Dead Drop (The Guild #2)(26)
Bang.
Shit. That answered that. She’d fired, but it’d been at the wall behind me instead of through my chest. I’d call that a victory.
The gunshot echoed through the air, and Moana shouted something from out in the street, but best of all? Danny had just terrified a small colony of bats living in the rafters. They all took off from their silent perches in a flurry of black leathery wings, causing both Danny and me to flinch and duck.
The second her focus was off me, though, I knew I’d never get a better chance. I darted forward, grabbing her wrist to disarm her gun and spinning her into my body in a tight submission hold.
“Got you,” I rumbled with amusement. Her small frame was against my body, and it took all my control to stay alert and not melt into her scent.
“Seriously?” she hissed, refusing to drop the gun despite how hard I pinched the tendons of her wrist together. “Do you really think you can hold me this time, Kai? I could—”
Whatever she was going to say, she cut off in a strangled yelp when I kissed the side of her neck. Her black top had a high neckline, but the strip of skin between her jaw and the collar had just begged for my lips.
She froze, tension running through her whole frame, but she didn’t pull away. Encouraged, I spun her around in my arms, lowering my face to kiss her. It was an all-consuming thought, a visceral need to feel her lips on mine, to taste her sweet breath and hear those angelic sighs as she turned to liquid in my arms.
But my mouth simply brushed across her cheek in a glancing touch as she twisted smoothly out of my grip.
“Nice try,” she said with a laugh. “But let me spell this out for you, Karitoki, I’ve returned to the sea, and I won’t fall for your tricks again.”
My heart thumped harder. She remembered the legend of Pania. It distracted me enough that she darted past before I could grab her again, leaping into the void below the old church bell and disappearing from sight in a flash.
“Danny!” I screamed, “No!”
For a gut-wrenching moment, there was no response except the flapping of bat wings and the echo of my own shout. Then the bell lurched and clanged with a deafening peal.
I flinched, covering my ears as best I could while holding a gun, but the sound was reassuring. She’d caught the rope and slid to the ground floor. Slippery siren. She wasn’t going to get away from me that easily. Not this time. Not ever again.
12
There was only one logical conclusion that I could come to as I slid down the bell rope, my pulse racing and my breath held. I was losing my edge. I’d lost my edge. Before this cursed mission to honey trap Ares, I would never have been taken by surprise like that. I would never have been so stupid as to let Bryan the bastard nearly strangle me to death after hiding in my room service cart.
I was getting sloppy, and it was all Kai’s fault. I’d treated my time on his island as a vacation, and it’d dulled my instincts.
Thank fuck for the leather gloves I wore, as they saved my hands a wicked rope burn on my speedy exit from the bell tower. I burst through the front doors of the church, then pulled up short when I nearly ran straight into Mo.
Or rather, into the barrel of Mo’s AR-15.
“Mo,” I said, panting slightly with adrenaline and panic. “Get the fuck out of my way.”
She frowned but didn’t put her gun up. “Sorry, girl. I can’t do that.”
Anger flared hot inside me. “Moana, you two-faced bitch, stand the fuck down.”
Her lips flattened in a hard line, and she shook her head. “I wasn’t lying, Danny. I didn’t tell him. But I am sick and fucking tired of hearing his elaborate plans to get you back, so right now? Right now, you’re gonna toss your weapons down here on the road, then turn around and go back inside.”
I barked a laugh before realizing she was serious. “Mo, I’m not going to do that.”
“Yes, you are,” Kai said from behind me, his deep voice sending shivers across my skin. I’d damn near fallen back into his trap a moment ago when he’d tried to kiss me. I wasn’t strong enough to face him again. Certainly not without the comfort of my guns.
Dammit. I’d left my rifle in the bell tower.
“Danny,” Mo snapped, “put your guns down and go back into the church. You two need to talk, and I’m not letting you leave here until you do.”
My eyes widened. She wanted me to talk to Kai? About fucking what? Our business was done. He kidnapped and tortured me, I played him for a fool. We were even.
“You too, little brother,” she added, jerking her chin at the menacing presence behind me. “Toss your weapons over here. I’m not risking either one of you killing each other until you sort your shit out.”
He grunted an indignant sound that made me smirk, even if I was still refusing to turn around and look at him. He was too fucking sexy, all decked out in weapons and black clothes, just like me.
“Moana, that’s—”
“Just fucking do it, Kai,” she barked. “I’ve had it right up to here”—she indicated to a level somewhere an inch above her head—“with this Romeo and Juliet bullshit you two have going on. Now I’m telling you both to put your fucking weapons down and talk it out like adults. Or else.”
I couldn’t help myself. “Or else what, Mo? You gonna shoot me if I don’t?”