Page 6 of Going Dark

Both of us are breathing hard and his eyes look a little wild. I wonder if mine look just as wild as his does.

"Don't you dare die!" and he's gone. His last words to me are a command. That is so Alex. No, Ace. I realize I have no idea who this new man is. It certainly isn't the boy I grew up with. This man is bigger and bolder and more confident of himself and his world. Nothing like the boy he used to be.

I close my eyes for a split second. Damn it. Alex grows up to be braver and better and I'm still stuck here being his neighbor. Nothing changed with me. No wonder he didn't want anything to do with me. I'm not sure why he is trying so hard to make me his now unless it is just sheer boredom. Guess he won't be bored anymore. Not after today. He probably won't stay after today. Kind of glad I got that kiss in now.

5

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Ace

I am so fucked. I'm not sure what the fuck has happened to my life in the last thirty minutes but shit is getting real messy up in here. I was lounging on my bed after sending Evie the text in nothing but a pair of jogging pants. One, I knew she would be coming over to talk about the picture I sent her and two, I knew I wanted as few clothes in the way of my seduction of her as possible so why not just let it all swing free.

Mom and Ana were going to spend the day in the city so they wouldn't be around to see the way I tented the damn pants whenever I thought about Evie and how pissed she was going to be at me. I wanted her coming in hot and bothered. I wanted her all fired up so I could turn the situation around and make her all hot in a different, better way. I had just got down to the kitchen when I heard the front door open.

Something had made me go on alert instead of calling out to whoever came in. Mom and Ana wouldn't use the front door and I was pretty sure Evie wouldn't stand on ceremony either. Hell, the only time we ever used the front door was for Girl Scouts and people we didn't know.

I walked down the hallway until I spotted the first guy and then I took off, going back to the kitchen only to be waylaid there by a big fucker with fists the size of hams. One refrigerator door to the face and the guy wasn't so badass anymore. Then his friends came and I was in the fight of my life. When Evie walked through the back door I felt my heart drop. The look of shock and fear on her face was enough to kill me but then those stupid fucks had both turned their eyes on her and I wanted to kill them both with my bare hands. I had to make do with just one and shooting the other though because it was more important to go to her and make sure she was safe than to stay and fuck with the goons sent to kill me.

What the hell even? Why the hell are people even trying to kill me? These guys are pros too. I have to go through the house and make sure all of them are dead or dying and then figure out what the hell I am going to tell the local police. I hit two of them on the stairs and stop the gunfire from happening again. I take out two more at the top of the stairs and one more in my mom's room. Going through rooms kicking in doors and shooting people is not how I thought my morning would go. I'm fucking retired after all.

One more guy comes out of the hall closet I always forget about and tries to choke me out but I am so pissed I can't really feel anything. I throw my head back and clip him in the nose. I can tell it's his nose because of the crunch and the feel of it breaking. When he falls off my back I turn and kick the ever-loving shit out of him. If he isn't dead he's going to wish he was when he wakes up and has to spit his nuts out of his mouth.

I get to the end of the hall and my room and wait to go in. My sixth sense warns me someone is in there. When I kick the door open I am met by a face I have seen before. One I have worked with on missions. His mask is up not even trying to hide his face from me. He is holding his arm so I know he must have gotten hit during the first round of fighting. In his hands is a cell phone. My cell phone. Fuck me, he has my phone. I raise my gun but what he says has me hesitating.

"You should watch out for that little girlfriend of yours." He walks to the window and looks out of it. "She's going to get hurt in the game we're playing." He dives out the window and I break my stance. I have to go make sure Evie is alright. Someone should tell that son of a bitch I'm not playing when it comes to Evie's safety. I'm not playing at all.

I run down the stairs making as much noise as I can now. One, if someone has Evie and knows I'm coming it might buy me the precious seconds I need to save her and two, I really don't want to be shot by friendly fire because Evie can't tell it was me coming down the stairs. When I hit the bottom landing I yell for her. I hear sirens in the distance. Looks like the fucking Calvary is here. I'm so glad they finally decided to show the fuck up.

"Evie, I'm coming around the island, baby. Don't shoot me alright." I skirt around the broken shit and see her scrunched up in between the wall and a cabinet. She has her gun pointed out and I can tell even from here her eyes are glazed.

"Evie, honey, are you alright? No one touched you when I was gone did they?"

She makes a quick, jerky head shake but doesn't lower her gun. I walk very slowly to her not wanting to spook her. She gives me big watery eyes and for a minute I want to shoot myself for putting her through this. Now I understand why my uncle hesitated to make Aunt Kat his. Guilt may kill me before whoever the hell these guys are have a chance.

She uses the wall to stand, sliding her back up until she gets to her feet. She doesn't lower the gun though. She keeps it steady on me the entire time. Her lips move and I can clearly make out the word 'move'. I dive to the side just as she shoots. Behind me, a man drops to the floor with a bullet hole in his head. Evie always was the best shot in the whole fucking neighborhood.

She shot the guy and I wasn't even aware he was behind me. She looks at me for just a second like she's asking me if she did alright before dropping the gun and looking down at it. I'm up and by her side, gun in hand before she can sag against me.

"You did good baby. You did real damn good." I swing her up in my arms, stepping over the broken glass and furniture. "Of course you know this means you have to marry me now, right. It's tradition in my family. When a woman kills for you, you have to marry her and keep her always."

She hides her face in the crook of my neck. I'm not sure if it's because she doesn't want to face any more death or because she doesn't want to face what I just told her. When I get to the living room the front door slams open and four men dressed in tactical gear stand in the entrance. I would start to panic but I spot green eyes almost the same color as mine but lighter and I know those eyes.

James Archer takes off his mask and stares at the litter of destruction I've left in my wake.

"Damn I hate being late." You couldn't tell by his face. It hardly ever changes when he's in this mode, serious, somber, and deadly. It's the face a lot of the men he's killed has sworn was the face of death. Thus his moniker - Kronos, god of time. If he is hunting you, you are already out of it and you just don't know it yet.

"Did you leave any for us?" Sharp blue eyes almost too dark to tell their blue blink back at me from the man asking. Jack Thornton -Thorn asks but most of it is muffled because unlike Jim he hasn't taken his mask off yet.

Evie tenses up in my arms and I remember she doesn't know who these men are. "These are the men from my unit, baby. It's alright; everything is going to be okay now."

"Baby?" All four of the men say at the same time and I realize I am going to have more than just the assassination attempt to explain to my friends.

6

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Evie

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