The Mercenary: Skewed Part 17

X.

I woke the next morning to find Vee asleep in the single bed beside mine. I was relieved she was still there and hadn't run back to her own room in the middle of the night. Like me, she hadn't felt safe enough to sleep naked, always aware that we might need to spring into action at any second. Of course, I had my own reasons for wanting to stay dressed, but she didn't know about that.

Moving quietly, I left the room and went to find us something to eat and drink. The motel had an ancient vending machine, but I figured I'd keep walking. There looked to be another building further down the road, which I took to be a small store. I could get better coffee and some breakfast sandwiches from there to take back to Vee. I figured she would be hungry after last night.

The memory brought a smile to my lips, and I quickly snapped the expression from my face. Smiling wasn't something I did, unless it was in a sarcastic or cold kind of way. And yet this woman made me want to smile. This woman I had been paid to kill.

I'd only received half of the money. The rest I would have been paid upon completion of the job, which would have been proven by a photograph of her dead body. Part of me thought I should give the money back, but I didn't want it being in the hands of her father. Maybe I should give it to Vee-though I doubted she would want it either, as she wouldn't want to take money from me, and she especially wouldn't want it if she knew where it had come from.

I bought us both coffee and hot sandwiches, and headed back to the room. If Vee was awake, she'd be itching to get moving, and I didn't want to be the one to hold her back.

I propped the takeout cups of coffee one on top of the other. Securing the lid of the top cup beneath my chin, I pushed open the door.

Vee was standing in the middle of the room and she spun to face me, her dark eyes wild. "Where the h.e.l.l have you been?"

I lifted the cups as a response, and then the brown paper bag containing the sandwiches. "I thought you would appreciate breakfast."

The tension left her body and she dropped down to sit on the edge of one of the beds, her head in her hands. I dumped the food and drinks and went to crouch in front of her, my hands on her shoulders.

"What's wrong? What's happened?"

Beneath my fingers, her slender shoulders trembled. She said something, but it was too quiet to catch.

"Say that again?" I said, softly.

She lifted her eyes to mine. They were red, but dry. "I thought you had gone. I thought I was going to have to do this on my own."

I shook my head. "No, I hadn't. I wouldn't."

I pulled her into me, wrapping my arms around her frame and placing a kiss on the top of her head, lingering with my nose and mouth in her hair.

She sniffed and withdrew slightly so she was able to look into my face. "Why does facing my father in a secure prison scare me more than facing a whole car of armed gangsters?"

"Because he has more emotional control over you than any of those men. Because of the horrific thing he made you do. Because perhaps a tiny part of you still cares."

"No." She shook her head briskly. "I hate him. I hate him more than anyone else in the world."

"You know what they say about love and hate?"

Vee removed herself from my arms and wiped non-existent tears from her dry eyes. She straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin, as though suddenly aware of her outburst of emotion, and was now pulling the shutters back down.

She got to her feet and crossed the room to where I'd left the coffee. "Thanks for this. I need it to feel more human again." She gave a small laugh. "If I ever do feel human."

I risked a smile in return. "I know that feeling."

Taking a sip from the coffee, she asked, "How long is it going to take us to drive to New York?"

"Six hours or so, depending on if we run into any traffic."

She nodded. "I guess we'd better get a move on, then."

"Has Tony contacted you yet?"

She checked the cell phone and shook her head. "No."

"He will. He won't give up on what he wants that easily."

"I just hope he doesn't hurt Nickie in the meantime."

"He won't," I said, though I wasn't so sure. I hoped he didn't decide to do something to her sister in order to persuade Vee to take up his offer.

Within ten minutes, we were back in the car and on the road again. I drove, while Vee sat, looking out of the pa.s.senger window, deep in thought, her knuckles pressed to her mouth.

The hours and miles pa.s.sed us by without event.

Finally, the cell phone buzzed again, and she s.n.a.t.c.hed it up and answered before putting it on speaker so I could hear. Her gaze flicked wildly to me, her skin drained of color. I pulled over so I would be able to concentrate on what was being said.

"Tony," she said, before he could get a word in, "tell me my sister is safe."

"She's safe," the man's voice came over the phone. "No thanks to you and your friend."

"I made a mistake," she continued, not looking at me now. "I've changed my mind. I'll take your deal."

"It's too late for that. I have your sister and she'll have to do."

"No, please-"

"I'm giving you a warning," he said, cutting her off. "Come anywhere near me and my guys again and you're dead meat."

She shook her head, frantic, even though he couldn't see her. "I'll do anything you want, I swear. I just want to be with my sister."

"You had your opportunity. You should have taken it."

"Please, one more chance. That's all I ask."

"No, she's mine now."

And the line went dead.

I gave her a moment to allow her time to lash out, if she was going to. When she didn't-only sat, staring at the now dead phone with dull fear in her eyes-I reached out and took her hand.

"Nothing has changed," I told her. "We still continue to do what we'd planned."

She pressed her lips together and nodded. "I guess a part of me still hoped Tony might have agreed to meet again, and I wouldn't need to go and pay a visit to my father. This all just makes it even more real, that I'm going to have to see him. And I'm terrified for Nicole. I'm not sure she's going to make it out of Tony's clutches. I just wish I'd accepted his offer now. I should have gone with him instead of trying to fight."

"If you'd done that, you'd both be under Tony's thumb."

"I'd rather that than Nickie be on her own." She shook her head again. "What have I done?"

"You've done what's right," I said, filling my voice with conviction. "You can't let this son-of-a-b.i.t.c.h win."

"I feel like he's already won."

"No, you're wrong. He's only won if you give up."

We sat together, my thumb brus.h.i.+ng over the top of her hand as she stared down at her lap, contemplating what to do. I was relieved she hadn't pulled away from me. I thought she might shut down on me again after last night, but the tiny glimpse into her emotional state this morning had given me hope that she might actually need me. Being needed wasn't something I'd ever experienced before. Physically wanted, yes, but never needed. I'd never allowed myself to get close enough to a woman for her to create any kind of emotional dependence. I wasn't sure if it warmed my cold heart or scared the h.e.l.l out of me.

"Okay," she said eventually. "So the next step is going to see my father and asking him for his help."

I nodded. "I think it's our only option."

She looked up at me. "Getting to see him isn't going to be easy. I might not even be on his visitors list. He knows I plan to testify against him, remember."

"But he didn't know you were going to when he was first locked up. You said he hugged you, and told you he trusted you again after you ... did what you did. If he put you on his visitors list initially, he might not have bothered to take you off again. Do you have any identification in your old name?"

She nodded. "Yes, I grabbed our birth certificates and my old driver's license before we left. I'm not supposed to have them, but ..." She gave a shrug as if it was an explanation. "I'm still going to have to fill out a form and get approved before I can visit."

My lips twisted, and I slowly nodded. "I think I have a contact who can help with that. Don't worry. There's always a way to get around things if you need to."

Reluctantly, I released her hand and started up the car again. We still had several hours before we reached New York, and I tried not to think too hard about what would be waiting for us when we got there.

Chapter Twenty-five.

V.

After a number of hours on the road, we finally reached New York. We drove through the city, my heart lodged like a chunk of ice in the base of my throat.

I kept my head down, not wanting to see anyone, or for anyone to see me. I couldn't imagine what people would have been gossiping about us. As far as they knew, my sister and I had just vanished one day. Did they think we'd been killed and dumped somewhere, or that we'd simply run away? Or did people wonder if we'd been moved into Witness Protection, and perhaps suspected I was a rat? The idea made my cheeks burn with shame. It was the one thing you were taught growing up in the society I had-rats were the sc.u.m of the earth.

I'd only been away a matter of months, but everything felt different, as though I'd never lived here at all, and I was now trespa.s.sing. Even the accent sounded harsh upon my ears. I'd done my best to speak without my Brooklyn accent since we'd been put into WITSEC, knowing people would immediately be able to place where we'd come from. Instead, I tried to smooth the accent so I was able to say we were from New York State, rather than the city.

X's cell phone rang and he answered it, listening without needing to speak. He hung up again.

"Okay, we can pick up your visitor's form. Looks like we got lucky and your name was still on the approved visitors list. Your father must have added it before he found out you were testifying, and just never bothered to take it off again. I guess he figured you weren't going to want to see him any time soon."

"I guess he was wrong. So when is my visiting order for?"

"Eleven tomorrow morning."

My heart sank. "Tomorrow morning? I can't wait that long. What about Nickie?"

"There's nothing more we can do, Vee. Unless we hear something different from Tony the Hound, we've got nothing to go on. We know he's somewhere here in New York, but if we go around asking questions of the wrong people, we're both going to end up dead."

"But you know people. You have contacts."

"Not to ask those kinds of questions. I'm a hired killer, Vee. If I start asking where I can find Tony, people are going to think I've been paid to take him out. Nothing will get us killed quicker."

My frustration mounted. It had already been too long since Tony had taken my sister, and I tortured myself with how frightened she must be, and all the terrible things they might have done to her. I would happily have taken risks if it meant getting Nicole back sooner, but I knew X was right. I wouldn't be any good to her if I ended up dead.

Plus, we needed to keep our heads down. If someone recognized me, I didn't doubt that word would get back to either my father or Tony. I wanted the element of surprise when it came to approaching my father, and I didn't want Tony to find me before I found him. I thought if that happened, I was as good as dead.

With no other options, we got ourselves another motel room. We didn't even bother trying to get separate rooms this time, the question hanging unasked between us in a silent agreement. I thought both of us knew there was little point. Perhaps I was using him, using the s.e.x as a distraction from worrying about my sister, and also from worrying about the meeting with my father the next day, but I didn't care.

As soon as we stepped into the room, X pulled me toward him and kissed me as though he'd spent the whole day trying to hold himself back from doing so. I didn't know. Maybe he had, and I certainly wasn't complaining. His kiss was forceful and hungry, owning my mouth. I felt myself involuntarily melting against him, my body turning to liquid at his touch. He was all solid muscle and hard lines, and it made me feel soft and feminine in comparison, the total opposite, yet working so well together. His hands slid up under the back of my t-s.h.i.+rt, his big palms spanning the small of my back, before sliding up over my ribs. His touch tickled slightly, making me smile against his mouth, and then his hand navigated between us to cup my breast. His thumb grazed over my nipple, causing it to pucker and peak, and I pressed myself harder against him again, moaning into his mouth. He squeezed the mound of my t.i.t over the top of my bra and then slipped his hand inside the cup to roll and pinch my nipple between his thumb and forefinger. My insides turned to liquid, and that now growingly familiar feeling of tingling pressure flooded down through my lower belly to settle with a pleasurable throb between my thighs.

I didn't want the clothing between us. Both times we'd f.u.c.ked, he'd been fully dressed. I longed to have him naked, to run my palms across every inch of his hard body.

I pulled his s.h.i.+rt out of his pants and slid my hands up under it, the heat of his skin against my palms. Smooth skin, but then ridges and b.u.mps and swirls. I hesitated. Tattoos, perhaps, though I hadn't seen any on him so far.

Continuing to kiss him, I removed my hands from beneath his s.h.i.+rt and started on the b.u.t.tons at his throat instead. I only managed to undo three before his hand closed over my wrists.

"No, Vee, don't." His voice was a growl.

I blinked in surprise. "What?"

"Don't undo my s.h.i.+rt."

"Why not?"

"Because I've asked you not to."

I knew nothing about him. I'd told him some of my deepest, darkest moments, and yet everything about who he was remained a secret to me. I didn't even know his real name. And now here was another secret, standing right in front of me, hidden beneath a swath of fabric, and I knew it had something to do with the blemishes I'd felt when I'd slipped my hands over his skin the previous night.

"X," I started, "it's all right. I want to know."

I sensed him retreating from me, so I wrapped my arms around the back of his neck and pulled him in for another kiss. His body was tense, but a flick of my tongue across his lower lip, followed by a nibble, and he quickly melted into me again. I reached down to the front of his pants and cupped the hard length I found there.

"Ah, f.u.c.k, Vee," he groaned as I stroked him firmly.

I undid the zipper and slipped my hand inside to find him gloriously hot and hard in my palm.