“Nah, I’m gonna guess a sleepover’s involved. He’s gotthe look, ya know?” Bear quips, wiggling his eyebrows and nudging Dutch with an elbow.
The two cackle like loons at their own lame jokes with the rest of the team joining in. With the exception of Knight. He gives me a sympathetic smile.
“All right, you bunch of reprobates. You’ve had your fun, now let’s get those heartrates up and the blood pumping.”
“I’ll bet the blood’s already been pumping for some of us.” This time it’s Gator getting a dig in.
Knight shakes his head but laughs too. “On the count of three. Last one to reach the boulder buys the next first round.”
Without a word, I take off, making a dash for the boulder. I’m feeling good, and I know their ribbing is good-natured.
“Hey,” I hear Digit call out, “that’s cheating.”
“Nope, not cheating. You snooze, you buy,” I call out over my shoulder, my pace never faltering.
Our breathing barely elevated by the time we reach the rock we use as our marker, we turn back. I can hear the guys behind me, jostling each other to get ahead – no one wants to be the last one.
I reach the point of the beach where we normally do our exercises and wait for the rest to catch up. “Who’s the old man now, huh?” I tease, laughing as I get flipped off.
Knight puts us through our paces, and by the time we’re done, the seven of us are all drenched in sweat. We stretch and do our cooldown before heading back toward the parking lot. He keeps pace with me, and I get the feeling he’s got something on his mind.
“This thing with Agatha – it’s been on my mind since last night. Something about it was niggling at the back of my brain, and I finally thought of it on the way over here this morning. They seem like two separate incidents, could very well be completely unrelated, but I was wondering –
“In light of the ‘gift’ she received last night, what if her getting run over wasn’t the accident we all thought it was? Is it possible someone’s targeting her?”
The words have me miss-stepping, and I stumble briefly. They settle like a ball of lead in the pit of my stomach. I don’t like the idea that Knight could be correct, but it’s definitely food for thought. Thoughts I don’t want to entertain. I’d be remiss if I didn’t though.
“Shit. That hadn’t even crossed my mind. Now that you’ve said it, it would make sense. Doesn’t mean I have to like it though.”
“I hear you. As a friend – a brother – I’d be remiss if I didn’t say anything. Especially if anything we could have prevented were to happen.”
I nod. “Appreciate it. I’ll keep an eye on things.”
“So – Agatha …” Knight doesn’t finish the sentence, leaves it hanging there.
“Yeah?”
“Is a thing developing here?”
“A thing?” I have a pretty good idea where this is going, but I don’t have to make it easy on him.
“You developing feelings for the intrepid crime novelist?”
“And if I am?” Not sure why, but somehow the question has my hackles rising.
“I’m only asking so I have a heads-up.” Knight’s chuckle irks me more. And I honestly can’t say why his questions are making me feel so defensive.
Heads-up for what?”
“Trust me when I tell you, that first deployment is going to be shit. You’re going to hate being away from home soil – from her – and your head definitely won’t be in the game like it should. It would just be nice to have advanced notice so the boys and I can be extra vigilant.”
“Seriously, dude? I would never –”
Knight cuts me off. “Easy there, tiger. No offense or disrespect intended. I simply speak from experience. Surely you remember how it was when Indie and I first got together?”
Thinking back, I see the wisdom of his words and realize he’s coming from a good place. I drop my gaze from his and rub a tired hand over the back of my neck. “Sorry, I don’t know why I’m being so prickly.”
He claps a hand on my back and grins. “Been there, done that. Had all you bastards on my back for the same thing. Welcome to my world.”
