Page 6 of Agent vs. Assassin

I curse and check my messages to find nothing. No one has shit for me right now, but Ghost does. The pilot climbs onto the chopper, and I thrum my fingers on my seat, almost immune to the noise vibrating around me—I take this flight so often. Ghost is a cat playing with his prey, and I’m the prey; only I’m not prey. I’m the one who finally kills him.AfterI’m done with him. If he thinks otherwise, good. I can make that work for me. I’m better underestimated.

Enrique is already in the seat next to me, strapping in. I text him to avoid yelling over the rage of the engine.Have someone pick up a pie to take with me to Mark Walker’s.

I watch him respond to the ping of his phone, and he snaps it from his pocket, reads the message, and scowls at me. “What?” he mouths.

“Just fucking do it,” I mouth right back. “And no pie for you.” I sink back into my cushion before closing my eyes, certain that bringing Ghost a pie is the way to win over an assassin. And as a bonus, we need a knife to cut it.

Chapter Four

I step into the Hampton’s airport, leaving the thundering of the engine behind me, to find no one waiting on me. Just the way I like it. Of course, Enrique and Jay are still my little stalkers, one at each side of me, while Enrique remains on my last ticking nerve, but I need things from him right now so he can stay.

Halting, they both step in front of me, and I lift a finger at Enrique, a question in the action. “I sent you an email with all we have on Mark Walker,” he replies, clear on what I want. He knew what I wanted earlier, too, and didn’t give two fucks.

“And?”

“He’s filthy rich, but it all seems legit. If it wasn’t, he was good at hiding the dirt, and he wasn’t important enough to us to dig.”

“Who are we talking about?” Jay asks.

“If I tell you, I have to kill you,” I say.

“Then why does Enrique know?”

“He’s already dead as far as I’m concerned,” I say, and without a blink, Enrique’s direction, I step around him and head for the door. I don’t bother to ask about the pie. If he forgets it, I have an excuse to make him dead to everyone, not just me.

By the time I’m in the back of the SUV with the air cranking, Jay driving, and Enrique staring at me while I ignore him, my cellphone pings with a message from Ghost that reads only:?

I reply back with:?

You get what you give. He has to use words to get words.

I’m counting on that pie.

I’m not fucking DoorDash, I reply.I’ll bring the pie, but I want something in exchange.

I don’t negotiate.

Then you can watch me eat the pie. As you know from following me the fuck around, I like it way more than you.

A full minute later, he hasn’t replied, and I glance over at Enrique. “The pie?”

“Is waiting on you at Walker’s house. Why are you taking him pie?”

“I’m hungry. Why did you need to call Kane? Because, apparently, Kane has you by the balls and there’s no blood making it to your brain.”

“I have to be loyal to him, Lilah.”

“Getting him killed isn’t loyalty.” Jay pulls the SUV to a halt on the outskirts of the Walker property, just outside a private gate and next to another SUV that will be our men. “We’re not done on this topic, butwe aredone.” I exit the vehicle, and one of Kane’s men I’ve met before pushes off of the other SUV with a box in his hand. He’s a big dude with a bald head and bulky muscles, but not an inch of fat on him, and he wouldn’t be working anywhere near me if Kane didn’t trust him.

“Lilah,” he greets, a twinkle in his eyes as he indicates the pie. “I take it you’re hungry?”

“Thanks, Taz,” I say, “and I’m always hungry.” I claim the box and add, “And I do love this pie, but this time it serves a purpose.”

“Raz,” he corrects. “Pronounced like Rawz.”

My brows furrow. “Rawz?What the fuck kind of name is that? Were your parents drunk when they named you?”

He laughs—a deep, down to his belly kind of laugh. “Maybe my great-great grandparents were when they chose it generations back and started the family name. I’m one offour Raz’s. It’s a play on La Razza, meaning ‘the people.’ I’m supposed to be a man of the people.”

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