Justin really hated to admit it, but he was struggling to keep his eyes off Gabriel’s ass in those damn tight black pants. They were sneaking through the heavily landscaped yards near the Jones home, with Gabriel in the lead. The man looked sexy as hell dressed all in black. He also looked deadly as hell since he knew the outfit was topped off with two glocks and at least a half dozen knives. God only knew what else was stashed on his long, muscular frame.

The fact that he was crawling through the bushes near the Jones home sporting a fucking semi meant that he’d either lost his mind or he’d developed something of a death wish. Probably a little of both. He definitely wanted to crawl all over Gabriel and see if he could find where he hid all his weapons.

His attraction for Gabriel wasn’t sane. He half expected the assassin to go all “praying mantis” on his ass after they fucked again. Popping off at him when they arrived to talk to Devon only proved that he couldn’t get his head in the game. They’d walked out in the open down the block in broad daylight and the warning voice in his head had screamed for him to tackle Gabriel to the ground, that a sniper was just waiting to take them both out.

Gabriel was right—not that he was in any hurry to admit that to the man. Their luck was absolute shit on this job. They had to catch this asshole and find out how he kept getting ahead of them.

Reaching fresh cover under a massive maple tree, Justin hunkered down and looked over the two-story house. All the main lights were out, but from his view in the back yard, it looked as if there was a nightlight or possibly the work light over the stove left on. Probably an old habit from the days of when his wife would return home late from work or when one of them would need to make a late-night bottle for their daughter.

Justin scrubbed a hand over his head and forced his thoughts away from Kristen and Kevin’s disrupted lives. Sure, he was doing this job for the money, but it was also about getting justice for two innocent people. Though he wasn’t so confident that his partner would agree with those reasons.

He could feel something dark slithering around in Gabriel’s brain and Justin wasn’t sure if it was from his training or something that had happened to him. There was just something in his touch, in his quiet smile, that made Justin refuse to believe that the man was innately evil and indifferent to the world. For Gabriel, it felt more like a survival technique and Justin could understand that all too well.

At just after midnight, the house appeared to be locked up tight. Some of the surrounding neighbors still had some lights on, but for the most part, the residents of this quiet subdivision were in bed for the night. That worked for them. The fewer eyes watching out the windows the better.

Justin glanced over at Gabriel’s position on the side of the house in time to him motioning toward the person casually jogging down the sidewalk. The only problem was that this person was dressed in dark clothes when other local runners were at least smart enough to pull on something reflective or light in color.

As the tall, slender runner reached the front yard, it became clear that he was holding a bottle of sorts in his right hand. Taking the first step into the yard, there was a soft snick and a little teardrop of fire appeared from a lighter. The flame was raised closer to the bottle. It didn’t take any more for Justin to realize that the bastard was about to light a Molotov cocktail and toss against the house or through a window.

Pushing to his feet, Justin saw Gabriel raise his gun toward the arsonist. The suppressor screwed onto the front muffled the single shot significantly, but it did nothing for the sound of shattering glass or the cursing of the surprised man. The lighter disappeared and the bastard failed to burst into flames as Justin had hoped. It didn’t matter. Justin was already charging toward his target as a second-floor light flicked on.

Leaping into the man as he started to turn, Justin tackled him to the hard ground. The fresh scent of dirt and grass surrounded them. As Justin grappled to get in position on top of the man, the assailant’s knee came up and slammed into the wound in Justin’s side. Air rushed out of him between clenched teeth and his hands loosened against his will. The bastard shoved Justin off of him and rolled until he was back on his feet. Gabriel shouted for him to stop, but the man kept going down the street. It was on the tip of Justin’s tongue to shout at Gabriel to shoot the fucker in the back, but there was little doubt in his mind that someone was now looking out their window at them.

With a snarl, Gabriel ran after the Jones would-be attacker and Justin followed close behind. They might have been hesitant to shoot the guy, but all bets were off if the guy reached a car before they did and tried to run them down. Justin would happily put two in the asshole’s forehead and he didn’t care who was watching.

The same idea must have occurred to Gabriel because they ran after the man until they saw him pull up his pace as he approached a dark car. Gabriel stopped and raised his gun. With an exhaled breath, he squeezed the trigger. In the streetlight, they could see the bullet tear through the meaty section of the man’s calf. As that foot came down, he cried out and hit the pavement hard.

They both reached their fire bug at roughly the same time. Justin was about to reach for him when Gabriel flipped his gun around and slammed it against the side of the man’s head. Their prey crumpled to the ground like a sack of rotten potatoes. Justin looked up at Gabriel to find the man grinning at him.

“Tell me you’ve got a secret little hideaway we can use to talk to our new friend,” Gabriel said.

Now he was definitely hard, and there was no question that the remains of his sanity had flown out the window. “How turned on would you be if I did?”

“Very,” he growled, taking a step over the unconscious man to get closer to Justin.

“Then go get the car. I’ve got a secret club house we can use.”

Gabriel nodded before darting off to where they’d parked the rental car more than a block away. Okay, so maybe he had like four super-secret club houses where he could do top secret things on the fly if he happened to be on the run, but there was no way he was going to show Gabriel his favorites. He might be dying to stick his dick in the man and fuck them both senseless, but he had enough brains to know that he couldn’t trust the assassin. Well, not completely…maybe.

Justin looked down hitman at his feet, bleeding from his temple and leg. He and Gabriel might be working on this contract together, but if Justin were to cross the wrong people, he could find himself bleeding on the ground and Gabriel standing over him far too easily.

They were in a cabin in the woods.

Gabriel grimaced, sure that this was the start of every bad horror movie he’d ever watched in his life. Justin had brought him and the hitman targeting them to a fucking cabin in the goddamn woods. And judging by the enormous grin Justin’s face, he knew exactly how twisted Gabriel found this location and he was reveling in it.

Of course, maybe he’d reveled a little too much in shooting and pistol-whipping the bastard that had made their life hell so far. But it had been nice to be the one delivering the ass-kicking for once.

Every inch of this job had been an absolute shitshow and if $22 million hadn’t been on the line, Gabriel would have seriously considered walking away. But with his half of the money, he could take a year or two off. Maybe relax and take up a hobby. He wouldn’t, of course. He’d be bored out of his mind inside of a week, but the idea of having that option was always comforting.

While Justin secured the man to a sturdy chair using a mix of wire, rope, and duct tape, Gabriel leaned against the wall and glanced quickly over their surroundings. It was largely a one-room open floor plan with a little kitchenette off to his left and a door that probably led to a bathroom. The rest of the room was empty except for the chair in the center under a bare bulb hanging from the ceiling and a battered folding table shoved against the far wall. The floor was just a slab of concrete that looked a bit stained where the chair rested. As if blood had pooled there on more than one occasion and then been partially washed away with bleach.

Gabriel recognized this cabin as Justin’s secret interrogation room only because he’d played in similar setups over the years. Even been the one sitting in the chair a time or two. He’d just never had the pleasure of having a set location because he was constantly on the move.

“So, how do you want to do this?” Justin asked after he placed a final piece of tape across the man’s mouth.

“Check his leg. I don’t want him bleeding out before we can get any information from him,” Gabriel said.

Justin nodded and pulled out a knife from some secret holster on his body. He easily sliced through the soft material of his jogging pants and pulled it away to reveal a blood-covered flesh and a clean wound through the muscle. “Through and through. No bullet for you to dig out,” Justin replied.

“I don’t dig bullets out of assholes trying to kill me.” He frowned at the silent man with the shaggy brown hair and pale face. There was a sprinkling of gray in the scruff on his cheeks and more threaded through the mop on his head. He looked to be at least in his forties. No bad for a hitman. Gabriel took it as a sign that he must be pretty good at his job. At least, usually. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have lived quite so long. “Do you recognize him?”

Justin grunted. “One of his aliases is Peter Molston. I know that he’s picked up several contracts that I wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole. Nasty ones.”

“Careful now,” Gabriel warned softly.

Justin whipped around to face him, eyes narrowing. “I know he was the triggerman on at least two contracts where the targets were kids. One contract her own father took out. Divorce case that he lost. Didn’t want to pay child support. Another was a senator who found out his thirteen-year-old son was gay. He was worried about his re-election chances if the news came out.”

Gabriel clenched his teeth to keep from speaking, but he knew he failed to keep all reaction from his face because something in Justin relaxed just a little bit. He knew the man had doubts about him, questioned exactly where he drew the line when it came to taking a contract. Gabriel had distinct lines in the sand. He never targeted children and rarely women, though he’d taken out a couple who were fellow assassins. But those women knew how to take care of themselves in this business, and they would have happily killed him if he’d given them the opening. He also avoided any contracts where the target was clearly innocent of any substantial wrongdoing, but he wasn’t going to admit to Justin that he appeared to be as picky as his temporary partner.

“You’ve got a point,” Gabriel murmured.

Justin rolled his eyes and then turned back to their guest. “This douche nozzle will happily kill a target for just about any price.”

“And it appears that the price for us was just right.”

Dark eyes blazed at Gabriel above the strip of silver duct tape. Peter had come around while Justin had been poking at the gunshot wound in his leg. Sweat dripped down his pale face streaked with blood. He looked as if he wanted to kill them both with his bare hands if given the chance. It was sad. He was accustomed to others in the business being so remote and reserved in their dealings. Gabriel found himself wondering if this hotheaded passion was an American trait.

“So, you know how this game goes,” Justin said, his voice becoming deceptively playful. “You answer our questions and we won’t hurt you. Lie or refuse to answer, and we start removing body parts.”

Reaching up, he grabbed the corner of the tape and ripped it off the man’s lips, pulling a loud hiss from the man.

“Fuck you!” Peter snarled.

“Who hired you?” Gabriel demanded.

“Fuck off!”

“Who put out the contract for us?”

“Fuck. Off.”

Justin grabbed his gun and fire one bullet neatly into the man’s right knee. The man’s loud howl filled the cabin and Gabriel just sighed.

“That’s a bit of a large target to start with when you know we’re going to be here for a while,” he said, earning a glare from Justin. Sometimes he couldn’t help but needle the man. The passionate side of Justin was too damn much fun. “Maybe we should have started with torture for an hour or so and then got to the questions.”

“Nope, I’m not spending my entire night here. I’ve got other things I’d rather do with my evening.” Justin turned back to the assassin who was sucking in short, sharp breaths through his clenched teeth. “Maybe you don’t know who put out the contract. A lot of those are anonymous and you don’t seem like the type to research them. How about you tell us what the job was?”

“Fuck—”

“Yeah, yeah,” Justin muttered. He stepped closer and pressed the muzzle right up against the man’s dick.

Peter jerked as best he could, trying to get away despite being tied down and having two injured legs. He screamed in pain and Justin hadn’t even pulled the trigger yet. “The doctors! The doctors!” he shouted. Justin took a step back, but kept the gun pointed at Peter’s groin. “Kill the doctors. But when I was getting ready to leave town, another contract came in. Watch the homes of the two doctors as well as that old lady. If anyone that wasn’t a cop came snooping around, I was to kill them.”

“That was you in the truck at the grocery store?” Gabriel asked.

Peter pressed his lips together and glared at him until Justin moved his gun back against is cock. “Yes! Yes!” he said with a hiss.

“And my hotel room?”

“No. Local freelancer I hired to go through the room while I followed you to the hospital. Looking for your name and if you were just some private investigator called in.”

“Got more than you expected, I would wager,” Gabriel sneered.

“Maybe, but you haven’t been so hard to track,” Peter snapped back.

Justin laughed. “Yeah, but we’re not the ones with a gun against his balls. Who the fuck hired you?”

Peter looked up at Justin, his expression full of contempt. “Like you said, why the hell would I care who hired me? As long as the money is good.”

Justin stared at the bound hitman for a moment before wearily shaking his head. Something in his expression tightened Gabriel’s chest. He pushed off the wall and was starting to reach for him, when Justin took a step back, pressed the muzzle to Peter’s forehead and pulled the trigger. The gun shot was loud in the small cabin and Gabriel winced at the explosive sound. Peter slumped dead in the chair.

Frustration mounted within Gabriel but it had nothing to do with Justin’s execution of the assassin. That he agreed with. Peter either didn’t know or had no intention of telling them who ordered of the contact that killed the two doctors or put them in his crosshairs. The continued interrogation would have been a waste of their time. Peter had no intention of halting his pursuit of them.

“How long before you think his client realizes he’s either left town or is dead?” Gabriel asked.

Justin shrugged. “Probably several days, if not longer. That should give us some time to work without needed to look over our shoulder every second of the day.” He holstered his gun under his arm again and turned toward the door.

“How do you want to dispose of the body?” Gabriel asked, following behind him into the fresh night air. The wind had picked up, carrying with it the smell of rain. It had cooled off significantly with the promise of a summer storm.

“I’ll call a friend. He’s got gators.” He locked the door behind Gabriel and flashed him a wicked grin.

“Gators? As in alligators? In Ohio?” Gabriel wasn’t sure if Justin was teasing him or if gators was a euphemism for something else or if he meant the enormous reptile that closely resembled its dinosaur ancestors.

“Yes, as in alligators, but he’s actually in Kentucky. Not Ohio.”

“Aren’t those things more in your southern states? Like Florida?”

“Yeah, but my friend Nate’s a good, southern boy and he likes gators. And I pay him well to do a little clean up for me. He uses the leftovers to feed his gators sometimes.”

Gabriel stared at Justin over the hood of the car, his hand on the driver’s side car door handle. He truly did not know if Justin was telling the truth or not, and there may have been a little part of him that prayed he was. He liked the idea of Justin having a friend with gators. He just hoped he never served as a meal for those gators.

“Let’s get out of here and make some plans. We got one problem off our back, but we’ve still got to figure out who ordered the hit in the first place.”

Justin grunted, his expression turning dark again. He fell silent in the passenger seat, staring out the front windshield. It was only when they’d been on the road for a few minutes that he finally spoke up again.

“Drive by the Jones place again. I just want to see that everything is quiet there.”

“Agreed,” Gabriel murmured. It wasn’t often that he got to see his actions save a life. He’d taken out some horrible people in his lifetime, but never while they were in the middle of hunting down a target. It would be nice to see the Jones house quietly intact and peaceful. He wanted to believe that Devon and his daughter were asleep in their beds and unaware of how close they came to dying. That knowledge might help to wash away the stain of death clinging to them at the end of the night.