Oh, this was just a brilliant first impression.

Justin leaned his forehead against the wall outside Gabriel’s hotel room. The first time he attempted to work with a partner and he ended up getting shot like some useless rookie on his first mission. This was not how the night was supposed to go.

First and foremost, he hadn’t expected Gabriel to accompany him, but shuffle back off to his hotel like a good little assassin. He would then stay out of Justin’s hair until he was needed.

But no, he had to come too. He had to be involved to in order to protect his investment. His cut of the final take.

Idiot—both himself and Gabriel.

Of course, if Gabriel had stayed behind he’d be dead right now. What the fuck? Who just opened fire like that without at least finding out who you were up against? Well, sure… four against two wasn’t exactly a bad thing if you were part of the four.

Resisting the urge to thump his head against the wall in frustration, he looked over to see Gabriel unlocked the door to his hotel room using what looked to be an iron skeleton key rather than the little plastic card that slides into the readers. He always hated those fucking cards. He demagnetized one every damn time he traveled. But the Cincinnatian was one of the oldest hotels in the city and despite having all the modern amenities, it still used real keys. He liked that. Sure, it made it a little easier to break into someone’s room when they weren’t there, but it was also quaint and pleasingly old fashioned.

Standing there, Justin listened to the scrape of metal on metal, trying to keep from leaning his body against the wall. They were white walls, perfect for a dark red smudge of blood. Don’t lean. Don’t lean. Don’t fucking lean. The air was cold. Not comfortably cool from the lingering summer heat, but cold like he’d stepped into a walk-in freezer. Of course, that could have also been the blood loss. He wasn’t sure any more. His thin T-shirt really didn’t absorb the blood like he would have preferred, and it was now soaking into the waist of his jeans and cotton boxer briefs.

At the sound of the door opening, Justin lifted his eyes, but he hesitated in the doorway, watching as Gabriel slowly entered. His gun, clutched tightly in his right hand, was pressed to this thigh as if keeping it hidden from sight. Even as the pain broke and jumbled Justin’s thoughts, he didn’t miss Gabriel’s smooth movements, his steps silent as he rolled his feet evenly across the thick carpet. Each motion was sharp and precise. No waste of energy.

There was no mistaking that Gabriel had been professionally trained, but he couldn’t begin to guess by whom. Definitely not American. There were little slips here and there, hints of an accent or a strange cadence to his words. Most would never notice it, but Justin had been trained to listen for it. Military, plus something else. MI6? KGB? Massad?

“Clear,” Gabriel said as he stepped back out of the bathroom, walking toward Justin with a stack of thick white towels in hand. He tossed them onto the end of the king-sized bed that dominated the room before shutting the door behind Justin.

The room was comfortably large with two windows looking out on downtown Cincinnati. The walls were pale blue as if to keep the occupants floating on a sea of calm while framed abstract art attempted to break up the mind-numbing monotony. The only sign that Gabriel was staying in the room was a small leather satchel laying on the top of the desk in the far corner of the room.

A soft yelp escaped Justin when Gabriel stepped up behind him and jerked up his shirt. Justin twisted around, his bloody hand still pressed to his side, trying to slow the bleeding.

“Damn it,” Gabriel grumbled, stepping around to stand in front of Justin. “It didn’t go straight through.”

“Yeah, that’d mean I was bleeding from two holes instead of just one.”

“It also means that the bullet is still in there and I’ve got to dig it out before sewing the hole shut.”

Quick, efficient hands grabbed the end of Justin’s shirt and pulled it up before he could do more than groan in pain. He bit back another curse as Gabriel wiped the excess blood away with his waded up T-shirt. He leaned down, inspecting the hole in the side of Justin’s abdomen before pressing the shirt against the wound again to stanch the bleeding.

“It’s not bad. Hopefully, the bullet is easy to find,” Gabriel said before turning to walk into the bathroom.

“Are you a doctor?”

“No.” His voice echoed slightly off the marble floor followed by the sound of running water.

“But you’ve done this before?”

“A few times.”

Gabriel returned carrying a bottle of water, a damp towel, and a black leather shaving kit. But Justin barely noticed. While in the bathroom, Gabriel had shed his button-down shirt so that he was now naked from the waist up, revealing hard muscles covered in dozens of black tattoos. His chest, shoulders, and arms down to the elbow were etched in intricate designs, words in multiple languages, and symbols. And because it was the last thing he would have expected to see on his tight-lipped partner, it was all the more stunning and maybe even a little frightening.

Justin was speechless as he watched Gabriel approach the bed. Hooking his foot around the chair for the desk, Gabriel dragged it over to rest next to the bed before placing the water bottle and the towel on the nightstand and the kit on the chair. Turning back to Justin, his nimble fingers started pulling at Justin’s belt.

“Hey now!” he gasped, trying to bat his fingers away with one hand while still holding his T-shirt to his stomach with the other. “Not on the first date.”

Gabriel gave his hand one smack. “Shut up.” He pulled the belt free with one hard jerk, causing Justin’s heart to start racing. A light, dizzy feeling settled around his brain, causing him to sway slightly on his feet. Gabriel methodically unbuttoned and unzipped the blood-soaked jeans, pulling them down to Justin’s hips while leaving his dark red boxer briefs in place.

“Sit.”

Blinking furiously to clear his head, Justin sank down faster than he intended, somewhat fearful that it was his knees giving out than him attempting to sit. He watched as Gabriel turned the leather kit over and opened a secret compartment that revealed a variety of needles, vials, gauze, and other medical items. A little surgery-to-go kit.

“Are you allergic to anything?”

“No,” he quickly answered.

Gabriel glared at Justin over his shoulder and he responded with a lopsided smile. “Not trying to kill you, remember.” There was a hard edge to Gabriel’s voice and Justin couldn’t fight the blush that lightened his cheeks. “I’m allergic to bees,” Gabriel volunteered, his tone softening just a small amount when Justin remained silent.

“Penicillin. But it’s not lethal.”

Gabriel nodded and turned his attention back to the kit. “Won’t need that,” he said, almost talking to himself. When he turned back, he poured a couple white pills into his hand and set both the bottle and the pills on the nightstand. Pulling the gun from its holster at the small of his back, he smashed the pills with the butt of the gun.

“What the hell?”

Sweeping the broken pills into his hand, he dropped the bits into Justin’s free hand. “Take it.”

“What is it?”

“Pain killer.

“But—”

“You need to get that working in your system as fast as possible. Now take it.”

Grimacing, Justin tossed the bits of pills into his mouth, wincing at the disgusting chemical taste that coated his tongue. He eagerly accepted the water bottle, washing the remains of the pills down with several large swallows of water. “What was it?” he demanded again as he put the water bottle on the nightstand. He watched the play of muscles in Gabriel’s broad shoulders as the man dug around in the shaving kit.

“Something like your OxyCotin.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

“You’ll live. Now lie down.”

Justin rolled his eyes but dropped back on the bed as he’d been directed, positioning one of the thick towels under him to try to keep the blood from soaking into the sheets. When Gabriel turned back, he had a syringe in hand. He pulled Justin’s T-shirt aside and jabbed the needled in near his wound.

“It’s a local,” Gabriel said before Justin could ask. “It’ll numb you so I can work. The pain killers should catch what the local doesn’t. Just tell me if you have trouble breathing or your heart rate speeds up.”

“Why? Is that a sign that I’m dying?”

“Probably.” Gabriel lifted his dark gaze to Justin and flashed a rare grin. His heart gave a strange flip-flop, but it had nothing to do with the drugs pumping through his system. Gabriel was just…sexy. His wicked good looks, no-nonsense attitude, and just those fucking lips…Justin wanted to reach up and pull the man down on him so he could kiss them both absolutely senseless.

Instead, he rolled his eyes at Gabriel and looked away. Now was not the time for such things. Fun like that took place when he was no longer at risk of bleeding on everything.

“You do this often?” Justin asked a couple minutes later. He could feel Gabriel digging around inside of him with some kind of hard instrument, but there was no real pain. Just a strange, unnatural pressure that left him feeling uneasy and wishing he was done already.

“What? Dig around in another person’s organs?” he replied. His voice sounded distracted, as if he weren’t really aware of what he was saying because he was concentrating on his search for the missing bullet.

Justin let his eyes fall shut and he threw his arm over his eyes to further shield them from the bright light beside the bed. “Yeah.”

“No. Not often. I’m usually just stitching myself up.”

“Ever stitch up a partner?”

“Shut up,” Gabriel snapped. “I’m trying to find this bullet. Or would you rather me just leave it in you?”

Justin paused, taking in the other man’s suddenly brusque tone. No talk about partners then. “You ever play that game Operation as a kid?”

“What?”

“Operation. You had to pull out things like spare ribs or bread basket or water on the knee from little openings in this guy’s body without touching the sides.”

A few seconds ticked by and Justin licked his lips, waiting.

“What happened if you touched the sides?” Gabriel asked. His voice was lower than it had been, almost cautious, as if he were trying to edge back out on the limb of uneasy friendship with Justin but he wasn’t quite sure he really wanted to.

Justin lifted his arm from his eyes so he could look at Gabriel. “His big red nose would light up and there was this loud EHHHH sound.” Gabriel gave a little start at the horrible noise and Justin chuckled. “This is a lot like that game.”

Gabriel groaned and returned to his work. “You’re a disturbed man.”

“True.”

“But I would have beaten you at that game,” he said with a note of triumph as he held the bloody battered bullet aloft with a pair of silver tweezers. Justin snorted but said nothing as Gabriel returned to work, sewing him shut.

“You didn’t expect tonight to go like it did.” Gabriel’s voice rippled through the silence unexpectedly and for a moment, Justin couldn’t tell if he was asking a question or making a statement. It sounded like a little of both.

Justin sighed heavily, dropping his arm back over his eyes. The room was slipping away from him a little more with each passing second. At this rate, he wasn’t going to be conscious for much longer and he really wasn’t sure if he wanted to pass out around Gabriel. “No. The hit on the doctor was done by a professional. The cops could tell at least two people were in the house, but they’ve found nothing else. I stupidly assumed that the same professional would be watching the house.”

“And a professional assassin is better?”

Justin lifted his arm to glare at Gabriel a moment before dropping it back in place. Only the barest hint of a smile teased the corner of his lips, but his face was otherwise expressionless. “Yes.” His other hand fisted at his side. “A professional, while harder to kill and evade, wouldn’t have gone in, guns blazing, ready to sort things out after everyone was dead. A professional understands the importance of information, information you can only get from a live captive. Fucking amateurs.”

“So, whoever hired the professional to go after the doctor realized after the contract was up that they still didn’t have what they wanted so they went cheap, hired some local gang members to keep an eye on the house,” Gabriel filled in.

Justin fought back a shiver that rose up when Gabriel’s fingers ghosted along a part of his naked skin that hadn’t been numbed by the local anesthetic. He tried to ignore the strong hands meticulously piecing him back together. Had it really been so long ago that he’d enjoyed a night of hot, meaningless sex that he found himself attracted to Gabriel Prescott? Well, other than the fact that the man was ridiculously handsome, even more so with the hidden tattoos, Justin wasn’t entirely sure that Gabriel wouldn’t kill him when this job was over. Was it just restlessness that was drawing him to Gabriel? Getting shot was the first bit of action, the first thrill he’d had on the job in too fucking long. That couldn’t be a good sign.

“You okay?” Gabriel demanded, snapping him out of his aimless train of thought.

“Yeah.” Justin lifted his arm up, squinting against the bright light to see Gabriel now holding the pen light between his lips as he worked. “What were we talking about?”

“The fact that you’ve a hard-on for getting shot,” Gabriel replied, still holding the light between his perfectly white, straight teeth.

Justin marveled at the man’s ability to speak so clearly with the light in his mouth before the words finally sunk in. He jerked upright slightly as if to look at his crotch to make sure that he really didn’t, but Gabriel’s snicker stopped him and he settled with his arm over his eyes. “Fucker,” he muttered. “You don’t mess with someone when they’re drugged to the gills. It’s not nice.”

“Never claimed to be nice,” Gabriel said, his voice sounding slightly farther away. Justin could hear him rummaging through the kit. When he spoke again, his hands were back on Justin’s stomach, a reassuring pressure. “Hiring the locals was a mistake. Makes you think that the money behind this is likely to make more mistakes that we could work to our advantage.”

“True.”

“Think there’s any financial benefit for us if we track down the money?”

Justin gave a little shrug of his shoulder. “Could save some lives.”

“Hmm.”

“What?” Justin snapped. He really wanted to lift his arm to look at Gabriel, but he was too damn tired.

“Marilyn warned me that this wasn’t just about the money for you.”

Justin shoved aside the overwhelming fatigue and dropped his arm on the bed so he could glare at Gabriel. “And what the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“That I am in it for the money and only that. If we can catch the bastard that killed the two researchers along the way, fine. But I’m not jeopardizing the final paycheck if it’s not included in the job.”

“Whatever,” he said with a roll of his eyes. There was no point in getting into it. It was the kind of attitude that he’d expected from Gabriel. For the mercenary, this was business. But Justin knew this was his chance at redemption, his only way of ever looking at himself in the mirror again.

“Am I ready to go back in coach?” Justin asked when Gabriel stepped away from him. There was no missing the slurring of his words. His eyes were closed and in truth he was too

tired to move. The pain killers had kicked in full force and it felt as if his whole body was swimming. Cold air chilled his bare skin, but even that couldn’t get him to move from where he was stretched across the bed. He just wanted to sleep for several hours.

“Soon. Sleep.”

“But—”

“You’ve lost a considerable amount of blood. Sleep. I’ll keep watch.”

“I…I…need to…go,” he murmured. He took a deep breath and slowly released it. Every muscle in his body felt a heavy, falling into a drugged relaxed state. He couldn’t hold his eyes open any longer, but he could feel Gabriel untying one shoe and then the other before pulling them off. The heavy thumps caused him to jerk but even then he couldn’t open his eyes.

“You don’t need to go anywhere.” Gabriel’s words were soft, almost a caress in the darkness. Gentle fingers threaded through his hair, moving it away from his forehead and Justin sighed. “You’re safe.”

“Not…safe.”

“You are. I’ll keep watch.”

“But…”

“I said I would watch your back. I failed once. It won’t happen again.”

Justin wanted to ask what he meant. Was he talking about failing Justin or someone else? But he couldn’t hold onto the thought. Sleep was dragging him under, pushing his ragged thoughts further out to sea. Later. He’d ask Gabriel what the hell he meant later…