29. Chapter 29
AHREN
The acrid smell of charred flesh hit my nose as I tossed our clothes into the fire, closing the heavy door to seal away the flames.
I closed my eyes, willing my racing heart to slow. The heat on my skin wasn't from the incinerator, but the tiny Hellcat sauntering through my house—naked. Temptation didn't quite cover the moment. My desire for her was a living fire snaking through my veins, threatening to devour us both.
That was a conversation we should have sooner rather than later.
I could feel the innocence in her touch.
A strange dichotomy, to be sure. Guileless in that, I could feel she would give me every piece of herself, not just the broken parts.
Something that should not be able to exist in someone so jaded—someone who knew enough about humanity to shun it completely.
A walking contradiction—yet there she was .
I needed her to know I was trying to protect her, not reject her. The fact we were both covered in the blood of our enemies was not a deal breaker. If anything, it only called to mind obscene images that made turning her away harder.
She may confuse the fuck out of me and the situation we found ourselves in was absolute bullshit, but the one thing I knew as sure as I knew the beat of my own heart—she was mine.
"Fucking hell." I groaned, wondering not for the first time, when I became that guy.
I made my way through the house, ignoring the lads whining for my attention as I walked through the kitchen, not stopping until I stepped into the shower. Lost in thought, I recoiled as the icy water hit my skin. I spun the knob nearly all the way in the red and waited for steam to fill the room.
I needed to get a handle on these feelings I had for her. Tonight wouldn't be the first time I relieved myself in the shower. Probably wouldn't be the last. But hopefully it would lower the temperature enough that we could talk this over.
Twenty minutes later, I slipped on a pair of dark sweats and headed downstairs. The fire in my veins had been dialed back to a more manageable level, but it still simmered just below the surface.
The savory aroma of toasted garlic and beef wafted through the living room, meeting me as I reached the bottom of the stairs.
I stood back, savoring this moment of domestic bliss as Tierney chopped the carrots and onions we left on the cutting board earlier.
She made thin slices, rather than the chunks I had cut.
She removed the steaks from the pan and scraped in the slices of vegetable, adding a bit more butter as she stirred them.
Apollo limped over to me with a whine. "I know. I know. You want dinner." I said absentmindedly, reaching down to scratch between his ears. Only then did I notice a note wrapped tightly with rubber bands around his leg.
I growled. Shit like this was why I never went anywhere without a knife.
"Tierney!" I called out. "Bring me a knife."
She rushed into the room, Zeus hot on her heels. Her footsteps slowed as she took in Apollo's leg. Her hands moved faster than my eyes could track, pulling the knife from the sheath on her thigh and offering it to me.
My fingers shook with rage. Once again, someone had touched something that was mine. The delicate bands snapped one by one, releasing his leg and dropping a slip of paper to the floor.
I rubbed my hands over his stomach, hoping it reassured him. I liked to grumble about the lads being useless guard dogs, and they were—but they were my useless mutts. Zeus flopped down between us, bopping his nose against my hand as if to say 'my turn'.
"Yeah. You too. Useless mutt." I rubbed his stomach, just as I had for Apollo, and gave them both a quick scratch behind their ears.
An uneasy feeling slithered through my stomach as I opened the folded slip of paper, recognizing the handwriting from Connor's abduction note.
"Naughty boy. Since you have time for games.
I am cutting your remaining time in half.
Six hours have passed, and now only three remain.
Tick-tock." I read aloud, crumpling the note into a tight ball, before throwing it toward the fireplace.
For once, I didn't pay enough attention to notice if I made the shot. I didn't fucking care at this point.
"This might be good." Tierney said, her brows pinched. Her eyes focused somewhere far away as she worked through the puzzle.
"Good isn't a word I would use. Pretty sure Connor would agree."
"Right. No. Good was—well, a poor choice of words. But—they started this by putting out the order on me and drawing you out. Now they are cutting the timeframe—"
"Yeah. I know. I've been following along too." I replied, arching my brow.
She swatted against my bare chest. "they didn't cut it because we messed around with the order. They cut it because the 12 hours came with the expectation of us fighting two enemies."
"Fuck." I swore, raking my hand through my hair.
"Yeah, fuck." she nodded, glancing back toward the kitchen.
"Look, dinner's ready. You feed the dogs and call Jax. I'll make you a plate and we can talk it over while we eat."
I nodded along with her words. It wasn't like I had any better ideas, anyway. I did as she said, my body on auto-pilot, not really processing any of it.
"So, what do we know?" She said, spearing a carrot and popping it in her mouth.
"Jax said the encrypted file he was fighting with, the one that attacked his system when he downloaded the image.
He said it's a map of the city set over a weird grid pattern.
It comes up with a prompt. He thinks when we find the first clue, it will contain something we can enter to get more info from the map. "
"What. The. Fuck. "
"He also narrowed the search area down based on the criteria we sent. There are still two good sized areas to search—"
"I'm not good at knowing the right thing to say. If you're looking for a sarcastic comment, then I'm your girl."
We shared a quiet laugh. "A smart guy I know told me that food is fuel. So we finish eating, then split up and search those two areas."
I shook my head, flipping my hand over, so it captured hers. "No splitting up. We do this together."
She nodded, offering me a small smile. "Two assassins are better than one."
"Something like that."
We finished our meal in silence, both of us mentally preparing ourselves, slipping into work mode. Any conversation about whatever was happening between us had been tabled, pushed to the side in favor of more important matters.
That twisting in my gut returned, souring the food the moment it touched my stomach.
If it had just been me, I would have thrown it in the trash and went to work on an empty stomach.
But I knew if I did that, Tierney would follow suit and she needed to eat.
She was still injured and her thin frame couldn't heal without protein and vitamins to fuel her body.
In short, I did it for her. I ate every bite. My stomach roiled, protesting every morsel, but I swallowed them with a smile—for her.