As much as he hated to burst her bubble, he had to press on. “I’d guess it’s because you gave him more fight than he expected, and you threw him off guard. That he’s a professional fits. When Deke tackled him, the guy was carrying a SIG 232. The barrel was threaded so he could use a silencer, if needed. It was in his pocket, in fact. We’re talking about some of the best equipment. Not impossible to fall into a gangster’s hands—”
“But unlikely.” Her voice shook, then she closed her eyes, drew in a deep breath. “What else? I can hear it in your voice.”
Smart girl . . . She’d been through a lot in the last twenty-four hours—marathon sex, an unexpected wedding, a hangover, and an attempt on her life. Kata was shaken but not defeated. His respect for her went up another notch.
Hunter tried to lay this out as gently as possible. “Usually assassins are like ghosts. They’ll just ‘clean up,’ take out a target with a high-powered scope and sniper rifle at a distance. The closer an assassin is to the target, the greater his risk of being caught or ID’d and jeopardizing the mission. But if the person hiring the assassin wants others to know the target was intentionally iced, then when they hire the killer, they’ll tell him to put on ‘a show.’”
“Th-the guy who came after me was putting on a show.” Kata didn’t ask; she knew. Nervously, she swallowed.
“Yes.” Why else had he come in such close range, onto the target’s turf, eschewing his silencer, rather than waiting on the high-rise across the street until she walked into the parking lot? Whoever had masterminded this attack wanted to make a public statement. Question was, about what? And to whom?
This whole episode might be related to a gangster’s revenge or Kata’s temporary disruption of his drug trade. But that didn’t feel right. And if there was already a warrant out for Villarreal’s arrest, why put on a show like this and piss the cops off more? There were a lot of ways to make an example out of someone without spending the time and money to hire an assassin.
Fuck. “We need to keep trying to figure out who would do this to you.”
“I’ve wracked my brains, but—”
“I don’t want you to worry about it now, honey. You’re exhausted. Sleep for a bit. We’ll talk in a few hours.”
“Hours? My apartment is on the other side of town. I need a few things before we go anywhere.”
Hunter steered the truck onto I-49. “No stops. We’re going to Dallas.”
“What about my suitcase? It was in the trunk of my car. Did you get it from Tyler before he drove off in it?”
“No. Getting you away from there quickly was more important.”
Kata looked lost and frustrated. He understood that she was angry at the situation, not him—but he was the only available outlet for her irritation. He wished she wouldn’t wear herself out unnecessarily . . . but Kata wasn’t a soldier trained to contain her emotions, channel them to something useful.
“I—I need my vitamins, a toothbrush—”
He leveled a stare at her across the cozy truck’s cab. “Is there anything at your place that’s more important than your life?”
She sighed. “No.”
“I’ll buy you replacements once we reach my brother’s place.”
“I have to have clean underwear . . .”
Hunter did his best to distract her with a smoldering smile. “Honey, if I have my way, you’ll never need those again.”
Kata rolled her eyes and did her best to look annoyed, but he saw the blush crawl up her cheeks. “You think about sex all the time.”
He smiled. “When you’re near me, yeah.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, but not before Hunter noticed that her ni**les had tightened. “We have more important things going on, you know.”
“Unfortunately, I do. Don’t worry, honey.”
As she closed her eyes for a moment, some of the starch left Kata. “Hard not to.”
Hunter grimaced. Every mission he went on, he figured that he had an enemy who would kill him if he didn’t finish them off first. Hell, he knew a few of those shadowy figures from his past had put hits out on him. In every case, they’d given up or Hunter had made sure they went down instead. Kata had no experience with this, and it had to be scaring the hell out of her.
Still, he tried not to step on her toes.
“Any plans beyond tonight? How are you going to rid yourself of the threat?” He didn’t think she had the first idea. He’d love to be proven wrong, but if not . . . well, he needed her to admit that before he moved in and took over. Or she’d be blazingly pissed.
“I c-can call some of my cop friends, like Trey, see what they might have heard. If this wasn’t Villarreal’s work, I have to figure out who ordered the hit . . .” Kata paused, blinked, then looked up at him with a furrowed brow before wrenching away.