Page 55 of Blood in the Water

It didn’t escape me that she changed the subject. I let it slide for now.

“Some of them,” I responded. Ciel still hadn’t gotten back to me, and it had been almost eight hours by now. That was unlike him, especially since healwayshad his phone on him. He was the best hacker in the world. Responding to his messages almost instantly was part of the fabric of his being.

“And?”

I wiped my hands on the towel and turned to face her. “We’ll take your contract if we can agree on the fee.”

She rubbed her eyes, shoulders slumping. “I’ll get the money. But what if it’s just you? Can you help me?”

I had spent years learning how to control my body’s involuntary responses, but I couldn’t stop the slight intake of breath as I took in her words. She wanted me to help her.Me. Why did that make me feel so good?

I stepped slightly forward, aware of how she didn’t flinch an inch. People rarely did that, like they could sense that I killed for a living and wanted to keep a large berth. Leona didn’t seem to care. It made me want her even more.

I shook my head in response to her question. “We accept contracts as an organization. If it were just me, I would.”

“Damn,” she whispered, one hand moving to brace herself on the counter. Without thinking, I placed my hand over hers. Her hand feltwarm. I stepped a little closer. “So what? We wait?”

“For now, yes.” Once I had spoken with Ciel, I’d contact Ryuji again. He was stubborn, but if he would meet her in person—if they all would—I knew they’d have no problem taking this on. And I believed her when she said she’d get the money.

It wasn’t just my attraction to her that had me convinced. The other parts of my day that hadn’t been filled with a few hours of sleep I’d spent researching Volpe. I’d heard through multiple channels that he’d been making significant, strategic moves to expand the criminal direction of the Vero Family. However, the information coming out of New York was beingtightly controlled at the behest of the Five Families. With all of the Italian mafia cracking down on information, I didn’t have anything concrete about what he was up to but paired with Leona’s discovery that the victims of last night’s trafficking had come from her father’s territory, I could make an educated guess what direction Volpe was moving toward.

I’d need Ciel to do some digging to confirm, but it seemed that Volpe, with the permission of the Italians, was branching into sex trafficking.

That did not sit well with the Shadows.

Leona smiled tightly. “I’ll try to be patient.”

“Are you good at being patient?” My eyes latched onto the slight bob of her throat. I wanted my lips on that neck. I wanted her hands wrapped around me.

“No,” she laughed. “I’m used to being spoiled. I’m used to getting what I want.”

Shit, if I didn’t want to spoil her right now. Get whatIwanted. A sudden image of her splayed out on the counter before me with my body nestled between her thighs and her hands tangled in my hair had my entire body tingling with arousal.

“Can I ask you a question?” she asked hesitantly with a slight tilt of her head.

“Yes.”

“Why were you at that warehouse?” She looked at my hand, still covering hers. “Why was one of the best assassins in the world staking out what looked to be a relatively small trafficking ring?”

“Are you asking why I didn’t have bigger fish to fry? Was it a contract we took on or something else?”

She nodded. I gently pulled my hand from hers.

“It wasn’t a contract. Trafficking is… personal to me,” I started. I cleared my throat and clenched my hands into fists, trying to stave off the uncomfortable memories. I’d madepeace with what happened, but that didn’t mean I enjoyed the reminder. “My sister and I… when we were kids, we were sold into the trade. With both of our looks, we were… popular. My sister especially. She is exceedingly beautiful.”

She covered her mouth in surprise. “Wynn, I’m so sorry. You don’t have to talk about it if it’s uncomfortable.”

“It’s fine.” It was only okay now because of what I did to free us. “I’ve moved past what happened, and so has she. She has a place in the Irish. She’s taken care of. She makes a difference. We’re both alive, and that’s all that matters to me.”

“How did you get out?” she asked, voice small. I didn’t miss how she leaned forward, closer to me. It warmed me.

“After six months, I couldn’t stand it anymore.” I frowned as the pain began to resurface. “I couldn’t watch them hurt her anymore. Hurt us both. One day, they left a kitchen knife on the counter of the house they’d had us locked in. I stole it. I waited until only one of them watched us and jumped him. He didn’t even have a second to fight back before he had a knife in his throat, and he was choking on his own blood.”

She grabbed my hand back and ran her thumb over it. The pain eased. “Wynn, I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”

I nodded as I watched the way her fingers moved on my hand. Yes, it was challenging to vocalize in general, but why did I feel so okay with telling her about my past? The only living people in the world who knew what happened to me were my sister and my brothers in the Shadows.

“What happened then? You escaped?”