Chapter 5
FIVE
LANCE
Morning light is seeping through a tiny sliver where the curtains don’t touch. It’s blinding. The strip traces over Cricket’s bare tits and then bores into my face. Groaning, I throw my bicep over my eyes.
Cricket tries to wiggle away, but I yank her right back into my embrace. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“I’m hot,” she complains in a sleepy murmur.
“Deal with it, baby. Cuddling is my newest obsession.” I can’t remember the last time I slept over with a woman. And I have a very good memory. A part of me suspects I’ve never actually done it before. Because if it feels like this…why would I stop? Maybe it’s just the Cricket effect.
“How about June twenty-seventh?” I ask.
“Sure. Whatever gets you to stop talking.” Cricket tries to wiggle away again and bury her head underneath the pillow to evade the light.
I peel off the covers and walk over to the curtains, yanking them wide open. The entire room glows with the practically fluorescent morning sun. I smile, looking pleased as Cricket pops up, glaring at me with murder in her eyes. “You are a grade A asshole.”
“Vesper’s sending a pickup location for a car. We’re driving back home. We have to get going anyway.”
“It’s five hours to D.C.”
“Aww,” I tease. “Our first road trip as a couple.”
“Only one of us is making it home alive if you don’t shut those curtains,” she threatens.
“I’m too cute. You wouldn’t get rid of me.”
Her eyes shift to my morning wood, which is currently at full attention. “There are certain things about you I wouldn’t get rid of.”
I scoff, pretending to be offended. “I’m not just a meat market. I need to know you’re not marrying me for my body.” She’s silent as she lifts her brows. Suddenly, my joke seems less funny. “ Right? ” I prod.
She smirks. “You really want to pull at that thread, honey?”
“Where are the wives that swoon over their husbands who insisted on making love to them the night before?” I make my way back to the bed.
“Probably in the nineteen fifties with the other wives who wait by the door with martinis for their husbands to come home.”
I roll my eyes at her sass.
“Oh,” she continues. “You are so sensitive. Last night was the best night of my life. And as soon as I get some coffee in me, I’m all ears about June twenty-first.”
“Twenty-seventh,” I correct. “And there’s no coffee here except for the shitty pods. So, you’ll have to hear me out, get dressed and packed, and then I’ll take you to this cute brunch place I passed last night. I bet they have great coffee.”
“Cute brunch place? Seriously? I just need a black coffee, and I wouldn’t say no to a morning cigar on the balcony.”
I gawk at her. “When did you become the dude in this relationship?”
She scowls. “ Anyway . What’s June twenty-seventh?”
“My mom’s birthday…and I was kind of hoping it could be our wedding date if you’re willing to wait a couple of months. Obviously, Mom can’t come, but I thought it’d be a nice tribute to her. She would’ve loved to see me get married.”
“Oh, Lance.” Cricket drops her sassy smirk and leaves all her playful jokes behind. She cuddles against my chest and drapes the covers over us. “How is she doing?”
“Good…I guess. Vesper doesn’t tell me much, just that she’s healthy and she’s taking all her meds. I think she’s made some friends in the facility, so that’s good.”
“You should go see her.”
“She wouldn’t recognize me.”
“Perfect reason why you should go.” Cricket holds up her hand, caressing my cheek. “Not just for her, but for you too. You deserve to see your mom.”
“Vesper says—”
“Oh fuck what Vesper says,” Cricket grumbles. She twists around, facing me with wide, animated eyes. “If my mother was alive, not Vesper, not Linc, not the entire force of PALADIN could keep me from seeing her. You have to stop drinking the Kool-Aid so hard, my love. Vesper is your boss, not your keeper. What gives her the right to tell you what you can and can’t do?”
“ My love ?” My lips curl into half a smile.
She laughs. “Slipped right out.”
“I like it. I really like it. But as for my mother…Vesper’s right in this. Seeing me might jostle her mind for the worst. She’s at peace because she’s forgotten. It’s best to leave the past in the past.”
Or it’s the mantra I tell myself. I miss my mother. She’s all I have of my old life. The life I never talk about.
To us, my father was an angry, drunk abuser. To the world, he was a decorated cop. Looking back, that’s probably where my distaste for law enforcement came from.
For years, my older brother, Colt, and I would hide while he pounded my mother to a pulp. We were kids…we couldn’t do anything about it. We were barely able to survive the abuse he dolled upon us. So many broken bones that my mother explained away to the disinterested Medicaid workers in the ER. They should’ve known better. They should’ve asked more questions.
“Anyway, what do you think? About the date?” I ask, shaking off the painful memories.
Cricket nods. “A wedding date for your mother. I like that. Let’s do it. On June twenty-seventh, you’ll be Mr. Fiona O’Leary.” She kisses my cheek.
“Not a fucking chance,” I mutter under my breath.
“But anyway, you head home. I’ll find my way back tomorrow,” Cricket says. “I have some business to handle tonight.”
“Business? Vesper gave you another target?”
She falls silent for a beat. “No, but this is one of those ‘ask less questions’ situations, Lancelot.” She turns away and tries to get out of bed.
What the fuck? She just full-named me. I grab her wrist and pull her back into bed. Guiding her knee over my lap, I pull her closer so she’s straddling my upper thighs. “Less questions, huh? Well, in that case… Who? Why? What target?” I cock my head to the side.
“You know, sometimes you’re not cute, just annoying.”
“I disagree. I’m actually delightful twenty-four seven.” I kiss the tip of her nose, but then my expression flattens. “In all seriousness, I told you I love you. I asked you to marry me. From now on… I want to know when you’re in danger—”
“Lance, I don’t need to be babysat—”
“Not for you , Cricket. For me. You shouldn’t marry a guy who doesn’t dread the idea of losing you.”
She sighs, placing her hands on my cheeks. “Who are you? What happened to my playboy best friend? Hm? When did you turn into my knight in shining armor?”
I smile. “Well, I told you, a Romani assassin drugged me with a purple love potion last night.”
Cricket squints at me like I’ve lost my mind, then says, “Good. When do you need to get dosed again?”
“I still want the truth,” I remind her.
Her shoulders rise, then fall as she lets out a heavy exhale. “The man who killed my family has finally resurfaced. It’s been almost ten years, and he’s been nothing but a whisper in the wind. Last night, Rossi accidentally tipped me off.” Cricket points to a small black phone resting on the nightstand, arm’s reach from where she slept. “I have a location.”
It takes me a minute to understand what she’s saying. “Please tell me you want to confront him with handcuffs.”
Cricket’s eyes go hazy and glacial, looking like a swamp that froze over. “No. I made a promise to him a long time ago that I need to fulfill.”
“That promise being?”
“That I’d dance on his grave one day.”
“Cricket—”
“Don’t try to talk me out of it.”
“You took an oath,” I say. “If he’s not an assigned mission, you can’t do this.”
“Vesper will understand.”
I shake my head, and she drops her hands. “She won’t. Vesper will forgive a lot of things…not this. Ask Rhodes, Blain, or Frankie. Oh, wait. You can’t. Because they paid with their lives when they broke their oath.”
Vesper saved us all, and in return, she asked for our loyalty and obedience. We aren’t senseless monsters. We don’t kill for pleasure…or revenge.
“Then don’t tell her,” Cricket whispers.
I fuck up a lot. I’ll admit that. I’m far from Vesper’s golden child. That’d be Linc. But Vesper gave me a second chance. She could’ve turned me away the night Linc brought me to her like a stray puppy. She adopted me, and protected me, the way my mother never could. Vesper taught me everything I value today. I may make jokes at the wrong time, and I refuse to wear a tie, but in all other things, I’m obedient.
“I can’t lie to her,” I say.
“You don’t understand, Lance. This is worth my life . If killing him is the very last thing I do, so be it. I’ll leave PALADIN if I have to. This is my duty to my family.” She studies my pained expression. “My other family.”
“Cricket? What are you saying right now? There is no leaving PALADIN.”
She presses her finger against my lips. “Let’s not talk about it anymore. Stay as innocent in this as you can. My burden to bear, not yours. Go home, Lance. I’ll meet you there tomorrow. I need to do this to be free. And when I marry you, I want to be free from the demons of my past. Please. ”
Her eyes are watering, her cheeks flushed red. Never did I think I’d have to choose between Cricket and Vesper. We’re a team. Same purpose. Same goals. But this…
“Who is this man?”
“Lance—”
“Tell me, and then you have my silence. I promise.”
“Luca Accardi.” She says his name like the words taste bad. “Fourth son of the most powerful don in the Italian mafia.”
Accardi… Yet another woman seeking revenge. “Odd, the woman at the bar—she was looking for him, too. She said it was a personal vendetta.”
“Hm,” Cricket says. “Well, let’s pray I find him first.”