Kindred Spirit - Noah Harris Page 0,48

that’s exactly why I’m not going to say anything.”

“I changed my mind, you can go ahead and get shot.”

“Ah, and they say romance is dead.”

Levi stopped short at that, blinking up at Jacob. As if on cue, Jacob gave him that same stupid crooked smile that both warmed Levi and shot straight to his groin. How such an infuriating man could be simultaneously intensely attractive was beyond Levi.

“I could hit you right now,” Levi told him promptly.

Jacob reached out, curling his fingers around the side of Levi’s neck and squeezed gently. “I know.”

Levi sighed, letting himself give in to the touch. Maybe it was even more stupid now to trust Jacob than it had been the last time. Or maybe it was the smartest thing he’d ever done. If he was going to believe Jacob really did want to help him, then it meant that maybe, just maybe, what they’d felt for one another wasn’t so much of a lie as he might have once believed.

“I’m not leaving you to face this alone,” Levi told him.

“I know what I’m doing,” Jacob said.

“I know. And I know you can handle yourself. But that doesn’t mean you should have to either. In case you haven’t noticed, Lou and I are pretty handy when shit starts to go wrong.”

“You said it wears him out to do stuff.”

They don’t have enough people to wear me out. I’ll tear them apart.

Levi shivered from the absolute vehemence in Lou’s voice. “Don’t...don’t worry about him too much. Trust me, we can handle ourselves. In case you haven’t noticed, we’ve managed to keep ourselves free and alive for quite a while now.”

Jacob frowned but nodded. “That you have.”

“And this is as much our problem as it is yours. This might be your job, but this is our life.”

“Levi…” Jacob said with a pained expression.

Levi shook his head. “I know it’s more than a job to you. Everything you said before made that pretty obvious, you know? But this is still my life. This is still something I have to worry about too. You don’t get to walk forward and worry about everything on your own, got it?”

Jacob looked down. “You’re not going to let me win on this, are you?”

Levi beamed. “Nope!”

Ah, look at that, he can be taught.

Jacob pulled his hand away from Levi’s neck and held it between them. “Together then?”

He honestly hadn’t expected it to be that easy. Levi had expected Jacob to be far more noble and pushy about making sure that he, the well-trained soldier, faced the fire before he ever let Levi do it.

Damn. He’s good.

Ignoring Lou, Levi reached out and took Jacob’s hand. Another wave of warmth washed through him as their fingers threaded together. It wasn’t a handshake, it wasn’t camaraderie, there was a sense of possession and protectiveness in Jacob’s hand.

“Together,” Levi agreed.

Jacob

Staring at the motel from a distance, Jacob hissed. “I knew it wasn’t going to be easy.”

They were positioned several yards from the motel. With the building being at the very edge of town, it meant they had plenty of cover as they’d approached Gilcreek. Night had fallen by the time they reached the town, and it looked as if most of the townsfolk were asleep or at home when they finally crossed the town limits.

The motel, however, was not so quiet.

“That explains why there weren’t all that many people watching the edge of town,” Levi muttered as he crouched beside Jacob.

Jacob grunted in partial agreement. 2218 had done well covering the town, and by the looks of it, pretending to be federal agents. That much was obvious, even from a distance. They had adopted black suits, and to Jacob’s annoyance, even black sunglasses, despite the light around the exterior of the motel being dim. They’d even adopted jet black SUVs with heavily tinted windows.

“I don’t think that’s why they weren’t watching the edge of the town,” Jacob told him.

Levi glanced at him. “Then why?”

Jacob sighed. “Because they knew unless we wanted to face the walk to the nearest civilization, we’d have to come back here. What’s the point of watching the edge of the town if they know we’ll have to come back here?”

“Doesn’t help that our phones are dead,” Levi muttered.

“Yeah, doesn’t help at all. And it looks like they figured out where I was staying. Why else would they be stationed at the motel?”

“True. So what do we do?”

That was where Jacob found himself stuck. If the defense around the motel hadn’t been too