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The room grew silent and all the eyes shifted to Charlie, who sighed heavily as he lounged in his chair. His fingers picked at the label on the empty beer bottle balanced on his flat stomach.
“Soren and I had a falling out after we were burned. It wasn’t just that he felt betrayed by the Company. Someone he cared about was killed while we were on that job. Not his fault. The guy was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but Soren always felt responsible.” Charlie paused and huffed. “We both said a lot of shit we shouldn’t have.”
“I can’t imagine you doing that,” Will teased softly.
Charlie rolled his eyes, but one corner of his mouth quirked upward. “Yeah, yeah. Anyway, Soren struck out on his own and became a cat burglar because the idiot is addicted to thrills and danger.”
“Not unlike you guys,” Will pointed out. “But are you still not talking?”
Kairo snickered. “No, Charlie and Soren kissed and made up a while ago.”
“Soren still prefers to fly solo,” West added, which Will found surprising. Of the men he’d met in Paris, Westin St. James always struck him as the most independent of the group. If anyone was going to go solo, he’d have expected it to be West. And yet, here he was.
“Though we did help him out a few months ago in Amsterdam. The man still knows how to find trouble.”
“Right now, his trouble is a short, sassy twink who is likely to get him killed.” Ed laughed.
“Or just kill him,” West muttered.
Will’s gaze bounced around the room, trying to follow the undercurrent of what they were really saying. “What?”
“Soren has fallen head over heels for a guy who’s a very dangerous assassin,” Charlie filled in.
Kairo tossed in, “He also comes from a family of dangerous assassins. Soren now has some very scary in-laws.”
Will stared at Kairo for a second and then looked back over at Charlie, wondering if he was actually drunk now. “Is this real? Any of it? None of this feels real anymore.”
Charlie’s smile softened, and his eyes took on a sad cast that tugged at Will’s heart. He’d always hated when Charlie watched him like that, as if there were some dark shadow falling across him that Will couldn’t touch, couldn’t dispel. “It’s real.”
Will opened his mouth to say something, not that he was entirely sure what it was, but Charlie stopped the words by suddenly shoving to his feet.
“It’s late. You should get some rest. We can figure out next steps tomorrow. We can meet to come up with a plan of attack on how to handle Benicio and get the DNA sample Will needs,” Charlie announced.
“Whoa! Whoa!” Will shouted, lurching awkwardly to his feet. Fuck. He was tired. Definitely not drunk. Just fucking exhausted. His mind was clearing by the second as adrenaline and irritation got his synapses firing again. “I didn’t say you were helping me. Or that I’m staying here. Or—”
“Or what? Where are you going to go? A hotel? With no one to watch your back? Or your house? You think it’s not being watched now?” Charlie made a dismissive noise and plucked the beer bottle out of Will’s hand. He placed it on the coffee table and grabbed Will’s shoulder, deftly steering him toward the stairs and the second-floor bedrooms.
“But—”
“Sleep,” Charlie growled, cutting him off. “We all need sleep. Kairo has plenty of security on this place, but I’m sure no one has found us yet. Let’s get a good night’s sleep, and then we can tackle your problem fresh tomorrow.”
“Have you always been so fucking bossy?” Will snarled as Charlie continued to pinch, poke, push, and prod him through the room and up the stairs as if he were some wayward child fighting his bedtime. Will was not arguing that he wasn’t sleepy. He was fucking exhausted. His problem was sleeping under the same roof as Charlie freaking Sands yet again.
Especially after learning what he had about the man’s past.
When they reached Charlie’s bedroom, Will moved to the far side, trying to put as much space between them as possible, but even that didn’t help. They were alone, and it was as though the air crackled between them. It didn’t matter that Charlie wasn’t looking at him, seeming to pretend he wasn’t there. Will knew better.
His former lover moved over to a dresser and slid out the top drawer. He dug around in it for a couple of seconds before pulling out a gray T-shirt and a pair of basketball shorts.
“Here. To sleep in,” Charlie said, tossing them on the end of the bed. It wasn’t a big deal until Charlie lifted narrowed eyes to him and added, “I’d rather see you in that than borrow more clothes from Kairo.”
Something holding him together suddenly started to melt. When they were dating, Charlie had never displayed an ounce of possessiveness or jealousy. He’d been confident to the point of almost appearing indifferent.
