Page 33 of Reckless

“Don’t sound so surprised. You think a woman can’t do what you do, Mr. Hitman?”

She shoved herself off me, using my chest to help. It made my ribs ache since they were still unhealed from Carmine’s ‘lesson’. I coughed. “No, I just… I didn’t have any leads at all.”

Her eyebrow raised, the one with the piercing, as she looked down at me.

“And what about my sister?”

I nodded, feeling a wave of dizziness hit me as I moved my head. When was the last time I’d eaten anything? “Carmine and Simon were talking about it. They mentioned a compound.”

Her eyes flash with recognition. “Do you know what they were talking about?”

“Oh yeah. I do.” She spun around on her heel and then let out a tortured sounding scream. “Fuck!” Her knives went flying then. A steady thwack, thwack, thwack, slicing through the air and missing my head by mere millimeters. Had I flinched, I would have gotten stabbed.

“So, you didn’t know about the compound until recently? How convenient.” She sounded like she didn’t believe me, but I’d only just heard about it for the first time.

“I didn’t. They don’t tell me their plans. Just how to execute their enemies.”

She stared at me, trying to decide if I was telling the truth or not. I knew I’d given her no reason to trust me. I‘d lied. I worked for the worst people imaginable. And on top of all that, I was apparently assigned to kill her. I’d be lucky if she let me walk out of here alive.

“Let me help you,” I said, watching her pace back and forth.

“You want to help me? With what? Getting my sister back? How do I know you won’t go running right back to your boss?”

“Because I hate him as much as you do. And I want out. I have for a long time. Let me help get your sister and the others they’re keeping there too. You can keep hating me if that helps?”

She smiled. “I was going to keep hating you regardless.”

“That’s fair.”

Stella let out a humorless laugh. “Nothing about this is fucking fair. Our lives have been altered irrevocably by the whims of a madman with too much fucking power and no one that will stand up and stop him. But at the end of the day, he’s just a man. And all that money and power can’t stop him from being just as vulnerable as the next guy. All men bleed. And all men die. And Carmine Underwood has an overdue appointment with the fucking reaper.”

Chapter Fifteen

STELLA

Gemini

A new adventure awaits. Embrace it with open arms and see where life takes you.

On the flash drive, Marco had found a series of numbers that when written out gave coordinates to a blurred-out location on the map. Why a huge area in the middle of the desert needed to be hidden from the public was a question I was willing to find out the answer to. And I was betting it was for one reason only—to hide the compound from prying eyes.

The possibility of getting Andi back meant I would have to go there. And if Callahan was to be believed, the Underwoods were watching my every move thanks to my unfortunate association with his lying ass. Though, what he said about why he did it made sense, I was still pissed as hell about it. The only reason I was even considering letting him help me was because I thought his inside information and connections could be useful. But if he so much as blinked the wrong way at me, I wouldn’t hesitate to end him.

We agreed to leave in the middle of the night, together in an unmarked car. I’d loaded up on supplies from Janus, and thankfully they didn’t ask any questions as to why I needed so many weapons. Marcus promised to keep shuffling through the flash drive, in case there was anything else on there that we could use. So far, he’d found a few passwords that might come in handy. I’d written them down on a piece of paper that I folded and kept in my pants pocket just in case.

“You ready?” Callahan asked, looking way too fucking sexy in his leather jacket and tight jeans. I should have stabbed him when I had the chance.

“Yep,” I said curtly. We might have come to a truce, but I was going to be sassy about it for as long as I felt like it.

We got in the sleek black car, and peeled away, leaving the city in the review mirror. I was sitting in the front passenger seat, fiddling with the radio, when I noticed something skittering next to my elbow.

“You brought your tarantula?” I shrieked seeing the travel sized cage he set between us in the center console.

“She has a name, and yes. I brought, Stevie. I didn’t know how long we would be gone for.”

“But we’re going to the desert. What are you going to do with her? Leave her in the car? It’ll get too hot in here.”

“I brought a fan. And tarantulas are from the desert. She’ll be fine.” But then he frowned. “I think.”