Read Online Celt. (Den of Mercenaries Book 2) by London Miller - Free Book Online Page B

she had been in way over her head during that time.
    How quickly she had learned.
    “And you respected my wishes?” Luna asked skeptically. “Or were you following your brother’s orders?”
    “Does it matter if you got what you wanted?”
    It did.
    Not to him, maybe, but it mattered when she wanted others to respect what she wanted, and not just because of who her husband was.
    From the time she was fourteen, men had been telling her what to do, who to be, but she was no longer that girl.
    She was no longer a victim.
    “We were talking about Zachariah, yes? Let’s get back to him.” The last thing she wanted to do was further discuss Uilleam’s brother. She had spent the better part of six months trying to put him out of her mind, even if she hadn’t succeeded yet. “I still don’t understand what happened.”
    “He was a message,” Uilleam said, and for a moment, there was a flicker of guilt in his eyes, but it was gone moments later.
    “To you?”
    “Of course.”
    Luna leaned forward. “And what was the message?”
    “The Jackal hasn’t finished with me yet.”
    Having spent years with a man that easily maneuvered his way through the shadowy world they lived in, garnering more contacts than any one person needed, Luna had learned a great many things about the ghosts that plagued the Den.
    Once, the Jackal had only been a myth, even to the mercenaries under Uilleam’s control. He hadn’t always existed, at least not until Uilleam had started making plays that attracted enough attention that he became a target.
    Many, especially those that rivaled Uilleam and his family, feared the he was coming into too much power. It wasn’t the team of mercenaries he had, or at least that wasn’t the problem entirely. But coupling that with his family owning a number of banks around the world that entire countries were in debt to, his rivals didn’t like the power imbalance.
    It made them nervous that, one day, Uilleam would have them killed and take over their businesses.
    That was where the Jackal came in.
    Some said the man didn’t exist, that he was just a figment of someone’s imagination that was meant to inspire fear in Uilleam and those that followed him.
    But Luna knew the truth, perhaps a little better than most. So did the others of her team.
    A year-and-a-half ago, one of their own had gone up against the Jackal, barely escaping with his life, though he had ultimately been confined to a Siberian gulag that, officially, didn’t exist. They couldn’t even find the place.
    Then there was Uilleam’s run-in with the Jackal. Three bullets to the chest, but none had proved fatal, and after being examined by one of the doctors on his payroll, the man had speculated that the mysterious assassin hadn’t intended for any of them to be fatal.
    A message, Uilleam had said.
    “You think he’s the one that did it?” Luna asked.
    But she already knew the answer to that. Everyone else might have feared Uilleam too much to make a move against him, but whoever pulled the Jackal’s strings, they obviously didn’t.
    “Are you any closer to finding him?” Lucia asked next.
    “Closer? Yes. Have I found him? No. It’s a process, you know.”
    “And you think Elias is the answer for that?”
    Uilleam blinked. “I forgot you lot gossip like children. Tell me, have they sought answers from you yet?”
    “They asked, but I haven’t told them anything.”
    And she wouldn’t, at least not anything that she considered his private life. Like she had said, she wouldn’t betray his confidence because of everything he had done for her, but Elias, and anything having to do with the man, she would be reporting back.
    Luna knew what it was like playing a game without knowing who all was involved—she wouldn’t let them do the same.
    “Should I assume whatever I say will be offered to other ears?” He asked, resting his ankle on the opposite knee.
    “Depends on what you tell me,” she answered honestly.
    He studied