Page 29 of Wraith (Deviant Assassin #1)

Blade

I enter Kiera’s room quietly, the scent of jasmine lingering in the air. The aroma’s floral and sweet, but I don’t appreciate the cloying air. It’s too soft for my mood. Nothing matters but finding information on who the fuck Wraith is.

So I can murder the bastard.

I methodically search through her things, making sure I’m not leaving a trace of my presence.

Her bed, untouched, the sheets barely creased.

The nightstand, like the bed, is neat, a big change from the whirlwind of chaos I remember following Kiera.

As I rifle through the dresser, my fingers close around a photo album hidden beneath folded scarves.

The front looks like she cut letters out of magazine pages, reminiscent of old school ransom notes.

The title reads: Wraith’s Proof, Bitch!

What in all that’s holy…?

I flip it open, and my breath catches in my throat as I turn the pages.

I can’t believe what the book contains. The first picture is of me on our wedding day, leaning against a wall, my ankles crossed and wearing the worn-out raggedy suit from Goodwill.

She crossed out my eyes and positioned a knife sticker at my heart.

Another sticker of two hands is at my throat and she drew drops of blood dripping off the picture.

What in the absolute hell did I do to her to make her fantasize about my death?

Kiera placed pictures in neat rows covering multiple pages of herself. The first few pages show a young Kiera, sporting a huge smile.

She’s been doing this at least since I left.

The book is thick as fuck. In each picture she’s coupled with—I do a double take, then rub my eyes to make sure I’m not hallucinating.

Each one has her cozied up to a legit dead body.

My jaw drops when I turn a page and find a photo featuring Kiera and a fucking nun , an enormous dildo stretching the older woman’s mouth wide.

I’m even more perplexed that I recognize the corpse.

Despite the costume indicating her devotion to God, the woman choking to death on a fake cock is—was—an Umber general.

Meaning this is evidence of an unsanctioned kill very clearly made by fucking Kiera!

As I turn the pages slowly, digesting the macabre imagery, something dawns on me way too slowly.

Unsanctioned. Which means Umber wants her dead.

Which means... fuck. The assignment. "Kill Wraith.

" They sent me to execute my own wife. My hands shake as the full scope of the trap becomes clear - I'm supposed to be her executioner.

Anger flares in my chest, hot and choking.

My hands shake as I make my way through each page, each murder, each fucked up picture of the woman—who stole my heart when she was a teen—as she smiles like a fucking maniac.

Pretending she’s taking normal pictures with her best friends doing normal things.

The timid, abused teenager I left to protect.

Look what she became. Every photo is proof of my failure - another life she had to take because I wasn't there to shield her from this world.

Bile rises in my throat, burning as I swallow it down. The things her stepdad did to her were sick enough, but it must have escalated to unimaginable heights. This woman is… she’s… well, she’s…

Fuck! Me!

Is this why she hates me? Was she forced into an even more pitiful life by Donna and Rick? Are these the horrifying choices she made to survive the nightmare of her parents? They shouldn’t have been allowed to further corrupt Kiera.

But they did. Or she wouldn’t have this… proof! I’m holding the proof that will get her fucking ass killed.

Clearly, Kiera wasn’t trained on even the basics of evidence destruction.

I huff out a breath, shock and horror sending my mind on a tilt-a-whirl.

I should’ve stopped this. Protected her.

Eight years. Eight fucking years I've been playing the dutiful assassin, telling myself it was all for her—to build us a safe life.

And she's been out here becoming everything I was trying to protect her from.

The debt, the kills, the danger—it's all connected to me leaving.

I created this. I turned the woman I love into the target I'm supposed to eliminate.

Fucking Zephyr promised me he would take care of her monstrous parents.

It was a deal we made: I leave immediately, and he makes all of Kiera’s problems go away.

But he obviously didn’t. Only her parents could have driven her to this level of desperation and depravity.

I slam the album shut, cursing under my breath.

My Kiera’s done dark and twisted things.

Made choices my wife should never have had to contemplate.

Red tinges my vision as I shove the album back in place.

I draw a breath that feels like glass in my lungs as I reposition the scarves exactly as they were.

I freeze when a conversation in the hallway breaks the silence.

Footfalls join the voices drawing near, leaving me mere seconds to make my escape.

I dart toward the balcony, slide the glass door open, and step outside.

The night air is cool against my heated face, but my pulse hammers, adrenaline surging.

My knuckles turn white on the handle of the open door as Kiera’s voice rings out, capturing me in her spell.

A shot of lust breaks through the numbness of my disbelief, my thoughts scattering as my dick responds to the closeness of my wife.

“Really, Kiera?” Fi’s loud, teasing voice follows me onto the balcony.

I curse silently as my opportunity to close the door vanishes.

“Boo, come here, baby,” Kiera calls softly, and unable to resist her pull, I peek through the door crack. Boo, that damn attack ferret, scurries into the room, wriggling through Fi’s legs as Kiera scoops him up. She holds him like he’s a little prince, cradling him to her chest.

“You spoil Maleficent Monroe too much.” Fi crosses his arms, clearly not a fan.

“You just don’t understand each other. Boo’s adorable,” Kiera retorts, scratching the furry rodent’s head with affection. Her smile falters as she flops onto the bed, running a hand through her hair.

“So, how was the latest phone sexcapade?” Fi asks, sitting next to her. Every muscle in my body locks up at his casual question.

She groans, and something in the complex indiscriminate sound sets my teeth on edge, but I still can’t back away.

“Don’t ask.”

“Come on, bitch, spill.”

“He left me hanging, again .” She grumbles.

“The rich bitch who bought a date with him at the auction joined in. He was on the phone with me, and she didn’t even care he had his back to her.

She still got herself off on Wilder’s instructions, as if he was talking to her.

I realized what was happening right before I could finish. I’m so over this bullshit.”

Getting her off is my job..

“Wild? You mean the FBI agent, Wilder?” Fi’s amused, but I’m not.

She shouldn’t be talking about him at all.

“Yeah, Wild,” she smirks and draws out his name as if it tastes good.

I clench my fists. Of course. He’s in her head, just like I feared.

FBI… Wilder… Is he connected to Esther Wilder? Esther’s a smart woman and I know she has more secrets than a spy in a confessional. I may have just found one out.

Felix lets out an ear-piercing guffaw and falls onto the bed next to Kiera.

His high-pitched laughter—not unlike the honking of a goose—spills out onto the balcony, taking me back to the days when the three of us hung out in the old neighborhood.

The bed shakes with his mirth, and a pit forms in my gut, remembering how he always found a way to be happy.

How we spent so much time together—laughing, plotting, and causing mayhem.

“Phone sex should be a lot more fun than doing the job on my own. But so far, not so much.”

“What? Why do you sound depressed?” Keira doesn’t respond, and he props himself up on an elbow to watch her more closely. “Do you really like this guy? I haven’t seen that look since?—”

Fi’s face twists with mock horror, and Kiera flushes bright enough to be seen even at a distance.

“Never mind,” she mumbles.

Jealously knots my gut, and yet my lips curve up.

So, the asshole agent can’t satisfy you, huh?

Fi leans back, crossing his arms with a knowing grin. “Okay, fine. But, honestly, how’s it going with Mr. Law and Order?”

Kiera sighs, and turns to look at Felix, her shoulders lifting as she curls in on herself.

“It’s not. Well, more like it gets going, but we never arrive. Something always interrupts us, a noise in the house, a car blowing up, another woman. It’s always the most random annoying shit.”

Won’t be the last thing that blows up here.

“But you got off with Blade, right? Because the real thing is better than just words.” He waggles his eyebrows. “Don’t deny it; he’s hot as fuck! Now that he’s back, you shouldn’t let that man get away, K.”

“How can you suggest that after what he did to me? Rude!” She sits up to look him in the eye.

“Now he’s stormed in, like he owns the place, told me he blew up Wild’s car, as if it was nothing.

Then he blew up my world all over again.

” Her voice rises, and she takes a deep breath.

I blew up her world? What the— “How the hell does he think he can just abandon me and then waltz back in blowing shit up? Especially the car of the FBI agent who thinks he’s Wraith. ”

He's hunting my wife. And I'm supposed to kill her before he can arrest her. We're both after the same woman from different sides of the law.