Page 59 of Bad Moon Rising
Roman scratched his cheek, unsure where this was going.
Evie shrugged. “I get a bit restless sometimes. It’s a long life to drift along alone and bored.”
“Restless?” Flynn snickered before he swallowed his entire glass of liquor.
“I take a contract here and there.” Evie picked the cheese knife up off its board and waved it around. “Keeps me entertained to rid the world of a bit of its filth. The boys don’t care.”
“You’re a hit man?” Nova asked. “Er, I mean hit woman?”
“I prefer to be called an assassin or hired gun. I know most in the business and don’t recall another lycan female as competition. Few of our kind have escaped being locked up by males in the name of protection.” She lowered her voice to be conspiratorial with Nova. “More like they’re scared shitless of our mental strength, so they confine us young to keep us as naive as possible. No one’s locking me up ever again. Been there and done that. Fortunately, my husband was a rather enlightened sort, and my boys wouldn’t dare. If anyone else tries…well, I’ve discovered that knowing all manner of ways to kill tends to keep people from getting any ideas about confining me against my will.”
“You don’t know me, then?” Nova’s lips pressed into a grimace.
“We’ve never met. Tell me how you ended up with these lads,” she said, gesturing with her chin toward her sons.
“I woke up in a car with a text telling me to get Roman out of a club before the cell phone’s countdown timer went off.”
“My name is tattooed on her wrist.” Roman moved in closer, since listening in from across the room was a pain in the ass. Plus, they were next to the bar.
Evie grabbed Nova’s arm and examined the ink. “It’s nice work.”
Roman poured himself another Scotch while she relayed her version of events up until they left Berlin, leaving out the vampire. Which was good. Last thing he wanted was another discussion about Antonio. There’d been too many dinners where they tried to tease out the vampire’s motives for lurking nearby during many of their missions. He never interfered, but they’d round a corner and there he’d be. They’d once concluded he might incite some of the non-humans to attempt the insane world domination plans they enacted.
“What did that to your face?” Evie asked.
Nova skimmed her fingers over a few of the almost-gone lesions. “I went through a windshield after someone tried to abduct me from Roman’s flat in London.”
“Well, you can hardly tell, and from the looks of things, they’ll be gone by tomorrow. I hope the other guy’s dead?”
Nova nodded.
A small bell dinged.
“Hold on, honey,” Evie said. “Boat’s about to take off. We don’t stay still for long.” After a small lurch and hum of motors, Evie ordered, “Sit. Let’s eat.”
A place had already been added at the large dining table for Nova. The moment they found their seats, more staff appeared and deftly set food on the shellacked wood table, which was anchored onto the floor to prevent movement.
After several silent minutes while they dug into the gourmet meal of beef, his mother said, “Have you found out anything about her or why she was sent to you, Roman?”
Both he and Flynn shook their heads.
Flynn downed his entire glass of wine and held it out for a refill. This had nothing to do with their conversation right now and everything to do with getting drunk at the full moon rising. Passing out was one way to survive the night.
“Who did she supposedly kill that was serious enough to warrant you being sent after her?” Evie asked.
“FenCor execs.”
Evie whistled. “That’s a death wish. Sorry, sweetie,” she said to Nova. “Never get into business with that group. I almost did once on a job. The second I realized who funded it, I withdrew.”
Roman said, “We found what might have been her family’s home, but it was abandoned. Someone left a clue for us, though.”
Evie shook her head, chuckling. “You have to assume everything about this circumstance is a clue, dear boy. Let’s start with her name. Nova. Do you think that’s your real name, dear?”
Nova shrugged.
“What name was in the information packet the king or Gerard gave you, Roman, when he asked you to kill her?”
“Not Nova. A few other aliases.”
