Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 81358 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 407(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81358 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 407(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
“And Justin? Chameleon?” Dev asked, a slight tremble in his voice.
“You’ll never see him coming. He can blend in with anyone, anywhere. You will think he’s your best friend right up until he presses the muzzle to your temple. We avoid each other for good reason. The results are almost always deadly. No sane person would ever seek me out.”
“Oh.” That single syllable came out soft and choked.
Kai swore silently to himself. “Dev, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. Justin and Gabriel truly regard you as a friend. They’d never do anything to hurt you or Jake.”
“No. Oh, I know,” Dev murmured. He gave his head a little shake as if trying to brush away a deadly swirl of thoughts. “I…I’ve never seen you as scary. Sometimes you get a sort of scary look. I can sort of see why other people might see you as scary. But to me, you don’t feel scary. Even that first night, you didn’t scare me. Not really. Maybe it did make all of this less real in my mind. But listening to you talk just then, I caught a glimpse of it.”
Reaching out, Kai placed his hand on the center console and inwardly prayed. Without hesitation, Dev took his hand and something inside of Kai cried out with relief. “I don’t ever want you to be afraid of me. Be afraid of my world, of the people I must encounter, but not me.”
Dev wrapped his other hand around their joined hands and pressed kisses to each of Kai’s knuckles. “I’m not. I promise.” He took a deep breath and dropped back against the seat, still holding Kai’s hand. “Okay, so unlikely to be competition because you’re scary as fuck.”
Kai nodded. “That is a true statement.”
“How about someone linked to one of your former contracts? Maybe someone related to a target? Or a former business partner?”
“Unlikely. First, there’s the training issue. The second issue is that while that person might find out that I had the contract on the person they knew, it is almost impossible for that person to discover what other contracts I’ve taken. You’d have to be in the industry.”
Dev snorted next to him. “In the industry. Makes it sound like you should have conventions and unions.”
“Anyway…that information is hard to come by.”
“What about a handler? Specifically, your former handler. Maybe this person is pissed that you fired him? Her?”
Kai nodded. “Him, and that is a really good suggestion. He would be one of the few people who has a full accounting of the jobs I’ve taken in the past several years. Except…”
“Except what?”
“Except I heard a few months ago that he tried to screw over another assassin he took on as a client. It’s my understanding he’s dead.”
“Oh.”
“But that’s just the rumor. I have a few feelers out checking on it.”
“That has got to take balls or just plain stupidity to try to screw over a trained assassin,” Dev muttered.
“I think it was a little of both in his case.”
“What about…” Dev started and then broke off. Kai looked over to see him looking straight ahead, a frown pulling at his lips.
“Go ahead,” he nudged. He didn’t want Dev to ever be afraid to speak to him. He had a feeling in this case he was more worried about hurting Kai’s feelings than his life being threatened, though.
“Your family. Did you believe Kairi?”
“I did, but it doesn’t count them out. As far as she knows, no one from the family has been sent after me. That does not mean it couldn’t be someone acting independently of the family’s wishes.”
“So that leaves them in the possible category. Right now, we have another assassin, slim possibility of it being your former handler, and family.” Dev sighed heavily. “That is a really shitty list.”
“But a short one. There aren’t many assassins skilled enough to sneak about the way this person has. I am extremely skeptical of my handler, but he cannot be counted out yet. He may have hired out help. And my family, that keeps it limited as well. Few could do what has been done.”
“Well, there is one more option, but I know you’re going to laugh at me.”
Kai lifted an eyebrow. He couldn’t image what Dev might have thought up as a possible culprit that he might find funny. “I promise not to laugh.”
“What about an ex-lover?”
While a bubble of laughter didn’t rise up, Kai had to admit that it did feel like a ridiculous suggestion. An ex-lover? Sadly the first person who came to mind was Gabriel. They’d been together the one time and he’d also been an assassin, though relatively early in his career at the time, but they both knew that Gabriel wouldn’t be doing this to Dev. Not even in the name of trying to bring them together in a twisted sort of romantic meddling.