Also, these two are somehow even hotter close up.
Avoiding eye contact, I shake both their hands, scrambling to stay on track. “So…what’s happening? Why did you kill him?”
“He was going for his gun,” Rafi supplies. “I’m sure you could’ve handled him, but my way was faster.”
Omar lifts a shoulder. “We also knew him a little better than you did. When we realized you’d gone back to your side quests, we looked him up.”
“How did you know I’d…?”
I let my words die out as Anders grins.I’m going to be breathing through a straw for the rest of my life, I just know it.
Everett shakes his head, then steps up to me. With a surprisingly light touch, he plucks something from my jacket near the collar. Anders, still grinning like a sociopath, shines his phone light on the filament between Everett’s inked fingers.
I don’t know what it is, but I do know it’s bad news.
“The latest in listening technology,” Everett provides, his voice beautifully rich.
Given that Omar bugged his own son, this should not surprise me as much as it does.
Anders crooks his elbow around mine. “You told my son he was bad at this. And then made a call to a group of sex workers looking for a good time.”
“Habibi…” Omar looks at me and rolls his eyes.This one, he seems to say.So silly.
“What?” Anders replies, opening his palms. “Killing bad guys is a good time.”
I, too, hold my hands up in protest. “I—I wasn’t going to kill this guy.”
“What? Why not?” Anders asks, genuinely confused.
“I never use lethal force.”
Anders lets go of my arm, his expression stunned as the wind teases a few strands of hair from the knot at the base of his skull. I can’t tell if I’ve disappointed or offended him.
Looking over at his husband, he says, “I don’t think we can hire him if he doesn’t want to kill people.”
“What?” My brain shudders to a halt. “I thought you were helping me?”
“We’re not helping you,” Anders says with a huff that I’m not sure about. “Weweretrying to recruit you.”
I freeze, no clue what to think about that. I mean, have I imagined what it would be like to take on bad guys with the kind of firepower Anders and Omar Bash bring to the table? Sure.
But I don’t know a goddamn thing about how any of that works. I don’t know where they home-base out of, though I’m pretty sure it’s in the Hill Country. I don’t know what their ultimate goals are, and honestly, I don’t even know if they’re good people.
Yes, you do.
A curvy woman with intense freckling and wavy hair pulled back into a messy bun climbs out of the truck, tucking her phone in her back pocket. “Sorry, had to finish up the call with Wimberley,” she says to the other guys before turning her attention to me. Her smile is genuine. “Well, hey there. I’m Hedy. You’re Truett, right?”
“Yes…?”
“So, are you interested?”
“Uhhh… What, exactly, am I supposed to be interested in?” I thumb a gesture at Anders and Omar. “They said something about wanting to hire me, but at this point, I don’t know my ass from a hole in the ground.”
Anders slaps his thigh. “Oh my God, you are so funny.”
I wait.
Crickets.
