Nix. (Den of Mercenaries Book 3)(86)

“Who, the Kingmaker?” Luna asked, trying to understand his rambling, but Andrei was beyond hearing her.

“We should never have agreed to do it, but he offered us money—said no one would ever know.”

“Who?” Luna shouted, finally grabbing his attention.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “We just gave you to the closest buyer. We never knew—”

Andrei never got to finish, not when the glass from the window shattered as a bullet punched through. Luna barely had a chance to duck before Andrei was riddled with them, slamming down onto the floor, glass surrounding him as blood oozed from his body.

Luna only allowed herself a moment before she shuffled to the window, peering out at the building across the street. Automatically, her gaze sought out the rooftop, expecting to see a gleam of a rifle, or the retreating back of someone hurrying off.

But nothing.

No one.

There was no movement whatsoever.

Abandoning her first option, Luna walked over to Andrei, checking for a pulse though she didn’t have high hopes—nothing.

For a moment, Luna could only kneel there, trying to piece together what she knew, but now, even less about this assignment was making sense.

But she was starting to get the feeling that it might have something to do with her.



“Fucking hell.”

Kit glanced down at his phone, making sure it was Semyon he was supposed to be talking to. The hacker had called him not more than ten seconds ago, but he seemed too distracted by whatever he was doing to actually say anything to him.

“Is there a reason you called?”

There was shuffling on the other end before Semyon came back on with a curse. “You told me to call you if anyone started looking into the lists of names you sent.”

“And?”

That was exactly what Kit had been trying to avoid. It wouldn’t do him any good if Uilleam found him before he could.

He was theatrical that way, and if he had always intended for Luna to find out about Uilleam’s involvement, he wouldn’t stop at just telling her—he would make sure there was no doubt remaining.

Kit couldn’t let that happen.

“I’ve been trying to track down the guy, but he hasn’t left much of a digital footprint over the last year. Nearly off-grid—but apparently I wasn’t looking in the right places.”

“Who’s the other party?”

“Couldn’t tell you. Their encryption software is pretty solid—I’m only able to get enough through a back channel to catch whatever she finds.”

“That’s not good enough, Kreshnik.”

He mumbled something unintelligible, before Semyon blew out a heavy breath. “They found him—Andrei, I mean—and whoever the f*ck this is blocked me from accessing whatever they found, but my malware—”

“I don’t need to know the process,” Kit said, “I only need results.”

More silence, and then, “Sending you an address now. They have a head start, so if you’re trying to find this guy, get moving.”

Kit ended the call without saying anything more, his phone chiming as a text came in. He didn’t bother reading, instead sending it off to the one person he knew could see this done without leaving witnesses.

That was Fang’s specialty, after all.



“What happened?”

Not once in the years since she had been an official part of the Den had Luna ever failed on an assignment. And though she knew she should have been focusing on what Z was saying beside her as they observed the police going in and out of the building, her mind was seized on thoughts of what Andrei had been telling her before someone silenced him.

“He knew who I was,” Luna said, dragging her gaze away from the scene before her and to the man at her side. “Not because of the Den though.”

But because of the warehouse.

There was only two that she had ever confided in about that place—Kit and Uilleam, and only the latter because he asked. She didn’t like to talk about it, or remember, and she preferred only allowing people to know about the her she had become once Calavera was her name.

And because of that, she never thought she would have to tell the story again.

Taking a breath, Luna gave him a rather condensed version of the truth before adding, “And he thought The Kingmaker sent me because of what he did at the warehouse, but I don’t know why he would think that.” Truthfully, she didn’t understand anything.

Zachariah frowned, narrowed eyes turning to Luna. “This warehouse, do you remember where it was, or anything familiar about it?”

“Not really. I think it was by water—I could always hear the waves crashing. I never saw much of it, not until someone set it on fire.”

And even then, all she could remember was the smoke and flames, and not much else.

Zachariah was silent, lost in his thoughts, but he looked troubled. “Something isn’t right here.”

No, it really wasn’t. “What do you want me to do?” Luna asked.

“Report to the client,” he said, straightened his hat and turned for the car. “Inform them of what’s happened. Your work is done.”

With no other choice but to nod, Luna walked in the opposite direction, maneuvering around the crowd to her bike. Thankfully, she’d had the foresight to park well away, so there was no trouble driving out of there without drawing attention to herself.