Free Spy to Die For (Assassins Guild) by Kris DeLake

it, and sighed. She extended her hand for the tablet.
    “You don’t believe me?” she asked.
    “Oh, I do,” he said.
    “You just don’t know if you can trust me.”
    A small thread of relief ran through him. Just that tiny bit of understanding made him feel better. He really was vulnerable. He braced himself. She was going to cite their night together as a basis for trust.
    “I can understand that,” she said. “I haven’t told you who I am or what I do.”
    She got that, at least. For all he knew, she was the Rover. He felt stupid now for failing to check.
    A man deserved one night off, didn’t he? One night worth enjoying?
    He still clutched the tablet. “Thank you for the warning,” he said. “I appreciate it.”
    He needed a plan, and he wasn’t sure how to make it. Or where to make one. His ship was now compromised. He couldn’t stay on Krell either. And taking a transport seemed too risky.
    He wasn’t used to thinking like this. He had been an investigator forever. He had gone somewhere, found information, and then he had left. Yes, people remembered him—how could they not, he was so tall!—but they never saw him as a threat, because he hadn’t been a threat. Not to them.
    He glanced at the door.
    “You’re going back out there?” she asked, and her voice was filled with concern.
    “Yeah,” he said. Maybe he could risk getting on his ship. Maybe he could get away.
    “These men,” she said, “they know what they’re doing, don’t they?”
    “Yeah,” he said.
    “And you don’t even carry a weapon,” she said.
    It had been a point of pride for him. He had been affiliated with the Rovers, but he hadn’t been of the Rovers. He had been different, not a killer. Someone who prevented them from killing the wrong people, he used to say.
    Until Heller took over. And then Heller would correct him: You’re just making sure we’re taking out the right people .
    Even then, a few years ago, that sentence had bothered Jack. “Taking out” was not the way he wanted to think about the Rovers. And “the right people” meant that the people Rovers killed were legitimate targets.
    Over time, there seemed to be fewer legitimate targets. Just people who deserved to die—according to the Rover who killed them.
    “You have to trust someone,” Skye said.
    He let out an involuntary laugh. “And you think it should be you.”
    “We have that man in common,” she said, and it was Jack’s turn to frown in confusion.
    “I thought you didn’t know who he was,” Jack said.
    “I don’t,” she said. “But it seems he’s here to do more than one job. And I want to find out what the other job is.”
    Job . People in his profession used that phrase for an assassination. It was a job. Nothing more, nothing less.
    He felt his heart sink. So she was an assassin after all.
    “You want to hook up with a man who’s being targeted?” Jack asked.
    “Apparently, you forgot,” she said with a smile. “We’ve already hooked up.”
    “I’ll never forget that.” Jack didn’t smile. He didn’t feel like smiling at all. “But I think it would be better if we followed your original plan.”
    “Because you’ve got a killer after you,” she said.
    He nodded.
    “Did you do something worth dying for?” she asked, and the question seemed to have a deep meaning for her. That frown had grown deeper.
    “Clearly this man believes so,” Jack said, shaking the tablet.
    She sighed. “You have no good options, you know.”
    “Believe me, I know,” he said.
    “I’m the best you’ve got,” she said.
    “I’m not sure why you’re trying so hard to convince me,” he said.
    She nodded once in obvious surprise. “You know, I’m not sure either.”
    And that comment, more than anything else, calmed him just a bit more. If she were trying to con him, she should have continued to push. Instead, she admitted a weakness.
    “Give me the tablet,” she said, reaching for it.
    He still didn’t let go.
    “You