“Whose murder?” Kai asks, a dopey smile on his face.
Sphinx laughs, and I try not to notice the way it sounds. All deep and smoky. “Yours, you asshole.”
“What?” Kai is outraged, but I don’t see why. I’ve never liked the guy, and he should know that by now.
I pull the Jeep to a stop and turn to face the trainee hitman. “Sphinx is wrong.”
“Ha!” Kai barks triumphantly.
“I’m planning to murder both of you.”
“The fuck?” Sphinx says, but I’m ignoring him. My attention is on the sandy blonde, stage five clinger next to me.
“The pair of you are driving me up the wall, and so help me God, I will put a bullet in either one of you if you don’t follow my orders.”
Kai goes to interrupt, but I pull my gun out and aim it at him, the weight of it a comfort in my hand.
“That’s hot,” Sphinx murmurs, and fuck me, I want to shoot the guy.
No, I am. I’m going to shoot him.
“I’m being serious, Kai. This isn’t a chance for you to prove your undying love to Echo. It’s an extraction. Pure and simple. We go in, grab her, and leave. Nobody dies. Do you understand?”
He nods, slow and steady.
I cock the gun. “Need your words, buddy.”
“Yes. I understand,” he bites out.
I don’t care if he’s pissed; I’m not here to give him some chance to win Echo’s heart. This isn’t the time for that, however much he’s pining over it.
I turn to Sphinx, my gun aimed at his chest. “And you—”
“Pikachu!” He blurts, arms held aloft in surrender.
I blink at him. “What?”
“It’s my safe word,” he says with a nonchalant shrug. “Just in case you need my words too.”
I blink again. His words taking far too long to process, and when they finally do, I flinch backward. “Fucking jackass.”
He howls with laughter; Kai joins in, and I have to get out of the Jeep before I start causing bodily harm.
Fucking grade A, no good for nothing, son of a bitch!
I slam the door behind me, the action barely giving me any satisfaction. I knew I should have left them behind, that I should have just chanced it on my own, but I also knew, deep down, that Sphinx had been right. I needed the help. I had no idea what I was about to walk into, and heaven help the world if I found out that any harm had come to Echo.
Rory’s orders of leaving the Volkovs alive would mean jack shit because I’d tear them apart piece by fucking piece.
I need to get my shit together. I run a hand down my face and stare up at the sky. The soft morning glow soothes my frayed edges, and I take a few deep, calming breaths to try and get control over my anger. I feel fraught and incomplete without Echo next to me, and it’s making my temper shorter. Not that Sphinx or Kai seem to care. I think they have a bet going on who can make me kill the other one first.
It would be Kai, by the way. I really don’t like him. There aren’t many people I don’t like, but that guy just rubs me the wrongfucking way. Probably because he keeps trying to make Echo fall in love with him when she’s clearly moved on. Or the way he swans around thinking he’s better than others because he’s next in line to be the Quinns’ ‘Number Two’.
Part of me thinks that’s the only reason he’s so obsessed with Echo. She fits his picture-perfect life. He’ll serve the twins and be married to their sister, and they’ll all be one big, happy family. There’s only one problem with that. Echo won’t do anything for the Family, and if he loved her at all, he’d know that.
Maybe I can make it look like Kai took a stray bullet on this little excursion…
“Stop looking at him like you’re planning his funeral,” Sphinx says as he steps up behind me, a smug little grin on his face.
