Page 36 of Killer Kiss

Mom shook her head. “In over thirty years, we’ve never not been fully booked. Last year your brother was booked a solid twelve months in advance.”

I rolled my eyes. “Good for Vincent.”

Mom grabbed my hand from across the table, digging her fingernails in. “Stop being so flippant. The target in there is a small-time nothing job. So is the other one I have. They’re jobs I had to take because there was literally nothing else. Do you know how embarrassing that is? Word has gotten around that Vincent and Scythe are out.”

I prickled at the mention of my brother and the tone in my mother’s voice that made me think she would pull Vincent back in if she were given half the chance. It pissed me off more than anything else I’d heard come out of her mouth. She could pick at me. Tell me I was lazy, that I needed Botox, that I wasn’t good enough. But when she said it about my siblings, it sent a red haze over my eyes. “So what if he’s out? I’m still here, aren’t I? People need to leave Vincent alone. He has a family. A baby due to be born soon. He’s not coming back.”

Her gaze turned dark. “Don’t you think I know that? Don’t you think I know that I’m stuck with you? That’s why we have no work, Ophelia. People don’t want you.”

Her words stung, even though I should have been used to it. “Thanks, Mom. That’s just great. If no one needs me here, I’ll just go back to Spain and get a regular job where I never have to think about you and this life you dumped on me again.”

I pushed back on my chair, the feet scraping against the tiled floor with a screech of protest that mirrored the one I wanted to let loose from somewhere deep inside me.

Mom grabbed my arm. “Stop acting like a child. You were the one who fought tooth and nail for me to let Fawn and Vincent go. You don’t get to just leave now. You’re the one ruining it. Now you’re the one who’ll fix it. What the hell are your father and I supposed to do if you just leave?”

I glanced over at old Nora, her wrinkled hands shaking as she ground up coffee beans. “I don’t know, Mom. Maybe you could try working a regular job? Like everyone else does?”

Her mouth dropped open, like I’d just suggested something as crazy as flying to the moon on her broomstick. “You ungrateful child. You’d leave us out on the streets, wouldn’t you? After all we’ve done for you, buying you that apartment, funding your lifestyle. You know we aren’t the only ones who have never worked a proper job. How are you going to get anyone to hire you to do anything when you’re thirty-three years old and have no working history or college degree? Enjoy scrubbing toilets for a living, Ophelia. Because that’s the only sort of job you’re going to get if you walk away.”

She was right. I hadn’t worked a day in my life, other than for my parents.

The realization must have been written all over my face because my mother smiled smugly. “Sit down.”

I did. While I was grateful for people who kept bathrooms clean, it would be a very different life from the one I’d always known. One that was full of hardships and trying to make ends meet. Living paycheck to paycheck. I doubted a janitor’s wage would cover much of my monthly spend.

Mom knew she’d won. “Now here’s what’s going to happen. Since Scythe and Jezebel didn’t work out, you and Riddick will announce your engagement. You’ve both been away, so we’ll just say you met up overseas, fell in love, and the whole thing is just a beautiful combining of two powerful families.”

I couldn’t find the words to say anything.

Mom clearly didn’t like the silence. “Ophelia, you said yourself that men didn’t do it for you. That you found them and sex boring. You’re so much like me at that age. I was the same. Why do you think I married your father? Women like us, we marry for position. For power. Love is for sentimental fools like your brother.”

The fact anyone could call Vincent and Scythe sentimental fools, and mean it, was ridiculous. They were cold-blooded killers at best, complete psychopaths at worst.

They’d just fallen in love.

And for the first time ever, I’d seen peace in my brother’s eyes. Mom could call him a sentimental fool all she wanted, but I wasn’t letting her force him back in. Because she would. If I left again, she’d find a way. My mother didn’t know anything else other than this life. She wouldn’t let anyone or anything stand in the way of her continuing the lifestyle she was used to. Not even her children’s happiness.

She was right about me anyway. We were the same. I’d never even had an orgasm with a man. Never found them interesting or attractive.

Except for Augie.

The thought surprised me. As did the warming tingle I’d begun to associate with his name. My heart rate picked up every time I thought about the way he’d pulled his shirt off in that car, exposing tawny skin and muscles that had just begged for my fingertips. Then the way he’d run his fingers over my cheek and cupped the back of my neck while he’d stitched me up, those blue eyes so intent on his work he hadn’t even noticed the way I’d practically melted beneath his touch.

I straightened my spine, shoving out those kinds of thoughts. They were distracting and, frankly, alarming. How much time had I spent in the last few days following Augie around? Enough that Riddick had caught me completely unaware and off guard and put me in a situation I couldn’t control.

I changed the subject and picked up the job bag from my feet, praying it would be a target interesting enough to keep my mind off this entire web I seemed to be getting myself stuck in. I pulled the bag onto my lap and undid the zipper.

The blue folder that my father painstakingly created for each target was sitting on top. Without taking it out, I lifted the cover to take a peek at the front page of the documents. They always started with a photo of the target.

Augie’s too handsome but perpetually pissed-off face stared back at me.

A gasp slipped from my lips, and my head jerked up, my gaze slamming into my mother’s again.

“What?” she asked, leaning over the table to see what I was staring at. “Do you know him?”

I quickly shut the folder, like closing it might keep her away from him, even though it would take nothing for her to get another copy if she so desired. “No. Of course not. I just gave myself a paper cut.”

Mom sat back, not caring I might have hurt myself. “Oh. Well, that job shouldn’t take you long. When you’re done with that one, there’s one more. But after that, there’s nothing. We need jobs from Riddick. We need to announce your engagement, and soon. His family isn’t going to send any jobs our way until everything is legal and our companies merge.” She frowned at me disapprovingly. “I can’t blame them, with the way you’re acting. You have to stop looking like you’re going to run at any minute. That won’t end well for any of us, Ophelia. Do not embarrass Riddick, and do not embarrass me. This family needs you to do your part.”

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