Silas (6 page)

And then I dove face first
out of the hotel window, the glass shattering around me as I
fell.

CHAPTER FOUR

I awoke in the back seat of
Sloane
’s car. I could feel the car
careening around a curve. I struggled to sit up.

“
Oh,” she said. “You’re
awake. Nice going, you dickwad. Way to keep a low
profile.”

I shook myself. There was
glass in my hair. “Sorry.

“
You have any idea how tough
it was to get down there and pull your body out of the way before
the police showed up?”

“
I was going dark. He had a
gun, and he shot me, and I had to think fast. It was the best plan
I could come up with in forty seconds.”

“
Well, it was a shitty
plan,” she said. “You created a huge commotion. You dove through a
fucking window, you dumbass.”

“
I know what I
did.”

“
And now we have to drive
around to make sure we lose any tails,” she said. “Which means I’m
not going to get my beauty sleep.”

“
I’ll drive,” I said,
crawling up into the front seat with her. “Pull over and switch
with me.”

She sighed. “I’m fine for
now.”

I studied my hands. “I’m
sorry. You’re right. I really fucked up.”

“
He hit the ground too
fast,” she said. “I barely sighted him through the window before he
realized what you were up to.”

“
We should have done an
early mission into the room to get the curtains open,” I
said.

“
That would have involved
getting a key or breaking into the room,” she said. “More time in
the hotel. More time for witnesses to see us. No, we couldn’t have
done that.”

I sagged into the seat.
“Well, maybe he’ll let his guard down. He doesn’t know about the
serum, so he probably thinks I’m dead.”

“
Nice try,” she said. “You
opened those curtains and let him know you weren’t working alone.
He’s going to be looking for the shooter. For me.”

I dragged a hand over my
face. “Man, I can’t believe it went so wrong.”

“
You didn’t think he’d have
a gun?”

“
No,” I said. “Especially
not one with a silencer. He shoots things, but he does it out in
nature after tracking them down. I didn’t even know he owned a
handgun.”

“
Well, now we know that he’s
armed and ready. Next time, we’ll be better prepared.”

I looked at her. “Next time?
You’re not giving up?”

“
Not until he’s dead, Silas.
We got to finish what we started.”

I reached across the car and
grabbed her hand. “Hey, thanks. I know that you’re not crazy about
doing stuff like this. It means a lot me that you’re helping
out.”

She squeezed my hand. “You
and me together. That’s what it’s about.”

“
Together,” I said. It was
what we always said to each other. Sloane and I had been through a
lot together. We hadn’t had the easiest of childhoods. It had been
my idea, the first time we’d killed together, and sometimes I felt
bad about that. I’d pulled her into this.

But there hadn’t been time
back then to worry about the future. They were going to do… things
to her. And I wasn’t going to let that happen to my
sister.

But I knew it bothered
Sloane way more than it bothered me. I’d been able to let it roll
off my back. And when our actions had brought us to the attention
of Jolene French, who had recruited us to her elite group of
assassins in Op Wraith, I’d taken to it like a duck to water. It
had been tougher for Sloane.

I made it my business not to
push her into it too deep. That was why she worked from a distance.
It helped that she had fantastic aim, of course, but I also knew it
was easier for her if she didn’t have to wash the spattered blood
off her face.

I could do that. I could
handle it. Maybe it made it easier for me if I thought I was doing
it for her. I don’t know.

“
I always got your back,”
she said. “Even when you don’t deserve it.”

“
Which is most of the time,
right?” I leaned my head against the window. I was off my game.
First I’d blacked out and been less than impressive in bed with
Christa. Then I’d failed to kill Rolf.

“
Yeah,” she
agreed.

“
Fuck you,” I said. “You’re
supposed to make me feel better.”

“
Says who?”

“
Says me.”

She laughed. “Hey Silas, not
until after the wedding, okay?”

“
Huh?”

“
I’ll help you get Rolf, but
not until after the wedding is over. I can’t concentrate on both
things at once.”

She was right. I was nuts
trying to do this right now. After the wedding was over and Christa
left, I’d be able to focus better. “That actually makes a lot of
sense. We’ll put Operation Kill Rolf on hold for a bit.”

* * *

Christa was standing outside
on our porch when Sloane and I got back. It was late, probably two
in the morning, but she looked really good. Her jeans hugged the
curves of her thighs and calves. I wanted to run my hands over the
swells of them. I wanted to peel her pants off of her, one inch at
a time.

“
Hey,” I said, rushing over
to her. “What are you doing here?”

“
I think my comb might have
fallen out of my purse when I was here the other night,” she
said.

Sloane came up the porch
steps behind us. “You didn’t think you could wait until morning for
that?”

Christa looked away,
shrugging. “I don’t know. I didn’t pay attention to how late it
was. I’m kind of a night owl.”

I grinned. “Come in. We’ll
look for it.”

Sloane pushed her way in
between me and Christa, glaring at me. “
I’ll
help you look for it. Silas has
had a long night, and he’s probably tired.”

I opened the door. “Well, it
probably fell out in my room, so it kind of makes sense for me to
help her look for it.”

The three of us stepped
inside.

“
No, it doesn’t,” said
Sloane. “You’re a guy, and you’ll be hopeless when it comes to
finding something girly like a comb. And besides, I seriously
doubt
Griffin
would like it if you were helping his sister look for a comb.”
She fixed me with a steely glare.

She was probably right. I
didn’t actually want to help Christa look for a comb. Instead, I
wanted to convince her that my idea about peeling off her pants was
a really great one. And I shouldn’t mess stuff up with Griffin any
worse than I already had. She was just a chick. Griffin was my
friend.

Yeah.

But she was a really hot
chick.

“
I got this, Sloane.” I
gestured up the steps at Christa. “You want to look in my
room?”

Christa was scrutinizing my
face. “You really
do
heal fast, don’t you?”

Oh. Right. The last time
she’d seen me, Griffin had mangled my face. “It wasn’t as bad as it
looked.”

She furrowed her brow.
“Really?”

“
Actually, maybe you can
find the comb, if you do it alone,” said Sloane. “How about you go
upstairs and look for Christa’s comb in your room?”

“
Well, I don’t know what it
looks like. Shouldn’t Christa come along?”

“
Christa, what color is it?”
said Sloane.

“
Purple,” she
said.

Sloane smiled at me. “You
shouldn’t have too much trouble finding something purple in your
room, right?”

“
Well, I don’t know, maybe,”
I said.

“
Christa and I can have some
girl talk while you’re gone.”

Goddamn my sister. I knew
she was only trying to help me do the right thing here, but she was
being a massive cock block. After all, this comb excuse was pretty
flimsy on Christa’s part. Obviously, she’d made it up so that she
could come by and see me.

She missed me.

She’d been thinking about
fucking me again, just like I’d been thinking about her.

And because of Sloane, I
wasn’t going to get any.

She shooed me up the stairs.
“Go.”

Sighing, I went.

This was stupid. There was no purple
comb in my room.

Except that there was. It
was lying on the ground in about the same place as Christa’s purse
had been.

I picked it up and headed back for the
stairs.

But when I heard my name floating up
them, I stopped and listened.

“…
not a bad guy,” Sloane was
saying. “He’s just not boyfriend material.”

“
Who said I wanted a
boyfriend?” said Christa. “I only wanted my comb.”

“
Please,” said Sloane. “Like
there’s a comb. You want back in my brother’s pants.”

“
There’s a comb,” said
Christa. “Maybe I came by to make sure he was okay after
my
brother beat the shit
out of him—”

“
No, Griffin didn’t
beat Silas up,” said Sloane. “Silas
let
Griffin hit him, because he knew
he was in the wrong. He never should have touched you. Trust me, if
Griffin and Silas ever got into it for real, it would be ugly. My
brother does
not
get the shit beat out of him.”

I grinned. Good old Sloane. I loved
her. She was the best sister on earth.

“
Okay,” said Christa.
“Whatever. I wanted to make sure he was okay. He’s fine. As soon as
I get my comb, I’ll leave.”

“
He doesn’t do commitments,”
said Sloane. “Or second dates.”

Christa snorted. “Whatever.
He’s been begging me to go out with him again ever since he woke up
with me.”

“
He has? Silas? For
real?”

I cleared my throat and
started down the steps, holding out the comb. “Your comb,
Christa.”

She snatched it from me.
“Thanks.”

Sloane turned to look at me, a confused
expression on her face.

“
I gotta go. It’s late,”
said Christa.

“
Wait,” I said.

“
Sorry,” she said. “I’m
exhausted.”

“
Let me walk you out,” I
said.

“
Whatever.” She headed for
the door.

I hurried to catch up with
her.

She swung the door open.

I caught it and vaulted out after
her.

“
Hey, uh, I probably came on
way too strong at the restaurant,” I said.

She whirled to face me.
“Spare me, okay? I know your type.”

“
I’m not trying to…” I
floundered. I wasn’t used to interacting with girls who were this
hostile to me. Generally, I’d give up and move on, but there was
something about this girl. I didn’t know what it was, but when I
was around her, I didn’t want her to go away. “Look, I don’t know
what this is.” I pointed back and forth between the two of us.
“But—”

“
There’s no
this
,” she said. “We
fucked when we were drunk. The end. Everyone keeps warning me off,
saying that you go through girls like coffee filters, so why can’t
you just let it go? You got in my pants. Why wasn’t that
enough?”

“
I… I don’t remember it,” I
said.

She rolled her eyes. “Okay.
Well, too bad.”

I caught her by the arm.
“Hey, wait a second. That’s not why. I… You’re funny, you do this
thing where you run your hands through your hair, and it’s really
cute. And you drank me under the table, and you’re not mooning over
me, and… I never met anyone like you before.”

She looked uncomfortable.
“You’re grabbing me again.”

I let go of her.
“Sorry.”

“
You’re telling me I’m
special? I mean something to you, when the other girls don’t?
That’s original.”

“
I didn’t…” I crossed my
arms over my chest. “I’m not saying it means anything. All I wanted
to do was show you that I’m not really horrible in bed.”

“
Oh,” she said. “That’s
all?”

That
was
all I wanted. Wasn’t
it?

She looked away. “Well, you
weren’t actually that horrible. Okay? You happy now?” She darted
down the steps of the porch without a backward look.

I stood there in the
darkness, feeling confused. I wished she hadn’t gone.

Sloane stood in the doorway.
“Silas, what the hell are you doing with that girl?”

I turned back to her.
“Nothing.”

* * *

The sound of the television
wafted through the house. I could hear it as I came down the steps
the next morning.
“… possible perpetrators
in an attempt on philanthropist Derek Rolf’s life fled the scene in
a black sedan.”