Page 140 of The Quiet Witness

Not the time to think about that particular oddity.

Lucien handed him the tumbler before sliding into his own seat with a good-natured grin spreading across his lips. “That’s one way of saying you’ve missed my company.” He tilted his head, taking a second to measure up the man in front of him.

Pale blue eyes stared back at him above a beige turtleneck sweater. Dark brown shining shoes tapped over the wooden floor in an easy rhythm. And his hair… painted light grey.

They might as well be black and white in the looks department. But Trey was something else than Max or even their employer. A worthy sparring partner in mind games and someone he could even consider calling a friend.

Lucien crossed his leg over the other, mirroring Trey’s relaxed posture. “What ruckus are we talking about? The usual?”

Trey’s foot kept tapping the floor. Tense. He tapped it again. Once, twice. Before answering his question. “You’re better off without her.”

Her, her, her. He could only mean… Kate. Lucien rested his arm on the chair. “If you’re trying to give me relationship advice, Trey. Save it, I’m still very much single.”

“I’ve seen her, Lucien.”

“You’ve seen… who?” He wouldn’t set foot on the trap his friend was setting for him.

But Trey shook his head, disappointment lining his burning blue eyes when they met his calm green ones, hissing. “Don’t treat me like a fool. We’ve known each other for far too long.” His friend moved to the end of his chair, clasping his hands together. “Max senses it, sniffs it like the bloodhound he is. But I’ve actually seen the contract girl hang around your place. Old friend, I don’t have to tell you how the end will be for both you and her.”

So it has begun.

Weight. There was a weight pressing on his chest. Only there was nothing physical to cause the sensation, nothing but the knowledge that the truth was finally out, how far had it reached?

Lucien pinched the bridge of his nose, allowing a frustrated sigh to slip past. “You’ve been spying on my house?” Sent here, he must have been ordered to do so by… Will.

All this time he had been counting on the strict rules of privacy, the code built up between them as high earning killers. But the reputation he had made for himself hadn’t been enough in the end. “Old friend?”

The leather creaked beneath Trey as he shifted in his seat, eyes dancing away for a second. “I was ordered to do so.” His guest took a deep gulp of the whiskey, taking the time to gather his thoughts before clarifying. “Max needed to deliver on information regarding the girl. He found none of course. You’ve made sure of that. But he managed to persuade Will to keep tabs on the house by… stationing me here. Max made the claim that if there was nothing you’ve been hiding, there would be no issue other than misused resources.” Trey winced at the word used to describe himself. “So, he sent me.”

Lucien shifted his attention to the wall, frowning at the tiny crack slithering over the paint, deepening into a bigger gap at the end of the otherwise perfectly white wall. I’ll have to fix that sometime soon.

Trey folded his hands together, demanding his attention. “But Lucien, our employer did promise Max there would be consequences to a false lead. As far as Will’s concerned, Max is buying himself time by shoving the blame on his right hand.”

It would become a game of cat and mouse… Whoever was the cat, that was to be decided upon. But for now, I need to let Trey ramble on, never skip on free information.

So Lucien remained silent, letting Trey fill the silence. And he did.

“Max possibly put his life in the balance by blaming you. So the conclusion could be drawn that he’s pretty damn sure of your involvement.” Another tap of those elegant shoes. “I didn’t want to believe it, until I saw her with my own eyes. She practically danced out of that car of yours. You’ve even… taught her to defend herself.” A heavy sigh escaped Trey. “Why, why risk your life?”

Watched us for two days, Max is at risk… I can make use of that. And Trey, he’s been the only one who actually saw Kate.

His guest wouldn’t be able to understand the why. He could only see obstacles while Lucien saw opportunities… Even though he’d nearly killed the girl that came prancing out of that car, the girl that had held on to her driver’s license like he’d given her a winning lottery ticket. Something he wouldn’t be able to attempt, not again.

So, he blatantly ignored the question. Shooting off one of his own, Lucien said. “I assume that’s your reason for coming here?” He steepled his fingers together in front of his face, weighing the odds. “A fair warning before you return?”

Trey sidestepped the question. “I don’t want to see you die for some misguided sense of responsibility. I know we are not the same as Max, not as bloodthirsty as that train wreck of a man… but the difference between you and me is recklessness. You let your heart guide you, Lucien. You always have. Perhaps it’s time to let the mind take over.” His guest stood up, stepping around the chair to end up behind it, hands clutching the backrest. Positioning himself further away from Lucien before delivering the final part of his speech. “You can’t hide her forever. To preserve the friendship I’ve come to value so highly, I’m asking you to take care of it. If you can’t for whatever reason… then let me take care of it for you.”

His friend knew him all too well. Over the years of working together, where Lucien had saved his life more times than he dared admit… Trey knew what he was capable of.

It was a shame really. Killing his old friend, if he could, would solve an issue but cause ten more. They knew Trey was tailing him. If anything happened to the man. No. Killing him would only put sparks to the fire.

Will at some point had been a killer for hire himself, had even taught Lucien the ropes. Trey, Max, himself. They all did the same dirty jobs, if anyone had death coming for them and deserved it. It was the four of them. Everyone but Kate. For he had told her a tiny lie, she thought he had slipped up with Ethan’s dad for what he had seen, truth was, Lucien had seen all that humanity was capable of. There was nothing really that could make him snap. Nothing except the girl. Or rather, the idea of her turning away from him in disgust. That image was enough to sent him slithering down a slope, unable to catch his fall.

Which left room for pretense. Something he was good with, according to the woman he was endangering his own life for. A shudder ran through his body. He wasn’t afraid of death, but facing it by Will after his betrayal. The idea of being strung up for days to receive punishment by Max’s eager hands, it was enough for his breakfast to make an appearance. Shoving down the sudden nausea, he spoke, calm, restrained. “If anyone does it, it’ll be me.”

Wood creaked beneath Trey’s impeccable shoes as he fidgeted in place. He raised his all-knowing eyes to Lucien’s. He’d seen Kate and him together, could put two and two together on what he felt for the girl. Still, his old friend uttered the words. “Perhaps the mercy you can give her is worth more than she ever would have received from anyone else.”

That’s what he’d told himself, too, until Kate had shifted his world around.