Liam’s lips slipped into a smile so easily, his eyes lit up with the projector light.
“Why are you grinning like that?” I asked.
“Feels kinda good to be back in the game. Let’s go kick some fucking ass in Texas.”
“Hold your pantyhose up,” Mick said. “I’ll do some preliminary work and find us a location we can use. And I can get us passports over the next twenty-four hours.”
“Good,” Tara said. “Liam, since you worked this mission, we’ll need a full briefing put together to run through. I’ll help you with that. If you have any contacts, we can work from those. Kyle, help Mick with travel arrangements. And, Ty, if you could find some new expressions to make when you’re confused and/or shocked, that would help us out a lot.”
I laughed as she broke through what I’d felt throughout most of their meeting.
She winked at me before continuing. “I’ll copy everyone on the info Liam and I put together, and we’ll work on our plan off that. Any questions? Or is your face twisted up like that for some other reason, Kyle?”
Kyle’s mouth hung open, as though he’d been about to articulate a thought when Tara had called him out. “Yeah. I got a question. A Ty question.”
Oh, brother.
I could tell by how annoyed he was that it wasn’t going to be nice.
“What question is there?” Liam asked in a tone that sounded particularly vexed.
“Do you think it’s safe for him to come with us?”
“He’s safer with us than anywhere else.”
“I didn’t meanforhim.” He glared at me as he spoke the words. In his expression, I could sense his suspicion, but mostly, irritation with my presence. It was as if I’d walked in and ruined their little club.
“Enough, Kyle,” Tara snapped. “Ty, as Liam said, you’re safer with us, and that’s all we’re considering on that front. That’s F5’s official position. Is that clear enough for you, Kyle?”
Mick chimed in with, “He likesThe X-Files, dude. He’s cool with me.”
Kyle grumbled as he stared me down some more.
“Look at him again like that, and you’re going to find yourself missing an eye,” Liam warned. “Understood?”
“Understood,” Kyle snarled, shaking his head in apparent disapproval.
Yeah, and I understood too.
As bothered as Liam was about the way Kyle was treating me, Kyle had every reason to. These guys didn’t know me from Adam. I would have felt just as skeptical and uneasy, but what other choice did any of us have than for me to go with them?
It wasn’t ideal, but then again, what was anymore?
* * *
“Don’t letKyle get to you,” Liam said.
I spun around to see Liam entering the bedroom behind me and closing the door. His expression hadn’t changed much from its typically stoic state, but I was getting better at reading the subtleties and knew there was something affectionate about the look he gave me.
“I’m fine. I was thinking about that when he made that remark, but he has every right to be bothered. He doesn’t know me. He has no reason to trust me.”
“If he knew you the way I do, he’d know better.”
“But he doesn’t, and I get that.”
Liam smiled, pinching my cheek. “You’re a smart kid.”
“Sounds like a promising lead to work off of,” I said to shift the conversation.
