Page 70 of The Big Fix

“Ow, ow, ow,” I complained.

He shook his head at me. “It’s your own fault. You shouldn’t laugh at the person who loves you.”

That sobered me up. “No,” I agreed.

“So, in preparation for later, when we’re out,” he said, glancing at me, checking to make sure I was on board with “later,” as in there would be one and I was optimistic, “I’ve been laying breadcrumbs so we can find all the accounts.”

“You realize that if they discover what you’re up to, we’re sunk.”

“Oh, no, that had never crossed my mind,” he said sarcastically.

“You’re infuriating.”

“Yes, well, you normally find it charming.”

“Are you sure?” I asked, wincing as I moved a bit, trying to get more comfortable on the cot. “I don’t think I do.”

Owen scoffed. “You do. You act all growly and grouchy, but secretly you love it when I give other people crap.”

I thought about it a minute and then smiled at him, realizing everything was sort of shiny and a weird lightness was suffusing my body. Of course, I knew what it meant. “I think my fever is spiking.”

His hand slipped across my forehead, and he bit his bottom lip. “You’re burning up.”

“Figured,” I said, reaching out and running my thumb over the lip he’d had between his teeth. “Don’t do that. It’s a bad habit.”

I kept my hand on his cheek, loving the way he closed his eyes and leaned into my palm. He was craving attention, affection, and I’d been keeping it from him because I thought I shouldn’t, that he wouldn’t want that from me. But if I was being honest with myself—and now was the time to be, given the precariousness of our situation—I could admit I’d been smitten ever since he’d come home from college and I started spending all my time with him, listening and learning how his mind worked, seeing his great heart. He got me the way no one else did, and at night, in my bed, all I wanted was him there beside me. The fact that he was the child of my dead friends didn’t enter my mind. He was himself, a man I could easily see loving if I could ever stop worrying about the life he’d be missing out on if he spent his with me.

“Jared, are you listening to me? You’re supposed to focus on what I just said. Did you even hear me?”

I cleared my throat. “I didn’t, no.”

He passed me another cup of water. “Drink this.”

I did as told.

“I was saying,” he began, scowling at me, “that they won’t find the breadcrumbs I’m leaving because I’m very good at this.”

“I know.”

“Suwan has his own man checking up behind me, but he’s just verifying that I’ve done the proper fund allocations and amounts.”

“He’s cutting someone out,” I told him as he poured me more water. “I suspect his employer. If I’m right, they’re going to come looking for that money. And I want to be able to track it back to them when they do.”

“I still don’t know what this is all about.”

I met his gaze.

“I mean, I know it’s about you, but what about you?”

“Suwan suggested they made a deliberate decision to grab you to get me here. Initially, when I first got the news you were missing, I thought it had something to do with Sutter. But pretty quickly, I realized it was something else, and then the other day, we all started noticing that everyone was focused on trying to kill me.”

“That’s great news,” Owen said snidely.

“I just mean that I’ve made a lot of enemies over the years, and I think this is one specific person with a grudge.”

“But you haven’t done any intelligence work in years.”

“Yeah, I know, which makes this really well planned and executed,” I said as he scooted closer so we were shoulder to shoulder, knee to knee. “Suwan said I was untouchable in the US, which was why he had to lure me here.”