Page 99 of Live for Me

“Sorry, man,” Indy said and chuckled while he stood in the doorway, watching me readjust the raging hard-on that Memphis left in my shorts.

“You’ll get no forgiveness for this.”

He laughed again but the smile fell away quickly that time.

“Utah.”

I stopped fucking with my dick at the way he’d said my name. He was my friend more than he was my coworker at this point, but we still didn’t do the heart-to-heart thing very often. There really wasn’t ever much of a need. We didn’t exactly have personal lives to bond over. But something uncomfortable looked like it was about to burst out of him at any second now.

“How long has this —?” He asked and motioned between me and where Memphis disappeared.

“What? Why does it matter?”

I wasn’t concerned about being defensive of it, but Memphis was horrified by the thought of anyone else knowing what was happening for whatever reason her brain had created.

“Listen, I know I mess with you guys a lot. And I know it’s notactuallyany of my business. It’s usually just in fun. I know you know that. I don’t think I really believed she’d ever actually go for it, though.”

“Point, Indy?” I encouraged while he shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

“She’s my friend, Utah. My favorite one. Not a lot of people look at me and see who I am and just decide to keep me, despite it all. But she did.”

“I’m in love with her, Indy. If anyone is ever going to make you choose between me and her, it won’t be me. Don’t feel like you have to threaten me on her behalf. It won’t work, and there’s no need.”

“I didn’t plan on threatening you. I was going toaskyou to be good enough for her, so I don’t ever have to watch whilesheruins you if you put her in that position. She wouldn’t need my help. And I wouldn’t stop her.”

He probably wasn’t wrong there, and that shit made me laugh out loud. She could destroy anyone she wanted without ever having to see them.

“Loud and clear, Indy,” I said and smacked him on the arm. I tried to walk by him, but he stepped right in front of me to crush me in a bear hug.

“I’m happy for you and your dick,” he said and stepped back to ruffle my hair, like I was a child.

“You plan on having this conversation with her, too? Tell her to be good to me?” I asked.

“No need.”

“Should I be offended here?She’syourfavorite friend. You’re tellingonly meto behave.”

“Don’t make me respond to that,” he said and flashed me the best smile he had available.

“You’re an ass,” I said. “But I definitely did something yesterday that I shouldn’t have done, and I have to go deal with it today. Keep her busy, will you?”

“And you’re not going to tell me what it is?” he whined.

“Not a chance. I’m not even your favorite.”

I made those assholes breakfast while they talked about Salem and Nevada. I almost choked on my own laugh more than once every time Nevada was the topic of discussion. It nearly burned Memphis alive to have to consider Nevada as the first new Executioner to be joining us in this endeavor.

“What’s the story with her and the doctor?” I asked. I never bothered to ask before. Memphis was there for the encounter with Nevada and she’d planned to do the talking. I didn’t have much faith in this plan working from the start and I couldn’t imagine any of these paranoid pricks jumping on board with us, so I didn’t take much interest in the background stories before.

I looked back at the tech twins when nobody responded to me. They were looking at one another uncomfortably, having some discussion on brainwaves alone.

“Nerds?” I asked again.

Memphis sighed and turned her laptop so the screen faced me. It took me a second of staring at the professional portrait of a doctor before I realized I was looking at the guy who’d shown up in that abandoned mobile home park where Triss and I had taken Jersey when he was half-dead.

“That’s Dr. Grant,” Memphis said quietly.

“No shit? The one who saved Jersey. I almost killed the guy because he realized who we were.”

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