"And I’ve met you." Boner grinned. "How does it feel to be one of the chosen ones?"
Still without looking up, Jules flipped him off.
"He knows he’s lucky." Boner chuckled. "He's keeping his cards close to his chest."
Jules smirked. "Come up with someone else. I'm sure there's plenty of people out there you don't like. On the other hand, it might be easier to find someone who doesn't like you."
Boner pressed a hand to his chest as though deeply offended. “There are people out there who don't like me?” he asked with mock disbelief. "Couldn't be."
Jules rolled his eyes and turned off his phone before placing it down on the coffee table in front of him. "We can't just give him a name. The moment he looks into it, he's going to see it's full of shit."
"Unless it's not," I said.
I tried not to shrink back when they all turned their attention to me. Sometimes being around so many people was a lot.
"We keep saying there's lots of assholes and predators out there," I said slowly.
"I think you just repeated yourself," Boner remarked.
I considered that for a moment.
"All predators are assholes, but not all assholes are predators."
He pointed a finger gun at me and clicked his tongue, conceding the point.
"Anyway, we find one and give his name to Getzoff," I said. "Someone plausible."
"Someone like you?" Jules suggested. He didn't sound malicious, just stating the fact that I more or less fit the description.
"Archer isn't an asshole," Cass said.
"I'm a predator." I uncrossed my knees and crossed them the other way, my arm on the couch behind Harlow. "I tracked down these people. That's what it makes me, isn't it?"
"In a way," Harlow agreed reluctantly. "But then so am I. And Getzoff already knows I exist. You too. Not," she added quickly, "that any of us is going to give your name to him."
She glanced around like she needed to be sure everyone was listening. Including Jules. Her gaze settled on him for longer than the rest of us.
"I could volunteer as bait, but I have a feeling that's a long game," Boner said. "Arrests. Court appearances. Prison. Becoming someone's bitch. All that shit."
"We're not using you as bait, either," Harlow said. "We need to find someone who deserves it. Someone we'd take care of ourselves, under other circumstances."
"Right now we need to cover our asses, and keep Getzoff busy," Boner said.
"That too," Harlow agreed. "If we could find Hypnos and Zeus, that would be perfect. Getzoff could deal with them for us."
"Or they could deal with him," I said unapologetically.
"They could deal with each other," Cass suggested.
Boner snapped his fingers. "That's perfect. Can we do that?"
"Have you found them yet?" Jules asked him, his tone bone dry.
"It’s on my to-do list," Boner said. "Right at the top, as a matter of fact. It's one of those tasks that doesn't seem to be crossed off when it should be." He pressed his lips into a line with annoyance.
Harlow rubbed the tattoos on her arm, the lines for the five men she'd crossed off her to-do list. I knew how frustrated she was that the other two remained elusive. I was frustrated too. They were out there. Until they weren't, she wouldn't get the peace she needed. She'd always be watching and waiting, either to find them or for them to come after us.
I'd spent too many sleepless nights searching for clues for those two. Either speaking to contacts or searching parts of the internet no sane person should venture into. Which, to be fair, was most of the internet, but some places are worse than others. How many predators had I found that way? And yet, not the two we really wanted.
