Page 32 of Crowe
We finished breakfast. I washed the plates while Jackson refilled both our mugs, and there was something so ordinary about the whole thing that it made me wish I could have this every morning.
I was drying the last pan when the knock came. I glanced at the clock and shook my head. It was way too early for guests.
Julius and Mika were standing in the hallway holding their coffee cups, looking entirely too awake and suspiciously casual for how early it was. Julius had on a silk shirt in a shade of green that would’ve been too much for anyone else, but it looked amazing on Jules. Mika was in a soft sweater, his hair still a little damp.
Julius looked past me into the kitchen where Jackson was still standing with his mug. Julius looked at me and waggled his eyebrows in a comical way that told me he would be wanting details later.
“Good morning,” Mika said warmly, like this was a perfectly ordinary social call, which it absolutely wasn’t. It was my friends being nosey.
“Morning,” I said. “Do you want to come in?”
“We do, but first, Crowe,” Julius said loud enough for him to hear. “Hawk and Gator are back. They want you for a briefing downstairs.”
Jackson set his mug on the counter. “Now?”
“Yeah, they’re waiting.” Mika shrugged.
Jackson nodded, then he held my gaze just long enough to be deliberate.
“I’ll head down now. Noah, I’ll come find you when we’re done.”
“Okay,” I said.
He walked past the three of us out into the common area, and I watched until he entered the stairway to go down a floor to Wolfe’s office.
Julius watched me watch the door, and I braced myself for the questions I knew were coming.
“Well?” he asked.
I looked over where Mika had settled on the couch with his feet tucked up under him, both hands wrapped around his mug, but he also had an expectant look on his face.
“Julius,” I said. “Don’t you have morning appointments?”
“I shifted them.”
I stared at him. “You shifted your appointments.”
“Harper was happy to take them. She’s been asking for more hours.” He looked at me over the rim of his cup. “Don’t make it weird.”
“Julius.” Something moved through my chest. He didn’t take off work because he wanted to hear how things went with Jackson. He took off because he was worried about me. “You didn’t have to do that.”
He met my eyes, and for just a second, the carefree mask he normally wore dropped entirely. “Yes, I did. Now stop being sentimental before Mika cries and then we all cry, and none of us have waterproof mascara.”
“I’m already a little emotional,” Mika said, unbothered. “I’m so glad you’re back.”
I laughed and sat down on the couch beside Mika, pulling one knee up. “I am, too, Mika. I missed you.”
“I am worried, though. That sounds so scary.”
“It was. When Jackson showed up, I knew it couldn’t be good, but I didn’t expect it to be so much so fast.”
I told them about how it had felt to find out someone was watching me, my apartment being broken into, and how surreal it was to actually be in a car chase.
“I always thought it would be exciting to be in a car chase,” Mika said, which totally shocked me.
“You? You always thought it would be exciting to be in a car chase?”
“Sure, I mean, I wouldn’t want to be driving the car, and I wouldn’t want to be the one hanging out the window shooting at the car that was chasing us, but if I was just a passenger, it might be exciting.”
