That name alone made Addie put on her serious voice. “Did he follow you? Does he know where you live?”
“Undetermined. He interrupted my date, but there were no indications he followed us home.”
“Did your date see him? Would he be able to identify Stannis?”
I had no time to think, but my brain did the processing for me. If at any point The Firm thought we had exposure from Marcus they might decide to deal with him. So I did the only thing I could. I lied. “No. I ran after him. I saw him as I was trying to get his mask off but when the civilian approached, I put the mask back. I didn’t want him having exposure.” Over the years I’d learned to lie expertly. But I’d never lied to Addie. It didn’t sit well to do it now.
“Jesus Ly, that could have been bad.”
“I know.” I rubbed my temples in an attempt to ward off the adrenaline headache. “I want an assessment on my ID and location.”
She sighed. “Only you would somehow get mugged by a member of Victus on a date.”
“I didn’t go looking for any trouble. Trouble found me.”
“Jesus, Ly.”
“You know what? You say that like this is my fault. I was standing there, minding my business and looking cute and kissing a hot guy, who by the way, is an excellent kisser, and bam, we got tackled.”
There was another beat of silence. “Uh, I need you to rewind to that part about kissing a hottie.”
I smirked at that. “Oh, you caught that, did you?”
“Did you and Mr. Boring finally knock boots?”
“No, we did not knock boots. But we did kiss, and he’s been holding back on me.” Her giddy squeal made me laugh, and I chuckled. “No getting excited.”
“Who’s getting excited? I’m just saying it’s about time he dusted off your vag.”
“I don’t want my vag to be dusted off, Addie. Can we focus on the mugger, please?”
“Oh my God, fine. I’ll take a look. Now, tell me everything.”
“We were about to really, really make that kiss worth something, and then the mugging happened. The guy grabbed my purse and I chased him down.”
She sighed. “Lyra.”
“What? My gun was inside the bag.”
“What’s one gun on the street? There are millions. Sad but true. It’s untraceable.”
“You know I can’t let that fly, Addie.”
She sighed. “Do-gooder Lyra. I do love you for it.”
“You are a do-gooder too, Addie.”
“No, I’m not. I just play one on ops.”
“Stop it. You’re very good at your job.”
“I am, but sometimes I wish I wasn’t so good at it. But anyway, I’ve got an eye out. If anything comes up, we’ll see it.”
“Thanks. It was my favorite gun.”
“You and that damn gun.” She rolled her eyes.
Roz had given it to me when I first joined The Firm. It was a small, compact Beretta. I disliked the fact that it was a girl gun, but I did like that it fit in my bag.
I felt a pang when I thought of that purse. My mother had been a fashion designer. I’d travelled with her a lot when I was a kid for her work. That purse had been part of her collection. When I was seventeen, I’d borrowed it without permission and gotten an ink stain on the inner lining.
My mother had been less than pleased and banned me from ever borrowing it again. But at my graduation from high school, she’d relented and let me borrow it. And when she died, she left me everything. But like the rest of my old life, I’d buried that part of me in a storage facility near where I’d grown up outside of Boston.
The HD Accra had been the only item I’d kept with me in my new life.
It was funny how buried memories never wanted to stay that way.
Most of the things, I’d doled out to my aunts. I’d only kept the HD Accra clutch. The son of a bitch had taken it from me, so I wanted access to him to make him pay.
We’re not in the revenge business.
Yes, yes, not in the revenge business. Blah-blah-blah.
“Hey, we all have our crutches.”
Addie turned the topic back toward what she wanted to hear. “So back to this mind-blowing kiss. And please, please tell me you saw a dick.”
“No, I did not. But I sure felt one though.”
“Okay, this is getting better.”
I laughed. “Oh Addie, no, he, um, helped clean my knee because I got hurt.”
Addie laughed. “Did you even feel the skinned knee?”
“No. But still, I had to pretend and play it up for him.”
She chuckled softly. “If he only had a clue about our training.”
“The skinned knee was hardly something to even stop for. Anyway, he cleaned up my cuts, patched me up and all that goodness, and then I tried to let him down easy.”
She groaned. “Oh my God, no. Why?”
“Well, you know, I just… If I have trouble, I’m not dropping it at his doorstep. That’s not fair.”
“Right. Okay, then what?”
“Then I tried to tell him that we were probably great as friends. He said he had zero interest in that because he had plenty of friends. And then I kissed him.”
All I heard was a slapping noise from her end. “Hot damn. Yes, you did. Way to send mixed messages.”
I snorted a laugh then. “You’re ridiculous. I was confused, okay?”
“I know. But that’s why I’m so loveable. Anyway, so you kissed, and then?”
My insides warmed just thinking about the slow slide of his tongue and the way his hands fisted ever so slightly in my hair. “It was a really, really good kiss.”
She cackled at that. “About damn time. Now do you see what you’ve been missing out on? Hooking up with Valentine ops, while handy, is not the way to do things. It makes it so much hotter if you’re like totally into the guy.”
My skin prickled. Addie was the only person other than Roz who knew what had
