I’d settle for Addie right now, but I knew she’d opt to poison Tyler on the spot, and I needed answers that did not include murder at the moment. After ten minutes of searching for Roz, I had no choice but to head to my station. I was located in a semi-private corner with Addie and another field agent, Mick. Mick was on a long-term assignment in Yemen, so for the past three months, it had just been Addie and I.
My gaze bounced around the room, looking for my ill-fated ex, but there was no sign of him… or Roz. I didn’t have any other choice; I had to go about my job. I filled out reports from the mugging and continued working on a briefing about an Albanian smuggling crew until the briefing on Victus was scheduled to begin in thirty minutes.
Addie had zero chill when she found me at my desk. “Holy fuck, Lyra. Have you seen—”
I beat her to the punch. “Tyler? Yeah, I saw him as I was walking in. You know, with Marcus.”
Addie’s eyes lit up. “Marcus. As in your date, Marcus?”
“Yes. He thinks we’re dating now.”
Addie choked out a laugh. “What?”
“Yeah, I know. He thinks that last night I showed him a side of myself I never have before. Which is, of course, accurate. But now, especially since I told him I don’t think we should date, not that I didn’t want to date, he thinks we are dating. And he insisted on walking me here today, where we ran into Tyler.”
Her wide eyes bugged out in her expressive face. “Oh my God, how did that go? What did Tyler say?”
“Tyler was an asshole. He tried to posture, though for what reason I have no idea. It makes no sense. Especially after the way that ended.”
Addie just laughed. “Oh my God, it makes so much sense. He didn’t want you, but now that he sees someone else wants a toy from his toy box, he wants to pee all over it.”
“I’m not a toy. And he can fuck right off.”
Addie clapped. “Amen, sister. What are you going to do?”
I tugged on one of my curls as it tickled my ear. “I don’t know what to do. This is not how any of this is supposed to happen. I was never supposed to see him again. After all, what reason would I have to see him again? He wasn’t even stationed here, but now he’s been transferred.”
Addie winced. “Yeah, a Victus sighting, that’s kind of a big deal. As soon as you called in last night, Roz made some calls. I guess he was on the first plane.”
I slouched into my seat, trying to melt into my turquoise chair. “Fuck. I can’t stare at him all day every day.”
“Well, the difference is now you’re not pining after him.”
I frowned at her. “I was never pining.”
“Well, more along the lines of he lied to you and you believed him. And yes, that makes him a dick, but you don’t believe him anymore. And it turns out you have someone even hotter on the radar.”
“You don’t even know if he’s hotter.”
She smiled sheepishly. “I’ll have you know I had a look at your dating profile and saw who you were going out with. You know, just to double-check and make sure you were going to be okay. I ran my own background check on Marcus Black, and you’re right. He is a standup guy. One of his games is hugely popular.”
“Really?” I blinked in surprise.
She nodded. “You weren’t curious? Let me guess, you just looked at the facts. Family, friends, job. No fine details.”
“Uh, I’m not really one for video games, and I wanted to get those finer details, you know… from dating him.”
She rolled her eyes. “Sometimes you are such a traditionalist. I played his game. It’s good times. I played with Luke downstairs.”
I wrinkled my nose. Luke was a wet works specialist. Basically one of the assassins. All of us agents thought we were better than they were. We weren’t, but we liked to believe we were. The assassins were called in mostly for cleanup jobs. At least we did intelligence as well. “Ahh, Luke.”
She waved me off. “He’s just a bit of fun when I’m bored. But anyway, about your Marcus. I mean look, he is a hottie first of all. And he’s smart. And apparently he has a protective streak too.”
I smiled. “I know, right?” And despite my automatic reflex to keep myself hidden, I liked him.
“Yes. And from what I can tell, he’s unlikely to murder you when you’re sleeping. I looked into him as far back as elementary school because you know how sometimes you can tell that someone’s going to be a serial killer based on how they used to act in the schoolyard. He did once punch a boy called Jason Sims because he used a very bad word to a girl, but I only found that because it was written up.”
“You looked into his primary school in England?”
She nodded and smiled. “Yes, in this little village called Knotsworth. But he had a nice little family and everything.”
I sighed. “Addie, thank you. But you didn’t need to do that. I already looked him up.”
“Did you look at his primary school though?”
I laughed. “No, but I thank you for being extra thorough.”
“You’re welcome. What are besties for? Besides, it looks good for you to be dating. You know full well they won’t promote you to senior agent unless you look more settled. Do what you need to do.”
I winced. “Well, you don’t have to tell me twice. I know what I need to do. I just want to do it on my own timeline. Did I tell you he sort of indicated to Tyler that we were an item?”
She blinked at me. “He what?”
“Tyler was being a dick, and Marcus wrapped his arm
