Chapter One

Greek God of Erebus—“The personification of darkness and shadow”

Mid-October 2022.

The beginning…

O’Mally’s Bar was crowded and busy enough that a person could blend into said crowd if they wanted.

Ice didn’t give a rat’s ass about blending in, he had come to the noisy place to get a drink.

Sitting on one of the many bar stools at the long wooden bar, he’d ordered a whiskey, neat. The warm burn of the liquor going down had the stress melting from his shoulders with a sigh.

When a man sat on the barstool to his left, Ice edged slightly to the right. He didn’t want conversation, and turning a shoulder usually nipped that in the bud. The guy ordered a beer and Ice swallowed down what was left in his own glass.

He thought about Michelle and a headache started behind his eyes. He felt bad for her and had done everything he could think of to help her with her problem when she had picked up a fucking stalker.

Stalkers should be handled by the police, but she’d been terrified, so it seemed an easy fix to him.

Act like a new love interest.

Spending the night at her place hadn’t been a difficult decision because they were friends, but it hadn’t done a damn bit of good. Because the stalker hadn’t shown up. So, when he later thought about it, the stalker probably saw him there and took off.

Michelle wasn’t too sure and she had sighed in frustration.

“What does he look like?” Ice had asked the first night he slept on her couch. Standing in her pristine kitchen, he tore the lettuce for the salad while she stirred the pasta sauce.

“He’s a big guy. Taller than you and weighs more. His gut hangs over his belt. He has a scar on his face that you can’t miss.”

“Scar? What kind?”

“It starts at the right corner of his mouth and stretches diagonally to his chin and runs along his jaw.”

“Is it pink or red in color?”

“No, it’s white.”

So, an old scar, he thought with a nod. “What does he usually wear?”

“Jeans and a t-shirt.”

“And you don’t know his name?”

“No. I have never met him in my life other than constantly seeing him across the street or near my work.” Her voice trembled.

“Hey.” He laid down the lettuce and pulled her into a hug. “We’ll get him.”

The only thing Ice could do from that night on was to stay over at her place to keep an eye out. He’d slept there for a few days with his nine-millimeter next to him but nothing had happened.

The stalker had disappeared.

Which would be a good thing if Ice thought that the asshole was really gone.

He fucking doubted it.

Pushing away from the bar, he headed into the back hallway to use the bathroom. Shoving open the door, he stepped inside and came face to face with a slender man holding a knife in his hand. The blade dripped with blood and another man lay prone on the floor with his throat slit open.

Before Ice could process what the fuck was going on, the man holding the knife watched him with big, dark eyes through a fall of equally black hair.

Suddenly, the man flipped the knife over and flung it with an incredible speed directly at him. Ice was too surprised to move. When he thought about it later, he would realize that it was a good thing he’d stayed still because the knife went deep into someone standing behind him.

Ice spun just as a man holding a gun toppled to the floor with a loud crack. The knife the slender man threw protruded from the guy’s throat.

Had he been caught in the middle of a fucking war?

Ice flicked his gaze over the gunman on the floor.

A scar ran diagonal from his mouth, to his chin, and along his jaw. The man was without a doubt Michelle’s stalker.

Ice kicked the gun further away just in case the guy was still breathing. Had the asshole come to murder him?

“Shit,” Ice breathed and ran a hand over his mouth, the bathroom door swung slowly closed until it caught on the stalker’s shoes.

Ice turned back to the slender man.

He hadn’t expected the guy to be standing so close and Ice froze, and for some odd reason, his pulse jumped. The man reached down and took the knife from the dead stalker’s throat with a slight squelching sound and stepped past him to reach for the door.

“Wait,” Ice said, touching the man’s arm.

The knife came up fast and painfully sliced at Ice’s forearm, opening a nice five-inch gash.

“Fuck,” Ice gasped and stumbled back, clutching at his arm, trying to stop the bleeding.

He was left staring at the empty doorway.

“Shit,” he muttered and quickly checked the pulse on both bodies even though he knew they were dead.

The skill with which the man used to dispatch both men had been impressive.

The guy had to be an assassin.

“Care to share?”

Ice stopped gazing out the window of Stone’s apartment and sighed. The place was in a nicer part of Santa Barbara and he could see the ocean from its location.

“I think I ran into an assassin,” Ice said.

Stone stared at him before turning his attention back to his arm.

“So…you still keep in touch with our former employer?”

Stone glanced up briefly and shrugged. “No.”

“Cut the crap. I know you didn’t quit. You’re still involved with Erebus.” Ice deliberately said the name, knowing it would get a rise out of his friend. “Owe!” he hissed when Stone slapped the bandage on his arm with force when he mentioned the underground network of assassins.

“So… who was it I ran into?” Ice wasn’t giving up that easily on getting information. If anyone could help him track down the man who’d sliced him, Stone could. Stone could also tell him if the guy did not work for Erebus. Either way, Ice would find the knife-wielding man—he had a score to settle.

“The cut isn’t too deep, just keeping it wrapped ought to do the trick,” Stone said and started with white gauze over the bandage and followed that up with surgical tape.

“It hurts like fucking hell,” he mumbled. He’d have to go in to get tested—there was no fucking telling what was on the assassin’s blade aside from the blood of the two dead men.

“It could have been a lot worse. You don’t even need stitches.”

“So… this guy, he stands about five feet ten inches, slender build, dark eyes and black hair that hangs in his face. Asian features. He’s lethal, and I mean fucking deadly with a knife.”

Stone’s gray eyes flicked up and then back down, but Ice had seen the flicker of surprise.

“He’s an assassin, isn’t he?” Ice probed.

After a long moment, Stone nodded. “Sounds like it.”

“Does he work for Erebus?”

Stone finished with his arm and then rubbed his hands briskly over his face.

“I can’t answer that.”

“Fuck you,” Ice snorted. “Answer me.”

“You quit Erebus. Dave let you out. Don’t do this,” Stone muttered.

“Hey.” Ice gripped Stone’s shoulder tightly. “Just answer the question.”

After a long moment, Stone let out a sigh and nodded. “Yeah, he’s an assassin.”

“Who is he?”

“Why do you want to know?” Stone scowled at him.

“I’d like to know who tried to kill me so I can avoid him in the future,” he smirked.

Stone made a disbelieving sound under his breath. “Right. Did you forget it’s me you’re talking to?”

“Nope.” Ice smiled.

“I don’t know if I can for sure say who you ran into.”

“What if I give you the location?” Ice rattled off the bar’s address.

Stone pinched the bridge of his nose and gave an annoyed growl. He turned to a laptop that was on the kitchen counter next to them and tapped away on the screen for several moments.

Ice dropped his hand and waited patiently in the bright kitchen. Patience was one of his strongest qualities. Stone finally turned away from the computer.

“From what you’ve described and the location of the hit…it’s Echo,” Stone said.

“Echo…”

Stone squinted at him. “Don’t mess with him. He will kill you.”

Ice smirked.