“The skil s he uses for Lee.”
“The skil s he uses for Lee.”
I blinked at him in confusion and my silent tears cleared.
“What?”
Eddie sighed then he stated, “He was a snowboarder, Jet. A good one, one of the best. If you go back seven years, look at boarder magazines, you’l see his photos in ads. He had endorsement contracts. He was in commercials aired on ESPN. Go back before that, same thing with his surfing. He was famous. He stil is in that crowd.”
“I knew he –” I started but Eddie interrupted me.
“Now he’s a PI.”
“Yes, I know but –”
“A good one.”
“I know, but –”
Eddie interrupted me again, “One of the best. Lee was trained by the Army. Monty was trained by the Navy. Luke, I don’t know but it was an official operation and he’s definitely had training, specialized training. Vance is an ex-con. He’d lived a life of crime since he was thirteen years old, would likely stil be in that life, he was so good at it. He only got caught because his buddy was shot while they were stealin’ a car and Vance didn’t leave him behind. Lee channeled his natural abilities, trainin’ him in other shit and he took to it. Mace is self-taught. Lee didn’t have to do any training with Mace.”
“Self-taught?”
“Self-taught.”
“What does that mean?”
“That means, between his sister gettin’ murdered and Lee recruitin’ him, he’d gone from a surfer and snowboarder to acquirin’ skil s that had nothin’ to do with sex wax.”
I blinked again. “Sex wax?”
“Yeah, you use it on your surfboard for foot traction, on the bottom of a snowboard to reduce friction.” My brows drew together. “How do you know that?” He grinned. “Been boardin’ with Mace.”
I blinked (yes, again), mainly because this was insane.
Eddie and I had been together for over nine months, we were getting married in a little over five and this was news to me.
“You board?”
His grin deepened to a smile. “I live in Colorado, chiquita.”
So did I but I didn’t snowboard or ski, for that matter, that took money, something I’d never had.
“You didn’t board last winter,” I commented.
“I had somethin’ to keep me at home last winter.” This time I didn’t blink but my stomach did a happy curl.
I ignored it and got back to the subject.
“So, these skil s –”
He rol ed into me so he was mostly on me. “What I’m sayin’ is, somethin’ went down after the bloodbath. Mace disappeared off radar. No more competitive boardin’, reneged on his endorsements. The kidnapping and murder made the news, big story. It happened in LA. Mace was famous, his Dad wel -known. But, after it was over, there was nothin’ from Mace. He vanished. He didn’t resurface was nothin’ from Mace. He vanished. He didn’t resurface until Lee recruited him and he recruited him for a reason.
Al Lee’s boys have a specialty. Mace’s is one you don’t need to know.”
“But –”
His hand came to the side of my face and his eyes got serious.