Chapter 65
“Idon’t want you to leave,” Keira told her as they made their way over to where the guys were standing.
“I know. I’m going to miss you so much.” Angie came to a stop so she could hug Keira. “And I’ll be back for the birth of the baby. All right? We can talk as much as we like.”
Keira sniffled and nodded.
“You all right, Little Thief?” Zander asked, coming over to her.
“Yeah, I’m just going to miss Angie.”
Jared and North walked over to her.
“Want me to kidnap her?” Zander asked. “I will if you want.”
Suddenly all of his team was surrounding them.
“Like fuck you will,” Jared snarled as North moved over to wrap his arm around her. Surprise filled her when he touched her so easily.
But they’d all changed over the last few weeks.
“Who is gonna stop me?” Zander challenged. “You? There’s only two of you. You’re outnumbered.”
“Zander, stop teasing,” Keira said, leaning into him. “He’s such a joker.”
Um. Right. Sure.
“Angie has to go with them. She loves them.” Keira smiled at the three of them.
“Don’t know why,” Zander muttered.
“Wait! Wait! You nearly forgot your Kill the Fuckers bag!” Honey yelled as she ran up with a large duffel bag over her shoulder.
She dumped it on the ground in front of Keira.
“Easy!” Ammo said. “There’s a fucking grenade in there.”
“What?” North asked.
“This is the bag that means we have to drive home rather than fly?” Jared asked.
North crouched and opened it, searching through it. “There’s a flame thrower in here.”
“Yep,” Honey said proudly. “I put it all together myself for Angie when she moved out. Only she left it behind when she moved.”
“I was kidnapped,” Angie pointed out.
“How did I not find this at the house?” North muttered.
“It was hidden in a secret compartment in the safe room,” Angie explained.
Honey shook her head. “That’s where you went wrong. You should have slept with the flame thrower in your bed.”
“Yes,” Angie said weakly. “That’s where I went wrong.”
“Here’s your vehicle,” Zander said as Eli drove up in a battered van.
“That is what you are lending us to drive home in?” Jared gaped at the vehicle while she tried not to grin.
Jared had probably never stepped foot in a vehicle like this in his life.
“Yes, it works fine.”
Jared scowled and she quickly said her goodbyes before things could escalate.
Zander and Jared had been getting on relatively well. But who knew when that would blow up.
And she wanted to get home. They still had to talk to North about everything he’d kept from them.
Her mind was still reeling. He’d explained things briefly but she knew there was a lot he hadn’t said.
Jared had gotten in contact with Alejandro who had confirmed that there was a wannabe-Deity out there who was trying to recreate The Children of the Divine. Some of Alejandro’s men had come to pick up Richard.
Zander had managed to get the librarian fired and publicly humiliated. None of them liked to harm women but she figured that was a fitting punishment since her job seemed to be her life.
Zander hugged her tight. “If you ever need anything, I’m here. Just call me, we’ll come for you. No matter what.”
“Thanks, Zander. Thanks for everything.”
He shrugged. “It’s what family does.”
Yeah. It was.
“Bartolli!” Zander cried, turning to him. “Figure I owe you and North a beating for kidnapping my sister.”
“And I owe you one for letting her get kidnapped,” Jared fired back.
“Guess we’re even then.”
“I guess we are.”
Is that . . . were they getting along?
She let North put her into the van and do up her seatbelt. He was quiet. Thoughtful.
She wondered what he was thinking. But she also thought he might need some time with his thoughts.
So she sat quietly next to him as Jared drove to the hotel to pick up his guards.
They were going home.
“Tell us,” Jared said as they all ended up in his bed with Angie in the middle of them both.
“North should be in the middle,” she said.
North shook his head immediately. “I can’t be penned in like that. Especially to sleep. It’s a miracle I can sleep with you both as it is.”
“All right,” she said. “However you want to do this is all right with me.”
Jared sat up and stared at them both. “Tell us what happened, North. Tell us about how you ended up as part of The Collective and how you ended up here.”
North nodded and sat up too. Jared moved her onto his lap so they faced him.
“You know that The Collective ‘collects’ children?” North asked.
“The Fox explained the basics,” Jared told him. “That they recruit children off the streets or from orphanages. Arrange homes for them and train them into assassins.”
“Right. They give us all letters or numbers. I guess the letters thing became limited. Pretty sure there was a N before me. I don’t know if he died during a job or The Collective killed him.”
Angie sucked in a breath.
“You know that I was in an orphanage in Romania, that I can’t really remember my family.
Well, Mr. Z found me there. I don’t know how he chose what children to take.
But he took me and placed me in with a foster family who were part of The Collective.
It was better in some ways. I got an education, food, clothing, somewhere to live.
But I was also trained every day. To lose my accent.
To move quietly. How to kill. How to fight.
How to infiltrate all sorts of places from high-society functions to the roughest area of any city. We’re supposed to be chameleons.”
“I can’t believe they get away with doing that,” she said, feeling ill.
“Who is going to stop them? Mr. Z is a powerful man. He’s secretive and private. No one knows who he really is or where he lives. I’ve never fully seen his face.”
“How did you come to be with me?” Jared asked. “Were you in that alley on purpose or was it a coincidence?”
North glanced away for a moment. “It wasn’t a coincidence. The Collective set that up. They arranged for those guys to attack you. Then I was supposed to come in and save you. Earn my place at your back.”
“Fuck,” Jared muttered.
“I was placed with you,” North said. “But I was only supposed to work for you. They never told me to sleep with you. To want you. To feel something for you. That was all me. I’d never felt anything since I was a child.
So it was so strange to suddenly have these feelings.
You cracked my shield, Jared. Then Angie came along and it started to shatter. ”
She felt so bad for both of them.
“They never told you to sleep with me?” Jared said harshly.
She could feel how tense he was under her.
“No. Never. They never did that sort of thing. That was all me.”
There was a beat of silence and then the tension drained out of Jared. “I believe you.”
A hint of relief filled North’s face.
“Why place you with Jared? And for so long?” she asked.
“I asked Z that when he kidnapped me. He said that I was originally placed with Jared in order to get close to Fergus. But then Fergus died and they left me in place in case they needed to use me at a later date.”
“So why did they take you?” Jared asked. “The Fox said they called you defective.”
“I got a message a few days before I took Angie,” he confessed. “It said that I had a new mission. To kill you.”
She gasped as North stared at Jared.
“To kill me?” Jared asked. “Who? Was it Beltran? Did he hire them?”
“That’s what I thought. I kept trying to get a meeting with V to find out. But he wouldn’t reply. But it turns out there was no one.”
“No one?” she asked. “I don’t understand.”
“They made up a mission to see if I was still loyal or if they’d lost me to Jared. And when I didn’t kill him, they knew that I was lost to them and that they were going to have to kill me. It was only when I brought up the Fox’s name that they backed off.”
“Oh God.” She threw herself into North’s arms, shaking against him. “Thank God they didn’t kill you. I don’t ever want to be without you, North.”
There was a beat of silence and she glanced up to find the two men staring at each other.
“No,” Jared said. “Neither do I.”
She climbed off North’s lap and Jared drew him close, his hand around the back of his neck as he stared at him. “Don’t you ever fucking lie to me again. Understand?”
“I won’t. I’m yours, Jared. Forever.”
“Good. Because I never intend to let you go.”
This was fucking torture.
And he wasn’t going to last. North gritted his teeth and tried to stay still but he couldn’t.
He was sitting on Jared’s lap, facing away from him. His knees were bent and his wrists were tied to his feet which rested by Jared’s hips on the sofa.
He groaned and attempted to pull at his hands, but there was nowhere for him to go unless he wanted to fall off Jared’s lap.
Slap!
Jared’s hand landed on the side of his ass. “You moved.”
“That’s because you’re both torturing me,” North grumbled.
“Angie, pull back,” Jared demanded.
She slid her mouth off North’s cock and looked up at them both. “Naughty North, you moved!”
“I bet you couldn’t stay still if you were being tortured like this,” he replied.
“We’ll find out soon,” Jared said ominously. “Since she’s next.”
“What? Nooo,” she cried. “Why am I being punished? I wasn’t naughty. I didn’t lie about who I was for years.”
“No, but when I told you to stay in the car, you disobeyed me. It could have been dangerous and you must learn to do what you’re told. You also refused to eat or sleep while North was missing, despite my orders.”
“Boo,” she said with a pout. “Can’t I just be spanked?”
“Oh, that will happen too,” Jared said. “Oh, and there’s also your punishment for running that night you eavesdropped on us. Now, we’re going to start again. Another ten minutes without moving, North. And no coming.”