“One time! I cook for myself all the time.”
“Something that keeps me up late at night.”
They let out a laugh but tried to sound affronted. “Hey! Not nice!”
I snorted. “Catching the tower on fire would also benot nice.”
“As if you guys don’t have a billion spells to prevent that from happening. It would only burn down my apartment.”
I stopped cooking and met their eyes. “Are you hearing yourself right now? Is your argument really that you’d only burn down your own apartment?”
They scowled at me, and the look was so adorable all I wanted to do was kiss those puffy lips. “Shut up.” They flipped meoff, turned on their heel, and marched toward the bathroom, pretending to be mad and offended.
All I could do was chuckle since I knew them well enough by now to know they weren’t actually upset. They were just as amused by the argument and situation as I was.
Chapter Six
Roman
Oakley yawned for the seventh time, and I sighed. “I know it’s boring, but you have got to get your yawning under control before you put us both to sleep.”
They sighed this time. “I’m trying, but stakeouts are the worst. I can’t help it. I’ve never been so bored in my entire life.”
“So dramatic.”
They stuck out their tongue—giving me a glimpse of their piercing—and flipped me off. “I’ll show you dramatic.”
“Oh boy. Didn’t think you could get more dramatic than this. Now I’m scared.”
“Good.”
I snorted, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw their lips twitch into a smirk.
We were on day three of staking out the location Barney Porter had given us, and I couldn’t even really argue with them. Stakeouts really were the worst, and this one was even more boring than usual because there was literally no one around. Normally, there were people to watch and keep an eye on to at least help pass the time. This stakeout was literally staring at a gray cement building and nothing else.
Barney had been transferred back home to the tower where Garrick and his team were interrogating the man further, but they hadn’t gotten anything else out of him so far. I doubted they would.
I could only hope that his being missing hadn’t been noticed yet because I could guarantee these criminals would switch up their meeting location in a heartbeat if they realized one of their guys had been nabbed.
“At least we have good stakeout snacks,” Oak mumbled under their breath as they reached for the bag full of snacks.
I’d gone to the store every day to replenish our snacks because I knew Oak would complain even more if they didn’t have anything to snack on. They were always eating lately, and I could only assume their dragon form was growing because they hadn’t put on an ounce of weight. They were young enough that their dragon could still grow. Honestly, a dragon could, at any age, decide it wanted to be bigger.
That was why Garrick was so huge. His dragon kept on growing for years after mine had stopped, even though we were close in age.
“I see movement,” Oakley said, snapping my attention back to the task at hand. Oak reached for their binoculars and dropped the snack bag on the floor at their feet. “Eleven o’clock, corner of the building. I think I see… someone with a cigarette?”
I grabbed my own binoculars and focused on the spot they’d pointed out. I could’ve probably seen the area with only my dragon eyes, but the binoculars had night vision, and I wanted to get a clearer picture of what we were dealing with.
It took a few seconds, but I finally saw what they did. An arm sticking out from the side of the building with a lit cigarette in their hand.
“I see it. Definitely an arm with a cigarette.”
“I’ll get out and walk down the street to get a better view.” Oak opened their door silently but glanced at me for confirmation.
Technically, I was the lead on this mission, so I could call them back. But I knew that’d be a stupid idea, both professionally and personally. Professionally, we needed eyes on the target, and there was no reason it couldn’t be Oakley doing it. Personally, they’d be pissed off for weeks—months, even—and possibly never forgive me if I started pulling rank and not allowing them to do anything.
I might’ve been lead, but we’d been acting as equal partners in this, and I wanted to continue the trend.
