Hammer sat still, likely wondering why he’d bothered to come over in the first place, but he still cut Shane off like a sharp knife. “Come with us next time, and you’ll find out.”
Dex’s heart soared, and he grinned, separating the softening noodles with a spoon. He then opened his cupboard again and started grabbing the ingredients he needed one by one. Since he only had a single hand available, everything took way longer than expected, and he was already anticipating issues. He itched to climb the heights of cooking show artistry and chop the meat with a big fancy knife, but with things being as they were, he might need to use scissors on the bacon. Hammer deserved to receive the best food anyone ever created, but Dex’s ramen would have to do.
“My nephew won’t be your experiment,” Frank said, and the frost coming off him made Dex shudder all the way by the counter. The microwave announced the TV dinner was ready, but Frank didn’t even twitch and stared at their guest, who met his eyes from behind the can of beer.
Dex raised one hand. “I can be whatever, I don’t mind.”
He knew he’d fuckedsomethingup when Hammer’s gaze settled on him with the weight of an anvil. “You’re not meant to be anyone’s ‘whatever’.”
Dex stalled, looking back as his scissors cut through a rasher of bacon. His heart bubbled with heat, going soft like the noodles in the pot.
Thisguy. He was… everything.
No one had ever made Dex feel this way. He’d cut his finger off right now if it meant Hammer stuck around for longer.
Shane had a sip of beer, and the little slurp seemed unnaturally loud in the quiet room. “So you’re gay?”
Hammer shrugged, lowering his gaze, as if the question had thrown him off guard. “Dex and I have… lots of commonalities that brought us together. I might not want to share it with the club for now, but why overthink something that works?”
“So heisan experiment?” Frank insisted, walking up to the microwave to retrieve his food. Dex attempted to ignore him, but since the heat of dark eyes scratching at his back was impossible to miss, he focused on opening a can of peas, which was deceptively hard with one hand working at fifty percent capacity.
“You are really trying to make me the bad guy, aren't you?”
“It’s hard not to see it this way when youabducthim and then brainwash him into thinking it’s all good,” Frank said through gritted teeth, but before Dex could have answered, his uncle took the can from him and opened it within five seconds.
It was embarrassing.
“H-he didn’t brainwash me into anything. Have youseenhim? Why would I not want to…” Dex hesitated when he met Hammer’s clear gaze again. For some reason it felt weird to only talk about him in the context of fucking, because there was so much more to their connection. So much he couldn’t yet name.
The heated conversation was distracting him from cooking, so he attempted to ignore everyone’s voices and threw the peas into the pot along with the spices and some pre-sliced pepper. He added a drizzle of hot sauce to finish the dish before giving it a vigorous stir.
“Come on, Frank,” Shane said, surprising Dex with his support. “You gotta let the kid enjoy his life. Haven’t we all done something stupid at one time or another?”
There, Shane would get extra bacon in his bowl.
Hammer chuckled. “I sure hope he doesn’t end up thinkingIwas a stupid mistake a year from now.”
A year? Hammer gave it at least a year? The smile blooming on Dex’s mouth was so wide it made his jaw hurt. He threw some bacon into a sizzling hot pan next to the pot, because, yes, he could multitask.
Frank grumbled. “You know who this guy is and you want him around?”
Shane sighed. “We all have a part to play in the disposal business.”
“Only that hecreatesthe trash!”
Dex rolled his eyes. “It just means he’s good at his job.” And it wasn’t as if Hammer went around killing people willy-nilly. He did what needed to be done. Just like Dex. Would Frank think of him badly if he found out what he’d done? He’d killed in self-defense after all. At least at Cora’s. Or was it only bad because a part of him had enjoyed it? He might be able to cook noodles and bacon at the same time, but adding philosophy to the mix was a stretch.
Hammer smirked. “It seems to me that you’re pretending to be someone you’re not. I get it that thinking of yourself as the good guy helps you sleep at night, but there are no good guys in this business. Just people with different talents.”
“I don’t kill!” Frank snapped.
Hammer shrugged. “You still work with the likes of me, so get off that high horse. And don’t act as if I’m corrupting Dex when you were the one who taught him how to dispose of bodies.”
For once, even Shane didn’t have the guts to crack a joke.
Frank sighed in exasperation, and when Dex glanced into the glass embedded in one of the cabinets, he saw his uncle raise his head high in the reflection.
“The kid dropped out of school. And I didn’t entice him into any of this. He followed me and spied on me, because he won’t everlisten. I know who I am, but I do what I can to protect my family. So yeah, excuse me for thinking you’re bad news.”