I gesture to him to get to the point.
“Then there was some drama with the Coast Guard, and Ihad to prove I wasn’t a pirate. So, I was in jail for a couple of days, then there was a whole thing with their system getting hacked. I helped them find the guy. They were pretty amenable to letting me go after that. Anyway, I’m here now, and I’m like seventy percent sure I’m not on an international criminal registry."
My mouth hangs open. As a retired serial killer, there’s not a lot that surprises me, but this has me bulging my eyes out. “So, uh…” I honestly don’t know where to start.
“This was nothing compared to my trip to Australia. As I said, don’t worry about it.” He takes the last sip of his coffee.
I watch his lean frame and his familiar grin, and it hits me, I know even less about this man than I realized.
“Now do you even want to talk about Raymond Booth or not?” he asks.
A shiver goes up my spine at that name. I smother it. If Sam has finally found him, I’m coming out of retirement and disposing of that bastard right off the world. Nothing can stop me. “If you’d checked your phone once last week, you’d know how much I want to know that. You found him?”
Sam rubs the back of his neck and avoids my eyes. “So, I might have overstated that a bit.” He raises his palms at my narrowed eyes. “I will find him. I’m very, very close. I was just updating you when I texted you, then you went MIA and …well, you know everything that happened after that.”
“So, youhaven’tfound him?” What the fuck?
“I found his son, okay? He’d listed one of Raymond’s aliases as his father in his college admission documents, which were just made public in a lawsuit. His birthplace matches what we know about Raymond. I’m so close to finding him too. And now that I’m here, it’d be much easier,” he says.
“He’s in Los Angeles?” I whisper. I suddenly feel trapped, walls closing around me, consuming me. Everything fades away, my living room, Sam, my couch. My brain feels underwater, slow and floating.
Sam’s voice sounds faraway and concerned. “Elliot,” Samshakes me. Air fills my lungs again. His face comes to focus, then the color of the walls and the feel of his hand on me. “I don’t know where he is. I will find him and deal with him, okay? You don’t have to worry about it at all.” His voice is soft.
That clears out all the haze. I shake my head. “What do you mean you’ll take care of it? Have you forgotten what I’m capable of?” I was a legend,goddamnit. The only reason everyone isn’t afraid of me is that I was so good at killing that no one even realized my victims were murdered. And despite the secrecy, plenty of people are scared to even look in my direction. I’m not scared of anyone.
“Okay, buddy,” Sam says with a distinct tone of handling someone.
I narrow my eyes.
“Ugh, okay, we’ll decide what to do with him once I’ve found him,” he relents. Or he better be. “Besides, you have a team of werewolves at your disposal now who’ll love to ‘deal’ with a werewolf with a body count larger than a small town.”
Wait, he can’t mean what I think he does. I haven’t told him about the Bureau even though I’m sure Nicholas wouldn’t mind if I do. Not that I asked because I didn’t want to break his trust right after promising him I won’t.
“What team?” I ask, picking up his coffee mug and taking it to the kitchen.
Sam follows me. “Oh, so is that what we’re doing now? Keeping secrets?” He sounds offended.
I turn to look at him after I place the cup on the pile of dishes precariously balanced in the sink. I insisted I would take care of them since Nicholas cooked, but now I’m worried I might have overestimated my willingness to help. Who even needs a sink full of dishes to make an omelet? Being a good boyfriend isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Sam folds his hands across his chest and leans back on the counter, staring at me judgmentally. “Seriously?”
“It’s not my secret to tell.”
Sam smiles. “It kinda makes me happy to see you all softand inlurve.”
“I’mnotsoft,” I say as I start scrubbing the plates.
“Sooo soft. It’s okay, though. I had a lot of free time on the pirate ship, and once I fixed their internet, a lot of resources as long as I didn’t contact anyone. They weren’t thrilled with the idea of me talking to anyone,” he says ominously.
“I thought the pirates liked you?”
“I mean, who doesn’t? But they have a peculiar way of showing love. But once I started digging into your lover wolf, it was so obvious, I wanted to kick myself. The multiple phones, the constant contacts with other emergency workers, the unlimited flow of funds.” He lists on his fingers.
“So, what did you find?”
“That he works for a secret werewolf agency. And you’ll fill me in with the details,” he says confidently.
That won’t be breaking trust. At least technically. Right? I sigh loudly.
