Arrow to the Soul (16 page)

“You watched?” she asked softly.

“And was properly amazed,” Adam responded ruefully.

“She’s amazing,
non
? It has been so long since we challenged and she was always good, but now she’s even better.” Bullet sat on the arm of Rand’s leather chair, carefully stroking the wooden bow she’d been gifted with.

Adam watched as Rand’s hand found purchase on her hip and squeezed. He closed his eyes and looked away. It seemed he was watching something so personal it defied description. And between Rand and Bullet, it probably was. It was a simple truth: Adam was jealous.

He cursed and got to his feet, setting the glass on the table and moving to the window.

“She was in a mood this morning, Mr. Collins,” Bullet said in a cold voice.

She only called him Mr. Collins when she was pissed.
Fuck
, just what he needed. “I’m not sure how that’s my fault, Gretchen.”

“Oh, I have no doubts you pushed her after what you witnessed last night. But she isn’t like me, Adam. I’ve tried to tell you.”

He refused to look at her for fear the pity in her voice would be reflected on her lovely face. “Yes, you have.”

“But you have pushed and it is obvious to me that Arrow has feelings toward you,” she murmured.

Adam’s head swiveled to her.

“Ahhh, that intrigues you? It shouldn’t. My sisters are vicious. I was always cold when I killed. I still am. But the truth is that a piece of my heart caves with every kill. They are right when they say I broke. Oh, not my body or mind, but my heart. They’ve long known I didn’t have the fortitude for death-dealing.” She took a deep breath and her fingers twined with Rand, turning white with her grip. “But my sisters do. Though I have seen something in Arrow I never imagined—hesitation. But only with you, Mr. Collins. For some reason, you call to her unlike any other except for Blade, Bone, and I.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, nor do I care,” he bit out between clenched teeth.

“Your harsh breathing, tightened jaw, and glaring eyes tell a different story.” She cocked her head. “I have watched you watching her. I think you feel something for her that makes you angry. Whether you feel you’re betraying Aziveh or you hate yourself for wanting a killer, you have to come to grips. Because whether you like it or not, Arrow is vital to the objective of bringing down The Collective.”

She released Rand’s hand and walked to the door, stopping on the threshold. “Do not hurt her, Mr. Collins. My heart may break a little more with every kill, but I can still pull the trigger with unbelievable ease. And for my sisters I would do it. For Arrow, I
will
do it.”

She left and the silence was heavy in her absence.

“There’s nothing I can say to make this easier,” Rand finally said. “We have our own paths to walk. Mine led me to Gretchen and I’ll tell you the truth, it still bothers me to some degree. I don’t know what’s in your mind, what you’re feeling. But Arrow is a killer, just like Gretchen.”

“You’re warning me away from a woman who disgusts me.” His voice was harsh. He sighed. “But I’m drawn to her like I’ve never been to anyone else. I don’t understand it.”

“Does it compromise you?”

Adam glanced at Rand and saw nothing but a friend’s concern. There was no doubt there, which eased the band around his chest. “No. I’m confirmed to this mission. Joseph and The Collective need to be destroyed. But I don’t know that I can harm her.”

“Perhaps there is no need to,” Rand murmured.

“If she steps on our plans, goes against us, I will have no choice.”

Rand finished off his whiskey. “There are always choices, Adam. That’s what life is all about.”

Adam got up and paced restlessly for a time. Inside there was nothing but confusion. It was a morass that pulled at him. He wanted her so desperately it was becoming an obsession. He tasted her on the wind and saw her in his dreams. She was everywhere she should not be.

“Things change, Adam. Time moves on and we have to accept our losses. I know you’re conflicted.”

Adam snorted and turned as he came to the doorway. “I agree. Life is about choices,” Adam bit out. “Conflicted doesn’t begin to cover my state of mind. But rest assured, Rand, when it comes to my duty, things are always clear. Choices are inevitable and I have made mine.”

Rand lifted a brow but Adam turned away before his friend could drop anymore pearls of wisdom. Once again he found himself needing release from the bindings a killer wrapped him in.

Chapter Fifteen

“You train with them daily?” Arrow asked in a near whisper.

Bullet nodded but kept her gaze on the ten young females in the clearing below them. “I do. Would you like to join in today?”

Arrow shook her head and strangely wanted to rub her chest. “I am too close to death, Bullet. My need to draw blood is ferocious. I sparred with Killian before I left Arequipa a year ago. I almost killed her.”

Now Killian was somewhere in the world, doing Joseph’s bidding. Perhaps it would have been easier if Arrow had killed her.

Bullet nodded again but her gaze never stopped roving over the babies. Each of the children’s stories was different but the same as First Team’s. Taken and changed, stripped of their given names, they were molded to become something no child should ever have to contemplate. Killers.

“I wonder how Mother would feel?” Arrow mused aloud.

Bullet’s gaze sliced to Arrow. “About what?”

Arrow inclined her head to the babies.

“She doesn’t have to worry about them anymore. They are ours,” Bullet whispered.

“They have always been ours,” Arrow replied. She sighed then. “I must leave soon, sister. Lei Wang is moving on our interests,” Arrow murmured.

“Will you take Adam with you?”

Arrow cocked her head. There was a veil over Bullet’s question and she sifted through the layers to determine just what her sister was asking.

“The men of Trident are not my allies. I have no allies, Bullet. I have sisters and that is enough.” She shrugged finally. “I do not need help.”

Bullet grunted. “None of us
need
help.”

“Then why did you ask?”

Bullet turned her head and speared Arrow with her gaze. “I have seen how you look at him when his eyes aren’t on you.”

Arrow’s heart quickened and took a slide into her stomach before she pulled her emotions together. Thoughts of Adam Collins disturbed the calm waters of her mind. She worried about that constantly now.

Bullet sighed. “Your lack of response is all the response I need. I’ll leave it alone for now, sister. When do you plan to hit Lei?”

“Within the week I will leave. From there my journey may twist and turn. There is nothing to be done for it. I must enter China and this means utilizing Grant.” Arrow sighed now and accepted the frustration inherent in dealing with Grant.

He was a pushy man who thought because he was ex-CIA he had all the answers and could never be defeated. He was the friend of an enemy of her enemy. He was a valuable tool in her arsenal but a human tool nonetheless. This made him unpredictable.

“You realize Grant has an agenda?” Bullet inquired softly.

“But of course. He is a man and as such prone to all sorts of grandiose ideas,” Arrow returned.

“There was a woman in the woods of Arequipa when I arrived with Trident. Grant knew she was there, in fact, did everything he could to protect her from me.”

Arrow took a deep breath. “Is it her?”

Bullet shrugged but in the air hung her sister’s suspicion. Arrow’s mind tried to take her back to the black of a night that changed her entire world. She resisted the past’s tug and rubbed her temple.

“I don’t know if it is her or not. What disturbs me is that Grant protected the woman so whoever she is she has a part in his scheming.”

“I can do nothing until she shows herself. There is too much uncertainty and always the chance we could kill before we know for sure. She deserves more than a nameless death.”

Bullet grunted. “She shoots at me again and it will be a moot point. My bullet will find her brain before another thought enters it.”

Arrow turned to her sister then and hardened herself. “You will not. She is not yours, Bullet.”

“None of you are, but you could be if you harm what is mine.”

“If she tries to take what is yours, she is fair game for us all,” Arrow bit out. “And do not ever threaten me again.”

The words danced in the air between them, gliding to a stop at the point of no return.

Bullet glanced at her and in her sister’s ice-blue eyes was a promise. “I told Rand I would set the world on fire if he were harmed. I have changed, sister. Be sure you know this. My objective remains but he has taken root in my brokenness and something blooms there I never anticipated.”

“We will call on you, Bullet, to do what you promised. We would never hurt you; therefore your Mr. Beckett is protected. The woman has maintained the periphery. Should she come closer, she will put herself between the four of us. Should she attempt us, she will die.”

Bullet nodded and turned away. “Do you remember that night, Arrow? Do you remember her?”

She froze inside, the black rising up with the force of a million mighty arms wrapping around and pulling her down, down, down. She turned her face to the sun, hoping its light would help her fight the memories. It didn’t. Arrow fisted her hands, the prick of her nails in her palms doing nothing to center her.

“I remember everything. It is what I see when I close my eyes, what I smell as I sleep. It is what I hear when it is silent and all that I know when my mind calms. More so even than Ninka’s loss, that night defines my hate.”

“Yes,” Bullet murmured. “It is the same for Blade, I imagine.”

Arrow didn’t answer. Blade was an entity all her own, and as such didn’t require Arrow’s understanding. Logically, the events of that night so long ago helped make them all stronger. At the same time it had given them their greatest weakness.

“Did you hear me?”

Arrow glanced at Bullet, surprised she’d not heard her speaking.

“I’m going to train with the babies now,” she said softly.

Arrow tilted her head and tried to swallow the bitter acid of her remembering. “I will sit here, sister, and watch.”

“Should the waters of your mind calm and death doesn’t stalk, join us. The babies could learn much from you.” Bullet bowed her head gracefully and took off down the incline.

The girls were all small except for one gangly pre-teen who reminded Arrow of herself at that age. The lines of the child’s body were sleek and elegant even in her awkwardness. Arrow could not see the girl’s face, but knew Joseph sought the child because she reminded him in face and form of Arrow.

He would pay for them all. Every hurt he’d visited on them Arrow would make sure he felt over and over before he collapsed to hell.

With her creamy skin, long black hair, and upturned eyes, the girl below could be her biological sister, but the truth was Arrow had been an only child. Her mother dropped her at the temple and fled back to her home across the mountains, probably sighing in relief that the child with the demon-gold eyes was gone from her.

As she watched the child sparring with Bullet, Arrow was reminded of the feel of the land that birthed her. Subtle but deep, it could hug you close in affection or crush you in enmity.

Her muscles loosened as the need to fight shot through her extremities. How long since she sparred with a worthy opponent? The episode with Adam Collins did not count. Beneath her skin muscles began to roil with energy, and it pulsed through her in waves. She needed to fight and sitting here watching the babies train wasn’t doing anything to improve her mood.

She stood slowly and stretched, determined to work out this vicious poison in her veins. Perhaps she should seek Mr. Collins. Perhaps he could help her ease this volatility. After all, he was the main reason she’d been denied in the first place.

•●•

Adam had been hitting the punching bag for what felt like hours and still he’d not found fatigue. Sweat poured off him and his muscles were on fire, but the energy was a live thing under his skin, burning and twisting, demanding to be purged.

The door opened and he kept his head down, punching the bag over and over until he both smelled and felt her. Then he stopped, caught the bag as it swung back toward him, and stood there breathing heavily from his exertion. Long moments passed as he waited.

“What do you want, Saya?”

“No one has ever asked me what I want. As I stand here contemplating, I realize that is probably not a question you should ask someone who has had nothing.”

Her voice was a cold wind across his soul. His body cooled but his mind raged.

“Leave, Saya, or we will engage and that is not best for either of us right now,” he said between clenched teeth.

She laughed and the low sound of it grabbed him by the throat…and balls.

“What is best is not always what is right. I need to fight and you are available, in fact, it seems you ache for it as much as I.”

Fuck yes, he ached. She had no idea. He slowly began to take off his gloves, throwing them to the ground as he turned and faced the woman who dominated his thoughts, pushing Aziveh to the distant past and leaving room for nothing else.

“I want to hate you,” he bit out.

She smiled and his heart froze over. “As you should. Hate is as good of an emotion as love, I would imagine. Both motivate and push for greater action.”

He groaned aloud. “Always you talk. Tell me, Arrow, do you believe what you say?”

“Every word,” she responded softly.

How it happened, he didn’t know, but they circled one another, gazes cataloguing weaknesses, feet shuffling in a dance that would lead them to warfare.

“Do you need to be angry to fight me, Mr. Collins?”

He shook his head. “Though you have that base covered, Saya.”

Her gaze flattened, the molten gold becoming hammered and dull. “You call me by a name I didn’t give you permission to use.”

“I don’t recall asking for permission.” Let her choke on that.