Page 33 of Ashes to Ashes

My blood ran cold. “Have I told her what?” I asked, careful to keep my voice modulated.

“Don’t be coy,” he answered jovially and I relaxed. If he could be flippant, he certainly wasn’t referencing that. Then again, we’d only ever talked about it once, and neither of us had ever mentioned it again. As far as I was concerned, I could go the rest of my life without ever discussing that day. Shit, if only I could forget ittoo.

“I’ve never been coy a day in my life,” I answered, pushing those dark memoriesaway.

“You’re going to make me spell it out, aren’t you? I shouldn’t be surprised though. You’ve never given a straight answer to anything your whole damn life,” he said around a mouthful of food. “Have you told her about, you know, the sex thing?”

I groaned. In a list of my Top Ten Biggest Regrets in Life, taking Gage to an exclusive sex club in DC a former client had turned me on to ranked pretty high up there. Gage didn’t just love sex, he loved talking about sex. And against my better judgement, I’d gotten drunk afterward and told him how they knew my name at thedoor.

“It’s not a sex thing,” I explained for probably the millionth time. Why he persisted in calling it that was a mystery.

“Dude, you like tying women up. And I’m pretty sure the Army fucked you up good because that whole ‘sir’ thing is just weird.”

No matter how many times I tried to tell him that’s not how it worked for me, he refused to listen. I think he’d probably watched that sex movie all the women loved a few too many times.

“I don’t know why I bother talking to you anymore,” I said with a sigh. I loved my cousin—as much as I loved anyone, really—but he was hard to take in large doses. Everything was a joke to him and that’s just not the way I was wired.

“You have to,” he replied. “If you don’t, I’ll tell my mom, who’ll tell your mom … and we both know that’s not a phone call you want to get. You’re supposed to be looking after me, remember?”

“Right,” I laughed, “because you’re perfectly harmless and couldn’t get by in the world without my supervision.”

As a government-trained assassin, Gage hardly needed looking after. But our family had no idea what he really did for a living. His cover as a bodyguard with McClintock Security was solid, especially since all of Dermott’s employees had similar backgrounds. As far as I knew, though, Gage was the only one of us who’d ever been sent to put a bullet between the eyes of a dictator during a black-tie dinner. Back when I was still active duty, I’d been more of an “under the cover of darkness” type of operative.

“Yup, perfectly harmless,” he replied with a hint of mocking blitheness.

“I’m hanging up now,” I toldhim.

“Fine, run and hide from your little cousin on that big compound of yours. But remember what I said. Don’t get attached.”

“I won’t get attached,” I promised and clicked the red button to end thecall.

The only problem was I thought I might alreadybe.

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