Page 23 of Claimed By the Hitman: Codename Cupid

“You seem certain that they’re gonna let you slide.” He takes a pull from his flask. “If that speaker tells me to, you know I’ll blow your brains out right here.”

I smile, thinking about all the things Olympia still has to lose.

My bombing schedule has just begun, and they won’t risk seeing just how deep it goes. They’ll let me go because only I can stop it, and they won’t come looking because they know I’ll start it up again.

Me? I’ve only got one thing to lose, and she’s the one thing now completely out of their reach.

“And ruin these pretty white walls?” In one gulp, I down the espresso and smirk at Hades. “I don’t think so.”

It’s a cool night in the desert.

The stars are out, blanketing the sky and shining down on me like spotlights. Zeus isn’t up there watching me anymore. None of them are.

As it turns out, Olympia did not want to ruin their white walls. By the time I’d ordered and finished another espresso, the speaker let me know that they were accepting the deal. The voice of Zeus didn’t sound so big surrendering to my demands.

No more Cupid.

No more Hera.

They forget about us, forever.

Hades and his dog dropped me off back at the casino, insisting on the bag over my head as if I don’t already know all the organization’s secrets. Their black SUV speeding off is the last bit of Olympia I’ll ever witness.

Unless you count the cup I took.

From Vegas, it was a nine-hour drive to her hiding place.

Out here, in a wasteland where no one would ever come looking, Rose flipped switches and raised hell. I’m parked outside the trailer, praying that she’s still in there. I know she is. I know my plan succeeded, but I can’t shake the fear that something could have happened to her.

The door opens, and my future walks out.

She’s wearing that same flannel from our safehouse in the mountains. Her pale legs gleam in the starlight.

Finally, I’m home.

“It’s a good thing you’re here,” she says as I get out of the car. “Forty-three more minutes, and I would have flipped another switch.”

I pretend to calculate in my head as I saunter over. “Which one was that?”

“Deputy Chief Morel’s house in Aspen.”

“Oh, yeah.” I mimic an explosion. “That one would have been bad.”

She’s standing on the trailer’s metal steps, biting her lip and rocking on her heels. I wrap an arm around her waist and press my face into the flannel. The longest, most relieving sigh leaves my body.

“I can’t believe you were right,” she whispers.

“Told you,” I mock. “Look, I even brought you back a souvenir.”

I plant the white cup with the red thunderbolt in her hands.

Her jaw hangs. “You’re kidding. They actually make cheap shit like this? Do you think they have team building weekends, too?”

“The coffee was fantastic, though.”

Rose turns the cup over. “You… you don’t think there’s a tracker in it, do you?”

“Who cares? They’re afraid of us, now.” I shrug before yelling into the cup. “You hear us in there? You want moreboom-boom? Come and get us!”

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