Blood and Bone: (Royal Blood #6) by Amity Cross

MI6…”
    “It’s possible,” Jackson said. “I was just able to skim the surface of their data, not disable anything.”
    This wasn’t good. If Gruber’s replacement could mass-produce this Veltium-34, then we had big problems. The human race was at risk. If they sold it to warring countries, they could wipe out each other with little effort. Mass murder was on the horizon.
    I sighed. “Then we give the intel on the chemical to MI6 and continue our pursuit of Moltke under the radar.”
    “What did you find out?” Mercy asked me. “Did Bateman lead you to Moltke?”
    “I lost Bateman before I could get very far,” I replied. “I had company.”
    “Is that what this is from?” she asked, running her fingers along my neck.
    Prodding the place she’d just touched, I realized I’d been cut by the woman’s knife after all. Beginning to get really pissed off that I’d been bested, I snorted.
    “A woman confronted me,” I said sharply. “She seemed to have a rather large stake in this game. Or at least, that’s the impression she gave when she questioned my motives rather than trying to gut me.”
    “Did she say who she was?” Mercy asked.
    I shook my head and glanced at Jackson. “If I describe her to you, can you render an image?”
    “I can punch some details into the facial recognition software I pilfered from the office,” he said with a shrug. “No guarantees.”
    “I can’t see we have any other leads since Bateman dissipated like a fucking fart in the wind,” I declared.
    He tapped on his laptop and nodded, his anxiety seeming to have calmed now that he had something technical to work on. “Then let’s give it a try.”
    I gave him a fairly accurate description of the woman while Mercy listened in. Considering studying faces and identifying marks was one of the skills I relied most heavily on during my time running hits for Royal Blood, I was thorough in my recollection.
    Leaving him to work on the data, I led Mercy into the bedroom so we could have a moment alone. It had taken a great deal for me to allow her into my world and to toil alongside me. Having a third wheel in the guise of Jackson was probably never going to work well with how I preferred to operate.
    Mercy and I were connected in a lot more ways than was professionally acceptable in the MI6 charter. Then again, so were Mei and I at one time. At the thought of my past lover, who was probably being buried in an empty grave any day now, I narrowed my eyes.
    “What is it?” Mercy asked, her voice low.
    Staring out the tiny window at the Berlin skyline, I shrugged. The vibrant glow of sunset dusted everything in an orange hue…like the fire that had engulfed Section Seven and all that had been within its walls.
    I briefly wondered about Lorelei but knew we’d never hear from her again. Her story was no longer entwined with ours.
    “X?” Mercy stood beside me, her hand sliding over my back and winding around my waist.
    “I haven’t thought about her since we sat in Folsom’s office,” I murmured. “Now we’ve lost Moltke’s trail…”
    “You have to face her loss at some point,” she murmured, understanding who I was talking about. “Putting it off is only going to make that moment so much worse.”
    “Why should I mourn her?” I asked, closing my eyes.
    “It isn’t about love,” she replied. “It’s about your past. Mei was one of the last links to your identity as Oliver Cassel. She was one of the last links to your family. It’s a hard loss to take.”
    Turning sharply as her words hit home, I fisted my hands into her hair and took her mouth with mine. Our connection, her love…it always grounded me when I began to spiral. My frustrations were eased when I joined with her. My one and only.
    Thrusting my tongue against hers, we kissed, the world shrinking until only we inhabited it. “ Mercy .”
    “Jackson’s in the next room,” she said, turning her face away from mine.
    Shivering at the loss of her