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However, Alexei had also stated while they were in Uruguay that he wanted to go on a big adventure with Soren and drag West along for fun. Sadly, that was two adventures ago and he could see on Alexei’s face that he was worried about going back on what he’d said not all that long ago.
Well, this oddity of a job got Alexei off the hook in terms of guilt. He could run to visit his uncles, who would inevitably torture Soren. That was a win-win in West’s book.
When he reached the first floor, he was a little shocked to find that the place was nearly empty after being up to his eyeballs in people for days on end.
“Where is everyone?” West inquired as he stepped into the living room. Soren and Alexei were cuddled together, watching some ridiculous video on a tablet while Charlie sat in a chair reading an actual paperback. Freaking old man.
“Max and Ed are on a food run. Will said something about taking a nap before dinner. Kairo and Izzie are packing up their gear. Izzie got them on a private flight to London early tomorrow morning,” Soren answered without lifting his eyes from the screen.
West grunted and hooked his foot around a dining room chair that had been left nearby. He dragged it closer to where Charlie was seated and dropped into it, which got his “boss” to slightly lift his eyes.
“I wanted to give you a heads-up. I’m looking into a weird job,” he began.
Charlie lay the open book across the arm of the chair and sat up, resting his forearms on his knees. “How weird are we talking?”
Shifting in his seat, West pulled his phone out of his pocket and thumbed through the security to pull up the message. “Alexei’s handler, Marilyn, reached out to me with this sketchy contract that I thought might be worthwhile to dig into.”
Charlie’s expression immediately clouded over as he took the phone, but he didn’t glance at it. His dark-brown eyes remained locked on West’s face. “Why is Alexei’s handler contacting you?”
“You heard from Marilyn?” Alexei chimed in at almost the same moment, sounding both interested and excited.
“I’m not looking to go the assassin route in my spare time, if that’s what you’re worried about,” West grumbled.
“The thought occurred to me,” Charlie murmured darkly, still not breaking his stare.
West lowered his eyes first and rubbed the back of his neck. “I got to talking to Alexei’s uncles while they were in town. Told me about some of the types of jobs they started taking on after they were married. The types of things I do in my spare time.” West lifted his gaze to Charlie and waited. He didn’t want to say it out loud. It was embarrassing, even though he was pretty sure everyone knew about his activities in his spare time.
The guys would have jokingly called him Robin Hood. All the jobs he did in his spare time were to help people in need with zero promise of being compensated. Sometimes they used his sniper skills, but more often than not, he was volunteering somewhere or building homes for the homeless. Not all that different than the kind of “helping the little guy” jobs they took as a team, but West needed something more to do all on his own. One more thing to wash the old blood from his soul.
Charlie grunted and finally lowered his eyes to the phone, only to have them snap to West’s face in twisted confusion. “Is this serious?”
“It is.”
“Alexei, are you sure you can vouch for this Marilyn?”
The “reformed” assassin untangled himself from his boyfriend and was on his feet in the blink of an eye. “What the hell are you talking about? Marilyn is the fucking best handler in the whole goddamn world! She was my Uncle Justin’s handler before he and Uncle Gabriel got together. She’s been working with them for at least two decades. She’s been my handler for the last couple of years. I trust her with my fucking life, so of course I trust her with West’s life!”
“Whoa there, baby.” Soren was right behind him, wrapping both of his arms around Alexei’s shoulders to try to gently rein in the bloodthirsty killer. “Charlie didn’t mean anything by it. He’s just looking out for West.”
Alexei huffed, still all bristles and seeming as if he were plotting different ways to torture Charlie for even insinuating that there might be something less than perfect about Marilyn.
“This is what Marilyn sent to West.” Charlie held up the phone and Alexei instantly snatched it out of his hands.
His bright eyes darted over the screen for only a couple of seconds as a “What the fuck” tumbled from his lips in French. “That…that’s just a fucked-up contract. Whoever put that out clearly has no clue what they’re doing.”
