Page 96 of Amethyst Flame
Jacob patted me between the shoulder blades as he straddled the other stool. “Don’t make me give you mouth to mouth.” While I gurgled down the peanut butter chocolate, he levered himself half over the counter to grab another spoon. “Dane is on his way.”
“Did you find the Tesla?” I glanced back at his computer.
“I’m notthatgood. But I have a spider crawling all the LEO comms about any randomly appearing or disappearing cars. If Dane would give me access to the rest of his secret spy shit…” He shook his head.
I sighed. “It’s not that he doesn’t trust you”—Jacob scoffed, and I held up my spoon—“it’s that he doesn’t trust anyone. Including, remember, his own people.” And I wasn’t sure where that left us, except “all hands” and “Best Minds” weren’t looking so great.
“Speaking of which…” Jacob stuck a spoonful of ice cream in his mouth, effectively not speaking.
I eyed him. “Yeah?”
He swallowed. “I’m sorry.” He put the spoon down and swiveled to face me. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about…everything.” My death sentence, he meant. “I was jealous before—still am, in a weird way—but that’s on me, not you. Being here in the middle of this, knowing the stakes, yeah…I’ve either got to stop being a jackhole or officially change my name and own it.”
For a moment, I just blinked at him. Then I spun my stool toward him. “You’ve always been there when I needed you. Even when you were being a jackhole.”
“I suspect Dane has also been trying to get authorization for another support team,” Jacob said. “Then it’ll be more than just us helping you.” Putting both his hands on my knees, he met my gaze without wavering. “We’ll find Will and figure out how to save him—and you.”
While I appreciated the timing of his personal growth, his seriousness was fucking me up, and for once I wished he had that unearned arrogant confidence that I might share.
He sat back, letting me go. “While we’re at it, I’m sorry about Vegas. Maybe if I hadn’t asked you to use the hive…”
I shook my head. “That didn’t have anything to do with anything.”
“It was a bad idea.”
I lifted both eyebrows. “Including the part where we thought about hooking up? Was that a bad idea too?”
He looked at me. “In retrospect…”
With a laugh, I bumped my knee against his, not too hard, but not too gentle either. “We were better enemies before, and I think better friends now, yeah?”
“Definitely.” As he pushed the ice cream toward me, his phone pinged again and he glanced down, scrolling. “Dane said he got held up but told us to keep working and he’ll get here asap.” Mumbling to himself, he hustled back to his laptop.
At least I still had the ice cream after that most non-breaking breakup of my life. And I didn’t know how to feel about it. I’d been so excited when I’d headed out to Vegas to see Jacob—we had so much in common and there’d been this…vibe—but now it seemed like he was going through his own stuff. I, of all people, understood existential crises. We were not right for each other, but finalizing the end of our barely there romance just made me feel lonelier.
I’d polished off the half gallon when the doorbell chimed and I almost choked again. Will wouldn’t ring…would he?
Suspiciously I peered out the peep hole.
A giant dark eyeball with perfect blue mascara stared back at me from way too close.
I swung open the door. “Shit.”
How the fuck did Swann know where Dane’s hideout was?
“Right?” She stepped inside and cast a quick glance at Jacob, hunched on the couch again, furiously typing, then looked at me. “You smell like choco PB.”
“Well, it’sthatbad,” I said.
“Tell me more.”
We went into the back bedroom, empty except for a twin bed pushed into one corner, and sat with our backs against the wall. The hollow echoes of our voices were strangely flat, like I imagined the sound inside of a satin-lined coffin might be…
Yikes.
“How’d you find me?” I asked. “This is supposed to be a super secret hideout.”
“Jacob called and said you needed me.” She frowned. “Wouldn’t give me any details though.”
