“Fucking—” I grab a tissue quickly to clean up the mess and Gabriel snorts.
“That long, huh?”
Ugh.
After Philip parted ways with Evie that night in the park, he’d asked her out to coffee when they met at the bookshop a few days later.
From the eyes of anyone else, it was a romantic beginning.
To me and the rest of the team, it was like signing Evie’s name on the dotted line and giving her away to a demon.
Needless to say, Gabriel and I are the lucky souls to be assigned to Evelyn’s first coffee date with a serial killer.
It’s exactly how I envisioned spending my first Christmas without the Adler Squad.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Stars, my nose burns.
“Right.” Gabriel’s deadpan face is the most obnoxious thing I’ve ever seen. “Now try it again. This time without accidentally killing yourself.”
If looks could kill, I’d shift into his worst nightmare right now.
Evie and Philip are at the coffee shop across the street. Philip’s not wearing his infamous killing jacket, which puts us at ease at least… but one day he will. He will, and we’ll have to be ready.
I click my teeth, pressing tissue down on my nose after managing to salvage my tea. For some reason, there are at least six coffeeshops on this one stretch of road in the town. It’s the easiest thing to look natural in the crowd while followingEvie’s date.
“I don’t even know who you’re talking about,” I mumble.
“Wow,” Gabriel looks utterly unimpressed by my lie. “Everyone knows Reuben’s been pining for you for ages.”
“What?” My voice rises a bit too loudly and people from other tables glance over at me.
I wince before assessing him slowly, with new suspicion, “That doesn’t make sense.”
I didn’t think Gabriel’s expression could get any flatter, but somehow, it does. He leans backwards, mumbling, “I’ve never felt for him as badly as I do in this moment.”
I ignore him. “Since when?”
“Hell if I know. But he’s always watching you. And recently he’s… softer. The softest I’ve ever seen him.”
‘Softer’ isn’t the word I’d use for how Reuben’s been lately.
‘Crazy’, sure. ‘Energetic’. ‘Handsy’. ‘Hypersexual’.
‘Softer’ wouldn’t even make the list.
“We’re not dating,” I finally answer.
“Does Reuben know you're not dating?”
“Just leave it.” I don’t know the answer. “It won’t get in the way of the mission. And it’s none of your business.”
“It is very much thewhole team’sbusiness, Christian.”
I watch him for a few breaths. “I’m not following.”
“It changes the chain of command.”
“No.” My grip on my glass has tightened. “It doesn’t. Nothing changes.”
