“We’ll find them, Kai.” Hunt eyeballs me. “We won’t rest until we do.”
With the exception of Nessa and Demi, everyone is nursing hangovers the next day when we congregate at Sawyer and Xavier’s house. We all brought tablets and laptops and settled in the large living room to begin reviewing files. Hunt and Xavier divided the files in advance and then provided each of us with an individual folder via a secure cloud-sharing system.
Abby and Nessa regularly distribute water and coffee as morning turns into midday. “I’ll get it,” my wife says when the doorbell chimes just as my stomach starts grumbling.
Abby returns a few minutes later carrying a tray with sandwiches, wraps, and chips. Emery trails behind her, carrying a second tray with more sandwiches, cakes, and pastries.
“Hey, Em.” Xavier gets up and takes the heavy tray from her arms before leaning in and kissing her cheek.
“They have you working weekends now too?” I say, looking up at her as Xavier and Abby deposit all the food on the coffee table.
“I just did this delivery as a favor because the driver is swamped today.”
Everyone calls out hello in between grabbing food, and she waves awkwardly. Abby and I know her well ’cause we’re always at the market, but most of the others only know her in passing. Except for Xavier because he makes it his business to become everyone’s best friend. I’m not exaggerating when I say he knows most every single person in town.
“If you don’t need anything else, I’ll go,” she says.
“You’re welcome to join us for lunch,” Abby offers.
“That’s sweet, but I’ve made lunch plans with Uma.”
“Were you two at Pulse last night?” Xavier asks.
Emery’s cheeks turn a darker shade of red. “We were there.”
I didn’t see her all night, but I’m not surprised. The place is big, and it was packed to capacity.
“Wait a second.” Xavier darts forward, sweeping her long hair off one shoulder. He emits a shocked gasp. “Do you realize you were bitten by a vampire? Look at the mess he made of your neck!”
Poor Emery. Her hand flies to her neck, and her cheeks are so red they look like they’re on fire.
“Stop it.” Abby shoots a warning look at her bestie before fixing a sweet smile on Emery. “Don’t mind him. He has no filter, and he’s a worse gossip than any woman I’ve ever known.”
“I’ll take that as a huge compliment.”
“Of course you do, Bright One,” I say, watching for the predictable scowl to appear on Hunt’s face. Hunt doesn’t disappoint. He’s such an easy target when it comes to his husband.
“Knock it off, Anderson.” He jabs his finger in my direction and narrows his eyes.
“Or what? You gonnadrillthe point home?”
Xavier slipped up last year and called Hunt drill sergeantin front of us. Man, we had such fun with that. We’d only just run out of mileage on the superhero shit, so it was perfect timing. Seriously, those two make it too easy.
Titters and chuckles ring out around the room. Hunt looks like he’s ready to throttle me with his bare hands, and poor Emery looks totally lost. Abby loops her arm through hers and steers her back out into the hallway with our goodbyes following her.
“Low blow, Anderson.” Hunt glares at me.
“Stop giving me so much ammunition.” I grin.
“Fuck off and get back to work,” he hisses, and I chuckle.
“Is he this bossy at work?” Drew asks Xavier.
“Worse. I don’t call him drill sergeant just because he literally loves drilling my ass.”
A chorus of “TMI” groans and protests ring out around the room.
“You really embarrassed the poor girl,” Abby says to her bestie when she comes back into the room.
