Elsie
“Ah, stop sulking. You look like a four-year-old who just shat out a porcupine!” Ebony grumbled when I glared at her.
She passed me my pint and sat on the stool beside me.
It was hard to stay mad at my friend, but that didn’t alter the fact that she’d grassed on me. “You could have just told me, Eb, instead of going behind my back to Frank.”
“And would you have believed me?” she argued. “You were already spouting off about having some issues with Frank and Three Blades.”
I shrugged but sighed and nodded. There was enough shit going on without the added extra of falling out with my best friend.
“You miss him?” she posed with interest and a look of confusion. Ebony was a ‘fuck ‘em and leave ‘em’ girl, so she couldn’t ever comprehend how much the soul could pine for someone.
“I do. But it is what it is. He’s already a distraction and until we sort this mess out with Peter, I can do without any more.”
“It’s just frustration, you know.” She nudged me and waggled her eyebrows. “And it’s my job to help Sisters out of tight spots. Call it a good deed.”
Felicity came up behind us, laughing. “One day, you’re gonna fall off your stool when she accepts and allows you to stick your tongue in her fanny.” She winked at Ebony, picking up her shot of tequila and downing it.
“You’re such a bitch, Felicity,” Ebony groused. “You nick my booze and ruin all my dreams. And, even you won’t allow this extra-long tongue to tickle your baked bean.”
“Do we even get dreams?” Tehni slid onto the stool to Ebony’s left. “We’re Weapons; our dreams are substituted with blades and guns.”
“Preach it, Sister,” I agreed, lifting my glass and tapping hers, saluting her.
“We need to get Elsie so drunk that she can’t remember her name, never mind Euan Sinclair,” Ebony stated, ordering more drinks.
“Who’s he?” I asked, lining up a round of tequila shots.
Except, when I fell into bed a few hours later, the only thing on my mind was Euan Sinclair.
***
“Weapon One clear,” I spoke into the small microphone attached to my headset and stashed my gun.
“Three clear,” Tehni declared.
“Four?” I asked, needing an update from Felicity as it had been a while since she’d checked in.
“Four?” Tehni echoed, the concern in her voice as loud as my own anxiousness over my friend.
“She’s not showing on my grid,” Ebony declared from her position in the tech van.
“Fuck! Last known location?”
“Kitchen. To your left, then the second door on the right.”
We’d all been given the assignment to clear out an old house. It was being used for an international drug dealing operation. We never learned who had requested the contract, and, to be honest, it didn’t matter. We all just did our job and got drunk at the end of it.
This assignment hadn’t sat well in my gut when Frank had passed us the file four days ago. But, foolishly, I had put it down to the distraction in my mind. It had been ten days since I had walked away from Euan, choosing this life over him, and every single second of the day I wondered if I had made the right decision.
Twirling the three blades between my fingers, the action calming my anxiety, I stealthily followed Ebony’s directions and made my way to the kitchen.
Stepping over the few dead bodies I had taken out earlier, I found the door Ebony had specified and hesitantly opened it.
My breath caught when Peter O’Keefe grinned at me. “Hello, Elsie.”
Felicity was stood beside him, the muzzle of a gun pressed into her temple by a guy who held her still.
“Don’t be the hero, Elsie,” Peter warned. “Liam has a bit of a twitchy finger.”
Felicity mouthed ‘sorry’, but I shook my head and slowly placed my blades on the floor in front of me, then held up my hands. “You don’t need to hurt Felicity, Peter. I’m good. We can go and talk about this at yours with some whisky, oh and maybe a kebab. I’m famished.”
He grinned at me. “I knew you’d see sense. After all, we are family.”
“And family look out for each other,” I added sarcastically.
He laughed but crooked his finger at me, beckoning me forward. “I hate that I have to do it this way, but I know you won’t listen to me otherwise. And we seriously need to talk.”
I glanced at Felicity. The sorrow in her gaze had me smiling and shaking my head at her. “This isn’t on you, Felicity. It’s okay.”
“I’m so sorry, Els,” she apologised as one of Peter’s men put me in bonds.
“Take her to the car,” Peter ordered to his three men.
I just had to wait. Just thirty seconds.
It was the longest thirty seconds of my life before I was led outside where a car was waiting, its engine ticking over.
The guy leading me out was the first to go down, the bullet that hit him straight between the eyes was one of Ebony’s best.
I turned and headbutted the guy coming at me. He flew backwards, stunned by the force of my blow. Taking the opportunity while he was trying to figure out what the hell had just happened, I stamped on his face and his Adam's apple, then his groin, until Tehni took him out with a bullet to the chest.
“You okay, Sister,” she asked as she slid her knife through the ropes securing my wrists.
“I’m good. We need to help Felicity.”
The kitchen was empty, with no sign of Peter or Felicity. “Fuck!”
We checked the rest of the house, but there was no sign of either of them.
“He heard the shots and ran. Fucking coward!” Tehni hissed.
“With Felicity,” I growled.
***
Frank frowned when the information he had requested popped up with an error message. “That doesn’t make sense.”
“They must have found out she has a tracker embedded.”
He sighed and rubbed at his eyes. “How the fuck do we find her now?”
“Do we have any intelligence on any of Peter’s sites where he could possibly be holding her?”
“I have our tech guys on it, but nothing so far.”
There was a tap at the door before my mother entered. She had a sorrowful look on her face as she placed her hand on my shoulder. “I’m so sorry about this, Elsie.”
Grabbing her hand, I gave it a small squeeze. “It’s not your fault your father is a cunt.”
She chuckled. “You never were one to mince your words.”
My phone vibrated, and I pulled it from my pocket. My heart skipped a beat when Euan’s name was displayed on the screen.
“Euan?”
“We need to meet, Elsie.”
“I don’t think…” I tried. My heart and soul both rejoiced at hearing his voice and shrivelled at the longing they felt. I missed him; it was that simple. I hated the feeling of needing him, it was alien, and I wasn’t sure if it was all that good. I was out of my depth with Euan Sinclair. I didn’t know how to react, and the emotions that he brought were unfamiliar and scary.
“I have information about Felicity.”
I tensed, not daring to breathe. “What?”
“Meet me at The Grande in an hour. I’ll be in the bar.”
My phone beeped, alerting me that he had ended the call.
Tehni narrowed her eyes on me, eavesdropping a skill she had perfected. “Do you trust him?”
“I don’t know.”
“Forgive me, but…” She pulled in a breath. “It appears to be a little dodgy. You walk out on him…”
“I had to be with him in the first place, Tehni,” I disagreed. “I didn’t walk out on him…”
She held up a hand, silencing me. “You walk out on him,” she reiterated. “Peter, suddenly, knows where the fuck we are and turns up. He takes Felicity. And then, low and behold, your man is practically holding you to ransom over what he knows. Bullshit, Elsie. He set you up!”
My heart plummeted. Surely Euan wouldn’t do that. He was the first person who saw the pain in my soul and he eased that ache. He held my heart in the palm of his hand, and he soothed it.
I closed my eyes in despair. Against everything, I had fallen in love with a man. It was forbidden. It was a contract on myself, my own assassination. I was dead now. Frank would never allow me to live if I couldn’t carry out my duties with perfection and a clear head.
Either way, the breaths that filled my lungs were now limited.