Page 40 of Cold Foot Komodo

“Oh Lord. I thought I was Lizard Boy.”

“Bye-bye, Hot Reed Lizard Boy.”

“Bye,” he said around a chuckle.

The line went dead, and she slurped a sip of her coffee and heaved a happy sigh. She’d had a moment this morning where she had forgotten why she was here, and while Reed wasn’t in the original plan, having a man be so nice to her was definitely a bonus.

She was ready now. She actually appreciated that Reed had told her he didn’t get nervous. She wanted to channel that mentality this morning as she headed into the unknown.

Already the day had started out ten times better than she’d expected.

Chapter Nine

He liked her.

Reed rubbed his jaw and glanced at his reflection in the rearview mirror. He wore a big dumb smile, and he didn’t even care if the car that pulled up next to him saw him grinning at nothing.

The red light was a long one. He pulled up his phone, looked at her texts, and laughed again. She was funny, and light, and playful, and all the things he hadn’t been for so long. He’d felt so heavy for years, but when he was around her, or talking to her, or thinking about her, everything inside of him loosened up.

He was set to clear the roads for a shopping center near the hospital and was waiting to turn left.

The phone rang again, but it wasn’t his boss this time. An unknown number came up on the ID on the screen of his truck. Probably one of his road crew. He didn’t have all their numbers yet.

“Hello?” he answered.

Silence.

“Hello?” he asked again.

“You really escaped Cold Foot.”

The familiar woman’s voice dropped his heart right to the floorboard of his pickup. He hadn’t heard that voice in a decade. The breath froze in his lungs.

“Why didn’t you call me?” Farrah asked.

Shock turned to anger in an instant. “Are you serious?” Reed gritted out.

“Of course I am. I missed you.”

Honk!The car behind him blasted his horn, and Reed pulled out of a dozen flashbacks of his old life to see the light had turned green.

His foot was heavy on the gas, and his wheels spun out. He had to ease off and try again. He caught traction and turned through the now-yellow light, and pulled over into the shopping center immediately, skidding the last few yards.

“I’m hanging up—”

“Wait,” Farrah pleaded, and she did it in that damn soft voice that she’d wrecked him with.

“How did you get this number? I don’t give it out.”

“Oh, you’ve given it out, haven’t you? Recently? To a pretty girl in your new Bank, perhaps?”

How did she know? How did she know about Sasha? How did she know any of this? “Who is talking to you about me?”

“Oh, did you think your new Bank understands loyalty?” She laughed.

“It’s a Crew, not a Bank. I don’t hang with Komodos anymore. They’re all fuckin’ traitors. I have nothing to say to you—”

“Reed—”

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