Page 36 of Bulletproof

He cleared his throat. “So, apparently, from when I saw you last, you have a new job.”

“Yeah.”

“Doing what?”

“Kind of what I used to do at my old job, not at my business.”

“You had your own business?”

“Yeah,” I sighed wistfully.

“Tell me about it.”

And I was thinking I wanted to talk to him, but I wanted to see his face. He had a good face. I was worried for a second about what that meant.

“Angel?”

“I wanna eat at the cantina with the gazpacho, but I don’t want you to think we’re gonna be more than friends … but I would really like it if we could be that.”

He chuckled, and it was deep and sultry and nice. “We can be that, Angel.”

“You gotta quit with⁠—”

“Jory,” he said, breathing out my name.

“Listen,” I said quickly, thinking I had to give him his out and not be selfish with what I wanted—a friend who didn’t really know me yet, who it would be easy to be around. “I need to tell you something before we get to be friends, and then I spring this on you, and you think I lied—because I try to never lie or even sin by omission.”

“Jesus, you’re exhausting.”

I knew that. “So, my man is a member of law enforcement,” I blurted out, “so maybe you should leave me alone if your business is dicey.”

“What kind of law enforcement?”

“He’s currently a homicide detective.”

“I see. What’s his name?”

All he had to have was a mediocre background-check guy who could check out deeds for lofts in the city. It would be easy to find out who I lived with.

“Sam Kage.”

“But he’s gone, you say?”

“Not gone, just away.”

“How long?”

“Close to four months.”

“He must be on some kind of task force.”

“I think so.”

“So, see, he’s busy catching someone else, not me.”

“But that could change if you came up on his radar.”

“It doesn’t matter. A homicide detective and I would never have words.”