And she had to know it.
Her eyes danced, brows bobbing teasingly above them as she encouraged me to go in for a hit.
I could see her leaving the opening and at first I thought it was her defences letting her down, but time after time, she smacked my pads away and sailed right through with a solid jab of her own, backed up with a swinging uppercut.
It took everything I had in me not to lean into my physicality and push her harder. I could overpower her so easily and the thought made my heart thunder against my ribs and my steely erection throb. I wanted her up against the ropes to see what she did when she was cornered. I already knew she’d come out fists whirling. Her jabs were efficient and targeted, she wasted no energy. Everything was precise. I wanted to break down her control and see what she did when she gave into instinct.
My fighting wasn’t doing it, but I could make her come apart in other ways. And God, I planned to. Just as soon as this was done with.
I’d set the groundwork. All I could do now was hope that she agreed to work with me when I needed her to. More than that, I hoped she didn’t put up a fight when I showed her she was meant to be mine.
In the morning, I watched her come out of the house a little bit before the time she usually did. I liked to watch her leave – watch her run down the front steps with half a slice of toast in her mouth, or flicking through her revision cards for her exams. I liked to know what she might be up to while she was away from the house, away from me. Today, she was unflappable and calm. Early, for her exam.
I knew the schedule, all the timings. After this week, she’d be done with school, and out into the world like the woman that she was. It mattered that she’d seen that last step of childhood out. She was older in experience than any of her peers, but all the same I was glad that her school didn’t insist on uniforms.
It would have made me feel too much the old man, and I wasn’t really that.
It would have been one level of torture too far to see her in a little pleated skirt, and neat blouse. I didn’t want her as a schoolgirl. The image didn’t suit her. She was arch and lithe and cunning, clever and resilient and strong and she was everything I never thought I’d find. The woman of my dreams.
And she was damn well haunting them.
I watched her turn down the street, and walk right up to the main door of the building I was in. I had to press myself as close to the glass as I could get so I could see her disappear inside.
Usually I’m unshakable, but she had my heart pounding hard. It took all I had not to race out into the corridor and down the stairs to meet her. I had it drilled into me not to break cover. When I did it, I had to do it right. Protocol was the only thing that kept me where I was. She’d seen me at the gym, but she didn’t know for sure that I was here, and it needed to stay that way for both of our protection.
Only a handful of minutes passed before she was back out on the pavement again, heading off on her usual route without even turning back to look.
When I went downstairs, there was an envelope in the pigeon hole for the mail with no name on the outside of it, and no stamp.
Inside was the folded sugar bag I’d aimed at, and the bullet, along with a small scrawled note that I opened with a grin I couldn’t disguise.
I think this belongs to you. What do you need me to do?
This wasn’t the approach I was supposed to be making and it had, arguably, been a dangerous gamble. But there was something going on with Elizabeth Harrington that wasn’t fully clear, and somehow I knew she wasn’t going to call the police.
My shot had done what I’d intended it to do – broken Pierce’s attention long enough to diffuse the situation. The small single pane at the top corner of the window wasn’t enough to set his fears spiralling. For all the work he’d done in digging out the names he claimed to have, he didn’t seem to be all that aware of what became of journalists who threatened to expose the way Russia worked.
Fine by me. The less security he had the better. Right now I could pick him off whenever I wanted, and the more he did to Elizabeth, the less I cared about the list I was supposed to be finding. I’d take out everyone connected with his damn book and burn the printers to the ground if that was what it took to keep my word, and keep Elizabeth safe.