Page 51 of Fallen Hero

“Alcohol is illegal unless, of course, you can afford to drink it,” Fallon mumbled.

“Calli!” I barked. “You followed him?”

“Geez, hotshot, what do you think I’ve been doing here? Sitting on my thumbs playing cellphone games in my room all day? I also followed Ahmad and Amir.”

“Just pointing out it’d be hard to play on your cellphone if your thumbs were up your ass.”

I growled at Fallon’s stupidity.

Calista shook her head and commented, “Don’t be a smart-ass. You knew what I meant.”

“Actually, I didn’t. I’ve never had a thumb up my—”

“My foot’s gonna be up your ass if you don’t butt out,” I grunted.

Fallon lifted his hands in surrender.

Calli looked like she wanted to kick me in the nuts. The threat of physical violence looming in her blue orbs shouldn’t have been so appealing, but it couldn’t be denied the woman was gorgeous when she was riled.

“Yes, Mason, I’ve been following Amir,” she said dryly.

Suddenly, my teammate Jack Donovan’s face flashed in my mind. A memory of us in a warehouse in Honduras, him looking both frustrated and constipated.

Good God, was I turning into Jack?

The guy had bitched and complained about how Catarina had no sense of self-preservation. If memory served, he was so pissed, he’d told her he was going to redden her ass for being in Honduras unprotected. At the time, I’d laughed.

I owed him an apology for finding his misery a source of entertainment.

Now I was wondering if this was some sort of karma.

“Are we in another Mase-Calista staring contest or are we gonna eat in the next century?” Fallon asked.

She was not mine, I reminded myself.

Her choices were hers.

It was not my place to say a damn thing.

I shook my head and went back to cooking.

“So you’re waiting for your call?” Pete prompted.

“Yeah. Amir will take me out like he did the others. After our meeting, he’ll either give me an official invite to the auction or deny my entry.”

“What’s the backup plan if you don’t get an invite?” Fallon inquired.

“That would be a question for Tom. I told you, my only part in this is to get the invite, get the location of the auction, and report to Tom. He’ll have a Ground Branch team move, or one of his other shooters move into place to take out his target.”

Yeah, I really needed the full story on how she’d become one of Tom’s ‘shooters.’

But that was a question for later.

Before I could ask about Tom’s plan for the women, Pete did. “Who’s supposed to be handling the women?”

“He told me he has an NGO coming in for the girls. Former Special Forces. The organization’s called Lighthouse.”

“Mason will be your shadow when you meet with Amir,” Pete informed Calista.