The Accidental Assassin (33 page)

She took off, heading for the sidewalk in front of the house, and I followed quickly behind her. Part of me wanted to stop and kiss Owen goodbye, but the other part of me wanted to punch him in the nose for treating me like I was some sort of breakable object.

“He’s going to hurt Kenny,” Mavis said. Resignation laced her words. “I should have already taught him.”

“What? Why?” I kept pace beside her despite my longer stride.

“It happens.” She shrugged. “Part of the learning process. He won’t do it to be mean, but that’s why he refused to teach you. He wouldn’t forgive himself if he hurt you, not even on accident.”

“But I’m part of all this and I want to be able to take care of myself.” I shook my head. “Men are so stupid.”

“They have too many heads.” Mavis smiled. “Means their thoughts don’t know where to go.”

I laughed, drawing the attention of some neighbors exiting their front door. Mavis raised her hand and smiled at them. They waved back in acknowledgment.

“Let’s go before they walk over to say hello.” Mavis took off with ease and I was left pounding the pavement behind her.

She might be a tiny woman, but there was an untapped well of energy hiding inside. I wasn’t that out of shape, but I eventually stopped seeing anything around me except the next few feet of ground. My shoes were the cheap tennis shoes I’d bought with Owen and my toes started to protest. The promise of water and a flat surface was the only thing that kept me going.

That and the desire to be able to take care of myself.

When we turned back on to Mavis’s street my lungs were screaming and my legs felt wobbly. I used to love to run. It was the perfect time to think, but I’d passed that time mark an hour ago.

“Want to do the circuit again?” Mavis looked over her shoulder at me.

I didn’t respond. The only words I was capable of at this point were of the four-letter variety and I honestly didn’t want to waste any oxygen on them. Which was a new thing for me. Instead I went around to the back of her house intent on a giant glass of water.

Owen was wearing sweatpants and a white t-shirt that stretched over his muscles as he walked Kenny through some sort of exercise. I had to remind myself I was irritated with him as I walked past to go in the kitchen. An older man was busy at the counter and I froze. Slowly I walked backward until I was again on the patio.

“Um, Owen?” I checked behind me to make sure I was at the right house. Yep. I had walked into the right kitchen.

“Yes?”

“There’s an old man in the kitchen.”

“That’s Mr. Felding. He’s the butler,” Kenny explained. “He’ll get you anything you need. And he makes great sandwiches.”

“Uh huh.” I frowned. I hadn’t noticed any household staff last night. Then again, we had arrived very late.

I walked back into the kitchen and the old man turned to smile at me.

“Good morning, ma’am.” He bobbed his head. “Are you hungry?”

“No.” Just the thought of trying to process food after that run made my stomach queasy. “I’d really love some cold water, though.”

“Still or sparkling?” He moved toward the large refrigerator.

“Still.” I managed to sit at the island instead of falling flat on my face. My throat was raw from sucking in cool air during the run.

“Here you are, ma’am.” He set the glass down in front of me. “Can I help you with anything else?”

“No thank you.” I picked up the glass and chugged half of the water. “Call me Ava, please.”

“Thank you, ma’am.” He wasn’t one for chit-chat which was more than okay with me. I had no idea how much he knew about his boss.

Mavis sauntered in a few minutes later and went straight to the refrigerator for a drink. She poured herself a glass of green juice and I grimaced. It would figure that Mavis was a health nut.

“Good morning, ma’am.” Mr. Felding gave her a little head bob.

“You kept up.” Mavis slid onto the stool next to me.

“I’m not sure if you noticed, but I was about ten yards behind you for most of the run.” I grimaced. “I was the one sweating and groaning. You might have mistaken me for a zombie.”

“Oh, I know you were there. The point is that you kept pace, even if you were ten yards behind me.” She tapped her glass of stinky green juice against my cup of water.

I took another drink of my water. It certainly hadn’t felt like I’d kept pace with her. She had blown past me without even trying. My eyes cut in her direction and I frowned. Looking at her, you would never know she had gone for a run.

“Okay, we’ve had a long enough break. Let’s go work on forms.” Mavis drained the rest of her drink and hopped off the stool.

I leaned over and placed one of my hot cheeks against the cool marble counter top. I didn’t want to do forms. I just wanted to die here against the cold stone.

“Get up. You’ve got a lot to learn.” She put her hands on her hips and for a brief moment I had a vision of Jazzercise Barbie.

“How much is this going to hurt?” I narrowed my eyes.

“Just remember, you asked for this.” She smiled sweetly before turning and going out the back door.

Groaning, I stood up and followed her out, knowing that she was right. I had no one to blame but myself. I wanted to learn and Mavis was the one that had agreed to help me. Or course, I didn’t delude myself into thinking she wasn’t going to enjoy herself. She was going to love every minute that she got to beat me up.

The forms weren’t the bad part. Learning how to take a punch was the hard part. Or rather, trying to learn to avoid being punched was the hard part. I had no idea how to block, so being fast and moving out of the way were my best options.

“That’s it. You are not human!” I pointed at the tiny ninja in front of me. “You’re an evil elf sent to torture me.”

“Stop whining and put your hands up!” Mavis moved forward at the speed of light and I back peddled. “Stop doing that.”

“You’re a spider monkey on steroids. What else a I going to do? Oof!” One of her tiny fists slammed into my stomach.

“You’re bigger than I am. Use your size.” She twirled and her foot shot toward my head.

I ducked and dove for her leg which seemed to catch her off guard. We tumbled together to the ground and I fumbled to keep my hold on her. She wiggled and fought, slamming her knee into my chin.

“That wasn’t bad.” She twisted out of my grip and rolled into a standing position. “You had me for a second.”

“I almost bit my tongue off.” I stuck my tongue out and touched it gingerly.

“Get up. There is no crying in sparring.”

I stood up and brushed my backside off. Maybe I would be better once I’d practiced the katas more. Those would teach me how to move and weave around my opponent.

The loud sound of flesh meeting flesh made me wince and I looked over at Kenny and Owen. Kenny was bent over and cursing under his breath. Owen was patting his shoulder with a pained expression. It looked like I wasn’t the only one suffering.

That afternoon as I sat on the grass next to Kenny, I tried to give myself reassurance. I’d picked up the katas pretty quickly which had made me feel better after the long run. It was a soothing exercise. Owen approved of my stances, but otherwise didn’t say much to me.

Katas were where my self-praise ended. Mavis had thrown me around like a ragdoll and despite that, I’d still found it hard to actually try to hurt her. My punches were weak. I needed to punch through the foam paddles she held up, but pulled back each time my knuckles met one. My kicks were pathetic because I wasn’t limber enough to touch her nose with my toes. When it came to escaping choke holds and flipping Mavis over my shoulder, I’d been a complete failure.

At least I wasn’t bleeding, which was more than I could say about Kenny.

“Here, you need more tissue.” I unrolled some of the toilet paper sitting between us and handed it to him for his nose.

“Phanks.” He discarded the bloody paper he’d been using and replaced it with the new stuff, careful to keep his head tilted backward. “Phis bows.”

I snorted. Yep, it really did blow.

“Maybe we aren’t as bad as we think. Maybe we’re doing okay for our first day.” I stared up at the sky and prayed that was the truth.

“Phight.” The young guy sighed, his frustration matching mine. “Veast ooo ahn’t bweeding.”

“Not from a lack of effort on your aunt’s part.” I plucked a piece of grass and held it up between my fingers. Yep, grass was pretty much the same no matter where you visited.

Owen and Mavis had gone on a cool-down jog, leaving me and Kenny to bleed to death in her backyard. I didn’t even have the energy to be jealous over the time Owen was spending with Mavis. Not that I thought he wanted Mavis, but because she was getting time with him, period. But nope, I was content to lay here on the ground and pass tissues to the bleeding teenager.

“Maybe we could feign comas and get out of whatever torture they have planned for us when they get back.” The sounds of the city were muted, but I closed my eyes and tried to pick them out. Cars, people, music from a store floated past my ears.

Regular people doing regular things.

“Have you two eaten yet?” Owen walked through the house, using a towel to scrub the sweat out of his hair.

Kenny and I looked at each other. The thought of food made me want to curl into a ball, and blood was dripping past the tissue in his nose. I pulled off more paper and handed it to him.

“No.” I managed to prop myself up from the ground. “I’m not sure Kenny can swallow anything right now.”

“Noth wifth outh bunch o’ bwood.” Kenny sighed.

“Mr. Felding is making dinner.” Owen leaned against the door frame and looked at Kenny. “I can ask him to cut your steak into tiny little pieces.”

“I’d fwip ooo off if my fwinger didn’f hurf.”

“Here, let me.” I raised my middle finger.

“Later, love.” Owen’s laugh rolled through the back yard and despite how tired I was it still made my heart jump.

“Too sore.” I laid back on the grass and closed my eyes, hoping Kenny didn’t notice my blush.

“Your nose wouldn’t be hurt if you had done what I told you.” Owen walked over and made Kenny look up at him. “You let your anger get the best of you.”

Kenny just grunted.

“Right, well, I’m ready to shower.” I pushed myself up and started to stand. He held his hand out to me and I let him help me the rest of the way to my feet. “Thanks.”

His eyes ran over my and he pressed a soft kiss to my temple.

I knew he wasn’t happy about watching Mavis throw me around, but he hadn’t tried to stop it. Which I appreciated. I wasn’t going to be worth anything by the time we got to Paris, but at least it was a start.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew that if I was going to keep Owen in my life, I’d need to learn how to take care of myself. If I could take care of myself then he wouldn’t do stupid things like jumping in front of bullets to save me.

Hot water helped work the knots out of my back and neck, but nothing was going to help the deep ache from muscles that hadn’t been used for too long. By the time I got out, there wasn’t much warm water left, but I didn’t care. I hobbled back to the bedroom I had shared with Owen the night before and collapsed face-down on the bed. Putting clothes on seemed like too much work, so I just lay there to finish air drying.

I was a wimp.

I heard the door open, but I didn’t look up. I didn’t care that I was naked in a strange house full of staff and assassins. And wanna-be assassins if you included Kenny. I was comfortable and that was worth more than my modesty at the moment.

The bed dipped and a hand ran down my leg, working the muscles with strong fingers.

“I really hope you’re Owen. Otherwise, he might be pissed.”

“Not might, love.” I could hear the smile in his voice.

“Good. It’s you.” I sighed as he worked down the other leg. “That feels great.”

“Mavis pushed you hard today.”

I attempted a shrug and winced. “I’ve got a lot to learn.”

“I understand wanting to be able to take care of yourself.” His voice was low. “I just don’t like that you feel you need to.”

“Is that your pesky male ego talking?” I turned my head so I could see his profile.

“No.” He frowned but continued working on my legs. “I don’t like you being involved in all of this.”

“Sorry to point out the obvious, but I am involved in all of this and I don’t want to just sit around and cower behind everyone.”

“We have two days. You won’t be ready to take on the bad guys, Ava.” He switched legs.

“I know that.” I closed my eyes.

“Then why are you torturing yourself right now?” He stopped and met my gaze.

How to answer? We hadn’t even defined our relationship. Blurt out that I wanted to keep him in my life? That I needed to be able to protect myself so that I wouldn’t slow him down?

“Ava?” He shifted so he could pull me onto his lap.

“A girl should know how to take care of herself.” I didn’t meet his eyes. “Life has really highlighted that point for me lately.”

“After this, you can go back to your life. Find a job and not worry about people trying to kill you.” He used his fingers to make me look at him. “You can get a security system and a big dog.”

“How can you be so sure?” I frowned. “After this I’ll still have to deal with the police and God knows who else. I’ve got to find Tessa, too.”

“I’ll help you find Tessa.” Calm, clear eyes watched me.

“What about after?” I hated that my voice shook on the last word.

“After that.” His eyes clouded. “I’ll make sure you’re okay, Ava.”

“I…I want more than okay. I want to be happy.” I want you, you stupid, hot, perfect man.

“Ava.” He leaned forward and pressed his head to mine. “I don’t know how to keep someone happy long term. I’m not cut out for happy.”

“Have you ever tried?” My tone was sharp. “I thought you liked being with me.”

“I more than like being with you. I love it—” he cursed under his breath. “Damn it. Ava, love. I want to wake up with you every morning. I want to see what kind of jewelry you make and how you look cooking breakfast naked. I want all of that and things I can’t even let myself think about, because I don’t deserve that. I’m not that person. I don’t live in that world and I can’t give you what you want, what you deserve.”