Page 17 of Freeing Lark

His gaze sharpened. “No.”

She blinked, something she tended to do a lot around him. “No?”

“Only my friends are qualified to know that.”

Lark’s curiosity immediately went into overdrive. “So, in other words, it’s classified?”

“Something like that.”

“Does it involve owls?”

“No.”

“Did you once spend the night in a tree?”

“No.”

“Did you make an embarrassing noise?”

His eyebrow lifted. “No.”

“Then I’m going to keep guessing.”

“Go ahead.” He opened the door.

Lark grinned. “Guess I’ll just have to work hard to become your friend.”

That stopped him. For the first time, she caught him genuinely off guard. His expression shifted. First to surprise, then to amusement… barely. But it was there. “You might have your work cut out for you.”

“Good.” She smiled sweetly. “I relish a challenge,” she stated, her voice laced with a hint of mischief as she added, “Cormac,” knowing it would likely irk him.

She was right. His jaw tightened again before he shook his head. But there was the faintest hint of a smile on his lips as he stepped outside.

The bell jingled above the door. Lark watched him walk away. Cormac Shibley. Hoot. She had absolutely no business being curious about him. Unfortunately, curiosity had always been one of her worst habits. And something told her this particular mystery was going to be impossible to resist.

CHAPTER 6

“Whoa. What happened to you?” Duncan “Spark” Breckenridge asked, pointing to Hoot’s soiled shirt as they walked into the Condor’s Overwatch conference room.

The rest of the guys were already seated at the table when Hoot answered, “Same demon of chaos, different day.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Ansel “Eggs” Scott probed as he twirled around in his chair.

“Ran into that girl again… literally.”

“The girl from the creek?” wondered Sawyer “Voodoo” Graves. They’d all been at Hooch & Harmony when he’d entered soaking wet. He’d had no choice but to explain the predicament. They’d all gotten a big laugh out of it. Now the walking disaster of a woman had struck again.

“Yeah… her,” Hoot reluctantly answered. They erupted in laughter.

“No way. Two days in a row?” Eggs chortled.

Wade “Jeeves” Butler was looking at his phone as he shared, “Apparently she’s Marilyn’s niece.” Of course, Cammie had wasted no time in spilling the gossip to her boyfriend Jeeves. Those two told each other everything.

“Oh, I heard she was moving to town soon,” Haley “Halestorm” Lamb said as she typed away at her laptop. The computer expert’s fingers didn’t even pause as she spoke. “Did you get her name?”

Hoot knew she could easily get the girl’s name without him telling her, she was that good at computers. He also knew why she wanted the name. She would soon have everything there was to know about Marilyn’s niece.

“Lark Meadows,” he reluctantly mumbled, knowing Haley would be relentless in her pursuit of information.