Page 11 of Altered By Fire (Undercover Sinners 1)
"Kill you?" Hawke asks with a long exhale. "Not exactly."
He steps back and gives me a look, propping his hands on his hips.
"Not … exactly?" I choke out as our gazes meet and a hot thrill takes over my body.
"You have two choices, Natalia: let us take you to the nunnery or stay here."
"And if you do go to the nunnery," Arsen says, grinning maniacally, "you best be careful. We have agents there, too. And they'll be watching."
"Agents?" I echo as Hawke looks me straight in the face.
"If you stay here, you also have two choices," Hawke continues. "Wait us out until we finish what we came here to do or let me teach you."
"Teach me?" I ask as Hawke sucks in a breath.
"Dude, are you serious?" Colt exclaims, storming over to us and looking between me and Hawke like he's crazy. "Just let her go, man! She doesn’t need to get dragged into this.”
"I can't let her go!' Hawke roars, and my skin erupts in goose bumps. "I can't let her go now."
"She doesn't know anything," Colt says, sounding exasperated. "Let her walk, man."
"She knows enough," Hawke says with a sigh. "And she's Konstantin’s daughter. I can't let her go." He stares at me, and I imagine that in a different scenario, hearing those words—I can't let her go—would be a breathtaking experience. “I won’t. Not while she can still threaten our mission.”
"So, my choices are go to the nunnery or … you really are going to kill me?"
"You can stay here until we're finished with our mission. And then we'll let you go. But, if you stay, consider signing on with us. After that life you've led, you'd be a perfect candidate."
"This is ridiculous!" Colt shouts, throwing up his hands and pacing a short, wild rut in the floor. "You can't hire her."
"She's perfect," Arsen says, slinking up behind Hawke and taking a seat on the edge of the table. "With all the shit she must know."
"I'm willing to hire you to be a part of my team," Hawke says, "but you'll have to be willing to work."
"Work for what?" I ask, and he gives me a tight smile.
"If you joined our team, your life would change forever. I'll give you a rundown, and if you think you're up for it then we'd love to have you." Hawke arches a brow at me like it’s a challenge.
I love a challenge.
"Hear that?" Arsen smirks and throws me a wink. "We'd love to have you."
Blinking at the group of men in front of me, I have a bad, bad feeling about this.Chapter 3HAWKEI'm probably making a huge mistake with this girl.
Colossal.
But there’s no way I’m backing down now.
"You think with your dick too often, Hawke," Weston drawls, sitting at the table and tapping his fingers rhythmically against the wood.
"Nah," Arsen sneers, slamming a mug of coffee down, "he thinks with his heart, aww." Arsen taps his palm against his chest, and it takes everything I have inside of me not to lift up my gun and shoot him in the face. The only reason I keep him around is because I figure I either have to kill him or keep an eye on him. He's too crazy to be set free on the world.
"She didn't know enough for us to be concerned," Mace grumbles, running his fingers through his hair. "Not until you idiots started blabbering at her. She just figured we were really shitty priests."
"She's Konstantin’s fucking daughter," Arsen scoffs with another scowl. “The second we found out who she was, we should've tied her up and sent him a ransom video. But letting her join the team? Hmm. Yeah, I’m down with that. We can fuck the information out of her before the week is out, everything we need to know about Konstantin and his connections, his habits, the nitty-gritty of his personal life. Easy."
"You aren't going to fuck it out of her," I say with a scowl, and Arsen grins like a shark.
"Really? Because she was about to get naked in the bathroom before you started shouting at me. And did you see the way she was looking at us in the kitchen? That girl was more than willing for any one of us. But I call dibs on first taste."
"You're sick," I growl at him, grabbing my own coffee and chugging a mouthful.
"Really?" Arsen asks with heavy sarcasm, canting his head to one side. "The numerous medical diagnoses I've received gave me no clue."
Sighing, I rub at my forehead. Maybe I should just kill the fucker and be done with it. Sure would make my life a whole hell of a lot easier. Higher-ups wouldn’t question me on it either. Hell, I might even get a promotion for it.
"Look, here's what we're going to do. Clearly I don't have the authority to recruit for a permanent position within our company, but she doesn't know that. For now, let's give her some on the job training and use her as an asset to take her family down. You can all agree that she could be our ace in the hole." I look around at my team for their reactions.
