CHAPTER NINETEEN

“ T ook you long enough,” Ben said, standing when Oliver opened the door and dragged the unconscious Moretti officer inside.

“Nice to see you too. How’s the holiday going?”

“Shit service, to be honest.”

“Well, you should have gone with the Club Med package instead,” Oliver replied, straightening and throwing him some clothes from his backpack. “So, what’s the dealio?”

His best friend knew him well. Ben stripped and pulled on the black jeans and hoodie, then shoved his foot on the table as Oli began cutting the P-Muter off.

He felt the power flood back through his veins when it split.

“Thank fuck,” he muttered, twisting his neck back and forth. “Shove it in your backpack. The team back home will want to study it.”

Oliver pulled the bag around and slipped it inside.

The plan he’d spent hours visualizing was at the forefront of his mind. It was time to execute it, finally.

“Anna is in a coma or something,” Ben told him, ignoring the surprise on his friend’s face. “She’s about a ten-minute walk to the other side of the castle. Or we can ’port.”

“Wait. You want to remove her from the castle?” Oliver asked. “What’s wrong with her? A coma? The fuck?”

That was the million-dollar question. No one here could help Anna any more than he could. He’d spent the last few hours fighting his conscience on this decision, going back and forth on why he needed to take her.

All he knew was that he had to protect her, and he was done overthinking it. Ben had decided.

“Yes, I’m not leaving her here,” Ben declared firmly. “I found her notes. Anna was one of the vampires in the fucking lab, Oli.”

Oliver cursed.

He nodded. “So, I’m going to get her, and we are taking her home.”

“To Seattle?

“No, to the fucking apartment,” Ben growled, spinning Oli around and shoving his clothes inside his backpack. “Let’s go. What metal did you bring?”

“Here,” Oli said, palming a pistol in his hand. It wouldn’t kill a vamp—not their intention—but it would slow them down. Still, Ben didn’t want to shoot anyone, not when the old slamming the skull usually bought them some time.

“Don’t underestimate them, and if you spot the commander of the royals, get the fuck out of there immediately. I’ll meet you back at the apartment,” Ben instructed. “On three.”

Because Ben had been inside the rehab center, he was able to teleport in. But Oliver couldn’t; at least, not without help. Ben grabbed his arm, and the two of them flashed to the other side of the castle.

They immediately leapt into action when two officers reacted and came at them. Oliver took them down while Ben made his way to Anna’s room.

“What the—!” the officer at her door yelled as Ben pulled him in a neck embrace and smacked him with the end of his gun.

They had about sixty seconds.

Oliver was now on his six, so he grabbed a bag from Anna’s closet, chucking it at him. Without instruction, he began filling it with clothes and shit. They both knew a girl needed her things.

By the time Oliver exited her bathroom, Ben had Anna in his arms. He took a look down into her empty face and resisted letting out a deep growl.

“You sure about this, Ben?”

“More than ever. Let’s do this,” Ben replied, and then they teleported away from the Moretti castle back to the apartment in Rome.

BEN LAID ANNA GENTLY down on his bed, arranging the covers over her. With her eyes closed and her hair flowing over his pillows, she looked like a goddamn Disney princess.

Now that he had Anna in his care, he could protect her properly.

First, he had to wake her up.

How the hell did he do that?

For a moment, he questioned if he’d done the right thing by taking her, but the Moretti’s had no more ability to bring Anna out of the coma than he did. At least now he could protect her. Those other toy soldiers had been more interested in watching her ass.

Ben sat on the bed next to her and placed his hand on the other side of her head.

“Hey, beautiful. I finally got you into a bedroom all to myself and now you’re sleeping on me. Come on,” he said, forcing a smile into his voice. “Anna, are you in there, sweetheart? Please wake up.”

Anna’s light breathing and heart rate remained steady, not a blip of recognition.

His lips pressed together.

Maybe he should google something. Or kidnap a fucking doctor.

“You’re safe here, Anna. I am going to protect you for as long as you need. And the humans that did this to you are going to pay. Consider me your personal hitman.”

“Literally,” Oliver piped up from the doorway, dumping Anna’s bag on the ground.

Ben turned and frowned. “Yeah.”

“What will Anna think when she learns who you really are?”

Ben stood and ushered them out of the room, pulling the door closed behind them. Walking to the fridge, he pulled out a couple of beers and chucked one at Oli, who caught it even though he’d purposely threw it skewed left.

“Dickhead.”

Ben grinned.

“Thanks for the pickup,” he said as Oliver shrugged and lifted the bottle to his lips.

“In answer to your question, Anna won’t ever know what I do. Once I kill those responsible, she will be safe, and then she can go back to her life knowing it won’t ever happen again. And I will be long gone.”

Or at least that was the simplified plan swirling around in his mind.

Oliver shook his head. “Dude. You know it’s not that simple. Not anymore. This net is wide and complex. There could be hundreds of people involved now, maybe thousands; we don’t know. As for Tomassi, Ari might not give the go-ahead to kill him yet.”

Yeah, fuck.

Ben was fully aware of it all.

One look at his friend, and he realized he’d completely gone off script. Obviously, he’d thrown a major curveball here, working for the Moretti’s, but bringing Anna back here was a completely erratic thing to do.

They’d both been trained to have the strictest self-control and leave personal emotions at the door when on a job.

It was only the trust and years between Oliver and him that had bought him this extra time. Eventually, he knew he would have to confess everything to Ari.

What the consequences would be, he didn’t know. And yet, he still didn’t give a damn.

Which was completely fucking terrifying.

Ari had given him a home and purpose when he’d left his family and been lost. Yet, his mind just had to flicker to the beautiful blue-eyed blonde, and his chest constricted. All the rules and boundaries in his life just seemed to dissolve.

Anna came first.

Ben didn’t understand why. She just did.

Sure, they’d had sex, but they were vampires, not humans. There was no falling in love overnight shit going on. Anna would go on to live her life separately from him, sleeping with other—

Smash!

An image of another male touching her face, pressing her up against the wall, and lowering his lips to hers, and fury had filled his body.

“The fuck?” Oliver said, laughing.

“Goddamn it,” Ben cursed, shaking the glass out of his hand into the sink and running the water. The small cuts began to heal as the water poured over them. He scooped up the glass and tossed it in the trash can.

How was he going to leave her? Perhaps when he knew Anna was safe, things would change. He was just being protective because they’d bonded as friends. Yes, that was it. He was sure of it.

Totally sure of it.

“How did it go overnight?”

“Good. Our plan is tight. We can procced to the execution stage,” Oliver replied.

“Excellent. Let’s get Ari on the phone in a few hours and update him. Then we are good to go.”

“Few hours?”

“Yeah, man. I’ve been awake two fucking days. I need some shut-eye so I don’t point a gun at you and accidentally blow your balls apart. Capisce? ”

Vampires could go without sleep longer than humans, and two days wasn’t excessive, but an assassin needed to be on form. If they were going to execute the job, he’d need a hell of a lot more focus, patience, and energy than he had right now.

Oliver laughed and finished his beer. “Fine. I’m going out for a run.” Then he glanced at Ben. “Do I need to give you rules around what you can and can’t do to that chick in there? She’s unconscious.”

“Get the fuck out of here, you asshole,” Ben said, shaking his head.

THREE HOURS LATER, Ben woke up and found himself with an arm draped over Anna.

Dammit.

He’d fallen asleep with his back to her, and still, his body had navigated to hold her. Protect mode on high.

He pushed up onto his elbows, the moonlight casting some light into the room, and put his hand over her forehead.

Nothing. Fucking nothing.

What would he do if she was still in this state when he had to return to Seattle? Hand her back to the Moretti’s, all Hey, I tried my best, but now I want my money back ?

Fuck. He hadn’t thought this through very well at all, and he was running out of time.

Stalling Ari initially had been for genuine reasons; Ben hadn’t been able to effectively get to Tomassi. Now, with Oli here, his excuse was gone.

They were ready to execute.

It didn’t guarantee Ari would instruct them to execute the pharma exec, but if he did, it would mean Ben and Oliver would be packing up and flying back to Seattle in a matter of hours.

Ben sat and began rubbing Anna’s arms and legs, gently moving the joints and twisting her neck left and right. Maybe he’d seen it on a TV show or something, but it felt like an instinctual thing for him to do. His body was a temple and all that shit, so he couldn’t imagine how he’d feel lying prone for over twenty-four hours.

Fluffing up the pillow under her, Ben placed a kiss on her forehead and then got up for a glass of red—blood, not wine—and went into the supply cabinet, pulling out a new phone. He powered it up and sent his new details back to The Institute for them to update their records.

It wouldn’t raise any alarms. In their job, they lost phones all the damn time. Right now, his old one would be being wiped, and his new one syncing to the cloud to download all his data.

Not quite the James Bond self-destruct, but good enough.

A shower and a shave later, he was dressed and ready to go in his best blacks: black cargo pants, black long-sleeved T-shirt, and a black bomber jacket. And seeing as he was feeling all matchy-matchy, he slipped on a black baseball cap. Backward, because he was feeling all badass tonight.

He was going to avenge his girl.