Page 78 of Lovesick Gods

“Not funny, Mickey.” She whirled in her chair to face him.

“I’d think it’s hysterical,” Mal said, promptly taking a seat at the table beside her, “if there was any sane reason for you to even know who that man is. Why the sudden interest in Vaughn?”

“I was going to ask you the same thing when I searched your browser history last night, until I remembered Zeus works with someone named Andre, and as it turns out, this little cutie is a CSI. So sue me for doing a little detective work.”

“You went through mybrowser history?” Mal practically lurched out of his seat. “Where? How?” He had half a mind to confiscate her phone. If Priestly had helped her hack into any of his tech…

“You have all the safeguards in the world, Mickey,” she said, “but as long as something is password protected, you don’t think you need to clear your cache. I found some references to him on the safe house computer. Thought maybe he was your mystery man. He isn’t, is he? Coz he’s kinda cute…” She gazed at her screen longingly.

Mal should have known better than to underestimate his sister. She also obviously had a thing for adorable nerds, becausewhile Vaughn was a handsome enough young man, his profile picture sported a giant smile and a T-shirt of the classic E.T. movie poster, only a silhouette of Godzilla had been added and was in the process of eating Elliott.

To get her eyes back on him, Mal snapped his fingers in front of her face. “You are not allowed to use that knockout lipstick seducing a CSI.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” she grinned.

“Lucy…”

“I was just checking his relationship status.” Almost thirty years old, yet her pout made her look like she was five again, being denied a treat at the grocery store. “He happens to be single, and well…your recent success, even if you won’t share with me who the guy is, has me curious.”

“About clandestine affairs?”

“About finding someone who could makemesmile like that.”

Mal hadn’t realized he’d been smiling more lately. First his mind and the words leaving his mouth were mutinying against him, now his expressions? He screwed his face up into a frown.

“Mrs. Pak described him for me,” Lucy said, shifting back to teasing now that she had an opening. “Tall. Too skinny. Redhead. Didn’t mention his leaning. Fire maybe? Well-dressed but a bit on the dorky side.”

“Mrs. Pak did not say ‘dorky’.”

“Close enough.” She shrugged and leaned forward on the table. “What she did say definitely translated to dorky. So this guy sounds entirely your type, is what I’m saying, but what matters is she said he showed up and you wereflustered. He surprised you, huh? You’re keeping him to yourself. Won’t talk about him. Won’t tell me who he is. Which means youlikehim. And if he’s dressed nicely with a flare of nerdy too, that tells me a few other things. He’s not part of our world, is he?”

Mal sighed, his hands twitching on the tabletop. “More so than you might think.”

He’d taught his sister too well; she knew how to read people, how to fit together the pieces of a puzzle and act accordingly, turning any situation to her advantage. They weren’t supposed to use their skills against each other, but that rule often went out the window when one of them thought it was in the other’s best interest.

But as Mal prepared to counter her prodding, to either shift attention elsewhere or maybe,maybecome clean and admit he was sleeping with Zeus, he saw Lucy’s attention diverted behind him, and her smile fell into a hard glower.

Turning to look over his shoulder, Mal soon glowered as well.

Dunkirk. On his turf.Again.

He stood with a scrape of metal on concrete. “This ends today.”

“Mickey…”

“Back me up or back off.”

With a huff, she hurried to catch up with his swift strides across the street to where Dunkirk had just entered the bakery.

Mal folded his hands in front of him and brushed a thumb along the switch on his amplifier. He’d worn the cuff on a whim today. Thanks to Priestly, he could do plenty to send a strong message without even having to blast Dunkirk. “I have some lovely new enhancements to try out, sis. Stay close.”

Priestly had also included a pair of sunglasses for Mal’s more casual days. Slipping them from his coat pocket, he put them on and enjoyed the displayed weather report. If need be, he’d see a lot more through those lenses soon enough.

Janey was working the shop without her grandmother, Mal noticed as they entered with the gentle ding over the door alerting their presence. She flashed Mal and Lucy a smile before saying, “I’ll be right with you, Mr. Cho.” Such a doll. But hergood manners meant Dunkirk turned from where he stood at the counter. Not a problem; Mal didn’t need the element of surprise to handle him.

Sean was young. Ballsy.Angry. He had pale blond hair, a clean-shaven face, blue eyes, and a thin but well-muscled physique from years of bar fights and bad decisions. Not merely Water leaning, he was specificallyIce, which had been proven when he survived the Mendozas locking him in a freezer overnight a couple years back. If he’d been an Elemental and not so distinctly Irish, he would have reminded Mal of his own father even more.

But Dunkirk being able to resist intense cold didn’t mean Mal’s new amplifier wouldn’t be useful. It would be a good field test before the heist in only a couple days’ time. Whatever Dunkirk could withstand might be similar to Zeus’s tolerance from his enhanced healing.

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