“A man also needs to trim his nose hairs.”
I stifled a laugh when Christian leaned away and subtly pinched his nose. He didn’t have any nose hairs that I’d noticed, but nothing pleased me more than pointing out his arrogance by means of finding his insecurities. Our verbal banter had become a form of stress relief, and neither of us ever took it personally.
“Turn that shit off,” Shepherd growled toward the front of the van.
Viktor was driving, but Wyatt had dominion over the radio.
“Don’t start,” Wyatt said. “You know how I feel about Air Supply.”
Shepherd rolled his eyes to the chorus of “Making Love Out of Nothing at All.”
“You’ll get along famously with the man we’re hunting,” I said. “He loves eighties music.”
“I didn’t say I liked eighties music,” Wyatt countered, leaning around his seat. “Air Supply just speaks to my soul.”
“Your soul is dead,” Shepherd grumbled.
“Lay off. That’s the year I got my first computer. It’s nostalgic.”
I laughed. “How old are you again?”
Shepherd folded his arms. “He lost his virginity to ‘Oh! Susanna.’”
Everyone snickered.
Wyatt stared daggers at him. “Whatever, Dirty Harry. And I wasn’tthatold when I lost it.”
“Why is he here?” I whispered to Christian. “I thought Viktor didn’t want him coming on dangerous missions.”
“We’ll need someone in the driver’s seat in case we need to make a quick escape. Wyatt’s also the liaison who’ll contact the Regulators, and that’ll depend on what we find.”
Shepherd relaxed his posture on the opposite bench, just as cool as a cucumber. Niko possessed a look I’d seen many times in the training room when he was getting into his zone, and Gem was sandwiched between them. I glanced at Blue on my left, who was sending a text message to Claude. He replied back telling her to make sure we females were careful, and that made me chuckle.
Niko drew his hood over his head. “We have a good chance of succeeding. Cristo paid men on the street to take you down. I suspect he operates alone.”
“He also likes bombs,” I mentioned.
Shepherd crushed his cigarette beneath his boot. “She’s right. If he doesn’t have anyone there protecting him, he might have laid out some traps. Keep your eyes open. And Gem, stayinsidethe van. Not on top of it.”
She launched to her feet. “Stay in the van. Stay in the van. You didn’t witness my epic fireworks show earlier. And you shouldn’t put your cigarettes out on the carpet!”
“We’re going to have to replace the whole damn thing anyhow,” he retorted.
“Well, it’s a filthy habit and—”
The van shuddered when we hit a bump. Gem fell forward, and Niko swiftly caught her with one arm.
“Careful, braveheart. We need you in one piece.” He turned and sat her down in his place before moving up front to speak with Viktor.
“Why am I even here?” she asked herself. “To babysit Wyatt?”
Gem didn’t seem to like going on jobs that involved crime scenes and dead bodies, but I found it interesting that she was eager to partake in a raid.
“You are here as protection,” Viktor answered from the front. “If he escapes to the street, we need you to track him. You are our eyes and ears.”
Gem crossed her legs, satisfied with that responsibility, but I could see she was still on a high after helping us with her energy balls. I surmised that Gem didn’t get to practice her wielding ability too often, so I understood the danger if one of us was standing in the line of fire. That made me nervous, especially after seeing how charred those men had been. But having her topside wasn’t a bad idea in case Cristo tried to escape. Given his track record, I wouldn’t put it past him.
The van finally stopped, and the engine turned off, but the music kept playing—probably to block out some of the conversation still going on up front. Blue scooted all the way down to the rear doors.
