Total pages in book: 43
Estimated words: 39756 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 199(@200wpm)___ 159(@250wpm)___ 133(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 39756 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 199(@200wpm)___ 159(@250wpm)___ 133(@300wpm)
“No, please, for the love of God, don’t get my brother,” he ground out between clenched teeth.
“I’m teasing. Ed warned this is on the DL. What’s up?”
“You’re killin’ me. All you guys are killin’ me,” he muttered to himself.
“It’s what we do.”
“Oh, I know and I wish I didn’t,” Stephen snapped. He took a deep breath and released it slowly. It was okay. They were trained killers, but they protected the world with their skills.
“Relax, Doc. Everything is good, but I’m guessing that things aren’t good with you.”
“I’m fine. This is for a friend. His place was broken into tonight, but it doesn’t appear anything was taken.”
“That’s weird. Did he spook the thief? See him run off?”
Stephen shook his head even though Kairo couldn’t see it. “No. I was with him when he discovered the break-in. Looked to me like the thief had plenty of time to rummage through the entire condo, like he was searching for something specific. The other thing is that my friend just returned from Ankara. He was there settling his uncle’s estate after he passed. Maybe it’s a coincidence…”
“And maybe not,” Kairo finished for him.
Stephen pushed to his feet and started to pace alongside his bed. He shoved one hand through his wet hair, pushing it from his face. “Ehren is a great guy, and he admitted that he hadn’t seen his uncle since he was a kid. He said his uncle worked in ancient manuscript restoration and art restoration. Maybe he did, and this is nothing.”
“But if his uncle was doing more than that, your friend could be in a hell of a lot of trouble without even knowing it.”
Stephen’s stomach sank. “That’s what I’m concerned about. I don’t want him to worry needlessly. If it’s nothing and I’m wrong, he doesn’t need to know I even had you check into it. But if there’s something, he can at least protect himself.”
“Let me do some digging. See if I can turn up anything. You know the uncle’s name?”
He winced. “No, I’m sorry. The nephew is Ehren Galanis. His mother is Turkish and his father is Greek. I can try to get his uncle’s name and text it to you.”
“It would speed things along, but I can’t imagine too many restoration specialists have died recently in Ankara. Get what you can to me.”
“Thanks, Kairo.” A huge sigh of relief left him, and he dropped down onto the edge of the bed. Kairo worked as the team’s recon specialist. The man had mad computer skills. No one could hide from him if he was looking for them.
“Now answer a question for me, Doc,” Kairo said, causing Stephen to stiffen warily. “How long have you known this Ehren?”
Stephen was silent for so long, Kairo started to laugh. He rolled his eyes. “Please don’t give me another ‘I can’t save the world’ speech. I’m not trying to save the world.”
Kairo laughed at him. That was always reassuring. “No, you’re just trying to save a cute guy with a potentially dangerous family. I don’t know why you and Charlie try to argue that you’re nothing alike. You’re fucking identical in all the ways that count.”
“Whatever. He’s adorable and sweet. I was lucky enough to meet him, and yeah, maybe bad shit is happening right now. I don’t want to see him get hurt. Is that so wrong?”
“Put your claws away. You know I’m teasing. I’m happy to help you, but I want to also make sure you’re not getting conned. If he’s so great, you won’t mind me doing a quick background check on your new boy.”
“Fine, if it helps you sleep at night. But I don’t want to know anything about what you find.”
“I wouldn’t dream of telling you.”
“And you won’t tell Charlie?”
“I won’t tell him,” Kairo agreed with a sigh. “But I swear you and your brother need some freaking family counseling, Doc.”
“Thanks, Kairo,” Stephen muttered and hung up. It wasn’t anything he hadn’t heard before. He and Charlie had argued for as long as he could remember. About anything and everything. If Stephen said the sky was blue, Charlie said it was purple. If Stephen was hot, Charlie was cold.
And Charlie was always right by virtue of being twenty years older. Didn’t matter if the man was talking completely out of his ass.
Thank God they hadn’t actually grown up together.
For now, Charlie didn’t matter. Kairo would do some research, which would help keep Ehren safe.
In the meantime, Stephen would get some sleep, so he could make certain the cute guy down the hall had a nice breakfast to start his weekend. Everything was going to be fine.
Chapter Four
A real date.
A date where the guy who did the asking actually fucking showed up.
Ehren was barely suppressing his need to dance in the elevator as he rode it down to Stephen’s car on Sunday night. Okay, he might have given a happy little wiggle, but not a full-blown kick-line like he wanted.