His eyes never left mine, and though he didn’t fight me, his face was flushed. Bet his lungs were screaming for some air.
Grunting, I pulled back, and he dragged in a ragged breath.
“I was trying to help you,” he rasped.
“By laying claim to something that ain’t yours?”
“By making sure he didn’t slip out without us knowing,” he snapped. “It’s obvious you’re whipped.”
I scoffed. “If you want to see whipped, you should look in the mirror.”
“How the hell do you think I recognized it on you?”
I drew back. “I’m not whipped.”
His eyes strayed to the bandage covering the bullet wound in my shoulder, and his eyebrow arched as if to say,You sure about that?
I turned back to the bed.
“It’s also obvious he’s spooked.” Kieran’s words followed me.
“They don’t call me ghost for nothing.”
“How do you know him?” he pressed.
I pointed to the tray on the bed. “This really for me?”
He gestured that I should go ahead.
I grabbed the coffee and took a sip, groaning as it slid down my throat. The stack of French toast was hollering my name, so I dove in with gusto, humming as I smacked my lips. “How come you never cooked for me before?”
Kieran gave me anare you stupidlook,and I shoved another huge bite into my mouth. Sometimes I asked myself why I was friends with him.
Then I remembered he’d saved my life. And now we were ride or die.
“Maxfield.” Kieran dropped my last name like a bomb, and I knew shit was about to get serious. Even though I calledhim by his last name a lot, he never used mine. Like I said before, to everyone, I was simply Ghost.
The fork clanked against the plate when I set it down and sighed. “I met him two years ago.”
Kieran made a sound. “You’ve known him fortwo years?”
“We spent one night together,” I explained. Technically two, but Pip was asleep for the first night, so I didn’t bother mentioning it. “Then I left for that job in Budapest.”
Kieran’s face darkened at the mention of Budapest. What was supposed to be a simple job had turned into a clusterfuck.
“He’s the reason I almost had to fly out there to bring your body home?”
“No.” The edge in my voice was cutting. “Don’t put that shit on him.”
“If it’s the truth?—”
“It’s not,” I snapped. “If my head wasn’t in the game that day, it was nobody’s fault but my own. You know that.”
Kieran stayed quiet, but the tongue running over his teeth said he wasn’t happy about it. It’s okay, though, he was used to not being happy about anything.
I laughed, but it was humorless and hollow. “What are the odds my weakness would become friends with yours?”
“Knowing Hazard, the odds were never in our favor. He attracted trouble like a raccoon to an unattended trash can.”
