Page 69 of Beyond Reason

“I set the building on fire, and the man who stabbed you with a needle and didn’t bother to catch you when you fell is gone. I’d rethink your threats before I finish the job.”

The deadly intent was obvious in his voice. It was only Seth’s hands on his wrist, dragging it from his lips, that let him get out a small, mouthed sorry.

“No threats. Just honesty. I can’t remember how I died. I’ve been getting it all back in bits and pieces, but I haven’t gotten there yet.”

“I mean, I could tell you, I was the—”

“Kade,” I snarled his name without thinking. Xavier’s eyes widened slightly, but he recoiled from the words like he was afraid of what they might do to him. “Don’t.”

“Why? Don’t you think he deserves to know?”

I was torn. Of course, I wanted him to remember. There was a part of me that wanted to rip the bandaid off so the wound could completely heal. But it wasn’t that easy. I couldn’t just tell him… and a bigger part of me didn’t want to tell Kade that, because I could clearly see he still held a grudge against the body that Xavier was walking around in. The last thing I wanted was for him to know any weakness that he could exploit if he decided that revenge was worth more than keeping us around.

“You’re ruining all the fun, Kade,” Xavier filled in when I kept my silence. “There’s something to be said about figuring it all out. It’s like puzzle pieces that I get to put together. Take right now, for example.” He smiled at him, and this time he was the one I was glaring at. I knew that smile. “I barely remembered you before, but now I’m recalling the few times we were assigned to the same job that you were a complete piece of—”

This time it was my hand coming over Xavier’s mouth, but the muffled insult still came out against my palm.

Kade’s eyes narrowed, but Seth’s little burst of laughter seemed to settle him before he stood.

“I didn’t know you had friends, Kade.”

“I don’t. I’ve told you I didn’t work with people.” He sounded annoyed.

“Then what was he talking about?”

“Sometimes the same agency would hire us. Trust me, I was never informed beforehand that I was going to have someone working a job with me. We never worked together,” he said, like it was a curse. “We just worked in the same vicinity.”

That much was true. Sometimes, if a job was particularly large, like taking out an entire building or an opposing group, they’d have more than one person on site just in case something happened.

And there were times when part of what I cleaned up was half of that duo.

Just the thought made me close my eyes, left the vision of Xavier dead on the ground flashing across my vision again.

It hadn’t been Kade’s fault. Of course, it hadn’t been his fault.

But I’d still tried to kill him when he’d come to see me after.

Maybe it hadn’t been fair, and I certainly hadn’t had the skill to do it. It didn’t stop me from taking a knife to him.

It didn’t stop him from taking that knife from me and putting it to my throat. There’d been something in his expression for just a second. Some level of understanding that made me wonder if he’d finally met someone who caught his attention.

Just as quickly as it had been there, it was gone. He’d slammed the knife into my shoulder and told me the next time I came after him with something sharp, it was going straight into my heart.

The next time I saw Kade Neil, I’d been cleaning up his dead body. Someone had apparently taken his threat and turned it on him. I never heard who, though there’d been whispers about it.

And… now he was here, sitting across from me with that low pulse of fury still on his features. My attention turned to Xavier, who was looking between the two of us with slow understanding dawning on his face.

“I was working a job with him, wasn’t I? That’s why he remembers me dying.” He froze as soon as he said it, like he was waiting for the epiphany to wound him. When a few seconds passed and he hadn’t doubled over in pain, he blew out a breath in relief.

“Yeah. You were with Kade,” I said carefully. When I’d called Kade for help, I hadn’t been thinking straight. I hadn’t worried that he and Xavier being in the same room would spark those memories that I was still so nervous about.

I hadn’t been thinking about anything but getting Xavier safely back home, making sure that the people who wanted to hurt him could never hurt anyone again.

Now, I was starting to wonder if calling him was going to cause wounds I hadn’t even realized to open. It was dangerous, and judging by the curious and calculating look on Kade’s face, he was already realizing that he’d found something to use as leverage.

Fuck, I hated working with psychopaths.

Chapter 21

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