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I strap several throwing knives high up on my leg, where the slit won’t expose them, and put the small compact gun in my black clutch. I toss my now almost empty backpack in the trash on my way out the door. I won’t need to retrieve it later. Everything I’ll need is waiting in the elevator shaft on top of the elevator. There is nothing in the bag that will lead to me, not even my fingerprints. Those were removed by acid several years ago.
The elevator arrives on the main floor, and I make my way to the bar to wait for the man I was sent here to end. The company sends me in when they can’t get anything to stick legally with these organized crime men. I make sure they can’t do anymore business. I usually am sent in to bring the whole organization down, no matter what it takes, but this man is just a hit because he’s selling flesh—young girls. I don’t have any emotions on most of my jobs, but men like this make my skin crawl with the need to end them.
I don’t have any remorse for what I must do.
When I step into the bar, soft piano music draws me in for a moment. It’s calming to my senses. I look over and see the wide back of a man moving to the music as he plays. His dark head looks across the shiny surface and down so I can’t see his face. I walk to the bar and carefully hook my heel over the rung of the chair as I pull up to sit on it. I’m careful to make sure my dress doesn’t cause me to flash anyone. The music stops, and I look up to see soft brownish eyes looking at me. He raises his eyebrow as his eyes move down my body, taking me in as if he’s sliding his hand down my skin in the softest caress. My breath hitches, and I’m instantly turned on.
This doesn’t happen to me. I don’t desire to be touched by anyone, but I want this man. His dark hair is wavy and brushed back from his face. He has a short, groomed beard and mustache, and he keeps his dark eyebrow raised as he continues to stare my way. He smirks with a tip of his kissable full lips. I look down and see that my dress has slipped and is showing too much leg. I fix it and look back up. He shrugs, and his smirk turns into a full smile.
I break eye contact with him and turn to the bar to order a Kir Royale. One look in the mirror behind the bar shows he’s still focused on me as he begins playing again. I take him in. He’s dressed in black slacks that end at his ankle, loafers that look like he doesn’t have socks on, and a black silky short-sleeved shirt buttoned to his collarbone. His long legs let me know he’s probably well over six feet tall. Muscles that are long and sinewy ripple under his shirt. He’s not taking his eyes off me as he continues to play, and desire pools in my belly. My nipples pucker behind the pasties I’m wearing so I can go braless in this dress. Gooseflesh pops up on my back as he continues to stare.
Movement in the mirror causes me to look away, and I see my target walk into the room. He’s only accompanied by one guard. I’m ready to make my move when the second walks in with a young woman.
She changes everything.
I was going to be the lure and get him to take me to his room, but now I must alter my plans. I calculate how I’m going to get her out and still fulfill my mission. It’s going to be harder, but I need to save her if I can. She’s too young.
With my focus on my mark, I don’t notice the piano music has stopped until a body stands near me. I completely missed his approach because I was focused on the couple across the room.
“I’m Dario. Can I get you a drink?”
I look at him but keep the group in my peripheral. I was right, he’s six foot four at least. Up close, he has hazel brown eyes, the ring a mossy green. He smells like a vineyard, and a memory slams into my head of a man bigger than him, followed by a woman and then an infant.My family. My eyes flare wide, and I wobble from the intense images and pain.
Dario wraps his hand around my arm. His long fingers with blunt nails caress me like his eyes did earlier. “Are you okay,mio angelo?”
“I’m sorry?” I look up at him in confusion. I know what he called me, but I can’t let him know I know. How I know what he said confuses me, but after that memory, I’m wondering if I’m Italian.
He lets me go and steps into me more. “I called you angel.” No, he didn’t. He called mehisangel. “I don’t know your name, so I don’t know what to call you.” His full lips tip up on the side, and my heart rate increases.
“I’m Luna,” I say, but then movement catches my eye and I know I have to work. “I have to go. You play nicely,” I say, feeling awkward. I don’t know how to flirt unless I’m working.
“Don’t run off.” He grabs my arm. I slip away from him and off the other side of the stool. With a smile at him, I grab my clutch and take off.
A part of me wishes I could stay and get to know him, but I have to do this. I want to protect the girl. It’s my job.
They move across the lobby toward the elevators, and I move faster to catch up to them. When they step into the open elevator, I throw out my arm to stop the door from closing. This isn’t what I exactly had in mind, but it will work.
The guards try to stop me and protest in Romanian. I ignore them like I don’t know what they said and move inside the car. It’s going to be tight, but I can do it. I push the button for the top floor so I’m with them as long as possible. It’s also their destination, where I know they have a suite. Discreetly I pull the chain that retracts into my clutch and hold it with one hand while I step back, making sure to keep the girl behind me. I click the button on the responder in my bag to scramble the camera.
“Hey, watch it,” my mark says, and I turn to look him in the eye.
One of his guards moves toward me, and I whip the chain out and wrap it around his neck. I spin him around and use the momentum to throw my body at the other guard, nailing him with my heel, before I fire a shot into the mark’s head between his eyes. The girl starts screaming. I turn toward the guard wrapped in my chain and snap his neck, then I pull a knife from my garter and throw it at the other guard, who is up and coming toward me. I grab a second knife and slice his throat.
“I’m here to help you,” I tell the girl as I stop the elevator. Her screams turn to cries now. “Come on, we only have a few seconds.”
I wrap the chain for my clutch around my waist and secure my gun again. Using the handrail in the elevator, I climb up and open the hatch. Once I pull myself out, I turn back for the girl’s hand and help her up. We stand there for a second before I reach for my pack on the roof. I open it and retrieve the grappling hook gun along with a harness. I only have one harness because I thought it would just be me.
The elevator starts moving again, and I know we don’t have much time now. I slam the hatch closed, throw my pack over my shoulder, secure myself into the harness, and shoot the hook. Grabbing the girl around the waist, I click the button so we are retracted up toward the top. We make it to the roof access when the elevator hatch is opened and bullets start flying toward us. With her hand clutched in mine, I run across the roof to the next closest building. I jump across the space, then coax her to do the same.
“I’m afraid I’ll fall,” she whimpers.
“If you don’t jump, they will come get you again.”
Just then the door to the roof opens and guards run out. I shoot them before they can get shots off. The girl jumps, and we escape inside the next building.
* * *
An hour later, after I dropped the girl off at an Interpol safe house I trust, one where the doctor or deputy chief can’t get her, I’m sitting in another hotel room in shorts and a tank top. I’m bruised but don’t care.TheBig Bang Theoryis on the television, and I’m relaxing with a tray of food from room service.
