Pouring another shot of vodka, I dialed Jude and set the phone down on the counter, speaker on.
“Hey, babe,” she answered, right before it would have gone to voicemail. “Good timing, I just got out of the shower.”
“Ooh, I caught you naked? How salacious,” I teased.
Jude chuckled. “Yeah, yeah. You made it home safe, then?”
I yawned, running my fingers through my long, damp hair. “Sure did. Stanley is still alive, if you were wondering.”
“Aw, good to hear,” she replied with another laugh. “That plant will probably survive the apocalypse in all fairness.”
She had a good point. “Hey, so I wasn’t just calling to tell you I’d made it home.”
Jude gave a groan of dread. “No… what’s happened? I thought you just wanted to chat. Did you crash the helicopter? Desmond will murder you if it’s damaged.”
I snickered a laugh, but it was a valid concern. Not long after I’d moved to my cabin in Iceland, it became abundantly clear that commercial flights weren’t going to work for my commute. So I’d sweet talked my way into a long-term loan of a Guild helicopter. Desmond, who ran the Guild airstrip in Scotland, had a weakness for petite women and brazen flirtation.
“I didn’t crash the helicopter, Jude, my god, have a little faith. No, I did call to chat, but I also want your advice on a thing.” I wrinkled my nose at myself and tossed back my shot of vodka.
“A thing?” Jude repeated, skeptical as hell.
I sighed. “A guy thing.”
There was a pause on the call long enough to make me check if it was even still connected, but it was. I’d just caught her off guard.
“Um… Dan, are you seeing someone ?” Jude all but shrieked that last part, and I screwed my face up, cringing at my own awkwardness.
“No,” I replied, quick to get her back on track. “No, fuck no. Not since… well, you know.”
Jude made a sound. “I do know. Hence my shock. So, what guy-thing, then?”
I poured another shot. My new assignment wasn’t for a couple of days; I could afford to get a light buzz in the safety of my own home.
“There’s a guy,” I muttered, then gulped my shot. “And I can’t get him out of my head.”
“Oooooooh,” Jude laughed. “I see. What guy?”
I blew out a long breath. “Doesn’t matter. I met him years ago and had a tiny crush, but it never turned into anything and it was during the whole Carlos thing anyway, so terrible timing—”
“The worst,” Jude agreed. “But you’ve seen this guy again?”
“Uh huh,” I confirmed, picking my words carefully. “I called him a few weeks ago to ask for a connection for a thing, and then he sort of just showed up out of the blue to check up on me.”
I was well aware how vague and confusing that sounded, but Jude was used to my careful dance around details. She just took it in stride, and it was probably why our friendship had survived all these years.
“He just… showed up ?” she repeated. “Uh, red flag, babe. That’s weird. Isn’t it? Unless he was already in the area?”
I groaned. “He definitely wasn’t. But it wasn’t creepy or anything, he just seemed… I dunno. Concerned?” But concerned didn’t seem the right word to go with Leon’s intense stare. Fascinated seemed more accurate, but that just opened more questions. “Anyway, it didn’t get weird. He just helped me out with a thing, then gave me a lift to the train station and… that’s it.”
Jude was quiet for a moment, but she was doing a quiet thinking hum, so I knew she was still there.
“That’s it?” she finally said. “He dropped you off and just left?”
I frowned. “Yeah. Why?”
She made a scoffing sound. “Well, I dunno. He didn’t say that he’d call you or arrange to meet up somewhere or… anything?”
I scratched the bridge of my nose, staring out my floor-to-ceiling windows to the darkness of the ocean beyond. “No, nothing. That was it.”
“Huh,” she murmured. Then drew a breath. “So… why is this a guy-thing ?”
“Because I can’t get him out of my head!” I exclaimed. “I started with that part, Judith. Listen. It’s been three weeks, and I think about him at least once a day. That’s not me , so now I’m stressing out, and Stanley is no fucking help .”
Jude snickered a laugh. “Well, duh, he’s a plant. Okay, I get the problem. Why don’t you just call him then? It’s been forever since you dated anyone, maybe it’s time to move on?”
I sighed. “I can’t. There’s… extenuating circumstances.” Like how I refused to sleep with other Guild mercs because that never ended well for either party. Also the fact that I doubted Leon was even remotely attracted to me in that way. “Anyway. I just needed to talk it out because I got a new job, and I was a little bit disappointed when I saw the joint contract wasn’t with him. And now I feel stupid. So… advice please?”
“Uh, you took another job already?” Jude sounded genuinely surprised. “I thought you were taking time off?”
I grimaced. I was a workaholic, no question, but I loved my job, so was it really such a bad thing? But Jude had been planning to come stay with me for the weekend, so she was probably hurt I was canceling.
“Sorry, Mac,” I groaned, using the shortened form of her surname in an attempt to soften her up. “I’ll come see you on Friday instead?”
“It’s fine,” she murmured, “I just thought you needed a proper break, that’s all. Friday is cool, though. Uh, as for this guy? I think you just need to get under some strange dick, my friend. Your lady garden is probably so overgrown it’d be like a “Tomb Raider” mission, but I can almost guarantee that would flush this dude out of your head.”
I laughed. “So long as it’s great strange dick. Yeah, you’re probably right. Thanks, Mac. You always have the best advice.”
“Mm-hmm,” she replied. “Hey, I better go, someone’s at my door. I’ll see you Friday?”
“Count on it,” I said firmly. “Love you, Mackenzie.”
Jude sighed. “Love you too, DeLuna. Hey, check in with Sab for me, would you? I’m worried about her, and she’s not replying to me.”
That sounded like par for the course with our third. She went dark for months sometimes, then turned up on one of our sofas with a bottle of champagne in hand and wild tales to tell. Still, I promised I’d call her and ended the call with Jude.
The sudden silence after the call ended left me feeling uneasy, so I poured more vodka and toasted Stanley with it.
6
J ude was up to no good. I knew it from the moment she called to change our quiet dinner at her place to drinks at a cocktail lounge called The Voodoo Rooms. It was one of Jude’s favorites, being an easy walk—or stumble—from her home, and I had to admit we usually had a good time there. They made good drinks, and that was half the battle.
“You know I can’t drink tonight,” I scolded her as we took a seat on an overstuffed leather sofa. As much as I favored vodka when I was home, I never drank heavily while on a job, and I never wanted to risk a hangover messing with my head and getting me killed. My assignment started the next day, so I’d be on a one-drink limit tonight.