Page 43 of Assassin's Mark
An abrupt nod somehow transmitted his appreciation. I ducked my head, scrambled into a seat.
“What did you find?”
At first I thought Levi was talking to me, but Eli answered around a mouthful of biscuits and gravy. “The authorities are coming up blank. Hospital securityreported an attack and the abduction of one of their nurses, but surveillance couldn’t identify the assailant and he was awake and ghosted out of there before Leah and Remi were reported missing.”
“And nothing outside—no car, no pickup from someone else, nothing?”
“Nothing.”
“Good.”
What?
The brothers didn't seem to notice my confusion, their attention on the food and each other.
“Didyoufind Ray?”
The skin around Eli’s eyes went tight. “No. Axe’s men don’t slip up often.”
Who was Axe?
“Ray did,” Levi said. “He underestimated his opponent—he thought Remi was alone. Big mistake.”
They were talking about the man at the hospital. Ray. Who worked for someone named Axe. I looked from Levi to his brother and back again, an inappropriate bubble of laughter rising.Just another daysearching for my killer coworkers. Totally normal.
When had my life become so bizarre?
When you slept with an assassin.
The laughter died in my throat.
“He’s just lucky I didn’t have time to really make him regret that mistake,” Eli grated out, his fist clenching around his fork. “And a witness.”
No killing in front of witnesses—was that a rule too? If Leah hadn’t been in that room, Eli would’vekilled Ray. And yet, when I pictured the scene on the security cameras, Leah alone, unaware, Remi unconscious and vulnerable, I couldn’t bring myself to condemn that decision.
I swirled my fork in the generous amount of gravy I’d dolloped onto my flaky biscuits. “Are you saying you know the men Derrick sent after you?”
Levi glanced at me, his gaze dropping to my plate. A frown curved his lips.“Eat, Abby.”
“But—”
Levi’s stare burned into me. “Eat,” he said again.
Why did he care? Frustration coiled in my stomach, but I couldn’t bring myself to spout the words—which upped the frustration tenfold.
Across the table, a dark wing of an eyebrow rose on Levi’s granite-carved face. I forked up a bite and shoved it in my mouth, glaring the whole time. A useless rebellion, but a rebellionall the same.
Totally useless. Levi turned his stare back to Eli. I chewed and swallowed.
Eli ignored the byplay taking place. “You know he's not gonna stop. And neither will Axe. Ray’s ass is grass, but once Axe gets a contract, it gets finished, one way or another.”
Levi grunted around his final bite of breakfast.
My mind grabbed on to Eli’s words and wouldn’t let go. Derrick might’ve madea mistake in the first assassin he’d approached, but this new set wouldn’t stop. Had they taken the original contract, the one Levi had rejected? Had they succeeded?
“What happened to the man?” I asked.
Two pairs of narrowed eyes zeroed in on me. “Which man?” Levi asked.
