Assassin's Prey (Assassins Book 3) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Blurb

  Also by Ella Sheridan

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Epilogue

  About The Author

  ASSASSIN’S PREY

  Assassins 3

  Ella Sheridan

  Blurb

  I killed my first man at the age of twelve. I've been killing ever since. I thought it was all I lived for…until Abby. Until the woman I'd kidnapped became the woman I couldn't walk away from.

  She owns a piece of me I wouldn't take back, but the rest? The only way to protect her is to hold back the parts inside me that are too ugly to ever reveal. I'll keep her safe, even from me.

  And it works. We have the nights, and I hunt my way through the days. Alone.

  Until an attack reveals a threat we didn't see coming. One that could take away the dream I didn't realize I had.

  Everything. With her.

  I'm on the hunt of my life. My prey might run, but in this fight—for her, for us—they don't stand a chance.

  Also by Ella Sheridan

  Assassins

  The Assassin

  Assassin’s Mark

  Assassin’s Prey

  Assassin’s Heart (Coming August 26, 2019)

  Southern Nights

  Teach Me

  Trust Me

  Take Me

  Southern Nights: Enigma

  Come for Me

  Deceive Me

  Destroy Me

  Deny Me (Coming September, 2019)

  If Only

  Only for the Weekend

  Only for the Night

  Only for the Moment

  Secrets

  Unavailable

  Undisclosed

  Unshakable

  ∞

  Don’t miss the exciting extras from the ASSASSINS series, available only through my newsletter.

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  Copyright

  Assassins: Assassin’s Prey

  Copyright © 2018 Ella Sheridan

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the original purchaser of this e-book ONLY. No part of this e-book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without prior written permission from the author. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author's rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  Cover Art Design by Mayhem Cover Design

  Published in the United States.

  Dedication

  To Levi.

  You didn’t only lead your brothers through the wilderness. You led me.

  Acknowledgments

  To Erika, Kelly, and Mary Y. Boy, did y’all take a chance on agreeing to beta read this one! I couldn’t have written this book without you.

  Chapter One

  The silken sheets caressed her skin, revealing more than they concealed. Too damn much for my peace of mind. I should be out there, on the hunt, but Abby tethered me to her like a fucking chain, refusing to let go. No matter how much safer she was without me.

  A gasp escaped her, and she turned on her side, one hand reaching out, searching—for me. “Levi?”

  The room was dark, her eyes glazed with sleep. She couldn’t see me in the shadows. It was better that way, but I couldn’t leave her searching. Something inside me, something I both hated and hungered for, held as tightly to her as she did to me.

  With a curse I couldn’t quite hold back, I moved to the bed. And felt it the minute she saw me—my body lit up like I’d touched a live wire. Just like it did when prey appeared, every instinct sparking, every sense zeroed in on the body before me. Only I didn’t want to kill this one.

  I wanted her life in my hands, not her death.

  A smile touched her full lips when my knee settled on the bed. Sheets rustled as she shifted onto her back, tugging me closer with nothing more than her creamy skin and the curve of her mouth. “There you are.” The curve slowly flattened. “You’re dressed.”

  Because it’s safer this way. Because I can’t sleep beside you and not let you all the way inside me.

  I grabbed my T-shirt at the back of my neck and pulled. “Not for long.”

  I stripped as I crawled onto the bed. Crouching over Abby’s body, I let the hunger for her take over, felt it in the tensing of my muscles, the lengthening of my cock, the racing of my heartbeat. A visceral reaction I was addicted to. That’s all it was. She was my drug, and I’d never get enough. Not till it killed me. I just had to make sure it didn’t kill her first.

  “You should be asleep, little bird,” I growled down at her.

  Her eyes left mine, focused somewhere over my shoulder. Telling me all I needed to know. Another nightmare. Less frequent now, but they’d never go away. I knew that from personal experience.

  “I never sleep as well when you’re not beside me.”

  Another link clicked onto my chain, choking me with the need to reassure her. I’ll always be here. I need you beside me to sleep at all. I crave your skin against mine until I sometimes think I’ll go insane.

  I didn’t say any of it. I couldn’t. The risk was too high.

  So I kissed her.

  Abby opened to me, a needy flower, defenseless, so fucking innocent even now. I remembered the first time I’d taken her, the first time she’d let me inside, and a groan escaped into her mouth. Her tight fit, the resistance I’d had to force myself through… Just the memory broke me out in a sweat.

  I should hate myself for corrupting her. I did hate myself. But it felt more like she’d corrupted me. With her sweetness, her fire. It made me weak when I couldn’t afford to be. But I couldn’t break free either.

  Forcing myself back onto my knees, I fisted the sheet and pulled. A slow reveal—nipples, belly, that strip of auburn hair that pointed me straight to the entrance of her body. As if I could ever lose my way. The thought tightened the chain again, choking off my breath.

  And then I looked into her eyes. Knowledge glittered there, too much for her own good. Every day it grew; every day she looked at me and that damn knowing was there. She knew my fear, but she never asked for more than I’d already given. Never asked for a commitment. Or if I loved her. As if she knew a yes would damn us both.

  For the longest moment I wavered there, on the edge of leaving, fighting the bastard inside me that insisted I stay, the sight of her laid out before me searing my brain. And then Abby shifted, her legs parting, and t
he scent of her need filled my nose. The balance tipped. An agonized groan rumbled from my brain to my chest and out of my mouth.

  I was between her legs before my next heartbeat.

  Cream and spice, that was Abby on my tongue. I pressed my mouth to her pussy and pushed deep, seeking out every drop. Filling my senses with her until I knew I was drowning. Her skin was slick velvet against my lips, my tongue, her clit a hard bead against my nose. I licked up, took it into my mouth, and sucked hard, that primal need to nurse, to take my nourishment from her, hitting me like a bullet to the chest. She filled me, sustained me—with her body, her desire, the hungry cries echoing in my ears, the greedy fingers forcing my head closer. Her body and her mouth begged me for more, and I gave it, again and again and again until she exploded beneath my tongue.

  I was inside her before the last ripple faded.

  “Levi, God, yes!”

  My cock was so heavy, so tight inside her hot, wet body. Too much. Not enough. When her seeking hands landed on my chest and slid downward, I knew this would be over before it had a chance to begin, and no way in hell could I allow that.

  “No.” Her wrists were fragile in my rough hands, but I forced them back anyway, slamming them to the bed as Abby cried out beneath me. “Look at me, little bird. Now.”

  Frantic, pleading hazel eyes snapped to mine. Abby rolled her pelvis, taking me deeper. “Please.”

  “Look at me,” I demanded. “Don’t close your eyes.”

  I pulled back, the drag of her body around my cock so perfect my eyes threatened to roll back in my head. Leveraging my knees out, I slammed back inside. Abby gasped my name, and I did it again. And again. Those beautiful eyes glazed over, going somewhere deep inside herself where hunger and pleasure roared for satisfaction, taking me with her. Letting me see what no one else had ever seen—Abby, bare, open, completely vulnerable. To me. Alive like no one I’d ever known before, filling and feeding the dead parts of me that I’d long ago given up hope of ever healing.

  She could; she did. With her body and her honesty.

  I’d never met anyone like her before. And I knew it was only a matter of time before I destroyed her.

  Without warning her eyes flared, her legs bending to hook around my hips, pulling me closer. She chanted my name, high and desperate, and I angled my hips up, the head of my cock striking that spot deep inside that made her clench around me, so tight I had to force my way back in. And I did.

  My name morphed into a scream on her lips as she climaxed around me. Squeezed me tight and sucked every last drop of semen from my willing body.

  The relaxing of her muscles beneath mine drew me out of the fog of pleasure a few minutes later. I raised my head from her neck, glanced down. Abby blinked, her expression smoothing out, but not before I caught a glimpse of the emotions there—longing, desperation, pain. My failure, all in one look. But it was how it had to be.

  “I have to go.”

  Before she could respond, I was up and headed to the bathroom. I cleaned myself up, wiping away the evidence of her pleasure and mine, thankful that with Abby’s birth control, condoms were no longer an issue. I could be skin to skin with her, mark her, smear my semen over her body so that no other man would dare to trespass on my territory. I needed it. The animal inside me needed it, demanded it. With her I could soothe the savage hunger.

  But no kids. Ever.

  I returned to the bed with a warm washcloth. Abby parted her legs willingly. When she was clean, I leaned down until my nose met her pubic hair, and breathed deep. My Abby. My woman! the animal inside me roared. But the man restricted me to a brief kiss on her sensitive clit before backing away.

  Abby’s murmur of disappointment was a knife to the gut.

  “I’ll lock up before I leave,” I told her.

  She lay, silent, on the bed, legs bent, body gleaming in the faint light from the crack in the curtains, and watched me return the cloth to the bathroom. With every piece of clothing I added to my body, the silence became sharper, carving me up with its accusing edge.

  I moved quickly to check the windows, then walked to the door. I’d melted into the shadows before I heard her voice. “What about a kiss goodbye?”

  I couldn’t deny her, not when my body screamed for the kiss too. I returned to the bed, let the covers caress her skin once again as I drew them over her. “Sleep, little bird.”

  Her kiss was the padlock on the chain that held me to her. I welcomed it in that moment—delved deep to tangle with her tongue, nipped her lips, buried my face in the hollow of her neck and the sweet scent of vanilla and flowers.

  “Be safe,” she murmured as I backed away.

  “Always.”

  And then I was out the door. Every window, every door was checked, secured—I wouldn’t risk anything happening when I wasn’t here. The shadows in the backyard were deep this time of night, but unmoving. Same on either side of the house. When I walked out the front door and set the security system to on, I did so knowing she was safe inside.

  So why did my soul scream at me to go back with every step I took away from her?

  Chapter Two

  “The fucker will back off if he knows what’s good for him,” I growled into my earpiece. The words were low enough that the crowds on the sidewalk couldn’t hear the specifics, but they didn’t need to. They created a wide berth around me from no more than a glance. I preferred it that way.

  “He’ll back off, bro. No worries.” Eli chuckled in my ear. “Your reputation precedes you.”

  It better. I’d built the fear of reprisal into my business model, and very few risked stepping over the line and triggering it. But this latest contract…

  It reminded me too much of Abby’s father. And that reminded me too much of Remi being shot, having a gun pointed at Abby’s head. The memories could—and did—send me into a rage.

  Councilman Roslyn was dead and gone; I tried to remember that. But my body’s visceral reaction had me throwing off angry waves the people around me couldn’t miss.

  My brothers and Abby were the only ones who knew the full story of Roslyn’s involvement with, as he would have put it, the unsavory but necessary elements of society. We kept that secret for her safety, not mine. If it had been public, I wouldn’t be dealing with the fucking asshat I was now. But I wouldn’t risk her by tying her to me. She would never be touched by my life.

  I’d made that mistake once. Never again.

  My current client, however…he would be touched, all right. And I’d take great satisfaction in doing the touching. And breaking. Two days since I’d seen Abby, two days—because this latest contract had been a major fuckup.

  “Tell me about this meeting,” I barked, still seething as I turned the corner at Holmes and Sanderson and headed farther into downtown.

  “Abby’s lawyer, Lance Heinz, called,” Eli told me. “Seems the forensic accountant was able to uncover some more accounts linked to her father. In order to retrieve the money, they need some signatures and shit. Remi knows the details.”

  I could hear the shrug in my youngest brother’s voice, ratcheting up my tension. Remi was with Abby, not me. I knew he’d protect her with his life, but I didn’t want him to. I didn’t want any of them in danger. I needed to be at her side, not fucking walking down the sidewalk like I was taking a Sunday stroll. Not that anyone around me could call it strolling. More like a bull chasing down a matador.

  Which totally worked for me.

  Even without the delay, it made sense for Remi to be with her for the meeting at First Bank and Trust. He was a genius when it came to accounting. Not that anyone there would realize it. To the outside world we were her bodyguards. No one knew our true faces—I’d gone to great lengths to keep it that way—so we could safely travel with her, keep her protected, on the rare occasions she had to deal with anything concerning her father.

  “Have you got the camera feeds live?” I asked.

  Eli’s snort drilled into my ear. “Are you really
asking me that?”

  Yes, because I was a micromanaging bastard. Knowing that didn’t stop me from doing it. “Are they?”

  “Of course they fucking are. I’ve got two screens with every traffic camera in a five-block radius. I’ve tapped into private security feeds, including at the business across the street from the parking garage you demanded Remi use. Nice scowl, by the way. I can also tell you that Remi and Abby are two blocks up on your left, approaching the cross street a block ahead of the light at Sanderson and First Street. Better get a move on, bro.”

  The intersection where the bank was located was three blocks north of my current location. I broke into a slow jog, my brain automatically scanning, assessing, countering. Traffic, pedestrians, cameras. The crisp fall breeze pushed people along the street, so no one lingered. No hint of a threat arose. Perfect.

  The phone in my pocket vibrated against my hip—a text, not a call. I reached for it, glancing at the display. Remi.

  Crossing street now.

  My nerves went tight. Only two blocks away. I picked up speed as the intersection where Remi would be escorting Abby came into view. There, on the opposite side of the road. The bright red dress coat Abby wore stood out like a beacon, a stark contrast to her auburn hair.

  I cursed under my breath. Apparently not low enough, because an older woman passing me skittered to the side at my vicious “fuck.” I ignored her recoil and kept going.

  Abby and Remi were the only ones at the crosswalk. I knew when the walk light flipped on; they stepped into the street in front of the rows of stopped cars. My brother’s tall, heavy frame dwarfed Abby as he took her arm, staying on the side of oncoming traffic. Everything seemed normal, nothing to worry about. So why did my every instinct scream at me to get them both out of sight?