Love Like Blood: (Royal Blood #5) (14 page)

“I’m not reassured,” he said dryly.

“It’s fucking scary,” I admitted. “Seeing her like that. But have faith, Vaughn. X had a lot of things to fall back on that even he didn’t know. Lorelei had a different beginning. We’ll get her the answers she needs, and then hopefully, she can find her path.”

He sighed. “What about MI6?”

Turning to face him straight on, I stared him in the eye so he would understand that what I was about to say was the complete and utter truth as I knew it.

“I haven’t forgotten what you did for me,” I said. “Giving up your revenge on Sykes so I could have mine. When it comes time to shove, we’ll do whatever we can to spare you both. You have my word.”

“And X?”

“My word is X’s word. We’re one and the same.”

He held my gaze for a moment before nodding. “Understood.”

Smiling, I clapped him on the shoulder. “Then let’s go bag us a scum-sucking asshole.”

“
W
e have
a location in North London,” I said, relaying what Hawkes had told me while Mercy had calmed down a volatile Lorelei.

“And?” Vaughn prodded.

“He’s home.”

“Then we need to go,” Lorelei exclaimed.

“What’s the first stage, Lorelei?” I asked her, playing to the protocols we had both followed to the letter.

Her shoulders sank. “Planning.”

“We’ll get our shot,” I reassured her. “But first, we need to plan. This whole thing means nothing if we miss because we didn’t take the time to make it watertight.”

She nodded, casting her gaze down like a submissive puppet. “Understood.”

Frowning, I said, “Lorelei, I’m not your master here. We’re an equal team.”

Her gaze came back up, but it was Vaughn who spoke. “What do you suggest?”

“We need equipment if we go by the intel Hawkes has provided from his scouting.”

“Equipment we’re cut off from,” Mercy said.

“That’s right,” Vaughn drawled. “You’ve already pissed off Her Majesty’s finest.”

I snorted. “There’s an in we haven’t exploited yet.”

Mercy’s eyes lit up as her wavelength matched my own. “Jackson.”

“Who’s Jackson?” Lorelei asked.

“A motherfucking wizard,” Mercy exclaimed, clapping her hands together. “Who’s that guy in the James Bond movies with the stuff and things?”

“He likes you,” I said to her. “Especially when you say shit like that. We should go pick him up, and ask nicely for some gadgets.”

“I’m lost,” Vaughn said with a scowl. “We need as few eyes on this as possible. I don’t want explosions, X. I want covert. In and out.”

“This is the point where you just nod and trust us,” I said to him. “We all want the same thing here. We’ve all got shit to lose if we balls it up.”

“We want to get inside the egg without cracking the shell. Jackson can get us everything we need,” Mercy explained. “He’s a good guy. On the side of justice, so he just needs some kind words. Like pretty please with sugar on top.”

“Well, we’re screwed then,” Lorelei said, rolling her eyes.

Ignoring her, I turned to Mercy. “We’ll grab him on his morning commute.”

“Good idea,” she said in agreement. “That way he’s in and out with no extra suspicion.”

“Then you should rest before heading out,” Vaughn said. “We have a guest bedroom upstairs. Lorelei and I will stay here and review the intel from Hawkes. We will reconvene once you have what you need.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Mercy said. “Now where’s this bed, and where’s the food at?”

“I can see you’ve become much happier since our last meeting,” he said to her, then pointed to his cheek. “Despite the souvenir you picked up after I left.”

She rolled her eyes and edged him toward the door. “We need to have a discussion, you and I.”

Vaughn shot me a look, and I hung back, waiting for Lorelei. I could see her restlessness and knew it had more to do with her changing mind than her eagerness to be on a mission.

Stepping in front of her, her gaze met mine, and it was full of swirling emotions verging on the brink of total overload. Vaughn had been right to be worried. I recognized the same look from all those times I’d stared at my own reflection wondering if I was going to make it or not.

“Lorelei,” I murmured as Vaughn and Mercy left us in peace. This wasn’t going to be an easy conversation, but it was best had between those who understood.

“Vaughn says you’re better now,” she said, the firelight casting a warm glow across her features.

“As well as I can be considering.”

I gestured for her to sit, and she folded herself onto the couch, tucking her slender hands underneath her thighs like she didn’t trust herself.

Taking a spot next to her, I stared at the fire, watching the flames flicker and spit as they devoured the logs that had been tossed haphazardly into the hearth. Vaughn knew how to carve a man up with skilled precision, but he sucked at building a fire.

“You can tell me about it,” I said.

“I don’t even know the right words,” she replied. “How can I explain what I can’t understand?”

“That’s the thing that got me. Understanding is control and for us, control is everything. Control over ourselves, over the mission, over the kill…” I shook my head.

“I don’t know what I’m meant to do without it.”

I glanced at her and found her staring at me with desperate hope. Whatever she was experiencing, the memories Greggor had taken from her were trying to devour her whole.

“Was it better when you were with Vaughn?” I asked, knowing that Mercy and our relationship had been the thing that had seen me through the darkest moments. The moments where I thought I’d be swallowed whole by the beast inside of me.

She scowled and turned away. “What are you implying?”

“I’m implying that being with Mercy was the thing that helped ground me in reality, Lorelei. She was the thing I cared about most above all else, and I couldn’t have her,
I couldn’t be with her
, if I wasn’t fighting. Do you remember what I said to you when we first met?”

“When you stood over my father’s bloody corpse with his heart in your hand?” she asked, facing me again.

I raised my eyebrows. “I’ll never apologize or feel guilty over that. He deserved his fate.”

“He was still my father…” It sounded like something she’d been telling herself over and over like a mantra, trying to justify all the horrible things that had happened to her…and all the things Greggor had commanded her to do.

“Listen to yourself, Lorelei,” I exclaimed. “He may have been your father, but he had you tortured and brainwashed. He turned you into a monster. Don’t you think it would have been kinder if he’d sent you away to live a life free of violence? Why didn’t he do that? Why did he feel compelled to turn you into a killer?”

She flinched, wrapping her arms around her stomach like a shield.

“You care about Vaughn,” I said, turning my gaze away. “If you didn’t, you would have killed him back in Bristol. It doesn’t matter about before. All that matters is now. Fighting it because you don’t understand will only make your mind worse.”

“Did you fight?” she asked quietly.

“Yes. Mercy did, too.”

“She fought against you?”

“No,” I murmured. “She fought for me. I was commanded to kill her, but…” I trailed off, the memory of the night I found her in her apartment flashing to the forefront of my mind. I’d held a gun to her head, a bullet in the chamber ready to put her down, and I just… I’d hesitated.

“But you loved her instead?” she asked, her mouth dropping open.

I took a deep breath and told Lorelei what she needed to hear. “Let him in. Allow yourself to care. It’s the only thing that will calm the storm inside. You’ll remember horrible things, things that will haunt you forever, but you’ll learn to live with them just as I have.”

“What did you ever do that was so bad?” she asked, her stubbornness really starting to grate on my nerves.

“I killed my entire family,” I said. “My brother was first. Then I broke into my parent’s home and shot my father in the head,
twice
, then I went upstairs and shot my mother. I almost killed the woman I loved in the exact same way. That’s a demon I will never be rid of for as long as I draw breath. Believe me when I tell you this…
let Vaughn in and care
.”

She stared at me for so long I began to wonder if I’d triggered something inside of her, but after a pause, she mouthed the words ‘
let Vaughn in and care’
over and over until she seemed satisfied she’d absorbed the message.

Rising to her feet, she took a deep breath. Then she turned to me and smiled before leaving me alone to sit and wonder what the hell had just happened.

T
he morning was
clear but cold, the heavy fog of winter having skipped today in favor of an icy wind.

We sat in the car on a quiet little street full of traditional row houses, waiting for Jackson to leave for work. Each one looked exactly the same as the last, and the blandness was mind numbing. I could never live in one of these homes. I could never understand how people dealt with it.

Mercy told me that Jackson caught the bus every morning from the stop near his house, got off at the tube station, and rode a train the rest of the way into the offices. Our best bet was to grab him on his way to the bus. It was a quiet residential area with little traffic, and I could hardly comprehend how he put up with such a long commute every day. I supposed he dealt with it for his son.

“What time did you say he left again?” I asked, glancing at my watch.

“Seven-thirty. We have to ID those douchebags that shot up that pub, too,” she reminded me. “It’d be a right pain in the ass if they came back to haunt us.”

“Lorelei gave me the pictures,” I murmured, not taking my eyes off the street.

There was movement on the footpath, and Jackson finally came into view.

“Game time,” I said, sitting up straight.

“Be gentle with him, okay?”

I grunted, not taking my gaze from him. He was bundled up in a coat and scarf, his breath vaporizing on the icy air. He strode down the street and rounded the corner without a care in the world. He was just a guy behind a desk with a soldering iron in his hand, not a field agent, so his identity was pretty safe. He lived in a world most agents had forgotten existed. Jackson was lucky.

Mercy pulled the car out of the spot and cruised at a distance, then when the coast was clear, she gunned the engine and roared up beside him. Before he could turn, I jumped out, came up from behind, and wrenched a hood over his head. A little dramatic, but we couldn’t approach the poor guy in broad daylight where anyone could see. We weren’t meant to be operating on British soil in the first place, let alone using Section Seven resources.

Mercy popped the boot, and I hauled Jackson inside and tied his hands and feet with duct tape as he flopped around like a fish out of water. God help the man if he was ever truly kidnapped.

Getting back into the passenger seat, I said, “Get us out of here.”

“You didn’t hurt him, did you?”

I rolled my eyes. “That man needs to take a self-defense class.”

“Then remind me to enlist him when all this is done,” she said with a smile.

We didn’t stop until we’d reached a quiet lane in a nearby industrial estate. Getting out of the car, I heaved Jackson out of the boot and shoved him into the backseat. Sliding back into the front, I cut off the duct tape from around his wrists and ankles, and he began to squirm. Seriously, he needed to learn how to kick a little.

With a sigh, I pulled the hood from his head, and he blinked as the light hit his eyes. For a moment, he looked totally bewildered, and then he glanced at Mercy.

“Miss Reid?” he asked, his mouth dropping open.

“Hey,” she said, throwing him a smile.

When he turned to me, his panic levels began to rise. “Mr. Cassel, I mean, Mr. Blood, I mean—”

“Settle down, Jackson,” I drawled. “You’re in no danger.”

“But you’re meant to be on a mission. Mei told me not—”

“I know what Mei said.”

“You kidnapped me!” he exclaimed.

“Sorry about the theatrics, Jackson,” Mercy said. “But you know we’re on the outs. We didn’t want to get you into trouble too.”

“But… But…” he stammered.

“I thought you wanted to help catch the bad guys,” I said, already annoyed with this floundering. “The whole point of Section Seven is to do shit that you don’t have to answer to the law for.”

“But… But…”

“But what?”

“But we’re not allowed to operate on British soil. We could get in big trouble for that.”

“You don’t work for MI6 anymore,” I stated. “Not directly. We’re Section Seven, and we don’t answer to any law unless we get caught. I’ve never been caught.”

“Unless we get caught by Mei and Moltke.”

I laughed. “You’re afraid of Mei and Moltke?”

He shrugged, his shirt dampening around his armpits with nervous perspiration. “Have you seen Mr. Moltke? That guy is like Darth Vader and James Bond combined. I don’t want to cross him on a good day. I’ve got bills to pay.”

Mercy snorted, covering up her laughter, and I shot her a warning glance.

“What?” she asked. “He’s right.”

“We’re one step away from direct contact with the target,” I said, turning back to Jackson. “But we’re dead in the water without the tech to help us get in, and get what we need.”

“But my lab is in the headquarters,” Jackson complained.

“Then you go into your lab, get what we need, and we’ll pick it up from you,” Mercy said kindly. “We’ll make it super easy. Less heat if you know what I mean.”

“What if someone sees me? What if Mei starts asking questions?” he asked, starting to panic. “I’m just a guy. I don’t know how to do any of this spy stuff… I mean, I’m sweating like a pig.”

“You’ll have to avoid her,” I said. “Go straight in, get what we need, and deliver it before she gets the chance.”

“What if I get caught? I don’t want to go to prison. My wife will kill me. It’s my kid’s birthday next week.”

“Do you want to help us bag a mean son of a bitch who kidnaps and sells women into sexual slavery or not?”

“What are the mission parameters?” he asked, his shoulders sinking.

“Type A security, no direct access to a junction box, so we’ll need to disable it remotely,” Mercy said, taking over. I let her do the rest of the talking since Jackson seemed to like her more. “We need access to his computer and network, so we’ll need something that will copy tons of data fast. Oh, and something to make any guards we run into go night night. We want to be in and out with as little noise as possible.” Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out the USB drive that held the information of the assassins that had attacked Lorelei at The Maid and The Master.

“What’s that for?” he asked, glancing at the drive, then back at Mercy.

“There are images on here of some men we need to know the identities of. If you could cross-check them with the MI6 database for any matches, that would be brilliant.”