Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 81358 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 407(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81358 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 407(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Kai nodded, and Devlin immediately warned his libido to settle down. Kai was there to keep him safe. Not for any kind of other fun. He probably wasn’t Kai’s type.
Was Kai into men?
He’d thought maybe he’d seen something in that other look. The one they’d exchanged in the hospital waiting room. Devlin had taken it as a look of longing and need, but maybe he’d been reading too much into it. The poor guy could have just been tired after lots of travel.
“Sure, but there is one condition.” Devlin paused for dramatic effect, narrowing his eyes on the man. “What’s your last name? All I know is that your name is Kai.”
A wide grin spread across Kai’s lips, and it was like being kicked in the gut. And then he spoke, “Smith.”
“Are you—” Devlin groaned dramatically. “Kai’s not even your real name, is it?”
The smile turned into surprising light and airy laughter. “Nope.”
Devlin started to join him in laughter when a new thought hit him. “Wait!”
Kai’s laughter turned into a deep chuckle. “Those aren’t their real names either,” he said, accurately reading Devlin’s next thoughts. Justin and Gabriel had seemed so right for their names.
“Freaking assassins,” Devlin muttered, making sure to smirk at the man seated in his kitchen. At the very least, it looked like his two-week vacation at home was going to be a little more interesting than he’d initially expected.
Chapter 4
Kai shoved a hand through his hair, pushing it out of his eyes while glaring at the computer screen. His back ached from bending over the cursed thing for so long. Nowhere. He’d officially gotten nowhere. A day spent texting, private messaging, and researching had turned up a big, fat nothing.
Yes, he’d managed to remove a few names from his list of potential culprits, but he’d found nothing to point him in the right direction.
Who the hell killed Truman Argent?
And why had they left the body in Devlin’s bathtub?
As far as he could tell, nothing tied the two men together. Devlin had never used Truman or his company for his investments. Kai had hated to ask, but Devlin readily admitted that he kept all his money in a local bank. He had some retirement savings in one of those big investment companies, but he didn’t have a dedicated financial manager.
There was a chance that Truman might have had some of his clients invested in the oil industry when Devlin’s invention was released to the world, resulting in a sharp decline in oil stocks, but so what? Most people invested in oil companies. Was Kai supposed to believe that an angry investor had killed Truman and expertly left him in Devlin’s tub as some kind of weird threat and, just as expertly, removed him before the cops arrived?
Kai shook his head. Very, very unlikely.
Then the only link that existed between Devlin and Truman was Kai.
But why Devlin? Kai had been in the business for nearly twenty years. What made Devlin so special? And how did this person know about Devlin in the first place?
Kai didn’t have any easy answers coming to mind. The only thing that he felt sure of was that he needed to remain close to Devlin. If this person could sneak a dead body in and out of his house without being detected, he could get far too close to Devlin for Kai to be able to rest easy.
Movement in his peripheral vision had Kai’s head popping up, his hand automatically sliding to the knife hidden in its sheath at his side. Devlin stood frozen in the open doorway, his fist raised as if he were about to knock on the doorframe. He swallowed audibly and drew in a shuddering breath.
“Sorry,” he whispered and then continued a little louder. “Didn’t mean to startle you.”
Kai shook his head, hating that he’d made Devlin feel unsafe in his own house for even a moment. “No, I was lost in thought.”
Devlin ventured a small smile. “I’m guessing not good thoughts.”
“Not really.”
“If you’re at a good stopping point, I made dinner. If you’re hungry…”
“Yes. Thank you. I just need to close some things. I’ll be there in a second.”
Devlin nodded once and disappeared, his footsteps hushed as they went down the hall to the stairs. Kai barely bit back a groan as he scrubbed a hand over his face. How long had it been since he’d spent time with another person who wasn’t a target? Way too many years. His skin crawled, and he found himself second-guessing everything that came out of his mouth, not that much was coming out. He didn’t even know how to talk like a normal human being any longer.
Kai locked down his laptop, packed it away, and dipped into the bathroom. He washed his hands and splashed some water on his face, trying to clear away the last of the cobwebs.