I checked the thread again and read his last message, sent just an hour before dawn. It held a serious warning about the danger still hanging over my head, and the fact that other executioners might not respect my friends’ safety.
I’d left Jude’s place because Leon had reminded me that this wasn’t just a game between the two of us. As entertaining as the cat and mouse shit was, there were higher stakes. The Circle still wanted me dead, and I was an idiot to think Leon was the only one they might ask to kill me.
Wetting my lips, I climbed out of the helicopter and headed across the grass to my cabin. It felt like a lifetime since I’d been home, and I wanted nothing more than to kick back in my chair and chat to Stanley about everything that had gone down since I left.
The door unlocked with my fingerprints, and the alarm code took only seconds to key in. Once the door closed behind me, I gave a long sigh of relief.
I was home.
“Stanley, I’m back!” I called out, flipping the lights on and tossing my small bag of newly purchased clothes on the floor. “I’m sorry I was gone for so long; you must have been so lonely here without me.”
I went straight to the kitchen and filled up my big jug with water for Stanley. Poor dude would be bone dry by now.
“You’d never believe the shit I’ve gone through in the last two months, Stan. Honestly, I don’t think I would even believe me if I hadn’t lived it. Did I ever tell you about Ares? The arms dealer?” I paused as though I actually expected a response while I carried the water jug through to the living room.
I barely made it halfway across the small room, though, before I sucked a sharp gasp of shock.
The jug slipped from my numb fingers, hitting the floor and splashing water everywhere, but I barely noticed. I sure as fuck didn’t care.
Because Stanley was gone.
5
Nine days. That was how long it took for the silent alarm I’d placed at Danny’s house to activate. Nine days between me locating her safe place, her secret haven, and making a move that would force her to come back to me.
Okay, in fairness, I personally hadn’t found it. Our insider at the Guild had slipped us the information after I pressured Mo into digging deeper. Without that tip, we never would have found Danny’s home.
“She knows that I have you now, Stanley my friend,” I told the enormous plant. Stanley the Devil’s Backbone. A mature euphorbia tithymaloides variegata. The one thing that she had told me the truth about. She’d lied about everything else, but Stanley? He was real. And now he was settling in nicely in his new home, positioned in front of my bedroom window overlooking the ocean. I’d added a bow and a little tinsel to dress him up. It was the holidays, after all.
I sat back in my armchair. In her armchair. Her scent still clung to the fabric, and if I closed my eyes, I could almost imagine she was still here with me. But then I opened my eyes again and remembered that the tether I thought I’d tied to her was never secure. She’d just made me think she was trapped, lulled me into complacency… then ripped my heart out and took it with her on a speedboat out of Venice.
“Shit,” I muttered with a sigh, staring at Stanley like I had done every day for nine days. “Do you think she’s still thinking about me, Stan? Or has she been off fucking that slimy sack of shit Leon? I bet she has no idea that he’s on the Circle too.” I drummed my fingertips on the arm of the chair, fantasizing all the horribly painful ways I would hurt that bastard when I got my hands on him. Part of it would be for his position in the Guild, but most of it would be for touching her. She was mine, and it would only be a matter of time before she fully understood what that meant.
“I see why she likes you so much, Stanley,” I commented, flexing my fist and still picturing how it’d feel to punch that shit stain Leon in the face. “You’re a good listener. Nonjudgmental. I bet I could tell you all about—”
A sharp knock on my door interrupted what I was saying, and I sighed. “Come in!”
My older sister let herself in with a tight set frown pulling her brow and gave an irritated sound when she saw me sitting in Danny’s chair again.
“Seriously, Kai?” she asked, exasperated. “You need to snap out of this.”
I glared up at her. “Back off, Moana. You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
She rolled her eyes. “Oh, I don’t? Jesus, Kai, she was fucking acting. You don’t even know who she is, and you’re sitting here mooning over her goddamn plant like some heartbroken fool. Pull your shit together.”
Anger rippled through me, and I surged to my feet. “Watch your tongue, sister. I’m no one’s fool.”
She tipped her chin up, holding my gaze defiantly. She was one of the few people who was never afraid of me. Probably because she knew I’d do anything for her. “Really? Sure looks like that shady bitch snared you within her trap and hasn’t let go yet. You were supposed to play her, not the other way around. Fuck, Kai, you’re lucky you’re even alive. She could have killed you when she took your phone, you know?”
I knew. It was that shred of hope that I’d been clinging to like the lovesick puppy Moana accused me of being. “But she didn’t,” I bit back with clenched teeth, “which means she wasn’t totally unaffected.”
Moana stared up at me for a long moment, then gave a pitying shake of her head. “She doesn’t love you, little brother. She was just doing her job.”
I swallowed hard. My head knew she was probably right. But my heart…? I couldn’t accept it. Danny could have killed me that morning. Hell, she could have killed me any one of a hundred moments in those days we spent alone here on my island. But she didn’t, and I had to believe it was more than just strategic.
“We’ll see,” I replied in a cold voice. Because now I had Stanley, she would come for him sooner or later. I just knew it.
Mo sighed and ran a hand through her dark curls. “Whatever, Kai. Are we going to talk about the next steps with our plan? We haven’t done anything since before Halloween, and I’m starting to worry you’ve changed your mind.”
I scowled. “Of course not. Mo…” I trailed off, my eyes flicking over to Danny’s plant. Shit, she was right. I was so consumed with getting my siren back that I’d all but abandoned our plans for the Guild. “Is the rest of the team in the kitchen? Maybe we should have a strategy meeting.”
She nodded, and I followed her out of my bedroom. Better that we all discuss our next steps together rather than having to repeat myself anyway.
Down in the kitchen, my guys were sitting around the huge dining table with beers in hand and a casual game of poker underway.
Eli spotted me first, jerking me a small nod of greeting, which I returned. Jae and Cyryl gave me cautious looks, like they weren’t sure what kind of mood I was in. Sam just glared.
I didn’t blame him. He knew I’d fallen for the enemy, and I couldn’t even deny it. He held her responsible for Mauricio’s death, even though it was that venomous prick Leon who’d shot our friend.
That fight that we’d orchestrated in the kitchen after I “freed” Danny from the dungeon was all too real, despite my best intentions. I’d seen the way she looked at him in terror, and I’d lost it.
“You want a beer, boss?” Jae asked, getting up from his chair. I almost refused, but I needed to start working on mending things with my team, so I nodded as I sat in an empty chair. Danny would return to me, and this time, she wouldn’t get away. My team needed to accept that reality sooner or later.
I took a gulp of the cold beer Jae handed to me and kicked out my legs to get comfortable.
“Project Remus,” I said after a painfully awkward silence. My obsession with Danny DeLuna had created too much strain between us, but I couldn’t stop. “Where are we up to on pinpointing the remaining clinics?”
Moana cleared her throat, then started filling me in on the most recent research, the shit I had been too preoccupied to really pay attention to in the last month or so. She delivered the information in a calm, emotionless voice, but I knew better. We all did.
This secret project that our team was engaged in, this investigation into the Guild’s Project Remus, it was for her. Because the Guild had tricked her, used her, and broken her heart. We would do everything possible to ensure it never happened to anyone else.
To our advantage, someone else seemed to be working toward the same goal as us. Albeit probably for different reasons. At least one out of every three Guild employees we tracked down who were associated with the baby experiments was already dead. Recently dead.
If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say the Guild was attempting to clean up their own mess.