Nix. (Den of Mercenaries Book 3)(87)

The penthouse was empty by the time she made it inside, but was secretly glad—the last thing she felt like doing was telling Kit about what happened. Of course she couldn’t get into specifics, but she still felt the urge to talk to him about it, if only because he could offer some clarity.

Luna was doubtful there was much he hadn’t seen over his long career as both assassin and facilitator, so it was possible that he had experienced a similar situation.

Tossing her keys on a nearby table, Luna headed straight for the bathroom to hop in the shower.

She wasted no time washing the blood away, scrubbing her skin clean until it was sensitive to the touch.

Her mind was on Andrei and the mystery behind the man when she heard the shower door open a moment before she felt Kit at her back, his hands sliding along her hips.

And almost instantaneously, she relaxed. There was always something comforting about having him near—the one person that could make her thoughts go silent, if only for a short while.

“You’re going to make me regret this decision, aren’t you?” he asked next to her ear, turning them so his back was to the raining water.

Smiling as she spun in his arms, she followed a few droplets of water with her fingers, dragging them across the flexing muscles of his abdomen. “What decision?”

“To allow you to take on these more dangerous jobs.”

Luna’s hands froze in their descent as she looked up at him, frowning. “What do you mean by allow?”

But she knew before he even opened his mouth, and worse, he didn’t express any guilt over what he had done.

“Did you get some kind of say of the assignments Z gave me?”

“Don’t be upset,” he said back rationally.

Rationally, as though he had any right.

“You told me you wouldn’t interfere, promised me.”

“And I haven’t. I merely made a suggestion.”

She put a hand to the center of his chest as he attempted to draw her closer. “Do you really want to argue semantics? And how did you even know about what happened today?”

“After the unfortunate incident with my brother, I took precautions.”

Precautions? “Meaning, you’re having me followed?” Of course he was, it would be just like him to do something like that. “By who?”

“Does it truly matter?” he asked, allowing her to retreat, turning to duck his head beneath the water. “You’re already angry with me.”

“Should I not be?” Luna asked, eyes gone wide. “I’m not a child, you know.”

“And I’ve never alluded to otherwise. This is for your protection, after all.”

“Then why not tell me about it?”

“Because I knew this was how you would react.”

Ignoring that, she asked, “Who’d you send?”

“Luna, you’re being irrational.”

“It’s a simple question—one you’re avoiding.”

“Because the answer won’t change your mood, so I see no point in divulging.”

Growing more agitated with him by the second, Luna didn’t bother responding, merely stepped out of the shower and snatched a towel off the bar, drying off in a hurry as she heard him mutter a curse behind her.

With a quickness she had grown rather good at, she dried off, dressing in a pair of spandex shorts and a tank top. She had the towel clutched in her hands as she ran it over the length of her hair when Kit plucked it from her, tossing it aside.

But when she felt those fingers of his drifting beneath the fall of her hair, she quickly pulled away. He had always been rather good at easing her anger toward him, but for once she didn't want that.

She wanted to hold onto it.

“How’d your meeting go?” she asked, refusing to look at him as she crossed the floor to put more distance between them.

“Which one?”

“The one you were annoyed about.”

At first, it had been a bid to change the subject, to get her mind off of why she was annoyed with him, but as she remembered his odd behavior a few nights ago, she was genuinely curious as to his answer.

“Not as well as expected, but,”—he shrugged, striding naked off in front of her as he went to get dressed as well. — “I have it under control at the moment.”

That sounded rather … vague. “Was it anything interesting?”

Sometimes, the things that people came to him for boggled her mind. Once, there had been a request for a rare white tiger for a children’s birthday party, and another had been the kidnapping of seven wanted men— for crimes Luna didn’t like to think about—and taking them to a remote island where they played a real-life game of Survivor.

People’s imaginations were limitless.

Kit didn’t answer right away, quiet in the closet before he came back out wearing a pair of jeans that sat low on his waist. “It’s nothing to concern yourself with. What we should be worrying about is why your assignments have all resulted in someone getting killed.”

“I’m a mercenary, Kit. I would be more surprised if they didn’t end this way—which should have been a clue considering your part in this.”

“Don’t fault me for wanting to protect you, Luna—someone should have. While I can’t change the past, I can assure that you don’t suffer again like you had then.”