Born of Ice (The League #3)(15)
Author: Sherrilyn Kenyon

Dreams, hopes, future plans… those were things that belonged to free citizens. So at her mother’s insistence, she’d banished those kinds of thoughts at an early age. It was only now when she had a hope of being free to make her own life that she even began to think about tomorrow as being something better.

Zarina narrowed her eyes before she resumed her tirade. “I swear one day I’m going to kill him.” She huffed. “Do you have a brother?”

No.

“Lucky you. I have four. You want one?”

Alix laughed. “If they all make you want to kill them, then I’ll pass. I think I’m all right without one.”

“Wise woman. Though to be honest, they’re not all total dicks. Jayce and I get along, and I used to be best friends with Adron…”

She frowned at the catch in Zarina’s tone. “Used to be?”

Her eyes turned dull. “My oldest brother was a League assassin and had a bad run-in with a psycho animal who left him crippled. He’ll never be the same again, I’m afraid. Even though he lived through it, a part of him died that night, and I miss the brother I used to have. That being said, I’m grateful to God that I do still have him, even as surly as he is. So I won’t complain about him at all. The twins, however—”

“Work your last nerve?”

“Exactly.” Letting out a long sigh, she took Alix’s arm and pulled her toward a very nice restaurant. “But let’s not talk about my brothers. I have something much more interesting to discuss with you.”

“And that is?”

“The fact that we need to get Devyn in your bed ASAP.”

Where had that come from? This was a topic that she definitely didn’t feel comfortable talking about with someone so young.

But as Alix tried to talk, she realized something…

CHAPTER 5

“So what gives with you and that new engineer of yours?”

Dev looked up from the box he was storing to find Taryn standing behind him. “I swear I’m going to tie a bell around you, too, if you don’t start making noise when you walk.”

Taryn grinned. “I blame it on my dad and his hyper-hearing. You either learned to move without a sound or you got busted every time you sneezed wrong—which for me was every minute I was awake.”

Devyn laughed. That was certainly true. Nykyrian’s hearing had been a serious bitch on them when they’d been kids trying to get away with things. But for all the man’s sternness, he’d never once raised a hand or even his voice to any of them.

Then again, Nykyrian was so terrifying, he didn’t have to. His glower alone could instantly freeze screaming kids right where they stood.

“And I noticed you didn’t answer my question.”

Devyn shoved the box into place and moved out of the hold to stand in front of Taryn. He wiped his brow on his sleeve. “There’s nothing to say. She’s my employee.” Who I’m sleeping with ‘cause I’m stupid.

“Who happens to look just like—”

Devyn held his hand up to cut off that sentence before Taryn finished it. “She’s not her so let’s not go there.” Even though he had to remind himself of that every now and again. It still unnerved him how much the two women looked alike.

But unlike Clotilde, Alix had a conscience.

Taryn tapped him on the chest, right where the vicious scar over his heart was located. “If you say you’re okay, I won’t push it. But I know what you’re not saying. Betrayal like that never goes away. Especially not when it comes from the woman who was supposed to be your better half for the rest of your life.”

That was an unfortunate bond they both shared. However, Taryn’s fiancée hadn’t tried to cut his heart out on her way out the door. She’d only stepped all over it.

“Alix isn’t a hired assassin coming after me. She has no higher agenda where I’m concerned.” He hated the tightness in his voice when he spoke. Like Taryn had said, some betrayals never healed, and Clotilde’s still burned raw inside him.

How he hated that bitch.

He’d known Clotilde was an assassin when they hooked up. What he’d never considered was that after a three-year relationship and just days before they were supposed to get married, she’d take money to kill him. Especially not after everything he’d done for her.

Lethal bitch.

Pushing that thought away, he moved to the next box that was on the ground waiting to be loaded.

“Why isn’t Vik loading cargo for you?”

“He’s watching Omari, who needs to replace his MVM player. Given the rough crowd here, I didn’t want him out on his own. Too many might mistake him for an easy mark, and while he can hold his own, I don’t want to take the chance on someone getting in a lucky shot on him. Or even worse, Omari killing someone at his age and having to deal with that crisis.” Both he and Taryn had been forced to take a life before they’d turned twenty. It was something a man never got over.

That first kill.

He wanted to spare his son that misery if he could.

Taryn narrowed his gaze. “What about Sway?”

“With Claria.”

Growling low in his throat, Taryn grabbed the box from his hands.

Devyn cursed as he tried to take it back. “I’m not helpless.”

Taryn jerked it out of his reach. “No, but you don’t need to strain yourself and you know it. Your heart can’t take it.”

Devyn felt his jaw starting to tic as his anger ignited. Yeah, that was Clotilde’s gift that kept on giving. It was also the real reason why his parents maintained constant tabs on him. They’d come too close to losing him that night. Had his father not been on his way to Devyn’s house, he’d be dead now. His father had saved his life, but the cost for living was a bad heart that seriously limited what he could do.

And he hated being weak.

It could be worse. You could be dead.

Or he could be Adron…

True. He had no right to complain about his own physical limitations when his were hidden and unknown to his enemies. While a pain in the ass, his ruptured heart didn’t stop him from doing many things.

Still, he hated whenever someone treated him like an invalid.

“You’re such a bastard, Taryn.”

He grinned. “I know, Reen. Thanks.”

Devyn rolled his eyes as Taryn called him by his sister’s name. “So how is Adron?” He thought about his old friend a lot. But Adron barely spoke to him anymore. He was isolated in a world of painful bitterness that caused him to shut out everyone who loved him.

Taryn set the box down and sighed. “Same as always. Angry at the world and wanting to kill Jayce.”

Their brother Jayce had been the one to save Adron’s life, and for that, Adron hated his brother with a passion. The code of the assassin was to die should they ever be crippled by their duties. If another assassin found one seriously comprised, he was supposed to kill him. But Jayce had been unable to kill his own brother.

And even though Adron wanted to die, he refused to hurt his family by killing himself. So he was trapped in a body that wouldn’t work while he lived a life of utter misery in constant pain.

“Is Jayce any better?” Devyn asked.

“No. None of us are.” His dark eyes flashed. “Which is why I don’t want you straining yourself. I already have one hardheaded ass**le bent on suicide. I don’t need another one.”

Devyn held his hands up in surrender. “By all means, get a hernia. Knock yourself out. Gods forbid I stop you. Not like I spent ten years in med school or anything to know when I need to sit down.” Taryn made an obscene gesture before he hefted another box.

But in all seriousness, Devyn understood why Adron hated the world. There were times when he did, too. Nothing like being royally f**ked over by someone you loved to suck the will to live right out of you. This was not the life he’d dreamed of when he was a kid.

He’d imagined a world of justice where he’d fight for The League to protect the innocent. A world that included a woman who would stand by his side.

Not one who would smile at his face while she drove a knife through his heart.

Literally.

And babies… He’d imagined a lot of kids. Omari would make one hell of an older brother to someone.

You have no right to complain.

True.

It’s all good. He had a great son who did honor to both of them, and more than that—we’re all fed and no one’s dead. That had always been his uncle’s philosophy. So long as those two things were taken care of, nothing else really mattered.

He saw an image of Alix in his mind and actually flinched. More than anything, she reminded him of those long-buried dreams he’d once shared with Clotilde. Damn her for looking so much like her.

And damn her for being so enticing as to make him want to forget about Clotilde and start over.

Don’t…

He had a new future to focus on. One that didn’t include anything except keeping his crew safe and helping the rebels who opposed The League. That was the only thing he needed to expend his energy on.

“I am not interested in Devyn.”

You’re such a liar.

But it was something Alix had to teach herself to believe.

Zarina made a very undignified sound of disagreement. “Honey, you look at that man like you can already taste him. I know that look. I’ve had it a time or two myself. Not at Devyn, ‘cause… ew! That’s like fantasizing over one of my brothers, but I know tasty when I see it and I know that man well enough to know that he’s not immune to you, either. Devyn is very interested.”

Yeah, right. Alix was anything but stupid, and she knew that while Devyn was kind to her in bed, he didn’t have any deeper feelings for her than that. Dreams were for fools and men only used the women around them. Once done, they moved on.

Unless they owned the woman. Then they used her to their heart’s content without any regard for her feelings. That was probably why the Hyshians had chosen to enslave and subjugate their men.

But that was neither here nor there. Devyn was the key to her freedom and that was all he could ever be.

Alix looked away as the waiter brought their dessert. She’d been trying for the last half hour to change the subject, but Zarina wouldn’t be swayed. She was an obsessive personality who had a raw determination that only a three-year-old could envy.

“I’m not his type.”

Zarina gave her a droll stare. “Do you even know what that is?”

Alix sighed. “No, but I’m rather sure it begins with gorgeous, which is a far cry from me.”

“Do you even own a mirror?”

“Yeah. I do.” And she’d used it enough to know that she was too curveless, too pale and too fragile. To quote her father, she looked like something a wolf had gobbled up and shit down the wrong side of a mountain.

Zarina rolled her eyes before she dug into her purse. After a few seconds, she pulled out a small photo MVM and scrolled through it. She handed it to Alix. “You were saying?”

Alix’s breath caught as she looked down and saw a woman who bore an uncanny resemblance to her. The only difference was the other woman wore a lot of makeup and had short hair.

And her attitude was completely different. Unlike Alix, she stood confident.

No…

Defiant.

There was something about the woman in the picture that seemed cold and deadly. Even though she was leaning against a younger Devyn and smiling, there was something about her that wasn’t right. She looked too calculating and icy. As if she were only interested in what she could take from the world.

Alix handed the photo back to Zarina. “Who is she?”

“Clotilde Renier.”

“She’s beautiful.”

“And you’re a dead ringer for her.”

Alix shook her head in denial. “Not quite. I’ve never looked like that. For one thing, I’m pretty sure I was born in more clothes than she’s wearing in that picture.” She returned to eating her dessert. “Is she Devyn’s girlfriend?”

“She was his fiancée.”

She paused at the way Zarina had said that. “Was?”

“He killed her.”

Alix felt the color fade from her face at the deadly note in Zarina’s voice. She’d known Devyn was lethal, but to kill his own fiancée?

He’s going to rip you to shreds…

“He did what?”

Zarina waved her fear away. “Relax. It was justified.”

Only an assassin’s daughter could think that. “How is killing your fiancée justified?”

Zarina returned the MVM player to her bag. “She tried to kill him first and almost succeeded. In the beginning of her attack, Devyn refused to fight her, but she gave him no choice. Had he not killed her, she would have killed him.”

Alix couldn’t breathe as that reality slammed into her. Had Merjack known that? What the hell had he been thinking by sending her in to frame Devyn when he’d killed the woman she resembled?