“Oh,” I said, more than a little startled, but it made sense. I didn’t imagine they got their jobs by being careless with security.
Liam’s nostrils flared, and Mick looked between us. “I’m guessing people like you consider that an invasion of privacy?”
“You know well enough that’s what it was,” Liam chastised.
“Liam, I would have done this with anyone I discovered we were working with.”
“He’s right here with us. You could have asked his permission first. Don’t treat him like a suspect. Treat him same as you would anyone on the team.”
“Sorry, this is my job. I’m just trying to ensure transparency. Full disclosure: I did go through all your personal PMs to make sure you weren’t some kind of mole, or potentially…”
My fucking PMs? Oh God. I hadn’t realized his search had been so in-depth, and I found myself mentally scrolling back through every message, even my goddamn Tinder account. What had I said? What kind of pics had I sent?
“Fortunately, I don’t talk about too many terrible things in my emails and PMs. Did you happen to see any of my photos?”
“All of them, I’m pretty sure.”
“Mick,” Liam snapped again as my face went red, because there was definitely some NSFW shit there.
“What?” Mick asked, seeming genuinely confused by the severity of Liam’s response. “This is what I do. Aside from a few nudes and some naughty messages with girls, it was all very tame. Far tamer than anything I’ve seen for most of the people we profile. If anything, it was almost boring.”
My face must’ve turned a few shades darker, because even worse than seeing something super scandalous, he’d fucking called me boring.
“Okay, Mick, we get it,” Liam said. “And I assure you, Ty is anything but boring.”
He turned his gaze on me, convincing me with one look of the satisfaction he’d experienced in the times we’d shared, and I was confident that the color already on my face hid my reaction to his words.
“So now that you’ve been officially vetted by top security at the IPB,” Tara piped up, “why don’t you tell us how the two of you met?”
“You don’t have to answer that,” Liam said quickly, though I didn’t see a reason why not.
“Liam and my father are friends. My dad, his now husband, and I were on vacation in Puerto Vallarta and met Liam there.”
“Really?” Kyle asked Liam. “That was always where he would tell us he would go on his vacations. Getting into all sorts of trouble there, I imagine?”
“It’s everywhere else that I get into trouble,” Liam said. “PV is an escape from that.”
“A different sort of trouble, apparently,” Tara said with a chuckle.
They were surely talking about Liam’s sexual exploits with other guys. It shouldn’t have bothered me. Obviously, I fucking knew the moment I met him that he had to have gotten plenty of action, but an intense jealousy rose within me anyway.
Hell, I was still on edge thinking about Kyle and Liam having messed around in their past together. I tried to fight the sensation rising within me, but Liam’s gaze was right on me, as though he was trying to determine how I felt hearing their banter about his past.
“Ignore them, Ty,” Liam said.
“We have a right to get to know Ty a little more,” Kyle said, “since we’ll apparently be working with him whether we like it or not. That said, why don’t we just go down the list: job, stats, family, friends.”
“This isn’t an interrogation, Agent Place. Ty doesn’t have to explain anything to you, and if you need information, you can get it from Mick, who clearly has already done his due diligence.”
Mick glanced around uneasily, seemingly concerned, perhaps because Liam’s tone had become more severe as he spoke.
Liam added, “Ty isn’t on trial here.”
“Everyone’s on trial here,” Kyle said accusatorily, “including you and me, until we’ve proven we’re not the moles. We all went through extensive training. We went through torture to prove our loyalty. This kid…he can run off and squeal to anybody, tell them exactly where we are, but if you do, kid, I’ll kill you. Do you understand that?”
Liam jumped out of his seat and started around the table, but Tara popped up between them. “Okay, we’re not doing this again. We’re going to be in this cabin for more than a minute, and we need to get along and not destroy the furniture.”
“Ooh, you guys made Daddy mad,” Mick warned, a bright grin across his face, as he was clearly enjoying the sparring between them.
“Ty, you don’t have to tell these fuckers anything, and, Mick, next time you’re considering invading his privacy further, please talk to me about it first.”
“I assume there’s nothing of his I haven’t been through, but if there is, I’m pretty sure I should lose my job,” Mick noted. “Nothing personal, Ty.”
“I didn’t take it that way,” I assured him.
The air was thick with tension.
As much as the conversation had been about me, though, I knew there was more to it than that. They were afraid for their fucking lives—and whether Liam or I liked it, they had every reason not to trust the new kid they knew nothing about. I hadn’t earned anyone’s trust…yet.
But I would.
