ReBoot (MAC Security 4)

“I…” I’m stumped for words. I was sure that Seb hated me; West not so much, but definitely Seb. “Family?”

“Yeah.” He swipes his hand through his blond hair. “You’re family.”

He says it like a statement and I stumble back slightly. “I am?”

“Fuck’s sake, Lex. Just take it, will you?” His eyes narrow and I swallow before widening my eyes and nodding my head. “So? Background check?”

“Evan.”

My head whips toward West at the sound of his name. He can’t know, can he? No one saw us kiss, they weren’t even there.

“Good idea,” Seb answers. “I’ll get him to look into him tonight.”

I straighten the utensils that sit on the side of the grill, trying to act uninterested. “Is he not coming tonight?”

“He’s on a job,” Seb says lightly. “I’ll leave him a coded message.”

He pulls his cell out, starting to type away as I stare at his back, wondering what the hell coded message means.

“I’m confused. What does Evan know about background checks? And why are you both talking like you’re James Bond?”

West smirks. “You have no idea, do you?”

“I wouldn’t be asking if I did.”

West stares at Seb’s back for a beat before he shrugs. “You’ve seen where Evan works and the people he works with. They’re a security firm.” A security firm? “He’s the backbone of it all. He’s the best of the best when it comes to computers and electronics.”

My whole body goes tense at the new information. I knew he had another job apart from the community center, but I thought he trained with the guys or something. Not that he was an expert in digging into people’s backgrounds.

Has he looked into me?

I narrow my eyes on West, about to ask him where he and Seb fit into all of this but Seb interrupts my train of thought. “Don’t even ask.”

“Ask? I didn’t ask anything.”

“Didn’t need to,” he grunts. “I could hear the questions rolling through your mind from here.”

I start to open my mouth, feeling word vomit about to pour out until West steps up beside me.

“So, new family member, when are these steaks gonna be done? I’m starved!” West rubs his stomach and I can’t help but laugh at his antics.

It’s not until he’s sitting back down with Seb at the table that I realize that they’re right: I am a part of this family.

My back straightens as Monty—Kay’s dog—stares at me from the other side of the meeting table. The way he stills his head and pulls his top lip back against his teeth has my fight or flight instincts kicking in. I want nothing more than to run away.

I don’t know what it is about dogs—no, that’s a lie, I do know what it is. My birth mother used to have a German shepherd and she’d let it run wild; she’d also get it to guard the door to the room that she used to shut me in. Every time I would open the door, he’d be there, snarling at me to get back inside.

My hand flutters to my bicep where the scar sits from where he sunk his teeth into the flesh and muscle. I hated that dog, much like I hated its owner.

“Evan?”

My eyes don’t move from Monty’s, and as much as I know he wouldn’t attack me, that doesn’t mean that I trust him. A dog can become wild at any stage, no matter how well trained it is.

“Evan?”

My head whips up and my eyes widen as I settle my gaze on Ty. “Huh?”

He puffs out a breath and shakes his head. “I said… Darrell? Anything new with him.”