She shook her head, taking a more delicate sip of her own drink. “Have to? No. I don’t think anyone on this earth can make the infamous Danny DeLuna do anything she doesn’t want to do. But if you can’t tell me… who can you tell?”
I parted my lips to reply, but she cut me off.
“Stanley does not count.”
Damn. “Okay,” I replied, then licked my lips. “I see your point.”
So far, I’d given Jude very vague information about my whole tryst with Leon. She knew he’d rescued me from Ares the arms dealer and that I’d gone into hiding with Leon while we “completed” my mission. She knew that much from when I’d called her prior to Leon and me fucking each other half to death. Then I showed up on her doorstep a week ago in a sour mood and gave her fuck all information about what had happened since we last spoke.
“Drink up,” she told me with a smirk, “then start spilling your guts. I’ve given you way too long to feel sorry for yourself, now it’s time to start bouncing back.”
I rolled my eyes but gulped the rest of my martini and went to make another.
“So obviously I know you and Leon got your fuck on,” Jude started as I mixed my drink, “and even as cagey as you’re being on those details, I can tell it was excellent dick.”
The vivid memory of Leon’s pierced dick flashed through my mind, and all the things he’d made me feel with it. I groaned and my pussy quivered. “Yeah, it was okay.”
Jude snickered. “Okay sure. It was okay. That’s why you’re moping about him not chasing you down after you disappeared in the middle of the night after literally telling him never to contact you again?”
I carried my martini back to the couch and flopped down beside her—careful not to spill any booze. She’d stocked up on Copper Wolf vodka just for me, and I loved her to death for it. She was more of a Grey Goose girl, herself.
“It sounds stupid when you say it like that,” I grumbled. “Telling him to lose my number was clearly a challenge. He didn’t strike me as the type who just gave up so easily.”
My friend gave me a skeptical look. “Because he’s an executioner.”
Yeah, I’d told her that part. I had to, given I was placing her in danger by staying with her.
Jude sipped her drink again, then puffed out a breath. “I have to admit, I would never have picked that one. He seemed so… I dunno. Nerdy? I fully admit I had zero confidence that he would find you when Ares abducted you.” She winced. “Which now I feel awful about, because he clearly did have the skill.”
I laughed. Jude had doubted Leon enough that she’d been launching her own search using some of the other Guild mercenaries we were on friendly terms with. Leon, with Carlos’s help, had just reached me first. “Yeah, well… I underestimated him too. I guess that’s sort of a requirement of the job though, right?” My mind skipped back to my time on the island… to Kai. But I quickly pushed those memories away once more and focused on my best friend. “So you already know we fucked and that I left him in the middle of the night. What else do you wanna know?”
She glared. “Uhhhh, some details for starters? This was no normal one-night stand, and you fucking know it. What aren’t you telling me? How did you find out he’s an executioner? You never explained that part.”
I licked my lips. I wondered what she’d say if I admitted to finding out because I woke up with his knife at my throat, my own blood trickling down my skin. Or what she’d say if she heard how we tried to kill each other and ended up fucking… over and over and over. Shit, my pussy was heating again just thinking about it.
“Um, he told me,” I said instead, vague as shit but not totally lying. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter. Can we talk about something less depressing?”
Jude huffed. “Like what?”
“Like… why the Guild is trying to have me killed unofficially?” Yeah, that’s what I considered a less depressing topic. “Last I checked, I’ve been nothing but loyal, so what the fuck have I done to make someone want me dead?”
I hadn’t told her that Leon actually tried to kill me, nor had I told her that I knew who one of the Circle really was. Just knowing Blanchet’s identity was breaking some major Guild rules, and I wasn’t going to be careless with my friend’s fate like that. Yes, it could be argued that I was putting her in danger by staying with her instead of going home, but she was injured, not incompetent. She could still put up a good fight if necessary.
Jude nodded, her fingernail tapping her martini glass as she thought. “I agree on that point, you’re probably the most loyal mercenary ever born into the Guild.” She shot me a teasing smile. “But I don’t think you’re being targeted specifically. I mean, yes, someone clearly wants you dead, but it’s not just you.”
My brows rose in surprise. “What do you know, and why have you been holding out on me, Judith Mackenzie?”
She smirked. “Oh, because you tell me everything? Besides, I just heard this last night when I was working late, and you were already out cold when I got in. I overheard Franklin talking with someone on the phone.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Overheard?”
Franklin—uptight old bastard that he was—had been an impressive mercenary in his own right back in his prime. He was careful enough not to be overheard if he was talking Guild business within the library.
She gave a sly shrug. “I have my ways, DeLuna. Anyway, you wanna hear this or not?”
“Obviously,” I drawled.
“So, apparently there have been a few unexplained mercenary deaths lately,” she told me in a conspiratorial voice. “Like, more unexplained than usual. Mercs being killed in their own homes, not on a mission, with no motive or reason. Did you ever meet Petr Wagner? Hacker merc, super cute, thick German accent? He was found in his own bed, throat slit, no signs of forced entry. Hell, his own security systems were still active, and they were super high tech.”
I frowned. Petr Wagner. Why did that sound so familiar?
“Okay, but mercs get killed for all kinds of reasons, why do you think it’s connected to these attempts on me?”
“Because it’s not just him. Franklin seemed to be alluding to a lot of mercs being killed or just disappearing. It’s almost like someone is targeting the whole Guild. Not just a few mercs.” She finished her martini, then held the empty glass out to me. “Refill, please!”
I got up and went to make her another cocktail, pondering her theory that it wasn’t me being targeted. But… why would Emmanuel Blanchet want to kill off the Guild? He was on the Circle. That seemed illogical. Unless he wanted to establish a new mercenary guild in the power vacuum it would create? One that didn’t require seven ruling members, perhaps? Maybe one that only he was in charge of?
Damn it, this was only giving me more questions. Though, I’d admit, it made me feel a little better to hear I wasn’t being specifically targeted. Surely Leon knew more than he’d told me. He was an executioner and a tech bunny. He knew the identity of the Circle, something not even the Circle themselves knew. So he must know more.