Page 18 of Peaks and Promises

“That’s good. Armed looters sound serious.”

He shrugged. “It was an easy job.”

“You say that like a Peruvian archaeological site with the risk of armed robbery was boring.”

“Kinda was.”

I laughed. “Okay, so what’s a not-boring job you’ve done?”

He took a bite of his taco and thought for a moment. “Some millionaire’s twentysomething son wanted to travel through parts of North Africa and the Middle East. They hired me to go with him.”

“Isn’t that, like, one of the most dangerous places in the world?”

“Yeah. That’s why they hired me.”

“Were you ever in danger?”

“All the time.”

I gaped at him for a second. “You were in danger all the time and that’s why it wasn’t boring?”

He nodded as he took another bite. “At least I was busy.”

No wonder he hadn’t seemed afraid of Buzz and Hammer when they’d been in the diner.

“How did you get into that? It doesn’t seem like the kind of thing you aspire to when you get out of high school.”

“Kind of a long story. The short version is, about ten years ago, I was looking to do something new. So were a bunch of guys I knew. We all had the right skills, so it made sense.”

“Were you in the military or something?”

“No.”

He didn’t elaborate, and it was clear he wasn’t going to tell me the long version of that story. I could respect that. There were things in my past I didn’t like talking about.

I finished my tacos and checked the time. I had ten minutes left before my break was over.

“You need to get back,” he said.

It was like he was a mind reader.

“I do. Gotta finish my shift.”

I took our mostly empty plates and put them in the trash next to the taco truck. Reese lowered his window.

“I’ll follow you back to work.”

“You don’t have to.”

“I know. But I will anyway.”

“Thank you. And thanks for lunch.”

“Sure. Get out your phone.”

“Why?”

“So you can take my number. I want you to call me if they come back.”