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she had in mind.
    “Ryder is on a mission,” Will said, and Melissa saw Matt’s
eyebrows lift in surprise. “Daniel is upstairs though, right now.”
    “Daniel?” Kelly repeated. “Daniel Cranston? Will, do you
really think he’s a…wise choice?”
    Intrigue tugged at the edge of Melissa’s mind. She had heard
a lot about Daniel over the years. They had even worked together once, on a
mission almost five years before. She had been called in by Aiden as a last-minute
addition to a kill that had turned out to be far messier than either he or
Daniel had counted on. Daniel had at first been hesitant about her being added
to the team so late in the game, but after she had gutted a mercenary who had
been about to ram an ice pick into the back of his neck, Daniel’s opinion—and
chilly attitude—had undergone a dramatic change.
    Despite the mild attraction between them, after that one,
now notorious battle, they had parted ways and had not been in contact since.
Melissa had not pressed Aiden for information on Daniel, nor had she ever
followed up with the other Assassin. She knew he could be dangerous to her
heart and her body. Steeped in his pursuit of a noble cause, Daniel found
satisfaction in the kill when it served a higher purpose, generally resulting
in him working for King and Country. In many ways Daniel’s rationale and sense
of honor were a throwback to a completely different era.
    While Melissa could hold on to her sense of self because of
the knowledge that she dispensed justice, Daniel, she knew, held on to his soul
by being the monster who kept the other monsters at bay. In their brief
conversations before the mission had turned into a bloodbath, he’d told her how
he wanted to protect the innocent, so they would never have to know the true
depths of evil in the world. Their philosophies were similar enough that they’d
found common ground, but there were still many dangerous gray areas where they
disagreed.
    “Like everyone else, I’ve heard about the Lourensz
killings,” Will said gently. “Even though Daniel has never talked about it, as
I presume neither you nor Aiden have, the general gist of what occurred is
quite commonly known around these parts.”
    “Until I have a plan and we know more about this murderer, I
don’t feel it necessary to have a partner on this,” Melissa said stiffly. “And
even when I do have a plan, I would prefer to work with Aiden.”
    “I think this situation is high-risk enough that you need a
partner even for the scouting and information-gathering aspect,” Will insisted.
“I can’t force Daniel on you but I would like to call him in on this. You’ve
worked together before and I have every confidence you can make it work again.
You’ll be able to bounce ideas off each another, share knowledge. There are
many positives here that I don’t think it wise to ignore.”
    The more Melissa thought about it, the smarter Will’s idea
appeared—she just was not keen to trust anyone so implicitly so quickly. The
irony of the situation made her smile to herself. Not an hour before she had
decided to open herself more to others, to let someone or something else in to
help to stabilize her and to hold on to. Here was a golden opportunity to do
just that and she was balking. Talk about contrary.
    “I’ll talk to him,” she conceded with a slightly stiff nod
at Will, not worried about the clear chill in her words. “But I will not make
guarantees. I don’t work for you and I don’t have the temperament to take
orders from anyone. Thank you for couching your request kindly.”
    Will gave her a wide, shit-eating grin that made her
understand that the man could probably talk the devil into dancing in the rain
should he choose to do so. He was far cleverer and savvier than she had
previously believed, and she hadn’t exactly thought him stupid or dense in the
first place. Melissa rarely underestimated people but she conceded she may have
done so in Will’s