I’d liked it plenty until I’d gotten a call from contacts I didn’t want to deal with, who shoved my face in my past like they were giving me a swirlie.
“It’s okay,” I lied.
She patted my stomach. “We can go back early.”
“No,” I countered. “It’s fine.”
“It’s not if it makes you unhappy.”
I shook my head and reached over to cup her cheek. “You’re too good for me. Do you know that?”
“Wouldn’t say that,” she said sleepily. “We fit nicely together, don’t we? You’re the grouch and I’m cheery. Consider me your bodyguard.”
My lips twitched at her logic. “Why my bodyguard?” If anything, I protected her.
“I’ll save your food from being spat in by servers you’re mean to.” She pressed a kiss to my arm then patted my stomach again. “Bodyguard, see?”
Grinning in the dark, I flopped back on the bed. “I can see the use in having protection like that.”
“Better than a condom, that’s me,” she slurred before she fell back asleep.
I felt her drift off, turning slack at my side. She cuddled up to me before she rolled over. I almost pulled her back, liking the feel of her so close to me, but my phone’s screen flashed on from the nightstand.
Reaching for it, I hissed out a breath and carefully climbed out of bed once I saw the message.
Unknown Sender: **This is a secure line**
Jaw clenched, I strode toward the bathroom and tapped the number. A few clicks, and I heard a soft voice greeting me:
“Whistler.”
“Dead To Me,” I said grimly.
“Eagle Eyes,” she continued. “I’ve brought us onto this call to discuss what occurred the other day.”
“What’s to discuss?” Eagle Eyes snarked. “Two fuckers are worm food, and we all got paid for the same hit. Sounds like good business to me.”
I scratched my chin as I plunked my ass on the toilet. Though the others on the line were two of the best sharpshooters on the planet, I knew I’d killed the man. They used different bullets to mine, and I’d seen the aftermath.
Having studied their kills in the past, I got the feeling Eagle Eyes had made the other hit because Dead To Me’s shot had gone a little wide.
And by a little wide, I meant a half-inch.
In our business, that could have been a mile.
“You don’t think it’s weird that there were three snipers on two hits? This isn’t Grosse Point Blank.”
“Shit, I need to watch that movie again. I loved it back in the day,” Eagle Eyes said with a chuckle. “And no, we don’t have a union of snipers. Although that wouldn’t be a bad thing. Would stop us from cluttering up tiny Irish towns in the future, wouldn’t it?”
“My contact told me they were ECD.”
Dead To Me hummed. “Mine did as well.”
“Mine too,” Eagle Eyes confirmed.
“I thought you’d stopped this game,” I grumbled. “Married life and all that shit.” I’d attended the bastard’s wedding before the holidays, after all.
“Like you can talk,” he groused at me. “We’re both married—”
“This isn’t Jerry Springer either,” Dead To Me muttered. “What are we going to do?”
“What about?” I countered. “There’s nothing to do.”
I knew what she meant though. It didn’t sit well with me either.
Reaching up, I rubbed the back of my neck. “We need to agree to be honest here…” I paused. “None of us were told to target the other, correct?”
“No. My kills were the two ECD fuckers.”
“Same,” Dead To Me agreed.
“Okay, so this wasn’t the ‘Man’ trying to wipe us out.”
“Doesn’t seem to be,” Eagle Eyes concurred. “That’s why I don’t see what the problem is.”
“How did you get out of the Middle East alive?” Dead To Me grumbled.
“Had Lady Luck on my side.”
My lips twitched. “You mean me?”
“Well, if that’s the call sign you’re going by nowadays, sure.”
I almost laughed at that.
Eagle Eyes continued, “Those cheiles must have had a high profile target in mind to garner the attention of three separate agencies.
“My handler told me it was someone in the Irish government, and a US military target, but I don’t think anyone in the US is in danger from the ECD.”
Not after seeing Davidson’s face splashed all over the news this week because of the recent state dinner, anyway. Not with the Irish prime minister who liked the current status quo where Ireland was split into two separate countries.
Seemed like a BOGO to me.
Dead To Me asked, “Who were you with, Eagle Eyes?”
He explained, “The Israelis sent me.”
My brow furrowed. “Why would they do that?”
“Because I’m better than their best agent?” He sniffed. “Why else?”
I rolled my eyes. “So, the UK, the US, and Israel were all in league over this.”
“That has to mean something.”
“Not our business,” Eagle Eyes argued. “Why do you care now?”
Dead To Me grunted. “I don’t like the ECD.”
“Does anyone?” he snapped. “It’s not like hotdogs—you either love them or hate them, is it?”
While I agreed, I knew what she meant. “I think we’re in no position to try to figure this out.”
As was the way with our line of work, we didn’t see the full play until months or sometimes even years down the road.
I rubbed my forehead as I leaned over, a migraine starting to throb at my temples that was exacerbated by all the fucking noise in the background.
“Where the hell are you? What’s all that noise?” Eagle Eyes muttered.
Surprise had me straightening up. “You can hear that?”
“Sure can.”
“Yup,” Dead To Me agreed.
“We’re all on red alert,” I said flatly. “Eagle Eyes, whether you like it or not, you’re freaked out.”
He pshawed. “Yeah, if that makes you feel better, okay.”
He didn’t have to tell me dick—his hearing did that for me.
Hypersensitivity was something we lived with every day, but when we were on red alert, it made things a lot harder to handle.
“You ever find it hard to sleep at night?” Dead To Me asked.
“All the time,” I rasped.
“Just once, I’d like no dreams,” she said wistfully.
“I don’t see their faces.” Eagle Eyes cleared his throat. “Mostly, I remember other stuff.”
“Like what?” I questioned softly.
He sighed. “The exhilaration of it.”
“Yeah.”
I had to cringe because we were all anal-retentive overachievers.
Getting long distance shots was like a competition.
Didn’t matter that someone was going to become a corpse because of it. It was still exciting. And I’d been on Inessa like she was in heat and I was a goddamn dog when I’d arrived back here.