Page 25 of Mine to Keep (Bloody Desires #10)

fifteen

the others

For the fourth time, Skylar timed himself as he put his rifle together and took it apart. It’d been years since he’d been able to beat his time of three minutes. Even now, he hadn’t gotten under four and a half minutes, heightening his frustration.

And Martha’s too, it seemed.

“Give it a fucking rest,” she said, packing her bags. “That’s not going to help us kill Viper.”

Skylar was well aware of how Martha could get when she was unhappy with a kill, so he ignored her, continuing to assemble and disassemble until his hands got tired. Then he did it one more time.

When he was done, he put the weapon back in its crate.

Irritation licked up Skylar’s spine as he thought of how Viper got away from them.

He and Martha had been killing for years, but they’d never run into a mark as randomly as they did him.

He understood her surprise, but he knew they’d been made.

They tried to keep their eyes on Viper so they could complete the kill and allow the news to pick up the story for verification—since they couldn’t cut his head off in public—but their server came over and stood right in front of them.

But by the time the server left, Viper and his friends were gone.

Who were the men with him? His protégés? They’d be outnumbered, but Skylar was confident in his and Martha’s skills; they could have taken all three of them. Viper would be tricky, but they could easily kill two novices.

Viper’s reputation preceded him. He was smart, cunning and able to blend in no matter where he was. Since he hadn’t been picked up on any CCTV cameras, Skylar knew it was true.

“This job is a bust, Sky,” Martha said, her hands on her hips.

“It would send us into the fucking stratosphere if we can kill Viper, but he’s like a fucking ghost. How can anyone hide from CCTV in this fucking city?

It’s impossible. Hell, we’ve been trying to purposely avoid cameras and I saw us from a few different angles.

” She sat on the bed, rubbing her hands on her thighs.

“I don’t think we’ll get him. Let’s send the money back to The Director and tell him to send someone else. ”

Skylar scoffed but softened his expression when he looked at Martha. The skin around her eyes were tight with worry, though she tried to hide it from him. Martha never worried. Together, they’d completed kills and move on, never worried about anything but being together.

Now, though, she looked unsure.

Kneeling in front of her, he took her hand and gave her a soft smile.

“Mar, they can’t send someone else, because we’re the best. Viper isn’t better than us because he works alone.

You have my back and I have yours. We can easily eliminate him, but we have to find that fucker.

As soon as we do, we’ll end him. You believe me? ”

She searched his face, the worry bleeding from her expression. “Yeah, I do,” she said with a sigh. “But let me at him first. I hate being made a fool of, and he’s been ducking us for too long.”

“Anything you want, my love.”

With that, Martha began to unpack their bags, waiting to hear from The Void about their next move.