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Ashe
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“DAMNIT, THAT WAS CLOSE.” Ashe climbed into the SUV, marginally satisfied when she heard the locks engaging. She turned to glare at the would-be assassin in the trunk area. “You got anyone else helping you?” Since her saliva ran through his body she knew he couldn’t lie.
Greg shook his head. The man sat against the tailgate, knees drawn to his chest with his arms wrapped around them. Too much of the white of his eyes showed and his inner cat emitted a low grumble. Felines were strange creatures often reacting different than most paranormals in tight quarters.
“Yeah, fuck your cat too.” She slumped into the seat and grasped Tobias’s hand. “What about the other two I left for you?”
Hitchcock turned a little in the front seat to peer at her. “They both identified the same guy as their employer.”
Tobias blanched, and Ashe said, “They were after Victoria.”
“Vic’s in trouble now?” Dom’s fingers tightened on the steering wheel.
“My former employer is either desperate or he has a hard-on for your blood, Tobias.” Ashe shook her head.
“Why can’t you see she’s pulling the wool over your eyes, Tobias.” Dom’s eyes met hers in the rearview mirror.
Normally, she’d agree with him. Pretenses were always important and a sudden shift in mindset typically pointed to subterfuge. So, yeah, she understood his misgivings. If she was the reassuring type, she’d rush to convince him, but she gave zero fucks what Dom thought.
“I need a cell.” Ashe held her hand out between the two front seats, waiting for Dom or Hitchcock to comply. Tobias mostly likely had one too, but she wanted the other two dragons to acknowledge her authority and obey or her power as a protector would be undermined from the get-go.
“Tobias!” Dom swerved toward the side of the road and braked hard.
Ashe projected forward, her shoulder slammed against the back of the front seat, where she came to rest on her knees in the floorboard.
Tobias helped her wiggle off the floorboard. “Cut the bullshit, Dom. If I say she’s on our side, then she’s fucking on our side.”
Ashe came up swinging and she managed to get an uppercut to Dom’s chin before Tobias pulled her onto his lap. Chest heaving and breath sawing from her lungs, she lifted a foot and kicked between the front seats. “If I wanted him dead, Dom, I could’ve killed him a hundred different ways already. You put him in danger with that type of driving again and I’ll put you on your ass.”
Tobias burst into laughter and Ashe went limp in his arms, turning her head to look him. There wasn’t a damn thing funny about Tobias’s humor.
“I knew it. She’s your mate,” Hitchcock said quietly from the front seat.
Dom groaned at the idea.
For a second she froze while that word sank in. Mate? Uh uh. No way in hell.
“What?” Ashe scrambled off Tobias’s lap and put the entire backseat between them. With her back pressed against the door, she gaped at him with a new outlook. “No one participates in that archaic bullshit anymore.”
“I can name more than a dozen members of our family that have done that archaic bullshit in the last decade,” Dom said, smacking the steering wheel. “She’s not who I’d have picked for you, Tobias.”
“You get to pick?” she asked, her voice trembling at the idea of being his mate, not out of dislike but because the connection implied he was every bit hers, as much as she’d wished he was.
“No,” Tobias said. “Fate does the picking.”
Unsure what to think, Ashe stared at Tobias.
“Fuck!” Dom hit the steering wheel again as if this made his life harder.
The dark dread of terror should’ve slithered through her. She waited for that emotion to sink in and the impulse to escape to materialize. Losing her freedom was part of why she’d left her homeland. On that island she’d have been any other siren, committed to the community, with no personal goals, having another kid every hundred years give or take. By now she could have at least ten children.
Strangely, the dread she’d anticipated didn’t surface. Having Tobias in her life felt right, like she’d been waiting to meet him, and she hadn’t even known she searched for him. But that had to be why she’d begun her quest. Some part of her had to of known he was out there waiting for her.
If he spoke true, then it made sense for her to feel his presence the way she did. To be drawn to him so strongly, hesitating to take the shot, and to consider him hers so soon after almost killing him herself; yeah, this mating business had to be the reason.
Tobias watched her, anticipation and fear fighting for control of his face.
“Mates? You really think so?” She asked, unsure how Tobias felt about the possibility. She waited for some acknowledgement that he wanted their pairing.
“Yeah.” He nodded. “I knew almost immediately.”
Suddenly everything made sense. Her compulsion to leave the island when no one ever left. The lives she’d lived, the men she’d left, the way she’d hesitated to pull the trigger when she had Tobias in her crosshairs. From two miles out, she’d felt him and while she might not have realized his importance, her intuition had. That fated connection was why she’d taken his attempted murder so personally and not because King of Kings encroached upon her territory. Yeah, it pissed her off that the asshole thought she couldn’t get the job done, but what really enraged her was that they wanted to snuff out Tobias’s life.
People respected him in Black Hollow. She’d taken note of their deference as they walked through the town today. The For Citizens publisher and his friend, Silver, had been genuinely worried for his safety. Tobias’s family risked their lives for him.
“I was hired to kill my mate.” Her fingers trembled as the impact of that reality struck her.
“Imagine my surprise, Asherah, when I realized I found my long-awaited mate in my assassin.” He smiled. “Best shitstorm I’ve ever had come at me.”
At his cheeky grin, she came across the backseat, tackling him against the other door. His grip secured about her waist as their mouths connected in a kiss that she knew indicated the beginning of their future. It was a long minute before one of the guys upfront cleared their throat. Good thing too because Ashe had forgotten about them and had been two seconds from pulling his clothes off.
She sat back on her heels, eyeing her man. Once again, she held her hand toward his brother and cousin. “Give me a phone.”
This time a cell was dropped into her palm. She opened up the call app, put it on speaker, dialed the number she’d memorized—a burner she’d tried to trace—and hit the phone icon. It rang twice before someone picked up. No hello, no grunt, just nothing but open air.
“You sent someone to do my job.” Ashe stared at Tobias as she lifted her other hand and flipped Greg off through the glass separating them. “That was a mistake.”
A distorted voice came through the line, “Last I heard you were locked up in the Drakki Estate and he was frolicking about Black Hollow with a redhaired whore.”
“You have bad information.” Rustling sounded in the background.
“You’re calling me from Hitchcock’s phone.”
Kings of Kings is close to them. “I swiped it off him during the shoot up.”
A long moment of silence. “Then who’s the redhead?”
“Flavor of the month.” He’s the flavor of my future.
She blew Tobias a kiss, anticipating stripping him down to nothing and having her way with him. Before she finished with him, he’d blow in her mouth and inside her pussy.
He winked at her and his grin turned lurid, almost as if he could read her mind.
“You’re lying,” the skewed voice said.
“You’re welcome to come to the party on Friday—”
“Already plan to attend.”
“—and I’ll kill him while everyone watches.” Ashe elevated her eyebrows at the admission that Mr. Moneybags planned to be there. It was useful information. The identity might be a mystery, but they were someone close enough to know she’d been brought in, locked up, but not close enough to know the “redhead” was her.
“I mean I’ll come if you want me to. Watching him die will be a nice end to the work week.”
Ashe elevated her eyebrows. She would enjoy kicking this motherfucker’s ass. “I want to know who you are before I off him.”
“No.” The shakiness was clear despite the voice modulator. Good, the person already feared her.
“Fine. Then you better start looking over your shoulder because I’m coming for you instead.” Ashe disconnected the call before shim had a chance to backtrack or change his or her mind. She wanted the person terrified enough they’d be willing to out themselves before she had to pretend to kill her mate. Ashe curled up against Tobias and he wrapped his arms around her shoulder. “Take my mate home, Dom. I need him safe before we plot to take down a backstabber.”
“Whoever that was is friend or family,” Hitchcock’s voice wavered, and she could detect a paleness to his otherwise darker complexion.
“They’re at the very least trusted,” Ashe agreed. “Come Friday it ends.”
“With Tobias alive, I hope,” Dom glanced at her in the rearview mirror before putting the car in drive and easing back onto the road.
“I’ll be dead before he’s dead. That I’ll promise you, Dom.”