Celt. (Den of Mercenaries #2)(60)

“That long? Why’ve I never met him, or have even seen him?”

No wonder no one had seemed concerned when he had shown up.

“It’s kind of funny actually,” Lauren said with a small smile. “I distinctly remember trying to set you up with Celt.”

Shortly before her honeymoon, Amber thought. The only reason she remembered was because Lauren had told her the man was a mercenary. And back then, after everything she had seen happening with Lauren and the boys, she didn’t think she was equipped to handle that kind of lifestyle.

And now here she was …

“I should have tried to bring him around more,” Amber said wistfully. If she had, she might not have felt so shocked at what she was finding out.

But then again, shock wasn’t really the right word.

She had known, even if she didn’t want to admit it to herself that there was something off about Kyrnon. Yet, she had stayed with him despite her reservations.

“There’ll be plenty of time for that.”

“Is everyone forgetting that he hurt my boss?” Which she was still trying to wrap her mind around.

“There was probably a reason for that.”

Amber had thought the same, though she couldn’t fathom what Elliot could have been involved in that brought him into contact with mercenaries.

“You like him,” Amber said wryly, “otherwise you wouldn’t be encouraging this.”

Lauren shrugged. “I don’t know him all that well, but he was there when we needed him, and even a time when we didn’t. Plus, Niklaus likes him, and that has to count for something.”

“Maybe.”

“I know it sounds like a lot,” Lauren said softly. “Hearing what they do and actually seeing it, but they’re all good guys, no matter how they’re labeled. And whatever’s going on with Kyrnon, he’s only doing this to protect you. At least, that was what he was telling Mish.” When Amber gave her a look, she said, “Mish is a good teacher.”

She didn’t doubt it. “At least I have a few hours to think about it.” And maybe by then, she would be able to make sense of all the questions she wanted to ask.

As her apartment building came into view, Lauren sat up a little straighter. “I wouldn’t count on that.”

“What?”

“I would bet money that Celt shows up in the next two hours. If he’s anything like Mish, he won’t be patient when it comes to this.”

Amber hadn’t believe that.

Not even when she made it upstairs and was offered the guest room to get away for a while. Though she knew Kyrnon had a way of making her talk to him, even when she wouldn’t, on this she had thought he would be more amendable.

Not likely.

Especially not when Lauren popped her head in to let her know that Kyrnon was parking his bike—this she said with a smile since she hadn’t known he rode one—and would be up in no time.

It had only been two hours exactly.

But in that near two-hour span of time, Amber had thought of everything she wanted to know, or at least everything she thought she wanted to know. There was so much there, so many options that she wasn’t sure if she would be able to get answers to all of them.

Minutes after Lauren had come in, it was Kyrnon taking her place, seeming bigger than ever in that narrow doorway.

His bulletproof vest, the guns, and the rest of his tactical gear was gone—now back in jeans and a soft-knit shirt. His attempt at looking nonthreatening, she thought.

But remembering that cold look in his eyes as he turned that gun on her … even as she knew it was probably because she startled him, she couldn’t wipe the image from her head.

After he had the door closed at his back, he held his hands up, palms out, like he was trying to reassure her that he didn’t mean her harm. “Easy.”

While Amber was sitting with her legs crossed at the top of the bed, he still kept his distance.

For her sake, she knew, because the look in his eyes told her something different.

He would only stay away for so long.

“Six hours?” she asked, gesturing to the clock with a tilt of her head.

“I gave what I could.”

Yeah, she believed that. “Did you kill my boss?”

Above the rest, that was the question that had plagued her the most. Without her phone, she hadn’t been able to look anything up, but then again, considering who Kyrnon was, it might not have been reported on at all.

“No. Calavera is probably dropping him off at an extraction point in the middle of nowhere for him to get the hell out of town. If he’s smart, he’ll do what I said.”

He answered the question with no hesitancy.

“Who’s Calavera? And why does he need to leave town?” But those questions were only at the surface of what she really wanted to know. “What’s going on?”

Kyrnon looked conflicted a moment, before he finally answered. “I was contracted to find and retrieve the L’amant Flétrie painting.”

“Retrieve?”

He shrugged. “Steal.”

“You told me you were in acquisitions,” she said. She thought of his place, the cars. “So you get paid to steal things?”

Despite his rather somber mood, Kyrnon couldn’t help a slight smile. “The best thief money can buy.”