Vesper spotted a duffle bag on the floor near the wardrobe and snatched it up. She started digging through the drawers and throwing every bit of clothing she could find into the bag. That snapped the kid out of her haze, and she joined Vesper, hurrying out of the room and returning in seconds with another bag half her size. She started throwing more things inside.
“What’s your name, kid?” Vesper asked, grabbing the kid’s bag when it was full, fresh tears staining her cheeks. She found a hooded sweater and made the kid put it on, making sure the hood covered most of her face. She wrapped a piece of fabric around her own before they left the house.
“Cypress,” she sniffed, hesitantly letting Vesper pull her along by the hand. “Did Mama send you to kill me?”Fuck. “She told me she would.” Vesper couldn’t look at the kid as she dragged her down the street.
“Cypress. That’s a lovely name. Don’t worry, we’ll get you somewhere safe.” She hoped that Bellamy’s hit was the parents.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
Vesper
Present Day
Vesper couldn’t move.
Cedar’ssister?Thatwas the kid she’d saved?
Cedar was Sissy? Fuck. She should’ve put that together. Hearing that jogged the memory of Cypress telling her the name. Only once. But it hadn’t been until years later that Vesper met Cedar. She hadn’t even thought twice. They looked nothing alike, and Cedar was a common enough name.
The kid had long ago stopped asking about Sissy—about Cedar. Vesper was kicking herself for not putting it together. She should’ve been better. More diligent. Should’ve heard Cedar’s name and asked about family.
Vesper studied Cedar. Hard green eyes, vibrant red hair blowing in the slight breeze around them, scarred, pale skin, and soft hands—er, hand. She tried to connect the image with the kid she’d watched grow up over all these years.
There were absolutely no similarities. It felt like that had happened so long ago: scouring the city for anyone named Cedar, subtly re-visiting the house for months after trying to look for anynew activity, any hint that the sister would have returned, would be looking for her. There’d been nothing.
Vesper was ashamed that she’d given up the search for Cypress’s sister so quickly, but she’d never once stopped trying to figure out who was behind that hit. Never once had she given up on trying to keep Cypress safe, to find and destroy the contract ordering her death.
Just last week she’d seen the kid. Cypress was about to enter her twenty-second year—not really a kid anymore. Cedar was… Vesper tried to think. Cedar was her age, right? Maybe a few years younger. Couldn’t be less than twenty-eight. Well, six years wasn’t an uncommon sibling age gap. Helped explain how different they were.
“We don’t know anything about your sister, you fucking maniac!” Bellamy yelled, snapping Vesper out of her haze.
Oh, right. There were more important things to think about right now.
“Let us fucking leave!” Bellamy screamed.
Cedar ignored Bellamy entirely. She stared at Vesper, clearly having seen Vesper’s panic and subsequent confusion as she tried to place Cypress as Cedar’s sister.
“Vesper”—Cedar never used her full name—“what did you do with my sister?”
“We don’t know what you’re talking about!” Bellamy insisted again before she turned to Vesper and pinched her arm. “Tell her, Ves.”
Vesper looked between Bellamy and Cedar, trying to set her face into a neutral look. “I’ll tell you what I told them,” Vesper ground out. She wanted to scream at Cedar, to ask why she hadn’t been there, why she’d kept Cypress scared and waiting for nine fucking years. But she couldn’t because above everything else, she didn’t trust Cedar. “No one was there. Besides, even if I did know anything, why the fuck would I tell you?”
Cypress’s safety was Vesper primary concern, and Cedar had proven to be reckless, murderous, unhinged. Vesper wasn’t goingto tell her shit unless she knew for a fact that Cedar wouldn’t hurt Cypress.
Bellamy’s gaze was boring into the side of Vesper’s head. She couldn’t look. Bel would immediately read the truth in her face. Cedar’s smile was vicious. She knew Vesper was lying too. Was she really that bad of a liar?
“I know you did something. And I know you’re fucking lying. Please tell me she’s alive at least?”
“I don’t know your sister.”
Cedar laughed. “I know you’ve been investigating that assignment. Tell me, V. Tell me she’s alive. Please.”
Vesper ground her teeth. Cedar’s plea’s certainly sounded genuine. But then she looked past her and saw the twin still glaring at her like he wanted to throttle her. The other guard loomed over Cedar’s shoulder, and Vesper knew she couldn’t trust her. Cedar worked for another assassin group—what if she had put the hit out? No. She couldn’t betray Cypress like that.
“You know, Cedar,” Vesper started casually, “I might have been more willing to listen to your bullshit if you hadn’t tried to kill Bel and get us blacklisted.”
“I only did that so you’d take me to her! I can protect her! I can protect all of you,” Cedar cried, desperate.
