Free Enduring Retribution e-book by Kathi S. Barton

right now…no…you told me…you said that it was clear…a clean print up. It wasn’t.” Her pauses were getting longer, the voice at the other end louder. He felt her pull a shield down the moment she answered, so that all he could hear was her end of the conversation and loud noises from the other. “Bonus aside…okay triple that and I’ll think about it…shit…yes. Send the job to the main office…fuck off.” She put the phone back into her pocket and he could feel her anger.
    “Bailey, I suppose if I asked you what that was about you wouldn’t tell me, would you?”
    She was silent for so long that he thought she wasn’t going to answer. When she did, he wished that she hadn’t.
    “I’m a hired killer, Tristan, a hit man. I have killed seventy-three people in the past eleven years.” She looked at him then. “So if you know anyone who has a lot of power, I suggest that you ask them to reverse this bond you say we have. And soon.”

    ~CHAPTER SEVEN~

    They didn’t speak the rest of the ride to his home. When she had started to tell him more, he simply held up his hand to stop her. She slid away from him to the other side of the car and he let her, releasing her hand as well as his warmth. She should have figured it would happen. She had never told anyone what she did before because of this very reason. She reached out to the only other person in the world she trusted.
    “Griff, I have a rush job coming in. It may arrive by this morning. I want you to contact me as soon as you get it. I will also need some cash. Can you manage that, please?”
    “Yes, mistress, anything you wish. I am at your command, as always. How much do you need? And who am I sending it to?”
    She frowned at his question. Who was she anymore? “The name, I don’t know yet. I may need to get something more very soon. Send the usual.”
    “I understand.” He hesitated for just a second and she waited for him to ask. But he didn’t.
    She wasn’t sure what she would have said if he had asked her if she was all right. But what he did say didn’t surprise her either. “I will take care of the rest, all the identification as well. Also, mistress, there has been someone checking for you, under your name. It appears someone has found you.”
    It was both of their fears that someone who had gotten away from Co-Tech would find them and begin the project again. They had destroyed everything in the building that night, but nothing was perfect. The people had gotten out, they had made sure of that. Also the prisoners, those that had wanted to leave. The rest, the ones who just couldn’t stand to move among humans, had stayed behind when the building went up. She tried her best not to think about that.
    She glanced over at Tristan. He worked fast, and she’d only told him her name about an hour ago. Since she had been with him since she had given him her name, she could only assume that he was contacting another of his kind by telepathy.
    “How long do I have?” She asked him, knowing it didn’t matter. The man sitting next to her not only had her real name, but he’d seen her as well.
    “I have set up the usual blocks, so you will have no more than forty-eight hours. Less if they have good connections with money to spare.”
    “Count on both,” she told him. “All right, I’ll need to know the particulars as soon as you get them. Thanks, buddy. Night, my friend.”
    “Good night, mistress. Be careful.”
    The car pulled up in front of a castle, an honest to goodness castle, a few minutes later.
    Bailey had never been to a castle before, and didn’t expect to spend too much time in this one.
    She would give him what he needed to know and take off. She didn’t know what they needed to do to complete their bond, or even if they had somehow already finished it, but she had a pretty good idea and had no intentions of letting that happen, not that she thought that he would want to anymore.
    She’d heard of mated couples, of