Page 16 of Upon Blooded Lips (Vengeance #1)

ERIC

T essa pushes her chair back and strolls over to the window, looking out over the front yard. “What about the Martinellis? Are they expecting me to show up today?”

“No,” I reply. “We took care of that.”

She spins around and cocks her head. “What haven’t you told me? How do you have the power to go up against the Mafia?”

“Are you sure you want to know?” She crosses her arms and glares at me. “Okay, okay. We’re assassins.”

Tessa snorts and rolls her eyes. “No, really. How did you stop the wedding?”

Nate raises a brow. “We convinced Rafe it would be in his and his family’s best interest to forget about you. And we paid him off.”

“Because we’re assassins,” I chime in.

“Right,” Tessa says, drawing the word out with more sarcasm than necessary.

I leap out of my chair and grab her hand, dragging her out of the kitchen and down a hallway while Nate follows behind us. Stopping outside a thick metal door, I place my hand on the biometric lock and wait for the light to turn green.

“Oh, fuck no,” Tessa says, digging her heels in. “I’ve seen this movie.” She squeals when Nate lifts her up and tosses her over his shoulder before bounding down the stairs. Her tiny fists hammer against his back, but he just laughs.

He sets her down once we reach the bottom, and she brushes the hair out of her eyes and freezes.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” she murmurs, stepping farther into the basement.

We designed it to be larger than the footprint of the house.

It stretches an extra twenty feet on all sides and contains an escape tunnel that leads out to the edge of the property.

A sense of pride stirs in me while she wanders past the shooting range, her eyes widening at the displayed paper targets showing off our skills. She veers away and heads toward the boxing ring and workout area, checking out the machinery before moving toward the weapons display.

Her fingers trace over one of the knives before she clasps her hands behind her back. She turns and spots a hay bale in the corner with a photo of Presley pinned to it. A wide grin stretches across her face.

“May I?” she asks.

“This is your house too,” Nate reminds her.

She grabs a knife off the wall and slides her finger along the razor-sharp edge. A drop of blood glimmers on the blade, and she brings it to her mouth and licks it off. The thought of her using the knife on me and lapping up my blood makes my cock stiffen, and I blow out a ragged breath.

Nate leans over and whispers, “I can read your mind, little brother.” His hand squeezes my ass. “Shall I make you bleed while splitting you open on my cock?”

“Later,” I murmur back. “Now stop touching me, or we’ll end up giving Tessa a show she isn’t ready for.”

Nate huffs but gives me my space. Tessa glances our way before turning her attention to the target. Her arm slings back, the metal blade glinting before it whistles through the air and lands in the space between Presley’s eyes.

I woop and lope across to her, scooping her into the air and twirling her around. Tessa grabs on to my T-shirt and giggles when I place an exaggerated kiss on her forehead. “Think you can do that again?” I ask, putting her down.

She scoffs. “Of course.”

“Hundred says you can’t,” Nate counters, the corner of his mouth twitching.

Tessa jogs over to the target and yanks the knife out.

There’s an exaggerated sway to her hips as she stalks back, a twinkle in her eye that reveals her competitive nature.

This time, she doesn’t bother looking at the target.

She raises a brow at Nate and throws the knife.

It lands about an inch from the original, which is incredible, considering she didn’t aim.

Nate pretends to grumble but pulls a wad of bills from his pocket and hands over a hundred-dollar bill. Tessa snatches it from his hand and grins. “There are a lot of things I can’t do, but knives aren’t one of them.”

“I stand corrected,” Nate says.

Tessa stuffs the bill in her pocket and glances around the basement again. “You weren’t kidding about the assassin thing, were you?” We shake our heads, and she squints at me. “Even you?”

Nate crosses his arms and leans his back against the wall. “Don’t let his goofiness fool you. He’s a technological savant and hacker, and absolutely deadly during a kill. He’ll laugh while peeling a man’s skin from his body.”

A shiver runs over her shoulders, making me worried we might have told her a little too much too soon. But the way she catches her breath and her pupils dilate tells a different story. Nate was right. She’s one of us.

“Okay,” she says. “I believe you. How does that work?”

I lead her back to the stairs and up to my office. Since we’re getting everything out in the open, we might as well show her everything.

Tessa soaks it all in, once again tucking her hands behind her back like she’s afraid to break something. She stops in front of the wall of security monitors, and I don’t miss the little sigh of relief she releases when she realizes there isn’t a camera in her room.

Nate and I rarely disagree, but that was an argument that ended with me on my knees and his cock down my throat.

Nate wants cameras everywhere, and I argued she deserved her privacy.

But Nate takes his role as protector seriously, so we ended up compromising on one outside her bedroom door and another in the tree across from her window.

Not that anyone could get onto the property without us knowing anyway, since there are very few blind spots in the security network I set up.

I scoop up a scanner and set it on the desk. “Place your right hand on here,” I instruct.

“What’s that for?”

“It’s so I can add you to the biometric system. That way, you can go down in the basement or into any of the vaults whenever you want.”

Tessa wipes her hand on her shorts before placing it on the scanner. Once her prints load, I add her to the system and update the locks. “That’s it?” she asks.

“Yep.” I gesture for her to sit while I pull up a travel blog.

“Clients contact us anonymously through an untraceable website Eric set up. If we accept the job, they’re free to choose the manner of death,” Nate explains.

I point the mouse at a tiny symbol in the bottom left corner and click on it. Our true website appears, and Tessa gasps. She scoots the chair closer and peers at the screen.

“If it’s anonymous, how do you know if someone’s not setting a trap?”

“We don’t,” I reply. Tessa glances over her shoulder at me, her brows lowering. “But we don’t go in blind. I do extensive checks on the victim before accepting the job and keep tabs on law enforcement. If we have any doubts, we don’t take it.”

“Worried about us, little one?” Nate asks, a wide grin spreading across his face.

Tessa spins around and raises a brow. “So what if I am? You said we’re family, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

Tessa sticks her nose in the air and huffs. “Then I’ll worry if I want to.”

She’s like a tiny David standing up to Goliath. I’ll ensure to have popcorn available for future standoffs. They should be entertaining.

I take her through the website, demonstrating how the jobs come in and the different options we provide. She listens intently and asks questions, her growing excitement buzzing off her in waves. If she decides on the revenge route, we’ll take her with us on a job to see how she reacts.

After her training, of course.

Once we’ve explained everything to her satisfaction, we lead her to the dining room for her surprise.

I bite my lip, unsure how she’ll feel about it after Mirror Girl’s warning last night.

I’ll admit, it dampened my spirits a bit.

We’ve never gotten to celebrate her birthday with her, and I might have gone a little overboard with decorations and presents.

I just wanted her to know she’s not alone, that we care for her and always have.

“Close your eyes,” I say, and she twists her lips before doing as I ask.

Nate throws the doors open, revealing the lavishly decorated room.

Fairy lights twinkle from the ceiling while bouquets of pastel flowers decorate every surface.

A three-tier cake takes center stage on the table, along with a stack of presents.

Although Mirror Girl said Tessa would prefer the silver eighteen balloons, I kept both.

“Happy birthday,” Nate and I say together, and Tessa’s eyes fly open. Her face pales, and she weaves on her feet. I grab her hands to steady her, and she holds on to me like a lifeline.

“Tessa?”