Page 9 of Assassin's Mark
“Who is that? Answer me, Levi!”
Levi leaned back against the edge of the desk, thick arms crossed over his ink-decorated chest. A smirk that didn’t match his eyes tugged at his lips. Lips I’d kissed. Lips that had caressed and kissed and sucked—
“That, Eli, is Derrick Roslyn’s daughter.”
My father’s name rang in my ears, setting off another wave of confusion. Shock. Resignationbegan a slow crawl up my soul at the satisfaction saturating the words. Levi had targeted me? Because I was my father’s daughter. I shouldn’t be surprised, but that’s exactly what I was.
This hadn’t been about me at all. So what was it about?
Eli’s curses filled the air. Levi chuckled. “I told you, I’ll take care of our problem. Abby here is going to help me, one way or another.”
“No!” Eli’svoice hardened, becoming as frigid as Levi’s had been mere moments ago. “You know the code, brother. We’ve never broken it, and neither have you. Don’t hurt the innocent.”
What code? What innocent? Why would they hurt anyone, either of them?
“Oh, she’s not innocent. Not anymore.”
Tears stung the backs of my eyes at Levi’s tone, at the dismissive way his gaze traveled over my body. I lookeddown, seeing what he saw—my crossed arms had plumped my breasts above my corselet in a display I’d never intended to put on, but I couldn’t seem to let go, couldn’t relax the only thing holding me together right now.
“Don’t you hurt her; you hear me?” Eli yelled this time, and I swore I heard a hint of something close to panic in the words. “Don’t do anything you’ll regret later.”
“I don’t feelregret. I don’t feel anything, not anymore.” Levi reached back toward the phone without looking, his finger hovering over the Off button. “Take care of Remi.”
Click.
The sound hit my body like a lash.
“Good morning.”
Levi’s words should have been friendly, but no matter which way I turned them in my head, I couldn’t find even a hint. And I didn’t know where to start.
With the obvious, ofcourse.
“You know who I am?”
“Of course I do. I knew before I ever laid eyes on you.”
I swallowed hard, determined not to give in to the sick churning in my stomach. “And when was that?”
“Long before you walked into a club and set yourself up as bait.”
So he’d been following me. Why?
Does it matter?Only one thing mattered, and that was where I needed to focus. “I want to go home now.”
Levi shook his head. The sick feeling got stronger. “You’re not going home. You’ll be here a long time, in fact. Until your father gives me exactly what I want, though I plan to drag him through hell first. And rest assured, Abby”—he leaned toward me, one brow raised—“I know hell much, much better than he does. But not for long.”
It was like a line from a movie, something you’d see on a screenand think, wow, that’s cheesy villain dialogue. Only the villain was standing in front of me, big and terrifying andreal, and the dialogue was anything but cheesy. “And—” I had to stop and clear my throat. “What…what is it you want?”
One dark eyebrow arched. “Him, dead. After he loses everything he ever cared about. Every last thing.”
“Why? What has my father done to you?” I’d never so muchas heard of Levi before; how could he be that closely connected to my father?
“He put out an order to kill me.”
I laughed; I couldn’t help it. I was afraid, confused, ashamed—though why I should be ashamed of having sex with someone, I wasn’t sure. But come on, did Levi really expect me to believe my dad was trying to have him killed? “My father isn’t a killer; he’s a politician.” Not a niceone, but that was a far cry from what Levi was accusing him of. My father, a killer. Right.
Right?
“Why would Derrick Roslyn, city councilman and future governor, want you dead, Levi?”
“Because he asked me to do a job for him. A very messy job, and he wants all the evidence of that job to disappear, including me.”
That was even more ludicrous than believing my father was trying to have someonekilled. “What kind of job?”
“Murder.”
