Bitter Bite (Elemental Assassin #14)(107)

to fire at me, but I was faster, and I cracked the wrench across his face

before he could pull the trigger. He screamed and dropped to the ground,

losing his grip on his gun and his phone.

I stopped long enough to drop the wrench and scoop up his gun and phone from

the floor, then slammed my shoulder into the door, stumbled out of the

warehouse, and sprinted into the dark night.





30

Hide-and-seek had always been one of my favorite games as a kid, mainly

because I’d always had the patience to wait out whoever was looking for me

and slip away to a new spot when their back was turned.

As an assassin, it wasn’t so much a game as it was a necessary survival

skill.

The good thing about being trapped in a shipping yard at night was that there

were a lot of places to hide.

The bad thing was that Tucker had brought a whole lot of men with him.

Several giants had been guarding the perimeter, and the gunshots sent all of

them racing toward the warehouse, their own guns drawn, ready to shoot any

shadow that moved. The snow had stopped while I was in the warehouse, and the

moon was now shining big and bright in the sky. I slipped into the closest

patch of shadows and hurried down a row of metal containers as fast as I

could, kicking up sprays of snow.

I came to a corridor in the containers, cut to my right, then right again,

heading back in the direction I’d just come from, hugging the sides of the

containers to hide my tracks as best I could. Going back to the warehouse was

dangerous, but there were two more things I needed to do: find out as much as

I could about Tucker’s operation, and make sure that Deirdre was dead.

Less than a minute later, I was back at the front of the containers, peering

over at the warehouse. I stopped long enough to fiddle with the guy’s cell

phone, setting it to video mode. Then I found a small crack to hide in,

worming my way in between two shipping containers. My hidey hole was cloaked

in shadows but still gave me a clear view of the warehouse.

Sure enough, a couple of minutes later, Tucker stormed out, a gun in one hand

and a phone in the other. I held up my own stolen phone and zoomed in on him.

“Find her!” he yelled.

Giants moved all around him, yanking out their guns, spreading out around the

warehouse, and heading into the maze of shipping containers beyond. One of the

keys to hiding was to remain perfectly still, as though you were just another

part of the landscape, dull, harmless, and completely unworthy of notice.

Darting around like a wounded animal would get you caught quicker than

anything else, so I stayed still and quiet in my hiding spot.

And it worked.

The guards expected me to run as far and as fast as I could, not to double

back and spy on their boss. They didn’t even consider the fact that I could

be hiding so close to the warehouse, and more than one man ran right by me as

they moved deeper into the shipping yard.

Tucker paced back and forth for a minute, texting furiously. His phone beeped

back, and a smile curved his face. I frowned. What was he up to? He should be

pissed that I’d escaped, not looking as pleased as punch.

Part of me wanted to slither out of the shadows, sneak up behind him, and put

a bullet through his head. But two giants were standing by his side with guns

out, so there was no way I could get close enough to kill the vampire. I

stayed in my hiding spot, watching and waiting.

Tucker punched a button on his phone, then held it up to his ear. “Blanco

escaped,” he said. “No, she didn’t shoot Deirdre. We have no leverage. She

’s not going to fall in line.”

Well, he was certainly right about that.

“She has no idea who we are,” he continued. “The meeting can still take

place as scheduled next month.”

My ears perked up. What meeting? Where? I needed more info.

“I’ve already put our contingency plan in place.” He checked his watch.

“In fact, it should be coming to fruition any second now—”

Ice magic blasted me in the back.

I screamed, and another blast hit me in the same spot, freezing and burning my

skin at the same time. The pain was bad enough, but even worse, the force

threw me out of my hiding spot and sent me tumbling to the ground in the

middle of the row of containers, right where Tucker could see me. He casually

waved his hand, and his two guards raced in my direction.

My lungs felt as though they were frozen solid inside my body, and I gasped

for air, even as I tried to scramble across the snow to where my stolen gun

and phone had landed. But Tucker’s guards reached me first. They grabbed my

arms and dragged me along the cold, snowy ground, then threw me down right in

front of the vamp.

Tucker gestured for someone to step forward. A few seconds later, Deirdre

limped up to his side, smirking down at me, the blue-white flames of her Ice

magic dancing along her fingertips. She was favoring her right leg, and blood