12. Chapter 12

Rick is pulled away from me by Nix who proceeds to also look in the cabinets, shirtless. "No coffee?" he asks as he frowns in my direction as I eye him like the horny bitch that I am.

"Don't get me started," I huff and walk over to sit at the dining table, tapping my fingers against the surface impatiently. He just follows, taking a similar position across from me.

It isn"t long before the others are making their way toward us. None of us have gotten much sleep, only a few hours judging by the time on my phone being early afternoon. I can see the weary stress in all of their eyes in varying degrees, and the anger, but that is just Beck and at this point I don"t expect any different.

It feels strange to be sitting here with them, but also strange for Kacey to be here too. I"m happy they have simply accepted him, because the connection and pull that I feel toward him is something I have only ever felt for them.

Rick leans forward and rests his chin on his hand, giving me a grin. ‘'So, are we going to talk about the elephant in the room or not?'' he asks.

Beck scoffs and slumps back into the dining chair. "Which elephant are you wanting to start with? Ash leaving because someone threatened to kill us, the fact that she is an assassin now, the part where there is a contract out on her life? Or maybe that the FBI are now lodged up our asses and they didn"t use lube?"

Rick gives Beck a droll look and rolls his eyes. Judging from the snarl he gets in response it's going to come back and bite him in the ass at some point. "I was actually talking about Ash wearing Nix's shirt because he obviously went all caveman on her, but sure, let's start with the heavy shit first, shall we?"

I frown as I consider all the information, humming contemplatively as I try to figure out the best way to open up about it all. I"ve held this information tightly to my chest for so long, and now it"s time to share.

"I think it"s all really a domino effect," I begin slowly, gathering their attention. "You now already know I received letters before I left that threatened your lives. I couldn"t stand the thought of any of you being hurt. I had already risked it and gotten Nix hurt. When I left the military six years ago, I had tried to find you, thinking, hoping, that whoever had threatened me had disappeared. But I got another letter straight away. I decided at that point to try to see if I could find who was sending them, to get out from under the threat and move on with my life."

I pause, taking a breath before continuing. "In exchange for getting access to the resources to try to answer that question, I agreed to use the skills I have to start providing chemical weapons. I drew the line at anything that could be considered terrorism or used to create mass casualties."

Their expressions range from concern to surprise, but I press on. "I was uncomfortable with some of the requests, so I started to build my own network of contacts. The assassinations were actually all me, and I only took jobs where the person deserved it. With having my own contacts, I was able to vet each job to make sure. I still took some chemical contracts out of loyalty, but my network expanded to a point where I was able to distance myself more and supply chemical weapons along with information under the name of my organization instead of my fake name."

I pause, letting the weight of my words sink in. "I can only assume that the contract on my life is a result of any one of the things I have done or could potentially do," I conclude, looking at each of them.

Nix nods slightly, as though some of what I said makes sense to him, and Kacey is looking at me curiously, not shocked but clearly absorbing the information. "The letter you received in the parking garage at the apartment," Kacey states, "it said you were warned. You thought that someone was going to kill them, obviously," he adds, and I solemnly nod in response.

"But instead, they were arrested. We know they are technically on a target list of criminals, but they had no evidence, so someone must have told the FBI that they were there, and they picked them up hoping to make something stick," he continues.

Nix shakes his head. "They were trying to get us to admit to a crime. They didn"t have anything; they just had speculation. They wanted us to admit to something on camera," he clarifies before looking back at me with a hard look. "You were working for the uncles? That"s who you reached out to initially?" he asks, and I nod in response.

He still doesn"t look surprised, but Rick and Beck look mildly alarmed. "I remember overhearing them talking, complaining that their fallen angel had started freelancing. It was a long time ago though, and I assumed nothing ever came of it when they simply started feeding weapons and information from The Fallen network through to us," Beck growls harshly, and I"m not sure if he"s angry that I was so close or frustrated with himself for not putting it together. "I even told the others about it, too."

Nix frowns, contemplating something before he asks, "You knew we were working for them?"

I duck my head, ashamed, before I admit, "I asked them not to tell you we had spoken, and from then on they only called me by my alias."

He sighs, tilting his head back in frustration. Rick remains silent, looking at me with sad eyes, while Beck starts tapping his fingers against the tabletop. "I gather that you didn"t have any success finding the person who left the letters?" he asks, the cogs already turning in his head.

I shake my head. "No, I couldn"t find anything. I"m not as good as you or Elsa with computers, but I"m decent enough. And there was no evidence or clues anywhere, but I doubt they would put some digital sign up saying "oh hey, I"m the one you"re looking for,"" I say with a wry smile.

Nix scoffs while Beck raises an eyebrow. "Elsa?" he asks, and I wave a hand to dismiss the question. "You"ll meet her shortly. I have some people on their way here to help."

As I settle back into my chair, silence descends as they each process the revelations.

Nix"s gaze shifts between each of us, his expression determined. "We need to figure out our next move," he says, breaking the silence. "We can"t stay here indefinitely, especially with the FBI sniffing around."

Beck grunts in agreement, his frustration evident. "We can"t just run forever. We need a plan to deal with this."

I lean forward, drawing their attention immediately. "I'm not running anymore, I already said that. Not from you and not from anyone else."

Nix looks at me with pride, his expression almost soft, before we"re interrupted by a knock on the door. The sound is firm enough that I know instantly it"s not Elsa. As I start to make my way to the door, Kacey"s hand wraps around my arm, pulling me backward and behind him. I frown at him, noticing the length of metal pipe in his hand, having no idea where that even came from. Another arm wraps around my chest, and Rick whispers in my ear, "I hope you realize we"re keeping him."

I scoff at Rick"s possessiveness but relax into his embrace slightly. "Of course we are," I breathe.

Kacey looks through the peephole, relaxing his grip on the pipe as he swings the door open to reveal Kallen, a smirk across his face. He pushes his sunglasses up onto his head, eyeing the pipe in Kacey"s hand. "You realize I could have just shot you through the door, right?" he quips as he steps through the threshold and past him, his team following behind him.

Rick grunts behind me, and I chuckle softly. "Down, boy. That one"s not on the menu. He likes taco, not sausage," I murmur to Rick, who laughs in response, releasing me when I tap his arm.

I rush toward Nikolai, who is holding a tray of coffee and a fast food bag in his hands. "Boss," he says softly as he hands them over with a nod, his Russian accent just as intense as his gray eyes.

Smiling at him, I take the items off his hands and carry them to the dining table, knowing he probably won"t get much closer than where he is standing by the doorway.

Putting all the items onto the dining table, I grab a coffee and sigh at my first sip.

Wilder follows behind, unloading what looks like basic necessities like more coffee for us into the kitchen cabinets. Meanwhile, Kallen places bags onto the table, almost knocking over the coffee, much to my horror. Peeking into them, I see piles of men"s clothes, Nix is already reaching into the bags on the table for a shirt. I raise an eyebrow at Kallen, but he simply holds out another bag to me with a grin. "Good man," I quip as I take the bag from him.

Lake scoffs at our exchange, and I glance over to where he"s standing behind Kallen, holding another bag in his hands. It"s black and heavier-looking, and I widen my eyes at him. He nods, understanding what I haven"t even asked yet. "My hero," I say with a smirk as I leave the coffee on the table and move over to him. Reaching up, I brush a kiss against his cheek, and he laughs at the sounds of displeasure behind me. He waves away my hands and places the bag on the table himself, opening it to reveal a cache of weapons.

Before I can look at them, there"s another knock on the door, this time softer. I don"t need to look through the peephole to know who it is. Nikolai is there, but he doesn"t move to open it, standing still and silent by the door, allowing Wilder to look through the peephole, a gun already in his hand. He turns back toward me, a surprised look of wonder on his face. "Boss, there"s a fairy on your doorstep," he says.

Oh my god, I hope she didn"t hear that.

I motion for him to let her in, and Lake steps up toward the door as Wilder swings it open. I do understand where he is coming from, though; she is a tiny little thing, and the electric blue pixie cut doesn"t help the situation. It"s almost the same shade as her eyes and the nose stud she is wearing.

Ignoring the men that are almost standing in her way, she simply sidesteps them all as she moves toward me with single-minded focus. "I"m here! Crisis averted! Where do you want me?" she chirps, completely oblivious to the danger surrounding her.

"I can think of somewhere," I hear Wilder murmur, and she instantly turns narrowed eyes in his direction, but he just laughs.

"Let me do introductions first. Everyone, this is Kallen, Lake, Wilder, Nikolai, and Elsa," I say, gesturing toward each person in turn. The guys nod at their introduction, while Elsa waves.

"Shit, she really is Tinkerbell," Wilder quips, and Elsa snarls at him.

"Wrong Disney character, asshole," she retorts. Lake just starts humming the tune to "Let it go," much to everyone"s amusement.

I cover my face with a hand to hide my grin.

Seriously, fuck my life.