Page 41 of Assassin's Prey
“Redding?” Abby asked.
“Warren Redding. Head of Hacr Tech, you know.”
Abby was shaking her head. “I don’t think we’ve met.”
“He knows you’re here, of course?” Mrs. Davenport asked me. “He and your father were so close, but I had no idea he’d kept track of you.”
I cleared my throat. “It’s been a while.”
Abby glanced at me. I slid my arm around her shoulders, warming the chill I could feel taking over her bare skin.
“Well, I’ll give him a mouthful when I see him.” Mrs. Davenport’s attention was drawn to a side door, where a servant gestured for her. “I must see what’s on fire before dinner can be served. Excuse me.”
After hugging Abby one final time, the older woman disappeared toward the kitchen. Abby turned to me, a frantic look in her eyes. “How do we—”
My cell vibrated in my breast pocket. Abby paused as I pulled it out. The screen brightened when I tapped it, a notification for a text showing. I clicked it open.
“There you are, you bastard.”
I showed Abby the picture Eli had sent as he listened in on our conversation through my earpiece. An older man, deep wrinkles framing his eyes and mouth, built like a bull, with thick, dark hair and eyebrows. Warren Redding.
Scrolling down, I scanned the bio Eli had attached. CEO of Hacr, appointed twenty years ago by the board, of which my father had been the majority shareholder. Head of research and development. Had he been my father’s friend?
No, he couldn’t be. Those shoulders and hair fit the man I’d seen on the mansion’s doorstep. Redding was in my family’s home; he was no do-gooder. This was our mastermind, and he was here. Tonight.
“Levi?”
“Hmm?”
I couldn’t focus on anything but the sudden need to find Redding and slit his throat…until Abby’s hand settled on the bare skin of my wrist. Her touch eased the bloodlust running through my veins. I met her eyes.
“Remember why we’re here,” she said quietly.
She was right; I knew that. I’d learned long ago not to go off half-cocked. Still… Maybe it was the realization that Redding must be in charge, maybe it was the direct connection to my father, I wasn’t sure; I only knew this felt different. It felt…primal, inescapable, this need to protect what was mine.
But I couldn’t give in.
A deep breath helped steady me as I absorbed the strength I needed through Abby’s touch, her look, the total belief in me that shone in her eyes. Another lungful in, out, and I dredged up a measure of calm. We both knew that somewhere, walking around this room, was our enemy, but that wasn’t our battle, not yet. “Ready.”
She held on to me a moment longer, then slid her hand down to entwine our fingers. “Good. Let’s go.”
OceanofPDF.com
Chapter Eighteen
Everywhere we turned, there were diamonds and tuxes, champagne and caviar. Guests who hadn’t blinked an eye at ten thousand a plate. And Abby seemed to know them all. She chatted effortlessly and smiled genuinely while I swept the room in constant search of our enemy. I should have been searching for a petite whirlwind that hit with the force of a hurricane.
“Abby!”
A tiny bundle of purple fabric swept into my woman’s arms. My entire body went tight, my first instinct to pull the Kimber 9 mm from its spot at the small of my back to ward off the potential threat. Only Abby’s hand landing on my arm, her soft touch reassuring me, stopped the movement.
“Charlotte!” She eased the woman back. One look at her face and I knew: this Charlotte mattered to her. Aside from Geneva, the older woman Abby visited who’d known her mother, this was the first person who’d come into Abby’s life that she’d even mentioned, much less cared for.
I didn’t like the green haze that filtered across my vision at the thought.
“Is this him?” Charlotte asked, dark gaze sweeping from my head to my feet and back again. “This is him.”
The slight purr in her voice had my eyes narrowing.
