AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Maybe Julius was still my favorite after all.
“I’m really glad to hear that.”
Now, he raised an eyebrow. “You’re happy I’m going out of my mind with boredom? Rude.”
“No. Yes. Sort of.” I squeezed his hips and pulled him closer to me, and his annoyed expression melted. “I’m really bad at making a point.”
He beamed at me. “You’re doing okay. Keep going.” He rubbed his body against mine. “I’m on board for anything you suggest.”
“I think you should come bounty hunting with me.”
“Yes, I’d love to head to the bed—wait. Did you say you want me to go bounty hunting with you?” He pulled back and gave me another narrow-eyed look. “Aren’t you supposed to be keeping me safe?”
“Yes, but if there is nothing we can do here, we might as well do something productive.”
“This was Cal’s idea, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, but Quin agreed. We’re both going to go stir-crazy.”
Felix rocked his head from side to side. “That’s probably true. If Julius is as good as he says he is, it’s still going to take him days to get to the point I was at before I got stonewalled.”
“We won’t do anything dangerous. Only quick little cases. Just to keep busy.”
My mate pursed his lips, and I wanted to kiss him while he considered. “Any chance I could get a computer?”
“Why?”
“Well, if I’m going to go out in the field with you, you might need me to find out information about your skip. All I need is a laptop and a hotspot. If we’re not going to try to catch any big fish, I won’t need more than that.” He took a step back. “Oh, actually, this is kind of perfect. If whoever is targeting me is waiting for me to pop up, letting them see me work on something that’s completely unrelated to Amanda Vanderkaamp might be enough to convince them I’m no longer trying to track her down. It might be enough of a distraction that Julius can slip by undetected.”
Letting Felix back online felt just about as risky as letting him outside without me, but I could see his point.
“I can plant a few digital red herrings along the way to really throw them off the scent.” There was an excited glint in Felix’s eyes, and this was the most animated I’d seen him since we met at the police station. Well, the most animated I’d seen him outside of the bedroom.
“Let’s talk to Julius and see what he thinks. I know your stuff is going to need to be replaced, but according to McMahon, you’re going to have to wait until they can sort out who is responsible for replacing it.”
“Fine.” He took a big step back, found my hand, and pulled me back to Julius’s lair.
“That was fast.” My brother didn’t turn when we stepped back into the room and Felix retook his seat, twisting in the chair from side to side.
“Nero is taking me bounty hunting. I need a computer.”
Julius had just taken a swig from a bottle of Dr. Pepper and choked a little. “I’m sorry, what?”
“Felix can’t do anything to help you right now. It would be good to get out of the house.”
“Then go bowling or something. If you really think taking him out to chase skips with you is the best choice, you might be the worst bodyguard I’ve ever met.”
“Hey, that’s not fair.” The way Felix immediately jumped to my defense made me smile. “I’m not dead yet. I feel like passing the twenty-four-hour mark is a pretty good sign.”
“You haven’t left the house since you got here.” Julius took another drink from his soda bottle.
“Fair, but if we are all going to make ORCA a thing, I need to know what it’s like in the field so I can be a better guy in the chair.”
Julius considered Felix for a second. “Fine.” He spun in his chair, stood, and walked to the other side of the room, ducking into one of the cabinets by the television and pulling out a slim black laptop. He held it out to Felix, who ran his hand over the metal case reverently. “This is my backup. All my programs are on there. If you have questions, call, though as evidenced by last night, you’ll have no issues figuring out my system. We’re going to talk about that after this is over, by the way.”
Felix nodded. “You’ve got it, and thank you.”
My brother looked at me. “Be careful. I don’t like this. Make sure you’re not being followed.”
