Page 86 of Love at First Rep

“Like Felicity Smoak, the tech-savvy woman who works with Green Arrow.”

Garrett shook his head. “I’m surrounded by comic book nerds.”

Rafe smiled and refocused on the call. “Okay, we’re on our way and we’ll stop at a Wawa for snacks.”

“It’s so good to be back in the land of Wawa,” Danvers said about the popular convenience store, her voice slightly tinny in the background. “This Jersey girl has been in withdrawal for years.”

“Text me anything else you want me to grab,” Rafe added and hung up.

They climbed out of the tub, and Rafe stretched his arms overhead. The hot bath helped ease his aches. The two of them rushed to dry and dress, and they made the critical snack run before returning to the abandoned slaughterhouse.

As they walked inside, Garrett asked, “Carson really needs snacks to do his computer stuff?”

Rafe snorted. “Oh man, I can’t wait for you to see this side of Carson. When he sits at a computer, it’s like he goes from introverted, shy nerd to crazy drill sergeant. That includes threatening people over snacks. If you want to see him go truly berserk, touch some of his equipment. One time, he gave Anatoly a black eye for pulling up a YouTube playlist on one of his computers.”

Garrett’s jaw dropped. Rafe couldn’t help but chuckle. He’d seen how Carson interacted with everyone in the gym, a far cry to the demanding taskmaster Rafe was familiar with.

“So my best friend faked his death, my idiot boss has been faking idiocy for months and Carson is secretly a psycho badass. Anything else I need to know?”

“Oh shit, did I forget to tell you about the kids?”

Garrett froze. “The what now?”

“I have three kids.”

“Are you for real?”

“Their names are Huey, Dewey and Louie, and you’re their father.”

Garrett blinked.

“Also, Anatoly is actually an extraterrestrial, and Brookie is a shape-shifting dog that can talk,” he deadpanned.

“I hate you,” Garrett sighed.

Rafe snickered and threw an arm over Garrett’s shoulders, pulling him toward the building.

“No, you don’t, mi dulzura. I promise, no more secrets between us ever again.”

27

ENTERING HEADQUARTERS THAT day was nothing like how Garrett got there the day before, drugged with a bag over his head.

He much preferred walking in with Rafe’s arm around him. Considering McHugh offered him a place on their team, he must have made a decent impression on the group. It still blew Garrett’s mind to think about how long they’d been watching him. That made this the most comprehensive and thorough job interview he’d ever been on.

This team may have been watching and studying him for months, but they were still strangers to him. He wasn’t completely sold on joining the team and leaving everything in Cherrywood behind to become a professional vigilante. The black and white rules of the law didn’t apply here. He had prided himself on avoiding gray areas for his entire career. Was this a job he could do? Or would breaking the law slowly break him?

It was something he’d considered for months, since uncovering the secret behind Josh’s parents’ deaths, and then because of his conversation with Cole’s mom about her husband’s death. In one case, innocent people were killed to prevent them from stopping an unsafe drug. In the other, a woman may have done the same thing to protect herself from an abusive spouse.

Of course, the deaths of Josh’s parents were tragic, unnecessary and evil. When the person responsible for bringing tragedy and unnecessary evil to the lives of others is killed, as in Norah Durbin’s case, it’s still illegal, however. But does that make it wrong?

Norah Durbin didn’t confess to anything, but the evidence she provided made it clear the justice system failed her time and time again. She tried to protect herself the right way, the legal way. Who could blame her for taking things into her own hands when everything else failed? Allegedly. He was thankful she didn’t actually confess because otherwise he didn’t know if he could have ignored the irregularities in the case. It was much easier to bury his head in the sand if he didn’t know all the facts. Ignorance truly was bliss.

Based on Cole and Thea’s attitudes toward their late father, Norah wasn’t alone in being mistreated in that house. Garrett had trouble understanding how differently Cole and Thea turned out, though. Despite being raised in the same house, Thea was a serious, no-nonsense force of nature, while Cole embraced every bit of nonsense he could get his hands on.

Over the years, Garrett wondered how differently his life might have turned out if he grew up with his biological parents instead of bouncing around the foster system. He did his best to forget that experience. It wasn’t easy growing up and having no one who loved him. Maybe if his parents lived, he never would have met Rafe. That would have been a damn shame. Maybe he wouldn’t have had twenty years of heartache from losing Rafe, but being here with him now, surrounded by this wild team of vigilantes, he wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Garrett’s thoughts were interrupted by a loud squawk and Carson barreling through everyone else to get to him and the tote bags of snacks he and Rafe carried.