Page 32 of Entwined With You

“We’ll be sure to bring garlic,” Cami said, making both him and Samantha laugh.

“How do you two know each other?” Samantha asked. “And these eggs are amazing.”

“Add pancake mix when you stir them up,” Cami said. “Easiest trick in the book. And we met not long after Sabrina died. We both ended up in this community program. I guess you could say it was for lost souls, right?”

He nodded. “We helped each other out. Ended up as friends.”

“I’m glad he had you,” Samantha said to Cami.

Brax chuckled. “Well, that’s an improvement. Yesterday, she wanted me dead. More accurately, she wanted to be the one who killed me.”

Samantha aimed a sugary-sweet smile at him. “What makes you think I don’t still? We just have a job to do first.”

“About that,” Cami said, “do you two want to fill me in—”

“Brax can.” Samantha slid off the stool. “I have a couple of errands to run this morning.

He turned to her. “I can drive you wherever you need to go.”

She waved away the words. “It’s fine. I’ve got a rental back at the motel. I’ll take a ride share.”

He almost argued, but realized there was no legitimate reason to ask her to wait for him. None other than that he just wanted her there. True, he’d asked her to stay at the apartment to make sure she was safe, but since there hadn’t been an actual threat to either of them, he could hardly demand she let him be her bodyguard.

“I’ll send the texts in a bit,” she said. “But we still need to decide time and place. Oh! Hang on.” She hurried to the bedroom, then came back with the burner for Cami. “So when and where?”

“The Santa Monica Pier?” Cami suggested. “A weekday in the fall. Shouldn’t be too crowded, and we can always walk down to the water if there are too many ears around.”

“Meet at seven?” he suggested. “That’s right around dusk.”

Samantha grinned. “I do love blending into the shadows.”

“Good,” he said. “You’ll send the texts? Hopefully Darrin got the phone to Jorge.”

“I’ll send from my Rideshare.” She glanced at her phone. “It’s ten minutes away. I need to go do my make-up.” She slid her phone into her back pocket and hurried into the bathroom. Cami took a long sip of coffee, her eyes on Brax. He could practically see her brain spinning with questions.

As soon as Samantha had finished her make-up, said her goodbyes and disappeared out the door, he was proved right.

“So how much does she look like Sabrina.”

“Too much,” he admitted. “There’s a reason they call them identical twins.”

“I figured.”

“Figured?”

“You look at her like—”

“Like what?”

She shrugged. “Well, like I’ve never seen you look at anyone.” She came around and settled onto Samantha’s abandoned stool. “How are you holding up?”

“Honestly?”

“No, tell me a bullshit story.”

“I’m doing just fine.”

They both laughed at that.