“Don’t think about it, Thee. I promise, they won’t get through me.” Hauk confiscated more of the assassins’ weapons and tucked them into various places in his clothes. He met Sumi’s gaze. “Any of them friends of yours?”

Sumi shook her head. “Never seen them before.” When she reached for a blaster, Thia actually shot at her. The blast barely missed her head, and by the look on Thia’s face, she knew the girl had expertly placed it, but wouldn’t be so considerate next time.

“Uncle Hauk?”

He narrowed his eyes on Sumi as if trying to read her thoughts. “Let her have it. The one at her feet was going for her while she slept. Leads me to believe he wasn’t working with her. Or if he was, they had a falling-out.”

Thia hesitated. “You sure?”

He nodded. “Besides, she’s not much of a killer.”

Sumi resented the teasing humor in his deep voice. “I am a chief field assassin, you know? I’ve never failed a mission or missed a target. I’m damn good at what I do.”

“Ooo,” he said sarcastically as he rose to his feet. “Someone cue my fear pheromones.”

Sumi put her arms on her hips. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“That he’s less than impressed by your rank,” Thia explained wryly. “By the time my father, his best friend since childhood, was my age, he was top ass.”

Sumi tried not to be impressed, but she couldn’t help it. Very few made the rank of command assassin of the first order, and only one had ever attained it by Thia’s age.

Nemesis was the most brutal of them all.

But then, as she looked over the bodies, Sumi was glad that Hauk wasn’t threatened by her skills. It didn’t work out well for anyone he perceived as a threat.

And she didn’t want to meet the brutal end of the men on the ground around them.

Thia clapped Sumi on the arm. “You got a lot of confirmed kills to go, puddin’.” She winked at her. “Not to mention, Uncle Hauk left The League as a teenager with the rank of special agent.”

Darice made a rude sound of disagreement. “Lorina shit. Dancer was still in training when he washed out.”

Hauk cocked and locked his jaw at his nephew’s snotty dismissal. “For your information, punk, I rose to the rank of captain during training.”

Sumi made an exaggerated gape at him. Yeah, okay, that rankled. Captain was the fourth-highest rank an assassin could aspire to. And it was the one most assassins never rose above before someone violently ended their career and life.

Darice raked his uncle with a scathing glare. “If you were a captain, how did you wash out, huh?”

Hauk didn’t answer as he began carrying bodies off to the side of camp.