Charming Like Us (Like Us 7)

Jack looks up. “So you’re not worried?”

“I’m at about a ten percent.” I dig through the drawer, full of bottle openers, cork stoppers, and stirrers. It’s somewhere in the back…

I explain further, “He’s good about calling me if something’s going down. One time in Holland, he ditched me for about five hours.” I pull out a small box. Rising to my feet, I finish the story. “It was during the tulip festival, so more people were around than usual. A few drunk fucks decided to heckle him at a bar, and things turned physical. He called me from the bathroom where he barricaded himself.” I leave out the part where Charlie could have called me before they threw a punch. Could have texted before his ribs cracked.

He chose to wait until after.

That story never made the press because I showed up and started confiscating phones and getting NDAs signed. Besides the lead in security at the time, I only told Donnelly and Farrow what happened.

They both asked why my knuckles looked fucked up, and I didn’t want to lie.

Jack watches me cross the room to the front door. “How worried were you then?”

I laugh. “Close to a hundred.” I look back to Jack. “The whole drive to him, I kept thinking that if my little brother were in his position, I wouldn’t have to worry. Quinn’s the best fighter I’ve ever known. Charlie…he weighs—what, a hundred-fifty? Guy’s got some lean muscle on him but he’s still skinny for my standards.”

“Yeah, he’s about the same size as my little brother,” Jack nods. “Dude, if Jesse called me from a bathroom after a fight…” He takes the sucker out of his mouth and expels an anxious breath. “I don’t know what I’d do. Jump a guy…bulldoze everyone, probably.”

I don’t tell him how I flattened most of the guys on the ground that night.

Instead, I’m grinning. “Long Beach, you’d bulldoze everyone?”

He shares my smile. “You think I’m all sunshines and buttercups, but I’ve got a mean side.”

I think about how he made an enemy out of the girl who hit on me, but I don’t bring it up. “You’re sucking on a lollipop, legitimately.”

He smiles more, putting the sucker back in his mouth. “Who doesn’t like suckers, Oliveira? And you know, you say ‘legitimately’ a lot.”

Guess I’m not the only one noticing habits. “I do,” I agree. And while I untie my bandana, I tell Jack, “I’d definitely like to see this mean side phenomenon.” Flirting again. Twenty points deducted from Slytherin.

The Hale family would be so proud of my geeky ass thoughts.

“What’s with the bandanas?” Jack wonders. “You always roll them so they don’t even keep the hair out of your face.”

“Yeah, but it wicks away sweat.”

He nods, thinking that’s my full answer.

“I like how I look with them. And I look fucking hot. That’s my real answer, Highland.” Returning to the small box, I take out a handheld device and attach it to the doorframe.

“What’s that?” Jack asks, shifting his sucker from the left to right side of his mouth with his tongue. Fuck, I wish he wouldn’t do that.

I wet my lips and glance at the wall. “An alarm. It’ll alert me if the front door opens, and luckily, this is the only way in and out of the apartment. So while we’re out searching for Charlie, I’ll know if he comes back home.” Installing cameras here would be easier, but it’s too invasive. He deserves whatever privacy he has left as an American god.

Jack studies me for a long beat. “You love the challenge of it all?”

I’m a tactical badass, and Charlie is the one person who awakens a specific part of my brain. “I’d say it’s more the strategy of it all, and I’d love it more if I knew Charlie was safe.” I sweep him up and down. “You’re not breaking a sweat yourself.”

He smiles brighter. “Sometimes I film Ryke Meadows free-solo. I’m not climbing beside him. Usually I’ll be at the top or on the ground doing drone shots, but watching that guy climb his full route with no rope, no harness…man, that’s stressful. This is a lower tier. Probably because you’re with me and you’ve gone through it all before.”

Yeah, but not many guys on SFO would be okay with this situation. Lost a client. He’s out in the wilderness of a bustling city. No one to radio for backup. Knowing Jack and I have to find him. There is no alternative. No what if or maybe tomorrow.

It’s a lot of fucking responsibility, and not everyone has the confidence to hack it.

I glance at my watch. “Ten more minutes here, then we’re going to head to Le Chat Rouge. The show starts at nine.”

There’s a good chance Charlie will be there. I’ve never known him to come to Paris and miss some type of performance, whether it’s theatre, the opera, or anything in between. Doing the numbers in my head, I realized the longest time has passed since he’s been to Le Chat Rouge, one of his favorite cabarets in the city.