Page 33 of Praying Mantis

“The same thing he did to you, stalk him. We need to know his habits, who he meets with, where he goes. The five questions are who, where, when, why, and how. It’s a lot of tedious work but as an agent, you’re used to stakeouts, so it shouldn’t be a stretch. I always hated it.”

“I hate stakeouts. I’d rather be fucked by a cactus in the ass than sit in my car for hours with my thumb in my ass.” He laughs. “Unless you’re there with me and I can make out with you.”

“As tempting as that sounds, we could miss the slightest detail that could bring it all down.”

“You’re no fun. So I guess I just need to fuck you before the stakeout then huh?”

“As long as you get me off multiple times then I’m ready.” I wink and finger-gun at his teasing. “Okay, stop distracting me. This is important work right now. We need to take him down before he can hire someone else without us knowing about it.”

We spend the next half hour going over everything he knows about Colin which isn’t much and if on cue, Clara is knocking on the door to see if we want to join her for dinner. My stomach lets out an unflattering rumble and I let her know good timing. I hop off the desk.

“Did you swallow a gremlin or something?” Sean teases smacking my ass as I walk toward his mom. I whip my head around giving him a dirty look that makes him laugh. I walk out with Cara arm in arm.

“You two have been quite busy,” Cara says to me.

“You know everything, right?” I am almost afraid of the answer. Cara nods.

“Even though my husband may have kept a hardened persona, he always talked to me and we bounced ideas off each other as you were doing with Sean.” She talks to me as we walk to the dining room. She stops, seeing Sean isn’t following us. “Sean and Patrick are so much alike, and I think it scared Sean because he wanted to be his own person. It’s why he fought so hard but I supported him against Patrick. Now the knowledge from the military, and FBI, and being with you is going to keep him safe and out of harm’s way. I hate it took Patrick dying to get him to see he belongs leading these men.” Sean tells us to wait while he checks the room for bugs. “Colin is the one who put the hit out on him, right?” I nod. “Do you know how to vet the other men to make sure they’re loyal to Sean?”

“Máthair, I haven’t announced I’m stepping up and taking over yet. Colin thinks he knows what I’m doing but I’ll keep him guessing for now.”

“I can vet the guys; that won’t be a problem. We need to wait until we deal with the Colin hit situation,” I tell both of them. “There needs to be some order before we cause more chaos.”

We eat dinner not really talking about Colin but making small talk. Cara wants to know if we’re going to be making our home base here or somewhere else. Sean and I haven’t discussed anything but Cara is excited to have her son back home. So many questions, so many problems, and little time to know the answers.

Sean gave me my cell phone earlier, and it vibrates in my pocket.

“It’s my mom calling me. I need to take this.” I try to excuse myself, but Sean stops me.

“Put it on speakerphone so I can hear what she has to say so we can plan together.”

“Hello Mother,” I answer the phone on speaker like Sean wanted with no emotion in my tone.

“I was just contacted by the client since I received your email. They wanted confirmation you’re still doing the hit.” I sigh.

“Mother, I sent you an email telling you I will do it,” I snap pinching the bridge of my nose.

“You also told me you loved him and wanted to call off the hit too, so which is it? Are you going to kill him or am I going to put this back out there?”

“Is there a deadline for the hit? The email didn’t specify. Now that we aren’t together, he’s avoiding me and won’t speak to me. I need to figure out how to get him alone.” I look at Sean who winks at me while Cara rolls her eyes.

“By the end of the month, which is like what, two weeks? He already sent the first half of his total. He’s keen.”

“I’ll do it and I will do it within two weeks.” I sigh. “Is there anything else?”

“No. I needed to check on the progress. I’ll inform the client. After you kill this man, take some time off. I didn’t raise you as a weak woman falling for a lowly man.” I swallow down the sob which wants to come out but I’m too afraid to say anything. “Maybe I’ll pay you to off your father so you can finally be rid of the men who broke your heart. It’s why I don’t have one, because I refuse to let anyone use me again.” I hang up on her because I can’t listen to this drivel anymore.

“Isn’t she a heartless bitch?” Cara speaks up. “Your childhood sounded sad and lonely.”

“Oh you do not know.” I reply not wanting to go into detail about my childhood. Dad’s abuse, my mother’s neglect, and her turning me into this stone-cold killer are not highlights I want to talk about.

“So we have two weeks to figure it out,” Sean speaks up. I shake my head telling him no.

“We have less than that because it needs to be completed or it’ll go to the next person. It’s a weird system. We need to stake him out, get an idea of his schedule. The question is, do you want Praying Mantis on him and having your FBI friends come searching for me?” It worries me how this will happen with Sean and Cara in the know.

“I can’t hold off the FBI, but I’ll work the case before quitting the job. It will be a case I could never solve.” I smile at him. “Do you want help with the stakeout?”

“You promise to behave yourself?” I counter at Sean making both him and Cara laugh.

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