He could do Sunday as long as something urgent didn’t come through where he needed to ship out. “Sunday works for me.”
Katherine beamed at him. “It’s a date.”
It may have just been a figure of speech, but Kong felt those hopes he’d been trying to tamp down soar.
“Do you want something to drink?” During his earlier shopping adventure, the ladies had insisted he get groceries as well. Not just the items on Katherine’s list. His fridge had never been so full. “I have wine, beer, milk, juice, and soda.”
“I’ll take a glass of wine.”
With a nod, he pulled out one of the new wine glasses Lark had encouraged him to buy – which was rich coming from her considering she usually drank cheap boxed wine out of plastic cups.
Pouring her a glass of the fruity-smelling white, he handed it to Katherine. Instead of taking a sip, she stared off into space with that thoughtful look on her face again.
“What are you thinking about?”
Her eyes cleared as she focused on him. “I’ve been thinking about…” She hesitated for a moment, then leaned in to whisper, “That spy thing.”
Kong was all ears, his instincts sharpening. “Did you see something?”
Still whispering, she asked, “What if it’s ORION? Would anyone even know?”
It was something they’d considered, and while the AI betraying them would probably never be completely off the table, they’d put the question to Grady who had the closest link to ORION. In Grady’s opinion, while starting a war to demonstrate the Resurrection soldiers’ superiority wasn’t beyond the scope of possibility, the timing was wrong. ORION’s soldiers, in their current condition, weren’t ready and wouldn’t be ready for quite some time. The AI was all about logic and would consider such a move to be a foolish waste of potential. If the AI decided to create a conflict for its own ends, it would wait for the optimal moment.
He couldn’t disclose any of this to Katherine, however. They may have determined she wasn’t sent here to spy but that didn’t mean her level of clearance had changed.
Kong nodded. “We’ll look into that. Thanks.”
Grabbing a beer out of the fridge, he twisted off the top and took a drink.
“How was your day?”
“The women dragged me on a shopping excursion.”
He shot her a pained look that made her laugh.
“Poor, Kong!”
With his best puppy-dog eyes, he pouted. “Yes, feel sorry for me.”
Reaching out, she patted his arm. “There, there. Brownies will make it all better.”
Mm.Brownies. His stomach rumbled.
His entire apartment smelled like rich, decadent chocolate. If he’d been a feline species, Kong probably would have purred. There wasn’t a drop of feline in him, though. After he and the others had been freed, they’d been given the option of having their DNA mapped. He’d volunteered because he’d been curious. He had an extremely heightened sense of smell, so he’d half-wondered if there’d been some sort of bloodhound added to the mix. Nope. His sniffer was simply an anomaly. He was all primate but for one unknown marker that almost all of the Beasts shared and the white coats believed was where their rapid healing came from. They had no clue what that marker was. The only one who did was the lead geneticist, Doctor Anne Deitrich, and she was determined to take that secret to the grave.
A knock sounded at the door and Kong grunted. His neighbors probably smelled the brownies and wanted to get in on the fudgy goodness. Vultures.
Setting down his beer, he marched to the door and threw it open. Women barreled past him. First Lark, then Jayla and Lynx, and finally Perrin. Each of them was carrying things. They must have done more shopping.
“We brought dinner,” Lark announced as she began setting up a folding table in his living room.
While Lynx snapped out a tablecloth, Jayla set up two folding chairs, and Perrin began unloading things from a large bag. They were a whirlwind of activity, and before Kong could even fully wrap his brain around what they were doing, the table was set with plates, flatware, and napkins. Candles had been lit, and soft music was playing from someone’s phone.
Grady walked in with a large cardboard box in his arms containing a pot of what smelled like the SEAL’s awesome spaghetti sauce. Grinning at Kong, he set the box down by the table and pulled out a set of tongs, clicking them twice. “Who’s hungry?”
The women had discussed the idea of dinner earlier, but he’d nixed it, reminding them for like the hundredth time that this wasn’t a date. He thought he’d put his foot down yet here they were. Kong shook his head. Meddling busybodies, the lot of them, but he would forgive them because Grady’s spaghetti was amazing. And was that garlic bread he could smell?
Turning to Katherine, he asked, “Do you like Italian?”
