“I was worried about you, too,” Kit said quietly. It felt like a confession.
Darius stepped into Kit’s space. “Good,” he murmured, and leaned down.
Rather than shoving Kit against the wall, Darius held him in place with a light touch on his shoulder. Their kiss was steady, slow. Just as consuming, but entirely different. Kit inhaled, eyes closing, and let Darius calm him down.
He needed this. Soft lips and the scrape of stubble, callused fingers so gentle through Kit’s sleeve. Every perfectly balanced touch soothed Kit’s anxiety far better than household chores.
“What happened?” Kit asked when Darius let him go.
Across the foyer, Bishop stood with his arms crossed. If he had any opinions about Kit kissing James and Darius, he didn’t show them.
James waved a finger at Bishop. “Don’t get mad at me, but the target’s dead.”
Dead.
The word rocked through Kit. He had no idea how he was supposed to react, but all he felt was soaring relief. His body lightened as if chains had fallen away from every limb.
Bishop’s frown looked more disappointed than mad. “You killed him?”
“We both killed him,” Darius said. “He was a careless idiot, but he had better tech than us.”
James grimaced. “He killed my cameras. We didn’t have a chance of tracking him. Darius and I both had a shot, and we both took it.”
“It’s over,” Kit said dazedly.
“Like hell it’s over.” Everyone turned to look at Bishop—but Bishop’s sole focus was on Kit. “Who was he?”
Dread sank in Kit’s stomach.
James stepped between them, bristling. “Interrogate him after we clean up, okay? We still need to destroy the body, and Kit’s clearly exhausted.”
“Kit recognized the man in the photo you sent,” Bishop snapped. “Now that man is dead. I won’t pretend I’m sad about that, but I want to know who he was.”
Darius touched Kit’s shoulder again. “I won’t force you to say anything. But I’d like to know too.”
Kit moved away so he had space to look at all of them. So he had space to breathe. So he was closer to the door. All three menwatched him intently. These three men each terrified Kit the first time they met. At one point or another, he thought any of them might kill him.
Now, two of them had killedforhim. The revelation cut with a new kind of terror. Kit had never wielded this much power before. “First, tell me what happened with the drop-off.”
As Darius related the events of the past day, Kit nodded along. What baffled Darius and James made perfect sense to him.
Smith was a tech person. The bad strategy made sense. He didn’t get his own hands dirty, and he didn’t know to watch his back. As for looking at the photos of Kit’s corpse, but leaving them behind?
“Nobody else knew he wanted to kill me,” Kit said when Darius finished. “He needed to keep it that way, so he couldn’t afford to own any evidence.”
“How do you know that?” Bishop demanded. “Who was he?”
Kit buried his hands in his back pockets, to keep them from shaking. “His name was Smith, but that won’t help you find him. He was already a ghost before you killed him.”
Laughter broke through the room. Manic, sharp.
It cut through Kit’s throat, and he realized it was his. “Smith made my ID. I assume he ordered the hit because he regretted it.”
Darius swore under his breath. “What are you tangled up in, boy?”
“Nothing. Not anymore.” Kit laughed again. Relief cut far too deep through his defenses. “Smith was the only person in the world who knew I became Kit Byron. Now he’s dead. That means I’m the ghost now.”
Vision blurring, Kit staggered sideways. He slumped against the wall, then against a warm, solid body.
