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“How about I co ainst a mercenary”

Ada , wild mess “We’re all mercenaries now,” he claims “We work for profit”

“Not the way I did before I caer down the scar on my cheek “This only madethe booze when the neaitress heads our direction She’s a pretty little thing, a brunette who favors the only perfect woht just require the entire bottle of tequila find its way toto make sure that’s what happens, she kneels beside me and whispers, “A man who just handed me a hundred-dollar bill to request your presence is in the alleyway”

The hair on oes all prickly “Name?”

“Tag”

Iron Man ht as well have punched me in the chest, but I don’t react “Thanks, sweetheart,” I say “Enjoy theto the prick” I reach into my pocket and palm her another hundred “Go now”

“Thanks,” she says, scraping her teeth over her bottom lip, an invitation in her eyes that I have no intention of accepting Anyone who reo for me

The waitress stands up and I don’t watch her depart I focus on Ada into the leather jacket at the back ofmy level of tequila intake

“Where the hell are you going?” Ada”

“I’ll return to win my money back in a few,” I say “You better practice while you can” I stand up, taking the Glock atwith the blade hidden inside my waistband for this reunion

I walk toward the front of the fa out hundreds of times in the past three years since I joined Walker Security This place isfar , that is exactly why he chose it With long, measured strides, I makeinto an un-scouted alleyith a bastard like Tag I exit into a bitter Nove on a winter I spent in Russia Adrenaline and agitation pulse through me as I walk to the end of the street and around the corner to enter a narroay side street

I stop short to find Tag is waiting on me, exactly as I’d expected he would “Knew you’d take the attack route”

I step toe-to-toe with the brute of a man I once considered more a father than the bastard of a ured out I hated the fuck out of hihanistan shriveling up his skin like a da here?” My voice is low, taut, a threat he won’t