Cassia: Alluring Assassins, #1

By Dawn Sullivan and Annelise Reynolds

Live by the code

Lie by the code

Die by the code

Cassia

I'm known as Valentine, and the code was all I knew. After being recruited into The Company at the young age of sixteen, life as I knew it ceased to exist. Gone was the innocent girl who was terrified of her own shadow. I became something I never would have thought possible; a dangerous, lethal, killing machine.  An assassin, working for the good guys…or so I thought.

My world came crashing down around me, after one fateful call. Now, I'm on a mission to take down every last one of those bastards who destroyed everything I believed in. And, I'm not alone. The only thing sweet about me, is the revenge I will serve.

Nash

I work for The Company, a private sector of our government no one knows about. If they did, it could compromise national security, and we would have to take appropriate measures. The kind that would involve elimination.

It was my job as Valentine's handler to keep her safe. We've never met. She's just a voice on the phone. A low, sultry, sexy voice.  She knows me only as Sentry. I pass on the assignments from my boss, and she lets me know when it's completed. I used to think I was pretty good at my job, until things went to hell. Now, I'm one of those people who knows too much.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dawn Sullivan
• Release date: Mar 26, 2019
• ISBN: 9781386492535

Dawn Sullivan

I have a wonderful, supportive husband and three beautiful children.  I enjoy spending time with all of them which normally involves some baseball, shooting hoops, taking walks, watching movies, and of course reading. My passion for reading began at a very young age and only grew over time.  Whether I was bringing home a book from the library, or sneaking one of my mom's romance novels and reading by the light in the hallway when we were supposed to be sleeping, I always had a book.  I read several different genres and subgenres, but Paranormal Romance and Romantic Suspense have always been my favorites. I have always made up my own stories, and have just recently decided to start sharing them.  I hope everyone enjoys reading them as much as I enjoy writing them.

Book preview

Prologue

Cassia

W hat’s your name?

Whatever it needs to be, I answered, head held high, shoulders back, my eyes focused on a spot in front of me, not the man at my side.

What is your name? he asked again.

Valentine. It was the name I chose when they ripped my identity away years ago. I’m sure they knew it was a small rebellion on my part, because they knew my birthday was February fourteenth. Hell, there wasn’t anything they didn’t know about me, down to when I had my period.

Who are you?

I am who I need to be. It was the same answers I was instructed to give since I was sixteen and first brought into The Company, a government organization that’s so secret, the alphabet branches don’t even know of its existence. They recruit young, healthy teenage girls with troubled pasts and no family who come from different places across the country, but our stories are all similar. We are attractive and taught to use that to our advantage. We’ve lived troubled lives, which makes us cling to the idea of having some stability in our daily existence. And, most importantly, we are alone, with no one to miss us when we’re gone.

The Company teaches us to kill, and they teach us well. We’re taught to lure our targets in by any means necessary and take them out before they know they are facing imminent death. We are chameleons, trained to blend into our surroundings and disappear completely when needed.

Who are you? he repeated, with more force in his voice.

I am nobody. I am everybody. I am anybody. I stood ramrod straight, not looking at the Gatekeeper. He was the head of training for The Company, and it was the only name we knew him by. Gatekeeper. We all hated him. He ran us hard, pushing our boundaries until we thought we would break, and then he pushed some more.

The girl I was before no longer existed. After three years with The Company, going through training twelve hours a day, seven days a week, Cassia ceased to exist.

I am Valentine, a lethally trained assassin, and today is the day I leave training for my first solo mission.

What happens if you get caught?

I won’t get caught, I said firmly, with confidence.

What happens if you get caught? Now, he was all but yelling in my ear like a drill sergeant, but I didn’t so much as flinch.

I die, I said simply. It was a fact. This world was kill or be killed. Our training class started with fourteen girls, and we were now down to seven. Only the strong survived.

What’s our motto, Valentine?

Live by the code. Lie by the code. Die by the code. I recited the mantra that had been pounded into our heads since day one. We had a code to live by or we die. There’s no in between in this life. You are an asset or you’re dead, that’s it.

You’re ready. Gatekeeper stepped back and held out a yellow envelope. Here’s your first assignment. For this one, we’ll be watching your back to make sure the job’s completed. He held out a phone, Here’s your cell. It’s untraceable. Your handler’s number is in the envelope. Memorize it, then burn it. Don’t store any numbers on the phone. Wipe the history after every call. Your handler is your point of contact. Your safeguard. After this mission, he’ll be the one giving you your assignments and he will be the one you report to.

I already knew everything he was telling me. It had been drilled into my head ever since I was recruited from the girls’ home. Two years after my recruitment, Cassia died in a car accident… at least, that’s what my death certificate says. I’m a ghost. We all are. We have no family. No friends. The Company is our life. It’s our everything.

1

Cassia

Itook a deep breath, moving into the ballroom. The terrace doors were open as people wandered freely from the room to the grounds below. It was how I entered the party without an official invite from the hosting family. It was child’s play for someone like me to slip inside, past the security team they’d hired just for this event. There was no way for them to monitor everyone who came and went through those doors, and I took full advantage of it.

Demetri Azerov is the second in the Volkov Bratva, one of the Russian mafia syndicates, and the party was to celebrate his engagement to Luka Ruzetki’s daughter, Katia. Their marriage would merge the two notorious crime organizations. Separately, they were bad enough with their hands in several different seedy business ventures, everything from drugs to human trafficking. But to have the next leader of the Volkov Bratva as a son-in-law to the head of the Ruzetki Crime Family just couldn’t happen.

The match between Katia and Demetri was not one of love. She was standing stiffly beside him with a forced, plastic smile on her face. Her elegant, black silk, sheath dress cost more than what most people in the country made in a month. Her makeup and hair were perfect, as were the diamonds she wore, but all of that couldn’t hide the fake smile or the shadows in her eyes.

Don’t worry, Katia, I whispered to myself, as I watched from across the room. You’ll never say those vows.

In fact, if everything went as planned, by the end of the night, both crime organizations would be crippled; not only from mutual distrust, but from the bloodbath that I was about to instigate with the death of Azerov. The Bratva would blame Ruzetki, and Ruzetki would retaliate against the Bratva. I’d kill the fragile link they had right now, and they’d kill the whole God damned chain.

I was able to blend into the party with champagne in my hand that I never sipped and rubies in my ears and around my neck. The dark blue dress I wore was designer and hugged my curves like a second skin. My light blonde hair was hidden under a shorter brunette wig. I looked every bit like I belonged as I made small talk with the other guests. It looked as if I was just here for the party, but I wasn’t there to celebrate. It was a mission. Nothing more.

Secretly, I watched and waited for my moment to strike. Nobody knew me. Hell, nobody really even looked my direction. I didn’t stand out in the sea of extravagant jewels and flashy dresses. I was nothing, and that’s what made me more lethal than the criminals around me. I didn’t look like the trained assassin I was, so it was easy for me to blend in with the other women who were just there for the festivities. There’s nothing deadlier than a wolf masquerading as a sheep.

When Azerov left the group of people he was talking to, making his way to the far side of the room, I followed discreetly behind him. He stopped to speak with someone standing by the door before glancing back at his fiancée, and then disappeared down what I knew was the back hallway.

I slipped through the door behind him, calling out quietly, "Ya nablyudal za vami." Four little words, spoken in a low, sensual tone to grab his attention. ‘I’ve been watching you.’ It worked. Azerov turned, his eyes on me, full of interest.

I gave him a seductive smile as I walked toward him, throwing an extra sway into my hips. He’d been looking at other women all night without caring that this was his engagement party and his future wife and in-laws were in the same room, so it was no surprise when heat filled his gaze as his eyes raked over my body encased in my tight dress. He looked longingly at my full breasts, and then slowly lowered his gaze to the apex of my thighs.

And what have you seen? he asked me in Russian. Leaning his shoulder into the wall, he waited for me to get closer to him. When I was within arm’s reach, he cupped my hip, dragging me even closer.

I’ve seen enough to know that she doesn’t satisfy you. I placed a hand on his chest and tilted my head up to whisper in his ear, Not like I can. My lips barely touched his ear and I felt his body tighten with anticipation and arousal.

Who are you? he demanded, moving his head so that his lips were just a breath from mine.

Mila Kadstyn. I gave him a fake name, knowing he would never have time to use it. I went to school with Katia. Leaning closer, I whispered, I hated her.

He raised a brow at my answer. Then why are you here?

To seduce her fiancé, I said simply. He grinned, his eyes darkening with piqued interest. As I suspected, there was no love between the two. I was about to do Katia the biggest favor of her life, and she would never even know.

I leaned in and kissed him softly, my nails digging slightly into his chest, before I pushed him toward the bathroom door that was near him. The fool was laughing and grinning as if he’d just won the lottery. He had no clue he was about to take his last breath.

When we made it into the bathroom, I slipped behind him, gliding my hands over his shoulders and arms. Look in the mirror, I said as I trailed my hand around to his chest, and then down toward the front of his tuxedo trousers, easily distracting him with the promise of sex. Just before I reached his hardening cock, I used my right hand to slide the knife out of the sheath on my thigh, and before he could react, I dragged the dagger swiftly across his throat, severing his artery.

He didn’t have time to make a sound. Blood squirted toward the mirror, hitting both it and the wall beside it in crimson pumps as his heartbeat slowed. I let his body fall to the floor, dispassionately watching the life fade from his eyes.

I waited a few more minutes before I turned on the water. I washed my knife first, and then my hands, watching as blood stained the sink, tinging the water a light shade of pink as it removed the evidence of what I’d done. Sighing, I placed my knife back in its sheath and glanced one last time at the still, lifeless body on the floor. I felt no remorse for my actions. I didn’t necessarily enjoy taking lives, but the bastard deserved to die. Demetri Azerov was evil through and through. He deserved a fate much worse than the painless death I’d just doled out to him.

Before I left, I locked the door from the inside. The hallway was thankfully clear, and I headed back for the ballroom and the terrace doors. My mission was complete. If they took each other out, that would be great, but at the very least, I stopped the merger of the Ruzetki and Volkov crime families.

Once I was on the grounds, I made my way to the parked cars. My borrowed limo was among the rest, so I discreetly slid into the darkened backseat and changed clothes. When the guards at the gate saw the uniform, they wouldn’t question anything. I was just another driver taking a guest home.

Soon, I was back in my hotel room and the short-haired brunette that went to an engagement party and killed a man was no longer anywhere to be found. Instead, my long, light blonde hair hung loosely down my back. The wig was at the bottom of the Volga, along with the blue dress and the dagger I’d used to slash Azerov’s throat.

Knowing that I needed to check in, I grabbed the untraceable phone from my black duffle in the closet and dialed the same number I’d been dialing since I was eighteen and sent out on my first mission.

It’s me, I said, while stripping out of the uniform that would find its way into a fire before I left Russia.

Code name? His voice never failed to bring me relief after being sent on an assignment. I’d gotten to the point where I depended on that low, soothing timber.

Valentine, I murmured, knowing he already knew who I was.

It’s good to hear from you, V.

There was an edge of concern and relief in his voice, something I’d never heard from him before. What’s going on, Sentry?

He was silent for a moment before muttering, Word’s going around that we’ve lost someone, but nobody knows who. We’re waiting for all agents to check in.

I just took the life of a man and didn’t blink, hesitate, or think twice about what I was doing. But the thought of losing an agent gutted me because there was a chance it could be one of my