Page 24 of Blood
I was set up. But who… “Who do you work for? Who ordered it?”
My mind is going a million miles a minute. I don’t know who to trust. This man who was just inside me was hired to kill me. It would seem reasonable that I wouldn’t trust him, but he had the chance to kill me—more than once—and didn’t. He might be the only one I can trust.
I may not agree with his tactics, but I’m alive because of him.
There’s someone out there who ordered the hit, and I can’t think of anyone who hates me that much. Who would benefit from me being dead?
Wolf finally sits all the way up, away from the pillows. “I don’t work for anyone, Everleigh. I’m independent. A hired gun. I work for anyone who pays.”
I’m in bed with a killer for hire. I don’t know why this idea scares me more than the fact that I’ve seen him kill once, but it does, and I scoot away from him another inch. He stiffens but doesn’t interrupt my interrogation. “Who hired you for this job?”
Whoever it is, the Kings are going to rain down fury on them when they find out. Asher has told me before that they don’t deal with defectors, nor anyone whose loyalty is called into question. They just eliminate the threat. If someone out there hired Wolf to kill me, an almost-member of the Kings, they would see that as a threat to the gang.
Anger flares inside me. I don’t know what I did to threaten someone to the point where they ordered a hit on me. At this point, I don’t care. I want them dead, whoever they are.
Wolf looks me right in the eye, and my world comes crashing down when he speaks. “The Kings of Blood are the ones who ordered the hit.”
Fuck. No. I’m not even sure I understand what’s happening here. If this is true, then everything I knew is a lie. The Kings of Blood accepted me. They said I was in. That the job was just a formality. A way to prove my loyalty.
Does Asher know? If they wanted me killed, is he at risk too? I need to find a way to warn him.
I look at Wolf. He’s silent, his face serious as he watches me process things. “Who ordered it? Who hired you?” My voice wavers, catching onhired.
He shrugs. “I don’t know, princess. Things like this aren’t a matter of placing an order, where you can see who the buyer is. They filter it through so many layers that it can’t be traced. An order for a hit like this would have come from high up in the organization, though.”
I know Asher is high up in the Kings, but I don’t know how high. New recruits aren’t allowed to know things like that. We don’t know who’s in charge, nor how high the pyramid goes. We just know that everyone we’ve ever seen has someone above them in the chain of command.
This has to have come from higher than Asher. Otherwise, he would have heard about it and stopped it. Despite the distance between us over these past years, he’s still my big brother. I have to believe that he would have protected me.
He’s high up in the Kings, but no one knows everything. They must have kept this from him, and if they did, there’s a reason. He could be the next target.
My stomach twists. Asher could be in danger.
“I have to leave. I need to warn Asher,” I blurt out. I throw the covers off and swing my legs over the side of the bed. I don’t even care that I’m naked right now.
Wolf holds his hand up, making me pause. “That’s not a good idea, Everleigh.”
I throw my hands up in exasperation. “Why not? My brother is part of the Kings, too. If they ordered a hit on me, he could be next.”
“Everleigh. Why do you think I brought you here?” He speaks slowly, as if trying to get me to understand. Waiting for the gears to start turning in my head.
I hadn’t really thought about his motivations at all, to be honest. “To keep me captive and fuck me, I assume. How long were you planning on keeping me?”
“That’s just it. I didn’t have a plan. I saw you and I couldn’t go through with it. I couldn’t kill you. That’s never happened to me before; there was just something about you. You remind me of—” He breaks off, shaking his head slightly before continuing. “But I knew that if I let you walk out of there, you were just going to die by someone else’s hand. If the Kings want you dead, they won’t stop just because I didn’t finish the job. If you go back there, it will be like walking right into the lion’s den.”
There’s a flash of pain in his features. Something about me? Or is there more to this for him? He was going to say I reminded him of someone, wasn’t he? Who? I study his face, taking in the war raging in his eyes. He was supposed to kill me. Instead, he took their money and didn’t finish the job. He might be in danger, too.
I whisper, “How much did they pay you?”
“Everleigh. It isn’t about the money.” He refuses to look at me.
It’s a lot, then. How badly did they want me dead? “Tell me. How much?”
“One million.” He finally raises his steely gaze to meet mine. “Half now, half once the job was done. And they’re going to want that back, just as much as they want you dead.”
Fuck. So Wolf took half a million dollars of the Kings’ money and failed to do his job. I failed to do mine and also failed to get killed. At this point, we’re both at the top of the list of people the Kings of Blood would like to get rid of.
Wolf’s muscles twitch as he clenches his jaw. He should be terrifying when he’s angry like this. I suppose he would be, if his anger were directed at me. The Kings may want him dead, but whoever they send for Wolf should be prepared for a fight.
