Just like Jinx the night before, the Andarion had been nothing like she’d expected from one of them.
They weren’t as cold and unfeeling as they seemed.
How hard was it for them to always have the air of detachment when they continued to have feelings? She knew from her own experience how much guilt came with every kill. How much grief.
No one was left unscathed.
What was it her father had always said?
Never take a life. The moment you do, two people die. The one you kill and the person you used to be.
She’d thought him an idiot. Until the day she’d killed her first man.
Even though it’d been in self-defense and done to protect her sister, it didn’t matter.
She carried his face and that moment with her every day of her life. It never went away.
The saddest part was that she’d do it again.
Anything to keep Jayne safe.
Family was everything. It was the only thing. Even when she hated them, like her father. Family was what got you through.
So she couldn’t imagine being like Jinx. Having no one to rely on. No one to protect and no one willing to protect him
But then there were a lot of things she couldn’t imagine. Such as what the Andarion had left for her.
Curious, she opened the backpack to find the uniform, link and meds he’d mentioned, but not much else. Toiletries and something that looked like it might be a religious item of some kind.
Maybe.
Her link buzzed, startling her. She glanced over and cursed as she answered it. “Jedi, you have got to stop making me jump out of my skin!”
“Sorry. I just wanted to make sure you were still alive.”
“I am.”
“Is the assassin awake yet?”
“Nope.”
He cursed. “We’re screwed.”
“Thank you, Lord Doom and Gloom. I’m going now.”
He continued to speak as she hung up on him.
“Where am I?”
That deep, resonant voice with its cadent accent sent a shiver over her. Somehow, it was a lot more powerful here in her home than it’d been last night inside the Hunting Ground. “My flat.”
Rubbing his hand over his face, Jinx scowled as if the light bothered his eyes. “Since I’m not dead and my wounds are bandaged, I’m going to assume I don’t need to kill you.”
She cocked her head at him. “Was that a feeble attempt at humor?”
“Given the amount of pain I’m in, I thought it was pretty good.”
Snorting, she dimmed the lights.
“Thank you.” Now that he could open them, she was stunned by their color. They were the clearest, most vibrant shade of cool steel blue she’d ever seen. “Bathroom?”
“That way.” She pointed to the door.
He rose slowly and without a bit of modesty, walked naked through her living room.
Okay then . . .
Apparently assassins had no shame or any kind of modesty. Of course, given how perfectly formed he was, she couldn’t really blame him. Last time she’d seen a body that well-made, it’d been artificial.
Funny how she hadn’t really thought about any of that last night when she’d peeled his battlesuit off to tend his injuries.
I was drunker than I thought.
Because how she’d failed to notice what a delectable ass he had on him was beyond her.
Damn, he was fine . . .
After a few minutes, he came out with his hair loose and damp.
“Would you like a towel?”
He stopped and scowled at her. “Pardon?”
Eve turned her gaze toward the ceiling even though she could still plainly see the whole of his incredibly lush, sexy body. “Just thought you might want something to cover up with.”
He expelled a deep breath. “Sorry. Been a long time since I was around civilians.” As he went to pull his battlesuit out of the pack, he stumbled.
Eve went to him without thinking.
Jinx couldn’t breathe as he felt soft hands on his flesh. For a full minute, he couldn’t move or breathe as her touch seared him.
“You okay?”
Swallowing hard, he nodded. “Yeah.” Now, he was as embarrassed as she’d been given that her touch had caused him to go instantly hard. Luckily, his suit covered it. “I just need a minute.”
And an ice cold shower.
To his relief and disappointment, she moved away.
Damn.
Thankfully, she turned around to face away from him so that he could dress and hide something she didn’t need to know about.
“So, what happened last night?”
He frowned at her question. “How do you mean?”
“The headless guy in the alley? I’m hoping he wasn’t a friend. If he was . . . not sure I should let you stay here for long.”
He snorted at her light tone. “Don’t worry. Friends, I bleed out fast. Don’t usually beat them before I kill them.”
She turned to face him with a slack jaw. “Joke?”
“Since I have no friends . . . yeah.”
“Because you killed them?”
Jinx gave her a droll stare as he fastened his collar. “Really? You went there?” He sat down slowly and grimaced. “You do realize, Evelita Itxara Erixour, that with the number of kills on your balance sheet that you’d only be one rank below me if you were a League assassin, right?”
Irritated, she held her finger up. “Okay, right there. It is extremely annoying that all of you know so much about me when I know absolutely nothing about you. How do you do that?”
He pulled his link out, aimed it at her face and then handed it to her. “That shows up on the lens of my left eye.”
She took the link, looked at the screen, then had to sit down as she saw basically her entire life laid out there. “Are you kidding me? I thought I was off-grid.”
“Most do . . . they’re not.”
On and on, the information went. “How much shows up?”
“Pretty much anything I want to know. Right down to the fact that you had a dog named Fritz when you were eight.”
“Shit!”
“Yeah.”
She turned it around to him and took his picture.
Nothing showed up.
“What the hell!”
He smirked. “We have a different database.”
“Can you access it?”
“One more rank and I can.”
Unbelievable. “So how do you see anything if you have all this info scrolling across your eye all the time?”
“We can turn it off and on as we need to.”
“Terrifying.”
He held his hand up and then tapped his ear. “Shadowborne.”
Realizing that he was taking a call, she didn’t speak.
“No, sir. I’m on target. Didn’t see anything last night.” He frowned as he listened to whomever he was speaking to. “No, I haven’t seen him. Last I heard, he was on assignment on Caron.” He listened for a few more seconds. “Yes, sir. Thank you.”
Jinx tapped his ear, then reached for his link.
She watched as he typed in something.
Then he tapped his ear again. “Hey, Sav. I know I’m right. Just got a call from Command looking for Sniper. Did Vem get him?” He stared at her while he listened. “Gotcha. I’ll be in touch.”