The Laughing Assassin [Assassin's Diary] (Siren Publishing Classic) by Jennifer Willows Read Free Book Online Page A

they would go rock climbing in the dark.
    Then when they made the summit, they would make a small campsite and ride the night out in the wild. When they left in the morning, Kris would have to climb back down in the dawn light. They could then run the three miles back to the Jeep and head back for their luxurious day of girl pleasures.
    The trip to Stone Mountain would take a few hours. She was borrowing a plane complete with pilot from a friend of a friend, and they would parachute to the ground and hike to their rendezvous point before they would get to actually work out. All in all, if Kris wasn’t a whiner, they could have a great night. Then in the morning, she would be able to drive back to town in the Jeep she requested for delivery by seven.
    Kris did complain, quite a bit, but after a while she got the point that Jaden wasn’t playing. Either she got with the program or her feelings were going to get hurt. Kris wasn’t going to get the chance to tag along on an op if she refused to move past the discomforts of her own body. If nothing else, Kris really wanted to work on an operation. It was all the girl spoke of after she learned what Jaden really did. She took to everything else like a duck to water, but the physical part of operation was paramount. It didn’t matter how well she could shoot if her gun was a liability in a situation.
    What if Kris couldn’t shoot her way out of the problem? Then what could she do?
    Jaden felt that it was imperative to make Kris understand that she needed to be able to fight for her own life with every dirty trick the world could offer her. If every problem could be solved with a bullet, then Jaden had shot enough already to murder every bad guy on earth three times over. But more often than not, she found that she couldn’t solve things with brute force. It took finesse and planning. There was no need to waste time with bullets when a knife was silent and more efficient.
    Jaden had done it all and then some.
    “I hurt, Jaden.” No surprise, even Jaden’s fingers felt a bit raw from her climb up. But then Jaden refused to use anything to facilitate the trek either.
    “Kris. Originally, I told you that life with me would be hard, but if you wanted to stay, that you had to learn as much as possible about what I know. There is a reason for that. My life is one of physical trials and tribulations, Kris. I kill people without remorse and live to laugh another day. Anyone in my life, by default, has to be just as strong as I am. I can’t afford to have any weak links in the chains of my world. I would give my life for you.” She paused to look Kris in the eye and see that she understood before she would continue. “And you know it. But I refuse to let people hurt others, and that means that I am always at risk. If you’re too weak to take what I throw at you right here and now, there’s no way you could endure what someone who truly wants to hurt you could dish out. You know where the door is if you want to cry uncle.”
    The words were harsh, but Kris had to truly understand how imperative it was to either accept what life was for her now, or the girl would have to make her own way in the world.
    Kris was strong enough now to defend herself against any normal adversary. It was the abnormal ones that Jaden worried about and the reason she kept her fledgling close to the nest.
    Kris only rolled over in her bag and wept slightly, even though there was an attempt to muffle the sounds. But Jaden’s years of espionage had honed every sense well, and she heard the tiny sobs emerge from her charge’s throat before their subsequent burial. She knew Kris’s shoulders and hands had to be in major pain, but the only way to make her stronger was to work her.
    Better now when she was with someone that loved her, than at the hands of someone who would use her pain as a weapon against her. It wasn’t that Jaden didn’t feel the ache, but she had learned to ignore almost every