Page 33 of Bad Moon Rising
At least he didn’t have to hunt her down. He’d left her in his flat in London with strict instructions she remain indoors. Flynn had headed south via train to track Ky.
He and his brothers had figured out how to maneuver between the lines in the past, but this wasn’t a vague request. Kill the threat—the woman in the picture. Kill Nova.
He flipped through the documents in the folder. One hit after another linked to her or an alias thought to be her. Oddly, none of the victims were from this country. Each person she assassinated had been a part of FenCor.
He flipped between the two pages in the folder. She’d taken out eight higher-ups in the group. He agreed they didn’t deserve the power they’d probably stolen. He didn’t care that she’d done these things. This was human business, not his.
But to end Nova’s life over this?
Felt wrong. She didn’t threaten the world or humans in general. More so now because she didn’t remember she’d done any of these things.
He didn’t want to. The tattoo around his wrist singed his flesh. To hide the pain, he clamped his mouth shut and bit the inside of his lip, drawing blood.
Wait a moment. Did they know who she was? Did they have the information he sought about her? The double-sided sheets of paper in the folder provided a picture and some basic identification items anyone could get from looking at her photo. Known contacts: none. Known location: unknown. Nothing about her being a lycan. There still might be a gray line to move between since they thought her human.
No name. But there was an alias: Kaitlyn Sutton.
That was bogus. Nova wasn’t a Kaitlyn.
Gerard didn’t show interest in the contents of the file. Whose idea was chasing down this target? Gerard’s or the king’s?
Gerard shrugged. “I think someone’s using her, or maybe she worked alone to target higher-ups in FenCor. Could’ve been a power move inside of the organization itself, to make way for someone rising in the ranks. Anyone messing with that group has an agenda.”
“How do you know she’s the one that did these hits?” FenCor’s involvement might explain why her picture hadn’t showed up on the government facial recognition programs. If this was an inside job, they’d want to keep their personal assassin secret. That is until she escaped them, and now they wanted the loose end eliminated.
“There’s more.” Gerard queued up a video on his laptop computer—possiblythevideo that Flynn found, which he should’ve watched. “Look.”
A grainy black-and-white video showed a woman of Nova’s build executing a man point-blank with a gun, one of the men in the file. Roman never saw her face on screen. In his gut, he knew it was her.
What if he said she had amnesia and didn’t remember? That she wasn’t whoever that was anymore? They’d been able to get the monarch to rescind an order to kill a non-human once before. Although a tough sell, the new king’s mother had let the being live. It wouldn’t work this time. The king and Gerard had their minds made up, which meant nothing Roman said would matter.
“Hard to be sure who’s in that video.” Roman flicked a hand dismissively at the screen. “Could be doctored.”
“Maybe.” Gerard compressed his lips and sighed. “It’s a trivial job, I know. One lone contract killer isn’t going to take down the world. But I say you find her. Do what the monarch asks and make him happy. He already put out a private contract on her, but after a week, it’s not panning out. Based on research, I think she’s lycan.”
“What kind of research? No female of our kind travels alone. Where are her guards? Who’s her family? Aside from that, no female would ever be given assassin training and sent on missions. That’s against Council rules.”
“She left DNA at the scene of one of the crimes.”
“That seems careless for a pro. And how would you know it was her DNA?” She had on gloves, and her hair was up in the video. This was getting weirder by the second. If she had been hired to assassinate high-up members of FenCor, regardless of agenda, anyone who could get close to those highly protected men would never leave DNA at the scene of the crime, which means she was framed. That didn’t mean she hadn’t killed them, but someone wanted her dead. Maybe to cover someone else’s tracks?
“I had our lab analyze DNA samples from one of the bodies. There was definitely a female lycan at the scene.”
What lab could know that? Had Gerard set up a secret facility to analyze non-human species?
“Where was she last seen?” He watched Gerard closely to determine if he knew he already had her.
“Her last hit was a month ago. Nothing since then anywhere. I figure you can network your people to find her.” No indication he suspected Roman already found her, or that she’d found him.
Deep sigh of relief.
“Take a phone so I can update you on any new information.” Gerard slid one across the desk.
He shook his head. He hated the thought of being monitored at all times and of someone knowing his exact location. “I’ll see what Flynn and I can come up with.”
“Check in, as usual. Every 48 hours. Oh, and try not to be careless. Blowing up your target in Berlin? Come on, Roman. That’s amateur hour.”
“I retrieved the vial. It’s in the vault downstairs. That’s what matters.”
