Chapter 31
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE_
DECAF
“Morning,” Scout says, smiling around the rim of his cup of coffee.
“Morning,” I grumble. I didn’t get back to sleep after the commotion last night, but not because I’m worried about Scout telling everyone what he saw. I trust he can keep his mouth shut until we tell him otherwise because he’s a good guy.
I couldn’t sleep because of the look on Haz’s face when I said it doesn’t matter if the others find out about us. Every time I closed my eyes, I thought of his raised eyebrows, the parted lips like he wanted to say something but couldn’t.
We haven’t exactly spoken of a future past Montenegro, but I thought it was a given, considering I’ve vowed to be by his side wherever he goes. Then again, I’m not sure I remember ever voicing those promises out loud.
We’re going to need to have a conversation, but I’m going to need a bigger conversation to happen first.
This one. With Scout.
After I’ve poured my own coffee, I sit at the small dining table across from him. I draw a long gulp into my mouth, half expecting him to say something stupid for me to do a spit take, but he doesn’t. Probably because as fun as that is, he’s the only one awake to clean it up.
“You can start any minute,” he says.
“Start what?” I play dumb.
“An explanation of how you ended up naked in Haz’s bed and him wearing your underwear.”
Do I want to keep playing, or do I just be up-front? I could say anything from maybe we wear the same brand of underwear or that Haz wasn’t lying about the laundry situation, but honestly, I haven’t had enough coffee to keep up with all that.
“It kind of just … happened.”
“Right.” He draws out the word. “And this has nothing to do with you telling me about your medication problem a few weeks back. You know, where you were in so much pain but still got hard for your godson anyway?”
“You told him about that?” Haz’s voice startles me because I don’t know how long he’s been standing there.
“I did. Back when I was in denial about my attraction to you.” Even though I’m replying to Haz, I’m looking at Scout.
Because I need to get a read on him. How he feels about this situation.
Not because I care, but because I want to shield Haz from his reaction if he’s about to lecture us on relationship ethics.
“So you’re not denying it now?” Scout says.
“Nope. Haz and I …” I turn to look at the gorgeous man standing at the entrance to the hallway.
His golden hair is a mess, his eyes are weary from sleep, and he’s still wearing my boxers.
I love how he looks in them. “We might have a lot of trauma between us, but it’s shared trauma, and we’ve decided to help each other carry the burden. ”
Haz sits next to me. “You make it sound so healthy.”
Then it’s as if time slows down as he reaches for my mug. My coffee. I don’t flinch, but Scout’s eyes turn comically huge as his mouth drops, preparing to witness a murder.
“Haz, don’t do it! Do you have a death wish?”
But it doesn’t faze me. Haz taking a sip of my coffee doesn’t matter. He can have everything of mine, including my caffeine. I’ll just go pour myself more.
I mean, if it were the last cup of coffee on Earth, that might be different, but let’s face it, if the world were seriously that short on coffee, I would have already yeeted myself off this planet.
“I … I don’t understand what is happening,” Scout says. “Haz is still breathing, and he just took a sip of your coffee.” He gasps as Haz lifts the mug to his lips again. “And another one!”
“It’s okay. You’ll understand one day.” I stand and pat Scout’s head on my way to get a replacement coffee.
“I’m scared,” Scout whimpers.
Haz laughs, but I call out behind me, “You’re so dramatic.”
“No, you’re dramatic when it comes to being sufficiently caffeinated, and you voluntarily gave up a cup of coffee.”
As much as I want to deny that, I can’t. I can be dramatic when it comes to coffee. On my way back to my seat, I say, “Turns out, I’m more dramatic about Haz.”
When I sit down, Haz is smiling over at me.
“When … how …” Scout frowns. “You hate each other.”
“Do you all still really think that?” Haz asks. “He jumped in front of a car bomb to save my life. I’m refusing to leave his side. That wasn’t a tip-off that maybe our prolonged …”
“Animosity,” I supply for him. “Because it’s not hate. Was never hate.”
“Right, animosity. You haven’t even had an inkling that there was so much more behind our animosity?”
“Of course,” Scout says. “But I thought it was shit to do with Haz’s father. Not … sexual tension related. Decaf’s old enough to be your father.”
“Fuck you very much,” I mutter, even if it’s true.
“I didn’t think I’d be sitting here this morning, witnessing what I was sure would’ve been—should’ve been—a murder.
I was expecting ‘We were bored. It didn’t mean anything.
Hey, at least we’re getting along now.’ Not …
whatever the fuck this is. Soul mates? Is it soul mates?
I can’t think of anyone else Decaf would willingly hand over his coffee to. ”
“Are you done yet?” I ask. “Here I was thinking you were dramatic before.”
Finally, Scout smiles. “All dramatics aside … it really is weird, but not too weird. Or it won’t be once I get used to it.”
“Good,” I say at the same time Haz blurts, “Could you, like, not tell anyone, though? Unless you have already, then it doesn’t matter, but we’re still figuring stuff out, and I don’t need Iris asking me what it’s like to have sex with Decaf.
Because, let’s face it, if anyone is going to ask, it’s going to be him. ”
“What is sex with Decaf like?” Scout asks.
“Okay, not Iris, then.”
Scout waves Haz off. “You don’t have to answer. I just assumed it was a female praying mantis type situation. I’ve never met anyone he’s hooked up with before. No one. I kind of thought of him as a non-sexual being. This is all new to me.”
I’m glaring so hard at Scout it makes Haz laugh, and while his line of questioning was somewhat to be expected, I’m more worried about Haz’s adamancy about keeping us quiet, which has me scowling.
“You might want to, uh, stop talking,” Haz says to Scout. “You’re probably lucky Decaf’s not armed.”
Yes, let’s go with Scout being the only thing on my mind in this moment. “He’s lucky I don’t have the power to make his head explode only using my mind, anyway. I can always go get weapons.”
Scout holds up his hands. “Okay, okay, subject dropped.”
As fast as I want to get Haz back to bed or behind closed doors, just anywhere away from Scout so I can talk to him properly about everyone else finding out about us, I need to ask Scout why it took so long for him to come back to us.
“Are you going to tell us what went wrong out there?” I ask him.
“Nothing went wrong.”
“So, their quick getaway that was only supposed to be a few days that took well over a week went smoothly. Is that what you’re telling me?”
“Technically, nothing went wrong, but … something was off. We all felt it. I don’t know if it’s because of the car bomb or that reality has set in for all of us that there are people out there trying to kill us, but we were all jumpy and paranoid.
It took longer to get them into Mexico because we didn’t know when we could execute the border crossing without getting shot in the head. It went fine.”
That doesn’t sound exactly fine, but it’s understandable. I can’t see me being anything but on edge when it comes to us getting out.
“So are we going to use that same route for us?”
Scout shakes his head. “We think heading north into Canada might be our best bet. And with you healing more and more every day, we could do it in steps. Head north, hunker down for a few days, and then do that over and over until we’re out.”
I purse my lips. “Is that really a viable option? Wouldn’t the more we get moved around, the higher the chance of being caught because we’ll be on CCTV and whatnot?”
“It’s possible, but … there was just something that spooked us all going through Mexico. I ended up staying back after they left, too, until we got word that they made it to Ecuador safely. Which they have.”
“That means, when we go, we just need to account for paranoia? I guess?”
Haz squeezes my shoulder. “It’s probably better to be paranoid but prepared than taken completely off guard, like with the car bomb.”
That’s true. But this needs to go off without a hitch. I need to get Haz out of here and to safety.
“When were you all thinking of making the first leg north?” I ask.
It’s Scout’s turn to purse his lips, only I get the feeling it’s not from contemplation but because he doesn’t want to say the words that are about to come out of his mouth. “How does tomorrow sound?”
“Sounds fucking awful.” I glance at Haz. The longer we’re on American soil, the easier targets we will be for whatever assassins they’ve sent for us. “But doable. I’m not going to be in fighting shape anytime soon, but I have this hiding thing down pat.”
“Tomorrow, then?” Scout asks.
Here’s where I should back out. Tell him we’re not ready. But between my physical health and Haz’s actual life? I need to pull my own weight here.
I nod. “Tomorrow.”