own mind into believing I was perfectly sane? I supposed that was the whole point of going mad. I wouldn’t know I was a few screws loose at all. I sighed, shaking my head. Was I already past the point of no return?

Standing by the dresser, I stared at the stupid ceramic candleholder covered in melted wax. Without a second thought, I picked it up and hurled it across the room where it connected with the wall and shattered with a crack.

Vaughn shot to his feet and grabbed me around the waist.

“He ruined everything!” I screamed at him. “He should’ve just put me down like a fucking animal!
He should’ve killed me!
”

“
Shh
,” he said soothingly as he held me tight.

“
Let me go!
” I thrashed against him, but he used all of his strength against me.

“Use me,” he murmured. “Don’t let them win.
Don’t let them win.
”

Twisting in his arms, I fisted my hands into his hair. “Why didn’t he just kill me? Death is better than what I became.”

“You don’t mean that,” he said. “Not when we have a chance to be something more.”

“I don’t know if I can survive this,” I blurted.

Vaughn backed me against the wall and took my mouth with his. His tongue dove greedily against mine, his kiss blistering and commanding. I let him placate me with his touch, the growing hardness of his cock pressing against my belly.

“We’ll find a way,” he said breathlessly. “Whatever it takes.”

Hardly daring to believe his devotion, I shoved at his jeans, desperate for his touch and for his cock to pound into me.

“Fuck me,” I moaned, feeling heat beginning to bloom between my legs.

“But—”

I brought my mouth down hard on his, silencing his complaints. I knew he was concerned about taking me after I’d remembered… He had nothing to worry about. He was still the only man I’d allow to touch me in such a way.

Understanding that it was the first time I’d acknowledged my sexual monogamy to The Hangman, I kissed him harder as my hands found their way to his cock. I’d allow him to do things to my body I’d scarcely dreamed of…if he wanted to. What was done to me before—unwanted or not—had no place when we were tangled together.

Vaughn was the remedy for my poisoned mind.

I tore my lips away as the realization began to sink in. So many revelations, so little time…we still had a long path to travel to get the closure I needed. Truth, revenge, and Vaughn.

“Lorelei,” he moaned, pushing his jeans down and freeing his cock.

Sighing, I pulled the T-shirt I wore over my head and flung it away, and he did the same until we pressed against each other, skin to skin, his cock like steel against my stomach.

“I need you to fuck me hard,” I commanded. “Fuck me hard, and don’t stop.
I need to come…
”

Vaughn’s eyes seemed to darken as I awakened the beast inside him, and he lifted me in his arms and tossed me back onto the bed. Climbing over me, he positioned his cock at my opening.

“
Hard
.” I moaned, clamping my hands onto his ass, trying to force him into me.

He thrust, sliding into me all the way, our skin slapping together. Pleasure shot through my body as he struck against my clit, and I clawed his back, dragging my fingernails along his skin.

Keeping his promise, he pulled back and thrust again…and again and
again
, setting up a punishing rhythm that had my body rising quickly. His mouth pressed against my neck, sucking and biting, his grunts muffled as we let go of all the bullshit and allowed our animalistic base code to take over.

All too soon, I was a quivering mess, tightening around his cock as he pounded into me and coming harder than I’d ever come before. Nothing mattered but the overwhelming sensation that Vaughn had commanded from my body.

He came suddenly, filling me with his desire, his thrusts slowing until he buried deep and held.

Clutching his body to mine, I writhed in the afterglow of our furious fucking, my entire body tingling with unbridled sensitivity. He moaned as I moved, grinding his pelvis slowly against my clit as his cock began to soften inside me.

“I’m with you until the end, you hear?” he declared, his gaze meeting mine.

My eyes misted with tears, and I wasn’t sure if it was because of what we’d just shared or if it meant something deeper.

He slid out of me and lay on his back, pulling my body against his. The scent of sex hung in the air and stuck to our skin, creating a heady mix of feelings I was still trying to decipher.

“Do you know what I’d do if I weren’t in this life?” he asked, his fingers stroking through my hair.

I had no idea. All I could see when I looked at the future was darkness. All there was, was this.

“What?” I asked, curiosity overriding what I knew to be logical.

“I’d live in the Caribbean,” he said dreamily. “Jamaica probably. They have the whitest beaches, the clearest water, and life is about music, food, and family. I think I could be content there.”

“What would you do?”

“Of a daytime, I’d repair old boats, charter them out to tourists, and dive on the reefs. Of a night, I’d watch the sunset over the water and watch the stars come out. Could you imagine a life like that?”

Closing my eyes, I dreamed up an image of a wide beach with sand as white as snow and clear, blue water that lapped gently at its edge. I imagined the coral reefs with colorful fish darting to and fro, the sunlight sparkling on the surface like glittering diamonds. The thought of Vaughn working on such a simple pleasure as repairing a boat seemed absurd, but he’d spoken about it with such longing I knew he’d make it there some day.

“That sounds nice,” I whispered, almost believing I could feel the sun on my skin.

“A simple life,” he mused. “No more pain, no more killing. Just…
life
.”

And in it a kind of redemption. It was a wonderful dream, but I couldn’t see myself ever making it there. I was trapped in my nightmare, and the only thing that kept me alive was Vaughn. Strange how things played out in ways that were least expected.

If I had to give up my life so Vaughn could have the one he desired, I supposed I’d do something about it, but could I live without him? Not right now.

Sighing, I nestled into his side, stroking my palm across his stomach.

“I’ll play nice,” I murmured. “When they come.”

Vaughn’s lips pressed against the top of my head. “Thank you.”