Page 59 of Kai (Alpha Heroes #13)
“Deal or no deal?” Cece ran out of patience.
She stretched out her arms, double-gripped her gun, and aimed at the merc.
“This is a lot of blah, blah, blah. Personally, I find this deal deplorable, but yeah, this jarhead believes in principles and shit like that. I don’t, so stop wasting my time.
If it’s no deal, I’m happy to put a bullet through your brain right now. ”
She was so damn convincing that I wanted to give her a standing ovation.
“Okay, fine, deal.” A cruel smirk twitched on the man’s thick lips. “You’re fierce, girl. You’re so hot you’ve got my blood boiling. You took me down at the lighthouse.”
“And I’ll take you down again if you so much as twitch the wrong way,” Cece retorted.
“You are, like, fucking incredible, not to mention the sexiest, most desirable woman I’ve ever met.”
“You’re drunk on your own testosterone.” Cece’s grip tightened around her gun before she glanced at me. “He’s one sick bastard.”
“Sick, disgusting, and suicidal,” I grumbled.
“I’m lovesick.” The merc grinned. “I’m smitten. Your scowl is seductive. The rage in your eyes is epic, and—”
“Jack,” I growled. “I warned you—”
“You’re wasting your time and your potential hanging out with the likes of him.” The merc knocked his head toward me, then smirked back at Cece. “Don’t be surly, my sweet-and-sour buffet. Or be surly, if you wish. I adore your temperament. You’re giving me a hard-on right now.”
Fuck the bastard . My top was about to blow. Since I operated by the book, torture was not an option, but today, for the first time ever, I considered it. One… Breathe. Two… Breathe. Three…
“You call that pathetic tiny thing a hard-on?” Cece scoffed, lowered her arms, and adjusted her aim. “I call it extra, extra small. I’m happy to use it for target practice.”
“Cece, you’re hangry,” I said, maneuvering to position her away from the pervert. “You need to go get something to eat.”
“You’re no fun,” Cece groused, but she clicked on the safety and put away her gun. “Okay, but promise me that if he doesn’t put out, you’ll let me have a go at him.”
“I promise.”
Levine’s cackles resonated in the boat. “Soldier boy, you’re so pussy-whipped that you can’t give her what she needs, what she really wants. You’re way too… lenient .”
I bit down on inner cheek so hard I drew blood, but I couldn’t kill him, at least not yet.
“Cersi, you wild thing,” the fucking creep kept at it. “You’re rare, remarkable, extraordinary. Why are you hanging out when Mr. Yes Dear when you’re craving Master Levine?”
Yep. The douchebag was gonna end up dead anytime now. I was gonna be the perpetrator.
“You don’t need Soldier Boy here.” Levine played his cards hard and fast, knowing his window was small. My patience was getting even smaller. “You ran away from home for sound reasons. Your father was a son of a bitch. Your sisters didn’t understand you. They never cared for you. Hell, no one did.”
Cece flinched. She hid her pain quickly, but the fucker had scored a hit, and it echoed in me like a punch to the gut.
You need the intel, Marine, I reminded myself . You know how to play this game.
I clenched my fists and relaxed my hand on my Glock. But it was a close thing, especially given that he kept flapping his lips.
“This man is taking you back to your father’s place.” His gaze pleaded with Cece. “He’s taking charge of you , controlling you like your father did.”
Aaaaand here it came, complete in all its pathetic glory. The psychopath’s preferred strategy. Isolate the target. Take advantage of her history. Use it against her and make her feel seen, understood, wanted, in a totally predatory way.
I took a leveling breath and worked at cooling my fury. Cece was too smart to believe Levine’s shit, thank fuck. But the merc didn’t know this, and like he’d admitted, she was his best exit strategy, especially if he could incite a coup, and take me out of the equation altogether.
In his dreams. That shit was never gonna happen.
“Cersi, honeycomb of my nightmares.” He flashed a smile. “I know who you are.”
“I doubt it,” she spat.
“You remind me of my mama.”
Cece sneered. “Was she a sadist like you?”
His eyes sparkled. “Best sadist ever.”
I learned on the spot that Levine’s disease was a product of both nature and nurture.
Death and torture were in his DNA. His mother had passed on her sadistic genes to him.
She’d probably taught him how to hurt others by inflicting pain on him, and yet, given the way he ogled Cece, I couldn’t muster an ounce of compassion for the merc.
“You need someone to help you achieve your potential.” The fucker nudged his head toward me. “That’s not Mr. Goody Two-Shoes. He’ll try to change you, force you to fit into his mold, suppress you. He’ll make you go back to your old life, the one you hated.”
I snarled. “You’re wasting your time, Jack .”
“Unlike you, I’m investing my time in a woman who’s worth every second.
” The merc had the gall to keep going. “Cersi, I can unleash you upon the world. Chateau Astor may be huge and luxurious, but it’s also a labyrinth to nowhere that serves as a hidey-hole for a bunch of self-righteous pricks that are gonna get wiped out of existence.
Why go back to living as a prisoner of a bunch of losers when I’m what you’ve always needed in your life? ”
At last, my restraint paid off. While trying to persuade Cece to his cause, he’d slipped and hadn’t even noticed.
He knew all about Astor House. Every time he opened that big mouth of his, he gave me valuable info about his twisted personality, but also about his job and his association with the NWO.
As for his efforts to lure Cece, the fucker couldn’t read the repugnance scrunching her expression.
“You? In my life?” Cece let out a mocking laugh, whirled on her heel, and stomped to the galley. “I’d rather spend my days rolling with pigs in the mud.”
“The idea of you dressed only in mud gives me the hots.” Levine schooled his voice into a silky tone. “I can make every one of your filthy fantasies come true. Think about it. You could be the Bonnie to my Clyde, the Steele to my Grey.”
Her pale blue glare flew across the room and hit her target. “I’d rather be the guillotine to your neck.”
The merc opened his filthy mouth. “Or—”
“Enough!” I’d had it with the asshole, and if we were gonna make rendezvous, we needed to get going soon. “Have you met Li?”
“You don’t meet Xao Li unless he wants to meet you.” The merc snorted. “He finds you, contacts you with orders. You carry them out and get paid. Or you get painted by a fucking missile.”
I looked at Cece for confirmation. From her place on the other side of the galley island, she nodded. Not only was she amazing. She’d found the perfect use for her gift.
Across the cabin, we locked eyes. I dared to hope that just as I accepted her gift, she would accept mine: that I saw her —the whole of her. And that I trusted her and her gift.