Finding Kyle(54)

Bart Camden is Joe’s boss—and technically mine, for that matter, since Joe and I were effectively partnered up the last several years.

“There is some good news though,” Joe adds on. I let my eyes drift from Jane’s darkened house over to Front Street where her parents live a few blocks down. Such normal people who have no clue about me.

“What’s that?” I ask.

“A few of the Mission higher-ups have reached out to the prosecutor about cutting some deals,” Joe says, and this causes me to sit up a bit straighter. This is surprising because there’s a code among the members of Mayhem’s Mission. You never rat out your brothers, but if you do, be prepared to die for that action.

This is good news indeed. It means convictions will be easier to secure. It could mean a domino effect with the rest of the defendants who were indicted, and perhaps this will go away faster.

“Do I have anything to worry about at this point?” I ask as my eyes cut back to Jane’s house. I don’t care about myself, but if someone’s coming for me, I am not going to put her in danger. I’ll pack my shit up tonight and hightail it out of town.

“We believe you’re good for now,” Joe says. “Like I said… it doesn’t look like your information was compromised, but I wanted to let you know because nothing’s ever one hundred percent. If you want to relocate, we’ll make it happen.”

My gut twists, not knowing if I’m making the right decision. I’m hoping to fuck the feds have my back because part of this decision is for my own needs. “I’ll stay for now. But if you find out that the breach went as far as my information, you let me know immediately.”

“Will do, buddy,” he assures me. “Talk later.”

“Later,” I say before disconnecting the call.





CHAPTER 23




Jane


“Honestly… I just couldn’t stand one more night of that snuffling noise he made with his nose,” Miranda grumbles as she sips at her coffee across the table from me.

Kyle—who’s seated beside me—lightly knocks his leg against mine in solidarity of amusement, and I have to restrain myself from laughing.

Miranda and I didn’t get home until after one in the morning, and this came after a very messy breakup with her “snuffling” flame. She was extremely drunk, and well… she was extremely honest with him. She did not let him down gently, but her decision was at least ratified somewhat when he said, “I can’t believe you’re that shallow, Miranda, as to let something like that bother you.” Then he snuffled.

Miranda pointed at him and said, “See. You just did it again. I can’t take it.”

It was not a fun night for me, not only because of Miranda’s drama and drunkenness, but mainly because I would have rather spent the time with Kyle.

Tick, tock goes the clock on our relationship.

We’re having breakfast this morning at Tillie’s Shiny Diner and at the invitation of Kyle. He showed up bright and early at my door, waking both of us up—Miranda had passed out on my couch—and offering to buy us breakfast. I was all over that, because even though I’d had only about six hours of sleep, I wanted to spend whatever time I could with Kyle.

He said he was leaving at some point and I believe him, despite the fact we seem to be getting closer.

Tillie’s is a popular hangout and is indeed a shiny diner. The outside is done in bright, reflective silver aluminum, and the inside has red vinyl booths, a black-and-white tiled floor, and a long counter with spinning stools. There’s a vintage jukebox on one end that carries music from the 40s, 50s and 60s. Tillie serves breakfast at all hours, and she makes a killer fried egg.

“Miranda,” I say with a bit of brutal honesty myself. “All bodily noises aside, you need to stop getting charmed by a man’s pretty face and take closer stock of what they bring to the table.”

“You got sidetracked by Kyle’s pretty face,” she retorts at me, and Kyle actually snickers even though his head remains bowed over the newspaper he’s reading. “Actually, if I recall… it was his body. You were going on and on about how hot his abs were while he was pressure washing the lighthouse.”

“Miranda,” I exclaim indignantly at the same time Kyle’s head whips my way. I don’t bother looking at him as I glare at my best friend. She grins right back at me.

“Thought I was hot, huh?” Kyle says, and I turn my head to look at him.

“Oh, shut up,” I snarl to mask my total embarrassment. “You totally know you’re hot.”

Kyle’s eyes crinkle with amusement, and if I’m not mistaken, a little bit of pride. He shakes his head and goes back to reading his newspaper, but his hand slips under the table to rest on the top of my thigh. It’s a bold move, but it’s equally sweet, and there’s nothing but a gentle intimacy to the action. It’s something that Kyle has apparently been getting more comfortable with, as evidenced also by the spontaneous kiss he gave me yesterday during our picnic.

“Anyway,” I say as I turn back to Miranda. “Don’t you think it’s time you started looking at what’s underneath the hood rather than the exterior?”

Miranda snickers, totally reading my words as dirty rather than metaphorical. “I can’t help it, Janey. I love me a hot man, and it’s even better if he’s a bad boy. I personally don’t care about anything past that other than snuffling. I can’t deal with that apparently.”