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)
“Go ahead. She already likes you better than me,” Kai murmured.
“That’s because he’s adorable, and you don’t deserve him,” Mother instantly shot back. He didn’t need that reminder at all. It was clear to him that he didn’t deserve Dev’s kindness or compassion, but he was still going to do everything within his power to keep the man safe.
“I’m not sure I agree with any of that, but I’ll just let it be.” Dev launched into a succinct recap of everything that had happened to him, from discovering the body in his bathtub to arriving on Mother’s doorstep.
Mother nodded and asked a few interesting questions as she poured coffee for the three of them. She set out creamer and sugar with their mugs. By the end, she was leaning against the center island, a ceramic mug with bright flowers in one hand and a frown on her face.
“I take it you don’t know of anything helpful,” Kai stated after nearly a full minute of silence.
She slowly shook her head. “Not that I can think of off the top of my head. These deaths are obviously linked to you and not Devlin.”
“Yes, but the bodies are left for him to discover and not me.”
Mother hummed. “True. The threat is for both of you, but as to why this person has focused on Devlin, I don’t know. That is likely a very personal answer, and I don’t know that many secrets about you.”
Kai narrowed his gaze on Mother. “I prefer to think that you don’t know any secrets about me.”
She snorted and took another sip of her coffee. “We both know that’s a bunch of horseshit.”
A shiver of fear gripped his heart, but he did his best to shove the worry away. It was irrational. They’d come to Mother because she knew what happened in his little piece of the world. It was only natural for her to know things about him.
“What’s the feel in our world? Any interesting gossip or murmurings?”
Mother set her coffee mug on the island and crossed both of her arms over her chest. She looked up at the ceiling and released a slow breath while possibly searching through the database of her brain.
“Well, no one likes you,” she started.
“Wait a minute! That is not true!” Dev barked out. He placed a hand on Kai’s shoulder and moved as if he were going to climb to his feet.
The fear that had wrapped around his heart melted at Dev’s instant defense. He placed his hand over Dev’s and smiled at the man. “It’s okay. I know it’s true. She’s not telling me anything new.”
“But it’s not true. I like you.” He blushed beautifully and pressed on. “Justin and Gabriel like you too.”
“Not killing me does not necessarily mean that they like me.”
“It does help, though,” Mother tossed in. “Of course, having the Reaper and Chameleon on your side doesn’t exactly win you any popularity points. No one is happy those two have teamed up.”
Kai sighed. “They were supposed to be retiring.”
Mother laughed. “If they did, it lasted all of a week. All the expensive contracts are going to them and Ghost. It’s also gone out that you three went after other contractors when Devlin’s contract was live.”
“That rat bastard put out a hit on an innocent man!” Kai snapped, but Mother just stared at him.
“Yeah, because that’s never happened in the past,” she replied drily.
Kai looked away, uncomfortable under her piercing gaze. She was seeing too much. He needed to control his tongue when it came to Dev. He’d come to her for information, but he was tossing out interesting and dangerous bits about himself left and right.
“Getting rid of your competition isn’t anything new,” he muttered. It wasn’t something he did frequently. He was content to send a warning if someone got in his way, but it wasn’t often that someone got between him and his target.
“No, but it’s not helping you.”
Kai shook his head. “A general dislike for me isn’t reason enough to target Dev. I can’t imagine how any of them know about Dev or my continued association with him. What else do you have?”
Mother opened her mouth and shut it again, her eyes darting to Dev. What had she been about to say before she’d censored herself at the last second? Probably something about how he needed to stop associating with Dev for the man’s own protection.
“There isn’t much of interest to say, really. Russia is still in disarray following the death of Nicolai Krestyanov and a large chunk of his network of killers. Without him there to ride herd on all of them, a flood of Russian assassins with outdated skills have hit the market. There have also been a handful of newcomers recently looking to make a name for themselves. They’re all lazy, sloppy, and egotistical. Fucking kids.”