Page 5 of Assassin's Prey
Chapter Three
“I’m not going into hiding and that’s final!” Abby shouted. “I didn’t build a whole new life so some stranger can waltz in and steal it away from me.”
“It would just be until we figure out what’s going on,” Eli said, much more mildly than I could at the moment. All my fury at almost having my woman killed in front of me had found a new target at her refusal to lay low. If my teeth hadn’t been clenched so hard I thought a few of them would crack any minute, I’d definitely say something I’d regret later.
LikeI kidnapped you once. Don’t make me do it again.
Yeah, that would go over like a bullet to the gut. A nice, slow, agonizingly painful death.
The stubborn set to Abby’s jaw didn’t soften. “No.”
The need to force her hitched my step as I paced across the room. A warehouse, not unlike the one I’d first brought her to over a year ago. I had a string of safe houses in and around the city, but this was our new base of operations. It was probably good that the floor and walls of this one were cement, or I’d be punching my way through them right about now.
Leaving Abby’s refusal for later, I turned my attention to this afternoon’s attack. “What have we got so far?” I asked Remi.
He glanced up from the bank of computers where both my brothers sat. “Definitely a professional. I traced the bike through traffic cameras as far as I could, but it disappeared about four miles down the road.”
So the driver knew where cameras could track him. Too much knowledge for someone without resources—or a backup team. This had been planned in advance.
“What about the accounts?”
Eli swiveled his computer chair to face me. “Nothing yet. I’m not sure if it’s the accountant or the lawyer, but I’ll find out.”
Someone had set Abby up; it was just a matter of tracking down who. “Or it was neither and they were set up too.”
Eli grunted. “Exactly. I’m working on hacking as we speak. If there’s anything in their e-mails or bank accounts, I’ll uncover it. It’ll just take a little time.”
Time we didn’t have, not if Abby was the target. One second was too long to let that shit stand.
“Remi, see what you can dig up, either online or on the streets. If someone is moving into our territory, they can’t do it silently. Someone will know. These guys have to have been brought in from the outside. No one here is organized enough for this, much less has the balls to cross us. Not after—”
Remi’s gaze cut to Abby, and I shut my mouth. She didn’t need another reminder of her bastard of a father.
“The question is,” Eli said, ignoring the byplay, “who brought them in. And why now? Why Abby?”
“We’ll find out,” Remi said.
Now that both men knew where to concentrate, I turned to my woman. I could see her shoulders tighten, knew she was prepared to fight. The thought excited me as much as it angered me, the sick, volatile mix swirling in my gut. I stalked toward her.
“Levi—”
Not with an audience. Grasping her arm, I kept walking. Abby tried to resist, but we were in the bedroom with the door closed before I let her go.
She glared up at me, the fire in her eyes fanning the flames in my body. “You can’t force me to stay here.”
One eyebrow went up. Abby swallowed hard, and God help me, but satisfaction made my cock swell even more.
“Look at you.” She scoffed despite not being able to meet my eyes. “You act like a peacock, puffing up to intimidate his mate, but I’m not a bird, no matter what you call me. I’m a woman with a life. A life that matters, Levi.”
“I never said it didn’t.”
“No, you just act like it.”
Because I had to. There was no use arguing over it.
“I’ve… I just started classes. I—” She drew her bottom lip in, nibbling on it. “I’m getting somewhere, can’t you see that? Don’t derail me now.”
I wasn’t the one responsible. The man, woman, group, whoever it was who’d targeted her—they were the ones to blame. That didn’t stop the guilt that rose as I stared into her pleading hazel eyes.
