Page 32 of Rivals & Revenge

My cheeks heated at the obscene sight, barely processing his words.

“Talk?” I asked, my voice rising higher than I intended.

He nodded, sipping on his water.

“Sure.” I said, my voice stronger than I felt.Please tell me he can’t fucking read minds.

He blew out a long, heavy breath. Whatever this was, it seemed it weighed on him.

“Weaknesses. I know that’s something we keep close in this life, but you and I are a team now—like it or not. The smart play is to figure out the weaknesses so we can patch up those holes.”

I nodded in agreement, dragging another bite of chicken through the sauce, just as he’d done, giving me a moment to consider his words.

“They will figure out our weaknesses on their own. It makes sense we shore things up first.” I agreed.

My eyes flicked up from my dinner, meeting his expectantly—surely he didn’t intend for me to go first.

A slow smile curved his lips. “The main weakness you should be aware of is that, despite all my defenses, there is very little to protect us from line-of-sight attacks. Heat shielding might help with thermal imaging, but if they can see you through a scope…” his voice trailed off. No need to finish. His point had been made.

“Got it.”

The silence stretched between us, suffocating and uncomfortable. We were assassins—predators. Baring our throats was not something either of us wanted to do. This is just as hard for him as it is for me.

“I—um, I suck at hand to hand. I am a crack shot and an artist with my knives, but up close and personal—” I shook my head, allowing him to fillin the blanks.

His brow furrowed, his jaw chewing on a question he wasn’t quite ready to spit out.

“In the grove,” he started, the gentle, tentative tone of his voice taking me by surprise.

“In the grove, you took on three men. Yet, you were the one to walk away. Sounds like you handled yourself pretty well.”

My head was already shaking, my reply sitting on the edge of my tongue before he finished speaking.

“No. First, the last two didn’t come at me until after I killed the first. Second,” I continued, ticking the reasons off with my fingers. “I had my knives. If it was just hands, I certainly wouldn’t still be here.”

His mouth opened in reply, but I cut him off. “And third, I didn’t walk, I crawled, and if you hadn’t found me—if it hadn’t been for Larissa—I’d be dead.”

He swallowed hard, choking down his reply, simply answering with a nod.

“I could train you,” he said, finally breaking the silence, his voice so soft it was nearly drowned out by the crackling of the fire in the fireplace. “For a price.”

My eyes snapped to his.That got serious in a fucking hurry.

“Price?” I asked, hoping I didn’t sound as weak as I felt at the thought of owing him more than I already did.

“Mmm.” he hummed, gulping his water, the glass thudding heavily against the table before he spoke.

“I have an intruder.” He said, a small smirk playing at his lips and mischief dancing in his eyes. “She somehow enters my property, avoids my cameras, evades my dogs and leaves—presents right on my doorstep.”

Heat crept up my face as he spoke, my cheeks no doubt a lovely shade of red.

“I—I uh.”

He gave his head a hard shake. “In the past, I may have wanted to—punish you for circumventing my security. Now. Well, now our safety—both of our safety—depends on knowing your tricks.”

My lips parted just enough to blow out a long, slow breath. He was right. This wasn’t the time to be cagey.

“I found a device online that freezes the camera feed. It only buys me ten to fifteen seconds, but as long as I time it right, it’s plenty.” I rushed out. Even though his eyes held no malice, I couldn’t keep my voice from shaking.

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