Then he tapped his ear again. “Hey, Sav. I know I’m right. Just got a call from Command looking for Sniper. Did Vem get him?” He stared at her while he listened. “Gotcha. I’ll be in touch.”
She waited until he’d disconnected. “You have to fill me in.”
He gave her a skeptical grimace. “I don’thaveto.”
“You know what I mean.”
“It’s dangerous.”
“I took home an assassin that another assassin tried to annihilate. Are you kidding me?”
Jinx hesitated, not sure if he should say anything. But she was right.
For what she’d done, her life was in danger already. Keeping the truth from her would only make things worse.
And for reasons he couldn’t explain, he wanted to protect her. To keep her safe.
“All right, I’ll trade intel for one thing.”
Now it was her turn to look skeptical. “That is?”
“You have anything to eat?”
She covered her face with her hand. “I’m so sorry. I should have thought of that. You must be starving.” Getting up, she headed for her kitchen. “I don’t get a lot of company.”
He glanced around her messy apartment. There were clothes draped everywhere and she’d had a pile of dirty underwear in the bathroom. “I can tell.”
She gave him a peeved glare. “You live alone?”
“In a barracks . . . with people trained to kill.”
She grimaced playfully. “Guess you guys try not to get on each other’s nerves, huh?”
He touched his finger to his brow and saluted her intelligence. “If you don’t mind your mess, we will, and you won’t be happy with the methods we use to train you.”
Eve cringed at the thought. Though his tone was light, she could only imagine the nightmare of living like that. “How old were you when you were conscripted?”
“Eleven.” He started to follow her into the kitchen, but she stopped him.
It was too messy and honestly, she was a bit embarrassed by it and the rest of her place. “My cleaning woman quit. Why don’t you sit at the counter and I’ll see what I have?”
“Did she quit or surrender?”
“You’re not funny. She actually had a baby and decided to stay home to tend her newborn.”
He arched his brow at that. “You trust a person over an AI?”
“Tough call,” she admitted honestly. “People can be bribed, but an AI can be hacked, so yeah. I’d rather have a life form I can kill should they betray me.”
“And you think I’m cold-blooded.”
She passed a side glance as she opened her fridge. “I never said we didn’t have anything in common. And lucky for you, I have enough things in here to make some breakfast.”
“But do you have any clean dishes?” He passed a sneaky glance to the pile in her sink.
That irritated her. “I will when I wash a few. So don’t be a smart ass.”
He held his hands up in surrender.
