“Earth to Kyren,” Silva says, amused as I blush.
“I’m admiring the crown molding,” I confess. “I’ve learned all kinds of things while working with our unit.”
“You’re not with a government agency, huh?” she asks.
We’re tucked into a corner and it’s loud. I doubt anyone will be able to hear me as I shake my head.
“Not anymore. Haven’t been for years,” I say. “We left for the same reason Syrus did in a way.”
We’ve all been doing a lot of talking, and he opened up about why he left Seattle’s finest.
“These cases, once they go cold, sit in a drawer forever,” I say. “There’s no DNA to go on, no evidence sometimes that something bad happened to them.”
“Like me,” Silva murmurs. “We were probably initially deemed missing because we left the foster home without saying goodbye. A short while after that, G’s people found us.”
“We got tired of coloring between the lines,” I say. “Having a chain of command chafed, and it really frustrated us. Our unit works a lot better as it is.”
“I hate that Izzy has to hide,” she grumbles.
“About that,” I say, blowing out a breath. “I do too, but he’s adamant about not getting outed. No matter what, Izzy is incredible at what he does. Depending on what missions we decide to go on, I want him to go off his medication more often. If we can sync up heats so you have them together, we’ll hole up the way we did before. It’s not healthy for him to go a year without a break.”
The two of us fall silent as a waitress takes our orders. Silva orders tea as well to warm up, making me smile. This is the kind of place where you should definitely order tea.
“Where did you learn your, ah, computer skills?” she asks, once the waitress bustles off.
“High school actually,” I shrug. “I took some programming classes, made some nerd friends that enjoyed getting intotrouble and taught me everything they knew about coding. I was just good enough to be dangerous. Got caught funny enough. I was told that I could either get on board or go to jail.”
“So what happened?” Silva asks.
“I agreed to their terms, and they made me disappear. I only had my mom left, but she would never fail to tell me what a pain in the ass I was. It was no skin off my nose to fall off the face of the earth. New identity, new life sounded good to me. I became Kyren without a thought, and they paid for my school.”
“So what happened when you left? People put time, energy, and money into your unit…Especially you. Did they just let you walk away?” she asks.
“Harlan and Aiden called in a shit ton of favors,” I say. “In the end, we got out the same way you did. I put together a Burn File, and threatened to take everyone with us. We are damn good at what we do, and they knew it.”
“We bite when the leash gets too tight,” Silva murmurs.
“We keep the contacts we need, gain new ones as we go, and keep our methods in house. It’s better if we don’t owe someone a favor, you know?”
“Yes, I do,” she says.
Silva doctors her tea when it comes, and the soup is just as good as I was told. Hmm. Maybe I don’t suck at this date stuff.
On the way out of the restaurant, she holds my hand, gesturing down the street.
“They have really good desserts here,” she says.
As we walk, my lips curl in amusement as I see that this is the cafe that Harlan camped out at when we arrived in Widows Peak. This is a full circle moment of sorts.
“They have the best chocolate torte cake, and I’m currently craving it,” she says as we walk inside.
“A chocolate craving sounds dire,” I say. “We need to rectify this immediately.”
Her lips twitch as she rolls her eyes, but we get half a cake for the house. Why should she have all the fun?
Box in hand, I feel like a simp as I walk back to the car with her, my free arm wrapped around her.
“How was my first date with a girl?” I ask, squeezing her.
