Page 51 of Lure

“I’d tell you I don’t want to answer it until they are back and we debrief.” He scratched at the scruff on his jaw. The tousled hair, blue eyes, and rough stubble gave him this kind of rugged charm that had me curling my toes. “Not everything I don’t tell you has to do with you or your sister, directly. We’ve involved you in a lot, it’s better that we all have consensus before we involved you in more.”

I ran my tongue over my lower lip as I considered that answer. No deception echoed beneath the words. Goblin sat up and looked at me. Well, looked at us, since neither of us were petting him now.

“I don’t know entirely what is making me sad,” I admitted. “It could be a lot of things, most obvious being my sister and everything that’s happened.” That was the truth. “But that feels almost too simple an answer and I don’t know how to answer it for myself much less for you.”

“Fair enough,” he said. “So… we have a deal?”

“Yes.” No hesitation. I wanted to be able to trust them. Hadn’t I been beating myself up on this for days now? “Deal.” Then I gave it a little more thought. “Caveat?”

“Name it.”

“This is between you and me for right now. I’m not sure the other guys applyyet.”

“Acceptable. We’ll add it to the discussion.”

That—seemed reasonable. I held out my right hand to him. “Then we have a deal, AB.”

Goblin slurped my fingers a beat before Alphabet shook my hand. We both laughed.

“Yeah, I think he wants out…”

“I can do it… unless there’s some code I need to enter to open a door.”

“There is,” he confirmed as he rolled onto his own back and reached for his phone. “But I can key it in here. Just let him out the back door and he’ll take care of business. Then we’ll get him breakfast. Goblin, down.”

The sweet boy hopped right off the bed and sat waiting like a gentleman, tail wagging.

“I’d kill for coffee.”

“I got it,” he said, sitting up even as I slid out of the bed. I was still in the shirt and sleep shorts. The room was a lot chillier out from under the covers and all the warmth. “That hot cocoa, by the way, was the best I’ve ever had. I need to work on points to get you to make it again.”

He shoved the blankets back as I raked a hand through my hair. My first realization was he’d slept in sweatpants and no shirt. There were scars and tats on his back. None of which were any of my business. The second realization came when he reached for something instead of getting straight up. His prosthesis. I’d forgotten about it and he needed to put it on.

And I was staring.

Yanking my gaze off him, I looked at Goblin who sped up the thump of his tail. “C’mon, sweetheart. I’ll let you out.”

I was at the door and Alphabet had just stood when I glanced back to where Goblin waited.

“Gaan.” The word seemed to galvanize Goblin and he trotted right after me. “I’ll be out in a minute,” Alphabet said to me.

“Sounds good.” I followed Goblin along the hallway—Alphabet’s bedroom was downstairs, not that far from his office, actually. That made me feel a bit better. He hadn’t had to carry me up the stairs or something.

At the door, I trusted what Alphabet had said about putting in the code and unlocked the door. The moment it was open, Goblin took off like a shot. He made it a dozen feet before he peed a river.

Poor baby, we made him wait a long time.

Folding my arms, I stepped down onto the stone patio they had set up. It wasn’t much more than a slab of stone and some edging, but it had potential. I walked to the edge to watch Goblin as he dashed around after he relieved himself and went in search of somewhere else to do some business.

The sun was already up. We’d slept late, it was high and the day was really lovely. The breeze carried something that smelled like sweetgrass on it. It wasn’t cold, exactly, but definitely cooler and I’d want pants if I planned to stay out here.

There was a chattering of birds, but all I really heard was the quiet. It was so deep it was almost frightening how empty it was.It had taken me a long time to get used to the city, the undertone of regular traffic, sirens, and a kind of just—hum of humanity.

None of that was here.

It was just—silent.

Then the sound of the coffee grinder echoed from the kitchen and I had to laugh. That wasn’t so quiet, but it sounded good. Smelled better cause there was already a round of espresso going by the time Goblin dashed back to me and we headed inside.

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