He clenched his fist to stop himself from snarling at Razor that he couldn’t tell his cousin what to do.
Taking in a deep breath, Jared let it out slowly.
See? He could totally be reasonable.
“Pfft you’re no fun,” Tabby told Razor.
“I know, baby. I’m the fun police. Let me talk to Jared a moment.”
Great. What could Razor possibly want to speak to him about?
“Don’t tell my cousin what to do,” Jared growled at him.
All right. So perhaps he wasn’t that reasonable.
Razor sighed. “I’m going to ignore that. Is everything good?”
Jared raised his eyebrows. “Why wouldn’t it be?”
“Just checking in.
That seemed odd. He had no idea why he’d do that. Or why he would care. After several inane questions, he knew he needed to end the call before he snapped at Razor to mind his own business.
Once upon a time, he might have appreciated someone checking in. Now . . . he wanted to keep his distance from as many people as possible.
The less people he cared about . . . the less people he could fail.
The less people he could lose.
3
Angie couldn’t believe it.
She finally had her own place. She didn’t think she’d ever get the chance to live on her own again.
She’d thought that she would always have to have someone watching over her.
But after the wedding, Keira had gone into bat for her. And now look . . . she had her own small house in a good neighborhood.
Sure, Zander and Keira had helped her get this house. But she would pay them back one day.
For the moment, she was just happy to have some freedom.
“Right, all of the cameras are in,” Miles said, coming out of the house. “You have state-of-the-art security now.”
“Which wasn’t necessary,” she said. “But thanks, Miles. I really appreciate it.”
“You’re welcome,” he replied, looking slightly surprised. “You don’t have to thank me.”
“Oh, right, because you’re doing your job? You should still get thanked though, right?” she asked.
“No, not because of that. Because we’re family.”
Angie blinked at him rapidly. “We are?” She’d lived in the compound for two years now, so she felt like she knew Miles well.
However, she didn’t realize that he considered himself family.
“Thanks, Miles,” she said again. “I . . . I will miss you guys.”
