I nodded. “She’s off the rails. But I can see why he chose her. She’s as skilled as she’s unpredictable. Fucking succubus if I ever saw one.”
Santino took a sweep of our surroundings, shoulders tensed. “What’s her name?”
“Don’t know.” I shrugged. “She never gave it.”
He pulled out his cell, began scrolling until he found the contact he sought, and punched in a message. “Going to have my men look into the Hades’s roster.”
“She’s American.”
He narrowed his eyes. “A personal hire?”
“It would make sense.”
It wasn’t uncommon for members of different factions to travel globally for jobs, but it almost always involved a hit on a fellow citizen traveling abroad. This reeked of Cillian Clark and his vendetta to have me dead.
Some days, I wondered if letting him get his revenge would be easier. Let the past and all my transgressions catch up with me. Santino had a point. How long would I run? Living on the edge, my head on a swivel at all times.
Looking around, my chest constricted. Strangers going on about their lives. Oblivious to what happens behind the scenes and those like me and Santino who walk among them. How easy would it be to live without the weight of blood and debts on my shoulders? I couldn’t recall the circumstances that had led me to this life or who I was before I woke up that day nearly sixteen years ago. But I wondered if I’d ever had that. There was a wall in my mind. One I could never get over, where I knew I’d find all the answers to my questions.
Six
LENI
“Preciosa.”
The man who’d uttered the word looked at me expectantly, waiting for acknowledgment or a smile of gratitude. I offered neither. And as they all did, the grin on his face morphed into a scowl as if I owed him a damn thing simply because he’d paid me an unsolicited compliment.
I heard him call me out of my name under his breath as I walked past, and a grin curved my lips. Luckily for him, I was in a forgiving mood. He wouldn’t be swallowing the new blade strapped to my thigh, beneath the sinful black dress I’d slipped into for this very occasion. Costa Verde luxury train would take me on a four-day ride into Barcelona, where I’d meet the man who’d made a home in my thoughts and whose name had slithered from my lips in the throes of more orgasms than I would care to admit.
There was just something about the chase, the rush of knowing we were out for blood. Even though there existed thissomethingelse between us, only one would be left standing when all was said and done.
And it was the first time I wasn’t sure who that would be.
In the weeks since our last encounter, I’d been hanging back, tracking his movements as he slipped from one country to another. He had financial help—of the untraceable kind. I was sure—as Silas hadn’t spared expenses when it came to accommodations. I’d seen a man in his company I didn’t recognize. He was handsome, well-dressed, and undoubtedly part of some faction of The Six or even mafia. Someone unafraid to get caught up in my mark’s troubles. I’d made a note of him and sent his photo to one of my father’s connections back in Greece.
“You know, as you said once, we really do need to stop meeting like this.”
His breath fanned hot and velvety over the shell of my ear, sending tingles skittering down my body and settling where his left hand lay on my hip like a branding iron to the skin. I hated my visceral reaction to this man. The way my muscles tensed under his touch and how my heart pumped a little faster for entirely different reasons from the call of his blood. But I hated myself even more for allowing him to get the jump on me. Silas weakened and dulled my instincts.
He was dangerous.
“Deja vu,” I murmured, masking my surprise at his sudden presence.
Curling an arm around my waist, he tugged me against his chest, squeezing to the point of pain. I winced, nails digging into his wrists. “You’re not going to kill me, Silas. Least of all here.”
“You have no idea what I’m capable of. You’re no different than the rest.”
I twisted my face to look into his coffee-colored eyes and chuckled. “And yet, here I am, alive and well, after three separate encounters with the bloodthirstyGhost.”
His hold on me tightened again upon hearing the alias he was known for with Hades.
“Fuck you.”
“Oh, but I almost got that t-shirt, Silas.”
A woman with a pixie cut glared at us from her seat across the row, assuming Silas and I were lovers. It would be the only plausible explanation considering my ass was plastered to his dick, face near my neck as his lips hovered over the skin there.
“You thought I wouldn’t know? Wouldn’t find out about the man who doesn’t exist. The one without a past beyond The Six. It’s my job to know every facet of you, Silas. Always one step ahead.”
