Page 40 of Stalk (Assassin’s Kiss Duet #1)

Ren

I t’s only a ten minute drive to my place at this time of night, but those ten minutes are filled with anxiety and trepidation.

Mattia sits in the back seat with me, weapons strewn across his lap like additional appendages.

I have an assault rifle in between my legs and a smaller handgun beside me in the seat.

Cannella, not willing to leave Mattia’s side, pants happily in between us.

It’s amusing how soft Mattia can be when it comes to his little rat dog.

“What all must we grab?” Mattia asks after a period of silence.

I consider everything Cleo and I found, then realize I’m fleeing to another country without saying goodbye to my best friend, and my stomach clenches.

I have no choice, though. I’ll have to find a way to contact her once we make it to Italy.

If we make it to Italy. “The laptop, the journals, and the box of files should be all.”

“Where are they located?”

“The journals are in my bedroom. I’d also like to get her journal, which is in the drawer of my nightstand, but that’s not a huge priority. The rest is in the basement.”

Mattia nods as he pets Cannella. “We will get all that you want. Can we get everything we need in one trip?”

“Yeah. As long as we throw the journals in a bag. I have a duffel bag in my bedroom closet that should work.” My heart beats fast, like a hummingbird’s. “What if?—”

Mattia hushes me, and it makes me want to slap him a little.

Some things won’t change, whether we’ve been intimate or not, I guess.

“No ‘what-ifs,’ Ren. We cannot prepare for hypothetical situations right now. We are already unprepared. We have guns. If we come across any of Catherine’s people, we shoot.

If we are being followed, we shoot. If we are shot at, we shoot. ”

I stare at him blankly. “I am a bit out of practice using guns,” I admit. Most of my gun usage ended the second I was done training with Catherine. Since then, I’ve primarily done one shot here, one shot there.

He turns to me with a tight smile that seems forced. “They’re easy. Point. Shoot.”

Mattia would never admit it to me, but I can tell by how direct he’s being that he feels worried about this, too.

To calm my nerves, I pet Cannella and caress Mattia’s hand with my fingertips, and focus on the time we spent together before we had to spring into escape mode.

Before tonight, my total experience has been kissing and light groping in college.

I’ve always known I was gay, and luckily, I never had to hide that from my mother.

I’d tried dating men in the past, but it never worked out—maybe they weren’t the right kind of man for me—I don’t know.

Either way, I’m glad Mattia was my first. I pray I made him feel as good as he made me feel, because he made me feel alive for the first time in far too long.

It’s as though I can see color again after being drenched in dark gray and midnight black for the past several years.

Before I know it, the SUV pulls up to the side of my house.

“I will stay here,” Marco says from the front seat. “Be quick and listen out for any shots.”

“Be safe, Marco,” Mattia says. He picks up Cannella, gives her a kiss on top of her tiny head, then passes her to Marco up front. Then, he looks at me. “Ready?”

I shake my head.

“Too bad,” he says with a wink. Cocky asshole. “Let’s go.”

We get out of the car in unison. I throw the rifle across my back by its sling and keep a firm grip on the pistol in my dominant hand. Mattia, who’s obviously much more comfortable with guns than I am, has a gun strapped to each wrist, a rifle on his back, and more hidden underneath his clothes.

If we weren’t in mortal danger, I think I’d be drooling. He looks immaculate as always, but the confidence that radiates off of him as we make our way inside my home, and into a possible death trap, is really quite attractive.

I unlock the front door quietly, then step to the side so Mattia can lead the way in. It’s dark, with only a small lamp letting off light in my small foyer. Just how I left it.

“Let’s clear the downstairs before we get the journals,” Mattia instructs in a whisper.

I nod. Mattia goes right, into the formal dining room that I never use, and I go left, into the living room.

With my pistol raised and the safety off, I scope out the living room.

With each step I take, my heart pounds faster.

Thankfully, everything is in place and I don’t run into any unwanted company.

We meet up in the kitchen and find no one there, either.

“Bedroom?” Mattia asks softly.

“This way.”

Mattia follows me as we head back toward the foyer and up the stairs. Once we’re at the second floor, Mattia presses his pointer finger to his lips. We move steadily, placing one foot in front of the other as we clear each room. After we’re certain no one is up here, we move back to my bedroom.

“The journals are in a box under the bed,” I tell Mattia as I move to the closet. “There are a couple in the drawer of my nightstand, too.”

I open the closet door and retrieve my duffel bag from the shelf up top, then turn around to help Mattia.

But Mattia doesn’t have the journals. Instead, he holds one of my favorite vibrators in one hand and my giant, half-empty bottle of lube in the other hand.

My face immediately floods with fiery heat.

“Hey! Aren’t we supposed to be getting out of here as fast as we can?” I yell in a whisper.

Mattia grins like the Big Bad Wolf who just found out Little Red Riding Hood’s biggest secret. “I’m intrigued. Let’s take these, too.”

My mouth pops open. “Dirty!”

Mattia shrugs and tosses the items into the side pocket of the duffel before retrieving the journals. Together, we toss the journals inside the duffel and then I zip it up and shoulder it.

“I got the Bible too. Anything else you need from here?”

Hilarious how he took sex toys and my mother’s Bible. I’m definitely going to hell now, if there is one.

“That’s everything. Basement?”

Mattia leans in and plants a soft kiss on my lips before responding. “Sì.”

We descend as carefully as we worked our way upstairs; steadily, quietly, and cautiously.

Once we’re back in the living room, I show Mattia the other set of stairs, hidden behind a closed door next to the TV.

When we’re down in the rarely used basement, we move quickly.

I point out the box of records we need to take with us and then I retrieve my mother’s laptop from a different box.

I add the laptop inside the duffel bag and then throw the bag over my back. Mattia shoves the files into a canvas bag he found. Right as we go back up the stairs to the main floor, we hear the faint sound of a couple of silenced gunshots. We immediately freeze and lock eyes.

“Shoot now, think later,” Mattia reminds me.

He grabs the pistol from my hand and puts it in my waistband, then takes the automatic rifle from my back and places it in my hands.

Once I’m as prepared as I can be, he shoulders the canvas bag, removes the automatic from his back, and turns off the safety.

“Let’s get this over with. I’m ready to go home. Your safety off?”

It isn’t. I get the gun positioned correctly in my hands and then turn it off. “This is going to be loud, Mattia.” I swallow roughly, wondering if my neighbors have already woken up to the other shots. Or worse—if the police have been called.

“Catherine has people and we have people to deter the police, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Mattia says, reading my mind. He cracks his neck. “Back door is probably our best bet, though I assume Catherine will have people beside both entrances.”

My throat feels swollen, like I’m about to choke on the small amount of air I’m allowing into my lungs.

Mattia can tell that he’s losing me to my fears.

A small flash of annoyance crosses over his face covered in shadows, but quickly fades away and becomes gentle. He caresses my cheek with his knuckles.

“You can do this. I know you don’t like to do this. I know that you don’t like hurting people. But you must not forget that you are a capable and trained assassin, and these are the bad guys. Try your best to cover me, and I’ll do the majority of the work. Deal?”

I nod slowly. I think I can do that. If it means saving Mattia, yes. I can do that. “Deal.”

Mattia leans in and graces my lips with a swift kiss before turning around and heading to the back door. He crouches and peeks out of the patio doors, then waves me over. “Stay in the doorway until I take a few steps outside.”

With that, Mattia unlocks the door and slowly opens it until it’s wide enough for his face to peer through. He waits a moment, then carefully steps outside after we hear another gunshot from somewhere at the front of the house.

I jump when Mattia shoots off to the left, but he’s walked several feet away from me, so I know it’s time to follow him outside.

Before I do so, I use the straps of the duffel bag as a makeshift backpack.

The last thing we need is for me to drop what we came here for.

When I’m situated, I step outside and close the door behind me.

I spot Mattia rounding the side of the building, so I peer to the right side of the house just in time to spot a woman dressed in black coming for me.

Her entire body is covered, even her face, which is hidden by a black ski mask.

I know it’s Catherine’s people here—most of her employees are female, after all.

Hell, I probably know the assassin trying to kill me right now.