Nathaniel concentrated on his ice cream, happy that nervousness about asking Lady Nyx out on what might be construed as a real date could cover all the other emotional turmoil roiling beneath his skin. Didn’t help when Hollyanne had winked at him.
Still, she was definitely a match for Lady Nyx if it came to that. Probably better, because Amanda had carried her gun in her purse, where she would have to get to it first. Hollyanne would pounce on her like a bobcat taking down a wolf. And win.
He studied this woman that his mind kept wanting to call Amanda. Separate her from the twin-gun killer in black leather named Lady Nyx. Maybe find him a way out of here that didn’t look like a betrayal. Not when he might actually want to call her later and have her not immediately hang up on him. Or send killers his way.
She’d gotten a blueberry cobbler something, with berries, granola, and ice cream in a cup like his. He didn’t feel like trying to eat a cone when he was pretty sure he’d end up wearing it.
Never take a first date to dinner. Nobody looks impressive when eating. Coffee first, though he didn’t figure they could count that first operation as a date.
Or this one, when Nathaniel was pretty sure she might be willing to punch him in the face in a few minutes. Or shoot him.
Still, she had a cup of ice cream in one hand, the little wooden spoon in the other, and her purse was tucked in by her foot where it would be awkward to get to if Lady Nyx decided she needed her gun.
Nathaniel waited until they were about halfway finished before he spoke. More relaxed. More time to stare at a beautiful woman before she was angry at him.
Okay, maybe he was a little bit of a coward on that topic.
Still, Lady Nyx. Smart, beautiful, and dangerous. Pushed all his buttons.
“I have a weird question for you, Amanda,” he said finally in English, channeling his Dave persona.
She looked up expectantly, ice cream on the corner of her mouth in the cutest way.
Steel blue eyes he could fall into forever.
“The boss has a few plans coming up,” Nathaniel continued, speaking normally but aware that Hollyanne Kadjar was listening right behind the woman. And listening to both of them.
“That’s right,” Lady Nyx agreed, slowing her hands to study him. Looking for a clue.
“What happens after that whatever it is?” he asked. “We all go our separate ways, or is he planning something much more long-term that requires this level of staffing?”
“There will be immediate repercussions,” she said. “Angry people. Being on the inside at that point will be smart because that will be the only safe spot.”
“Sure, short term,” Nathaniel nodded. “But I have a phone number in London for you. I’d like to be able to call it sometime. Have you answer. Be happy to hear from me.”
“You talk like you won’t be around,” she said, coming to that specific kind of stillness that only the best killers embodied.
Like the woman exactly behind her.
“At some point, I’d like to not be,” Nathaniel said carefully, enunciating each syllable with precision. “I’m not really cut out to be a minion in somebody else’s organization. Not after being my own boss for so long. I’m not sure the boss would let me just walk away.”
Something changed in her eyes. Took him a moment to place it.
Amanda was gone. Lady Nyx was thinking about reaching into her bag and drawing a pistol.
“Why are you telling me this?” she asked in a much harder voice than a moment ago.
“Because I’ve been giving a lot of thought to things,” he admitted. One hundred percent honest, too. Lots of might-have-beens. “I don’t know enough to stop the current set of things he has planned. Haven’t tried to find out, either. But I don’t want to work for the man anymore.”
“You’re serious,” she said.
Nathaniel watched her specifically not move, but he could see the woman’s entire balance had shifted. Enough to punch him across the tiny table. Or dive into her bag and draw out his death.
Small ice cream shop. Nowhere to run. Hollyanne could save him. Would she?
“I am,” Nathaniel replied, committing himself. “I’d like to finish my ice cream, walk out that door behind me, and vanish.”
“Why are you telling me this?” she demanded in a deadly, quiet rasp.
“Because you could stop me,” he told her. “Or you could let me go.”
He paused to take a breath.
“Or you could come with me.”
Something happened in those steel-blue eyes, but he didn’t know her nearly well enough to identify which of the Stages of Death she’d landed on.
“Come with you?” she pressed awkwardly. “You can’t just walk away. Not from something like this. He’ll hunt you.”
“I’m aware of that,” Nathaniel said. “This wasn’t the spur of the moment thing on my part. They never are.”
“All that planning,” she breathed. “You were gaming all this out?”
“I was,” Nathaniel nodded. “How I could get out. Why I would rather you escort me than that crazy bitch with the knife fetish. She couldn’t stop me, but I wouldn’t want her phone number. What I would like is your help, at a dead minimum. And your understanding, though I might not get it. You are the last person in that building I would want to betray, because you are the most dangerous. And the only one I would like to talk to again. But I can’t stay. Won’t stay. Must go.”
He could see her mind already reaching for the gun and wondered if Hollyanne would have to intervene. Lady Nyx hadn’t moved, though.
Frozen, like another of Medusa’s victims.
“So you can watch me go, Amanda,” he continued. “Or stop me.”
He paused for a long moment as he listened to her breathe.
“Or join me.”