Page 5 of Kennedy

“It does have to do with the program. I’ve been thinking about what comes next, and I’m not sure.”

Hawthorne was right, then. Seymour was wondering if he should become a council assassin. If he felt that way, it probably meant he wouldn’t, which in turn meant they’d lost another assassin.

Kennedy wasn’t surprised, and they’d planned for that. They really only expected a handful of trainees to become council assassins. The others would be put in different jobs, so their training wouldn’t be lost, but they’d always known that most of the trainees wouldn’t have the guts to kill people for a living.

That was a good thing.

“You have time,” Kennedy said. “You still have a few weeks of training to go, and even after it ends, we’re not going to kick you out.”

“That would be hard to do since Jimmy works here.”

Kennedy grinned. “He’d kick my ass if I as much as tried. I’m sure we can find you something to do, though. I expect most of the trainees will need to have this conversation with me or one of the trainers. I’m surprised you didn’t ask Hawthorne.”

“He might technically be my brother-in-law, but he’s still intimidating.”

“And I’m not?”

Seymour raised his hand, holding it flat in front of him before tilting it from side to side. “Sometimes, you can definitely be, but not like Hawthorne.”

“Well, my door is always open if you need to talk, but I wouldn’t worry too much if I were you. This is what we expected, and we have job offers for all of you already. You’ll be able to decide what you want to do once you go over everything.”

“We can’t talk about it now?”

“It’s probably best if we wait. Why don’t you tell me about your brother? I have to admit I forgot you had a twin until I saw the two of you together.”

Seymour snickered. “A lot of people forget I have a twin until Lewis surprises them by popping up where they don’t expect me to be.”

Kennedy was glad to have a name. He doubted he’d ever use it, but he liked knowing who he was thinking about. “Rhonda said that your brother’s nothing like you.”

“He really isn’t, but that’s a good thing. He needs a protector, and I am one, and at the same time, I need someone to soften me, and he’s always done that for me.” Seymour hesitated. “I know that technically, he’s not supposed to be here, but I’m glad he was allowed to be. I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for him, so I feel like he should know what I’m doing and what I’m training for. I swear he won’t tell anyone, though. He’d rather die than betray me.”

“I’m not worried about that,” Kennedy reassured him, even though heshouldbe worried.

It started like this, with one of the trainees telling one other person what they were up to at the facility, and the news spread like wildfire. If they weren’t careful, every member of every trainee’s family would know what they were doing, and it would be chaos.

Seymour nodded, clearly satisfied. “Good.”

“What does he think of you training to become a council assassin?”

“He told me to go for it, but it’s always hard to understand. He wants me to do what I want, so he usually tries to keep his thoughts to himself, even when he disagrees with my decision.”

“Did he disagree with you coming here?” Kennedy wasn’t sure why he had so many questions about a man he’d never talked to, but thankfully, Seymour didn’t seem to have a problem talking about his brother. Kennedy had to find out why he was so drawn to the guy.

He could only think of one possibility that would explain it, but that couldn’t be right. There was no way Lewis was his mate because why would he have run from Kennedy if he was.

* * * *

WAS LEWIS AVOIDINGhis mate? Yes, he was. Had his mate noticed he was avoiding him? He was pretty sure the answer to that question, too, was yes.

He’d noticed how his mate kept watching him. If the man had been a Nix, he’d know that he and Lewis were mates, but chances were that he was some kind of shifter, so unless Lewis allowed him close, he wouldn’t find out.

Lewis wasn’t sure what he wanted. Part of him wished he could jump his mate right here in the middle of the living room, while another part wanted to stay as far away from him as possible. The thought of talking to his mate made him feel panicky, and the worst part was that it had nothing to do with his mate.

That wasn’t entirely true. Lewis wasn’t looking forward to talking to his parents and telling them about his mate, but at the same time, he was also afraid. What would his mate want to know? Why was he trying so hard to talk to him? He didn’t know that Lewis was his mate yet so it couldn’t be that.

Maybe he was curious because Lewis and Seymour were twins. A lot of people had weird questions about that, and Lewis hoped his mate wasn’t one of those people.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Seymour asked, making Lewis jump. He would always deny it, but he also squeaked a bit, getting the attention of the few people standing close to them.

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