Page 10 of Assassin's Heart
Yes, we called our basement office the bat cave.
We had lived out of so many safe houses through the years, never putting down roots, always ready to abandon everything at a moment’s notice. It still felt surreal to realize it would literally take an army to breach this place, that we could actuallyrelaxhere. I wasn’t sure I’d ever get used to it. I found myself leaving as often as I could, unable to get rid of the itch between my shoulder blades. My brothers, though, seemed to have settled right in.
Which was why Levi was so pissed about having a guest.
The elevator whisked me down to the basement level with no more than a whisper of movement. Stainless steel doors opened on a room with soft blue walls and enough recessed lighting that a cave was the last thing I thought of when I saw it. It wasn’t the room itself that gave us the name—it was what was in it.
Every possible piece of high-tech equipment known to man. Screens scattered along the walls with active maps, data streaming, and surveillance. A massive walk-in safe built into one wall, serving as a weapons locker that was every mercenary’s wet dream.
And an electronics corner with all the latest gaming equipment. A man had to have a few vices. Or Eli did, anyway.
I strode over to the couch where my younger brother sat, controller in hand, eyes glued to the flaming race car on the screen. A smack upside the head got his attention.
“Hey!”
“Need you, bro,” I said.
“We got another job?” He paused the game and tossed his controller onto the low coffee table. “I’d be surprised if Levi lets you off the chain again for a very long time after jumping the gun on Mr. Clarkson.”
“News spreads fast.” Although maybe not fast enough, since Eli hadn’t mentioned Leah. “Not another job. Come with me.”
The sound of the elevator doors opening preceded Levi’s furious stride across the concrete floor. Abby had insisted on rugs in several places “to keep the place from becoming as frigid as a meat locker,” to which Levi had replied that his meat was never cold—and Eli and I had gagged him—but the rest of the room was still polished concrete. Sometimes you just needed noisy boots on solid rock to get your aggression out.
Levi more than most of us.
I braced myself.
“All this time, it was the fucking nurse? That’s who you were jerkin’ off for?”
The words were no sooner out of his mouth than I had a forearm across his throat and his body slammed against the cinder block wall. Levi was big, we all were, but I carried twenty pounds more muscle than either of my brothers and I wasn’t afraid to throw it around when necessary.
Levi choked, his eyes flashing with anger, but he didn’t fight back. I almost wished he would.
I leaned in close. “Never disrespect her again. Got me?” He would never allow us to say something like that about Abby. Leah might not be here for long, but she’d been mine since the moment I first opened my eyes and met hers. No one would insult her in front of me.
Levi raised his hands out to his sides. “I got you,” he croaked.
I leaned in harder for good measure before letting him go.
“What nurse?” Eli asked.
“Leah Marrone,” I said.
Eli’s eyes became saucers. “You didn’t.”
“I did.” Why did everyone find it so hard to believe that the woman I was interested in was Leah?
Maybe because she’s far too normal for you. Or because she’s seen your family’s bad side, and no way would she willingly come back.
I knew that better than anyone.
Levi cleared his throat. “Fill us in, Remi.”
“Her daughter was kidnapped.”
“What the hell?” Eli shoved a hand through the thick blond hair that was a twin to mine. “How?”
Levi shook his head. “We’ll get to that.” His gray gaze bored into me, drilling deep with ice-cold precision. That look had kept me in line when we were only young punks living on the streets; now he used it to make me spill my guts. “Tell me about her.”
