Chapter Fifteen
FRANKIE
“You mean if we don’t all kill each other first?” I nearly laugh at the absurdity of working with any of them, especially an Orion, but I can’t deny the truth of his words. The Orion are closing in on me faster than I had hoped.
I wanted to create a power base before they caught up with me, learn more about my abilities to give myself a fighting chance to stay out of their clutches.
Everything is happening too fast, and I have less time than I thought…unless I take the guys up on their offer.
I snort, calling myself an idiot for even contemplating working with the enemy…then I pause when a new thought occurs to me. Casting the man in question a dubious look, I purse my lips. “You go from wanting me dead to offering to help. Give me one reason I should trust you?”
“Givvens trained me,” he responds immediately, a vulnerable look darkening his silver eyes. “I think it was always his intention that I protect you.”
My breath catches at the possibility, my throat tightening painfully at the mention of Gramps. I yank my eyes away from him and focus on driving, struggling to think logically without emotions clogging my head. “You’re an Orion. How are you going to resist their programming? You can’t…”
As I turn to gesture toward his necklace, my voice trails off, and I do a double take when I see the collar is gone.
“The road!” Tyler lunges forward and grabs the wheel. I startle, jerking back when he invades my space, and I instinctively slam on the brakes seconds before the car would have careened off the sharp corner.
Momentum nearly sends Tyler toppling into the front seat.
Shoving himself upright, he presses his shoulder against mine, and his breath catches when the vehicle rocks to a stop a few feet short of plummeting over the steep edge.
When I glance at him, I find him way too close for comfort, his face mere inches from mine.
I brace myself for his anger, but his green eyes gentle with concern.
“Are you okay?” he murmurs, his voice deceptively soft.
“I’m fine.” I’m definitely not fine. There is something extremely intimate about being so close to another person, sharing the same breath. Not used to the unsettling sensation, I clear my throat awkwardly. “Thanks.”
A lopsided smile kicks up the corner of his mouth, and heat fills my cheeks. “My pleasure, Frankie.”
He drops back into his seat, leaving me flustered and uncomfortable. I scratch my brow, struggling to force my unruly body into submission. I’m not a virgin, I understand sexual attraction, but the intense magnetic pull I feel for the guys is something I’ve never encountered.
I’m not sure I like it.
Exhaling loudly, I throw the car into park, then twist to face the others.
“You think staying with me will keep you safe, but the opposite is true. I’m being hunted by people so ruthless, they won’t stop until they get what they want.
When they do catch up with me, they will be unforgiving.
If you are in my company, they won’t hesitate to execute you and consider it collateral damage. ”
The guys don’t even blink, completely unfazed by my warning, and I barely resist reaching over the seats and smacking the idiots.
“We’re dead anyway.” Garth doesn’t bother looking at the other two before he volunteers them for certain death. “At least together, we can help each other stay alive and maybe find a way out of this mess.”
I wait for the others to protest, but the stubborn nitwits just nod in agreement, their obstinate expressions warning they won’t be persuaded otherwise.
“I’m with you until the end,” the Orion vows, drawing my attention, and I raise an eyebrow at the asshat who started this whole mess.
Before I can reject his offer, he continues with a negligible shrug.
“I’m Orion. I’m expendable. It’s a foregone conclusion that I will die in the commission of my job.
I would prefer to do something good before that happens.
Don’t take away my last shot at redemption. ”
“I don’t understand.” I’m at a loss as to why he would throw away everything he’s worked toward his whole life. “Why?”
“They killed Givvens,” he says, a snarl of hatred twisting his expression. “If you reject me, I’ll seek vengeance and do my best to destroy those responsible. He deserves that much.”
“That’s a suicide mission,” I whisper, my insides hurting at the thought of him taking on the council by himself, because he will die. He can’t take on an army alone and survive.
He only shrugs, like it’s not a fucking big deal. “Then work with me. Our best chance of survival is together…even if the chance is slim.”
My gaze drops to his bare neck, and I hastily glance away, running my tongue along my teeth as I debate my options. It’s not really a choice. I suspect that if I ditch them, they will just follow me anyway, much like kamikaze ducklings.
Before I can come to a decision, a phone rings in the silence. I glance at the back seat, only to see the guys peering around in confusion. It’s Tyler who holds up my backpack, a question in his eyes. “I think it’s yours?”
Only two people have my number.
If either of them is calling, it means trouble.
I snatch the bag with a huff, digging through it until my fingers brush plastic. Pulling out the phone, I glance at the screen, then grimace. Before I can smash the button to accept the call, Dante snatches the phone from my hand and places it on speaker.
Static fills the car as I glare at him, but the stubborn asshole is unrepentant.
“Frankie? Thank the goddess. I’ve been trying to reach you for the last hour. Shit is hitting the fan,” a squeaky male voice says, the sound of furious typing filling the background. “You asked me to keep an eye out for anything unusual. Well, I found something—two things, actually.”
The excited voice pauses to take a deep breath, speaking so fast that the words are almost indistinguishable.
I would say that he’s had too much caffeine, but excitable is his default setting.
The gurgling sound of a straw sucking a cup dry fills the line, then a deep breath and a heavy sigh.
When his voice comes back through the phone, it’s much calmer.
“What do you want to hear first? Bad news or worst news?”
I hesitate a moment, glancing around at my audience. Their implacable expressions say that even if I manage to wrestle my phone away, they’re not going to let this go. It seems fate is working against me, and I barely resist the urge to bash my head repeatedly against the steering wheel.
“Dealer’s choice,” I mutter, flopping back against my seat as I accept the inevitable.
“Okey dokey, then,” Connor mutters under his breath, dragging the words out, clearly disappointed at my lack of enthusiasm.
“It looks like a whole coven has disappeared in Scottsville. They left their friends and families behind, and no one knows where they went. The authorities refuse to mark them as missing persons, because thirteen people just don’t go missing at one time, right?
“The witch’s council sent a few warlocks to investigate, but it’s a small coven of witches.” He snorts, barely pausing at the stream of information, and I’m surprised he’s even taken a breath between stating facts. “So as you can imagine, it’s not a top priority.”
“Scottsville…” I close my eyes and bring up a mental map of the region. I’m unsurprised to find that I’m only a few hours away. “I’m close to the area. Tell me the details of the job.”
“The families are only offering a small reward, but everything checks out.” More typing comes across the line. “I can’t find anything hinky, but my spidey senses are tingling. Something is off.”
“A trap?” Tension bleeds into my muscles, and I straighten, glancing back at the phone, as if I can read the answers on the screen.
Silence fills the vehicle for a few seconds, then his voice comes across low and concerned. “I don’t know.”
Connor hates it when he fails to supply me with a full dossier. He is a master at computers and digging up information. That he can’t find anything isn’t good.
I hate going into a job blind. While I could ignore the listing, leaving the coven to their fate, my intuition refuses to be quieted.
Something about the job is pulling me toward it.
It’s the same with all my assignments. Maybe Connor is tracking me somehow, finding me work in my vicinity, but I dump my phone and vehicles frequently, switching every few states.
My natural ability to repel magic should protect me, but that doesn’t mean all my possessions don’t need to be checked regularly for tracking spells.
“Which leads me to the worst news…” Connor trails off, and I can practically picture him hunched over his keyboard, squinting at the monitor, as if he can demand answers by will alone.
Knowing his talents, maybe he can. He’s not a strong witch, his magic barely a blip, which leads others to overlook him as inferior.
They labeled him as undesirable, which is bullshit if you ask me.
Witches are the pinnacle of stuck up society, judging each other on their abilities instead of being decent people. It has left Connor on the fringes, forcing him to make his own way in the world.
It’s actually how we became partners. He’s the first person I rescued—twice, actually—and how I ended up in the reward business. I accidentally saved his life when his coven sold him. He was barely a witch anyway, so it didn’t matter, right?
A warlock decided he could just take what he wanted—his magic, his body, his life.
He paid for it, after all.
Suffice it to say, the bastard is no longer living.
Connor stole any money he could from the bastard, then he disappeared. As far as his coven is aware, he died in a fiery wreck with the douchebag.
Thus, our friendship was born.
Almost a week later, he hacked my phone and contacted me, asking if I was interested in helping others. His story was not an isolated incident. Witch or shifter—it didn’t matter. People were assholes everywhere.
He offered me a partnership.
He would research the legit jobs, send me the information, and I would do the actual rescuing.
As word of mouth spread, more and more requests flooded the dark web.
I won’t say that I trust him with my life, my secrets are just too dangerous, but I trust him more than anyone else I’ve met in this new world…
which means if he found something concerning, I’m not going to like it. “Just tell me what has you worried.”
“I wrote a program that scrubs the web regarding any mention of you. Any pictures or whispers of your name are removed almost instantly. Unfortunately, someone noticed. they keep placing a post on one of the boards I frequent, demanding a meeting or they will expose you.”
Frustration thickens his voice, and I reach back for the phone, already shaking my head.
“Hey, I’m not upset. I expected it a lot sooner.
This isn’t your fault. My job is dangerous.
Obviously, people are going to notice. You kept me hidden for months.
That’s more than what I expected. Just do two things for me? ”
“Anything,” he assures me, his voice hardening with promise. No doubt his fingers are resting on his keyboard, waiting for my command.
“I want you to send me the information, then I want you to lie low for a while. Don’t touch my name or look for any jobs.”
“But—”
“I want you to stay hidden,” I say in a firm voice that brooks no argument, refusing to put him in danger. “I’ll message you when things are clear. The last thing either of us needs is to be exposed. I’ll handle the situation. I promise.”
Connor has already paid me back more than I ever expected. I refuse to allow my trouble to fuck up his new life.
“I’ll do it on one condition,” he says in a solemn voice, the hum of computers falling silent. “You’ll message me if you need help.”
I open my mouth to protest, but he speaks over me. “I want your word. You’ve saved a lot of people. You have more friends than you know. Let us help.”
My eyes burn at his sincerity. I’ve never truly had a friend before. Knowing someone has my back feels both comforting and worrisome. As the silence stretches, I know he won’t back down—he’s almost as stubborn as me—and I clear my throat. “Okay.”
My phone beeps, showing an incoming message with the requested information. “Good luck, bitch. Now, go kick some ass.”
The phone disconnects before I can reply, leaving me the center of attention of four different alphas, and from their expressions, there is no way I’m leaving this vehicle without telling them everything. I could knock them unconscious, then return for them once the job was finished. Not a big dea—
“Don’t even fucking think about it,” Garth snarls, snatching the phone back from me before I can tuck it away. “You can ditch us, but we know where you’re heading. We will track you down, no matter where you run. Let us help. The only way we’re going to survive is if we stick together.”
That’s what worries me—that none of us will get out of this alive.
My head throbs with the beginning of a headache, no doubt the first of many they will give me. With a tired sigh, I restart the car and try to ignore them. “I guess we’re going to Scottsville.”
May the gods save us.