Page 60 of Assassin's Heart
A growl of my own rose in my throat. “Then why tell me to relax?”
Eli chuckled over by the window. “To make you feel inadequate. It’s what he does.” He waved a hand at his brother. “He needs to find some way of keeping us all below his level. He might say he’s human, but he’s more of an emotionless robot who expects nothing less from the rest of us.”
The gleam of Eli’s teeth told me he was smiling, but not too long ago I’d have been totally serious in agreeing with him. The first time I’d met Levi... A different kind of shiver shook me just thinking about it.
Levi shot his brother the bird. “Whatever, dickhead.” Turning to me, he seemed to sober despite his lack of expression. “Just remember, not many people get a chance to do what you’re about to do. Some people would kill for it.”
Like him? Would Levi kill to be able to bring his parents back to life?
I imagined all the brothers would. I couldn’t blame them.
“Besides”—Eli shifted so his back was to the wall—“if Windon isn’t ecstatic to have his daughter back from the dead, we can always shoot him and put him out of his misery.”
“What?”
Eli responded to my shout with a low snicker. “Hey, we do come in handy occasionally.”
I just bet. I opened my mouth, ready to blast the sarcastic pain in the ass for scaring me, but choked back the words as the lights of a car flashed through the window. Both brothers went immediately on alert.
“Levi?”
He pocketed his phone. “It’s him. Don’t worry.”
Less than half a minute passed before the door near Eli’s now-covered window opened. It was only then that I realized the brothers had faded into the darkness, out of my line of sight. I held my breath and waited for the two men outside to enter the room.
The door clicked shut. The overhead lights switched on.
I blinked through the blinding brightness, my sight slowly adjusting until I could make out the man standing just a few feet inside the door. Tall, just like I remembered, though older and grayer. My father had always been what some would call distinguished, and time had only added to that, though the more I looked, the more I could see the edges of grief and pain in his face. I waited, shaking so hard now that my teeth chattered, until his eyes focused and found me across the room.
“Leah?”
“Dad,” I whispered, unable to put more strength behind the word. I straightened, reached out for him. “How are you?”
My father crumpled to his knees.
The sound of sobs froze me in place. Shaking it off, I rushed forward, only to be stopped by Remi’s forearm blocking my path. Keeping me from my father. I kept going.
“It might not be safe, Leah,” Remi warned.
Fuck that. “He’s my father.” I struggled in Remi’s hold. “You can kill him later, but let me go.”
The hard arm across my middle slowly withdrew, and then I was on my knees beside my dad, gathering him into my arms. The next few minutes were a blur; I rocked him, reassured him, wept alongside him as the pain of the past seven years leached out of me. Maybe out of him. I’d only ever seen him cry at my mother’s funeral, so long ago it was a vague memory, but now he wept as if releasing his soul, and I held him through it, feeling my own knit back together.
“Leah, my God.” He finally raised his head, dark eyes staring, bewildered, into mine. “I can’t believe it. I searched everywhere...God, how I searched for you.” He glanced around the room, at Eli and Levi and Remi, and his muscles tensed beneath my hands. “Is this...did they take you?” Shaking hands pulled me closer to his body. “Did they keep you away from us?”
Before Remi could lose his shit—and I knew he would—I cupped my father’s face and turned his attention back to me. “No, Dad. It wasn’t them.”
“Then who was it? Who took you? Where have you been?”
I did look to Remi then, unsure how to explain something so fraught with pitfalls. Eyes narrowed on us, Remi jerked his chin toward a couple of chairs we’d found intact. They were conveniently placed in the middle of the room, allowing the brothers easy access should any threat present itself.
“Leah?”
I turned back to my dad. “Come sit down.”
He stood slowly, showing his age, or maybe that was the weight of the past few years. I was twenty-four; he was only in his late fifties. Nowhere near retirement. And yet he’d been through the loss of his beloved wife and teenage daughter. And now I would take his son from him as well. My chest ached so hard I struggled to breathe.
“What happened? Who are these men? Where have you been? Are you all right?”
