This was the perfect opportunity. The two witnesses would report back to the Resistance that their leader was dead. The cause would collapse. Or so the government hoped.
Personally, he believed killing her would only make the Resistance stronger. Besides, he hated doing this right in front of people he knew. They were good people. Tyler Outlaw and his woman Laura had some rough years apart, but now they were back together. He didn’t want to cause trouble for them.
They would just have to deal with this assassination. Just as he would have to deal with it.
Once again his finger tightened on the trigger, but he quickly eased off as cold metal kissed his temple.
“I don’t think you want to do that, do you, Blade.” He knew that deadly calm voice. Cade Outlaw, the brother of his ex-SKULL partner, Colter Outlaw.
“This isn’t your concern, Outlaw,” Blade warned coolly.
“You’re on Outlaw land. It is my business. Drop the gun.”
The icy threat sent shivers up his back. Blade hesitated.
“I know we’re friends, Will, and I hope you won’t hold it against me if I blow a hole in your head, but I will unless you drop the rifle.”
And he probably would, too. Cade was just as much a killing machine as Blade. If not more. Especially if those rumors about him being a torturer during the Terrorist Wars were true. A man had to have a strong stomach to do that sort of work.
Blade sighed and dropped the gun. From the other side of the bushes laughter erupted. The two women hugged. They were saying their goodbyes. His gut twisted as the best opportunity for carrying out his job slipped through his fingers.
“She’s your SKULL assignment, isn’t she?” Cade asked.
Blade said nothing.
“You’ve been sent to kill her. Kill the leader of the Resistance. As if that will stop women from fighting to regain their freedom.”
“She’s a marked woman. If I fail, someone else won’t,” he replied.
“You’ve failed, Will. Tell your boss the leader of the Resistance is under Outlaw protection now. Anyone who tries to go after her will have us to answer to. Got it?”
“Got it,” Blade replied, knowing full well the six Outlaw brothers were no match for the U.S. dictatorship that ran the country with an iron fist.
“Good.”
The two of them stood in silence as the Resistance leader waved goodbye to her friends before she sprinted across the yard and into the meadow. A moment later, an entourage of her supporters came out of the trees edging the field. As the entire group vanished into the neighboring woods, the success of his mission disappeared and, strangely enough, relief poured through him.
Sure, he’d lost an opportunity to kill her. And yes, there would be hell to pay when he reported his failed mission. But at least he could live with himself tomorrow. That is, if Cade didn’t kill him.
“The highway is about twenty miles to the east. Drop the keys to your vehicle and start walking, Will. Rest assured if you’d been anyone else, you would be dead. Consider this a favor. You owe me one. Big time. Just remember what I said. If I ever see you near her again, I will kill you and your body will be buried somewhere on Outlaw land where no one can find it. Buried with the others who crossed us. You know very well I speak the truth.”
Blade was a smart man. He knew there were dead bodies buried on Outlaw land. Hell, he’d helped kill those men and buried some of them himself. This was the time to clear out.
He nodded and slowly unclasped the key chain he wore at his belt. He pulled his keys from his pocket and let them go. They fell with a jingle into the tall grass.
“I’ll remember that,” he said to Cade.
“You do that. Now go before I change my mind and kill you.”
The area between his shoulder blades prickled as he started off toward the east. He half-expected Cade to shoot him in the back. He certainly deserved it for getting this close to almost killing a leader who represented freedom to all women.
The same woman he’d once helped rescue from the Pleasure Palace when he’d been on assignment with Cade’s brother, Colter. A woman who hadn’t been able to keep her hands off his men after they’d taken her to a safe house. Hell, she’d been pumped so full of sex drugs, she’d been quite the hot fuck. He cursed at the memories of the heat. Of her red, tangled hair. Her cheeks flushed pink with excitement as he’d gotten out of bed and stood beside her in that bedroom. He’d enjoyed the teasing glint in her eyes as she’d cupped her breasts and practically dared him to make love to her.
He still couldn’t get the sweet echoes of their slapping flesh out of his mind as he’d entered her tight vagina in one solid plunge. Her aroused cries lingered in his mind and the awesome way he’d convulsed inside of her had shaken him right down to the tips of his toes.
After fucking her, he’d gone outside, craving cold air to chill the fierce desire of wanting to take her again. But when he’d come back into the house with the full intention of bringing her into his bed for the night and fucking her until they were both senseless, she hadn’t been in his bedroom. Hadn’t been anywhere in the house. She’d vanished.
Fuck!At the time, they hadn’t known she was a member of the Resistance, let alone the leader of an enemy of the government. But she’d been willing. Willing and wanting and orgasming all over the place with a group of men who’d been desperate for a female.
