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“You’re both assholes. I had as much chance to find my mate as you do. It’s fate. It’s meant to be.” For as practical as I was in almost all other things, I believed in the fated mates stories my grandmother told more than any of my brothers. I wanted it to be true that there was someone out there just for me, someone who’d stay with me no matter what. I was sure a therapist would have a field day with that information. They’d probably tell me it had something to do with losing my parents at a young, impressionable age, so I hadn’t said anything. And I didn’t now.
“Hey, hey. We’re happy for you. We’re just shocked.” Cal sounded genuine, but sometimes it was hard to tell with him. “It’s just kind of a weird thing to come home to on a Wednesday.”
“I’d say I’m a bit more than shocked, but certainly, that’s part of it.” Quin was typing on his laptop but still keeping up with the conversation.
“Thanks. And I didn’t know meeting your mate was a thing that could only happen on certain days of the week.” The timer on my phone beeped, and I pulled out a colander to drain the pasta. “One of you set the table.”
Cal and Quin squabbled for a minute, then played a rushed best-of-three round of rock, paper, scissors, though with their freaky twin thing, it never went well, until Quin finally decided to be the bigger man and just do it.
“You can clean up the mud I know you tracked through the house.” He directed his statement to Cal while he grabbed a stack of dishes, then went back for another, adding Felix to our normal count while Cal gave Quin’s back the finger and went to get the broom and dustpan.
I tuned them out, instead focusing on the thin thread that connected me to Felix and mentally tugging on it a little, wondering if he felt the same thing I did.
A minute later, he appeared in the kitchen. “Did you need something? It was weird… I was just sitting there, then I felt like you needed me.”
Movement in the room had stopped, and I knew without looking over my shoulder that Quin and Cal were both staring at Felix, who realized we weren’t alone a beat later.
“Uh, hi. I’m Felix.” He held out his hand and took a few steps toward the twins, who stood frozen, one holding the broom, the other a handful of forks. But the assholes proved theyhad at least some manners and met him halfway a beat later, exchanging handshakes and introductions.
“Thanks for letting me crash here while things get sorted out.” Felix looked better than he had earlier, but the smile he gave the twins didn’t quite reach his eyes.
Quin raised a brow. “Our dear brother hasn’t told us what’s going on.”
Felix looked my way, and I lifted a shoulder. “I’m tired of talking about it.”
“Me too, but we should probably explain. Especially if I plan to keep digging.”
As if summoned, Julius walked into the kitchen. “I’m starving. Is dinner ready?” Sometimes it was easy to forget we were four grown-ass men and not a bunch of teenage boys.
For the next few minutes, the five of us worked to get dinner on the table, and when we were all seated and Quin had gone through his pompous routine of selecting a bottle and pouring a glass of wine, Cal met my mate’s gaze across the table. “I think it’s time you tell us what’s up. And more importantly, do I need to grab a gun?”
CHAPTER
SIX
FELIX
I was really gettingtired of reliving the day, but once again, I explained about the photo and my apartment getting trashed and ending up at the house with Nero, adding that Julius and I were working on getting my computer back up and running. Still, I didn’t explain much about the case I’d been working on or what I thought might have tipped off the wrong people that I was looking into them.
Cal sat back in his seat. “All that techie stuff is out of my wheelhouse, but I was serious about the gun. If you need firepower, I’m your guy.”
Nero, Julius, and Quin rolled their eyes.
“What is it you do exactly?” I asked. Some things I’d noticed weren’t adding up. Like Nero’s explanation about his parents that felt like he was leaving out a major detail and the Degas over the bar downstairs that I was pretty sure had been stolen from a private collection in the eighties. I had a feeling things here weren’t exactly as they seemed.
My fingers were itching for a keyboard so I could dig up everything I could find about Nero’s family. Maybe it was an invasion of my mate’s privacy, but if I was going to be with him forever, I deserved to know what I was getting into.
And the same would be true for Nero and his brothers. Sooner rather than later, I was going to need to tell them about the case, especially if Julius was going to help me dig deeper.
Cal’s smile dimmed a fraction, and Quin eyed him from across the table. “Former navy SEAL. But I’ve been working, uh… side jobs recently. My schedule just freed up, though.” It was another vague response that further piqued my curiosity.
“Your schedule just freed up? What does that mean?” Julius asked.
Nero gave Cal a shrewd look and pointed at him with his fork. “Does this have anything to do with why you were covered in mud when you got home?”
Cal was staring at his plate and mumbled, “I got fired.”
Quin slammed a hand on the table. “You got fired from covert black-ops work? How? Why?”
