The God Game: Evangeline Heart Book 2 (Evangeline Heart Adventures) Read online

  I chuckled, letting him lighten the mood and return us to our easy friendship. We still had work to do, but the bond between us was stronger now than it had ever been. As was my commitment to keep him alive.

  “How do you feel about knives?”

  Chapter Eleven

  He picked up the Mossberg and aimed it toward the target. “How about this one?”

  “It would be easier to make you accurate. There’s basically zero training with it.” I walked over and pushed the target button, sending it to the far end of the range. “You’ll be deadly at close range, but not far. Shoot one from this distance and tell me how it feels.” He nodded. “Put your ear protection on, though.”

  I put mine over my head, muffling everything.

  He checked in with me. “Ready?”

  I nodded.

  He fired the weapon and as I expected, the shot didn’t make it all the way to the target. I moved it in halfway. He settled into his stance and pulled the trigger. Again, the target remained untouched. It was going to take a whole lot of practice for him to be accurate at that range, but we didn’t need him taking out targets at distance.

  I moved it closer. “You can’t miss from here.”

  He unloaded the remaining rounds, leaving nothing but a strand of the target. I pulled it in so I could change it out for a new one and glanced at him.

  He grinned and lowered the barrel. “I like it.”

  “Yeah.” I laughed. “I’ll bet. I like it too and I feel better with you having one that works for you. It’s not ideal, but with the shotgun, you’ll at least have a weapon. But, remember that it’s going to spray wide, so you’re going to take out everything in front of you. Let me show you.” I switched our two targets down to a triple hanger—three targets in a line—that would effectively show him the spray. I set it at the same distance away and showed him how to load the shotgun quickly.

  “Ready?” he asked, a ghost of a smile on his lips.

  I nodded and stepped behind him so I could watch the nuances of his style.

  He spread his feet, bent his knees, and rocked his hips forward. This time he kept the shotgun at waist level and rattled off five shots in quick succession. Again, the target disintegrated in front of him, leaving a blistering hole three feet in diameter. I pointed at the button to recall the target. “Swap your own out this time.”

  We repeated the process twenty times until I felt comfortable that he could load and chamber the weapon as fast as I could and his accuracy was as good as it was going to be today. “How do you feel about that?”

  He set the weapon on the table and took his earmuffs off. “Good. I think. I mean, you would know better than I would, but I’m definitely better.”

  I nodded. “Agree.”

  “Okay, what’s next? We load these bitches up and hit the streets, armed and dangerous?”

  I laughed. “Um, not quite. I still think there’s value in hand-to-hand and knife skills.”

  He made a face. “I guess.”

  Intent on catching him off guard, I punched him in the gut and tripped him, sending him sprawling backward onto his ass. He swept my feet, grabbing my left one and yanking me down beside him. With a quick twist, he pinned me with his body and I wasn’t fast enough to slip the hold. He yanked both of my arms high above my head and spanned my chest with my other hand. I stared, surprised and okay, a little impressed. “At least you’ve practiced something.”

  Warmth rose from his handprint pressed across my cleavage and I didn’t budge. I could get out but only by breaking one of his bones, and he was too valuable. Besides, a little confidence couldn’t hurt him. He’d gained a lot during the last bit of shooting after purging the pain of his brother, and I needed his cocky self firmly in place when we left here.

  He covered my hips with his thighs, and rocked up so he towered over me. “I said I didn’t need to practice this.”

  “Yeah, good for you, you can pin a girl.”

  He laughed. “You’re so far from a girl it’s not even funny.”

  That stung, especially since he had proof of my girliness half an inch from his thumb.

  He pressed down on my chest, compressing my lungs. “You’ve proved your point,” I wheezed.

  “No. I don’t think I have. You’ve tortured me over this for weeks. I want you to admit that I’m better than you are.”

  I frowned. What was this about? He clearly had been practicing since we’d fought and wrestled last. If I didn’t know better, I’d think that it really had bugged him that I’d been so much better at this than he had been. “You’re the one on top, so you’re clearly better.”

  “That’s not what I want from you.” He slid his hand up and over my collarbone, across my shoulder and took one wrist in each of his hands. His face hovered over mine.

  “What do you want from me?”

  “I want you to admit that you need me.”

  I huffed. He was starting to push it. I could still break away and was giving him the chance to tally the win, but he was about to make me prove it. I sure wasn’t about to gush about this single time that he’d managed to pin me. “I’ve already told you that. You’re the reason we have the pieces we do.”

  He shook his head. “No. I want you to need me like I need you.”

  Oh. I stilled beneath him and quit squirming. “What are you saying?”

  His gaze roamed my face, touching my eyes, my cheeks, my lips. “I’ve never told anyone about my brother, Lina. I’ve told you secrets that I buried long ago. I’m not in this to steal a piece anymore.” He grinned and shifted his hips, nestling obvious parts of him against me. “I mean, maybe a piece.”

  I groaned.

  “Sorry.” He grew serious again. “I can’t be serious for too long.” He glanced away quickly, then back. “It hurts.”

  I understood that better than I wanted to. Living and working alone kept me from having to deal with people and that had become my defense mechanism where Clay used humor. My heart pinched at the longing in his voice, recognizing the suffering. I was already physically attracted to him, and his emotional appeal was growing at an alarming pace.

  “What do you want, Clay?” I asked softly.

  Chapter Twelve

  The chirp of someone disarming the alarm code shot me into action. I rolled out from under Clay and he jumped up, racing toward the weapons where he’d set them. I held out a hand to hold him, then curled it in a fist. “Stay,” I mouthed.

  I reached behind me and curled my fingers around the butt of my pistol and flicked off the safety. If we were about to get in a gunfight, I was the one who needed to do the shooting in these tight quarters. The door swung open and I blinked.

  “Holy fuck,” Clay said behind me. “Clarissa?”

  The blonde that he’d been kissing in front of the deli strode confidently into the room, hand outstretched toward me in greeting. “Lina,” she said warmly. She wore a black skirt suit and black heels, very agentish of her. “Nice to finally put a face to the name. I’m Agent Richards.”

  I took her hand and shook it, dumbstruck that this was Agent Richards. We’d done over a dozen missions together and Richards was one of my top priorities and it had never, not even once, occurred to me that she was a woman. Like Clay and his buyer, I’d handled all my correspondence with this agent over the secured lines and I’d just assumed…

  Christ.

  She walked to Clay and laid her hands on his chest. “Good to see you again,” she purred.

  What in the fuck was going on? My head spun and I needed to get her talking and figure out why she’d come down here. Mere coincidence that she was at the only training facility in London that we’d just happened to pick after being ambushed, all after she’d been in New York yesterday with her tongue down Clay’s throat?

  I stared at him, eyes narrowing.

  He looked at me over her head and shrugged. “We didn’t get around to talking business.”

  “Yeah,” I huffed. “I’ll bet.�
� A thousand emotions swirled inside me, but I could not get conflicted about our relationship-not-a-relationship right now. “So, Richards, fancy meeting you here.” I withdrew my hand from the weapon, but left the safety off.

  She turned away from Clay and stopped halfway, which pissed me off that I’d let her get between us. “I’m on my way to Germany, stopped in for a little training and a new Beretta. Imagine my surprise when I saw you on the monitors when I checked in.”

  Surprise, my ass.

  Killing her inside a registered facility was going to bring my carefully constructed world down on my head. If we got out of here alive.

  I had no illusions that she was here on government business, or that she hadn’t tailed us since supposedly leaving in a cab. Hell, she’d probably circled the block and watched our every move. I’d been too caught up in my own feelings to spot her. Dammit, I was going to get us killed.

  But I’d like today to not be that day.

  I ignored Clay and focused on Clarissa. I hated that name, hated everything about her. She’d deceived me for who knew how long. I thought about the missions we’d done together—all for Azazel?

  “Who’s in Germany?”

  “No one you know.” She flipped her hair back and took another step toward me, her focus leaving Clay as well. Out of my periphery, I saw him edge closer to the pistol. I didn’t like whatever he was thinking, but I couldn’t let her know that he was on the move. I needed to keep her distracted.

  “How long have you worked with Azazel?”

  “Since the beginning.” Not even a flicker of surprise that I knew, not even an attempt to cover it up. Now I knew that she’d come down here to kill us.

  “No more job offers from him?” Not that there was the slimmest chance that I’d take it, but I was curious to know why he’d flipped from one side to the other extreme.

  She shook her head. “No. He’s not one to beg. He offered once, and you’ve shunned him since. Taking out his man earlier did not please him. We’re not so easy to come by, people willing to make a deal with the Angel of Death. You’d be surprised at what a person has to endure before they get to that point in their life.” Her candied red lips were at odds with her words.

  I laughed. “Endure.” I looked her up and down, from her five-hundred-dollar shoes to her expensive blowout. “You don’t even know the meaning of the word. You didn’t seek him out because you were at your wit’s end. You sought him out for power.”

  She shrugged and examined her perfect manicure. “Endurance is not limited only to suffering. I’ve expected things out of my life and my skills. Azazel agreed to help me. No matter the definition of suffering, it’s still a drastic measure and not one many are willing to take.”

  “For obvious reasons.” I couldn’t believe that she’d willingly sought him out. Especially after all the work we’d done together, all the time she put into climbing the ladder and checking off boxes. My frustration at her willingness to give up mingled with my annoyance that she’d be another person I’d have to kill. “You’re a fool. Do you really think that he’s going to come through on whatever he promised you?”

  Clarissa’s future aside, I couldn’t help being impressed at the lengths Azazel was willing to go to entrap us. He’d used her beauty against Clay and my own work ethic against me. I’d worked so hard for her. He’d bested both of us and we hadn’t even known it. But I wasn’t going to let him win.

  “Since we’re not going to live through this, why don’t you tell me who’s in Germany?”

  She laughed. “Figured that bit out, did you?” Her hand slipped inside her jacket. I curled my fingers around a knife hilt holstered to my upper thigh, not daring to let my gaze flicker to Clay as he flexed his leg muscles. I didn’t know what he had planned, but I needed to take her out before he got any bright ideas.

  We all moved at once. Her arm flew from her jacket, gun pointed at me. I threw the knife. Clay leapt forward, leg outstretched in a wide sweeping arc.

  Chapter Thirteen

  And so we stayed. Took me a second to figure out that her bullet was frozen at the tip of her gun and it wasn’t just my life flashing before my eyes that had slowed everything down.

  I spun to find Metatron leaning in the doorway.

  “Hi,” he said flippantly, like we were crossing paths at a bakery.

  My mouth opened and closed, Clay hit the ground, sliding sideways on his hip and missing Clarissa’s ankle by a millimeter. “What the—oh, shit!” He scrambled to his feet and stared at Clarissa, frozen in mid-shot, then rushed over, wrapped an arm around my shoulders and tried to haul me toward the door. “We have to go. Thanks, man.” He reached over to pat Metatron’s shoulder, then thought better of it and dropped his arm.

  I shook my head and pulled Clay to a stop, unconcerned about fleeing now that Metatron had bothered to show up and save our lives. For once. “Where the hell have you been? We’ve almost been killed twice tonight.”

  Metatron inclined his head and pushed away from the jamb, stepping fully into the room. “Evangeline, Evangeline. I thought I was quite clear about your next step, and yet here you are, too far away from Greece than I’d prefer.”

  “And let her gun us down there?” I was fuming and could barely form coherent sentences. Every bit of my training vanished in a wave of fury. “You let me get completely blindsided by this. How am I supposed to do my job if you keep leaving out details like her?” I shouted and slammed the butt of my hand into her forehead. She rocked back slowly, like she was stuck in tar, then bobbed back, not a hair out of place.

  “I’m bound—”

  “Shut up about that,” I yelled, more frustrated with myself than at him. I’d trusted him to be a thorough member of this team, keeping me apprised of threats before they showed up so I had a chance to prepare. That’s how a good intel team worked, not like his bullshit methods and I was damn tired of it. I needed him pulling his weight or staying the hell out of it. I was done counting on him, and my anger at the situation, him, and myself bubbled over.

  “I don’t give a crap about your covenants.”

  He didn’t say anything and I was grateful for the training that had kept us alive tonight. My mom hadn’t been so lucky. Metatron hadn’t given her a fighting chance and if he’d have come to me with this mantle prior to Malcolm’s involvement in my life, I’d been the same sitting duck she had been. But I couldn’t see my mom being a docile little doe once Metatron’s involvement and the relics had put me and my dad in danger. She’d have been downright pissed—and I remembered a few times when she’d been scared straight mad and hadn’t been able to tell me why.

  I narrowed my eyes. “You and my mother had this exact conversation, didn’t you?” I got right in his face. “Didn’t you?”

  He nodded.

  I slapped him. Hard. His skin felt surprisingly human. I trembled with the rage and hurt of what he’d done. What he’d let happen. What he was willing to let happen again because of some deal God had made not to interfere. “Fuck your covenant.”

  I grabbed my knife from where it hung suspended in the air, six inches from Clarissa’s forehead—a perfect kill shot, but I wasn’t going to leave evidence here, though it lay all over the surveillance tapes. Clay scooped up the guns and our equipment, and we marched from the room and up the stairs without another word. Metatron had better keep her frozen until we were off the property or I was going to do a lot more than slap him the next time I saw him. I didn’t care why he’d come—he’d bought us time and I didn’t want anything else from him tonight. If he had something to tell us, he could damn well find us again.

  Clay slammed through the shed door and we ran like fleeing murderers to the car.

  We scrambled inside and Clay finally vented his own frustration. “Not a trap, you said!” He slapped the steering wheel, pushing the Kia as hard as it would go toward the gate. My head spun. We’d be lucky if we got off the facility now. Everything that had gone down before Metatron froze the scene
had probably been watched by no less than a dozen agents. They were on their way to intercept us. When we punched out of the forest and onto the main road toward the gate, they’d be waiting for us.

  “I know. I’m sorry. I thought—” It didn’t matter anymore. And I wasn’t going to bring up the fact that he’d missed seeing her for the trap she was too. Right now, we had to figure out how to get off this property and I doubted that Metatron would help me out more than he already had. Especially after I slapped him and stormed out. I was lucky that he hadn’t already unfrozen her.

  I glanced back at the shed but Clarissa hadn’t followed. Yet.

  “How long do we have?”

  “None. I’m sure we have none. They’d have headed toward the back entrance the moment she came in and shit got ugly, so they’re probably already at the gate, even if Metatron still has everything frozen, they’ll have roadblocks.” I unholstered my weapon and racked the Mossberg. “Keep driving. No matter what’s at the gate, just keep driving.”

  Clay swore beneath his breath and jammed his foot to the floor, sending the little Kia airborne over the last rise before the gate.

  I wasn’t prepared for the sight on the other side, stark against the day’s gloaming.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Nothing.

  He slowed at the gate and we waited every agonizing second as it opened. Not a single car, not a single agent, not a single weapon. No one had been on the other side when we’d come up over the rise.

  “I don’t get it,” I said, scanning the horizon.

  “You said they’d be here.”

  “Maybe he bought us another couple minutes.” This was a damn disaster no matter what. There was no undoing what had happened down there, no taking back the flight of my weapon to an agent’s head. No matter when Metatron restarted time, I was on a recorded surveillance tape taking out one of my own contacts. I was still struggling with how I’d been duped. “Shit!” I slammed my fist against the dash. I stared at the window, eyes glazed over as the landscape blurred. “I’ll hand it to Azazel. He is one patient fuck.”