“I know. I know.” Nico knew Teilo as well as he knew his own hand. “But don’t you see? He’s totally evil. Like that Andromeda and the changeling Ben told us about. We have to take him out.”
“We’ve traveled so far to get here. He’s a long way away.”
Nico could tell Teilo was already working out what had to be done. If Nico was the lethal strength of their partnership, Teilo was the brains. He could see things, he felt things; he knew things instinctively before anyone else and Nico had trusted him with his life a hundred times or more.
“You’re thinking about it, aren’t you?”
“Working it through.” Teilo rested his head on Nico’s shoulder. “I don’t want to take Ben. He acts all tough, and his cat is old and wise, but…”
“He hasn’t had the training we’ve had,” Nico agreed. “Could we…?”
“No, we can’t leave him behind.” Teilo’s head shake was short, almost economical, but Nico felt it all the same. Teilo dropped his tone to a whisper. “I don’t think we can be without him, same as I can’t be without you. Those feelings are so strong—too strong to ignore.”
“Is that going to be a problem for any of us?” Nico was hell-bound and determined he’d spend the rest of his life going forward protecting Teilo in a way he’d never been able to do before. Ben talked tough, but they didn’t know enough about his history, and Nico’s protective instincts for Ben were just as strong.Two mates to protect and kill for.Nico would do it—that wasn’t even a question.
“I think Ben’s used to being in charge,” Teilo murmured. “How can we get him to listen…”
Both men’s heads shot up as Ben cursed, dropping his device on the countertop. “Damn and fuck it all to living hell.”
“What’s wrong?” Nico knew that the device was going to be trouble.I should’ve thrown it in the ocean last night.
“It’s my brother, Kylo.” Ben looked at them, an anguished look on his face. “Remember when we were leaving that place… damn it. The shooting, you remember?”
“The shooters are dead.” Nico looked at Teilo, who was equally confused. They’d never gotten into any trouble with a kill before, and they had shot at Ben. They only did what they had to do to ensure Ben wasn’t shot at again.
“Yes. Thank you. I know. The thing is, we thought they were shooting at you two, or me. They weren’t. My brother Kylo’s just found out he was the target. He’s spewing mad because someone shot at him today.”
Nico could understand Kylo being upset about that. It wasn’t fun being shot. Getting bullets out could be a right bitch. He’d done it more than once. And it wasn’t always the criminals who were doing the shooting. “There’s a lot of shooting goes on in the area we came from. Your brothers live there. It must’ve happened before.”
“No, it hasn’t, and you don’t get it.” Ben opened a couple of cupboards, and then slammed them shut before heading to the refrigerator.
“And you don’t get to slam doors and get shitty if we don’t understand.” Nico couldn’t believe it when Teilo went over to Ben, pulling him away from the refrigerator.
“I was getting a beer.”
“You were being rude to Nico. If we don’t understand something, tell us so we do understand. Your brother’s not dead, is he?”
“No. He got a bit of a scratch on his arm from the bullet.” His butt resting against the kitchen counter, Ben was pouting. “I want my beer.”
“Then Kylo got off lucky. He’s probably healed by now.” Teilo went to the refrigerator, took out a bottle of beer, uncapped it, and handed it over. “Now explain quietly and calmly why you are upset about it.”
“Kylo got shot at!”
There was nothing calm or quiet about Ben shouting.
“And we just said people get shot down there all the time.” Nico moved over, standing between the two of them. “Big deal. There’s crime. Rival gangs. Guns. Drugs. All sorts of shit that goes on where your brother lives. Why do you think they kept us so busy?”
“But that’s just it. I do know that shit goes on down there.” Ben took a deep glug of his drink and swallowed hard. “Kylo and Nori have been working with law enforcement down there for years, trying to clean those criminal elements out of the area.”
Nico snorted and Teilo laughed.
“I don’t know what you two think is so funny,” Ben snapped. “That’s my brother that got shot at, trying to do his job. How would you feel, Nico, if Teilo got shot?”
“I have been, lots of times.” Teilo was still smiling. “The scientists shot at us, our trainers, too. Sometimes our marks would try and fight us off and they usually had guns, and remember that time, Nico?”
“Yeah, the scientists made me shoot Teilo. They wanted to know if we were real twins and could feel each other’s pain. You die or heal.” Nico shrugged. “Gun shots are a damn sight easier to deal with than some of the shit they put us through. At least they’re quick.”
“You…? He…?” Ben waved the bottle between them with a shaking hand, shock all over his features. “But you love each other. You always have.”
