The Accidental Assassin (20 page)

“Are we even, then?” Owen asked. “You call off the hunt for me. I walk away now. End of story.”

I knew Owen was bluffing, but his cold words still stung.

“We’re even.” Marcus touched my cheek and I twitched away from him. His words were for Owen, but his eyes were trained on me. “I called it off when I was certain you were heading to London.”

“And the girl?” Owen turned around and started picking up his weapons.

“She is Maria’s problem.” Marcus turned away from me. “Apparently this one’s husband has something that belongs to the woman.” He looked back at me. “Though I’m not sure she’ll be worth trading if her husband finds out she’s been fucking you.”

My insides froze and I fought to breathe. They were looking for Tess, not me. I tried to regain my composure, lest I give away the fact that I wasn’t who they really wanted. If they found out, they would start looking for my friend and she had no heads up, no one to protect her. No Owen.

“Who is Maria?” Owen tucked his gun into his pants while watching Marcus. From the angle I was standing at, I caught the glint of a knife as Owen palmed the blade.

“Not anyone that concerns you.” Marcus wrapped his fingers around my arm and I tried to jerk away. “I’m assuming that this is the end of our work arrangement?”

“I can’t trust you.” Owen shrugged. “I can’t work with you.”

“Mum always said to trust no one.”

“I don’t think she was talking about each other, Marcus.” Owen shook his head.

“We’ll never know.” Marcus pulled me closer to him. “I was certain you’d try to kill me. It’s much easier this way.”

“Just stay out of my way.” Owen turned toward the door, stooping down to grab his bag of weapons.

My heart dropped as I watched him walk away without looking back. He was leaving me; leaving me with the man that wanted to give me to some woman that sounded like the villain in a comic book. I had trusted him, but my faith was starting to waver. What did I really know about him?

“The least I can do.” Marcus used his free hand to reach in his jacket. The glint of metal caught my eye and I panicked.

“Owen!” I balled up my free hand and swung it down and backward into his crotch as hard as I could. He crumpled behind me.

“Bitch!” Marcus shoved me to the ground and my head slammed into the table as I fell. Pain exploded behind my eyes, but I scrambled to get upright. I couldn’t afford to be on the floor right now. Unfortunately, my legs weren’t working quite right.

I could hear people running through the house, shouting from upstairs, and Owen said something, but I couldn’t make out the words. I push to get off of the floor, adrenaline pumping through my veins, but my feet still wouldn’t support me. I caught a glimpse of Marcus pulling a knife out of his shoulder, blood dripping down his linen jacket.

Owen grabbed my hand and pulled me up, pushing his bag into my arms and me toward the front door. Just as I reached for the handle it turned and the door swung open. Owen moved like quicksilver, and his fists flew, rendering the new man impotent. Spinning around he pulled his gun and shot the first guard that came down the stairs.

It was like watching an action movie, but in slow motion. My ears were ringing and I couldn’t focus on anything. I pushed forward, trying to get out. After stepping on the man Owen had incapacitated, I was almost out the door when Owen’s voice ripped through the air.

“Ava!” There was so much anguish in his voice I turned in midstep, just in time to see the gun pointed at my head. My body froze, every muscle, every cell, every atom just stopped.

Something large and heavy slammed against me, knocking the wind out of my lungs. I fell face first on the cement stairs and for a moment wonder if I’d been shot, but the person on my back rolled off to the side. Slick fingers wrapped around mine, urging me to stand, and I looked up into Owen’s face. Once I was on my feet, he let go of me and pushed me toward the street.

Pulling one of his guns from his holster, he fired behind us. The sound was so loud it felt like a bomb going off in my head. Or maybe I had a concussion. I wasn’t really thinking straight. I reached to rub the sore spot on my head where I’d hit the table, and my hand came away red. Was that my blood, or someone else’s? But there was no time to think about it as another volley of gunshots rang out.

People were watching from behind cars and trash cans, afraid to move. A black car skidded around the corner and came to a screeching halt in front of us.

“Bloody hell.” Mavis rolled down her window and fired two quick shots past us. “Get in.”

I grabbed the door handle with still-bloody fingers, and the sight made me dizzy. I turned around in a panic, looking for Owen, but he was right behind me.

“Get in, Ava.” His eyes were calm, despite the red that stained his shirt.

Hurrying, I opened the door and threw myself across the bench seat, leaving room for Owen. He fired two shots before ducking into the seat. He reached for the door handle and winced, but made no sound. He almost didn’t get the door shut, but luckily when Mavis hit the gas, the door swung backward and latched.

“Oh my God.” I ran my hand over his arm but he shooed me away. “Stop that! You’ve been shot!”

“I noticed.” A little of his temper peeked through his calm façade.

“Let me look!” I reached for his shirt but he gave me a stern look.

“I’m fine. Right now we just need to get out of here.”

“I should kill you for going in there without me.” Mavis’s cool voice floated from the front of the car. “And if you lost my lead, I
will
kill you.”

“You wouldn’t have saved us if you were going to do that.” Owen shook his head. “And you’re looking for a Maria. She’s local.”

“Right then. Try to not bleed all over the seat.” Mavis responded calmly as if she wasn’t dodging cars and pedestrians, her anger dissipating.

“Where are you taking us?” I asked as I opened Owen’s bag and pulled out my sweater.

“A safe place.”

“Right. I don’t believe in those anymore.” I ducked lower in the seat and noticed Owen’s eyes snap shut in pain when the car hit a large pot hole. “So where is it?”

“It’s fine, Ava.” He turned to look out the window.

“No one is following us,” Mavis told him. I could see her bright eyes watching us in the rear view mirror.

“Don’t go straight to your place.”

“Thank you, Owen, but I’ve done this once or twice on my own.” I could practically hear her rolling her eyes. “If you want to drive next time, don’t go into the bad guy’s house without back up, and don’t get shot along the way.”

I pulled at his sweater, trying to find the wound. I knew he was feeling bad if he wasn’t complaining any more. When I found the source of the blood, my stomach rolled. It took a minute before I could actually make sense of what I was seeing. I leaned close to try and see if there was any bullet, but couldn’t see anything.

“It’s a flesh wound.” I looked up into Owen’s calm eyes.

“How can you know?” I looked back at the wound.

“Would have made a bigger hole otherwise.” He took a deep breath.

I made him lean forward so I could wrap the sweater around his shoulder to try and slow the bleeding. As I held my hands pressed against the injury an ugly thought began to fill my mind. He had been shot from behind and in the top of his shoulder. As if he had been running.

Running to tackle someone.

“That bullet was meant for me.”

BEING SHOT WAS never fun. I’d been shot once before, in the leg. That hadn’t been fun either. The weird part was that it had happened before my current occupation. There was a reason becoming an assassin had seemed like a logical job choice. My childhood hadn’t been a picnic.

However, having Ava look at me with those big eyes while her tiny hands pressed against me almost made it worthwhile. Almost. Bruises were already developing along her cheekbone and above her left eye. They hurt me more than the damn gun shot.

“Marcus said a woman is in charged. Her name is Maria.” I frowned as I went over the details of my meeting with her. “She’s the one that hired me to kill Song.”

“Why did you take his case?” Mavis asked. She knew I was picky when it came to hits.

“He was a sex slave trader.”

She didn’t respond and I knew from the way her shoulders stiffened she was thinking about her friend.

“It looks like she’s into a lot of different things.”

“Then we need to find this Maria and get her to tell us where Laura is and why she is trying to kill Tessa. And me.” Ava’s voice was firm.

Mavis hit another pothole and Ava’s tiny little hands felt more like hot irons as they pushed against me.

“Oy, pay attention, woman!” I growled.

“Sorry,” Ava winced.

“I didn’t mean you.” I looked at her and tried to smile. It probably wasn’t as comforting as I had intended because her face blanched.

“It’s not my damn fault there are potholes on this road.” Mavis growled from the front seat. “Take it up with Parliament.”

“I’ll send a letter with my taxes.” I closed my eyes and breathed deep through my nose.

Mavis barked a loud laugh. “Right.”

“We should take you to a hospital.” Ava pressed her hand against my shoulder. “You’re losing a lot of blood.”

“No hospitals.” I opened my eyes and looked at Ava. “Besides, it’s not that bad. Mavis can fix me up.”

“Aren’t you lucky?” Mavis asked.

“But you need medicine, and to be checked out.” Ava shook her head.

“I’m fine.” I touched her cheek. I couldn’t remember the last time someone had been worried about me. It was…nice and a bit frustrating, but in a good way. “This is an easy fix.”

She narrowed her eyes and sucked her bottom lip into her mouth. I hated seeing her so upset, but I’d known this was a possible outcome going in there. It could have gone much worse, to be honest. However, we weren’t going to get any answers without some risks. And I wasn’t willing to let Ava pay the dues.

“No one has followed us. I’m taking us to a house.” Mavis turned down a small road. “Can you walk?”

I curled my lip. “I was shot in the shoulder, not my foot. Of course I can walk.”

“Good, because you’re too big to carry.” Mavis slammed the car into park in a tiny spot behind a building. The other buildings were so close I wondered how I was going to open the door wide enough to get out.

My fingers slipped on the door handle and Ava reached over me to push it open before hurrying out of her side.

“Are you okay?” Mavis asked quietly. She turned in her seat and let her eyes roam over my bloody shirt. I knew she was asking while Ava couldn’t hear on purpose.

“Bloody hurts, but I’ll live.” I kept my voice calm. No jokes. She needed to know where I was, because we were in trouble. Marcus would send men out looking for us and by now he would know that Mavis had helped us.

“Good.”

My door opened and Ava stood there with her hands out like she was going to help me stand. Part of me wanted to laugh, the other part of me felt weird and gooey. That had to be the blood loss. Her cool hands wrapped around my uninjured arm and she looped it over her shoulders. My eyebrows rose and I felt the twitch of my lips.

Mavis was watching us with an amused expression that she quickly schooled into one of boredom when Ava looked her way.

“Where are we going?” Ava asked.

“This way.” Mavis turned around and climbed a short set of stairs.

“Lean on me if you need to.” Ava placed a hand on my stomach as she urged me forward.

“You know, I’ve been shot before.” I smiled down at her as she tried to push me up the stairs. I wanted her to understand that I was really going to be okay.

“Yeah, but this time it was for me.” Her eyes welled up and I reached to catch a tear with my thumb. Her cheek was puffy under my fingers and I wished I could go back and beat all of those guys again.

I didn’t know what to say, so it was best if I kept my mouth shut. Seeing the gun pointed in her direction had sent fire like panic through my veins. I had acted on instinct, not worried about anything but getting her out of harm’s way. When we hit the ground I had been more worried about checking on her than concerned with my shoulder.