“Because the answer won’t change your mood, so I see no point in divulging.”
Growing more agitated with him by the second, Luna didn’t bother responding, merely stepped out of the shower and snatched a towel off the bar, drying off in a hurry as she heard him mutter a curse behind her.
With a quickness she had grown rather good at, she dried off, dressing in a pair of spandex shorts and a tank top. She had the towel clutched in her hands as she ran it over the length of her hair when Kit plucked it from her, tossing it aside.
But when she felt those fingers of his drifting beneath the fall of her hair, she quickly pulled away. He had always been rather good at easing her anger toward him, but for once she didn't want that.
She wanted to hold onto it.
“How’d your meeting go?” she asked, refusing to look at him as she crossed the floor to put more distance between them.
“Which one?”
“The one you were annoyed about.”
At first, it had been a bid to change the subject, to get her mind off of why she was annoyed with him, but as she remembered his odd behavior a few nights ago, she was genuinely curious as to his answer.
“Not as well as expected, but,”—he shrugged, striding naked off in front of her as he went to get dressed as well. — “I have it under control at the moment.”
That sounded rather … vague. “Was it anything interesting?”
Sometimes, the things that people came to him for boggled her mind. Once, there had been a request for a rare white tiger for a children’s birthday party, and another had been the kidnapping of seven wanted men— for crimes Luna didn’t like to think about—and taking them to a remote island where they played a real-life game of Survivor.
People’s imaginations were limitless.
Kit didn’t answer right away, quiet in the closet before he came back out wearing a pair of jeans that sat low on his waist. “It’s nothing to concern yourself with. What we should be worrying about is why your assignments have all resulted in someone getting killed.”
“I’m a mercenary, Kit. I would be more surprised if they didn’t end this way—which should have been a clue considering your part in this.”
“Don’t fault me for wanting to protect you, Luna—someone should have. While I can’t change the past, I can assure that you don’t suffer again like you had then.”
She wanted to hold onto her anger, but Kit had a way with words—a way that had her letting go of the momentary anger she felt toward him.
“I think I’ve told you before that I can take care of myself.”
“Undoubtedly, but you don’t always have to—that’s my job.”
How could she possibly argue with that?
“Now, are you going to tell me what happened, or should I find out from another source?”
“If I do,” Luna said chewing on her lip, “you have to drop the detail and actually keep your word that you’ll stay clear.”
Kit looked like he wanted to argue further, but didn’t. “Go on, then.”
She wouldn’t tell him everything, she decided, just the curious bits. “The guy I was looking for … he knew me.”
Kit shrugged. “I imagine many do.”
“He was there,” Luna rephrased. “At the warehouse where I was kept. I remembered his voice—he was one of the ones that got me out when the place went up in flames.”
“Did he tell you this?” When Luna nodded, he then asked, “What else did he say?”
“He didn’t really get to say much else before someone shot him—apologized, a lot though.”
“If he did what he said, he should have apologized.”
Luna was inclined to agree … but it still didn’t make sense why he had thought Uilleam would send her after him—unless the Kingmaker knew something about her kidnapping that she didn’t.
Had he found the answer she had been looking for all these years?
Sure, she had moved past that time I her life, but she hadn’t moved on, not really. She pondered the truth constantly.
“I’m glad you weren’t hurt,” he whispered a moment before kissing her forehead.
She sighed, laying her head against his chest. “Someone else was looking for him too—I forgot to mention that to Z when I saw him. But I don’t think it really matters because according to him, my job is done.”
“Then perhaps now you’ll let me talk you into taking a vacation.”
She smiled. “We just got back from vacation.”
“I fail to see why that matters.”
Laughing, Luna said, “Maybe. But I have to finish this first, so our plans are on hold.”
“If you insist.”
As Kit finished getting dressed, and her attention was stolen by her chiming phone, something was bothering her, but she couldn’t for the life of her figure out what it was.
At least not at first.
Not until Kit was gone from the room with a whispered goodbye and she was left in silence.
It was the silence that put the pieces together.