Nix. (Den of Mercenaries Book 3)(85)

Winter was no longer laughing as she worked, concentrating solely on her work.

“Another mercenary?” Luna asked.

“No, this level of sophistication, has to be one of my people. I’ll try to track,” she said to herself, too engrossed in what she was doing to remember Luna was sitting beside her.

“I’m trying to find Andrei,” Luna said after a moment, thinking narrowing it down to a location might speed things up.

“Right, right, right. I can do that—who the f*ck is this guy?” Winter said with a little more animation, her fingers flying faster if that were possible. “He’s trying to track me. Who’s Andrei again?”

“I don’t know, but you give me an address, I’ll find out who.”

Winter whispered unintelligible words as she worked, part on the man worming his way into her system, and part on finding Andrei.

“I can only buy you a little time,” Winter said as she scanned data. “His protocols ensure that whatever I find gets downloaded to his device. I can crash his system remotely, but he’ll be back up in no time. If you want to find this Andrei guy, I suggest you run or somebody else is going to get to him first.”

“Give me whatever you have.”

Winter waved her hand at the screen as though that could make it work faster. Luna was beginning to think whoever Andrei was, he had some rather powerful friends.

Someone was going through a lot of trouble to keep the man hidden, and even if this weren’t her assignment, she would have still been curious.

“Sometimes I even surprise myself!” Winter exclaimed with a little cheer, fishing out her phone from her pocket. “I’m sending you an address now—thank me later. I’ll try to keep the other guy away for as long as I can.”

“I owe you one,” Luna said as she got to her feet.

Winter shrugged, grinning brightly. “Of course you do.”



Truthfully, Luna was expecting a Russian spy, or something equally as grand considering how much trouble she had gone through just to find the man—someone that was worth going through so much trouble to keep anyone from finding them.

But she was starting to doubt her theory as she rode into a shady part of the city where crumbling buildings littered the streets, and she stuck out as people watched her ride by.

Finding a relatively decent spot to park—where she was still within a block of where she was going, and far enough away that her bike was almost hidden—Luna dismounted, tucking her helmet under her arm as she glanced down the street as she crossed.

With Winter’s warning in mind, she cased her surroundings, checking for anyone that seemed like they didn’t belong. But as far as she could tell, no one stuck out.

Hurrying up two flights of stairs, then down a darkened hallway, she found the apartment. She knocked once, twice, then a third time, waiting and listening for any movement on the other side of the door.

When no one came, she checked to make sure the hallway was clear before dropping to a knee and fishing the lock picks out of her pocket—she had Fang to thank for this particular skill.

She was almost to the last tumbler when the unmistakable sound of a shotgun being cocked sounded right behind her, freezing her to the spot.

“Move, and you’re dead.”

The Russian accent made sense considering the man’s name, but there was something about his voice that seemed … familiar.

“Who do you work for?”

Luna almost smiled—if he wanted to talk, he wasn’t going to kill her. Not yet, anyway. “Depends on the day. Currently? Belladonna.”

“Belladonna? I don’t know a Belladonna. Why are you here?”

“There’s a chance you’re not even the guy I’m here for,” Luna said stalling. “I don’t even know who you are.”

As he was about to answer, that first syllable leaving his lips, she moved to her feet and turned in one fluid movement.

Andrei stumbled back a step, brown eyes forked with red narrowing on her before widening in surprise. But it wasn’t just surprise that flittered over his face, there was something else.

Remorse, maybe?

But, there was no reason for him to be feeling remorse …

“You’re one of his mercenaries, aren’t you?” he asked, voice wavering as he lowered his weapon slightly. “He sent you here to kill me.”

Though she knew the ‘he’ Andrei referred to was Uilleam, the rest she wasn’t so sure of. “I’m not here to kill you.”

He laughed without humor, his skepticism showing. “He sent you for the truth then, and someone else to finish the job? Is that what he promised you? My life for a place in his Den?”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

It might have been the genuine surprise in her own voice that had him lowering the gun, his guard momentarily dropped as he stared at her.

“The warehouse,” he said as though this was something she should have known. “The fire, all of it—when you were taken.”

And that was when it clicked—how she knew his voice.

He had been one of the men there that day. In fact, he had been the one to take her from the room when she started smelling the smoke.

“That’s why he’s been picking us off one by one, because we betrayed his trust.” Andrei seemed to grow unhinged as he shoved agitated fingers through thinning hair.