Page 3 of The Assassin
Until I moved back up and touched his shoulder. There, just above his heart, was a wet patch. “Eli…”
I held up my hand in front of my face. The goggles I wore made the blood on my fingers look blackish-green. I stared at it for a moment, unbelieving, my heart in my throat.
Remi had been shot. In the fucking heart.
“Eli.”
“Y-yeah.”
“Call 911.”
“What?”
I flicked up the goggles to look athim then. In the dark his face was ghost-white, stark, his eyes wide and scared. “Get out your phone.”
“Right.” He nodded like a puppet whose strings had been pulled, one hand fumbling at his pocket.
We didn’t have time to waste. Remi was bleeding out right now.
“What’s your story, Eli?”
I waited, but his frantic eyes were pinned on Remi’s face, his fingers clumsy on his phone.
“What’s. Thestory. Eli?” I barked.
My brother blinked. I grabbed his chin and forced him to meet my eyes, forced his gaze off our brother lying on the pavement with blood spreading beneath his head. We had to hurry. “Eli!”
A choked-off sound escaped him. “Um…perfect night.” He blinked again, his gaze trailing over my shoulder. “Parkour.” He swallowed hard. “I-I was down the street when I heard the shot.”
“Good.” I dropped my hand. We’d practiced the cover story a hundred times, for a hundred locations, but we were both rattled. “And?”
“And”—he shook his head—“I didn’t see h-him. I just found…” Terrified eyes met mine again. “Levi?”
I took my hand off Remi’s chest and gripped Eli hard by both his shoulders.Just breathe.“You take care of him, Eli. Got it? You take care of him, and I’ll takecare of everything else.” No one would ever know anyone had been here but Eli and Remi and a mysterious shooter no one could find. The unconscious man upstairs would be long gone by the time police began searching the area.
And away from here, I’d be free to help, something I wouldn’t be if the police found all four of us.
“Got it,” Eli whispered, thumbing his phone on. A shaky breath left him.“I got it, Levi.”
While my brother made the call to 911, I stripped Remi’s equipment from his body. The last piece to go was the bud in his ear. I tugged it out, staring at his closed eyes. They looked like black hollows in the dark. Lifeless. Empty.
Keep breathing, bro. Just keep breathing for me.
Eli was relaying his story to the dispatcher when I stood. I met his gaze once more, then turnedaway. As I moved through the darkness, I shut off every part of me that cared, every part that feared for my brothers’ lives. Every last bit of humanity went into a safe deep in my soul, and I closed the door and turned the dial to lock it in. There was no room for that now; there was only room for the hunt.
The man upstairs would talk. Someone was going to pay, and he was going to tell me who.
