Page 12 of Legendary

Cash eyes the money, a heated look coming into his eyes. “We’re gonna need to borrow some of that in a few hours,” he says in a low, throaty voice. His hand moves to grip Johnny’s jean-covered thigh as he looks around the suite. “You said this place has three bedrooms, right?”

I’m about to comment on how cliché fucking on a bed of money is, but then a vision of Eli sprawled on a bed of hundred-dollar bills looking up at me expectantly flashes through my brain, and I shut up.

Johnny’s green eyes spark at Cash’s words, but reluctantly pushes Cash’s hand off of his thigh. “Not until you’re healed.”

Cash’s face goes red, and I’d bet money these two break out in a full-blown fight any minute.

“Here we go again,” Daisy says.

A buzzer goes off. We all turn toward Eli, who is holding up his phone. “I’m invoking the twelve-minute rule. You two,” he says, pointing to Cash and Johnny, “can fightafterwe deal with stopping a revolution,” Eli says very much like the stuffy professor Johnny accused him of being and then turns to me. “Jeb, now that you’ve ‘shown’.”He nods at the money. “Please proceed with the ‘and-tell’ part.”

I do as Eli orders, but I do it my way. After all, I have to tell the story right if I want it to become the kind of story one thief tells another. If I want it to belegendary.

So, while still including the important facts of yesterday’s events, I leave out the boring parts and amp up the exciting ones. When I mention fleeing bullets, Eli starts choking on a sip of his energy drink. And, while the addition of evading a helicopter pursuit had the rest of my audience on the edge of their seats, Eli is clearly not impressed with my expansion of the truth.

“I call intermission,” Daisy announces. “I gotta pee.” On her way to the bathroom, she passes Johnny, who is in a scowling match with Cash. She pushes him off of his perch on the couch’s armrest and on top of Cash, who catches him and pulls him toward him.

“Your stitches,” Johnny hisses, his hand immediately going to Cash’s chest.

“I’m good.” He puts his hand over Johnny’s searching hand and rubs it over his nipple. “I just need my boyfriend to stop playing nurse twenty-four-seven.”

“You almost died,” Johnny bitches. “I get to be freaked out about that for longer than a few weeks.”

“I know. I know,” Cash croons, rubbing Johnny’s back. “But I’m here, and I’m healthy.”

“You’re still heal—”

“I’m well enough for this,” Cash says and captures Johnny in a big old lip lock. For a second, Johnny struggles to pull back, but with a defeated sigh, he starts kissing Cash back like he’s starved for his touch.

Caught up in the latest installment in theCash and Johnny Telenovela, I don’t notice Eli shooting daggers at me.

“Why did you do that?” he asks under his breath.

“Do what?”

He turns to me, his forehead creased, eyes angry. “Make shit up.”

“Ahhh, I just added a little flair to make the story pop. To make it—”

“‘Legendary’?” Eli finishes my sentence for me, his tone heavy with sarcasm. He shakes his head. “It’s totally unnecessary. Yesterday, you walked into that credit union, and in less than sixty seconds, you accurately assessed the situation and then successfully pulled off a million dollar bank robbery without injury to anyone involved. Then, you managed to escape from a high-speed pursuit with skills rivaling the drivers in those awful movies that all of you made me watch.”

“The Furious Five movies?” I ask in disbelief that he could hate those masterpieces.

“Yes,” he says with a shudder. “The point being that the true story of your exploits was impressive enough. You didn’t have to make anything up to make it or yourself legendary.” His eyes burn with a fierceness he usually only gets when he’s talking about saving the world. “You already are.”

His words hit me like a punch and send me reeling.

I’ve stirred up a lot of reactions in Eli. Hell, I made a hobby of courting his anger, but to have his same intense passion pointed at me in respect just about wrecks me.

I open my mouth to say thank you, but then, suddenly shy, I close it again.

We just stare at each other, a warm, pulsing energy between us. I’m close to convincing myself can only end with me pulling him over to me and wrapping my arms around him.

“I knew all they needed was a little push.” Daisy walks back into the room, taking in Cash and Johnny, who are seriously mugging down now. She narrows her eyes at me and Eli. “Guess you two are next.”

Eli looks at Daisy with pure panic and then hits a button on his computer, and this time, it isn’t an alarm that sounds, but a siren.

“What the fuck?” Johnny says, pulling away from Cash, his eyes glittering with frustration.

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