Chapter Nine

Present day.

Several months later, Solomon still hadn’t agreed to make him permanent.

It was now the end of February and the jobs remained inconsistent as fuck. What was supposed to be one month of probation had turned into six. That was long enough for a fucking probation period.

“What’s the holdup?” he said, taking a seat in one of the two leather office chairs that sat in front of Solomon’s desk. He squared off with the Erebus leader, who sat behind his big wooden desk.

“It’s my call.”

“It’s Dave’s call.” Ice squinted.

“It’s mine,” Solomon said with a sneer. “You were injured on the job. You took four weeks off to go to Greece in October. Just consider this your continued probation period.”

“One month extended to six because I was knifed?” Ice snorted. Personally, he thought Solomon was an asshole to the nth degree, but he might be alone in his thinking. For all he knew, other assassins might think the sun rose and set in the guy’s ass.

Solomon continued to stare with his big hands clenched into fists on the top of the desk.

“You seem to have a problem with me,” Ice finally said, his lids narrowed, his gaze focused.

“I don’t want you around messing with Echo,” Solomon said.

Okay, that took him off guard and it certainly had come from left field. He wasn’t sure what Solomon had against Echo, but maybe it wasn’t that at all. Was Solomon attracted to Echo? Well, get in line, motherfucker.

“I don’t give a rat’s ass. I’ll mess with Echo if I feel like it.”

“And how is that working out for you?” Solomon said with a curl of his lips before the man dropped his gaze to where his shirt covered the scar from the knife wound Echo had inflicted.

Okay… this fucker had been getting on his last nerve for months, and now Ice suspected that Echo was the problem.

Well, too bad, asshole.

“I didn’t know that Erebus leaders let their yearning for someone affect their job performance,” Ice said dryly, silently daring Solomon to make a move. He’d end this bastard right the fuck now.

Rage darkened the man’s eyes. “That’s it. You’re out.”

Without saying a word, Ice stood and walked out of the room. Once he and Grit jumped into his SUV, he called Dave.

“Ice? How are you feeling? I haven’t talked to you since you got back from Athens,” Dave teased.

“I’m doing good. How’s it going?”

“Oh, I can’t complain.”

Ice chuckled. “Yeah, same shit different day.”

“You got that right.”

“So hey…I just had a run-in with Solomon. Can I come see you?”

“Of course,” Dave said after a brief moment of silence. “I’m at my Santa Barbara home.”

“I’ll be there in a half an hour.”

Dave’s home really was grand when he thought about it. Of course, having been there so many times, it was easy to forget.

The place was a very large estate that sat on six acres right on the beach, which was almost unheard of in Santa Barbara.

But if you had enough money and you bought out your neighbors, it was achievable. The outside was lined with wrought iron fencing along with a guard station out front. Ice checked in with the guard and then pulled his SUV through the gate and up the long circular driveway.

Several bodyguards were positioned around the property.

He got it.

Dave was the former Secretary of Defense and a very important man as well as a close personal friend of the President. After all, Dave managed the President’s specialty units, like Pegasus, Phoenix, and Erebus. There was probably a whole bunch more that Ice didn’t know about.

One of the bodyguards showed him to the front door and the man inside took him to a spacious study. Grit trotted at his side.

Ice shot a glance at Dave’s wide oak desk and found it empty, which was odd at this time of the day. A faint smell of cedar lingered in the air and light piano music drifted through speakers in the ceiling.

A cup clinked, drawing his attention, and he found Dave sitting comfortably in one of two large leather chairs in front of the bay window. Of course, Grit had already located the man.

“Don’t get up,” Ice grinned and walked over to shake Dave’s hand.

“I wasn’t, ya smartass.”

Ice snorted and dropped down into one of the roomy brown chairs. Dave leaned forward and patted Grit on the head before gesturing to the pot of coffee and an empty cup.

“No alcohol?” Ice razzed and poured himself a half of a cup.

“It’s bad for my health.”

“I hear ya. Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask you something,” he said.

“What’s that?”

“Whatever happened to Theodor Kada?”

Dave smiled. “Theo? He’s working for me at another site, he won’t be going back to the assassin world.”

“Ah, okay. Yeah, I didn’t see him at the warehouse, so I was wondering.”

“So, what’s going on?” Dave probed when several minutes passed.

“Did Solomon call you before I got here?”

“No.” Dave shook his head with a frown. “Nor did I call him.”

“Well, you know that I got stabbed because I was stupid. So, I went on that vacation with Seven and Hunter that you approved, but I’ve been back for months now.”

Dave nodded and lifted his own cup from the side table to sip at. Ice quickly went over the conversation he’d had with Solomon, leaving nothing out.

“So according to him, I’m out.”

“Do you want to be out?” Dave asked.

“No, I don’t. I think he wants me out because he’s jealous of Echo,” Ice said.

“You think so?” Dave placed his cup down and looked thoughtful for a moment.

“It’s just a gut feeling.”

“Have you heard about Echo’s past?” Dave asked with a sad smile.

“No. Tell me.”

“Alright. If you have the time, I’ll tell you what little I know.”

“I’ve got all the time in the world, I just got fired,” Ice joked and eased back in his chair.

Dave took a deep breath and began. “Echo made his first kill when he was eight years old. He ran away from home and was caught by a man on the streets.”

A few hours later, Ice was still trying to wrap his head around what Dave had told him.

Some diabolical madman had captured and turned Echo into a killer before he even hit puberty. Ice could only imagine the horror a young Echo had gone through. According to Dave, Solomon had taken Echo under his wing a few years ago and that was why the Erebus leader was protective.

“Who is the guy who locked him up?” Ice couldn’t keep the rage out of his voice.

“To this day, Echo won’t share who the son of a bitch is. He could be dead for all I know,” Dave concluded.

Ice squeezed the bathroom towel in his hand, wishing it was the unknown fucker’s neck.

Not only had this jack-off taught, tutored, and coached Echo into becoming a murderer, the man, according to Dave, had been very controlling with Echo. A control, according to Dave, that appeared to border on manic.

That was all Dave could get out of Echo during the hiring interview. And the only reason Echo had answered the questions was because Dave had rules and Ice suspected that Echo had complied because he very much wanted to be a part of Erebus.

Slinging the towel over the shower to dry, Ice pulled on a clean pair of gray sweats along with a black t-shirt before stepping into the big bedroom. It was a good thing he always brought a few changes of clothes, including his gear—in case he got a job.

He slid into a pair of brand-new slippers the maid had given him and he smirked at how the wealthy lived.

“Stay, boy,” Ice told Grit, who’d lifted his head when Ice walked to the door. The big dog had already been fed and was sprawled out on the bed and resumed his snooze.

Leaving the room Dave had given them for the night, he made his way to the dining room and found Dave sitting at the table along with two nicely dressed women.

One of the women was Dave’s cousin, Monica. She had to be in her mid-fifties, but she looked much younger with dark wavy hair and blue eyes. The other woman looked several years younger with bright blue eyes and long blonde hair. Ice supposed that some men might find it sexy.

“Is this okay?” Ice gestured to his clothes, he could eat in his room if not.

“It’s fine. Come in,” Dave said, waving him into the room and pointing to the chair at his left. Dave had changed into a dark blue polo and black slacks. His curling black hair was threaded with light sprinkles of gray, but his steel-gray eyes were sharp as a tack. The former SecDef always looked sophisticated and powerful.

“Hi Ice!” Monica waved, sending her dark hair tumbling.

“Hey, Monica” Ice said, settling into the chair next to Dave.

“This is my friend, Charlene Jones,” Monica gushed.

“They dropped by unexpectedly,” Dave said flatly.

“David…” Monica pouted at her cousin, “if I told you I was coming, you’d say don’t bother.”

“And for good reason. I have company.”

“It’s only Ice.”

“Should we leave?” Charlene asked, looking from Dave to Monica.

Ice stabbed at a potato and waved it at Charlene. “No, they always argue,” he said and popped the bite into his mouth. Charlene gave him a tentative smile and picked at the salad on her plate.

“See?” Monica glared. “You’re scaring the guests.”

Dave snorted and returned to his plate. Ice wasn’t sure why Monica had brought a friend, but he suspected that she was trying to get Dave married. Ice could have told her that she was barking up the wrong tree with miss blondie there, but it wasn’t his story to tell.

“Ice? Are you seeing anyone at the moment?” Monica asked.

“No, but there’s someone I’m interested in.”

“Oh poo…well, if you’re not that invested, you should stick around tomorrow and we can all play tennis and swim.”

Ice smiled at Monica. He’d be gone in the morning now that he was fully reinstated back into Erebus. Dave and his matchmaking cousin would have to deal with this shit on their own.

He had given Echo space. A lot of space over the past several months, but now he had every intention of finding Echo after what Dave had told him what little he knew of his past. Dave only knew what Solomon had told him because Echo wasn’t sharing. All Dave could say was that Echo had split from Solomon for about six years and then one day in twenty twenty-two, he’d reappeared.

Where had he been those six years?

Later that same evening, Ice’s cell phone buzzed with an incoming text.

Stone: “Where are you?”

Ice: “At Dave’s, why?”

Those three little dots flashed across the screen telling him Stone was responding, but then they stopped. They flashed again and then stopped. Stone must have been writing a book. Ice huffed and flopped back on the bed and waited.

Stone: “Solomon gave us a job together.”

It took that long to type six words? Why the hell was Solomon pairing him up with people suddenly?

And, why the sudden job? Ice could only imagine that Solomon had to be beyond pissed.

Especially after Dave had called him.

That conversation, which Dave put on speaker, had been hilarious.

Before Solomon could do more than say hello, Dave barked out a question.

“Why did you take Ice out of Erebus?” The former SecDef didn’t growl or even sound mean, but something in the powerful man’s voice had the hair on the back of Ice’s neck lifting. He could only imagine what Solomon’s face looked like. Ice stared at Dave’s face, but nothing showed. The former SecDef was very good at keeping his expression blank, his thoughts hidden.

“I just thought…” Solomon’s voice trailed off.

“What did you think? You thought you had sole hiring power over my fucking team?”

“N, no.”

“We won’t have this conversation again, will we?”

“No, sir.”

Ice slapped his hands to his mouth to keep from laughing and Dave placed a finger against his own lips meaning—keep your mouth shut.

“Anything else you’d like to tell me?” Dave asked.

After a moment of silence, Solomon finally spoke. “I hired a few new men if you’d like to look them over.” The man’s voice sounded relieved.

“I’ll be in your office tomorrow around fifteen hundred.” Dave ended the call.

Ice scratched at his chin and then pulled the tie from his hair. He caught up the strands and retied them.

“I thought you and Solomon were tight?”

“We are, but lately…we’re not.”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing you need to worry about,” Dave smiled.

Another incoming text brought his attention back to the big bedroom and his phone.

Stone: “Well?”

With a sigh, he rolled to his stomach and responded half-jokingly.

Ice: “Pick me up.”

Stone: “Be there in twenty.”

Why was Stone so close to Dave’s place?

Ice: “Where’s the hit?”

Stone: “Nevada, so pack a bag.”

Ice: “Sin City?”

Stone: “Do you really need to ask?”

Ice could just imagine the guy rolling his eyes. He glanced at the time. Shit! Stone would be there soon. Driving and texting was so easy with the voice to text capability.

Launching off the bed, he startled Grit, who was up and ready.

“No, boy, not this trip. You stay and guard Dave. He’s a very important man,” he told the dog while he pulled on dark clothing and stepped into his soft black leather boots. Shoving shit into his backpack, he left the room and jogged down the stairs with Grit at his side.

All was quiet and he found a paper and pen in Dave’s desk and started writing a note. Grit trotted over to where Dave normally sat.

“Where are you going?”

“Hell! Why are you lurking in the dark?” Ice spun toward the double chairs near the wall of windows—beyond the glass lay the night sky with sparkling stars.

“Can’t sleep,” Dave said, shifting in his favorite chair.

“I’ve got a job tonight. Solomon paired me with Stone.” Ice flipped on the tiny desk lamp and returned the pad of paper and pen into the drawer and walked over to take a seat. He dropped his duffle at his feet.

“How far?”

“Las Vegas. Can Grit stay with you?”

“Yes. You should get going, that’s a long drive.”

“Stone is picking me up.” His eyes had adjusted to the dim lighting just enough to see Dave’s face and the outside light from the garden helped a bit.

The man turned his face away and back toward the night beyond the window. Ice knew Dave wanted to ask how Stone was doing, but wouldn’t. Those two were so fucking stubborn.

“He’s fine, by the way,” Ice said. “He got a cat.”

Dave’s eyes snapped to him. “A cat?”

“No,” Ice chuckled. “When have you ever known Stone to have an animal?”

“Never,” Dave admitted with a slight smile and slowly ran a hand over Grit’s big head. “He’s away from home too much.”

Ice could relate. In this line of business, it was hard to have a hearth and a home.