It’s 1996, and Mark Vincent, senior special agent of the Washington Bureau of Investigation and Security, is sent on assignment to Prague to cancel the head of a terrorist organization. He has no doubt it will be a simple operation. After all, he’s the best, isn’t he? Only another member of the WBIS gets involved, and when everything goes south -- including the loss of valued members of his team -- Mark vows to destroy the man responsible for this debacle. Refused permission to return to the States and ordered to take time off to decompress, Mark heads to Paris, where he meets an attractive rent boy who introduces himself as Louis. Unable to resist, Mark, portraying an ordinary businessman, gives his name as Rick, and they spend the week together. However, neither man is what he portrays himself as. With this unlikely pair, can this be the start of a beautiful friendship?

The Start of a Beautiful Friendship

I slid to the floor and reached under the bed to retrieve my Glock. I left the holster on the bed and approached the bathroom door, then pressed my ear against it.


"Merde! Anacapri knew I was returning today," Louis spat in rapid-fire French. It was a good thing I understood more than seven days' worth of pillow talk. "I told her I needed the time to--Well, excuse the hell out of me if I needed to grieve a fallen comrade!"


The voice on the phone hissed and snarled and generally sounded pissed, although I couldn't distinguish his words. Tactics was obviously tearing Louis a new one. What the fuck was Louis involved in?


"Just remember that," Louis snapped now, his voice rising slightly. "Did the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure return Claude's body to his family?"


What the fuck? Claude might be a common enough name in Paris, but how many with that name also worked for the DGSE and were dead?


Chapter 14