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"How about we sneak off and get to the end bit of this?" he suggested. He gave me a wink to show he was joking. For some reason, I sensed he was harmless. No, harmless wasn't the word. Just… less likely to rape me. That didn’t mean I lowered my guard. Not for a second.
"What would the boss think?" I nodded towards Dagen. He was watching the trees intently, obviously enjoying the idea of his men killing Ben and Hutton.
The guy shrugged one shoulder and ashed his cigarette on the grass. "He doesn't pull my strings. He just pays me to do a job once in a while."
I looked more closely. He wore a long, black leather jacket. His neat beard held a sprinkle of grey. His dark hair was pulled back, the top tied in a ponytail. I guessed he was around the same age as Jake.
"Lucifer Fisher," I said.
He gave me a half bow. "In the flesh. And you're Ivory."
I didn't need to confirm that he was right. Who else would I be? "What is an assassin doing here?" I presumed he hadn't come to kill me. Or take part in the hunt.
"Would you believe I came to the area to surf?" he asked.
"No," I said simply. My attention was half on the conversation and half on feeling Ben run. The bush was thick, and it was slow going. What slowed him down also slowed down his pursuers. I tried not to let my fear for him bleed out into the bond. Now would be a really bad time for him to be distracted.
"They said you were smart," the assassin said approvingly.
I cocked my head at him. "They said you were stealthy. But here you are, standing right in front of me."
"If I didn't want you to see me, you wouldn't," he said. "Being an assassin is a lonely job. Sometimes I like to have a conversation with someone who's not…" He nodded towards Dagen.
"An asshole psychopath?" I guessed.
He chuckled softly. "Something like that. Some of us aren't happy the Onyx Ridge pack's name is being sullied by an alpha who doesn't have all of our best interests at heart."
That surprised me. Not that he was thinking it, but that he would come out and say it with Dagen standing a few metres away. Not to mention his goons who were even closer.
"Those are brave words, Lucifer Fisher," I told him.
"Call me Luca," he said. "I'm not scared of Alistair Dagen. I'm much more scared of you." He gave me a lopsided smile and pulled out another cigarette. He offered me one before lighting his.
I shook my head to decline the offer. "Under most circumstances, I would suggest it's wise to be scared of me," I said. Anyone with any sense should be. I had a long memory and a lot of resources. "I seem to be slightly disadvantaged right now."
"A situation I'm sure you will remedy before too much longer," he assured me. He took a long draw on his cigarette. "Alistair's dislike of women means he tends to underestimate them."
This assassin seemed to have more faith in me than I had in myself. It was strangely gratifying.
"I'm starting to think you know something I don't," I said. "If the black wolves are planning a coup, you have my full support."
Luca looked amused at that. "If we were planning anything, would I tell you? At the end of the day, you're still the enemy."
I thought about that for a moment. "Sometimes we end up in bed with people we don't expect to end up in bed with. For mutual benefit."
He nodded and dropped his cigarette butt to the grass. He put it out with his heel. "So if any of us were planning anything, you would help if it was to your benefit?"
"I might be persuaded," I agreed. "Whoever replaced the current asshole would have to be an improvement. Would it be you?"
Now he looked surprised. "Me? Gods no.” He laughed. “No black wolf in their right mind would follow me."
"Why not?" I asked. "They follow him. Surely he is the bottom of the barrel, not the top."
Luca shrugged and pulled out another cigarette. "He has a lot of support because of who his parents were." He looked at me like he was suggesting that was the reason people supported me.
"Sometimes parentage is a good reasonnotto follow someone," I said dryly. "No one could claim my parents were saints. My father had more mistresses than he had hair on his head. My mother was… Let's just say she wouldn't have won mother of the year." She was distant at best.
"And you've risen above all of that," Luca said.
