Page 87 of Taming Achilles

“Would Cal know?”

“Let me worry about that.” Again she rolled those dark brown eyes. “Really, if you’re going to get married, you should just accept that wives can control their husbands.”

“You’ve been married for two minutes,” I teased. “I’ve taken a jobby that lasted longer.”

She paused for a moment. “Help me out … Jobby?”

I chuckled. “A bowel movement.”

She rolled her eyes, again. But looked at me with a smile, as she delivered her piece de resistance.

“No kidding. You were definitely full of it when you decided to not marry the woman you’re so in love with,” she said with a sneer. “You’re so full of it that I’m surprised you’re able to stand upright.”

Chapter 42

Pippa

Lea, strange creature that she was, did me the courtesy of keeping Geordie away for a week while I recovered. Chloe stayed by my side as much as she could. The strange little assassin sat quietly in the corner of the room, flipping that butterfly knife over and over again. She was my new bodyguard, as sanctioned by Caledonia Security.

Geordie entered with his hands up in surrender. She had stopped him in his tracks, made a slicing motion with her thumb across her throat, before shoving him out the door again.

Chloe, who was determined to be mad at her, stifled a small laugh. Her own defence crumbled to this bizarre woman.

“You have all the men quite scared of you,” I mentioned, as the woman sat back down and crossed her legs, her ankle over her knee.

“They should be.” She stared up at the ceiling, as if we were having an evening chat during a sleepover. “My kill list is longer than theirs.”

Chloe gasped.

“Really, Dr. Laurent,” Lea smiled, her eyes cutting to us, though her head didn’t turn, “you already know that Leo and I are assassins. And what do you call the guys? Brutes?”

Chloe blushed at the mention of Leo. They had had a strange, antagonistic chemistry since he had rescued her from kidnappers. She hadn’t confessed the entirety of that relationship to me, but I suspected what was happening. Ray Ricoda had said that he could see secret relationships, because he had been in them. Maybe I could sense the same. A push and pull, at least on Chloe’s end. I didn’t know if Leo felt the same.

“Killing should never be glorified,” Chloe said quietly.

Poor little Cabbage. I had sheltered her as much as I could, and maybe I had done it too much. She was always the one ray of sunshine among us dark killers, who surrounded her with nothing but our best sides.

“I’m not glorifying it,” said Lea, her eyes drifting to me with a lifted brow. “But it is a part of life.”

“And you make a living at it!” Cabbage said with a sudden conviction. “I preserve it.”

“Hmm,” Lea said, her nonplussed demeanour agitating Chloe even more. “My brother wants to switch sides and be like you, you know.”

Chloe bit her lower lip, her tan freckles on her nose reddening as she blushed.

“He was only in this work because of me.” Lea gave the slightest twist of her wrist, and the blade swung open again into the open position. “He wanted to go to med school, but money was tight, and he is … was … my keeper.” She lifted her arms up, and then placed her hands behind her head, leaning back and letting out a yawn like a lion on a hot rock. “I dunno, maybe being with Caledonia Security will be good for him. He can save up for med school …”

“Not likely,” Chloe snorted. “Once you’re a killer, you could never be a healer.”

“Au contraire, Doc,” Lea’s eyes glinted. “When you know what it takes to kill with the precision we do, you know what it takes to keep this delicate flesh sack of tubes ticking.”

“Lovely,” Chloe grumbled.

Lea chuckled, her eyes flicking to me.

“You don’t like me, do you, Doc?”

Cabbage wouldn’t answer that. Her nature didn’t allow her to dislike something. At least not out loud. Hurting was never her intention.

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