I wasn’t accustomed to being turned down.

In certain circles my reputation dropped panties willingly.

I was many things but I wasn’t a fucking rapist.

Killer, yes; rapist, no.

I drew the line somewhere.

Driving into the small upstate New York town, I ignored the quaint cuteness and pulled into the corner market.

I had dozens of hideouts dotting the states, small shacks buried in the middle of nowhere, loaded with supplies, and completely off the beaten track so as not to draw attention.

Money wasn’t an issue for me. I paid cash for everything. Left no trail.

Hell, I had enough to retire happily and comfortably but then what? I wasn’t the kind of guy who sipped mimosas by the beach, doing crossword puzzles in the shade.

I needed the action.

The adrenaline kept me sharp.

But it was more than that.

I wasn’t suited for anything else.

I’d long since come to grips with the fact that I would always live on the fringe of society.

And I was okay with it.

Bree was the fly in the ointment.

I grumbled, annoyed at my own stupid, circular thoughts. I’d never been overly deep or philosophical but suddenly questions I’d never cared to ask were cramming themselves down my throat.

It was Bree’s fault.

Speaking of...

Bree didn’t want to eat MRE’s.

I didn’t want her blowing up the toilet.

So, that meant I needed to find something else for her to eat.

I stalked into the store, still out of sorts, throwing odds and ends — basically anything that said ‘gluten-free’ and ‘organic’ on the packaging — into the cart before adding a six-pack of beer, too.

I’d definitely need to drink if I was going to survive any amount of time stuck with Bree.

The taste of her sweetness remained on my tongue. I’d always thought a short blonde felt best in my arms but Bree was neither and she’d nestled against me damn near perfectly.

I know she was into it, I thought to myself, replaying the events in my head. So why the brakes all of a sudden?

Sure, I was a bit rusty but my skills couldn’t have completely disappeared in the six months that I’d been without a woman.

Had I come off as some clumsy hick who couldn’t get the job done?

A pinch of insecurity — totally foreign and discomfiting — rode my ass all the way to the check out lane.

How had nerdy girl turned me down?

I hadn’t imagined the urgency as our mouths had devoured each other.

No. Bree was no actress. Everything she felt or thought rippled across her expression likes waves in a pond. She’d definitely been into it.

I paid with cash, ignoring the flirty looks the cashier was throwing my way like candy at a parade and climbed back into the truck.

Not into me.

Yeah, right.

Her pussy was so wet she was practically dripping through her jeans.

Fuck it, why did I care?

Bree wasn’t the kind of chick you banged hard and never spoke to again.

I didn’t like entanglements — attachments.

If you didn’t let people in, they couldn’t disappoint you.

Pretty simple rule.

And it’d worked for me up until this point. No sense in changing things up now.

I rarely skipped down Memory Lane for good reason but there was something about Bree that teased my brain.

I didn’t know her — it wasn’t like she was some remnant from my childhood — but, hell, I couldn’t tell you why there was something about Bree that had a grip on me. I just knew that it was rapidly becoming a bigger problem than I could’ve imagined.

My cell buzzed.

Checking the caller ID before I answered, I saw it was my broker within the network.

Jimmy exploding in my ear nearly had me hanging up almost immediately but I needed to talk to the asshole so I let him have his freak out.

“Are you trying to get us both killed? I just got your message and my first and only question is WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK? You don’t get to take a job and then, change your fucking mind, you cocksucking idiot.”

“Calm your tits, Jimmy,” I said, too irritated to deal with Jimmy’s bullshit right now. “I’ll return the money. I’m pulling out.”

Jimmy’s short spat of hysterical laughter didn’t bode well.

“Oh, is that so? Well, sorry to burst your bubble but no can do, buddy,” Jimmy said and I could almost hear his jowls shaking. “You really ought to read the fine print before you take on a job.”

“What do you mean? What fine print?”

“You gotta finish the job or the job will finish you. No loose ends. You getting me? So just do the job already and be done with it. Jesus, Dex, how hard can one little nerd be to find and get rid of?”

I silently cursed my failure to do my own due diligence before accepting the job. I’d gotten lazy, overly confident.

Definite rook move. No time to beat myself up over that mistake.

“Who’s financing the job?” I asked irritably.

“What does it matter? As long as their wires go straight to your account and I get my cut, it don’t matter who’s signing the check.”

Under normal circumstances, Jimmy was right. I didn’t care about the ins and outs of a job.

But that wasn’t the case this time.

And I didn’t trust Jimmy to not double cross me if he found out that I had Bree with me.

Two bounties were better than one in Jimmy’s eyes.

I also knew that Jimmy wasn’t going to let this go without some persuasion.

“I want to know who wants the girl dead. I’m calling in my chip, Jimmy,” I said, reminding him of what he owed me. Jimmy had a gambling problem. When he owed a fat sum of money to a low-level loan shark, I made the problem go away.

With the understanding that one day, I’d call in a favor.

Well, today was that day.

A long pause followed before Jimmy asked, worried, “Fuck, Dex. You’re not going soft on me, are you?”

I didn’t for a minute think that Jimmy was worried for my welfare, but rather his meal ticket. Jimmy had expensive tastes and even pricier vices.

“Of course not,” I scoffed. “But something about this deals smells like shit and I want to know who’s funding this gig that way, if something goes south and they come for me...I know who I’m dealing with. My gut never lies, you know that, Jimmy.”

No arguing on that score.

“True enough,” Jimmy grumbled, admitting, “Yeah, now that you mention it, I did wonder who cared so much about one nobody photographer. Her pictures aren’t even that great, you know what I mean? We ain’t talking Ansel Adams, here.”

I smothered the immediate defensive growl that threatened to rumble from my chest on Bree’s behalf.

I thought her pictures were nice enough.

I’d seen worse in high-end galleries.

Besides the point. I pushed aside those thoughts to redirect. “I need a name by tomorrow, Jimmy.”

“Tomorrow? What am I, a magician? You know these things are delicate. Give me three days. Where you at?”

I wasn’t going to share my location. Like I said, I didn’t trust Jimmy with anything but his ability to find me jobs.

“Just call this number. I’ll answer.”

Me and Jimmy had a symbiotic relationship. He found the jobs; I made him a lot of money.

But we weren’t buddies by any stretch of the imagination.

Jimmy didn’t even know where I lived. We conducted our business through untraceable burner phones. We weren’t on each other’s Christmas list and that suited the both of us just fine.

“Tomorrow,” I reminded him as I clicked off, not giving Jimmy the chance to bluster his way into more time.

It was going to be hard enough to spend the night lying next to Bree without wanting to touch her, much less spend the next three days practically running into each other.

I could handle one night.

In fact, I’d probably just plan to sleep on the sofa.

It was safer that way.