Being out of the trade for several years meant playing Russian roulette with old contacts and friends that could very well be enemies now. There was only so much he could do to maintain the relationships he’d formed when he could no longer be called on to do odd jobs, but Keanu had always made it a point to keep his friends close and his enemies even closer.

Keiko Sakurai happened to be a combination of the two.

Nearly a decade ago, when his main job had been to stand at Uilleam’s side and look menacing, he’d crossed paths with the woman who ran her own organization in Los Angeles despite grueling competition and her father’s disapproval.

Back then, he hadn’t known what to think of her. She’d been a delicate little thing, five foot, if an inch, and kept her blunt black bangs hidden beneath a wig so blonde the strands looked white. On anyone else, the look might have been severe, but it only made Keiko appear ethereal, and more of the daughter her father had always wanted her to be.

But she rarely made choices based on the whims of men, as she liked to put it.

He only hoped she’d bend to his.

Before, he’d very rarely found himself in a room with her, but when he did, they were always cordial, flirty even, but after Paris, that had all changed.

Hopefully, she hadn’t taken offense.

One thing the movies always got right was the front business. In Chinatown alone, there were more than two dozen restaurants in a five block radius with seven on this street alone. Most were upstanding businesses where you could get the best fried rice and Beijing beef money could buy, but at this particular restaurant, with the neon red dragon lit up on its sign, there was more to it than most thought.

“I’ve been thinking, yeah,” Syn said as he climbed out the passenger seat and stepped onto the sidewalk. “They say if you love something, you’re supposed to set it free, right? And if it comes back, the little shit loves you in return. That’s what they say, that is. Load of fucking shit that is, mate.”

Keanu just looked at him.

From the time they’d left the compound, Syn had talked. Nonstop. About anything his sporadic mind could think of. He didn’t even have to respond for the conversation to continue. For most of the ride, he was almost sure Syn had been talking to himself.

This time, his brain had seized on Winter.

He wondered if she knew that Syn hadn’t completely accepted the new reality that she was no longer his to call on whenever he wanted—or even when he needed to it seemed. Which, from what Keanu knew about the man, he was teetering dangerously close to the edge.

It had been ages since he’d seen him this wound up.

Usually, Winter was the one to talk him down, to get to him to see reason before it was too late.

“That’s not how it works,” Keanu found himself saying, relaying advice he should have taken himself years ago when he’d walked away from Charlotte.

“If you know, better,”—better sounded like bett-ah with his accent— “then explain it to me because the whole fucking thing is driving me mental.”

“Maybe after this meeting?” he returned dryly, gesturing to the door with a tilt of his head.

“We’re multitasking.”

Keanu elected to ignore that, walking in first with Syn at his heels.

This late at night, the restaurant was mostly empty save a sparse few patrons spread out along the tables. Each hovered over a plate of food, seeming oblivious to their presence.

It wasn’t as if this was his first time here—he knew which way to go as he bypassed the tables through the kitchen where a short man in a sweaty, stained T-shirt cleaned, until he reached a door in the back that led into the other part of the building that most never saw.

The restaurant wasn’t much to look at with laminate floors and scuffed tables, but that was only to deter the average person from peeking any further pass the initial facade. Once they reached the office in the back room, it was as if all the money had been spent perfecting this one room.

But he expected nothing less from Keiko.

His casual mood disappeared as he stopped several feet from the door, the guards there narrowing their eyes on him, reaching for their weapons. It might have been because they weren’t expecting him, or maybe because he was twice their size, but either way, Keanu held his hands up and smiled.

“I’ve got a meeting with your boss.”

One spoke in rapid Japanese through the ear piece he wore, his gaze never wavering from Keanu. Once he had his confirmation, he twisted the handle of the door and pushed it open, waving for him to go inside.

He took a step, but the man held his hand up. “Your friend stays here.”

Keanu glanced back at Syn before returning to the man. “You sure that’s what you want?”

He might have looked nonthreatening bouncing on the heels of his feet, but the guards obviously didn’t see the utter focus in the man’s eyes, or the switchblade he had cleverly hidden in the palm of his hand.

But he wasn’t one to argue.

They’d be in the path of destruction should anything go wrong.

“Imagine my surprise,” a pleasant voice said as Keanu entered the room, “to hear you wanted a meeting with me. I heard you’d retired.”

Keiko was the picture of innocence sitting behind the ornate desk, her back ramrod straight, her signature silk kimono draped over her. She might have looked like an angel but she was anything but.

There was another guard standing behind her to the left—this one he actually recognized.

“I am,” Keanu said as he helped himself to a seat. “I was, anyway. Special circumstances called me in.”

Her guard came forward, his meaning clear, but Keanu waved him off, removing the Berretta he had on him and setting it on the table—an acquiescence as much as a warning.

Keiko didn’t look nearly as impressed. “We both know you don’t need weapons to kill, Skorpion. I know all too well what those hands of yours are capable of.”

She would.

During their first meeting together, he’d had to make an example of a man that thought to challenge Uilleam simply because he thought he could. Those were the old days though, back when he’d fully embraced the world they lived in.

He didn’t miss the flirtatious bend to her words, and even if he hadn’t had Soleil to consider, he definitely had Ada.

Before he could respond, she tilted her head to the side and said, “But I’m sure you’re not here because you’ve missed me, Skorpion. What can I do for you?”

“The man you sent to Kauai nearly killed my daughter,” he said without inflection.

“I don’t recall sending any of my men after you or your daughter. Either someone was working against my orders—and they’ll be handled—or you interfered in business that’s not yours.”

“Thing is, the woman you put a hit on is my business, and if you’re targeting her, you’re targeting me.”

A muscle jumped beneath her eye, the only fracture in the careful mask she wore. “Where will I find his body?”

He tapped his thumb against the armrest, never taking his eyes off her. They both knew what he would say. “You won’t.” His meaning clicked with the guard first whose face mottled with red, but Skorpion barely slant his gaze in the man’s direction before giving a curt shake of his head. “I wouldn’t if I were you.”

Keiko waved her hand in a dismissive gesture, stilling the man at her back. “If she’s your business and she stole for me, then you stole from me. Friend or not, no one steals from me.”

“Fair enough. Give me a number and it’s yours.”

“If there was a number high enough to appease me, you wouldn’t be able to pay it.”

“Try me. I know how much she took, and even if you combined your usual interest rate when it comes to a loan, I can still get you the money.”

Now, she was the one to crack a smile. “Unfortunately for you, I don’t want your money.”

“Keiko, don’t—”

“Don’t kill her?” she interrupted. “Is that really what you’re about to say? You better than anyone should know how disrespect is tolerated in my business. I won’t risk looking weak because of your new squeeze.”

Keanu regarded her for a moment before leaning forward, resting his forearm on the desk. “Don’t do anything rash,” he corrected.

“Perhaps you should have explained what I do to those that steal from me rather than sitting here with not one leg to stand on.”

“Is that what you think this is?” he asked, forgetting his polite tone and finally allowing the annoyance he felt to creep into his words. “Because if you want to go to war over this, you won’t win.”

“The last I checked, you’re no longer one of the Kingmaker’s mercenaries. If you don’t have his power to back you, are you sure you can afford to risk your life, or the life of your precious daughter, over one woman?”

“I’d set your world on fire for her.”

Her guard finally made his move, reaching for the gun he had tucked away beneath his suit jacket, but he’d underestimated his level of surprise. It might have only taken him less than a minute to pull his gun, but Keanu had his in hand in less than three seconds.

The first bullet he shot into the man’s shoulder, forcing him to drop his weapon, the next went into his thigh, dropping him down to his knees.

“Might want to find another one of those,” he told Keiko, gesturing to her man. “He’s going to be useless.”

Anger lit up her pretty features, but she didn’t dare try to make a move against him. She knew better. She licked her lips, looking to her man bleeding out on the floor then back to Keanu. “I knew you before your retirement, Skorpion, and one thing I remember, you never killed unless given a direct order. Fire as many shots as you’d like, but we both know you won’t kill me, and I promise you now that this will not end well for you.”

“I’m not going to kill you,” he said easily, reclining back in his seat, ignoring the man’s wails from the floor. “I came to bargain with you. The killing … well, that’s what I brought him for.”

There was a moment of confusion on her face before the expression shifted once two blades suddenly embedded themselves in the wood of the door.

Syn always liked his dramatic entrances.

He did everything with a flare for the dramatics, and seeing his work now was no different.

The door jerked open, the two guards that had meant to be watching Syn pinned to the door bodily, two long handled knives holding them in place.

They were both alive, but twin expressions of apprehension kept both of their gazes locked on Syn and refused to move. He hadn’t made a noise outside his knife tricks, and yet the men were too frightened to speak.

Keiko looked momentarily petrified as Syn entered the room, her face blanching as he came toward her, but it wasn’t her he was interested in, rather the man on the ground beside her.

He crouched down, his head tilting from side to side as he regarded the man before sticking a gloved hand out and sticking his finger into the bullet hole in the man’s shoulder.

“Right, mate. That’s very elegant, yeah. Very elegant. I would’ve tried to nick the carotid, myself, but to each his own and all.”

“Choose,” Keanu said as Syn babbled on, effectively giving Keiko all the reason to pay attention. “Take the money and I’ll throw in a small favor for you in the future. Turn it down and I’ll set him loose.”

She glanced at Syn before turning back to him. “A quarter of a million and a favor in the future. For that, I’ll let your little girlfriend live.”

Keanu nodded. “Pleasure doing business with you. Send me the account numbers.”

She didn’t have to know that Syn had a soft spot for women and children, that over his lengthy career, he never touched either—she only needed to know about the hard spots, and he’d made sure that was seen.

“I won’t forget this, just so we’re clear,” Keiko called after him.

“I don’t expect you to,” he replied, whistling for Syn to get off the man he was currently kneeling over.

He knew the rules of the game—he even knew that once he’d offered that favor, he could no longer say he was retired.

Now, for Ada, he was back in.

Uilleam would be thrilled.

* * *

Funny, the difference a few weeks and a change in perspective could make.

While the compound was still terrifying in what it stood for, she wasn’t nearly as nervous to be inside it as she had the first time she’d been here.

There weren’t strange men in masks watching her, or the threat of the Kingmaker looming over her, though she was pretty sure he wasn’t quite done with her just yet.

For most of the time Keanu was gone, she’d sat against the top of the bed she’d been given, her hands in her lap as she thought of where he could be and with who.

The list she’d given him had only had ten names on it, but each of those ten names weren’t good people and she doubted, despite his reassurances, it wouldn’t be as easy as he’d made it out to be.

Money wouldn’t be enough—they’d want blood.

But no matter how anxious she was, she didn’t try to leave the dormitory style room. She doubted everyone in the facility knew about her relationship with Keanu, and in case they didn’t, she didn’t want to inadvertently end up in another cell because she was roaming where she had no business.

She didn’t have to leave her room though for someone to find her—they came to her.

The knock at the door had her standing, looking behind her. She expected a burly man in combat gear, but instead as the door swung open, she was greeted to the sight of a girl with bright silver-dyed hair.

Her lips were painted black, matching the slouchy shirt she wore that read: Bite Me.

“Oh, pictures didn’t do you justice,” she commented thoughtfully, loud enough for Ada to hear, but in a curious tone as if the words were meant for herself.

“Thank you?”

“Right.” She smacked her forehead with the palm of her hand. “You probably don’t know who I am. I’m Winter, the hacker. Keeper of all things electronic. Defender against all things cyber.”

“Ada,” she returned, finishing with, “former accountant.”

“I know all about you, including that Skorpion has a thing for you. What’s he like anyway? I’ve only met him a few times in person.”

The men were all terrifying, honed killers ready to do whatever was told to them, but the women that made up the Den were … odd.

Calavera had looked like what Ada imagined a female mercenary to be, but she hadn’t acted like it. Winter, on the other hand, wasn’t anything like what she expected of a hacker.

And her personality was far too bubbly and kind for the likes of someone that worked for the Kingmaker.

“Nice to meet you, and he’s … great.” Better than she probably deserved, really.

“Wicked. Right, so since you’re going to be sticking around, I probably should give you a tour of the place.”

“Oh, that’s quite alright.” There wasn’t any part of this place she was desperate to see, and more, she was still wearing the tracking anklets the Kingmaker had put on her, and the last thing she wanted to do was end up somewhere he didn’t approve and get tased for it.

“Nonsense,” Winter said with a wave of her hand, not taking no for an answer. “It’ll be fun.”

Winter babbled on, seeming oblivious to the man who slipped into the room with hardly a sound, staying by the door with his arms folded across his chest. His gaze softened fractionally when he looked at Winter, but hardened once more as his gaze shifted back to Ada and stayed there.

She was almost too wary to blink, not wanting to chance taking her eyes off him for a moment. If she had to guess, he was the one Keanu had told her about—Syn, she thought his name was—so if he was here, Keanu mush have been back, but the last thing she wanted to do was ask him.

He had the same sort of uncanny focus as the Wild Bunch had, but there was something decidedly more menacing about his presence compared to them. Whereas it had felt almost clinical in their efficiency to bring her from her office back to this compound, the way he was staring at her made her think he didn’t fancy her being here at all.

Even well across the room, he managed to make the short hairs of the nape of her neck stand on end.

She’d thought Keanu could be intimidating when he glowered, but this was ... he was something else.

Noticing that she hadn’t spoken in a while, Winter paused as she glanced back at the door, and instead of fear, she actually smiled excitedly at the man.

“Syn—”

“Didn’t I ever teach you not to talk to strangers?”

His ireful tone didn’t seem to bother her at all. “If I didn’t talk to strangers, I wouldn’t have ever met you, would I? Besides, she’s practically family, or why else would Skorpion bring her here and say she was off-limits? Stop your grumbling.”

Where the hell had Ada been during that conversation? And what gave Winter the impression he wanted to keep her? Protecting her until the Kingmaker had what he needed was a part of his job—he wasn’t doing this because of his feelings for her … she didn’t think.

“Don’t worry about him,” Winter said looking back at her. “I’d like to tell you he’s not usually this grumpy, but … he is.”

Ada didn’t get a chance to respond before Syn was speaking again. “Where’s that Romanian cunt of yours? Still lurking about?”

Those words meant absolutely nothing to Ada, but they managed to wipe the smile off Winter’s face. One minute, she looked as if she had never frowned a day in her life, now she looked glacial and ready to do him harm.

“I gave you a pass the first, I don’t know, thirty times you’ve said that since you’ve been here, but it’s getting old. Knock if off.”

Ada waited for the moment Syn snapped back—something simmered just beneath the surface of his skin—but he remained rooted in place.

“Just a question. No need to get your knickers in a twist about it.”

Something unspoken passed between the two of them, but Ada didn’t know either of them well enough to figure out what it was, but if she had to wager a guess, it had something to do with the Romanian Syn mentioned.

She was quickly forgotten as the two glared at each other, their now hushed voices as Winter crossed the room still loud enough for her to hear.

“You don’t have to like him, Syn, but you could at least not be a dick all the time. It’s not that hard.”

The leather bracelets circling his wrists slid down as he unfolded his arms. “That wasn’t part of the arrangement, little miss. And no, I don’t like him, just so we’re clear.”

“Are you serious? So what, if you can’t have me all to yourself, you’re going to make everyone’s life a living hell?”

Syn shrugged. “You got wanted you wanted though, eh? Damn the rest of us.”

“No, only you because you’re the only one that seems to give a shit about my sex life. In case you’ve forgotten, I’m an actual person, not just an extension of you.”

“You’re right there, you made your loyalties quite clear.”

“Jesus, Syn! Why does it have to be one or the other? Why are you being so fucking selfish?”

“I’ve always been selfish though, haven’t I? I was being selfish when I saved your life at the bar and when I made sure you had everything you could possibly want, anyone else be fucking damned. But now that you’re not getting what you want from me, now you think I’m being bloody selfish?”

As invested as she was in their conversation and all that it implied, Ada also wanted to sink into the couch cushions and become invisible. She shouldn’t have been privy to this. It was too personal. Too private.

But thankfully, she was saved when the door came swinging open and Keanu stood there, his gaze coming to her first before going back to Syn and Winter.

“You two having another lover’s quarrel?”

Winter was the first to break the staring contest between her and Syn. “He’s an asshole and I’m done.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Syn shot back with a shrug of his shoulder.

He didn’t blink as Winter stuck her middle finger up at him before leaving the room. Syn lingered for a moment longer, his frown growing more pronounced before he, too, left the room and walked the opposite way from Winter, reaching for the cigarette he had tucked behind his ear.

“He’s terrifying, you know.”

“Give it some time, he’ll grow on you. They’re just having a … thing.”

“How was it?” she asked, slipping her hand into his as he helped her to her feet.

“Could’ve been worse, but it’s handled. Now I just need to work through the remainder of the list.”

“Tonight?” she asked, already thinking of the little room on the floor above.

“Tomorrow,” he corrected. “Tonight, I’m taking you back to my place.”

She thought of asking questions, but knew that if it wasn’t safe, he wouldn’t be suggesting it. “Are they going to be okay?”

“Syn and Winter? This is their thing. They’ll figure it out.”

Ada wasn’t so sure.