The Last Assassin

thinking about it myself.”
    “You have?”
    “Sure. Haven’t you?”
    I sat down on the bed next to her. My heart started kicking harder.
    “Yeah, I’ve been thinking about it.”
    She put her hand on my thigh and squeezed. “Good.”
    I had to tell her. And if I didn’t tell her now, later it would seem like deceit.
    “But just recently, right after the last time we talked, I got some…news.”
    The pressure from her hand lessened. “Yes?”
    “Remember when we were talking at the Peninsula in Hong Kong?” I asked. My words were coming out fast, but I couldn’t slow them down. “The night you told me about Dov. I told you there was a woman, a civilian I’d screwed things up with.”
    “I remember.”
    “Well, it looks like, the last time I was with her, which was before I met you, we didn’t…we weren’t that careful. So it seems…”
    “Oh, merde… ”
    “So it seems there’s a child. A boy.”
    There was a long pause. I sat there, my heart still kicking, wondering which way this was going to go.
    Delilah said, “She contacted you?”
    I shook my head. “I have a friend in Japanese intelligence. He got hold of some surveillance photos of the woman and the child, taken by my enemies. These people don’t know how to find me, so they’re hoping I’ll reappear in the woman’s life. They’re watching her for that.”
    “Is she in danger?”
    “No. I don’t think so.”
    “What’s her name?”
    I paused, but I didn’t want it to seem as if I was holding anything back. “Midori.”
    “Pretty name.”
    “Yeah.”
    “These people…they’re hoping you’ll hear about the child? And that hearing will make you go to Midori?”
    “It looks like that, yes.”
    “What are you going to do?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “I think you do. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have brought it up.”
    I rubbed my temples and thought. “I’m not even sure the child is mine. But I have to know. You can understand that, can’t you?”
    There was another long pause. Her hand was still on my thigh, but it felt like an afterthought now.
    After a moment, she said, “I can. But from what you’ve said, right now, Midori and the boy aren’t in any danger. If you go to them, you might put them in danger, and yourself, too.” She paused, then added, “But you know that.”
    “Yeah.”
    She took her hand off my leg. “Well, it’s not as though I was expecting us to figure out our crazy situation in just a few days together. It was going to take time no matter what. So you should do what you have to.”
    I looked at her. “I’m sorry.”
    She shook her head. “It’s not your fault.” Then she laughed. “Things are never easy for us, are they?”
    “Should I not have told you? We don’t have much time together, and I didn’t want to ruin it.”
    “You didn’t ruin anything. I’m glad you told me. It was respectful.”
    “What do we do now?”
    “We enjoy the time we have together. Like always.”
    But I didn’t want it to be like always. I wanted it to be more than that, and so, I was beginning to understand, did she.
    I wanted to tell her all that. But I didn’t. I just said, “Thank you.”
    She shook her head and smiled. “I’m going to take a bath. You want to join me?”
    I looked at her, still wanting to say more, still not knowing how.
    “A bath would be good,” I said.

    LATER , Delilah lay next to Rain in the dark. Pale light from a half-moon shone through one of the windows, and she watched him sleep in that almost spookily silent way of his. Most people would be wired all night after a run-in like the one they’d had earlier—she was—but Rain had dropped off almost immediately after they got in bed.
    He could be so gentle with her when it was just the two of them that it was hard to remember what he was capable of. But she’d seen his other side before, first on Macau, then in Hong Kong, and she’d felt it surface again tonight in the Barri Gòtic. She wouldn’t have told him, but she’d interceded with those drunken Brits in part because she was afraid of what Rain might do if she didn’t. She’d noticed him palm something from his front pocket during the confrontation, and assumed it was a knife. She’d hurt that guy badly tonight, it was true. But she was pretty sure Rain would have killed him.
    Before going to bed, they’d made love again in the bath. She was glad of that, and took it as a good sign. They had a new situation to deal with, true, as it seemed