Most Wanted - A Fantasy Romance Novel (The Shadow Blade Series) Read Online Free PDF

a blade through Suckers as
attractive as Ezekiel. No. She did the job because it was the fastest way to
make the cash she needed. She lived in a dive apartment and ate macaroni and
cheese most nights because she needed every spare cent she could set aside. It
had cost her a hundred grand to buy the information she needed on Rikon Fayette,
the man, or rather monster, who had killed Saul. Ten grand short and with the
offer about to be withdrawn, Ariel had been forced to take a loan from an
underworld moneylender. The same amount plus interest was already overdue, and
if she didn’t pay up she knew the next visit the moneylender’s goons paid
wouldn’t just end up with her apartment being trashed.
    Ariel walked a
little way down the pier and stood watching the waves smashing into the wooden
struts below. Out of nowhere tears pricked the back of her eyes sharp as
needles. She angrily blinked them away. Ariel didn’t cry. She’d given up crying
a long while ago. She figured if Jax could help her bring in a bounty or two
tonight it would at least get the moneylender off her back. Then, when they
were done, she could turn Jax over to the Brothers and make a sweet amount of
money on top. They’d pay his weight in gold. A Blade was a Blade after all. The
money she would make from that would give her enough to get close to Rikon Fayette,
close enough that she could kill him.
    Of course, she
could just hand Jax over straight away, but she knew a guy like Jax wouldn’t go
easily, she’d have to find a way to gain his trust before she could lay the
trap.
      ‘Hey.’
    Someone brushed
her shoulder and she turned around, her hand coming up, blade in her fist. It
was just Jax though. She dropped her arm. ‘Don’t sneak up on me like that,’ she
hissed angrily. ‘Unless you want to end up with this in your gut.’
    He caught a
glimpse of the steel shining in her hand and smiled ruefully. ‘My mistake.’
    Ariel pushed
past him, sheathing her blade. He was wearing blue jeans, a dark gray T-shirt
and a black leather jacket. They were almost a match, like those couples you
sometimes saw at the mall, holding hands after twenty years of marriage,
dressed identically. Lunatics. She wished she’d worn something else instead of
the jeans, a back Tee and the long black jacket she’d thrown over the top to
hide the blades hanging at her waist. Jax must have knives in his boots she
guessed.
    She let her eyes
wander over the rest of him, telling herself she was checking him for weapons,
when really she was just checking him out. Yeah, he was still hot. Damn him. In
fact, if possible, he looked even more attractive than he had the previous
night. It was because he hadn’t shaved and the stubble darkening his jaw was
lending him a disheveled, just rolled out of bed, look. Something twinged in
her gut. She hoped he hadn’t just rolled out of bed. Before she could stop
herself she was imagining him in bed with a woman, making heated, passionate
love to her. Fire licked through her veins, then all of a sudden the woman in
her head morphed into her, and she was picturing herself naked in bed with him.
Her breath caught, her face flushed. Pushing the thought away she started
striding down the pier. Jax kept pace with her easily, his stride much longer
than hers.
    ‘So, why don’t
you have any Blade buddies to help you?’ Ariel asked, determined not to let her
imagination or his closeness get the better of her. ‘Why’d you need me?’ She
still wanted to know why he needed her help, what this was really all about.
    Jax’s face
turned stony and hard to read. ‘It’s just me,’ he answered tersely. His jaw
tensed and he looked away. She’d touched a nerve.
    ‘What about you?
No one to watch your back?’ he asked after a moment of silence.
    Was he probing?
Ariel shook her head. ‘I don’t trust most people,’ she muttered. ‘Human or
otherwise.’
    He gave a rueful
smile half-smile. In the moonlight the sharp angles of his face