Page 42 of Retribution
A laugh escapes me as I go to the door to open it. “You realize you don’t have much competition, right?”
His hazel eyes are filled with amusement. “Thank God for that.” Lorcan smirks at me. “Where are you off to?”
“A run.”
“Not alone, I hope.”
“Around the property.” I make a looping motion with my hand. “I’ll stay in the gated portion.” Using my finger, I trace a cross over my heart.
“I’ll come with you. We can chat about what you got up to today.” Lorcan’s lips quirk up in a half smile, and his dimple peeps through, charming me.
I suppress a sigh. A few minutes alone, the wind in my hair, darkness surrounding me, is all I wanted. “Sure.”
“Walk with me.” He gestures toward the hall.
“You’re in a good mood.”
“Very productive day.” His smile is sly as he winks at me. “Thank you for that, by the way.”
“You’re thanking me?”
Raising his left hand, he waggles it. “While the right hand was out of the house, he couldn’t know what the left hand was doing.”
“You knew where we were going today?”
“Not necessarily. Probably best we chat outside.”
He opens the door to his room and ushers me inside. I sink into a chair, tapping my knees with my fingers as I wait for him to emerge out of the bathroom.
When he does, he’s frowning. “I was thinking.”
“You don’t look happy about that.”
He chuckles. “Well, I’m not sure if you’ll be annoyed with me. I was going to see if Carys wanted to come for a visit in a few weeks. Starting over somewhere is challenging, and the two of you seemed close.”
My heart squeezes in my chest. Words stick in my throat. “That’s… very thoughtful.”
He shrugs a little. “’Tis nothin.”
“Well.” I stretch. “It’s something to me. It would be good to see her.” I’d also be able to find out if the agency managed to get Yssamae maneuvered into position in her organization. I couldn’t do that introduction in case the dominoes tipped.
We head out of his bedroom together and wander to the back door, the one that leads to the pool and tennis court. Maybe I should have asked him for a game instead? Pounding a ball across a net might be as good as running, especially if I wasn’t able be alone, anyway.
“You’re not going to do any of the crazy sprinting, are you?” My training at the bureau was extensive, and we ran a lot, at a senseless pace with the understanding our lives could be on the line. Or someone else’s life might depend on us getting somewhere fast. That wasn’t what I wanted tonight.
At the edge of the backyard, I survey the vast expanse of lawn. The house is on a property more like a farm than a place in the suburbs. Still, that’s exactly what it is. With the exception of a buffer zone, other houses peer into the field. Solar lights illuminate a trail along the fence line. There’s a chill in the air, and a light breeze ruffles Lorcan’s hair.
“Some sprinting is a must.” He puts his hands on his hips. “We’re training for real-life situations in this job, not just trying to keep from getting old and fat.”
I laugh and admire his physique out of the corner of my eye. There certainly wasn’t much fat on him. I grin. “Real life, huh?”
He brushes the stray hairs the wind has tugged from my ponytail. “How was today?”
“Okay,” I say. “The Zhangs and then the O’Malleys.”
He grimaces and glances away from me. “If you thought someone killed your father, would you do business with them?”
I gape. “That’s pretty much what I already askedyou. The answer, for me, is no. I’d kill them. No hesitation. There wouldn’t be enough money in the world.” Before me, out in the yard, my father’s image rises into view in the darkness, wispy, infirm, dead. Chad’s death was gory, real, in my face. My father’s death was an accident. Something dumb. Nothing to avenge but stupidity.