shaede assassin 05 - shadows at midnight (21 page)

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Almost midnight.

I watched from the cover of shadow as Tyler took his fifth lap around the building’s rooftop. He looked fidgety as hell. Not a good sign. He stuffed his hand in his pocket and it balled into a fist as though gripping something. A weapon? From this distance it was hard to tell. With my recent bad streak where work was concerned I had to play this close to the hip. For all I knew this Tyler guy was a contract killer sent to take me out. I’d made waves in the underground crime syndicates lately—namely, I’d offed a few of the nastier bosses—and I didn’t trust any of my potential enemies not to at least try to turn the tables on me.

Intuition tingled at the back of my mind. Something that told me despite my misgivings, Tyler didn’t want to hurt me. This was
business
. Nothing more. It didn’t help the knot in my gut when he reached up to comb the tangles of his hair away from his face. Gorgeous didn’t even begin to describe him. Tyler was goddamned beautiful. I was tired of taking my chances, contracting jobs that ultimately ended in disaster—or me running a knife through the guy who’d hired me because he ended up to be a bigger piece of shit than the person I’d been hired to kill. I needed a handler I could trust. And I couldn’t help but feel like I could trust Tyler.

That he’d be one of the good guys.

He continued to fiddle with whatever he had in his pocket as he paced. Back and forth. Back and forth. Jesus, I was starting to get dizzy. I’d already agreed to work for Tyler, it was stupid to stay hidden like some sort of voyeur and watch him pace. Though I had to admit, I didn’t mind the view. I caught the wind current and drifted to the roof of the next building. His back was turned to me and I stepped from shadow and regained my corporeal form.

“Well, I’m here,” I said by way of a greeting. “Let’s get this over with so I can go to bed.”

He kept his back to me and I was almost glad. Aside from his killer good looks, Tyler had the most beautiful eyes I’d ever seen. A gorgeous hazel color that was almost inhuman. I swallowed down the sudden loneliness that threatened to crest over me. The only inhuman thing on this roof tonight was me. Tyler and I had nothing in common save the fact he had money to burn and I was more than happy to take it off of him. I couldn’t afford personal entanglements, no matter how much I yearned for even a momentary connection with another living being. He turned to face me and I swear my traitorous heart skipped a damned beat.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you asked to meet up here so you could get me alone.”

His teasing tone caught me off guard. My lips twitched, threatening a smile. I locked that shit down, though, and hid my amusement until I knew that my face was once again an expressionless mask. “I don’t mix business with pleasure, Tyler.”

How many times did I have to remind him? With every interaction, he became more familiar with me. More playful. Flirty even. I’d never worked for anyone like Tyler before. Hell, I’d never met anyone like him before. It seemed the more off-putting I was, the more it encouraged him. The boy was a glutton for punishment. He’d called me a couple of times a week since our first meeting. You’d think he was looking for an excuse to talk to me.

“You know, there’s this thing called a wire transfer,” he remarked as he handed me an envelope of cash. My fee for the job I was about to do for him. “Maybe you ought to look into opening a bank account? I mean, what are you going to do, stuff that money in your mattress for safe keeping?”

I cocked a brow, and though I was going for threatening, I got the impression that it only turned him on. His gaze warmed as it raked me from head to toe. There wasn’t an ounce of me from the neck down that wasn’t covered in my signature black, but I swear to god, when Tyler looked at me I felt bare.

“I never said I didn’t have the means to accept a wire transfer.” I needed to keep my mind on business and not how delicious he looked in his tattered jeans and tight t-shirt. “I don’t trust you. Plain and simple. And until I do, I’m not giving you anything that you can use to track me.”

Tyler probably thought I was a bitch. I had a tendency to come off as abrasive as five grit sandpaper. But it was for his own good. For both of our own good. I couldn’t let anyone get close. I refused to take the chance that anyone would hurt me again.

“So I guess you won’t be inviting me over to your place any time soon?”

My lips twitched. He was persistent, I’d give him that. “Not a chance.”

“Since we’re still having trust issues, you’re going to continue to get fifty percent of your fee up front, and fifty percent when the job’s done for your next few assignments.”

I scowled.
Suspicious SOB
. I could hardly blame him, though. I was as suspicious as they came. His gaze heated once again and my heart picked up its rhythm in my chest.
Business
. This was
business
. “Fine. But once we’ve established that I’m consistent in getting jobs done, damned efficiently I might add, I get one hundred percent of my fee up front. No questions asked. Got it?”

“We’ll see.” Jesus. I think he actually enjoyed riling me up. A first for both potential employers and a man in general. I didn’t have a bubbly personality and I was about as girly as a mud hole. That didn’t seem to bother Tyler, though. “There’s a bonus in the envelope as well,” he said with a jerk of his chin. “The client was impressed with your work and was thankful you were able to recover the locket the mark had stolen. Apparently it belonged to the client’s daughter. The bastard kept the locket as a souvenir after he raped her. I hope you gave him exactly what he had coming to him.”

A wisp of shadow snaked from my booted foot and slithered in a graceful arch until I called it back to my body. The mark had been a lowlife son of a bitch and I’d made him pay for his sins. “Trust me,” I said, my tone as dark as the shadows that constructed me. “I did.”

A worried crease cut into Tyler’s brow. I wanted to tell him that he shouldn’t waste any of his concern on me. I was immortal. It’s not like any of my antics were going to get me killed any time soon. Long moments passed and Tyler continued to study me with that same unnerving intensity that made me feel as though he knew more about me than I even knew myself. I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. Squirmed under the scrutiny of that bright hazel stare until my breath hitched in my chest. The urge to reach out and touch him, to press my body against the solid wall of his chest damned near overwhelmed me. I needed to get the hell out of here before I did something stupid. Before I did something that I’d surely regret.

“Call me when something else comes up,” I said, and turned to leave.

“I’m not quite done with you.” I stopped dead in my tracks, my heart hammering in my chest. “Before you go, I have something for you.”

He had something for me? Curiosity won out over common sense and I turned to face him. I tried to keep my face expressionless but the corner of his mouth quirked in a half smile and I found my own mouth wanting to respond. I raised my brow in question. “What?”

“Relax,” he laughed. “It’s not a big deal.”

His tone was light but his expression told another story. Tyler’s brow remained furrowed and his jaw squared as he dug in his pocket. I took a few steps closer and warily inspected the shining silver object pinched between his thumb and finger. I took another step closer. Another. And one more until I didn’t think I could resist the urge to reach out and touch him.

“What is it?” I asked quietly.

“Just a ring,” Tyler replied. The words seemed nonchalant, but something simmered beneath the words. Hope? Longing? I met his gaze and I swore a light sparked in his eyes. Jesus, it should have been illegal for anyone to be so alarmingly gorgeous.

“A ring,” I said, flatly. Seemed suspicious as hell to me.

“All of my employees wear one,” he responded with a shrug. “Think of it as an ID tag. If a job goes south, the ring will identify you even if dental records can’t.” He regarded me for a quiet moment. “And if anyone happens to give you a hard time?” he hiked a shoulder and adopted a relaxed stance. “One look at that ring and
no one
will dare to cross you.”

“No one would dare to cross me now,” I said, back to business. For all I knew that damned ring was bugged or it was some sort of tracking device that could lead him straight to my studio. Tyler might have made my girl parts feel all warm and fuzzy but I wasn’t about to let my guard down.

“Look.” Tyler inched forward as though he sensed I was about to bolt. “I know you’re tough shit, but just take it. It’s not like I’m asking you to go steady or anything, just solidifying our business agreement. Some employers hand out W-4s, I hand out rings.”

I couldn’t hold back my smile this time. I’d struck some strange business deals before but this one took the cake. Tyler stared, his gaze burning with a renewed heat that damned near made me sweat. He reached out, almost impulsively and took my hand.

His skin was cool compared to mine but a spark that I couldn’t ignore ignited between us in that moment. From the second our skin met, I felt a strange sense of peace. As though my soul had found shelter from the storm that had pummeled it for almost a century. I felt safe. Protected. Something that I hadn’t known in such a long time that I barely recognized it for what it was. Stupid, I know. The contact was so innocent, and yet, it impacted me to the very marrow of my being.

A chill of sudden cold crept up my spine and I shivered. Tyler’s lids became hooded as he rolled the ring between his thumb and finger before he slipped it on my thumb. The simple act carried far more weight than it should have and I shook off the thought that something had passed between us in this moment. Something that I could never walk away from.
It’s just a stupid ring, Darian. Jesus, it’s not like he asked you to marry him or some shit
. Nothing more than a piece of jewelry. A W-2. A calling card. Ty had said it himself. It was silly to think that the gesture was anything more. That
we’d
be anything more… I had a feeling that I’d have to remind myself of that fact over the course of my employment with Tyler. There would never be an “
us”
. Just him and me. Business.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

No dark, ominous clouds appeared to rain on my parade, so I assumed that the Synod had given Tyler and me some time to consider their ultimatum before they pronounced judgment and brought the hammer down. Not that Tyler seemed to be the least bit worried. It wasn’t bravado, either. If I had to guess, he’d stolen something from the Synod that gave him a scary-crazy boost in the power department. I reached out and twisted the ring on my thumb.

All the way from Belltown to Capitol Hill, I’d been thinking about that night on the rooftop with Tyler and the moment he’d slipped the ring on my thumb. Now, I stood at the gate to Xander’s property and I didn’t feel any closer to knowing what was going on than I did an hour ago. I brought the ring up and studied it closely. “What in the hell are you?”

“You’re lucky it’s me who’s caught you talking to yourself.” Asher crossed the driveway and stood before the wrought iron gate that swung open to let me through. “To anyone else, you’d look a little—”

“Crazy?” I ventured.

“I was going to say eccentric. It sounds nicer.”

Asher gave me a wan smile. I closed the distance between us and he fell into step beside me. “Is he really that bad?” I made sure to get right down to business. The last thing I needed was for Ash to ask why I felt the urge to speak to my own hand.

“I wish I could say this was all a clever ploy to get you over here,” Asher replied. “He’s not suffering from the disorientation of the illusions anymore. This is something else, I think.”

 “Is he sick, incoherent, speaking in tongues?” I’d need a hell of a lot more information if I was going to help Xander. “Spit it out already.”

“We’re not sure what’s wrong with him, that’s the problem.” Ash opened the door and I followed him inside. “It’s like he’s simply given up.”

Xander give up? Impossible. I’d never known him to be anything but insufferably stubborn. “Well, if he needs a good ass kicking, I can definitely help with that.” I closed the door behind me and headed in the direction of Xander’s study. Asher reached out and grabbed my arm.

“He’s still in his room. He hasn’t left it since the day we brought him home.”

Shit
. “Sounds like an ass kicking is
exactly
what he needs.”

“We haven’t gone easy on him,” Ash said as we climbed the stairs. “Well, Raif and Anya haven’t. He’s pretty much told everyone to fuck off and leave him alone.”

“Yeah, well, I won’t let him get away with that. I don’t give a shit if he’s a king or not.”

Asher smiled. “That’s pretty much what Raif and Anya said when they told me to call you.”

“I take it he’s still wearing his brother’s crown?”

“For now,” Asher said. “It’s starting to wear on him, though. Raif isn’t exactly the diplomatic type.”

No, he certainly wasn’t. “Is he around?”

Asher nodded. “Downstairs. Meetings pretty much all day.”

Cornering Raif for a few minutes might not be as easy as it used to be. Still, I had a feeling he’d make room in his schedule for me. “Can you let him know I’m here? I’ll head downstairs after I rattle Xander’s chain for a bit.”

“Good luck.” Ash left me at Xander’s bedroom door and headed back for the stairs. “You’re going to need it.”

Instead of knocking, I strolled past Myles and Louella who were currently guarding Xander’s suite and entered the room. If I was going to give Xander a nudge, I needed to be the pain in the ass that had always gone out of her way to rile him. The me that I’d been before we’d become close. Bad-ass bitch mode, activated.