Page 7 of Mine to Keep
Depending on where his wallet is, I can grab it and have Peggy check him out. It’ll only take her a moment.
Lowering my gaze back to my book, I shake my head. “It’s a no.” I look up at him just in time to see his relieved smile.
“Thank you. Is this your bag?” He grabs it before I can answer and drops it onto my lap. My book flops to the floor and he grabs it before I can reach for it myself, since my backpack is in the way. Thankfully, it fell pages down, so he only sees the cover. “Sorry about that.” He checks out the title of the book. “Is it any good? I’ll admit, I don’t read a lot of nonfiction. But he’s handsome,” he points to the author’s picture on the back, “so I might pick it up.”
He’s chatty. No one has ever just struck up a conversation with me in public just for the fuck of it. It’s as amusing as it is disconcerting. “It’s good.”
Turning around, the tiny stranger turns and waves behind him. Less than a minute later, a Hispanic man with long, curly hair and wide brown eyes hurries over, plopping into the empty seat beside Mister Chatty. Is he his friend, boyfriend, or accomplice?
Where Chatty is small, Long Hair is taller and leanly built, his muscles apparent through his shirt. His thighs are thick, almostbulging in the skinny jeans he has on. He may be around the same size as me, give or take a few pounds. I could take both of them if I have to, but it wouldn’t be easy and I wouldn’t leave without scrapes and bruises.
Mister Chatty flashes another smile at me, almost bouncing in his seat. “It’s so busy here today. Summer break, I think. All these families taking their kids out of town, probably for vacation. That’s nice. My parents never had enough money to take me and my sisters out of the country for vacation, but they did enough. We went, like, out of state, and shit. But it’s all good. I can do it now that I’m grown. I managed to save a bit of money from my job this year. I’m glad I got a scholarship so I didn’t have to pay out-of-pocket for college. Javier did, but his family is, like, loaded, so he could afford it.”
“Hmm,” is all I say in response. Doesn’t seem like Mister Chatty needs anyone to join him in conversation. His voice is soothing, though; sweet, light and calming. The warm timbre flows through me, almost making my eyes droop. I could fall asleep listening to him.
I wonder why he’s dropping all this information about him and his friend—who I assume is Javier since he glanced at Mister Chatty with a dry look when he said his family was loaded—without provocation. What about me says I want this information or that I care? Is it some ploy to get me to drop my guard, so I don’t assume he’s someone sent to kill me?
He turns towards me fully, holding his small hand out. “I’m Talon. Nice to meet you.” I shake it, too stunned to do anything else. Who is this man? “This is my best friend, Javier.” He thumbs to the man beside him, who is still giving him that dry, but indulgent look as if this isn’t the first time he’s been pulled into a conversation by his friend. “He’s going with me to Waterkilty. It’s a city a few minutes outside of Toronto. Such a cute name, right? Waterkilty.” He giggles behind his hand andall I can do is blink at him. “My first time across the border. That’s what people say, right? Across the border? Or is it north of the border? Something about a border?” He doesn’t stop talking long enough for either me or Javier to answer. “It’s not Javier’s first time going on random vacations, though. He travels a lot. Loaded, remember?”
Javier rolls his eyes, then holds his hand out to shake mine. “Hi.” His voice is deeper than I expected, several octaves lower than Mister Chatty’s, about as deep as mine.
“He’s from Puerto Rico,” Talon volunteers. “He took me there our sophomore year of college. It’s so beautiful. The beaches were to die for. Have you ever been? I really want to go back. Javier plans to build a house there on the land his family owns but he says I can’t come. I’m coming anyway. I told him when we met and became friends that he can’t get rid of me.”
“I’ve been trying for years. Guess you were right,” Javier says, smiling at Talon.
Talon bumps him with his shoulder in easy camaraderie.
The more he talks, the less I think Talon is someone that was sent to kill me. I won’t make up my mind until Peggy gets his background, but there’s no way someone this chatty kills people for a living.
Over the years, I’ve become adept at reading people, and Talon reads as someone without a care in the world. Unless he’s a psychopath, there’s no way he can be this bubbly after taking lives. Killing chips away something inside you. Every body takes a small piece, leaving you a little less than who you were before.
Talon doesn’t have that soulless look about him. He looks unbothered and eager for a new chapter in his life.
“What’s your name?” he asks suddenly, turning to me with a half-smile on his face.
“Knox.”
“Ooh. I like that. Sounds…dangerous. Like Fort Knox. I know nothing about it, other than the stories you hear about something being more guarded than Fort Knox. Is that you? Guarded? Dangerous?”
My lips lift in a small smirk. “Maybe.”
He chuckles. Javier breaks in with, “Don’t flirt. You’re going to see your boyfriend, remember?”
Talon’s eyes brighten and he nods, pulling his phone out. “Here’s my boyfriend,” he says, showing me a picture of the two of them on his home screen. They’re wrapped around each other, standing in front of a nature trail.
His boyfriend looks like the typical buttoned up frat boy—blond hair that’s longer on the top and parted on one side and cropped short on the sides. His green eyes sparkle with mischief, his hands possessively wrapped around Talon. He’s about six to eight inches taller than Mister Chatty and twice as wide.
Before I know it, I’m calculating if I can take him down in a fight. It wouldn’t be hard, as Frat Boy doesn’t give me the vibes of a man skilled in hand to hand combat. Just a guy that goes to the gym, lifting to look good for the people around him. Not a fighter.
“Cole,” Talon says unprompted. “We met last year. He was a senior at our college while I was a junior. He’s studying abroad, some prissy college that his dad went to. Kinda like Harvard or that stuffy school in the UK. What’s it called?” He snaps his fingers. When he can’t figure it out in a few seconds, he shrugs. “Doesn’t matter. Anyway, studying abroad is supposed to help him run the company his father owns or something. We’re surprising him.”
“You’re surprising him,” Javier says smoothly. “I’m tagging along to see the sights.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Talon says, rolling his eyes. “I’m really excited. Cole has been saying he wishes I was there so he could show mearound and introduce me to all his friends. I can’t wait to meet some of those friendly Canadians everyone talks about.”
His face shines with happiness and I’m around ninety percent sure he’s just a harmless man, excited to go on vacation.
Javier squeezes Talon’s arm, then looks at me. “Where are you from, Knox?”
