Dead Drop (The Guild #2)(21)
Ugh, now I was thinking about Kai again. It sure as hell didn’t help that my pussy was still swollen and sore from all the sex with Leon last night… Every part of my body was way too fucking sensitive for intrusive thoughts about him.
Once I had all my wounds touched up as well as I could manage, I put on a thick layer of makeup to hide the bruises on my face—thanks, Bryan, you asshole—then packed my bags back up.
My phone pinged with a new message before I left the hotel room, and I smiled when I saw who’d sent it.
6279: Stay safe, mon cœur. I’ll come back to you soon.
I swallowed hard, trying desperately to smack some sense into the butterflies who just lost their goddamn minds inside my belly at the endearment Leon had used. It was no use, they were too far gone.
3982: Is that a promise or a threat, Bunny?
6279: Both. Don’t forget you’re mine now.
That message was quickly followed by a picture message that took me a minute to decipher. When I worked it out, though, I gave a sharp gasp. That motherfucker…
3982: Are those Bryan’s fingers all cut off?! I thought you had killed him!! What the fuck, Marx?!
His response came after a short pause.
6279: I have now. We needed to chat first. And now you know what I’ll do to Ares if he touches you again, mon cœur.
Dread and apprehension rolled through me. Kai had said something awfully similar, back on the island. That he would kill even his own team if they touched me… so I could imagine what he might do to Leon. Then again, that had all been an act. A ruse to win me over. One that had damn near worked too.
Leon was different. Not a single inch of me doubted the sincerity of his threat… after all, there was photo evidence of Bryan’s punishment for choking me.
3982: You’re a psychopath, Bunny.
6279: No, I’m a sociopath, mon cœur. I’m your sociopath. Never forget it.
Oh geez. Fuck poetry and flowers, this man knew the way straight into my heart. The butterflies were flapping so hard I wondered if they might put me in cardiac arrest.
To err on the safe side, I didn’t reply. Instead, I put my phone into my pocket and grabbed my bags. It was time to change locations, change cities, and plan my next moves. Just because I couldn’t trust anyone in the Guild, didn’t mean I was going to sit around waiting to be killed.
No way in hell. Emmanuel Blanchet wanted me dead? Then I needed to take him off the game board. But I couldn’t do it alone… not even I rated myself that good.
I needed help. But I couldn’t trust anyone within the Guild, according to Leon. Hell, not even just according to Leon. I knew he was right. Even Jude and Sabine, could I honestly say that, prior to this whole mess with Blanchet, I wouldn’t have put my loyalty to the Guild higher than their safety? I wasn’t sure. And that worried me.
But first, I needed a new safe location. Bryan had found me far too fucking easily. That fact alone was sitting in an uneasy puddle of dread inside me. How had he found me so quickly?
I hated to think it, but it was in my nature to be suspicious. Had Leon leaked my location, just to save me and look like a hero? Or more likely, someone else had been watching me, following me from my meeting with Hermes. That seemed more believable.
“Too careless, DeLuna,” I muttered to myself as I rode the elevator down to the lobby. “Too fucking careless.”
Before leaving the hotel, I flipped up the hood of my black jacket, hiding my distinctive white hair from easy view. If I weren’t so fucking vain, I might’ve cut and colored it to blend into crowds a little easier. I’d reserve that for a last resort… I liked my hair, and this life had already taken enough from me.
Safe location. Where the fuck could I even go that the Guild wouldn’t find me?
I couldn’t ask Jude or Sabine for help, nor could I reach out to any of my other mercenary contacts. But Carlos wasn’t Guild. Nor did he hold any particular love for my employers. He had the resources and connections to not only help me hide, but also track down Blanchet.
“Come on, Carlos,” I whispered as I listened to his ringing tone. I’d already texted the airstrip to let them know I was on my way, but I didn’t know where I was going. I really needed Carlos to answer his fucking phone and throw me a lifeline. “Pick up the fucking phone, Carlos.”
When his voicemail kicked in, I gave a frustrated growl, hung up and immediately called again.
Still no answer.
“Couldn’t think of a worse time for you to go dark, Carlos,” I murmured with a sigh, giving up on calling him. It wasn’t unusual for him to drop off the face of the earth for weeks, even months. But it seemed strange he wouldn’t have said something about it, considering how recently I used our emergency beacon.
Still with no clue where the hell I was going, I took a taxi to the private airfield where Carlos’s jet was hangered. My cloud backup of my phone meant I never lost my contact list—which was useful with how often I lost my phones—so I spent the drive scrolling through my list and debating what the fuck my next move could be.
By the time I boarded my plane, I had narrowed it down to two options.
Either I called in a favor from an acquaintance in Shadow Grove, potentially bringing the gaze of the Circle down on one of the most entertaining criminal underworlds I’d ever seen… Or…
“Shit. This is going to bite me in the ass so hard, I already know it,” I groaned, hovering my thumb over the second option in my contact list.