“Yeah, but I wasn’t expecting you to come visit.”
“What were you expecting?”
Eve paused as she realized that, for once in her life, she hadn’t thought something through. “You know . . . I was a little drunk. A lot of pissed off. Not thinking clearly, clearly. And . . . really didn’t go beyond the fact that there was a guy in the street, bleeding out.”
“That why you spent the night in your chair, holding your blaster in your lap?”
“Pardon?”
A sly grin curved his lips. “Jinx called right before he passed out. You barely got to him before I did.”
“Why didn’t you say something?”
“He was safer with you than me. I didn’t have anywhere to take him.”
“Lovely. So what . . . you just spied on me all night?”
“That’s a lot of what we do.” He picked the backpack up and offered it to her. “There’s medicine and a fresh uniform in there for him, along with a link that’s programmed to reach one of us.”
She hesitated at taking his pack. “Us?”
“Yeah. You don’t need our names. But if you need anything, let us know. Our numbers are programmed in. Hit one and one of us will answer.” He picked up the device that had buzzed earlier and the link. “This is Jinx’s checkpoint. It will go off at random intervals, with no rhyme or reason. When it starts vibrating, you need to wrap his hand around it. He’s left-handed. Then play his ID into it just like I did. Can you do that?”
“Sure. What happens if I don’t?”
“That alarm turns into a bunch of me, who will break in here and slaughter you both.”
She arched a brow. “Joke?”
“No. You miss check-in and Command assumes you’ve gone rogue. You go rogue and they will issue a kill warrant. When you’re as high-ranking as Jinx is, everyone wants to take you down because it’s an automatic rank advancement.”
“I thought you guys had a kill switch embedded in your brains.”
He snorted. “Myth. Sort of. They tried it a long time ago, but it didn’t go well for anyone. Enemies hacked the code and exterminated us at will. Doesn’t do a lot of good to have an army of trained killers when one switch can eradicate them.”
“Good to know.” She set the device and link down. “So, what happened last night? Did Jinx go rogue?”
“How do you mean?”
“I saw the other assassin in the alley. Why were they fighting?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about and I’m sure you didn’t see what you think you saw.”
Catching on to the fact that he was giving her a subtle warning to drop the subject, she took the backpack. “Got it.”
Sighing, he glanced back at Jinx. “We’re not animals, Evelita. In spite of everything, some of us still retain our souls.” He put his sunglasses back on and became instantly terrifying. “Oh and tell Serta–”
“Serta?”
“Jedidiah.”
She laughed at the reminder of Jed’s alias from last night. “You reallywerethere.”
“Yeah. Tell him that we know where he lives and sleeps. The League sees all.”
That would terrify him to no end. “You are evil.”
“Nah. I’m just savage.” And with that, he left so fast that she could barely follow.
