The Unlikeable Demon Hunter (Nava Katz #1)(31)

Baruch sat beside me. Even though his ass extended past the seat, it was so rock hard that it didn’t droop over the sides. I checked twice to make sure.

“So you were in Jerusalem before now?” I asked.

“No, Cairo. They needed extra hands with all the civil unrest. But I was in Chicago when I got the heads up about you.”

I bit into the pickle that Baruch had laid as garnish on the side of my plate. He’d given me the perfect segue. “If Rasha are needed,” I said, “all the more reason to make sure about Ari’s status. What if the ritual when we were babies determined that we were both initiates?”

Baruch picked up the other half of his sandwich. “And what if as your twin, Ari carried an echo of your potential, your magic, from sharing the womb, and that’s what Rabbi Abrams picked up?”

“How is that possible? Ari and I are fraternal twins. We don’t share DNA, we didn’t share a placenta or amniotic fluid, so why would sharing the womb matter?” Mom had versed Ari and I in all sorts of twin facts.

“If your brother did not carry the magic passed down through the bloodlines to the descendants of the original Rasha, then the reason Rabbi Abrams would have thought Ari did is because he felt the residue of your power on your twin.”

“Is that what the Brotherhood believes?” I squirted another dollop of spicy mustard on my sandwich.

He nodded. “If Ari was an initiate, re-running the ceremony should have worked. He would have become Rasha.”

The mustard lid snapped shut with a hard click. “But I’m a complicating factor. Hasn’t anyone thought of that? My existence could have screwed everything up that would normally work. You don’t just give up on someone you’ve invested in.”

Baruch bit into his roast beef, chewing slowly and methodically before swallowing. “There is a way of things.”

I didn’t get a chance to further refute his argument because Rohan entered the kitchen and slapped a piece of paper down on the table beside me. “Your schedule.”

It was color coded to within an inch of its life. “Three entire meals a day? Wow. You really follow minimum prison standards around here.” I tapped the paper. “Where are my snack breaks?”

Rohan pulled a chair out, doing his straddle backwards thing again. “What are you, five?”

“I have a very fast metabolism.” I grumbled at the only eight hours of sleep he’d allotted. “You’ve accounted for every second of my day.”

“Yeah, and?”

Baruch pushed his chair back, carrying his plate and glass to the sink. “Five minutes then back to the Vault. I want to go over what you could have done differently in the fight.”

I nodded to show I’d heard. “What about free time?”

“For all your scintillating hobbies?” Rohan plucked an apple out of the fruit bowl on the table and bit into it.

“Yes. As well as the many good works I do.”

He arched his eyebrow, miming giving a hand job.

“Are you ever going to let that go?”

He took another bite. “Not when there are still hours of fun to be had from it. You know you don’t have to jerk the demons off to kill them, right?”

“It was one time.”

He slapped the table. “Knew it! Baruch owes me twenty.”

I groaned at the fact that I’d just confirmed his suspicions.

“Don’t feel bad,” he said with a smirk, “I puzzled it out when reaching for the curupira’s dick was your first move.”

“I couldn’t not reach for Mount Phallus. He was hung like a horse.”

He held up his hands. “If that’s your kink, then hey, no judgment.”

Here we go. “No judgment, huh?”

“No way, Shaft.” Rohan’s composure cracked, his shoulders shaking as he hummed the Shaft theme music. “Though I wouldn’t rely on it as a kill tactic,” he said, now howling with laughter.

Bastard. “How about my thanks for taking me in hand, then?” I purred, leaning over to run my fingertips up his leg. “So to speak.” I was bluffing, but he’d already unsettled me so many times that I wanted to rattle him back and my arsenal of weapons was laughably small.

His hand clamped over mine, millimeters from his crotch. “Seems I didn’t need to go after Drio for his gratitude crack. Since you’re giving it away.”

“I’m not offering it to all and sundry, asshole.” I yanked my hand away. “That little tussle between you boys had nothing to do with me. And for the record, what I did to Josh was not intended as a fighting maneuver. It was grown-up time.”

“I’m a grown-up.”

“You’re more of a growth,” I said. “There’s a difference. And with that thing? Trust me, his dick was the last thing I wanted to touch.”

“Curupira,” Rohan repeated. “From Brazil.”

“It should have stayed there.”

“Next objection?” Rohan took the last bite of fruit then pitched the core across the room into the trash. Nice shot.

“Do we get paid for this?” I asked.

“Yes. You start at minimum wage.”

“What about danger pay?”

Rohan cocked his fingers at me like a gun. “That’s a good idea. I’ll talk to Ms. Clara about adding it while we’re stuck with you.”