“Guys. It’s notthatfunny. I’m a good shot. I would be good at murder.”
At that point, the room erupts and even Omar is laughing.
“Fine, I teach at UT, so I don’t need to join your snooty little murder squad. But one of these days, my ability to shoot the wings off a fly will come in real handy, and at that point, I will be accepting your apologies. And my drink preference is margarita with Cointreau and Coralejo Reposado.”
Odd pauses his laughter and looks over at me and Parker, his expression suddenly shuttered.The others let their laughter trail off, and just as quickly the room goes silent.
“What?” I ask Parker, not sure what I’d said that could cause such an atmospheric shift. She shrugs, her smile faltering.
Everyone avoids our eyes except for Everett, who scratches his chest and holds me closer.
“What?”
Parker’s normally happy face settles into recognition of…something. Her shoulders droop, and now I’m really worried.
“Guys, what the hell?”
She walks over to me and gives me a huge hug, whispering into my ear. “We can’t go back to school. Probably not for a long time.”
I open my mouth to contradict her words, but…fuck. She’s right. God, this day keeps on getting better and better.
Everett reaches out and touches my arm. “Just for now. We just need to get our heads around how big this really is.”
We sit down at the table, the wind knocked out of us. I turn to face her. “I’m so sorry. I dragged you into this and…I had no idea. Please believe me, I am so sorry.”
She grabs my hand and squeezes it. “Did you intend to put me in front of dangerous men and get me locked in a safe room and then dragged out to a secret vineyard in Central Texas?”
I shake my head. “Of course not.”
“Then let’s not get lost on that point. Let’s see what we can do to make the best of it, okay?”
“Yeah, well they’re happy to let you organize their command center, but they won’t even let me shoot bad guys.”
“Poor baby,” she says, patting my hand. “Maybe if you didn’t dress like a mall walker circa 1985, they’d be more inclined to put a gun in your hand.”
I check out the sweats and T-shirt Jake retrieved for me, both of which are comically large. She might have a point.
That gets the guys going again, but Odd is thoughtful. He sits next to Parker and quietly pulls up the display again. “You teach Tagalog, right?”
“Oo,” she says in the affirmative. “Well, Idid.”
“Mind taking a look at something?”
She shrugs and checks what he’s pulled up. “Can you read this?”
She nods and begins to read, her smiley face going serious in an instant. She looks up at him, silenced. Once again, the joviality of the room is switched off. He puts a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Your cousin, Elaina, was taken from Manila, right?”
Her eyes widen as she looks at me. She’d never told me, or anyone, if I had to guess. By bringing this up out of left field, Odd is doing two things. He’s inviting her in, but he’s also letting her know that they thoroughly investigated my life and everyone in it. I catch her eye and touch my hand to my heart.
Squaring her shoulders, she looks at him and grits out, “Yes. It’s been devastating to my family.”
“Wanna help us find the fuckers who did it?”
An expression I’ve never seen crosses my friend’s face. “Find? Or kill?”
“Kill.”
“Then yes. And this newspaper article is saying the lead suspect, a general in the army, was let go for lack of evidence. We know he’s running the organization. My aunt has petitioned the government to investigate further, and we’re being told nothing will come of it.”
