“Okay.”
“Are we better now?” Syn asked sarcastically. “Can I finally take you to the hospital and flush the poison out before you collapse again?”
Dancer made a mocking face at him. “Next time, I’m going to collapse my fat ass on top of you.”
Sumi rolled her eyes. “I wish all of you would stop saying that. Yes, Dancer’s big as a house, but there’s not a bit of fat on his body. And you all know it.”
Holding her hand to his heart, Dancer rubbed noses with her. “My fierce mia. Always defending me, even against myself.”
She gave him a light kiss and stepped back as a medic team brought in a stretcher. “I’ll see you at the hospital.”
He inclined his head before he lay down and allowed Syn to begin treating him again. Even though the two of them slapped at each other like children, and argued the whole time.
Rolling her eyes at them, Sumi stepped to Darice and gave him a hug. “Don’t frown so, sweetie. You are a War Hauk, and you are loved by both your uncles, and by me. And by your cousin.”
He glanced up at her. “Is she here?”
She nodded. “Would you like to meet her?”
A slow smile broke across his face. “Very much.”
Taking his hand, she led him upstairs to Kalea’s room, where Nero sat, playing with her on the floor, under the watch of two guards.
“Mommy!” Kalea came running and launched herself into Sumi’s arms. “You’re back!”
She held her daughter tight. “I told you I would be.”
“Did you win?”
“Of course I did.” With Kalea on her hip, she turned toward Darice. “And this is another of your cousins. Darice Hauk. Dare, meet Kalea.”
“Oh yaa!” she breathed happily, clapping. “Finally a cousin with my name.” She launched herself at Darice with enough force that he staggered back.
“Wow, you’re strong, Kalea.”
She grinned at him as she wrapped her arms around his neck. “Just like my daddy, but not so big yet.” Screwing her face up, she fisted her hands in his braided hair. “You got hair like my daddy, but not all of it.” She touched his chin where he had a little bit of stubble. “Can you grow hair there, too? Or are you a girl-boy?”
Darice wasn’t sure how to answer.
Sumi laughed at his confusion. “Darice is a male, and he’s just at the age where his facial is starting to grow. In time, he’ll be able to have a moustache and goatee like Daddy.”
“Oh.” Her eyes widened as she squealed in delight. Then she squeezed him tight and laid her head on his shoulder. “I love you, Darice, even if you don’t have chin hair yet!”
If Sumi lived a thousand years, she would never forget the shocked, tender look on his face as he held Kalea. And she knew Kalea would have another very fierce protector in her cousin.
She met Nero’s speculative gaze. “You’re being remarkably quiet.”
“Not sure what to say, other than yes, I’ll watch her and make sure nothing happens while you’re gone.”
A chill went down her spine. “You shouldn’t pry into people’s thoughts, Nero.”
“You shouldn’t have thoughts around me you don’t want me to know about.”
“What thoughts?” Darice asked.
“None whatsoever.” Nero went to take Kalea, but Darice kept her in his arms. He smiled at Darice. “Why don’t I take the two of you to the hospital to be with Hauk? Knowing Syn, he won’t release him until tomorrow. He’ll want to run every test known to make sure he’s fine.” He paused to meet Sumi’s gaze. “See you there in a few hours?”
She nodded. “Thank you.”
“No problem.”
After he left with the kids and guards, Sumi went to their bedroom to dig out their backpacks that someone had delivered after their return from Oksana. No one had bothered to unpack them. She paused as she found the violin case in Hauk’s pack.
A smile tugged at the edges of her lips as she remembered how beautifully Dancer played. When this was over, she was going to make him serenade her.
And that steeled the determination in her to see this to the end, and to make sure no one ever threatened him again.
She rooted around until she located her League gear. It was time for her to go to work.
Sumi slowed as she felt someone following her. Turning into an alley, she fell into the shadows and waited.
Once the tall male walked past her corner, she grabbed him. She started to punch him then recognized the familiar form. “Bastien? What are you doing here?”
He offered her an unrepentant grin. “I figured you could use the backup.”
“I’m an assassin. I work best alone.”
“Even Nemesis has backup for these kinds of missions.”
She glanced down to his stomach where he’d been marked a Ravin by The League. “I thought you hated the killing business.”
“This isn’t business. It’s personal, and that I understand better than anyone.”
She supposed he did. “You’re planning to go after the one who killed your family?”
He nodded. “Once you’re squared away, and I don’t have to worry about the debt I owe the two of you. Hell, yes.”
“You don’t owe us anything.”
“I disagree, and Hauk would never forgive me if I let something happen to you. Besides, I don’t want someone who’s done so much for me to lose what he loves most. So let’s get this done.”
She smiled at him and the kindness he denied having. “You’re a good man, Bas.”
“Not really. I just strive to not be a bad one… or on most days, a total dick.”
Unsure what to say, she started back down the street to the apartment building she’d been headed for. Like her, Bastien wore a cowled coat with the hood up, concealing his face. Luckily, they were both tall for humans and dressed in Andarion clothing. As such, even though it was the middle of the afternoon, the Andarions on the street ignored them.
That was the first law of assassin training – to blend and not stand out.
Since the apartment lobby was guarded by private security, Sumi headed to the back of the building. With a link in her ear that kept her in contact with Bastien, she handed him her coat and then scaled the side of the building to reach the apartment that housed her target.
Sumi jimmied the electronic lock, deactivated the alarm, and slid herself into the back bedroom. In the late-afternoon shadows, she took a moment to get her bearings.
Pera was in the living room, on a call. “Listen to me. It’s going to be all right. Don’t panic and don’t say anything. All they know is that you were so upset at having lost the bastard’s pledge, that you overreacted. Keep telling them that. You’re pregnant and your hormones are all over the place. They will believe you. I’ll take care of everything else. Just breathe and stay calm.” She hung up as Sumi skirted past her, unseen.
She didn’t bother to decloak until she had Pera’s link in her hand and the path to the door blocked. A strange calm permeated her as she watched the female who had planted the tracker in Dancer’s back and set loose the assassins on him.
That knowledge was what had led Sumi here.
Once she’d had Pera’s name and basic information from Darice, everything else had been easy to find in The League database that she’d hacked. The contracts Pera had placed for Dancer’s life. The deal she’d made with Kyr against the Hauks. And the one contract Sumi was sure no one knew about.
“Does Dariana know you put out a hit for her son?”
Gasping, Pera turned around and pinned her with a vicious glare. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, human.”
“That would be ‘agent’ to you, bitch. Bet you never dreamed Kyr would want Dancer brought in for interrogation rather than death, huh?” Sumi moved closer to her. “That is why you went to The League before you paid for the private contracts, is it not?”