Like the dining table.
But I wasn’t there to see it.
I tilted my head back and thought furiously. This trip was supposed to clear away any lingering bad marks from my ledger with Sloan. He’d been lenient with me when I didn’t deserve it, and I wanted to do a good job. And now I wanted to go home. So, I had to finish this mess, and I wanted it done as soon as possible.
And the only way to get something done right was to do it yer fecking self.
“I need to wrap this up,” I growled, and then I went on the hunt for Jamie. I found him in an office on the first floor with Corbin, glaring at a map spread out across a desk. I wasn’t certain what they were looking at, but they both glanced up when I entered the room.
Jamie straightened. “What—”
“I’m over this shite. What can I do to move this along faster?” I ran a hand along my jaw and winced at the rough bite of stubble on my fingers.
Corbin pointed at the map. “We want to make sure we’ve disrupted all the Reyes Cartel’s distribution points before we go. Make them set everything up again. It’ll take them longer to do that now that Joaquin is dead. Jamie and I were thinking we should interrogate Cunningham again.”
“Can’t hurt to try. I’ll go. I’m on it,” I grumbled.
“Ya taking Aspen for backup?” Jamie asked.
“No,” I snapped, then turned on my heel. “Give me an hour.” I was walking downstairs when Corbin scared the shite out of me by more or less materializing at my elbow. He gave me a long look and tipped his flat cap.
“Ye’re fecking sneaky.”
“I am.” He flashed a bland smile. “And with the importance of this information, we don’t need anyone working alone. We want to ask Cunningham if Joaquin had a second-in-command on the ground here.”
I shrugged and walked faster. Even with Corbin at my side, it felt a hell of a lot like I was working alone.
11
ASPEN
Slicingmy arms through the water, I swam hard. There was something nice about the Miami sun. It reminded me of the Virgin Islands when I went to visit family. The rays weren’t obstructed by smog that we choked on, which was one of the few complaints I had about New York City during the summer. Within five minutes of swimming in the pool, I could feel the effects of the vitamin D that I was getting from it. Not theDthat I wanted, but that was fine.
I hated that Cillian had me acting unreasonably. We were here for a job, but I was focused on him and his feelings toward me. Fucking was fucking, but this was something new, and it scared the hell out of me. It wasn’t like with Vail or Fallon because Cillian and I had known each other for a long time. We’d compromised and decided to share people together early on without so much as a word on what our relationship actually was. Iknewit had changed at some point and our feelings had grown deeper than we were willing to admit. I fucking hated that I was acting like... this. It was difficult to gather my thoughts about why I was so angry at him. What did it matter if Vail knew or not?
I wanted to beat my head against the pool’s edge when I reached the end and stopped, resting from swimming laps. Instead, I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.
“Does the water help?” Ardan’s familiar voice had a smirk sliding onto my face.
I opened my eyes and glanced at him. He leaned against the sliding glass doors that led out to the pool area. The sun glinted on his short brown hair and his black suit stretched nicely across his shoulders and had probably been handmade, and his deep blue tie popped. He had his arms crossed and a knowing grin on his face. It wasn’t often that Ardan smiled, so I had a feeling I would enjoy the reason he was here at the mansion.
I shrugged in answer to his question and pulled myself up and out of the water, then slid my ass onto the edge.
“Hm.” Ardan stepped forward, his shiny black shoes gleaming under the sun. He remained with his arms crossed and his posture straight—the perfect assassin. While we tortured and maimed to get answers, Ardan took out a target without them knowing he was there.
I raised my eyebrows in question, and he nodded.
“The early reports have been confirmed. No doubt about it, you took out a Reyes.”
Pride swelled in my chest and I let out a breath of relief. With it raining yesterday, I’d been worried. I’d hated the uncertainty of not knowing whether we’d gotten Joaquin or not, but it had been Jamie’s call to blow the building, and he’d told me to hit the detonator. I understood his reasoning, but it was one hell of a risk to take when we weren’t sure if it was Joaquin or not down there. I was glad the gamble had paid off.
I waved my hand at Ardan. “Where’s the Italian lover? You two are always together these days.”
He snorted. “Gabe and I don’t do every job joined at the hip. We’re more efficient if we do, but the boss sent me alone. Gabe’s doing something with Fionn and Daire. I don’t know what, but it’s got something to do with Elio Folliero.”
It made sense. Gabe, Ardan’s partner, was Italian like the Follieros, and having him at their side would make things easier, especially if Elio got mouthy in his own language. I didn’t know what was happening between Sloan and Elio, but the tension seemed to have risen over the last few months. Elio had lookouts watching us and that wasn’t a good sign between associates—even if it was smart.
“Do we get to go home?” I asked, hoping. Maybe if we returned to the city Cillian and I could go back to what we were before—casual fuck friends who shared Vail and Fallon but never banged each other. It would be easier than navigating these emotions that he’d dragged out of me the last couple of weeks, especially the irritation of what we’d done not being acknowledged to Vail, who wetriednot to lie to unless it was necessary for the job. Even then, we didn’t lie to him so much as just tell him we couldn’t keep him in the loop. This omission rubbed me the wrong way.
