Deadly Games Read Online Free PDF Page B

was in the bathroom. To look in the mirror was to see one’s self and all he saw anymore was a lie. Someone who didn’t know who they were anymore than the people he was acting to deceive.
    He set the wine aside and rubbed a hand over his face, scratching the stubble he kept short along his jaw and lip.
    How the hell did he get to this point?
    The bullets and blades would head his way if any knew The Reaper was a farce.…
    A complete farce … well, not entirely It wasn’t like he’d never killed anyone, but his marks had usually deserved it and those he was ordered to kill he simply didn’t think about. The target was an order to be followed. Period.
    The end was coming for his tour and he’d be that decided when he finished. He’d be damned if he turned into one of those rogues that had to be put down like a rabid dog.
    Shaking off the anxiety and fatigue, he stood, rubbed his hands over his face again.
    The triple chirp from his cell had him reaching for the little silver piece of technology. The LCD screen showed him who it was.
    “What do you want?” he asked without preamble. He patted his pocket for a cigarette.
    “This phone still secure?” John asked, his British accent clipping the words.
    “As secure as I can make it. Why?” Damn it, he was out of cigarettes. He took a deep breath and wondered how he’d missed that one.
    “We’ve picked up chatter.”
    “What would the intelligence communities do without chatter?” he muttered.
    For a moment the man on the other end was silent. Then, “Something happen?”
    “No, why do you ask?” Dimitri rummaged through one of the kitchen drawers where he also kept an extra pack, relieved to see he hadn’t even opened that one yet. One thing about Europe, they weren’t as health crazed as Americans.

    He ripped the package open and shook a cigarette out, reached into his pocket and pulled out his silver lighter. The click echoed over the line.
    “You were supposed to quit that disgusting habit.”

    23
    “If you called to tell me the important chatter is the fact I’m still smoking, then I do believe your boys need some updated equipment.” The nicotine hit his system on his first deep drag. “Or perhaps you need new boys.”
    “You’re even more caustic tonight than normal. What happened? Did you kill a defenseless animal?”
    Dimitri ignored the remark from one of the few men he honestly considered a friend and trusted with not only his life, but that of his family.
    “What do you want Johnno?” he asked, using the nickname John Brasher hated.
    “What the hell is going on?”
    “Why”
    “Who are you about to take out?”
    Dimitri frowned, took another drag and studied the cigarette as the paper slowly disintegrated from the burning tip. On a deep breath, he asked, “Who says I’m marking anyone?”
    “Sources.”
    “And those would be?”
    John’s chuckle grated on his nerves. “Look, our bosses both want to know who the mark is and….”
    “And?”
    “And we believe the Raven has been sent after you.”

    That was news. The Raven. Dimirti smiled. He was marked? Wasn’t that refreshing? And he knew ahead of time.
    “Well….”
    “The powers that be are not pleased. One they hear you’re marking someone and then that you’ve been marked. Now, me--I don’t think you’ve marked yourself.”
    “Yes, that’s always a concern isn’t it?” Idiots.
    “Who’s your mark?” John asked.
    “We don’t discuss that, you know.”
    “Yes, but some are worried.”
    He leaned up and stabbed the cigarette out in the ashtray on his glass coffee table.
    Dimitri sighed and leaned back, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose.
    “Johnno, I have no idea who my damn mark is. Hellinski hasn’t told me yet. I’m to meet the man tonight to find out.”
    Neither man said a word for a bit.
    John cleared his throat. “Any ideas?”
    “Yeah, Elianya.”
    This time John’s silence was filled with more than quiet. Dimitri knew what