Page 91 of The Company

“You were in Wyoming, James?” Harp asks.

“No, I found Kamikaze Smurf camping out in the middle of Colorado.”

“Alone?”

Sasha lowers her head and pretends to be busy with the menu. “It’s a long story,” she mumbles.

“Harper,” I say to distract her away from the long story. “What are you getting?”

“Hmmm, the grilled mako shark with pineapple rice, I think. How about you?” She smiles sweetly at me as the bright sun hits her at an angle and illuminates her bronzed shoulders.

I lean in and grab her thigh, then fist my hand in her hair. “Fuckable. You are simply. Fuckable.”

“Hello?” Sasha says. “I’m right here.”

And then the waiter appears and I rattle off my order. “Chilean seabass for me and the mako shark for this lovely lady.” The waiter nods and murmurs something about good choice. I’m making him nervous but I don’t care. “Sasha, what’s it gonna be?”

“The buffalo burger.” I hold in my snicker, but she hears it anyway and shoots me a glare. “What? It’s the only thing on here I recognize.”

I turn back to the waiter. “The buffalo burger for lovely lady number two.” He nods and retreats.

“Pffft, like you really think I’m a lovely lady,” Sasha says.

“I think you’re a little shit who has no idea how good she’s got it right now. Better?” I shoot back.

“James,” Harper admonishes me with a kick under the table. “Be nice.”

“This is me being nice.” Her hand on my thigh captures my attention and all thoughts of Sasha disappear. “Harp”—she giggles—“don’t start something you can’t finish. They have a men’s room here too.”

“You wouldn’t dare!”

“Oh, I don’t need a dare to fuck you in a public restroom, darling.” She tries to withdraw her hand but I capture it before she can, and then I slide it tight up over the top of my thick hard-on. “You do this to me, you pay the price.” I place her hand on the table and lean in to her ear. “If you do it again, I’ll take you right here on the table. Don’t test me.”

“Oh my God,” Sasha says. “La-la-la. I can’t hear you.” She closes her eyes, covers her ears, and shakes her head. “La-la-la…”

“So, Sasha. What’s your job in the Company?” Harper asks, changing the subject and managing to make me more uncomfortable than I just made the Smurf.

“Nah,” I say, waving a hand at Sasha. “We’re not talking shop tonight. This is down time.”

“I disagree, James,” Harper says. “I saved her life this morning and I hardly know anything about her. We’re living in the same house and we’re traveling together. So I want—”

“No,” I interrupt. “Not—”

“Hunter,” Sasha says, ignoring me and cutting me off at the same time.

“You’re a girl. You’re not a hunter,” Harper says with a laugh.

“I am a hunter. My dad raised me to be a hunter and he was in charge of training all the hunters before this current group. So I’m even legitimate.”

Fuck.

“You’re not the first Six, James,” Sasha sneers at me.

“Conversation. Over. Let’s move on to something else.”

She redirects her attention to Harper. “I’ve been trained to hunt. I’ve been around the hunters my whole life. Not you,” she says to me. “They kept you away. But some of those guys you killed this past year? They were my friends.”

“Friends? Please. How many times could they have been passing through Wyoming? Or picking up guns from a western gun show? A handful at the most.”