Page 41 of Cross & Crown

anything came up.”

“You got it, brother. You deal with this shit better than

me,” Hagan said, and then stumbled toward his bed and

flopped into it.

Kelly was still sitting with his back against the wal ,

blinking up blearily at Nick.

“You can fall asleep in under five minutes sitting in the

hal way of a hotel, but you can’t sleep in my nice soft bed on

my boat.”

Kelly licked his lips and reached up for Nick to help him

to his feet. “Maybe we should sleep on the flybridge again,”

he said as they headed for the elevators. “I slept like a baby up there on that pool float with Ty that one time.”

Nick snorted and jabbed at the elevator button. “We’re

getting a hotel.”

“So, tell me about this case. The witness has amnesia?”

Kelly asked in the car on the way back to the Boston Harbor

Marina. He’d tried as long as he could to keep out of it, but he was just too curious.

41

“Yeah, he took a bullet to the back of the head. Doctors

said it’s either physical damage or shock of some kind.”

“Kind of like that time I got kicked in the head by that

goat.”

Nick burst out laughing. “Yeah, kind of like that.”

Kelly glanced at him, admiring his profile. He still owed

Nick for that. They’d been on a mission when they’d taken

cover in a gully that just happened to be sheltering several

goats, including one territorial billy goat who’d taken a shot at Kelly’s head. He’d woken up as they’d been carting him back

to camp, and Nick had convinced him he was a Bible salesman

from Oklahoma who’d gotten fresh with the livestock and

paid for it with a hoof. Kelly’d believed it for two whole hours before his memory came back. He still had trouble looking at

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