“The guys are great. Not sure what you did to piss them all off, but since that's your usual M.O., I'm sure the death threats and fights will keep us hopping for days. Or however long you're here, which is how long, by the way?”
“Worried I'll try to steal your boyfriend?” he teased. He hadn't missed Tersch's proprietary manner with Ava, or the way she'd looked at him.
She flipped him the finger, and he laughed.
At that moment, Jules Hawkins poked his head in the door. Seeing Ava and Morgan together, he scowled. “Reynolds, I need a word.”
Morgan's humor faded as he spied yet another obstacle preventing him from what he'd come to claim. The team's possessive, aggressive leader would be a problem. Especially when he realized what Morgan really intended for one of his Circs.
The minute Morgan stepped out the door, Jules pinned him to the wall. No mean feat, considering Morgan had as much weight on him as Jules. But he wasn't stupid enough not to realize the predator holding him could carve him up in seconds.
“I don't trust you, and I'm watching you. Mrs. Sharpe might want you here, but the Circs belong to me. Fuck with them, and you'll wish you were dead. I promise you.” Jules dropped him to the ground before Morgan realized his feet had been off it. He landed, breathing hard, and watched Hawkins disappear down the hall.
So much for the warm welcome he'd hoped for.
“Oh yeah. Making friends and influencing people all over the place.” Ava stood in the doorway and shook her head. “Come back in, and I'll fill you in on our happy little family. Just promise me you won't get killed before this mission is over. The last time you died, your mother nearly had a coronary. And she's twice as bad as Alicia.” Morgan winced. “You had to bring that up, didn't you?”
“Yeah, I did.”
Morgan pushed away the memories of the blood, pain, and darkness he worked so hard to hold at bay. Darkness that faded whenever he envisioned his kitsu waiting for him. “Well, cuz, let's talk about your new 'family,' then. Because I have a lot to do before my next death. And considering the trouble that circulates around this team, I'm sure it'll be a real doozy.” Ava sighed. “And the world just keeps getting crazier and crazier.”
Chapter Three
Three days later
“I don't see him. Oh, wait. There he is,” Fallon murmured as he squinted.
The hour had passed two in the morning. The team sat at a picnic table on a small wooden deck overlooking the ocean. They watched through the darkness, across the waterway, studying the outer deck of a seedy bar. Under the light of a full moon, Morgan Reynolds finessed answers out of a smuggler wanted on several counts of robbery and extortion in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida.
From their distance, no one would think them able to see anything of importance in the seedy bar on the waterfront. Except Circs could do what normal men couldn't. At this hour of night, sound intensified in the absence of so many people, sheltered inside from the biting wind.
The roar of the ocean swelled around them, mirroring their frustration.
“Hard to miss him and that big mouth of his,” Tersch muttered.
Jules quirked a smile. “Jealous of his apparent charm with Ava?”
“Of him? Yeah, right.” Tersch huffed, but Kisho shared a wide smile with the others.
“What are you shits laughing at?”
“Nothing.” Kisho didn't want Tersch to feel bad, but honestly, the man wore his jealousy for the entire world to see. “I don't think you need to worry about Ava. I don't sense a huge attraction there.”
Tersch gaped and sat up straight. “Are you kidding? I saw Reynolds come out of her room at one in the morning. What the hell do you think they're talking about that late?”
“Yeah, but have you smelled him on her?” Fallon asked.
“Well, no. Not yet.” Tersch clenched his hand into a fist. “But when I do…”
Kisho rolled his eyes. “He's flirting with her to piss you off.”
“It'd be just like Ava to encourage him,” Jules offered, then asked, “What do you guys make of him?”
Fallon frowned. “It's only been a few days, but the women seem to love him. I can't read him, and Olivia said it's like there's a huge wall around his emotions. Doesn't bother her, though.
Just adds to some stupid appeal she says he has.” He snorted. “'Charming' isn't a psychic trait, nor is it a word I'd use with that dick.”
“Amen,” Tersch agreed.
Jules's lips flattened. “I can't read him either.”
Kisho blinked. “No aura?”
“No, it's weird. Even Mrs. Sharpe projects, but it's like he's holding back.”
“On purpose?” Kisho knew some people had shields, or so Jules had told him. Even Fallon couldn't read everyone, nor could Olivia, though their exceptions seemed few and far between.
Jules shook his head. “I don't know. I do know Mrs. Sharpe hired him.” Tersch frowned. “Keeping our distance isn't working. We need to get closer to the bastard and see what he's up to. Just because he might get us a few steps closer to Delancey doesn't mean he's golden.”
Kisho nodded in agreement, focused on the scene half a mile away across the curved beach. Despite the dozens of criminals mingling around the seedy bar, Reynolds didn't look at all afraid or worried. In fact, he looked as if he fit in with the seedy element. Too bad the association didn't make him look any less attractive.
The sudden silence around Kisho suddenly penetrated. He glanced back to see his team looking at him. “What?”
“Reynolds seems to like you well enough.” Jules raised a brow in question.
Kisho could feel his cheeks heat but refused to look away. “No, he doesn't.” Fallon nodded. “Yes, he does. He doesn't project, but his eyes don't lie. The big dude might have a thing for Ava, but he's definitely got a thing for you, too.” Not what Kisho needed to hear. It was hard enough to pretend an indifference to the man.
“Big deal. So he's gay.”
“You think he's gay?” Tersch sounded way too happy about the idea.
Jules sighed. “Just lead him on a little, Hayashi. Let him think you're okay with his attention. Find out what he's hiding.”
Kisho blinked. “Are you shitting me?” They wanted him to flirt, to sexually encourage a man for information?
Tersch surprised him. “Oh come on. We fuck each other all the time. I know he's not as fine as I am, but take one for the team, buddy.”
He didn't know what to say. Did they know he was gay? Was this his opening to come clean? Or were they hoping to simply use Reynolds's interest in Kisho for their gain and nothing more?
“I, ah…”
“I need to know what he's not telling us,” Jules said quietly. “Something's not right with him. For all we know, he's a part of this Delancey conspiracy.”
“I don't think—”
“Don't think. Just find out what he's hiding,” Jules encouraged and said nothing more.
Fallon nodded. But Tersch's mild acceptance of the idea capped it. There was something more to all this than a need for information.
“What the hell is going on?”
Before anyone answered, Tersch pointed at the bar. “Well, would you look at that?” They were too far away to give Reynolds immediate help if his informant turned on him, but Reynolds had preferred they keep their distance. Now it looked like he might need them.
Two brawny men wearing sleeveless denim jackets—in the coldest month of the year—grabbed his arms. Reynolds's informant leaned closer and shoved a fist into his stomach.
To Kisho's surprise, Reynolds didn't flinch. He smiled that sexy grin that looked like a lethal dare. When Reynolds's informant brought his arm back for a second punch, Reynolds moved.