The tomb raider yanked the orb out of her pocket and whispered the activation phrase. The artifact warmed in her hand, becoming uncomfortably hot but not burning her skin. She stopped and held her breath.
A guard emerged from the house with a yawn and looked right at her.
Let’s see how good you are, gnome.
The guard didn’t react or give any indication he’d seen Shay. He closed the door, tapped a lock code into its keypad, and walked toward the back of the house.
Shay stared at the guard for a few long moments before looking down at her body. Invisibility was easy to understand, but she was neither invisible nor in some strange alternate plane of existence. She was there and visible, but the guard acted like she wasn’t.
“People’s minds are easy to trick,” the gnome had told her. “Give them any excuse to look away, and they will. This artifact gives them that excuse. Metal toys don’t have minds to trick, so it does nothing for them. You’ll have to take care of that sort of thing yourself.”
The tomb raider shook her head and walked to the keypad. She tapped in the code Peyton had hacked the house security system for earlier, and when the door clicked open she hurried inside the darkened home.
Shay kept her grip on the artifact as she sauntered with a grin down the hall and up the stairs. A turn brought her to the master bedroom. The door creaked opened, and she stepped inside and closed it.
The mercenary leader slept peacefully on his back, his weathered face speaking to years of hard living. Shay rolled her eyes at the decades-younger voluptuous blonde who slept next to him.
The tomb raider-turned-home invader slipped the artifact back in her pocket before pulling one of her adamantine knives out its sheath.
Colonel Grayson’s eyes snapped open when she touched the blade to his throat.
Shay lifted a finger to her mouth and shushed him. “Quiet.”
The man’s face tightened in anger and defiance. “I won’t beg. If you’re going to do it, then do it.” He kept his voice low, as if he didn’t want to wake his trophy wife before his execution.
Shay wasn’t sure if she was impressed or annoyed.
“Nah,” she whispered.
He blinked. “Excuse me?”
“If this were about killing you, you’d already be dead, and I wouldn’t have bothered with all this bullshit sneaking around. This is about sending a message that will result in less trouble for a young woman.”
“Okay, what message? And what girl?” He still sounded too comfortable to suit Shay.
Shay leaned forward and kept the knife at the man’s throat. “It’s come to my attention that two of your men were poking around in Virginia, looking for a girl. You’re gonna stay the fuck away from that girl, as are your men.”
“Are you the one who butchered my men?”
She let a chuckle escape. “I’m just a person who has an interest in making sure that girl lives a happy life without mercenaries fucking with her.”
The wife stirred in her sleep. If she woke up and started screaming, things might get unpleasant for everyone involved.
Just stay asleep. Your only crime was marrying a dick.
Colonel Grayson’s jaw tightened. That’s better, thought Shay.
“Who the fuck are you, really?” he asked. “A bodyguard? Part of some sort of protection agency? Who the fuck is that girl that she has that kind of protection?”
“You don’t need to know that.”
He snorted. “My people looked into that girl. We know she’s linked to Brownstone, but we found nothing about any sort of security firm.”
Shay shook her head. The asshole was going to keep the strongman front, even though she had a knife to his throat.
“Let’s just say I’m a guardian angel in black, Colonel Grayson. One who gained access to your bedroom despite all your security and guards,” Shay added as she removed her knife.
The man jerked up, and Shay snapped her arm forward again. He froze in place when the tip of her blade pricked his throat and drew a single drop of blood.
Shay tsked. “You are hopelessly outclassed, asshole. You that eager to die? I’m trying not to kill anyone, but I’m not married to the idea.”
Grayson gritted his teeth and didn’t respond.
“Shouldn’t have done that. Might have woken up wifey-poo over there.” Shay glanced over at his wife. “What? You have…twenty years on her? Thirty years? Or did you find a bunch of money for beautification magic?”
Shay heard the sound of guards moving across the lawn outside and knew her time was drawing short. No need to test Lily’s skills too much on her first day back in the field.
Shay pressed the tip of the blade. “The only reason I’m not slitting your throat right now is the small, small chance that it’d lead to some unfortunate police investigation or some shit like that. This is your final warning, though. Next time you die.” She grinned. “And don’t think your big plan to hire a few magical mercs and overpay for some shitty magical artifact is gonna help you. They wouldn’t be the first magic users I’ve killed. Or the second. Or the third.”
Shay took a step back, her gaze still locked on the man.
Grayson glared at her. “How do you know about that? Only my top-level men know about that.”
“I’ll let you stew on that and figure it out yourself.”
“Fuck, you’re in my personal files.”
“Something like that.” Shay gave him a little mocking salute. Peyton’s ability to break in to any files and Lily’s talent at seeing magical trails and following them were proving to be very valuable assets to her operations.
“Have a good evening, Colonel. Sleep well, for now.”
She made her way back the same way she came in and found Lily at the rendezvous point, sweaty and smiling from ear to ear.
“Just tell me, did you leave any evidence behind?”
“Not a bit. It was just a few
