Page 4 of For the Love of Animals

“Your grandma’s calling—see you soon, chiquita.”

No problem? Right. Everything was a problem. The only deep and meaningful relationship in my life right now was with my Accuracy International AWM, chambered in Lapua Magnum .338 for extra range, but it didn’t do so well with small talk.

Now I had two big challenges: find a date for Grandma’s party and kill Lozano. Maybe I really should have gone into catering.

CHAPTER 3 - NATE

“YOU DID WHAT?” Black asked. He’d called Nate from Virginia for an update. “You went to blow up a drug dealer and came back with a puppy?”

Black was a grumpy fucker who rarely smiled, but right now, he was laughing so hard he could barely speak. Nate sat on the floor in his rented studio apartment and groaned as the dog pissed on the tiles again.

“The thing was hiding under a chair. I couldn’t just leave it there to barbecue.”

“Remember the time I went to England to waste a businessman and came back with an eighteen-year-old brat in tow?”

How could Nate ever forget? Emmy—the girl Black was training as an assassin—had driven him insane for months. Still did, but at least she was good at her job now.

“Yeah, I remember.”

“Well, you might actually have beaten that. What are you gonna do, train the mutt to sniff for explosives?”

“Who the fuck knows? It’s more interested in licking its own ass at the moment. What the hell am I supposed to do with it?”

“Take it to the shelter and make a donation?”

“I’ll see if there’s one nearby.”

“More importantly, what about Lozano? And who was the other guy in the house?”

“No idea, but he hadn’t done his homework. Everyone else knew el antílope took a nap in the afternoon. I’ll have to go at Lozano again, but it’ll be tougher this time. My informant died in the crossfire.”

Dammit, Nate had almost had Lozano and his whole team. Another half hour and he’d have planted enough charges to blow the entire villa and all of its occupants sky high, the informant would have left, and Lozano would have been toast. Instead, Nate had been forced into damage control mode.

And he’d nearly lost his fucking head.

He didn’t plan on telling Black about the standoff outside because the man never made a mistake. They’d been best friends for years, swim buddies in the Navy SEALS before switching to an elite unit at the CIA and finally starting Blackwood Security together, but he couldn’t help feeling inferior sometimes. Black cruised through life, effortlessly destroying anything that got in his way. A cyborg. Although he’d become a little more humanoid since Emmy appeared on the scene.

Then there was the question of the sniper. Someone had taken out the asshole who ambushed Nate, and he hadn’t hung around to find out who. Now curiosity was eating away at him. Unless the shooter’s aim was off, he hadn’t been one of Lozano’s men, and Nate’s mystery saviour seemed too competent to have been with the prick el antílope had shot in the villa. Lozano had a list of enemies longer than War and Peace, and narrowing it down would take Nate time he didn’t have. But continuing with the job while an unknown killer lurked on the periphery left him twitchy.

“So, we’re going with Plan B now?” Black asked.

“Looks like it.” Nate had hoped to avoid the need for that, because the B stood for Black—he’d come up with the idea, Nate had refined it, and as usual, it was fucking twisted. “But I’ll have to keep a low profile because now Lozano’s whole team’s gonna be on the lookout for a single male matching my description.”

“Want to borrow Emmy?”

Black was joking, but Nate was actually tempted to take him up on the offer.

“I’ll let you know.”

“Do that. I can have her on a plane in half an hour.”

Something about Black’s tone made Nate hesitate. “Is it that time of the month again?”

“Possibly. She almost took my head off in the boxing ring this morning.”

“Why don’t you keep her?”

Black just laughed and hung up, right as somebody knocked on the door. Nate’s hand flew straight to the gun at his hip. Who was there? He wasn’t expecting anyone.

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