Assassin's Promise, The Red Team Series, Book 5 (23 page)

Greer shrugged. He nodded toward Remi, who was almost as white as the wall. “We were getting ready for bed when these bozos broke in.”

“What were they after?”

“How the hell would I know?” Greer snapped.

“This your apartment?”
 

“No. It belongs to my girlfriend.” The cops cleared the apartment, then let the firemen in. One of them lifted the remains of the glass bottle that had come through the window and started the fire. “Looks like it might have been thrown from the fire escape.”

The cop frowned. “Why raid a hoarder’s apartment? What’s in all these boxes?”

“Stuff,” Greer snapped.

The cop questioning him was summoned out to the hallway. Greer checked Remi. Her face had gone from white to gray with shock. At least she wasn’t screaming hysterically.
 

Jesus. He hoped she wasn’t getting used to this.

“Remi, come here.”

Her haunted eyes lifted to his.

“Now, Remi.”

Her gaze caught on the broken window in her dining room. Greer looked down the hallway and out the front door. There were a lot of fucking men crawling around her apartment now. He didn’t know if any of them were dirty. He wanted her next to him in case they tried to take her. King had friends in high places.
 

“Come closer.” Her eyes got bigger and her face paler. “Do it,” he ordered, his voice soft but firm. “Lean against me. Take my strength for yours.” His hands were still clamped behind him in the cuffs. He turned slightly at an angle, giving her space to lean in behind him. Letting him shield her slightly. “Put your face against my shirt.”

He drew a long, fortifying breath when he felt her body meld to his. She was so little. Her indomitable spirit made him forget how fragile she was. And cold. She was too fucking cold. He wished he could wrap his arms around her. She pressed her face against his shoulder blade. At least her breath was still warm.
 

“Everything’s going to be fine. This is the end of it,” he whispered.

She shook her head against his back. “This isn’t the end of it. It’s not even the middle.”

“Yeah, it is. I figured out what’s happening. And you’re coming back with me to Blade’s place.”

“What’s happening?” she asked.

“Can’t talk here.”

“What about all of this?” She started to look around the loft, then quickly put her head down again. “I can’t leave my research.”

“We’re bringing it with us. The guys are on their way down.” He looked at the broken kitchen window. “And we’ll get someone in to repair this place, too.” He grinned at her over his shoulder, then shivered when her face pressed against his shirt a little harder.

A short while later, Greer heard Kit’s voice in the hallway. A pissed Kit was a thing to behold. He was glad the cop was getting the first wave of his steam.

Speak of the devil. He entered the apartment, took one look around, then walked right up to Greer’s face. “What the fuck’s going on?”

Greer lifted his shoulders. “What? I didn’t kill anyone.”

“Is it too much to ask that you take a low-key approach?” He growled between clenched teeth.

Greer ground his jaw before answering. “They weren’t in a negotiating kind of mood, Kit. They came in guns blazing. They wanted to set fire to Remi’s things and kidnap her. Next time, if they’re more polite, I’ll offer them tea so we can chat about it first.”

Kit’s eyes narrowed. He tucked his lips against his teeth, then ordered one of the policemen to take off their cuffs. As soon as his hands were free, Greer steered Remi toward her room. He made a quick sweep of the room, then ordered her to get dressed and collect her things. “I’ll be waiting outside. No one’s coming in until you come out.”

She stood in the middle of the room, looking at him, adrift in the chaos of her life. He shut the door—with him on the inside—then walked back to her. He took hold of her cheeks, and his thumbs brushed the soft skin of her face. His heart clenched at the fear in her eyes. He almost wished it was still him she feared.
 

He bent down and touched his lips to hers. He meant only that small touch, nothing more, but her hands gripped his sides. She lifted up on her toes, reaching up to him, pushing her mouth against his. She was drawing from his strength as he’d told her to do. He felt it transfer from him to her. All of it. Leaving him no reserves, nothing to guard his heart.

He kissed her again. It wasn’t a simple thing, their embrace; it was a wave of motion. Her hips against his thighs, her waist to his hips. They were like two vines caught in the wind, leaning, rubbing, entwining. His hands were on her face, pressing against the pocket of her open jaw in his palms. Hungry for more, he wrapped his arms around her body, locking her to him, feeling his strength in her as his mouth moved over hers in soft kisses, then opened-mouthed tongue-to-tongue kisses.
 

She did the most dangerous thing then—she opened herself to him. And he was lonely enough to take all she offered. It was a chilling thought, ’cause this would end like all the others. It had to. He bent his forehead to hers, then slowly eased her back to her feet, unaware he’d been holding her above the ground.
 

“Remi, get changed. Get your stuff together, but don’t come out until I tell you. I don’t know if the WKB owns any of the guys here.”

She didn’t step away, and he didn’t let her go. She bowed her head to his chest. “Can you stay with me?”

“No. I need to go help them. We’re going to bring your stuff up to Blade’s. We’ll talk to Kit and Owen about how sensitive it is. Okay?” He expected more arguments, but maybe the dire nature of her situation finally hit home, because she nodded.

He pulled away. “One of us will guard your door.” He looked back at her when he reached the door, then shut her from his mind and stepped into the hall.

* * *

The guys were lugging the last of the boxes out of Remi’s apartment. Arrangements had been made to fix the shattered front door, broken window, and fire damage. Lobo had taken custody of the thugs.
 

Dawn was a hint of lavender in the eastern sky when Greer brought Remi down to one of their SUVs. Val was driving her Forester home, which for once, she was grateful for; she didn’t have the strength to drive back.
 

The constant danger had worn down her defenses. Maybe Greer and his team could find whatever it was in her files that the WKB was after. They had respected her work so far. They weren’t going to pry it wide open and let her protected sources out willy-nilly. They were going after something specific. She had no choice but to trust them.
 

Not if she wanted to live.

Were it not for Greer, she would have been dead long before now. Even before the woodcutter. She would have been killed during the home invasion at her townhouse or in the parking lot of the university. She looked across the middle row bench seats to her self-appointed bodyguard.
 

He was looking at her. She thought of the way he’d kissed her at the apartment. Her gaze lowered to his lips, soft and kissable in his fierce face. He stole her breath. She swallowed and looked away, burying her gaze in the empty prairie outside Cheyenne.

She felt a tug on her seatbelt. Greer had reached over to unfasten it. The sensor alarm sounded. Angel looked in the rearview mirror at them. Greer ignored him as he pulled her onto his lap, then draped a soft throw that he’d taken from her apartment over her shoulders. Reaching up to her neck, he pulled her head down to his shoulder. “Sleep,” he ordered quietly. “We’ll talk when we get to the house. You’ll know what we know. You’re gonna be safe, Remi. I promise you that.”

Remi hadn’t realized how cold she was until Greer covered her. Her eyes were heavy, lulled by the steady, strong beat of his heart. She worried she was too heavy, but he locked his arms around her and stared straight ahead as if he were barely aware of her on his lap. She closed her eyes and breathed in his soothing scent.
 

How could she feel so safe in his arms? She’d sworn off any serious relationships her entire teen and adult life. She’d picked lovers for short and intense interludes, always with the clear understanding that it would never be more than a weekend with any of them. If they’d called her afterward, wanting more, she shut them down. Greer made her feel as if more might actually be possible—perhaps because he was a warrior, not a benign professional.
 

And that scared the hell out of her. Assassins likely didn’t live long enough to keep their promises.

* * *

“Doc, we’re here.” Greer’s voice slipped quietly into her mind, waking her. The door closed as Angel got out of the SUV.
 

Remi pushed against Greer’s chest, sitting up. She couldn’t believe it, but she’d actually slept for most of the ride home.
Home
. She pulled the throw off her lap and ducked out of the SUV. Greer followed her, carrying her purse and laptop bag. The guys were already hauling her boxes into Blade’s home.
 

Staring up at the big timber house, she thought the
déjà vu
she was feeling was stuck on repeat. Only now she really had nowhere else to go.
 

“Where are they taking my boxes?” she asked when they went inside.
 

“To our conference room.”

Remi sent a glance around the sprawling mansion, wondering where that was and if she’d ever get her research back. The guys were carrying boxes down the hall to the right, but she thought there were only bedrooms in that direction. Greer led her up the stairs.
 

“Everyone’s going to crash for a few hours. We should do the same,” he said as they paused outside her bedroom. He was speaking quietly because the rest of the household was asleep.
 

She didn’t go into her room, didn’t move at all. She wanted him to stay with her. She wished she could put her life in reverse and get off at a different stop.
 

He must have read the confusion in her face. “C’mon.” He put his hand on her back and directed her into her room. After shutting the door behind them, he set her things on the floor beside her desk, then took her hand and led her into the bathroom.
 

He stripped, then turned the shower on and focused on helping her peel off her clothes. There was no lust in his eyes, only concern. Her clothes were pooled on the floor in no time. He tested the water, then stepped into the shower stream and drew her in with him.

Remi closed her eyes and let the hot water soothe her. She didn’t resist when Greer poured shampoo into his hands and lathered her hair. He shifted in the shower stall so that he could rinse her hair. When the shampoo was gone, she filled her palm with conditioner—it wasn’t a process she gave any thought to. It was just the next thing to do.
 

She could live like this, in automaton mode. She could exist. Numb was nice. Numb didn’t hurt. Numb didn’t fear. Numb didn’t bleed.

Greer leaned back to look into her face. He must not have liked what he saw, for he scooped the conditioner from her hand and smoothed it over her hair.
 

His knuckles looked bruised. There was a dark line of blood stuck beneath his short nails from the fight at her apartment. The shower hadn’t yet washed it away. She took up the bar of soap and ran it directly over his hands, digging his nails into it.
 

The soap scent smelled foreign on him. She wanted his cinnamon scent back. She lifted the ball of aqua netting and attacked the stains on his hands, scrubbing and scrubbing.
 

Greer watched Remi. She looked wrecked. Exhausted. Lost. She was scrubbing at phantom dirt on his hands. No, that wasn’t true. He knew she was trying to get the blood off his hands. He held still, though it had begun to hurt. He could tell she was weeping, even though her face was in the stream of water.
 

“Baby, don’t cry. Please, don’t cry.”

She paused her fevered motions, and slowly lifted her face to look at him.

“You’ll never wash me clean. You can’t. The blood isn’t on my skin. It’s in my soul.”
 

And there it was. The truth. The thing his fiancée had run from so long ago. The thing his parents and sisters condemned him for.
 

His soul was stained. And he didn’t care. Someone had to protect the good from the bad.

She turned his hand over in her palm and looked at his skin. He braced himself for her to turn from him. It had to come. Light like hers couldn’t exist in his darkness.

She lifted his hand to her mouth. Dropping the scrubby, she held his hand against her face and cried.
 

Oh. Fuck. This hurt. He loved her. He fucking loved her. A love so deep and bright, he realized he’d never loved like that before.

“Greer.” Her voice broke. She leaned her head into his chest.

He pushed free of her and got out of the shower. “I’ll go.”

She followed him out without turning off the shower. “Why? Why are you going?”

“I’m tainted, Remi. You know that. You’ve seen that.”

“I am, too, Greer.”

He lifted his head and frowned at her. “No, you’re not.”

“Don’t leave me.” Her eyes welled with tears. “I’m tired of standing alone.”

He stepped back into her body space. Catching her chin, he lifted her face to his and kissed her. He reached over and shut off the shower, then wrapped a towel around her, and carried her to her bed.
 

He went back into the bathroom and found the drawer with the carton of condoms he’d put there for their use. He covered himself as he walked back into the bedroom.

Lifting the covers, he moved over her, between her legs, entering her without prelude. She opened to him, holding nothing back. Her eyes were locked with his. He stared down at her beautiful face, grounding himself in her arms, in her body. He felt impossibly hollow. She would go, quit him, as all the others he’d loved had, his family included.

He rocked over her slowly, deeply, watching her the whole time. Color began to blossom on her face, the beautiful, beautiful red of her life force. Her eyes closed and her lips parted as her body rose to meet his. He gripped the edge of the mattress above her head and leveraged it to move deeper inside of her, spreading his thighs, spreading hers.