Page 29 of Follow Your Instincts

“Yeah, that would be great,” I said, smiling.

There was a brief silence where Ben, Lucas, Soren, and I just smiled at each other. I decided to ignore Lachlan completely.

“Quick work question,” Soren said. “You heard from Geta Heitzig? I can’t find her. I want to ask her some more questions.”

“No, but I gave her my cell,” I said. “She’s missing? She didn’t seem like she was doing well.”

“No, not really,” Soren agreed.

“There was one thing, though, that I thought was weird. The perp busted all the cases, but they only took somethingfrom one, right?”

“Yeah, they almost cleared out one of them, but didn’t take anything from the others,” Soren replied.

“That’s weird, right? He took the time to break all the cases, but he only took something from one? Why not try to grab everything?” I asked.

“Good questions,” Soren said. “And yeah, that is weird.”

“Jesus, I almost just fell asleep,” Ben said, calling my attention back to him. “Can you two please have your meeting of the minds on your own time?’

“Oh, shut up,” I said, laughing, and pushed him good-naturedly on the shoulder. Ben snatched my hand and interlaced our fingers together with a mischievous smile.

“It worked, though,” he said and brushed his thumb across the back of my hand. “I get to hold your hand now.” I smiled back at him and felt lighter than I had in a week.

“How about you, Lachlan?” I asked after a moment, just to be polite.

“I own a cybersecurity firm,” he said, still holding onto the back of the couch. His eyes flicked to where Ben was holding my hand, then to my eyes. His eyes darkened with an emotion I couldn’t read. “It’s… rewarding work.”

There was a pause.

“Lachlan is our pack leader, he brought us all together about five years ago. He and Soren grew up together, but we met at a tech conference and hit it off, so I joined the pack. And then Ben showed up one day to train Lachlan and just never left,” Lucas said, his dark eyes sparkling.

“I remember it differently,” Ben said, still stroking the back of my hand. “I remember them begging me to join so they wouldn’t die of boredom from being so adult and responsible all the time. I’m the fun one in the pack.”

“‘Fun’ is one word for it,” Lachlan said dryly, surprising a laugh out of me.

“Is he always like this?” I asked him.

He met my eyes again, and the unscarred corner of hismouth tipped up. “Worse. This is him on his best behavior.”

“I hate to be the party pooper, dear,” Steffi said, looking at me. “But we’ll have to conclude the meeting here.”

Ben gave me his megawatt smile. “So, obviously, we’re going to be seeing you soon, Maggie. I’ll be here for our morning run tomorrow. You and Soren have to discuss the jewelry cases or whatever, and you have to teach Lucas how to bake, so you’ll need to come to the house this weekend.”

“Don’t push,” Lachlan said, scowling again.

“That sounds… great,” I said, surprising myself a bit. “I’d like to get out of the Center for a little while.”

“... And spend time with us,” Ben prompted me.

“And spend time with the four of you, yes,” I said. Definitely three of them. Lachlan seemed like he’d rather not be in the same room with me, but he hadn’t openly objected.

“Perfect,” Ben said, grinning.

I shook my head and squeezed his hand before sliding mine out of his grasp. “It’s been great to meet you all. And see you,” I said to Soren.

Ben, Soren, and Lucas stood up when I did.

Before I could get awkward, Ben pulled me into a hug. “I’m going to behave myself for the sake of the rules,” he whispered in my ear, and I shivered. “But I don’t want to.”

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