“How’d I do?”Jin asked the woman.“Did I get it right?”
“Correct on every point, Jin.”
Jin smile deepened into something soft and sincere.“You recognize me.”
He hadn’t thought she would.Mars and Cleo hadn’t.
Pityrodia Augustensis inclined her head.“Your soul is quite loud, little brother.”
Jin scratched his cheek, feeling a little bashful.“You say the sweetest things.”
“What is going on?”a pirate asked, looking spooked.
Jin glanced at him.“What’s going on is that you’re not very bright.I mean—what kind of idiot doesn’t question the presence of a child wandering freely in a place like this?”Jin waved his hand.“Never mind.Don’t answer that.I don’t care.I already got what I needed.”The location of their hideout.“I’m done with you.”
A pirate opened her mouth on a scathing retort that she never got to voice as Jin’s body erupted.His loose shirt and pants billowed outward as dozens of shapes shot out from under them, ripping the fabric of Jin’s clothes in the process.
Oh, well.He was sure Kira would buy him new ones.
Jin noted Augustensis watching in mild curiosity as the swarm gave her a wide berth, falling on the pirates with a ferocity that would have made most flinch.
Not Augustensis though.She remained unmoved as the swarm took care of the rest.
Everything was over in a matter of seconds.The pirates dead and Augustensis and Jin the only ones left standing.
Well, them and one other.
“You can come out now,” Jin called.
Augustensis was expressionless as a red-haired man moved away from the weapons cabinet that had concealed his presence earlier.
Flame sauntered toward them with a wry twist of his lips.“I didn’t think I’d run into you again so soon.”
Jin didn’t respond, directing his next words toward Augustensis.“I take it he’s with you.”
“I guess you could say that.”
She didn’t sound very convinced.
Mentally, Jin shrugged, not wanting to get involved in whatever strange relationship these too had.Augustensis must have trusted him on some level or else she would have already killed the irritant and his obnoxiously cheerful smile.
“Alexander tells me you prefer to go by Gus,” Jin said.
Gus tilted her head, her forehead wrinkling slightly.
“Is he wrong?”Jin asked.
“No, that’s correct.I do prefer Gus.I just hadn’t realized he possessed enough awareness of my existence to know anything about my preferences.”
Ouch.
Jin hid his wince.That was something he’d never understood about the forty-three.Their distance, both emotional and physical, from one another.He couldn’t imagine the last decade without Kira by his side.
The loneliness and isolation must have been awful.
No wonder Gus was keeping company with shady characters like Flame.Poor thing probably didn’t have many options.
“I didn’t do this, you know.I just want to make that clear,” Gus announced with an abruptness that made Jin blink.
