Authors: Alli Sims
“And you still don’t think she could have something to do with this?”
“No. Anna is possessive, she’s not the kind of person that would let this happen if she knew about it, let alone help take part in it.”
I turned back to my backpack and pulled out my knife strap along with the throwing knives I kept in there. I still thought his thinking was clouded, but he wouldn’t listen to me so there was no point in talking about it anymore.
She’s got to be involved somehow.
I thought, well more like
I felt
. I’d just have to prove it.
“Where are we going?”
“I’m going out to look around.”
“I’ll come with you.”
I grabbed the gun and slipped it into its holster by my hip. “It’s fine, I’ll go alone.”
He stared at me not saying a word for several seconds. “Alright… if you don’t want me there.”
I felt guilt tug at me.
“If you
really
want to come go ahead, but it makes more sense for you to get into touch with friends of yours in the area, you obviously still have some.” I didn’t want to be a total asshole, but I did make a good point. Anyways, we were together nonstop. I needed to get away from him every now and then.
That had never been an issue until now.
“You’re right.” He stepped towards the desk and grabbed a piece of paper and a pen. He scribbled something on it. “Meet me for dinner at 7:00.” I raised an eyebrow looking down at the paper. That would give me about 5 hours to get a good grasp for the area, that would be more than enough time.
“Alright. I’ll see you there.”
“Be careful, Gee.”
“I always am.”
Without another word I grabbed my work bag, just a simple clutch that held much more than it looked and easily clipped onto my belt, and headed out the door, grabbing a key card as I passed them.
~
I watched her leave the hotel room unable to move.
I wanted nothing more than to run after her.
That will only make her mad.
I reminded myself. Genevieve was an independent woman, and to suggest otherwise would get my ass kicked- I knew that much from working with her for months, but why did I suddenly care so much? She normally went out alone unless it was a high stakes job.
It had been since we first spoke about Anna, actually since I thought about Anna. I’d known for a while that if I was in the area I should drop in and see her. She wasn’t the kind of woman you didn’t go say hi to when in town; but I hadn’t really wanted to. I’d wanted nothing more than to keep walking to town with Gee.
Maybe Gee is right.
I should at least look into it, she was right about one thing. I had friends here, and they could tell me what I needed to know.
I still wouldn’t believe that Anna could be involved in this.
I dropped my own backpack on my bed and glanced at hers. Already her bed was cluttered with her things, just like always.
I smirked reaching for my own knife. It was much too big to be a throwing knife, but the thick handle fit my hand perfectly.
Right. Let’s figure out what’s going on here so I can get home- and get what I was promised.
~
No one noticed the gun under my thick leather jacket- or if they did they didn’t say anything to me about it, so it must not have mattered that much. Just like everywhere else I’d been, people were only concerned with what they were doing. They didn’t care about what anyone else was doing.
I kept an eye on the shop windows to watch for tails; pretending to look at a dress, or fix my hair sometimes and other times just glancing in them as I walked past them.
Italy
was
gorgeous. It was just a shame I was stuck here on work and that they expected us to be back right away.
I wonder what Eric is doing.
Had he really had no intention of going to see the vampire again? I knew he thought she couldn’t be involved but he had an emotional attachment to her- or a sexual one, whatever it was it was an attachment to her, and attachments clouded judgement. Clouded judgement was what got people killed in this line of work. I glanced behind me as if trying to get a good view of one of the shops as I passed it. The truth was I was checking out the man who had been behind me for the past three blocks. He wore a black jacket and dark jeans, with a silver necklace around his neck. He stopped to look in a store window as I pulled out my cell phone and took a picture of the store- after all I had to have some memories from this trip! It was just a nice afterthought that he was in there too.
I grinned turning my attention back to walking as I looked down at the photo and zoomed in on the guy. Yup he had a gun on him.
I swallowed dryly. It could mean he just happens to be an undercover cop who just happened to be following me, or he could be trailing me so that he could try to kill me- either way I needed to get him away from a large group of people, otherwise I’d have more to worry about if or when he opened fire.
Without a second thought I crossed the street, heading south back towards the hotel in a long drawn out sorta way.
“Excuse me!” I called to an elderly man who was walking in the direction I planned to go in. “Can you tell me where this is?” I held the paper out him but he didn’t look away from me for a couple of seconds, a smile spread over his face as his eyes roamed over my body.
“Are you going there alone?” He asked. Before I could answer him he spoke again. “Perhaps you’d like a date there.” A soft smile touched his lips as he chuckled.
I laughed softly. “Thank you but I don’t think my boyfriend would like it if I brought a date.” We’d gotten so used to playing a couple that calling him my boyfriend didn’t faze me. But I couldn’t help but think of Anna and the way she’d looked at me when she called me a
friend.
The way she’d said it still made my stomach twist with something I still couldn’t mark.
The old man chuckled. “Of course.” He pulled out a pen and took the paper for me, writing down which streets to turn at and which way to go before handing it back to me.
“Thank you so much.”
“Have a good night signorina!” He called after me as I kept on my way. I turned back to wave at him.
Yup, the guy in the black coat was still following me.
I felt my gut turn as my pulse picked up. It had been a long time since I got into a fight alone and it almost made me nervous. On the other hand my heart raced with excitement. It had been a long time since I got into a fight and I was finally going to get someone all to myself; I didn’t have to worry about Eric coming in to try and save me. I got this punk all to myself. I turned down the street the old man had told me to, then paused and glanced at the street signs utterly aware they were wrong; and turned left before going another three blocks before turning down the wrong street again. I looked around, faking confusion before letting out a deep breath and turning down the first street I saw that looked utterly unpopulated. I paused staring down at the paper as he approached.
I may be nothing but a normal human being but over the years doing this job my senses heightened a little.
He stopped about five feet away from me.
“Is there something I can help you with?” I asked turning to face him.
Yes, he was the same as the one from before. Black coat, dark jeans and a silver necklace around his neck.
“My boss wants you out of the picture.” His voice was low, and quite frankly it didn’t sound like he wanted to do what he’d been ordered to do.
Tough luck.
It was either him or me and I didn’t intend on letting a kid kill me anytime soon. “Sorry kid, I can’t let that happen. If your boss does what they are planning it’s going to be world war 3. Is that what you want?”
His eyes locked on mine.
Werewolf.
A stare down would begin the fight if neither of us backed down. I had no intention of looking away from him any time soon.
He slipped his coat off to reveal muscles that could easily bench press someone my size. Gulp. This hadn’t been the first time I was up against someone this big. Hell, I’d had bigger.
Chapter 2
I left the kid tied up in bonds he could easily break. I crouched beside him.
“See? I’m actually pretty nice. I bet your boss wouldn’t do that if they were in my situation.” I wasn’t in the habit of killing kids. I couldn’t help it. “Now, I suggest you take whatever family is close to you and get the fuck out of here.” I paused wishing I could help him more. Wishing I could give him some intel. “Find someone you trust, and pay whatever you have to.” I pulled my wallet out of my clutch and threw some money on the ground. “And do it all before they find you, kid. Good luck.”
He stared at me, shock written all over his face. He opened his mouth and I stood. I didn’t want to sit here and have a heart to heart with the kid. It was bad enough that I’d spared him.
“They know you’re here. Someone told them today that you arrived.” My heart sank. It had to be Anna.
I turned to him, a smile touched my lips. “Thanks, kid.”
Without another word I walked away, well it was more of a run actually. I needed to get to Eric before they did. I needed to warn him.
My pulse still raced from the fight I’d just had. He hadn’t been much older than a kid but he had been strong and he had put up a good fight. “Come on.” I whispered to myself as I glanced down at the paper with the directions on it.
By the time I got to the restaurant I was out of breath and there was a painful stitch in my side, but that didn’t stop me from running until I made it to the door. I glanced in through the window. Eric stared at me as if he could read everything that had just happened.
I looked around as I reached for the handle, my fingers curling around the cold metal as I pulled the door open and stepped inside. An old man about four feet tall gave me a smile and a nod. I returned it making my way to the table Eric sat at.
“What happened?” He asked in a low voice.
“I ran into a kid.”
He raised an eyebrow. “A kid has you all jumpy? Do I need to go outside and tell him to make it home before curfew?”
“Very funny.”
“Really though, is everything alright? You smell like wolf, blood and sweat.”
Sexy.
“I’m fine.” I nodded. “The blood isn’t my own.” I didn’t think. “And the sweat is because I just ran seven blocks. The wolf… well that’s that kid I was telling you about. He trailed me from the hotel. When I finally faced off with him I didn’t kill him-”
“You
what?
” he snapped.
“I wasn’t going to kill a kid.” I didn’t need to defend myself.
“They are going to kill
you
if they find out you let him go.”
I shrugged. My bosses were something I would deal with later. Whenever I had to. “Anyways, it had its silver lining. Before I left him tied up after telling him to get out of town ASAP he told me that they know we are here.”
“Who is they?”
I shrugged. “Whoever he works for. Whoever thinks it’s a good idea to put a kid up against one of us, even if I am the weak human of the two.”
Eric frowned. “I’m not sure who could have done this.”
I was.
But I didn’t say it. We’d already hashed that out and I knew he wasn’t going to believe me. If I kept bringing up I’d just look like I was jealous or something.
What would I have to be jealous of?
It’s not like I’d never seen girls flirt with Eric before; I knew that didn’t make me jealous.
The little old man cleared his throat beside us. “Eric, I… saw the state of your friend here and thought you might want to take this to go.” He held out a bag and a pizza box. “Elena misses you; you should stop by to see her sometime.”
I raised an eyebrow as Eric reached for the bag and the box. “Thank you Rob, tell your wife I will stop in before I leave town; assuming time allows for it.”
“Of course.” The old man nodded. “I will see you around Draco.”
An old slang term for dragon. So the old man knew what he was. Interesting. I wondered what his deal was. I’d have to get it from Eric sometime before we saw the old man and his wife again.
But as of now Eric motioned for us to get going. I gave the old man a smile and a quick thank you before following Eric out of the small restaurant. We both looked around before we began to make our way to the hotel.
“So, what did you do while I was running around with kids?”
“I spoke to a couple of my friends.”
“And? What did they say?”
“A couple of them know about the situation but none of them are involved. I think they would become involved if there was enough money in it- at least some of them would. None of them believe Anna is involved.”
“And you trust them? Maybe they are all in on it and trying to cover for her because she’s like the boss or something.”
“No. I believe them.”
No one I could spot seemed to be following us, which meant they’d either gotten better at hiding or weren’t following us at the moment.
~
We made it back to the hotel without any issues.
“You’re not going to like this but I still think Anna-”
“It’s not Anna, would you quit being so jealous about her already?”
“Jealous?” I choked. How could he think I was jealous? “I’m not jealous of her.”
“Fine, I’ll just go spend the night with
her
then.” My heart dropped as he stepped towards the door.
I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t because I realized he was right. He stopped before reaching for the handle.
I turned away and paced to the door. For some stupid reason I couldn’t bring myself to watch him leave the room.
Why do I even care?
I bit my tongue as I watched the people on the street.
“Genevieve…” I could hear him come towards me. “I never intended to go. I don’t want to spend the night with her.”
“Then why would you say that?” I sounded like a hurt child and I knew it. Dammit. I bit my lip refusing to look at him.
It was stupid. I knew all the signs of having a crush on a boy, but it was stupid. There was no way I could have a crush on him. I hadn’t had a crush on him this morning. Right?
I’m just jealous that he cares so little about what I think of her.
Yes. That had to be it. I didn’t actually care about
him.
Not in that way at least. I cared that he didn’t care about what I thought of some girl. Wait, was that worse?
“I needed to make my point.” He smirked softly. “You are jealous.”
I didn’t say anything because honestly I would just sound like a little girl if I tried to tell him he was full of shit. I stared out the window at a group of people as they glanced up at us.
His warm fingers curled around my elbow and tried to turn me to face him. I didn’t budge.
“Gee.” His voice was soft.
“Not now.” I muttered. “I want you to step behind me and wrap your arms around my waist.”
“I never knew you were the type to give orders.” I could hear the grin in his voice. “I always had to pegged for the one to be submissive.”
My cheeks flushed. When had he been thinking about my sexual preferences?
“Not now.” I muttered as he stepped behind me and wrapped his arms around my body. His heat touched my back. Such a comforting feel. “Lower your head to my neck.”
Lucky for me he wasn’t the kind to ask questions when a woman wanted him up against her. His hand traced down my leg gently. I bit back a moan. I should stop him and I knew that, but I didn’t want to. I bit back a soft moan but Eric heard it. His lips traced along my neck. “I never knew you were so easy to please.”
“Eric. Don’t move.” He froze. “What I am about to say is going to make you want to move, whatever you do
don’t.
”
“Alright.”
“Look out the window, without drawing too much attention to the fact that you’re looking out the window.”
I gasped as he thrust against me, pushing me against the window. “What the hell?” I snapped but a shiver of excitement ran down my spine.
“You said to act like I wasn’t looking.” He smirked. “No one will think I’m paying any attention to them if I’m thrusting against you.”
“Yea, that’s not really what I had in mind.”
He smirked as he pulled away from me. “Nonetheless, I saw that little gang you’re talking about.”
“They were looking right at us. The one standing with his back to us was pointing up here.”
“Then it looks like we have company. And it looks like you might have been right about Anna. Her driver did drop us off here.” He let out a sigh as he headed to his bed. “We’d best get out of here.
My brow furrowed as the man finally turned his back. I would have gasped if I was in the habit of being surprised. “No.”
“No we’re not leaving?”
“No it wasn’t Anna.”
Eric sighed dramatically. “You’ve had it in for her since we got here, what makes you change your mind now.”
“Because I’m staring at the man who gave us our key cards.”
And I was. I stared down at him on the street. His blue eyes and black shirt was the exact same. The five o’clock shadow was there, hell I’d even seen him gave us the same grin he had on now. I bit my lip pressing a hand against the glass. I hadn’t realized it until
“What do you mean?” Eric paced back to the window. “Great.” He muttered. “There goes one of the best sources I have here.” He let out a deep breath, muttered something quietly and made his way back over to his backpack. “We’d better get going.”
“I think we should stay and fight.”
“No, there are too many of them.”
“We can hide. They’re probably only human.”
“Except him.”
“Yes but he’s a vampire. Their senses are fucked anyway. If we hide we can follow them back to where they came from.”
Eric stared at me. For a split second I thought he would just pick me up and carry me out of there. “Fine, but get a rope.” I raised an eyebrow but he didn’t say anything as he made his way to the door. “And anything else you’ll want before the night is over.”
I grabbed the rope; after all I had all my stuff on stuff, and rushed after him. My stomach grumbled reminding me we hadn’t had time to eat. “When this is over I expect a nice meal.”
“After I fuck you, and after we kill these vampires.”