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  To Catch a Bandit

  This Is Bandit Territory Series

  Emma Dean

  TO CATCH A BANDIT

  THIS IS BANDIT TERRITORY SERIES

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Copyright © 2019, 2020 by Emma Dean

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, locations, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Contents

  Author’s Note

  1. Emily

  2. Emily

  3. Emily

  4. Jace

  5. Emily

  6. Emily

  7. Emily

  8. Ben

  9. Emily

  10. Emily

  11. Emily

  12. Emily

  13. Aiden

  14. Emily

  15. Emily

  16. Emily

  17. Chance

  18. Emily

  19. Emily

  20. Emily

  21. Jace

  22. Emily

  23. Emily

  24. Emily

  25. Emily

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  About the Author

  Author’s Note

  All of my paranormal books exist in the same universe. The more you read the more you see familiar faces. You don’t need to read them in any particular order, or to know any others before starting any of my series or standalones.

  Timeline note: This can be read even if you’ve never read anything else, but it takes place after The Chaos of Foxes series, and before the University of Morgana series, during the winter of 2018-2019.

  Another note: the first book in the Madness series has not yet been released (as of Feb 2020), but it takes place before To Catch a Bandit. The second book in the Madness series will take place after To Catch a Bandit events.

  Join my group for the spoiler thread of this book!

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  <3 Emma

  1

  Emily

  Harbinger of death.

  Trickster.

  Portent of evil.

  Messenger of prophecy.

  Assassin.

  Raven.

  Emily was everything they said and more. She was a raven assassin.

  And she was damn good at her job.

  Checking the coordinates again, she adjusted the rifle ever so slightly. Per the intel she’d been given, her mark would walk right across the path up ahead. It would be easy as pie to take him out.

  Her first job alone. It was a huge risk, but also an honor.

  Usually raven shifters only hunted in a pair or a trio. It was easy for them to get trapped if they were alone, and then they’d end up leashed and bound to a witch or a demon. There were many out there who would love an assassin to do their bidding.

  But Emily was good. She was better than good and they would never enslave her.

  Five more minutes.

  Nothing more than a fuzzy picture of her mark. No name, and no paranormal race listed. Emily had taken the job anyway and looked forward to the challenge. She almost hoped it was a cat shifter. She’d never taken one of those down, and they were fast as hell. It would definitely be something to tell the others when she got back to the eyrie.

  The forest around her went on as usual. It moved around her utter stillness like a river around a rock. The birds chattered and sang. The wind rustled the leaves and the day was warm despite the autumn weather edging into winter.

  Cracking one side of her neck and then the other, Emily checked the time on her Rolex.

  Two more minutes.

  Being an assassin was supposed to be the highlight of her existence. She’d worked her ass off her whole life for this position after all.

  The ‘best assassin’ title in their flock went to Corbin though, her childhood nemesis. They’d been competing all their lives and she would topple him from that position if it was the last thing she did. Emily refused to be second best.

  One more minute.

  But her drive to be best wasn’t what had her doubting her future.

  It was an incident that happened a few months back. Her flock had gotten involved in some witch business and somehow, she’d ended up having to give a fox shifter a token – a favor he could ask of her at any time.

  Emily thought about that night a lot, and the way that fox’s eyes had been dead inside, just like hers every time she looked in the mirror.

  It was the first time she’d started to question her life and what she was doing with it.

  Any second now.

  Pressing her eye to the scope, she waited patiently. One and done, a quick shift, and she’d fly out of here. No one would be the wiser – untraceable.

  Emily had never expected to ever see that fox again, at least not until he called in that favor. Then somehow, she’d ended up at the same Samhain Ball he was at – because he was mated to a witch of all things. His eyes hadn’t been dead then, but alight with an inner fire that followed that red-haired witch everywhere she went.

  It was the same ball where she’d acquired the shiny Rolex on her wrist.

  Emily didn’t like thinking about that night if she could help it. She would never see those guys again, and good riddance. Men like that were the downfall of ambitious women everywhere.

  There.

  Emily watched as her mark stepped onto the path she’d been told he would be on, at precisely this moment, and waited for him to turn around before taking the shot.

  Something about the way he moved made her wary.

  When he turned, she froze for the first time in her professional career.

  “Jace,” she whispered, the Rolex on her wrist suddenly heavy.

  Emily had honestly thought she would never see him or the other raccoon shifters ever again after Samhain. She’d woken up in her hotel room alone, only the Rolex on the nightstand to remember them by.

  “Emily?” Jace called out, adjusting his glasses slightly. “You know I’ve terrible eyesight, but I can smell you.”

  Without a word she dropped from the tree and aimed her rifle at the spot right between his eyebrows. “Hello, Jace. Fancy seeing you here.”

  There was no one else at this location at precisely this time. Jace was her target, and her mother had specifically kept that detail from her. Why? Was this some kind of test?

  But more importantly, where were the other three?

  “Here alone?” she asked, watching his every movement – his every breath in case he tried to run.

  “Wouldn’t you like to know.” The raccoon had the audacity to slip his hands into his pockets and grin at her. “You look good. I didn’t think you could top that dress you were wearing at the witches’ New Year, but something about you pointing a gun at me makes my dick hard.”

  Emily bared her teeth at him to hide her smile. She remembered why she liked Jace, even if she couldn’t feel it at the moment.

  She should just take him out, but there were too many variables. Who else was out there in the forest with them? Where were his other cohorts? Emily could take on Jace, but she wasn’t sure about all four of them.

  And then there was the other issue.

  Did she want to take him out?

  Emily had a contract. This shouldn’t be a fucking debate.

  But she remembered how it had felt to be with him – with
the others. Emily couldn’t feel any of it now, but she remembered. For some reason she hadn’t been able to bury that memory and forget it like she had all her other hookups.

  What would she choose to do if she turned her emotions on? The idea that she might choose something different made her hesitate. Emily knew who she was when she allowed herself to feel, and when she shut that shit off.

  They weren’t the same person.

  Emily slid her finger onto the trigger and breathed. This was just a job. She wasn’t going to let some tryst ruin her first solo mission.

  “I admire your dedication to your work,” Jace said, smiling slightly. “The fact that you don’t give a single shit about our past right now makes me more attracted to you, if that were even possible.” Then he looked at the Rolex hanging from her wrist. “Did you keep it because it was shiny?”

  Before she could respond, someone else popped out of the trees and she threw a knife without even thinking.

  “Holy shit,” Aiden muttered, hands up. Her knife was embedded into the tree behind him, not even a centimeter above his hair. “What is happening right now?”

  “Don’t move,” Emily instructed. “Or I won’t miss the second time.”

  “This lovely raven is trying to decide whether she should go through with the contract she took and kill me.” Jace pushed his glasses up higher on his nose and that smile widened ever so slightly. “Or perhaps not.”

  Emily didn’t like the way her body reacted to Jace. Even without emotions she could feel the chemical reaction of his close proximity. Suddenly her clothes were too tight and her skin felt feverish. There was a pulse in her clit that demanded she do something.

  Jace was tall and muscular with shaggy brown hair that had a tendency to fall into his eyes. They were an average brown, but it was the way he narrowed them at her. It was the strength radiating off of him in every movement.

  He could easily take her down.

  If he really wanted to.

  “Emily?” Aiden seemed confused and he was still just as adorable as before.

  Aiden was probably her favorite despite his gentle nature. Rather, she remembered him being her favorite.

  His wavy brown hair, that was just shy of curly, and his green eyes were to die for. Even if he was only a few inches taller than her and didn’t fit her usual ‘type.’ But that wasn’t what made him special; what made him special was that smile of his that lit up an entire room, his goofy laugh, and the way he always tried to keep the peace.

  She would kill Jace without question, but never Aiden.

  Aiden’s life, or rather his death, wasn’t what concerned her though.

  Her contract had said one target.

  One assassin.

  But here was a second target, or potential enemy, which should have been in her debrief.

  “What are you going to do?” Jace asked as his smile widened. “I doubt you have much time left to decide.”

  He knew something she didn’t which entered in even more variables.

  She should just take the shot and leave.

  A crack went through the forest like a whip and Emily flinched.

  But she hadn’t pulled the trigger.

  Aiden looked down at his chest, blood blooming on his white shirt while she watched with a strange detachment – still emotionless. Emily knew she should be panicking, she should feel horror.

  After all, this one was her favorite.

  Aiden had been shot, but not by her.

  Which meant another assassin was hiding in the trees.

  2

  Emily

  Ben and Chance, the last two raccoons in this strange little group, appeared out of nowhere and stepped out of the trees like ghosts. They knelt next to Aiden as the smell of blood seemed to permeate the entire forest.

  Emily had to focus.

  There were other assassins in the forest, and she hadn’t been informed.

  Emily dropped to one knee, spun around, and aimed her rifle up at the source of the shot based on the trajectory and where it had hit Aiden.

  Through the scope she saw a fellow raven she recognized. But not from her flock.

  Without hesitation she took him out and he dropped to the ground like a stone.

  If there was a hit on two of the raccoons, there was no doubt one on all of them.

  She ignored the shouting of the raccoons behind her and stood. She scanned the trees for more assassins.

  What she was going to do about Jace, she still hadn’t decided yet, but the other three weren’t hers to kill.

  Had their deaths been promised by her flock, as Jace’s had been?

  Damage control was laughable at this point, but Emily needed all the information before she could figure out what to do about this new problem.

  “What the actual fuck is happening right now?” Chance demanded, gripping her shoulder to turn her around.

  She didn’t budge despite his strength. Emily gripped his wrist with one hand; the other still held the rifle up. She twisted as she moved, keeping her eye to the scope as she searched for the other assassins. Chance grunted his pain as the position forced him to his knees.

  “I like you better this way,” she stated.

  There.

  This one was from her flock, but thankfully she didn’t like him very much.

  Emily hesitated though. Killing a raven from another flock was one thing. It would be easy enough to say he’d interfered with her contract. But one from her own flock?

  If she killed him it would cross a line she wasn’t sure she wanted to step over. They could declare her a liability; label her as a traitor if she couldn’t spin the story right.

  The punishment for treason was to strip her of her flight feathers and drop her over the side of the eyrie. Her body would shatter when she hit the ground – the worst way for a raven to die.

  Was she ready to risk that kind of punishment?

  “You like me worshipping at your feet?” Chance spat. “How typical.”

  She looked down at him and remembered the way he’d felt inside her, but Emily didn’t feel anything for him at the moment. Only what she remembered of that night – the painful melancholy of knowing something was over before it even began.

  She should have erased those memories from her mind when she’d had the chance.

  Chance’s blue eyes were sharp, and he still had a buzz cut that suited his jock-face well. It highlighted his cheekbones and the tanned skin. Every muscle was there for a reason, but it still made him beautiful.

  “You should worship me,” Emily told him.

  These males were too beautiful. It made them dangerous.

  Ben and Jace were desperately trying to patch up Aiden and she could smell the blood, acrid and bitter on the air. The wound was bad even with shifter healing and it didn’t look like the other two knew what they were doing.

  So, what was she going to do?

  Should she save them, or kill them all and be done with it – no more loose ends?

  Emily considered her rifle and the male at her feet as time seemed to slow.

  Her entire life she’d thought she’d belonged as an assassin. She’d spent every waking moment becoming the best of the best. No one in her flock could hold a candle to her skill.

  Well, all except Corbin. He had beaten her too many times. Enough she’d considered marrying him. It was what her parents expected after all. The two best assassins copulating to create more perfect assassins.

  But life as a raven had always chafed.

  Not the killing part, Emily quite liked her job and how good at it she was. No, it was the rest of it. The hollow lifestyle that kept everyone at arm’s length. It was the expectation, the societal norm for everyone to keep their emotions off at all times.

  It was suffocating and she felt like she was slowly dying every time she turned her emotions off again until she got used to it once again.

  But what did that mean? Where then, did she belong?

  Another sho
t rang out and Emily swiveled toward the first location and fired without getting a proper sight. The assassin fell from the tree. Without waiting to make sure she’d made the kill, Emily swung toward the location of the second shot.

  This time she had to aim. Mentally she winced as she recognized this one too. He fired before she did and Emily grunted as the shot hit her abdomen. She took it and fired.

  Burying the pain just like she did her past trysts, she focused.

  Her shot only winged his neck. He’d survive, but he wouldn’t be able to kill anyone else today. The sound of the body hitting the ground made her sigh as the accusations she’d get on her return ran through her head. Emily turned to Chance then. “Better start worshipping, I might just get you out of here alive.”

  “Emily,” Aiden said with a wet chuckle. “I knew you wouldn’t kill us.”

  She didn’t feel the fear she knew she would have if her emotions were on, but she didn’t waste time either.

  Pushing Jace out of the way, she knelt and inspected the wound.

  Emily refused to let Aiden die.

  She reached back and slipped the emergency med kit from her pack. It wasn’t a normal kit one might get in a store, but one built by assassins and supplied with magic.

  It didn’t take long to slap a bandage over the hole still leaking blood in his abdomen. “We’ll have to get the bullet out later. It’s not safe here.”

  “Yeah, no shit,” Jace muttered, kneeling next to her.

  It took half a thought to pull the pistol from her waist and rest the barrel against his temple. “I still haven’t decided what I’m going to do about you.”