Page 17 of In the Cover of Darkness

“Was Bullseye ever a contender?”

Ace stares at me a moment before throwing his head back laughing. I can even hear Dante chuckling behind me, still sitting on the couch.

“No Mila, Bullseye was never on the table. Apparently, we're not smart enough to have thought of something more obvious,” he says, still laughing. “I guessAcealso means the amount of confirmed ki—”

“Alright there, Bullseye, I think she gets the idea,” Dante says from behind me as he moves from the couch to the bar stool next to me, taking the kitchen knife from me and continuing to chop the vegetables.

“Ace calls you D, is that your nickname?” I ask Dante, looking at him smiling.

"Oh no, D here has several names. D, obviously for Dante. Then he has Big D, D.D. Some of the guys call him Double D instead of D.D. Reaper is—”

“She gets it, Ace. You can stop now,” Dante growls toward his friend.

My eyes widen and I can't help but look down at his pants, taking note of the bulge perfectly outlined for me to stare at.

“Why are you looking at me like that Mila?”

“Big D huh? Double D even?” my eyebrows raised, a grin across my face.

Suddenly he jumps off the stool, standing, looking very awkward for a second.

“As in I'm big and my name starts with a D, Mila,” he says, his voice an octave higher than usual, raising his hands above his head, outlining his size.

“You know what Big D means though right?” as I wave the carrot I'm holding toward his lower half.

"Yes, I know what it means, and no the guys will not be calling me that from now on. Fuck, I don't mean I have a small dick either."

“But it's not a Big D,” I say, riling him up, holding both hands in the air as if I was gauging length.

“So what you're saying is that it's not small, but it's not big. Should we start calling you Average D?” Ace says smiling, jumping on the bandwagon with me.

“Can we stop talking about my fucking dick, please? I've not had any complaints, so can you both just knock it off.”

Ace and I look at each other before bursting into laughter. Dante appears less than impressed before he returns to sit on the stool next to me.

Reaching out, I pat his back, “Okay, excessively large and magical D, we will stop now.”

I can see Dante is trying not to smile, and Ace is now laughing so hard he's wiping tears away.

“What about Double D, what does that stand for? Do you have a pair of deliciously large tits hiding behind your pecs?” I say smiling at him, watching his eyes drop to my breasts for a second before returning to look at my face.

Grabbing his chest, taking each pec in one of his hands, he pushes them up, groping himself before looking at me grinning, “These are all muscle, baby,” winking as he says it.

Raising my hands up in defeat, “Okay, okay I get it. But seriously what's D.D or Double D mean if not the obvious?”

“Dr Death,” Ace says quietly, looking at Dante with nothing but empathy as they share a moment only they will understand.

“Is that where Reaper comes from too?” I ask, looking toward Ace but placing my hand on Dante's knee, squeezing it slightly so he hopefully knows I'm not judging him.

“Most of my team called me Reaper, but some of the new recruits started Dr Death a few years ago after someone found out my number of confirmed kills,” he says, looking down at his hands fidgeting on the bench.

I don't know if there's an appropriate thing to say after someone tells you that, so I move my hand from his knee and take hold of his, bringing it up to my mouth and placing a gentle kiss on it, before holding it on my lap. I can feel him staring at me but I ignore it. He makes no move to pull his hand from mine so we sit there in silence for a few seconds.

“I've never had a nickname,” I say to Ace. “Nothing rhymes with Mila and I definitely didn't do anything cool in school to warrant one.”

“There's still time,” Ace says. “You could fight a bear tomorrow.”

“There are bears here?” I whisper, looking out the window to the meadow outside, suddenly feeling anxious at the thought of facing a wild bear.

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