Deacon nodded. “We don’t normally work together. But Hammer went in beforehand, undercover. I’m damn good at gathering intel. I found our info and got it back to the client while Ice, I mean, Noel, did his thing.”
“Which is?”
Deacon smiled. “Be distracting. He made friends with the cartel’s leader, then broke him in half.”
“Okay.” Not something she wanted to think about Noel, being deadly while dating her friend. “So, Noel is Ice. Hammer is…?”
He regarded her for a moment before answering, “Destroyer. I’m Shadow.” His eyes narrowed. “It’s not something we talk about outside of work.”
“Who would I tell? Fiona?” Recalling her favorite three-year-old terror, Solene grinned. “She’d just tell everyone else then punch you if you upset her.”
“Oh, right. Fiona.” He seemed to relax. “No, she liked me. I’m ‘pretty.’”
“Pretty egotistical.” Solene shook her head. “And good at your own form of distraction. Okay, Mexico. Get to the part where Noel thought it was you or Hammer knocking up Little Dee’s mom. Do you guys like to orgy after a job well done or something?”
To her surprise, he flushed. “Hey now. It’s not like that. We’d just done the op and needed a break. So, we headed out to a small cantina and had a few beers together. Oh, and tequila. Good stuff. We aren’t the kind of guys who get rip-roaring drunk. The kind that do don’t live all that long.”
She nodded, still coming to grips with the fact that funny, charming Deacon was an honest-to-God assassin. So weird.
“Anyway.” He paused, looking uncomfortable. “The three of us partied with the ladies. Not all together, I mean, separately. I met a lovely woman. We hit it off, then she left before I woke the next morning. That was it.”
“So Little Dee could have been yours.”
“No.” He had a funny look on his face. “First of all, I always wear protection. It’s not safe without it. Second—” He stared at her, his expression serious, a hint of sadness in his eyes. “Second, it’s not likely I can have kids. I had some trauma when I was younger. So not gonna be a dad anytime soon.”
She felt for him, because for all that he tried to seem not bothered by it, she could tell that didn’t sit well with him. “If not you, then Hammer or Noel would have fathered the boy. Except according to the DNA tests Noel got back, none of you are the father.”
“Which makes sense. We’re pros, and we’re all extremely careful about stuff like that. This woman picked Noel for a reason. I mean, she mentioned him and Mexico in the note. Noel sees the kid, does the math, and realizes we were all in Mexico when the kid was conceived.”
“So logically, your Mexico operation with the drug cartel should give you the name of your enemy.”
“I kind of likenemesisbetter. Enemy is so boring. Nemesis has flare.” He winked at her, light-hearted, charming Deacon back to stay.
“Hello, sidetracking.”
He continued, “We thought the same, trust me. Jonas Hood is the first guy we thought could be behind it all. One of us who went squirrely. But he died during the raid. The only other guys genius enough to get to us or having the connections to get so close are ex-Business types.” At her look, he explained, “Contractors.”
Assassins. “Right.”
“We made a list: Jonas, Burleigh, Egorov, and maybe Butch. But Burleigh’s tied up in India. Egorov is in prison in China and isn’t getting out anytime soon. And Jonas and Butch are dead. We hit a wall. We had to have missed something with these four. So we’re looking into them again.”
“I still can’t believe you only have four guys on your list. I’d think dozens want you dead.”
“I know, right? Should be more like a hundred.”
“At least.”
He crossed his arms over his chest, bringing her attention to his impressive physique. Unlike Noel, who looked a lot smaller than he actually was, Deacon appeared buff and muscular. Not weight-lifter large like Hammer, but lean, powerful, and commanding, like a sports or fitness model. He could have made a fortune covering magazines. Talk about some fine shoulders, arms, thighs…
She blinked when he cleared his throat, forcing her gaze back to his face. “What?”
“If you’re done making me feel like a piece of meat, how about tuning into the conspiracy theories?” He smiled at her heated face. “Aside from who’s trying to take us all out, we have the mystery of Little Dee, the locket, and Angel—the name on the locket. That’s what we’ve been tasked to investigate while we’re away.”
“Tasked by who and when?” It was on the tip of her tongue to sayNoel’s not the boss of me. But she refrained from sounding like a five-year-old.
“Please. You know who. Noel might act like he’s happy to play with his tomatoes and put the Business behind him, but he’s one controlling bastard.” Deacon sounded complimentary. “He called me this morning before I got on with Hammer.”
Solene refilled their mugs with the sludge he called coffee then joined him at the small kitchen table, aware they sat close enough that she could see his irises in detail; their deep brown rings had hints of green when the light hit him just so.
