LITMIR.BIZ

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talking. Together, they made it work. Made it look easy.

      And they always welcomed Josh. He owned a condo across town, but when he woke up this morning he threw on jeans and a shirt and landed here. Didn’t go on a run as he planned. Didn’t get to work finding a new career as he should. Just jumped in his vintage Mustang and headed to Kane’s house.

      Josh knew being jobless should have made him nervous. Instead, getting out from under the DEA bureaucracy and the politics of ass-covering freed him. He had attempted for years to fight the system from the inside, but it all ended when his incompetent boss used a civilian helicopter pilot without approval and without providing the poor guy with proper protection. Josh’s boss preferred to protect his pension and sacrifice Josh rather than clear the record.

      Fuck the DEA. Josh decided he didn’t need the hassle. Not anymore.

      “How much longer are you going to do that?” Annie asked as she sat a steaming mug in front of him.

      Josh looked up. “What?”

      “The tapping,” she said with a smile as she slipped into the seat next to her husband and threaded her arm through his.

      “What are you talking about?” Josh asked.

      Kane glanced over the top of the newspaper. “The thing with the pen.”

      Annie nodded. “You do it all the time.”

      Kane folded the front page and spoke over the crumpling sound. “And it’s annoying as hell.”

      Josh stared down at his fingers. Saw the blue scuff marks he made against the napkin.

      Okay, so maybe he’d been thumping the pen against the table. He blamed the cigarettes. Almost two years without them and he still felt the itch.

      “When did you two become so sensitive?” he asked.

      Annie shrugged. “It was either point it out or break your fingers.”

      She could do it, too. Josh knew not to mess with Kane’s woman. No way to do that and win.

      “That’s very feminine of you,” Josh said.

      She rapped her fist against the table. “Don’t make me get up and smack the crap out of you.”

      “For the record, I’d like to see that,” Kane said.

      “And is it me or is our Josh a bit on guard this morning?” Annie’s smile disappeared. “Oh, no.”

      “What now?” Josh asked as he eyed up the pen. Sending the message to his brain to leave it there.

      “You’ve done something, haven’t you?” She nodded. “Something that’s going to piss me off.”

      Kane joined his wife in staring. “She means other than quitting your job.”

      The way they sensed something was wrong was just downright spooky. “What, a man can’t stop by for breakfast without getting interrogated?”

      “Hmmm.” Kane winked at Annie as if they were sharing some sort of conspiracy. “Interesting, don’t you think?”

      “Definitely defensive.” Annie’s mocking tone mirrored her husband’s.

      “Kind of looks like he’s ready to bolt for the door,” Kane said.

      “Picking up on that, are you?” Josh asked, matching their sarcasm with some of his own.

      Annie tilted her head to the side and pretended to frown. “A little grumpier than usual, too.”

      Josh grabbed on to the mug in front of him to keep from picking the pen back up again. “Maybe it’s the way you make coffee.”

      “Pissing off Annie?” Kane whistled under his breath. “Brave man.”

      “Don’t upset the cook.” Annie reached out and took the pen out of tapping range. “The drink is perfect, and you know it. Stop stalling. Tell us what has you lost in thought and looking like a moody five-year-old.”

      “Does your foul mood have anything to do with one Deana Armstrong?” Kane asked in a deceptively soft voice.

      The delivery made Josh wonder how long his friend had been holding the question in. Probably for as long as Josh had been thinking about Deana’s offer.

      Going to her house had been a huge mistake. Not seeing her made saying no to her request easy. Being in that house, realizing how vulnerable she was on the issue of saving her idiot nephew, made hating her tougher. Not impossible, but definitely problematic.

      Twenty-four hours of constant Deana thoughts ticked him off. “I was in a good mood until ten seconds ago.”

      “But deep in thought. Something’s bothering that little brain of yours,” Annie said.

      Josh’s relationship with Annie had been like this from the beginning. A series of jokes and shots as they built trust in each other. He considered her a sister. A hot redhead with a mouth that could scare a trucker and a body that kept a foolish smile on Kane’s face most of the time.

      It was hard to dislike a woman who saved his best friend from an emotional vacuum. That’s what she did for Kane. Josh appreciated Annie for many things, but mostly for that.

      “Deana gave me Ryan’s file,” Josh said.

      Kane’s eyebrow lifted. “And?”

      “There were other leads. Other suspects who looked good, if not better than Ryan, for the killings.” Josh cursed under his breath. “Some of the evidence didn’t point to Ryan. In fact, it suggested someone else had to be responsible.”

      “But you knew that from the press coverage of the trial,” Kane said.

      “Sure, but it’s different seeing it all laid out without the lawyer spin on it.” It all sounded more plausible somehow, which was why Josh had wanted to shred the damn folder before he got on the commuter plane and read it on the way home.

      “I feel sorry for Deana,” Annie said.

      Josh felt certain only another woman could listen to everything he said and come to that conclusion. “Excuse me?”

      Annie reached out and covered Josh’s hand with hers. “I think it’s sweet of you to look into this for her.”

      “Sweet? That’s not a word I would use to describe Josh,” Kane said.

      Josh ignored Kane and aimed his argument at Annie. She was the one who would refuse to let this go, so he may as well deal with her now. “I’m not looking into anything. And you’ve never even met Deana Armstrong, so I don’t know why you’re invoking the sisterhood bond.”

      “So?” Annie asked.

      Kane leaned over and kissed his wife on the forehead. “Who can argue with that logic?”

      Annie pinched her husband’s arm and earned a scowl in return.

      “Isn’t that sort of crucial to know her before you decide you like her?” Josh asked.

      “Not really. I mean, she’s lost so much.” Annie threw him that sad-puppy look.

      Josh knew better than to fall for Annie’s act. And he fought off the urge to sympathize with Deana. “The woman hates me.”

      Annie patted Josh’s hand one last time before letting go. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

      Kane rolled his eyes. “Yeah, who could hate Josh?”

      “She wouldn’t have called if that were the case,” Annie said.

      Wrong conclusion. “She wants to use me.”

      Kane leaned back and threw an arm around Annie’s shoulders. “Since when do you care if a woman wants to use you?”

      That one was easy for Josh. “When she isn’t doing

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