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“Yeah.”
“Liar,” he whispered and leaned in close. “But I swear to fuck you will be.”
Since he was close he sealed his promise with a kiss.
Not like the closed-mouth ones he’d given me in front of his team. Not like the wet and deep ones he gave me that made me wild. Not like the soft and sweet ones I got first thing in the morning.
This one was new.
Different.
A vow in the form of a really great kiss that took the top spot for the best kiss of my life.
TWENTY-FIVE
“So…Black.”
I glanced up from the report Kira had printed out on Patricia Sawiris. It was cursory; most of what she’d found I already knew, but there were a few tidbits in there I hadn’t uncovered, which made me wonder why I’d never asked Dutch to get someone to dig deeper.
“What about it?” I asked.
“What’s it like?”
This felt strange. First, being able to talk about my team, and second, sitting in Kira’s office with her like we were old pals. And that was exactly how she’d made me feel. Without hesitation she’d invited me back to her office instead of working in the conference room—a place she never would’ve allowed me to enter a week ago. Unlike Easton’s office, hers was decorated—her life in the form of pictures all over the walls. Her and her parents. Her and her brother Finn. All of them together. Her and Cooper. Snapshots of the guys goofing off, playing with Nerf guns in the middle of the office. Cooper and his brother. Tons and tons of pictures. Personal photos she wouldn’t share with me unless she was trying to make me feel comfortable.
“The team’s much different than what you have here.”
She closed the lid to her laptop to give me her full attention before she asked, “How so?”
I followed her lead and put the stack of papers I had in my hands on her desk.
“We’re more like Patheon than Silver Team. We work mostly alone or at least I do. I go in first, try to negotiate a deal. Most of the time that works and from there the situation’s monitored. If I can’t swing a deal, then I sit down with Dutch, give him the details. From there, he and Badger work out the rest. My part’s over and the team moves out.”
“The team of assassins.” There was no judgment or disgust in her tone.
It was a statement. A factual statement but still I gave my two-cents.
“More like peacekeepers. If a deal can’t be made, one side has to be taken out to stop a war from breaking out and more innocent people dying. But we don’t step in until it becomes obvious the conflict has become uncontrollable by local law enforcement, that’s when we contain the situation.”
“Zane said there’s another mediator,” she pried.
“There is. Two more actually. There are certain cultures that wouldn’t appreciate a woman calling men to the table.” Kira’s nose scrunched in clear distaste. It was cute and made her look younger than her years. “There are also jobs I won’t do.”
“Like what?”
Hostage negotiations.
I glanced at the picture of her brother proudly displayed next to her wedding picture. Her brother who had been beheaded live on the internet. Her brother who’d still be alive if it wasn’t for greed and treason.
Did it always come down to money and power?
I didn’t have to think too hard about the answer—yes, it always came down to money. And money bought you power.
What a sick and twisted world we live in.
“I’m sorry if I’m being nosy. I’m just still in shock Zane has the whole other team no one knew about.”
Why I felt the need to defend the sarcastic asshole I didn’t know. It might’ve had something to do with seeing a different side of him. I knew of Viper, everyone did. But I didn’t know Zane, the man. His loyalty was legendary, his years in service were still talked about and passed down like fables. If you were smart you knew to keep your distance and never tangle with one of his teams. But I had no idea under all of that was a man who loved deeply. His wife, his children, his brother, and his teams. Loved them in a way I didn’t know was possible. He wouldn’t die for one of them. He’d burn cities, he’d kill, he’d harm, he’d mark his soul straight to hell if it meant protecting them.
