Emerge: The Captive: (Book 3)(79)

“Oh, right. Sirmatrika. It can affect the blood circulation from your heart to your brain and other organs.”

“You’ve experienced the death associated with too little blood reaching your vital organs. Now it’s your turn in the driver’s seat. Just a quick stab of pressure with your index fingers should do it.”

Sasha explored the length of his neck, settling her index fingers over the sensitive spot.

It confused her. How comfortable she was with him now. How familiar she was with his body after all their hours of training together. The last time she’d experienced such intimacy with another person, it was with Quinn.

I feel so guilty. Like I’ve betrayed him.

“Any time now, angel.” His voice held a teasing tone that did pleasant things to her.

“I don’t think I can do it, Jayesh,” she whispered. She’d killed him once before. An accident when she wasn’t able to restore the function of his lungs quickly enough. To do it on purpose.… She didn’t think she had it in her.

“I’ll be back with you by dinnertime.” He reached for her hand over his shoulder. “Don’t overthink it.”

“It’s just so … mean.”

“Think of it as retribution for all the times I’ve killed you. Remember the day I used the guda marma and didn’t warn you that it would make you soil yourself?”

Sasha frowned at the humiliating memory and without further thought, brought her index fingers down with precision against the area where tendons met muscles. Jay’s head drooped for a moment before he slid to the ground like a dead weight.

Only thirty-six left.

~~~





CHAPTER

TWENTY-SEVEN





Sasha: Summer


The Chola Valley


“How many yards was that?” Sasha asked.

The monks were all lounging in the shade of their canopy, murmuring about Sasha’s last shot with the sniper rifle she was finally getting to shoot just for fun.

With all three stages of kalaripayattu behind her, she had earned her title as an official Chola assassin, master of kalari, and was now enjoying her post-training reprieve. There was still a darkness inside her. She didn’t think it would ever go away, but with each passing day, she was feeling a little more like herself. Maybe not her old self. That girl was dead. But she was figuring out who the new Sasha was and coming to terms with her.

“Over three thousand yards,” Jayesh said, lowering his binoculars. “That’s nearly two miles, Sasha.” He beamed down at her. His eyes were clear and there was a lightness about him he hadn’t had when they first arrived. She never asked what the mother wanted to teach him during his time in the valley, but whatever it was, he seemed to have learned his lesson too.

“The bullet went right through the steel plate and blew the ballistic gel to bits.” He lay back down beside her on the mat.

“Armor-piercing rounds, baby.” Sasha sighted down the scope to see the evidence of her last shot. “You know, if the Senate ever needs you to shoot up a steel plate at three thousand yards, I’m your girl.”

“You know it’s not going to be a practice target on the other end of that scope when this is real?” Jayesh said softly.

“I know.” Sasha moved to trade places with him. “If I’m shooting magnetized ammo, I’ll be okay. But real life-ending bullets are going to be a problem for me, Jay.”

“I know, angel. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”

She knew he would do his best to keep that inevitable future from coming too soon, but ultimately it wouldn’t be his choice when and where the Senate would call Sasha into active duty. She could only hope that when they did call on her, he would be the one leading her team.

“Take a selfie with me?” She rolled over and faced the camera toward them.

Jayesh leaned in close so they could both fit in the frame. “Where did you find a camera?” He wrapped his arm around her.

“It’s Imogen’s. She thought I might want to get a few mementos of my time here. Big smiles!” She grinned and snapped the photo.

“Seriously, it’s my turn, Sasha.” Jayesh pulled her away from the gun. “Stop hogging it.”

Sasha watched him as he adjusted the scope and took his sweet time lining up the shot before he pulled the trigger. Her feelings for Jayesh were all twisted up with her feelings for the Chola temple, the mother, the Senate and her time away from her family. She cared a great deal for this man and counted him a lifelong friend. And if she were honest, she had more than just a little crush on him. He is way too old, she reminded herself.

“You’re talking to me with those eyes again.” He smiled.

“You’re a terrible shot. Don’t quit your day job.” She gave him a playful shove.

“What? That was a clean hit. Did you see the way the bullet sailed right through the ballistics gel?”

“It’s more fun when you blow it to smithereens.”

“Flashy maybe, but a clean shot takes more precision.”

“Good thing you’re here to teach me,” she said.

“I’m too old for you, Sasha.”

“Agreed.” She peered down over the cliff side where they’d perched the Barrett M107A1. “But I won’t always be seventeen. And the two-hundred-seventy years between us won’t always feel like it does now.”