Page 30 of The Hitman’s Final Job

“Don’t worry, Teresa. By the time I’m done with him, he’ll be running his own stand at the festival,” Silas jokes. At least, I hope he’s joking.

“Now that would be something. I’ll see you both around.” She moves off down the street with the same brisk purpose she arrived with.

Before I can turn back to Silas, Kai Grant heads our way. He’s carrying a canvas tote bag over one shoulder, and a box with some kind of equipment is in his arms.

“Vaughn,” he says, arriving at the table. “Good to see you back.” He stops, registering Silas. “Oh, sorry. Hi.”

“Kai, this is Silas. Silas, Kai Grant. He runs the Pine Ridge Library oral history project.”

Silas swings his head between the two of us and starts laughing. “I’m sorry,” he says. “You run the what?”

“The oral history project,” Kai says, joining Silas in laughter. “Not that kind of oral.”

Atlas Navarro approaches from the direction of his parents’ hardware store, stopping when he gets to Kai. He leans in and presses a kiss to his partner’s lips.

“Who’s doing oral?” Atlas asks when he pulls back, “and can I get in on the action?”

Kai puts his arm around him. “No chance,” he says. “Your oral activities are restricted.”

Atlas smiles at him and then turns to the table and extends his hand to Silas. “Atlas Navarro. You new in town?”

“Just visiting for a few weeks.”

“Welcome to Pine Ridge. I only moved back myself about six months ago. Spent years in Denver before that.” He glances at Kai. “Best thing I ever did.”

Silas looks between the three of us. “How do you all know each other?”

Atlas answers for us. “We fought together against the biggest threat Pine Ridge has ever had.”

TEN

SILAS

The biggest threat Pine Ridge has ever had.

The words are barely out of Atlas’s mouth, and suddenly this isn’t a leisurely lunch. This is a fact-finding mission.

“What kind of threat?” I ask, and then temper my voice, striving for casual. “Tourists getting overexcited in the gift shop across the road?”

Atlas laughs. “I wish.”

“The wooden bears are a lot,” Kai agrees.

Atlas mock punches him in the gut. “Hey, my brother carved those bears.”

“They’re beautiful and totally not scary or weird bears, baby. I’m sorry I hurt Marco’s feelings even if he’s not here.”

Atlas rolls his eyes at Kai. “I’m going to grab us coffee and sandwiches. We can eat in the park if the weather holds. The usual?”

“Please,” Kai says, giving him a small kiss on the lips, and even though my mind is focused on this so-called threat they fought, I can’t help feeling a little envious. What would it be like to kiss Vaughn like that, just because I could?

I force myself to look away, but I still see the way Kai gazes at Atlas as he enters the café.

“So, tell me about this threat,” I say.

Kai pulls up a chair from a nearby table and sits down. “A company called HelixGen Corporation came to Pine Ridge about a year ago. Presented themselves as investors, focusing on community development. They wanted to partner with the library’s oral history project, which is my project, as a way of building what they called a community profile.”

“A community profile?”