Page 73 of Scarlet Mark

“You’ve met before?”

She shrugged, walking alongside me as I escorted her toward the exit. “In passing.”

Shit.“Did he recognize you?”

“If he did, he kept the detail to himself.”

I noted the information as something to research later. Amara couldn’t be tied to this event at all, especially after what we planned to do. If that meant I needed to silence the old congressman—kind or not—I would. Keeping her record clean mattered first and foremost.

My phone buzzed as we exited the ballroom. Seeing Raven’s name on the ID had me answering it. “Yes?”

“Stop sending me money.”

I smirked. “You’re welcome, darling.”

“Dick.” Typing sounded in the background. “I’m donating it to an organization in Atlanta that helps trafficking victims.”

“Good.” I gestured down a hallway to our left with my chin, my hands otherwise preoccupied between holding the phone and touching Amara’s back. She turned without a word, her expression grim. “Did you call for my approval? Because you know it’s granted.”

“As if anything I do requires your approval,” she retorted, causing me to grin.

“Then why are you calling?” I prompted. She knew my plans with Amara for the evening, which meant she’d phoned me for more than just a complaint about the money.

“You know that thing you had me researching in Boston?”

“I do, yes.” She meant the auction circuit Clarissa and Geoff Rose ran.

“I just got a hit on something happening next weekend.”

“Send me the details.”

“I will, but, K, you need to be careful. These people are bad news, dude.”

My lips twitched, amused. Her concern was quite touching. “Don’t worry, little bird. I can handle myself.”

She snorted. “Yeah, yeah. Sending details now. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

The line went dead, causing me to chuckle as I returned the phone to my pocket.

“Little bird?” Amara repeated, a frown in her voice.

“A play on her code name.” One Raven hated. I glanced up and down the empty corridor Hampton had described, searching for cameras and finding none. Never a good sign in a home this large. It meant the owner didn’t want security guarding it. “Have you been here before?”

Amara nodded, her bottom lip catching between her teeth. She turned at the end of the hallway, following the path Hampton had described without my having to relay the details to her.

She knew where we were going.

Another nod, her arm stiffening through mine.

For whatever reason, her confirmation of having walked these halls before infuriated me more, my blood warming with the need to punish. To maim. To kill. At some point in the last two weeks, Amara had become mine. And these jackasses had hurt her. More than once.

That, of course, meant her need for vengeance trumped mine, but for the first time in my life, I wanted to assassinate someone out of pureneed.

All the others were just jobs. Names on a roster tied to some bad deed or another. I took them out because Arthur requested it.

Franklin and Hampton would die because Iwantedit.

Amara would deliver the final blow, but I’d guide her. And together we would bathe in their blood.