CHAPTER THREE

CIAN

I have no idea what I am doing or why. I know why because she spiked my interest from the moment I realized she was tailing me, a few weeks ago. I was furious, not having realized she was stalking me, or how long she had been stalking me before I found out. But at the same time, impressed, as nothing ever goes unnoticed by me. Not by a long shot. Why she has been on me, I don't know, but I'm going to find out.

I'd purposely lured her here, and watched her bring herself to me. Three weeks ago, she'd bumped into me, accidentally on purpose, at a café I'd started frequenting to get her, and she took the bait, somehow got a job, and served me on one of the Wednesdays I'd walked there, and to my knowledge, once her mission was done, she quit. And her mission was bugging me, which she did when she supposedly tripped and had the coffee I ordered poured on my lap. She'd gotten on her knees, apologizing profusely, pretty sure she hated every minute of it and took a cloth to wipe on my trousers and coat.

That's when she put the bug on the lapels of my coat, and if I wasn't watching her keenly, I would not have noticed her slipping the small chip-like item, on the lapel of my jacket. I'd cleared my throat, and adjusted the coat on my lap, to cover my hard-on, straining on the zipper of my slacks. The reason that turned me on, I don't want to know. She stopped and like a scared cat, scurried away to the back. I was mesmerized by her, her brown skin, the curly black mop of hair that I assumed was hers and not a wig, everything about her, even though she had on some baggy clothes that hid her figure, probably so as not to stand out and draw attention, but her pretty, brown, almond-shaped eyes stood out, as expressionless as they were.

My brother, William who was with me at the diner raised a brow and I dismissed his silent question. I watched her from the corner of my eye going back to the breakroom after an earful from the manager. She'd probably gone to make sure she got it right and wanted to listen to what our conversation entailed and that's exactly what I gave her. I went on to tell my brother that I had purchased a two-story house on Emerald Street and I was going to stay there every once in a while every week, and I would expect him to hold the fort while I was away from the mansion, where we all lived, with the rest of my siblings, and the other guys, the guards lived in the guest house, that was almost as big.

Of course, my brother wasn't very thrilled about me secluding myself, considering our line of work, but nevertheless, he nodded and for his peace of mind, I said I'd bring security with me. I diverted most of the important bits of our conversation and talked about lighter notes that I was sure she knew from her stalking.

And a week later, before marrying security in the house, I gave her a window to set up her equipment, which she did with no fail. I was impressed yet again, as she even dared to come to my house, did she not fear death? Or was she resigned to it? It was known to anyone living in Chicago that no one crossed me and lived to tell the tale. Yet, she still went on with her plan.

But it was time for this cat and mouse game to end.

"Hello, love," I say, switching on the lights, startling her, her body grew rigid for a second, I take that moment and swiftly moved forward silently. She turns slowly, not dropping her gun, pointing it towards me, now the mouth of the barrel touching my chest, right where my heart is situated. My heart is racing like crazy but I don't let it show. She sees the distance between us, her eyes widen a fraction but she doesn't show any signs of anxiety or fear apart from the slight shake of her hand and the fast beating of her heart I see at the base of her neck, not does she stumble backward, instead, she looks up at me. She says nothing, smart girl. I break first, and put my fist on top of hers, easily taking the gun away from her, by slightly squeezing the bones on her wrist and she dropped the gun, "you had an open window to shoot me right in the chest, but I doubt you'll have any more chances for that."

"We'll see," she snorts. Confident, and I give her props for it, men shake in my presence, reeking with fear. Her leg connects with my knee, setting me off, as I had not expected her to resort to hand-on-hand fighting. Next, she throws a blow to my face and I dodge it, grabbing her hand, and twisting it behind her back. and oh what a nice backside. Her leggings do nothing to cover her full hourglass figure. Still, she side-steps and faces me again, punching me in the jaw, with her free hand. I curse, feeling it to the top of my head.

I grab that free hand loosely and maneuver her in a way that her front is facing the room, with both hands behind her back this time. She lies there limp, and if I was anyone else I'd probably be fooled to think that she'd given up, but her shoulders were wound up tight."Fuck," I mutter when her foot connects with my thigh. I stumble backward and that gives her leverage to get on her stomach before I pounce again, my body fitting between hers and her thighs around me. As good as it feels to have her wrap her legs around me, I know it's too good to be true. Even with her crotch, hot on mine, even though we're both clothed. She locks her legs at her ankles and grabs my shirt on the right side with her left arm and the left side with the latter, pulling me into her chest, forcefully. My body relaxes against hers already knowing what will come next. Seeing spots, everything goes black.

I twist my neck left to right, feeling my body sore, and I want to raise my hand to rub the spot behind my neck and I realize I can't move my hands, that's when everything comes flowing back into my mind. I'm sitting on the floor, with the rope around my hands, and my little assassin sitting on the bed with the gun on her lap.

"I doubt you'll get the bounty money when I get out of this rope," I bait her. "I'm not here to kill you," she states cooly, looking me in the eye. My eyebrows raise a fraction."You killed one of my men," I state, not making any move to try and get out of the rope. Funny enough the rope was tied well, I could not get out of it. Seems like my girl is a rigger. She grins, "two, you should be thanking me, they were rats." "And you killed them because you're a good samaritan ridding the rats from my people?" I snort, I feel my lips twitch.

"I'm just settling a score," she says, shrugging her shoulders. I wondered what had transpired to have her kill my men.

"And where do I come in, in all of this?" I ask. Her face is solemn, and her eyes are suddenly haunted, filled with rage and sorrow, "I just need to find my sister." "Is she as pretty as you?" I ask, in an attempt to make a joke. But instead, her eyes narrow, and before I know it, one more time, her palm connects with my cheek, if my jaw wasn't sore enough, it was now.

My tongue massaged my cheek from the inside of my mouth, I hissed, "maybe that wasn't the right thing to say." "You fucking bet," she spits, clenching her hand in a fist. "Sorry to tell you, love, but I don't know your sister," I tell her. "You obviously don't know the names of all the women you send to sex dungeons," she says in response. My eyes narrow, "my business doesn't involve selling women." She scoffs, "if I didn't know any better, I'd think you were telling the truth."

I tilt my head to the side, in confusion, "what do you mean by that." "Leon Roarke, I've seen you with him three times!" she looks me over, disgust written all over her face. And I want to strangle that mother fucker. Her eyes, full of fire, meet mine and we stared at each other, no one saying a word. Until I did, "I don't follow."

"A number of your men are working for Roarke, two who have high positions among your men and you want to tell me you didn't know about it? I call bullshit!" "I'm telling you now, I don't know what the fuck you're on about, Roarke and I are not allies, never have been, never will be," I tell her, a part of me surprised she knows all this, the part that is feeling some sort of way that doesn't sit well with me, over her being around that sociopath. And another part of me is furious with myself, for I didn't realize she'd been tailing me for a long fucking time, and that my men who swore their loyalty to me, were going behind my back with a foe. She stands, pacing over the wooden floor, but my eyes are focused on the sway of her full hips as she does.

She stops suddenly, a tremor running through her body, before she straightens, pushing her shoulders back, and faces me once again. This time those pretty eyes are filled with fear, but still defiant."So you're telling me I've done zero work, zero progress, and wasted nine weeks of valuable time? And you'll probably kill me, so there's that."

She starts pacing again, mumbling to herself, "the only thing keeping me from losing my mind is the knowledge of her being alive through the ducking streams and records they post. I'm going to kill every single one of those fuckers, but I've got to find her first before they kill her. Or sell her off."

"I won't," I say. She halts in her pacing and looks at me with those worried, questioning eyes."I won't kill you, now untie me." She shakes her head, "do you think I'm ducking stupid?" "I give you my word, I never lie. I won't harm even one hair on your head, I'm simply uncomfortable in this position," I tell her, looking her straight in the eye. I can see the wheels turning in her head. "You can't use me as bait to Roarke, the moment you step out of this house, you'll probably be gunned down," I tell her.

Of course, I am bluffing but she doesn't need to know that. "There wasn't any security, not for a while now," she says. I grin, "why do you think that is? Do you think you could have easily entered my house last week to set up your cameras if I didn't have a hand in it? Or have a hide away in the house across the road?"

"You set me up," it dawns on her.