Page 13 of Echoes and Oaths
Raven smirked. “Okay.Observe.” She drew out the word like it was a joke. “WeobserveOrtega’s camp.”
“Yeah,” Jinx said, eyes on the road ahead. “We need to know what he’s up to. And why the Ghost isn’t making a move.”
She leaned her head back against the window. “Seems to me like the situation’s just as messed up as the one you left almost three years ago.”
Jinx grunted.
“Speaking of which …” Raven turned her head slightly. “Are you ever gonna tell me about her?”
He exhaled through his nose. “No.”
Raven didn’t push, and he was grateful. Because he couldn’t. His memories of Eira were sacred. Too raw, too tender to voice.
How could he explain how her presence had settled the chaos in his mind? The way her laugh had made his chest ache? How her skin had felt against his, warm and soft like silk?
How did you explainpeaceto someone who’d never tasted it?
Her voice. Her smile. The way she moved through the world…healed it, cared for it,understoodit. The way she’dseenhim, not as a killer but as a man. A man worth loving. He couldn’t tell anyone about that. Not Raven. Not Guardian. Not anyone. Because what he’d had with Eira … wasn’t a memory. It was a part of him. A sacred part. And it belonged to him alone.
Granted, he didn’t expose her to his real self, to the assassin he’d become. However, when he was with her, he was himself, or at least as close to himself as he could remember. With her, he was the college boy who cared for animals at the rescue. The young man with a future and a dream. He’d relaxed around her. He’d laughed, played, and flirted. He’d made the mistake of becoming attached and then, without knowing it, of falling in love.
He kept driving, silence settling between them again. The jungle blurred past in streaks of green and gold as they picked up speed. For the next hour, they traded theories. They were, basically, half-hearted guesses about who the Ghost could be and what his endgame might involve. None of it brought them closer to the truth.
And the truth felt further away than ever.
The peaceful silence shattered as they roundedthe bend toward the small mountain village where Jinx’s hidden safe house was tucked between the trees. Three matte-black SUVs roared past them in a blur, kicking up a wall of dust.
“What the fuck was that?” Raven twisted in her seat, watching the taillights disappear around the curve.
“Ortega’s crew,” Jinx muttered, tightening his grip on the wheel.
“How do you know?”
Jinx’s jaw flexed as he pressed harder on the gas. “No one else would’ve had that kind of money,” Jinx muttered, voice low and bitter as he accelerated, tailing the SUVs from a safe distance.
Raven turned toward him. “Fuck,” Jinx swore again, his jaw tightening as he suddenly eased off the gas.
“What? What’s the matter?” she asked, brows pulling together in concern.
“They’re going to Eira’s.”
“Eira’s?” Raven blinked. “Who’s Eira? What’s an Eira?”
Jinx didn’t answer. Instead, he swerved hard off the dirt road, cutting into the underbrush and bringing the vehicle to a jerking halt beneath thethick canopy of jungle vines. Without missing a beat, he threw open the door.
“Come on. Bring the mic.”
Raven was already out, her boots hitting the ground before the words finished leaving his mouth. She grabbed the parabolic microphone and followed Jinx as they pushed through the brush. Vines tugged at their clothes, and insects buzzed around them in a humid cloud as they jogged downhill through the trees.
They dropped to their bellies at the ridge just beyond the clearing, crawling forward until the scene below came into full view.
An old truck, rusted and groaning beneath the weight of its steel tank, had slowed the caravan. The narrow driveway had forced the SUVs to stop, bottlenecked by the massive vehicle. If the vehicle moved faster than three miles an hour, it was only because it was going downhill.
Jinx raised the mic and aimed it toward the scene. That’s when he saw her. His breath caught in his throat, sharp and painful.
Eira.
Her long, black hair flowed freely down her back, moving like silk in the breeze. Her body, soft, curvy, and breathtaking hadn’t changed at all.
