In a flash, Chester twists towards his free side and whips his trapped arm around, slamming his elbow into JJ’s leg. JJ grunts with surprise as he loses the choke, and Chester scrambles out from between his legs. “Oh, JJ,” he sighs, grinning. “I’ve been flirting with you to get out of chokeholds since we were, what, fourteen? And you still fall for it every time.”
JJ is blushing.Blushing.Like he’s an awkward teenager on a first date instead of one of the Sanctum’s most skilled hunters. It’s disproportionately irritating. “You won’t be able to flirt your way out of ademonattack, Chester.”
“How would you know? I can be very alluring.” Chester winks at JJ, and Cass grits his teeth.Just leave my stupid hunter alone, asshat.
Not that Cass cares who JJ dates, of course. Not at all. But, as his co-parent, he thinks he’s entitled tosomebasic information about people in JJ’s life who could potentially pose a risk to Desi.
Especially an interrogator. Chester Locke has probably tortured some of Cass’s acquaintances, maybe even killed some of them. It’s not unreasonable for Cass to want to know if Chester has even the slightest chance of discovering Desi’s existence.
Or for Cass to beveryaverse to the idea of Chester slipping into JJ’s bedroom late at night.
JJ still looks a little flustered, but he stands his ground. “I don’t know what they’re teaching you down in the prison, but I can assure you that strike teams aren’t trained in seduction.”
“Good thing I stick to interrogation, then,” Chester says, clapping JJ on the shoulder. Cass kind of wants to break his fingers. “Come on. Let’s head back inside. I need to take a shower before I go back on shift.”
JJ wrinkles his nose down at his own sweat-covered skin. “Same,” he says, and he grabs a sleeveless workout shirt off the ground, wrestling it over his head. “After you.”
It’s about time.Cass glares after them just long enough to make sure they’re headed into the building before peeling open an invisible rift to JJ’s bedroom and stepping through. He’ll keep himself invisible, wait for his stupid hunter to show up?—
And hope JJ doesn’t invite his boyfriend inside.
“So have I given you some new ideas for date night with your dashing civilian?” Chester asks, waggling his eyebrows as they pass through the Sanctum’s imposing double doors. “Is this going to have to be acoldshower?”
JJ groans, dropping his head into his hands. “I hate you so much.”
“Aw, don’t be like that!” Chester says, nudging his elbow into JJ’s side. “You’re so easy to rile up, man. I bet he loves that, right?”
Heat is flaming into JJ’s face again. “There’sno hay,Chester. Metaphorical or otherwise. And—” He shoots a quick glance around the hallway. No one in sight, but as Roma likes to say, hunters are always listening. “And we should probably leave this conversation outside. Where itbelongs.”
Chester’s smile wavers. “Yeah, okay,” he says, and they fall silent as they slip past the crowded dining hall, headed for the back stairwell that leads to their rooms. “You feeling a little better, at least?”
JJ forces a smile. “Definitely. If nothing else, you’re a great distraction.”
It’s a bald-faced lie, but Chester doesn’t need to know that. If JJ reallydidhave a civilian boyfriend, then maybe Chester’s teasing would’ve done the trick and distracted him from his meeting with Councilwoman Nasir, but?—
But his current basis for that “boyfriend” is Cassius Chin. And thinking about Cass just leads JJ straight back to worrying about Desi—and desperately hoping the Council doesn’t realize he’s lying to their faces.
Chester looks pleased by JJ’s description as they jog up the stairs. “Agreatdistraction, huh? Would you ever let me tag along to create a diversion for Strike Team Kappa?”
“Absolutely not,” JJ says bluntly, and Chester snorts out a laugh. “If you want to roll with us, Locke, you need to take close combat and weapons trainingseriously.”
“I take them seriously!” Chester protests, and his lips twitch. “Mostly, at least.”
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” JJ says, slowing to a stop on the second-floor landing. “But thanks for the training session, man. Really, I appreciate it.”
“Always,” Chester says, and he hesitates. “So are you ever going to let me meet this guy? Or even tell me his name?”
He looks so excited about it, too. Like he’s honestly happy for JJ and his fictional partner. JJ’s heart hurts. “Probably not the safest option right now,” he says softly. “Especially with—with his daughter. But I’ll let you know if that changes, okay?”
“You’d better,” Chester says, and he claps JJ’s arm before heading up the stairs to the third floor. “Later, Jayj!”
“Later!” The top three floors of the Sanctum are devoted to the hunters’ living quarters—mixed breeds on the second and third levels, purebreds on the fourth—and JJ and Chester, as the Sanctum’s newest additions, ended up split between floors. He still isn’t quite sure how that happened, because he knows there are a few spare bedrooms near his on the second floor, but he’s sure the Council had their reasons.
Letting out a slow breath, he strides towards his room at the very end of the hall, pulling his key out of his pocket. He battles the lock into submission, shoulders his way inside, shuts the door firmly behind him?—
“Your boyfriend is cute.”
Adrenaline spikes through JJ. He snatches his escrima stick out of its gap in spacetime and whirls towards the voice, heart pounding as he tries to locate the intruder, locate thethreat?—
