Page 72 of Shadow Caster
“That is whatwecall you behind your back.”
“We?”
“Oh, yes, inmysocial circles.” I flicked my gaze to his face then back to the mist.
A smile flirted on his lips.
Flirted.
Was this flirting?
The back of my neck grew warm. Fuck this fluttery feeling. “Hey, Faraday. Last one back to base cooks supper.”
And I was off.
Twenty-Three
“What you thinking, Justice?” Carlo asked. “You thinking how you’re gonna lose?”
I held my cards close to my chest. “Nah, just how I’ll enjoy watching you cry whenyoulose.”
Thomas laid his cards on the table. “You can both cry, bitches.”
Damn, he had a straight flush.
Lloyd pouted and studied Thomas’s hand. “Nice. But not good enough.” He laid down a royal flush. “I win. Again.”
“This would be more fun if we were playing for money,” Carlo said.
He tugged on a lock of his sandy hair and then raked his hand through it and slumped back in his seat.
We’d pulled a table from the whiteboard room and set chairs around it. No one liked sitting at the bench table. This way, the guys could sit with their legs splayed and let their balls breathe.
The door to the kitchen opened, and the twins Aidan and Devon ambled in half naked and scratching the backs of their heads. Devon was wide and powerfully built—all muscle—and Aidan was slimmer, but every inch of his torso was toned, hard muscle that rippled when he moved.
Whoa. Was it getting hot in here? I fixed my eyes on my cards even though the game was over.
“Guys, ever heard of T-shirts?” Carlo asked.
“And deny Justice the view?” Aidan winked at me good-naturedly.
Devon mumbled something and headed for the coffee pot.
Brady entered the room next, dressed but barefoot. He didn’t speak, didn’t even look at anyone, but headed straight to the coffee pot where Devon was ready with a steaming mug of coffee.
Brady took it and glugged it down and then held it out for a refill.
Yep. This troop was a well-oiled machine.
“What did we miss?”Harmon asked as he joined us. He looked freshly showered, but his eyes were bloodshot. “Anything on the monitors?”
Like me, Harmon had thrown himself into every shadow cadet task. It was a distraction from the fact that his sister no longer knew him. He made a point of seeking her out, of spending time with her, but every time he returned, he looked like he’d been punched in the gut. It was obvious things weren’t going too well.
“Just patrols,” Lloyd said. “Standard shit.” He pushed back his seat, stood, and stretched. “Brady, you okay to take point?”
Brady grunted.
That obviously meant yes.
