Page 33 of How Much For a Life of Lies?

“Dude!” the barman called. “He’s wasted, I can’t let you?—”

“I’m okay!” Red straightened, and winding his free arm around my waist.

“I’m getting him out for air,” I lied.

“I called the sheriff.” Oh great. “I need to tell?—”

“No one,” I warned. “You’re telling no one about any of this shit,” I snarled, channeling all my inner pissed-off bad guy, my hand back on my gun. “Anyone asks, you tell ’em KD had it sorted. Okay?”

“Sure, sure, KD,” the barman said, all placating and smiles.

But I knew as soon as I left that he’d be on the phone to Indigo, giving her a roundup of the night. Me taking a clearly inebriated man out of there to do god knows what to him was another score on the disreputable card, added to the fact Indigo had lost one of her pilots. Leaving the door open for me to take his place, queer or not.

As we reached the door, the sheriff walked in, and our eyes met. Sheriff Allinson wasn’t a bad guy, but he was close to retiring and didn’t want to get involved with what the mayor was doing, nor with the whole Kozlov operation on his doorstep. He was harmless, ineffective, but he at least knew why Zach and I were here in town. He frowned at me, almost said something, but I barged past him and dragged Red out of the door, my gaze roaming the barely lit sidewalk, Red quiet, as we hobbled down the road, toward his place. He unlocked the door, and I dragged him inside, and then shut it behind us.

My beaten and inebriated companion stood, straight as a freaking arrow, growling at me, his eyes blazing, and I couldn’t help the snort of laughter as Red became my partner, Zach.

“What the fuck!” Zach snapped.

“It’s our new cover,” I smirked.

Then Zach punched me in the face.

Ouch.

THIRTEEN

Zach

“What the fuck was that?” I shouted at my idiot partner.

Kai backed up, prodding his face to check for damage. “Jesus, Zach.”

My blood boiled as I stared at him, disbelief and anger simmering beneath the surface, but my lips still tingled from the unexpected kiss. How could he do that shit? What was that even? We were supposed to start a bar fight, not make out in front of them.

I clenched my fists, every muscle in my body tensing with the urge to lash out. “I had it handled, and that shit was reckless, unnecessary.”

“I made an operational decision.”

“Kai—”

“They were going to take you out back and show you what real men are like, their words, not mine, Red, and I stopped them by laying claim.”

“Stop calling me Red.” I loomed over him, a head taller, and gripped his upper arms. “And what kind of twisted logic is you laying claim!”

He shrugged. “This way you have the protection of KD Raynes, with his documented backstory of murder, drugs, and sex, Zach,” he drawled.

From the moment I’d met Kai, the smooth, languid cadence of his words—each syllable rolling off his tongue with a soft, melodic drawl—was sexy. Hell, I’d found it sweet and soothing at first—until we’d fucked, and now just the way he said my namemade my temper spike. I didn’t have to be a therapist to know I had issues and regrets, but his damn voice was reminding me of too many things I needed to forget.

Not only that, but he was talking about protecting me? From anyone else this short and annoying, it would be an insult to my ego, even if I knew the lethal shit Kai could pull. I’d seen him take down four men in the time it took me to take down one—I’d seen him fight so hard our targets didn’t know what had hit them, and through all of it he was the one in control. I admired Kai’s skills, but I didn’t like Kai. His prickly exterior was a constant source of frustration, his defenses up at all times, as if daring anyone to challenge him. If there was a hate-hate situation outside the mission, then we were the very definition of it. But was that his fault or mine? He’d followed me to find Kerry without question. He had my back in all things. We were a team. It was me who’d messed everything up.

Still, for fuck’s sake, I was mortified, turned on, and just plain pissed about it all.

I do not want sex with Kai. Liar.

“I don’t need your protection as Kai or KD. I’m here to work comm and stay off the fucking radar.” My cover was a visiting environmental researcher. I was in position as Kai’s handler, staying in this rented house because I was in town on a fake contract, and working the intel Kai passed to me. I was comm, not some bit player in this half-assed play Kai had come up with. In my mind we took Viper out, but no, he wanted it to look natural, and although I’d reluctantly agreed, my mind raced, trying to make sense of it all. “This was a fucking stupid idea.” I scrubbed my eyes. “I don’t know why I even agreed to it.”

“Because you knew it was a good idea.”

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