Atticus launched up, stumbling as his feet hit the ground.“What the fuck!”
Slade was laughing.“I thought you heard me comin’.”
Atticus flattened his palm to his chest.“If y’all keep this shit up, I’m gonna have a heart attack.”Could a twenty-five-year-old be scared to death?
“Y’all?”Slade looked around as though expecting to see someone.
“I thought you were working a case,” Atticus told him, wanting to change the subject and get his heart rate back to normal.
“Got a text from Reese to come back.”
Atticus wondered why Reese was summoning people.Did they have a case?
Slade bumped his shoulder.“Figured if it wasn’t life or death, maybe we could grab lunch later.”
Shoving his phone in his pocket, Atticus frowned at Slade.“We?”
“You and me.”
Atticus wanted to ask him if they should invite Carson, but Slade seemed to be in a good mood, and he was learning that you did not throw wrenches into Slade’s good moods.There weren’t enough of them as of late.And Atticus knew part of the reason was that Slade thought he was second to Carson in Atticus’s life.
It wasn’t true.
Hell, he didn’t want to place an order on either of them because it felt wrong for so many reasons.He enjoyed spending time with both of them.They had a good time, no matter what they were doing.And yeah, he was attracted to them equally.Maybe for different reasons, but the heat level was still the same.Slade and Carson were as different as night and day, and strangely enough, together, they did it for Atticus in a big way.
“I could do lunch,” he admitted.
Slade’s face lit up as though Atticus had just given him gold bars wrapped with diamonds.He’d honestly never had anyone react to him the way Slade and Carson were these days, so it was still a bit of a surprise.
Good, for sure, but a surprise, nonetheless.
JJ stared at the screen, soaking upthe sight of her team as they laughed and joked while she looked on.She could only imagine how creepy it was to have her face planted on a big screen mounted on the wall, but for the moment, she didn’t care.Not since it meant she actually got to feel as though she was at HQ with all of them.
“Have you listened to the recent podcast?”Elana asked.
“I’m two behind,” JJ admitted.“So no spoilers.”
“You need to get caught up,” Holly said, excitement weaving through her words.“Simon’s comin’ here.”
“What?Here?As in”—JJ pointed toward the screen—“there?”
Holly nodded enthusiastically.
“When?”
“Today!”
JJ frowned.“Why don’t I know about this?Who’s he comin’ to see?”
“It’sthey,” Elana clarified.“Archer and Simon are comin’ to talk to Brantley and Reese.”
Those no-good, lying buttholes.She knew they’d purposely left out names because she would’ve insisted on being there.Sheshouldbe there.
“What are they talkin’ about?”she asked, desperate to know.
Elana looked at Holly, then back at JJ.“A job, I think.”
“You think?”
