Page 7 of Iron Heart

“Uh…” I murmur, frowning. “What are we lookin’ at here?”

“The benevolent face of Jesus!” Crazy Millie crows, clapping her hands together and beaming her crazy face at me. “It’s a miracle!”

Holding back a snort, I glance back up at the chick. Her ice-blue eyes meet mine. She gives me the slightest hint of an eye-roll.

“Is that right?” I say mildly. “That’s a hell of a thing, ain’t it?”

Holy shit. It’s fucking obvious that thebenevolent face of Jesusis just pretty much Eddie coming out here and taking some hand clippers to the grass. I suppose if you squint just right, you might be able to make out something sort of looks like a smiley face with hair. If you were drunk, say.

But you’d have to be pretty drunk.

As long as I’ve known them, Millie and her son Eddie are always talking about weirdo conspiracies and stuff, so this ain’t anything new. But as I stand here with the four of them, it occurs to me who the two strangers must be.

Holy shit, these two loons called the local paper about this.

The idea is so fuckin’ hilarious that it takes everything in me not to bust out laughing.

“Who’s this?” I ask casually, nodding toward chick with the note pad — even though I’ve already figured it out. Next to her, the skinny guy with the camera scratches his acne-scattered chin.

“A reporter from thePost-Gazette!” Millie announces triumphantly. “And her photographer! They’re doing a story about the miracle!”

Millie is fuckin’ thrilled, of course. It’s probably the most attention she and Eddie have ever gotten for any of their crazy-ass ideas. How the hell did the paper send someone out to cover this bullshit story? Must be one hell of a slow news cycle, that’s for sure.

The chick reporter does another eye roll, which only I see. She hasn’t said a word since I got here, but it’s clear she does not want to be here covering this story. Can’t say I blame her. Part of me feels sorry for her — even watching her try not to blow her stack is pretty goddamn funny, to be honest. Her nostrils are practically flaring.

It’s cute. And entertaining as hell.

In fact, my mood has improved a fuck of a lot since I came over here.

The girl’s ice-blue eyes meet mine, and somehow it makes my dick jolt. Their expression says,Can you believe this shit?

Of course, I can. Like I said, Millie and Eddie are nuts. This ain’t even the craziest thing they’ve ever come up with. Normally I don’t bother humoring them with this stuff.

But in this case, a fucked-up part of me wants to see this chick lose the cool that she’s trying so hard to keep. Just to see what will happen.

Which is why the next words come out of my mouth before I bother to stop them.

4

Tori

“Shit yeah, it’s Jesus,” he murmurs with a serious frown. “‘Scuse my French.”

The man who just parked his motorcycle and came over here from across the vacant lot looks like he stepped off a movie set. He’s one of the best-looking men I’ve ever seen — shockingly so. Rugged and square-jawed, with sharp cheekbones, jet-black hair and a sensuousness to his mouth that makes it hard not to juststareat it when he talks. His features are almost model-perfect — just stopping short of beingtooperfect thanks to the heaviness of his brow, and the fact that his nose is just slightly off-center, like it’s been broken in the past.

It’s almost enough to distract me from the fact that what just came out of his mouth is absolute nonsense.

“Um, what?” I choke out.

My voice comes out high and strained — disbelief mixed with indignation. I mean, this Jesus in the lawn thing is utter craziness. There’s no way anyone in their right mind could believe it. It’s impossible.

Which means, this guy is either a complete nutcase — agorgeousnutcase, but still a nutcase — or he’s full of shit.

“You tellin’ me you don’t see it?” he asks me, his voice a low rumble.

I strain to hear some clue in his tone that he’s joking, but… nothing. Not even the hint of a grin on his face.

His eyes lock on mine as he waits for me to respond. They’re…dark. Inky dark. The darkest eyes I’ve ever seen. Are they actually black? I didn’t think that was possible, but I’ve never seen a brown anywhere as deep as that. They seem to reach deep inside me as I contemplate them. Then I realize I’m staring and look away abruptly. I freeze for a second, my brain short-circuiting as I try to navigate the intersection ofhotandcrazythat is this man.

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