“You can still hack a hardwired system, I just said wireless is easier.”
Cas followed him into the master where Jonah rummaged through the unholy mess of clothing from his closet until he found a duffle bag.
He quickly filled it with a few changes of clothes then tossed it on the empty bed frame. The mattress had been yanked off and slit open. “Whatever’s on that drive you’ve got, someone has figured out the association between us, obviously.”
Cas nodded mutely, picking a path around a broken lamp, bending down to inspect things as he moved around the room. He stopped at the foot of the bed, poked at a pillow, then made his way to the wall of windows on the east side.
Jonah went to the armoire across from the bed, rested his back against the side, and then put all his power into his quads until the thing started slowly sliding across the carpet.
Dropping to a crouch, he fit his fingers into the shoe moulding and pulled backward until the square of carpet came up, exposing the safe keypad—his second splurge ever after the apartment. It’d been a custom installation.
From within the safe, he pulled the rest of his hand guns, a few boxes of ammunition, and enough cash for a month. He left everything else, then locked up the safe, carefully patted the carpet back down, and yanked the armoire back into position. He packed those items up and tossed them alongside the duffle of clothing and then righted himself, staring across the room at Cas. He wasn’t sure Cas had moved during any of that, not even to see what he was up to.
Cas flinched when Jonah gripped his shoulders but melted against his chest when he wrapped his arms around him from behind.
His hair still smelled like popcorn when Jonah buried his nose in it.
“This view is unreal,” Cas murmured, sounding a little wooden. “No wonder you just left everything behind. This place is like five hundred times nicer than the old one.”
Jonah squeezed him tighter, then released him. “C’mon, let’s get out of here.”
They ditched the Camry in a public garage near Times Square and hopped in a yellow cab from Midtown, Cas huddling against Jonah’s shoulder for the ride while Jonah stared out the window and worried.
He worried about Cas and he worried about how the fuck they were going to unravel this mess—if it even could be unraveled. He didn’t have the brains for shit like this; he’d always just been a soldier. And what was unfolding now seemed like it required magnitudes more finesse and intelligence than what he had.
Jonah had the cab drop them a block away and took a roundabout path back to the loft. He kept a careful eye on their surroundings, though no one appeared to be overtly tracking them. But hell, nowadays, a satellite could fucking spy on you.
By comparison, the loft felt familiar and clean, still faintly scented with pancakes and this morning’s coffee.
Jonah led Cas into the kitchen where he made him a sandwich that Cas took three bites of, along with his medicine, before tossing the rest.
In the bathroom, they undressed in silence, steam from the shower billowing ominously around them. Another time, Cas probably would’ve made a joke about it.
Jonah inspected himself in the mirror. A chunk of his earlobe was gone, but it’d already scabbed over. His ribs were tender, but far from broken, and there was a bruise forming on his hip from where he’d landed after self-ejecting from the car. All in all? Not too shabby.
In the shower, more silence. Jonah almost couldn’t stand it—and he didn’t miss the irony there—but he didn’t break it, either, uncertain whether Cas would appreciate any attempts at empty platitudes. They were currently in the middle of a shitstorm, and there was no getting around that.
After they dried off, Jonah started for the ladder to the loft then turned back when he realized Cas wasn’t behind him anymore. He’d diverted and was heading toward the couch where he used to sleep.
“Cas? What’re you doing?”
Cas stopped. “Oh. I—I don’t know.”
“C’mon.” Jonah inclined his chin toward the ladder and waited until Cas climbed up ahead of him before following.
In bed, Cas turned his back to Jonah and pulled the covers around his shoulders. “Are you sad?” he asked after a moment.
“I’m angry.” Jonah slid his arm under the pillow and rolled onto his side, staring at the trident on Cas’s back. “Sad always happens later for me. First anger, and then sadness. I think better angry than I do sad, and I need to be angry right now so I can figure out what the fuck happens next.”
“I think what should happen next is I should leave. They’ll follow me.”
Cas’s voice was so small it made Jonah’s chest twinge. “We’re not doing that, Caspian.”
“We’re,”Cas echoed with a snort, and Jonah thought back to what Cas had said at the other apartment.
Then he got it.
“Listen.” He reached out and gently guided Cas onto his back. “The reason I left everything here when I moved wasn’t because I wanted to get rid of you. It was because I wanted it to be exactly the same for you. Familiar. A touchstone you could always come back to if you needed—with or without me around. Maybe I was projecting too much, because I never had a place like that. Hell, maybe I did it for me in a way. But that apartment we were just in? It doesn’t represent anything. It’s just a place I lived.”
