“Yeah.” He swipes his hand through his brown hair and fidgets on the spot before he looks up at Seb. “We work at the community center together.”
“Ahhh, okay.” His eyes turn suspicious as they look from me to Evan.
“I hope you’re making her feel welcome.”
“Me?” Seb asks, pointing to his now covered chest, his mouth kicking up into a smirk. “Of course, I am.”
Evan turns back toward me, raising his brow and leaning closer, his breath skating across my shoulder and neck. “If you need any dirt on him, just let me know.”
I grin as I move my eyes toward Seb and watch as he lifts off the wall, a frown forming on his forehead. “Will do.”
I bring my eyes back to Evan, our gazes locking again, and I can’t help the way my breath catches, my grip loosening slightly on my towel.
I finally manage to get myself together and maneuver past Evan, holding my breath the whole way to my bedroom before closing the door behind me and leaning against it.
It’s not until I’m in my bedroom that I start to wonder why Evan was here. Does he know Seb and West? He must because he said he can give me dirt on Seb.
I swear I hear a light bulb go off in my head when I realize that they must have grown up together. Cal and Mal are Evan’s parents which means they lived across the road from each other.
I shake my head, laughing at myself. I should have known that everyone knows everyone in this little town. I don’t know why it’s taken so long for me to realize this.
I step forward, dropping my towel and grabbing my underwear and a tank top with my jean shorts and sandals. I have nothing to do until work later, but I think it’s time that I explored this town properly.
“So, you know the jailbird, huh?” West asks as I’m driving us to the compound.
When they called this morning and told me that they’ve been given a new car, I knew that it would have a tracking device on it, so I came to pick them up. I knew in the back of my mind that I would see Lexi, but I keep telling myself that that isn’t the reason I dropped everything and came ri
ght over.
It’s been a week since Pop’s birthday and I broke things off with Geena. I haven’t seen either of them since, and I’ve only seen Lexi once. I can’t go there with her, not only have I only just come out of a relationship with Geena, but I also don’t think it would look very good for me to be with an ex-con, no matter how much I try to spin it.
So why can’t I get her out of my head? Why can’t I stop hearing her soft, melodic voice? Does it really matter that she has a past? All be it a criminal past, but did she really deserve what she got? My gut tells me that she didn’t.
“Yeah, I do.” I drive past the precinct and turn the volume on my playlist up, not wanting to have small talk with either of them.
I need to sort my head out and concentrate on the job that we’re working on. No distractions.
The car that they have not only has a tracking device, but it also has cameras and recording devices inside. I could tell all that from one quick sweep: whoever designed it is shit because none of them are very well hidden, well, at least not the kind of well-hidden that I can do.
I look in my rearview mirror at West and then turn my attention to Seb in the passenger seat as I pull up at a stoplight at the edge of town.
I don’t want to tell them what I’ve found yet, I want to wait until we’re on the safety of the compound and once I’ve checked them over.
I may have grown up with them but I haven’t seen them for quite a few years, and even though they say that they’re working for the good guys and trying to bring Darrell down, you can never be too careful.
I take a left, driving up the gravel path that is lined with trees, the compound gates up ahead. Clicking the button on the side of my steering wheel has the gates opening and then closing automatically behind me. I pull up outside the big warehouse that is our command center and turn the engine off before pushing out of the car, both of them following me into the warehouse.
I hold the heavy metal door open for them and as soon as we’re inside, I grab a notepad off the meeting table where Ty and the guys are sitting waiting for us.
I scrawl, “I need to check you for bugs.”
“What—” West starts to say but I shake my head and tell him with my eyes to shut up.
They follow me over to my work station and I grab a device that I’ve made that can detect bugs in or on a person. I do a good swipe over them and they both come back clean.
“A tracking device isn’t the only addition your new car has. It also has cameras and audio recording equipment inside so I couldn't be too careful that he hasn’t planted them on you too.”
I walk over to the meeting table and tilt my head at Ty.