I return my attention to the assassin, staring at her, hard. “You’re Poison.”
Her smirk deepens, confirming my answer.
“The fuck? The bitch who’s trying to kill you?” Tera snaps. “Well, good. She’s made our job a helluva lot easier.”
She lifts her gun higher, ready to fire, but I hold up a hand.
“Wait.”
Tera scowls at me. “Wait? For what? She blew up our warehouse. Probably the same one who took shots at us. She’s the reason Penn is hurt. Unless you’re telling me to hol’ up to break her shit like she did Penn’s, then I don’t understand.”
“Yeah, I get it, and I’m right there with you. But”—I turn back to Poison—“you tracked me down here for some reason. And since neither one of us is leaking yet, I’m figuring you have something to say first.”
The assassin pushes off the wall and strolls closer. And I want to choke-slam her for being so fucking cavalier when Malachi is somewhere being tortured at this moment.
“Look, I know you got this whole secret assassin shit going on, but I’m on a time crunch with the life of someone I care about on the line. So if you don’t mind getting a move on?” I ask, twirling my hand.
“I know all about Malachi being held by Abena.”
Ice slicks through me and crystallizes into a freezing, numbing rage. How does she have information we just received?How does she know his name?
I stalk forward, not stopping until we’re damn near nose to nose. I can see the gray striations in her eyes.
“Who. The. Fuck. Are. You?” I grind out. But the longer I glare into her bright,familiareyes, the impossible, crazy, yet all-too-real answer starts to take shape in my head. And yet, asimpossibleas it may seem, I still whisper, “Miriam.”
For the first time, emotion flashes in her gaze. An indecipherable emotion, but there just the same.
“I’ve heard you were smart,” she says, and though it sounds condescending, the tone carries a faint hint of praise.
Shock barrels through me, and I lock my knees to keep me upright.
I shake my head, still in denial even though I know it’s true.
“How is this…? It can’t be… Youdied. He told me he watched you die. He fucking grieves you to this day.”
Fury fast burns away my shock because it’s becoming clearer and clearer that Malachi’s baby sister all grown up is standing in front of me, alive and relatively well, except for the whole psychopathic-killer thing. And she let him believe…
“You bitch,” I breathe, rage lacing my tone. Before I even acknowledge what I’m doing, my SIG is in my hand, and the barrel is pressed to her forehead. She doesn’t flinch, doesn’t show any reaction at all. “You let him torture himself all these years for not protecting you. He’s suffered believing he failed you when you needed him most. And all these years, you’ve been alive, been here, and never once thought to ease his pain. My soul might be dirty as fuck, but at least I have one.”
“You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about,” she says, voice even as if she’s discussing the chance of rain. I want her to be rolling in goddamn remorse. Fucking bathing and stinking of it. And… nothing.
“Then enlighten me.”
“No.”
I chuckle, and Tera and Kenya look at each other. Yeah, they know what that laugh means. I’m two seconds from leaping on top of her, and I won’t be hugging the ho.
“I don’t owe you shit except a bullet, since that contract is still open. But since Abena fucked with the wrong person—the only family I have left—I now got skin in the game.”
“That’s a little hypocritical, considering you bombed a place where the only family you have left was at,” Doc points out.
Miriam cuts a glance at her. “I didn’t know he was there, so it doesn’t count.”
“Doesn’t…” I scrub a hand down my face. “Why are you here?”
I can feel the hours, the minutes ticking down, and my skin itches with each passing. I don’t have time for this shit.
Malachi doesn’t have time for it.
