That’s when all hell breaks loose.
He bows forward in pain but is yanked back so quickly it takes my breath away. The arms holding me loosen their grip, and I register the sound of a body hitting the ground behind me. My eyes, however, are glued to the scene in front of me, where a hand tattooed with a sparrow reaches in from behind the man, grabbing his knife.
Everett.
He angles the knife’s trajectory across the man’s neck, drawing back a ribbon of blood. The man’s head slumps to the right, his eyes confused by his head’s inability to hold itself up.
The blood descends in a curtain down his neck, his eyes dimming as his body falls to the ground.
Everett’s blue eyes shine in the darkness before he steps into the half-light, a bemused smirk laced with murder and satisfaction playing out across his handsome face as he examines the weapon.
If I thought seeing him on a date changed our dynamic, seeing him kill a man with a knife in defense of my friend shattered it completely. This isn’t him in a new light, this…
Oh, wow.
Thisis the real Everett. He’s like a brand-new creature to me, all confident swagger and loose-limbed knowing. Fuck, my dick twitches at the sight of it.
Inappropriate, Rafi. In. A. Propriate.
He leans down and wipes the knife off on the dead man’s shirt, then slips the knife between his belt and jeans, hooking the handle in his belt loop. He reaches down and helps Parker to her feet, handing her off to Anders, who reaches into his pack and pulls out alcohol wipes.
While I salivate over Everett’s raw, vibrating energy, Anders is being kind to my best friend. “Parker, right? This isn’t deep at all and shouldn’t scar too badly. The wipe is going to sting a little, but it’s nothing you can’t handle, okay?”
She turns to me, her eyes wide. “Rafi, why does he know my name?”
I drag my eyes from Everett. “I…uh, I don’t know, but I think we’re about to find out.”
Parker pins me with a look.
Omar pulls up in an old pickup truck I’ve never seen before and leaves the engine running as he hops out of the cab with a folded-up tarp in his hands. Within seconds he and Thane work together to roll the dead man in the tarp and put him in the back of the truck.
“Omar?”
“I’ll explain everything later, brother. I have other priorities right now.” He points behind me, asking, “Are we getting rid of him, too, or…?”
I follow his line of sight and remember the Iraqi gentleman who’d attempted to kidnap me. Odd is kneeling on the ground next to the man, his head bent as he places two fingers on the man’s carotid artery. He looks up at his brother, giving him the thumbs-up.
Odd stands and joins us, pointing at Omar. “That medallion check out?”
My brother-in-law looks at me, nodding his head. Suddenly, Everett’s late-onset hotness isn’t top of mind. Just being honest here, it’s in a strong second place, but…priorities, or something.
Refocusing on Omar, I ask, “Your father’s people?”
“Yes.”
I was afraid of that answer.
Thane turns to Everett. “We’ve got to bring in DB.”
Parker, still shaking, quietly asks, “Who’s DB?”
Nobody answers her, instead using the sparse tree coverage and the rapidly descending nightfall to lift and slide the unconscious man next to his dead buddy. Odd looks at his smartwatch and continues. “DB’s already been alerted. I hit the emergency button when they were being dragged into the trees. Extraction team should be about fifteen minutes out, unless Hedy’s driving, then closer to ten.”
Everett seems disappointed, his hands clenching and unclenching like he’d like to cause more mayhem.
This should in no way be a turn-on, but…fuck me in triplicate, itsois. I mean—isthisthe part of him that he thinks isn’t good enough for me? As Dwight Schrute would say,false.
Yeah, only my fucking brain would come up with anOfficememe for this occasion.
