Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 88487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
Shifting in his seat, West pulled his phone out of his pocket and thumbed through the security to retrieve the message. “Alexei’s handler, Marilyn, reached out to me with this sketchy contract that I thought might be worthwhile to dig into.”
Charlie’s expression immediately clouded over as he took the phone, but he didn’t glance at it. His dark-brown eyes remained locked on West’s face. “Why is Alexei’s handler contacting you?”
“You heard from Marilyn?” Alexei chimed in at almost the same moment, sounding both interested and excited.
“I’m not going the assassin route in my spare time, if that’s what you’re worried about,” West grumbled.
“The thought occurred to me,” Charlie murmured, still not breaking his stare.
West lowered his eyes first and rubbed the back of his neck. “I got to talking to Alexei’s uncles while they were in town. Told me about some of the types of jobs they started taking on after they were married. The types of things I do in my spare time.” West lifted his gaze to Charlie and waited. He didn’t want to say it out loud. It was embarrassing, even though he was pretty sure everyone knew about his side activities.
The guys would have jokingly called him Robin Hood. All the jobs he did in his spare time were to help people in need, with zero promise of being compensated. Sometimes they used his sniper skills, but more often than not, he was volunteering somewhere or building homes for the homeless. Not all that different than the kind of “helping the little guy” jobs they took as a team, but West needed something more to do all on his own. One more thing to wash the old blood from his soul.
Charlie grunted and finally lowered his eyes to the phone, only to have them snap to West’s face in twisted confusion. “Is this serious?”
“It is.”
“Alexei, are you sure you can vouch for this Marilyn?”
The “reformed” assassin untangled himself from his boyfriend and was on his feet in the blink of an eye. “What the hell are you talking about? Marilyn is the fucking best handler in the whole goddamn world! She was my Uncle Justin’s handler before he and Uncle Gabriel got together. She’s been working with them for at least two decades. She’s been my handler for the last couple of years. I trust her with my fucking life, so of course I trust her with West’s life!”
“Whoa there, baby.” Soren was right behind him, wrapping both of his arms around Alexei’s shoulders to try to gently rein in the bloodthirsty killer. “Charlie didn’t mean anything by it. He’s just looking out for West.”
Alexei huffed, still all bristles and seeming as if he were plotting different ways to torture Charlie for even insinuating that there might be something less than perfect about Marilyn.
“This is what Marilyn sent to West.” Charlie held up the phone and Alexei instantly snatched it out of his hands.
His bright eyes darted over the screen for only a few seconds as a “What the fuck” tumbled from his lips in French. “That…that’s just a fucked-up contract. Whoever put that out clearly has no clue what they’re doing.”
“But that doesn’t mean it’s not a real contract or that someone isn’t going to snatch it up,” West countered, stealing his phone away.
“For one hundred K? Are you shitting me? No one in their right mind goes after royalty for that pittance. All high-ranking government officials and public figures go for a starting price of ten million and not a single cent less. But a prince?” Alexei leaned into Soren’s embrace, allowing the taller man to hold him up as he rubbed his chin in a thoughtful manner. “I’d have to ask my uncles, but I seriously think one wouldn’t go for less than fifteen. Probably more like twenty.”
West glanced down to find that the screen on his phone had gone dark, but he could still see the words of the contract in his mind along with Marilyn’s words of concern for the island kingdom of Gaoxing as well as the young prince.
“I did a quick scan of recent political articles about Gaoxing and its government,” West began in a low voice. “Still a monarchy, and everything seems at least happy on the surface. Unfortunately, the emperor is gravely ill and not expected to live much longer.”
Charlie sighed and rubbed his forehead. “And this prince? Is he an only child?”
West shook his head. “No, he’s the oldest child. There’s a younger brother, but I’m not sure how he fits in the picture.”
“So, you could be looking at someone without a lot of money trying to make sure a horrible tyrant of a prince doesn’t ascend to the throne and become the next evil emperor of the world,” Alexei said, holding out one open hand in front of him.