AS THE TRAIN roared along the tracks toward New York City, Dess kept her usual calm, cool poise in the seat across from me, but I knew her well enough to mark the signs of tension in her shoulders and her jaw. She ran her finger across her lips, drawing my attention to where it really shouldn’t be while we prepared for this detour of a mission.
She’d wanted to come alone, but Julius had insisted that I come along, since I was the one who knew the most about our contact and had handled the negotiations as a middleman. You’ll still be delivering the favor and earning hers on your own, he’d told Dess. But it’s important to us that everyone knows the Chaos Crew has your back.
Dess must have been a little nervous, because she’d agreed without any further argument.
“Anthea Noble,” she said now, adjusting her position as she turned the woman’s name over on her tongue. “And she specializes in discreet crimes?”
I nodded. “The word that’s gone around is that she’s the one to turn to if you need a murder set up to look like an accident or an innocent illness—or if you need to investigate an accident or illness that you think might have actually been murder. Checking the chemical compounds in a soil sample, especially for anything that hints at a crime, fits right in with that. I heard that one time she took down an enemy by lacing his rosebushes with some kind of undetectable poison.”
Dess grimaced. “A gun to the head or a knife to the throat is much simpler. Clearer. Are you sure we can trust her?”
I shrugged. “As much as we can trust anyone in this world. She’s well-established and connected—the aunt of the head of a major gang in a county called Paradise Bend that’s a few hours away from New York. And she seems to care about her reputation, which is that she’s cutthroat when she needs to be but fair with those she feels have earned her loyalty. I don’t think she’d stab us in the back for no reason. If she does… I’d bet you can deal with her.”
A glint of humor lit in Dess’s eyes. “I can definitely shoot her before she can slowly poison me.”
I let out a laugh. “And good thing, too. But I really don’t think it’ll come to that. She knows you come with the Chaos Crew’s support, and we’ve got quite a reputation too. The best-connected people don’t turn down new connections among the upper echelon. They’ve gotten where they are by forging solid alliances. She’ll see us as just as useful to her as she is to us.”
“And this gang she’s associated with? Are they going to want a cut?”
“She didn’t mention anything about that. It appears that she mainly operates independently, without needing permission or guidance from them.”
“All right.” Dess leaned her head back in her seat with a sigh. My gaze was drawn to the soft, pale stretch of her neck with the urge to run my mouth across it, but I doubted she’d welcome a PDA.
Was she worried more about the stranger we were going to meet or about what that stranger might tell us about the Maliks?
I didn’t know how to ask her that, so I settled for a teasing question instead. “So, here you are about to embark on your first solo mission without the household behind you. No cold feet, I hope?”
Dess let out a dismissive huff. “I was always alone in the household anyway.” Her eyes went momentarily distant before refocusing. “They might have funded and backed my missions, but they weren’t there to make sure I survived. I relied on no one but myself during those operations just as I’ll be doing on this one.”
“You’re getting to call the shots about what and who you do this time, though. Moving up in the world.”
She glowered at me through narrowed eyes. “Are you trying to pump me up or take me down a peg?”
I grinned. “Can’t it be both at the same time? We wouldn’t want your head to get too big.”
She patted her hair. “I think it suits me just fine as it is.”
The truth was, I was going easier on her than I might have if I couldn’t have told that she wasn’t totally confident in this new role. It was the first time she’d taken on a solo job as a totally free agent.
And really, she should feel proud of where she’d ended up. She’d endured trainers who only cared about how well she could use the weapons they’d put in her hands, no family to speak of in her entire living memory, and death-defying missions from her childhood. But those trials had only honed her into the strongest woman I’d ever known. Even now, knowing what she did about her past, she hadn’t let it shake her all that much.
The sudden urge gripped me to open up a part of myself as deep and painful as the losses I knew she’d faced. My chest constricted at the thought. I never let down all my walls, never let the all-too-real agony spill out of me.
But I could give her something real. Something I could say honestly without sarcasm or jokes to deflect the impact.
I drew in a breath and steadied myself, forcing my voice to come out with genuine warmth rather than its usual wryness. “I’m looking forward to watching you kick ass on this mission without the pretense of anyone controlling you. I can’t wait to see what you’ll do on your own.”
Dess looked at me, and the softness in her eyes showed that she knew how significant those words had been. She leaned toward me in a burst of motion, taking me by surprise as her lips collided with mine. Her hand wrapped around the back of my head and tugged the hair at the base of my skull.
She didn’t really do gentle, not when it came to physical intimacy. From the hints she’d dropped when we’d hooked up that one evening, I knew the reason was something that’d make me want to tear apart the world to avenge her.
But she hadn’t shared the details, so I wasn’t going to pry. Not yet, anyway. I just kissed her back with equal passion. My hand fell to her thigh and squeezed, and she let out a muffled moan.
Then she pulled back. The passengers across the aisle from us were watching, not that I minded. Let them see how much I cared about this woman and how much she wanted me.
A playful smile crossed Dess’s lips as she ran her fingers through her dark hair. “I’m glad you’re here with me,” she said. “I can do this on my own… but it’s better knowing that I don’t have to be. Maybe you’ll get to find out just how much the Ghost can pull off when she’s in her element.”
I gave a soft chuckle. “Oh, I think I have a pretty good idea already.”
The tension clenching my chest had eased. The world hadn’t ended because I’d gone for sap over snark just this once. Dess hadn’t shunned me. Everything was still on its proper course. I actually felt a little lighter than I had before. Freer.
Would it be so bad to let my walls down more often? Well, with her, at least. Not with the guys or anyone else…
No, I still needed those inner protections. They were my armor. I couldn’t let myself get complacent, or I could screw everything up for both me and the people who stood with me.
It was night by the time we reached the city. We eased through the shadows of the trees in Central Park, veering off the main paths. People were usually warned not to wander around in this place after dark, but I didn’t think anyone would bother us. If they did, we could quickly clear up any misconceptions about who the real predators were here.
We stopped amid the brush behind the Civil War Memorial statue, just a few minutes before our arranged meeting time. Dess peered at the branches that loomed overhead. “What are the odds that we have a sniper on us right now?”
I raised an eyebrow. “I don’t see anyone close enough to pull off a shot through all this vegetation without the most incredible aim in the universe.”
“And why would I want to have someone ready to shoot you anyway, when you’re here to give me something I want?” a dry voice said.
A woman emerged from the forested terrain to meet us. At the first sight of her, skepticism shot through me.
She was slim and petite, a full head shorter than I was, with her bright red hair coiled elegantly behind her ears and tumbling down to her shoulders. The traditional style matched her subtle flower-print dress, which looked like something a ‘50s housewife would have worn. But even though she appeared to be no older than her early thirties, she seemed totally at ease with the old-fashioned vibe.
Could this really be the infamous Anthea Noble?
“From what I understand, it’s supposed to be a trade,” I said. “We’re not here to pile gifts at your feet.”
A sharp, sly smile crossed the woman’s lips, and just like that, I could see the renowned schemer within the domestic homemaker package. “What a shame. I like presents. But I’m not one to expect that kind of generosity from strangers. I’m fully prepared to repay your help with help of my own. Hard to turn down an offer from an associate of the havoc-wreaking Chaos Crew.”
“I understand you lean toward a subtle approach,” Dess said, folding her arms over her chest. “I promise my methods are less bloody than theirs… unless bloody is what you want.”
Anthea’s smile grew. “Exactly what I like to hear.” She paused for a moment, studying us both, and my skin prickled with the sense that she saw much more than she was commenting on. This definitely wasn’t a woman to tangle with—but that meant she could be a very valuable associate if we played our cards right. I was always glad to make a new connection myself.
“We appreciate you taking the time to meet with us and consider our proposal,” I said smoothly. “Your reputation precedes you too. And the task we’d like to employ you with shouldn’t require any significant risk on your part.”
“You have a boring job for me, do you?” She clucked her tongue teasingly and focused on Dess. “I’m afraid I can’t say the same, although maybe you’ll be happier that way. I’ve gathered that you specialize in taking down targets that most assassins wouldn’t be able to reach—and without leaving any evidence behind.”
Dess raised her chin. “That’s right. You might have heard of me before. Apparently a lot of my killings have been attributed to ‘the Ghost.’ That would be me.”
I caught the brief flash of surprise that widened Anthea’s eyes before she schooled her expression back to its previous unreadable state. “Fascinating. I’d imagine this shouldn’t be too much trouble for you, then, if you’re willing to take the job on.”
“What exactly would you like her to do?” I asked evenly. I wasn’t going to be pushy about it, but I did want her to get to the point.
Anthea ran her fingers along a branch that dipped low alongside us. “There’s a mark I’d like killed. He’s tricky to get to—lots of security and very cautious. He’s evaded my own resources more than once, and I’d like to simply get the job done once and for all.”
“You want me to get to him and kill him,” Dess clarified.
Anthea rubbed her fingers together, and her face hardened just for an instant. “I want you to kill him, yes, but not just that. I want him to die in a particularly horrible way. And no one can know that you were involved or that I hired you.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem,” Dess said, but then she hesitated. “Why do you want him dead?”
I understood immediately, with a pang that resonated through my heart. She’d spent too many years blindly killing for someone else’s sake. The household had never given her a choice in who she killed, leading her to believe she was eliminating criminals and harmful figures when really she’d been fulfilling their own selfish agenda, whatever that’d been.
But Dess didn’t revel in killing for the sake of killing. She wanted to know her targets deserved it, just like we did. She was determined to make her new path a just one as long as she had the choice. Of course that didn’t change even when she could gain something from bending her personal ethics.
Anthea’s eyes flashed, and her voice came out taut. “This man raped a few teenagers who’ve since come under my protection. I want to make sure he’s never in a position to do the same to any others.”
Dess’s posture straightened, her mouth pressing flat. Resolve radiated off her as she held out her hand for Anthea to shake. “I look forward to wiping him off the face of the earth. Point me at him, and he’s good as dead already.”
