Page 71 of My Secret Bandit

“What’s up?” he greeted with a smile. He looked carefree, all the stress from the last couple of days gone. He and Mateo shared an elbow bump in place of their regular handshake before he moved to the sink.

Sierra pinched the back of my arm.“Biiitch,”she whispered barely even loud enough for just me to hear. I waved her off.

With freshly cleaned hands, he wrapped me in a tight hug.

“You look better,” I said, returning his hug. Neither he nor Mateo knew how much I worried about them in the past thirty some hours. I was relieved that they both appeared to be back to normal.

“Fuck it. I feel better. Guess I owe Jeffrey’s grumpy ass a thank you.” He laughed. “Oh. Hi, I’m Xander,” he said, noticing Sierra. He reached his hand toward my best friend with his other arm still wrapped around my shoulders.

“Sierra,” she replied as her cheeks grew a shade rosier.

Mateo and I shared a smirked glance.

“Grill ready?” Mateo asked, picking up the platter of meat and walking toward the back door.

“Should be. Y’all need help with anything in here?” Xander asked.

“Nope.” I shook my head. “I got it.”

“I don’t really know what you need, but you can dig through shit ’til you find it.” The two men went out back while Sierra and I prepared to cut vegetables for a salad and peel potatoes to boil.

“Miss Flynn.” Sierra sliced through a head of lettuce with aggressive chops.

“Here we go.” I sighed.

“Damn right! You’ve been holding out on me.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You’re serious?” she countered, stopping mid-stroke. “I’ve never seen so much goddamn heat coming from a pair of men before.”

“Can you be normal? For just like half a second, please?”

“I am! It would be unnatural for me to be in a room with so much hotness andnotmention it. Listen. All I’m saying is they blessed you with quite a view and I’m more than a little offended that you didn’t offer to… you know, share the scenery.“ She whirled the knife toward the two men outside.

“I’m sorry.”

“Right. Sure, you are.” She rolled her eyes. “Now, what’s with Mr. Tatts-a-lot? He seems awfully eager to please you.”

I shrugged. “His career kind of revolves around pleasing people. It’s just his personality, I think.”

“Men rarely go from ready to kill to all peachy-keen unless they are wrapped around a finger or two.” She gave me a pointed look, then went back to her task.

After finishing the salad, Sierra wandered outside with a beer and her phone.

I watched through the window as she found a lounge chair, took a long swig from her drink and began furiously typing away. She paused only to watch Xander walk inside.

“She’s working?”

“Yeah.” I chuckled, still watching her from my place in the kitchen. “She came here to forget it for a minute but she likes to get things done.”

“I get that.” He shrugged, and I knew he meant it. He basically lived on call for the team, and from what I heard, he got every request done with spectacular speed.

“Hey, keep an eye on our boy for a minute. He’s known to burn shit.” He took off around the corner, the sound of his footsteps padding up the stairs.

Barely gone a minute, he reappeared with his phone in hand. His ink covered triceps flexed as he eased himself onto the stone counter, watching as I finished putting diced potatoes and salt into boiling water.

“How are you?”

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