Page 3 of One Step Sideways

Which surprised me. I’d wondered with the “gentle” comment if he and Danny had something going on.

I followed Rawlings out and up the stairs, glad he didn’t bother with the elevator. After the last seventeen years, I wasn’t inclined to like small spaces and I’d kept myself fit to stay out of trouble. There wasn’t anything to do except the gym, as I wasn’t allowed to join work details. Any education had been limited as well. No idea why they thought a degree would make the mark on my face less scary, but I couldn’t do shit about that.

Rawlings tapped once on the door, then pressed the numbers on the small keypad and the door clicked open. I frowned. Why knock if he had the code? I followed Rawlings inside, then came to a stop before I got farther than a small entranceway as a dog appeared.Fuck.

My heart pounded like it was gonna burst, and breathing suddenly took conscious effort.Rawlings patted its head in passing and carried on, but I couldn’t move. Images of another dog pierced my mind, and I untangled my muscles enough to take a step backwards.

“Sadie.” The dog immediately dropped to the ground. “Sorry, she’s protective of me with strangers.”

I forced my eyes from her to the man standing next to the dog. This must be Danny. He was much smaller than me, maybe five feet nine at a pinch, fair skin, slim, dark brown, absurdly curly hair. Very boy-next-door from the old sitcoms they’d let me watch. A few freckles covered his nose, and he looked normal in every way until you met his eyes. The blue was so luminescent, I felt like he could see right inside me. See the bad. See the hate, resentment. Like he knew exactly what I was prepared to do to get rid of the scar on my face. I wanted to wrap my arms around my middle but in prison that was a dead giveaway. You didn’t do that.

“Hope you’re hungry,” Danny said, then murmured something to the dog, and they both retreated. For a long time, I didn’t move. I had choices, even though I had a record and practically zero cash. One of the guys had told me about the underground fights I could join, even with a scar, orespeciallywith a scar. I had a name and a place in Tallahassee anyway. And they paid cash.

But did I want that? Really? My belly growled, reminding me I hadn’t risked breakfast because O’Connell was there, and I didn’t trust the fucker not to add any extra-special herbs to mine just to fuck me up. Should I stay? Rawlings had said he would give me a week. Seven days. The man had stepped up in the gas station.

Slowly, carefully, I let my legs carry me forward to the kitchen. I didn’t believe in luck. People like me got zero chances, but maybe there was still a tiny part of me that believed in fucking miracles. I guessed there was only one way to find out.

Chapter Two

Danny

I didn’t hang around to stare at Diesel’s new project. I wasn’t going to be a dick, but I really thought Diesel had lost his ever-loving mind. Talon and the team were one thing. A guy that had served seventeen years for nearly killing his dad when his dad had tried to stop him from being cruel to a pet dog was something else.

And a dog? An old family pet? I could gut him myself, and I wasn’t in the least sorry Kane was afraid of Sadie. I wanted him nowhere near her.

At least I wouldn’t have to work with the guy, since I didn’t go on field missions, and seeing as how the new recruit hadn’t so much as graduated high school, he probably didn’t even know what a CPU, or a computercentral processing unit,was so I doubted he wanted to muscle in on my job.

I shut the oven door with a little extra force. Animal cruelty aside, didn’t they get the chance to study inside? Although from what I’d seen, the muscles he exercised weren’t those between his ears. I put the casserole dish on the table and felt Sadie’s nose nudge my leg a little, so I took a couple of deep breaths at the reminder. She could tell when I got a little worked up. I rolled my eyes at the understatement.

“Damn Danny,” Diesel said. “If the team knew you’d made your mom’s casserole they’d be beating down the door. Take a seat,” he waved a hand at the new guy. The new guy nodded his acknowledgement but went to the sink first and washed his hands, then took a seat at the table. I went to the fridge. “Beer?”My question was for Diesel, and Diesel nodded. I glanced at the new—no, his name was Kane—at Kane, but he shook his head.

“I’ll just have water if that’s okay?”

I got the jug of filtered water from the fridge and grabbed a couple of glasses, a little surprised. You’d think after seventeen years, a beer would be one of the first things he wanted. I was having water myself simply because alcohol didn’t mix well with my meds.

Diesel helped himself, then passed the spoon to Kane. Kane just pushed the dish nearer to me.

“You don’t want any?” I asked, a little offended. He hadn’t even tried it.

“No, I was just taught that the cook should get to serve themselves first.” That was a lie. I didn’t know how I knew, but I did. But I helped myself then passed the dish back. Just then Sadie decided—unwisely, I thought—that I was safe, and sighing, crawled under the table to lie between our feet. Kane froze, clutching the spoon so hard his knuckles whitened. I carried on eating as if it was no big deal but glanced at Diesel to see if he’d picked up on it. Diesel’s eyes flicked to mine. Yep. Of course, there wasn’t much Diesel missed. So, the big tattooed ex-con was scared of dogs?Good.Maybe one of them had bitten him after he had finished tormenting it.

Not that I knew what the hell to make of that. The whole thing was weird. After a few moments, Kane started eating, but he didn’t eat much for a big guy. I studied his body. Kane didn’t have an extra ounce of spare fat on him. He was built, sure, but his face had a gaunt look, and I would have thought the guy could absorb twenty pounds easily without anyone noticing. Irritated, and not sure why I should even care, I watched as Kane examined everything before he put it in his mouth.

This was fucking ridiculous. “Chicken, couscous, tomato, mushrooms, onion, mozzarella, peppers and spinach. Pizza casserole,” I chanted off. “They didn’t say you had allergies or were a vegetarian. And you can see we’re eating it, so I didn’t add rat poison.”

Diesel shot me a reprimanding look, and I knew why. Yeah, I was being a dick, despite my good intentions. Admittedly, I didn’t like anything that upset mycarefully controlled existence, and a new team member was the very definition of that, and why did Diesel have to even bring him here? He had a dozen safehouses scattered all over the city. Ringo or Mac would have babysat him. And if he so much as looked sideways at Sadie, rat poison would be the least of his problems.

“Sorry, force of habit,” Kane said, his voice barely above a whisper.

I sighed and felt Sadie nudge my toe, and even that felt like a reprimand. “No, I am. Bad day,” I said vaguely. Because it looked like I was going to have to put up with him for a week.

“I’m sure you have questions?” Diesel said casually, changing the subject.

Kane took another mouthful, chewed and swallowed, then took a drink of water. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know he was stalling. Weighing up what to ask in his head. “Okay then, why me?”

I half expected Diesel to retort, “why not,” but immediately knew Diesel wouldn’t have taken that question so flippantly.

“There are two answers to that question,” Diesel said, taking a swallow of beer, then scooping another forkful of food. “Firstly, because I’ve seen how successful a mixed team of enhanced and regular humans can be. I described the basics of the team in Tampa, and while it was a very brief overview which we will go into more detail over the coming week, I’m a businessman and I know full well someone with enhanced abilities can give me an edge over my competitors.” Diesel ate while waiting for Kane’s reply.

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