Jude was now fully committed to eliminating the threat.
“Come on, you son of a bitch. Give me something,” Jude whispered.
Shadows shifted in the night. Car headlamps offered light and then took it away, making those shadows writhe in the black of the night. Whoever it was, they’d make a mistake, and Jude would put a bullet in their head.
They were Dresden’s. That made them the enemy.
What about Ella? his mind taunted.
His heart didn’t respond. Jude had managed to lock it away somehow. His love for her was now buried beneath a layer of purpose. Purpose to protect her and keep his ass moving. She didn’t trust him enough to give him her truths. The foundation of any relationship they’d had in the past had crumbled, if it had ever been built on anything but straw.
King, Rook, and Jude had talked about the merits of taking the tail and decided it would be better just to eliminate him. Dresden had low-level assassins at his beck and call. He was a crafty bastard who kept his eye on targets for a reason. The assassin would likely have no idea why he was following Jude. So he was going to become a kill tonight.
Jude wasn’t sad. Did he mourn the need to take life? Yes. But life was a constant battle of good and evil. It raged in the hearts of men every minute of every day. If Jude was confident of anything in his life, it was that he was a good guy. Endgame Ops were the good guys.
So anything attempting to destroy Endgame Ops was the enemy and therefore would be eliminated.
As Jude continued to sift through the varying shades of darkness across the street, a separate shadow moved like a wraith over the rooftop, headed toward a point directly across from him.
Through his ocular, he recognized the way the ghost moved—sinuous, feminine—and his heart stuttered. “No, damn it, Ella. Stop,” he pleaded silently.
Her target hadn’t noticed her yet because he hadn’t moved. Suddenly she stilled. And then her target moved, showing himself as he twisted and came up. A passing car’s lights hit the assassin’s scope glass, giving his location away more than his movements.
Jude stood from his perch, knowing he’d never make it to her in time, fear beating through his body and making his scalp tingle. He held his breath as the target rushed Ella.
She dropped into a crouch right as the moon made an appearance from behind a cloud, highlighting the blade she wielded. With a swift flick of her wrist, she took out the man’s left Achilles. He fell and she was on him, caressing her blade across his neck with a very practiced, very professional movement. Then she casually wiped her blade on the man’s clothing, stood, and turned to the warehouse Jude was in.
She held up six fingers again, turned, and disappeared off the roof. Nothing but mixed messages. She’d become the queen of them.
Jude took off, sprinting down the metal stairs and out the front entrance. He headed across the street and around the right side of the building. He skirted the corner and came to a standstill.
She’d waited there, facing him in the shadows.
He cocked his head and waited on her.
“He reported to Dresden that you took me,” she said softly.
He nodded. “But he had no clue what you told us, if anything.”
She shook her head. “Didn’t matter. His orders from the moment I reported that I’d escaped became kill orders.”
“Me?”
She didn’t move, and the air between them became charged with energy. “Yes.”
The moon once again played peekaboo from behind a cloud and shone its light down on her face. She was breathtaking under normal circumstances. That she’d just killed to protect him made her the most beautiful thing in Jude’s world. “Dresden wants me that bad, huh?”
“You’re a tool,” she replied.
“For what purpose?” he asked, though he already knew—had known from the moment she held those six fingers against the cab’s windows.
“To hone me.” She wiped a weary hand down her face and removed the skintight hood of the spandex suit she wore. Her hair fell in soft waves that glinted in the moon’s glow.
“For that to be the case, I’d have to be important to you, Ella. Surely Dresden knows I mean nothing to you,” he bit out.
She laughed, and it was low and ugly. “You’re fishing, and it’s not like you, Jude.”
He moved into her space. He’d always been fast, but had she wanted, she could have evaded him. She’d become quite the black ops operative in the year she’d been gone. Maybe she’d been one before she ever left him.
“Why, Ella?” She sighed as he lowered his head to hers, his mouth right at her ear. “Tell me why.”
He felt her heart give as her body relaxed against his, and he knew a moment of triumph.
“He can’t have you,” she whispered. “He will never have you.”
White-hot anger moved through Jude, but he remained still, half afraid she’d bolt. “Don’t tell me you did this to protect me.” In his world, men protected their women, not the other way around. He couldn’t wrap his mind around what she’d just told him.
She turned her head just enough that their mouths were inches away from each other. “All I know are lies, but what I just told you isn’t one. All I’ve had are my memories. Give me something, Jude. Something to keep me warm when the lies ice me over,” she pleaded.
That quickly, his anger evaporated. Their breaths mingled. She’d just taken life, and all he wanted to do was give her his.
His lips covered hers, and he drank her sigh. She didn’t move as he sank into her. Ella was satin and heat, vanilla and spice. He licked into her mouth, feeling her tongue tangle with his and draw him deeper.
She angled her head and he did the same, pushing as he fell further and further into his woman. A car backfired somewhere in front of the building,
