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“Did you come here purposely to annoy me?”
“No, I did not, but you give me the perfect ammunition, brother.”
That wicked grin’s back, and there’s something calming about it. Softly, I sigh, let my shoulders drop, and shake my head as I prepare my admission.
“I don’t know what I was planning on shooting.”
He falls back against the back of the bench, our arms side-by-side, and looks at the same things I’m looking out at.
“So, how about you put the safety on and tuck that little beauty away in your waistband?”
“Still nervous?”
“Nah.” He exhales, laughing. “Well, yeah actually, but more of your dodgy aim than being an actual target.”
I can’t resist the laughter that bubbles in my chest. It’s enough to let him lead into his next conversation topic.
“You’re looking angrier than usual.”
“Eternal state, this one,” I grouse mirthlessly.
“Does it have anything to do with you getting cosy with a raven-haired beauty in The Regency bar earlier?” He pushes against me, nudging me playfully over the situation, full focus on me. “And was this what I was abandoned for?”
I roll my eyes but move to hide my gun away, almost as I prepare to move on from the storm cloud that’s been following me since I left the deli this afternoon.
“I had a meeting. He never showed, and then some girl fell into me.”
I’ve been replaying the moment repeatedly since she walked out with her fiancé. Something about her attitude, the way she felt the same connection to me only to sidestep the moment before we could get truly intimate.
I call her a girl, but anyone with eyes could see she was all woman.
“Had a meeting with who?” he presses, not biting at the part where I said someone fell into me.
“With Mike.”
“Mike? As in Intel Mike?”
“Yes.” I rub my brow as I prepare to rip the band-aid off. “I wanted him working double time on tracking Natalia down. He said he had news. Wanted to meet for a drink or two.”
“I see.” He rubs both palms down the legs of his trousers as he sits up straighter. “It’s a good thing, really. I went to Intel Mike too because I knew your control issues wouldn’t let me handle it.”
“You’re a bastard.”
“I know I am, which is why we work so well,” he agrees, not at all put out about my lack of confidence in him. “So, when you left me to wait on Benny, I shot Intel Mike a call. Wanted to dig a little on what he knew, and the moment he said he had nothing much to tell you, I told him to abort. Told him it wasn’t worth the journey.”
“So, you’re the reason he didn’t turn up?”
“Unfortunately, yeah. That’s on me, and I had every intention of coming to The Regency to find you, but Benny got held up. I had to babysit a room full of dead bodies—who, by the way, aren’t great conversationalists—and by the time I made it, you had left, and Connor said about the woman you had been with.” He turns his head, that mischievous look that drives most people mad growing in his expression. “Never had you down as a nursemaid, but apparently, you can surprise even me.”
“Yeah. Surprised myself with that one too.”
I wasn’t the type that pandered to damsels in distress because that was a kettle of fish I stayed away from. I knew what rewards compassion reaped, and she had proven me completely right.
Usually, giving a shit is reserved for those who deserve it. One of those is now six feet under, and the other is sitting beside me.
And feeling a fool is not something I deal with well.
“You said he had nothing much to tell me… what did he have to say?”
