AllFreeNovel
Share Us
26
Standing naked after stripping out of my bloody clothes, I dial Reese.
“How did you like my gift?” she asks.
“Best present ever, but I need a favor.”
“Shoot.”
“I need a clean-up crew.”
“How many?”
“One for now, but be prepared for more,” I warn.
“I’ll head down with them and provide backup if you need it. How messy is it? Gotta see what teams are available.”
“Well, I used the wet room, which is awesome by the way, so that should help, but you didn’t leave any weapons, so I had to improvise.”
She pauses for a moment before asking with a sigh. “What did you do?”
“Did you know that you can, in fact, pull someone’s eye out with a corkscrew? It takes a little elbow grease, and I had to use my knife to cut through the optic nerve and shit, but totally doable.”
“And that’s what I get for asking. Anything else?”
“Just the usual. A little stabbing, a little slicing. The making him drink bleach thing was new, though. Not sure I’m a fan, but I can cross it off my bucket list.”
“Do me a favor, Dulce, and never share your bucket list with anyone else. Unless that person is a serial killer,” she mutters as I hear her opening and closing a door.
“Okay, I’ll sort things out on my end and let you know when we are heading in. Leave everything you want cleaned behind and lock up using the code I gave you. You learn anything that can’t wait for your report?”
“Those pins I sent you. If a girl is wearing one, it means she’s been sold.”
I let that hang between us for a minute before she curses up a storm.
“I’m on it.”
“Thanks, Reese. Love you.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know.”
She hangs up, and I sigh, dipping my head.
Why I didn’t tell her about Cain and Dmitri, I don’t know. That’s a lie. I need a little longer to fortify my heart before my girls start asking questions. Right now, I feel too brittle and raw.
My cell rings. I flip it over and frown when I see Griff’s name pop up. “Everything alright?”
“Sorry, I know you said you’d call when you were done, but I have the visiting orders here to see my father. We have time to make it there today. Otherwise, it will have to be next week.”
“No, that’s perfect, actually. I’m done here. Come pick me up in ten?”
“You got it.” He’s quiet for a minute. I check the phone to make sure the call hasn’t dropped before he talks once more.
“You okay?”
Tears unexpectedly spring to my eyes, but I fight them back, Somehow, my voice is steady when I answer him.
“I am now,” I reply before hanging up and tossing my cell phone back up through the hole.
Moving to the hose, I spray myself down, cursing like a drunken sailor as the cold water makes me feel like I’m getting hit by a car.
Once I’m clean, I shut it off and climb up the rope ladder on shaky legs, locking the hatch behind me. I head to the back of the room where there is a pull-down bed and a tiny bathroom with a sink, toilet, and shower virtually on top of each other.
I turn on the shower and wait for the water to run clear before it heats up. Once it gets warmish, I step under the weak spray and clean myself off once more. The water isn’t as hot as I’d like, but it’s better than nothing.
Using a bar of soap I find on the side of the sink; I lather my body and rinse off before getting out.
“And, of course, there is no towel.”
I head back to the sitting area, dripping wet, and snag the faded throw from the back of the sofa. I use it to dry myself off as best I can before slipping on the clothes I stole from Cassandra that I thankfully remembered to bring in earlier.
With a quick look around, I grab my cell and head outside, locking the door behind me. I walk to the nearest tree and lean against it with my eyes closed as I wait for Griff.
I’ve always been good at my job. I might be one of the youngest on my team, but I’m also one of the most committed. I have a one hundred percent success rate. Or I did until I got tangled up with Griff and his father last year.
It might not have been my fault that the mission was compromised, but it still left a bitter taste in my mouth, which is why I didn’t put up too much of a fight about coming back here.
But now, after getting attached, even though I knew fucking better, I’m left feeling hollow, and it makes me question how cut out for this life I am.
Most people couldn’t stomach the killing. That would be the line many can’t cross, but I can kill as easily as I can order a pizza. My downfall is people.
I bang my head against the tree as if to knock some sense into myself.
Most of the girls who work for Sugar, including Sugar herself, are somewhat anti-social. But not me. After a lonely childhood, I crave contact. I don’t need to be the center of attention or popular and all the other shit that makes some people happy. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to leave my mark. I want to matter to people. I want to know that if something happened to me, they’d miss me. Since my job requires me to be a ghost more often than not, I guess I always knew I was destined to fail.
I have decisions I need to make. Life-changing ones that I can’t afford to make on the fly. I don’t want to throw my life away on the whim of what could be, but I need more than a killing room and a broken heart.
The purr of an engine has me lifting my head as Griff pulls up and stops the car. Climbing out, he takes one look at me and heads straight toward me. I hold myself steady, worried that one wrong move will shatter me. He’s on me in seconds, his big arms yanking me into his embrace, holding me tightly to his chest.
I’m a Candy girl. A badass supreme who can kill a man in a hundred different ways. I’ve never needed anyone in my life before because I knew the only person I could wholeheartedly trust was myself. But right now, Griff smells like home. He feels like hope, and his touch is like a promise of all the things I can have if I just reach out and hold on.
Giving in, I let my tears fall as I grip his shirt and cry.
