“I came for some routine acupuncture,” Tobias says, followed by a brief sniff.
Lie. I’m pretty good at determining when someone isn’t telling the truth. It’s what led me to the field of reporting. And that subtle hitch in his tone has my eyes flying open. When did I close them? Actually, am I drooling on this guy’s sweatshirt? Not quite, but I’m close. “You came all the way out here for acupuncture? Why couldn’t you see an acupuncturist in Manhattan?”
A beat passes. “Mine is more of a specialist.”
I’m leaning sideways to look at Tobias now, beside Gabe’s shoulder. “You said it was routine.”
Suddenly we’re in a stare-off across the stalled cable car. Banks shifts to face Tobias, an eyebrow arched in curiosity and there’s a speculative rumble in Gabe’s chest. My first impression of Tobias was fairly simple. He’s a cocky idiot who doesn’t know when to shut up. But over the course of a few breaths, that impression begins to change and it has everything to do with the sudden tension bracketing his mouth and drawing up his shoulders. The playful twinkle is gone from his eye—briefly—before he’s laying it on thicker than ever.
“You caught me,” Tobias drawls, smoothing his collar. “I was conducting an affair.”
Banks and I trade a skeptical look. An identical one. One that surprises me. I can count on one hand the people in my life with whom I’ve shared this kind of intuition and it was developed over the course of years. With Banks, there’s a weird sense that we’re on the same page. Though…that can’t be possible when we’ve known each other a matter of minutes.
“If you were having an affair, you definitely would have told us immediately. Bragged, even,” Banks says, his incredibly rich brown eyes still fastened on mine, like he’s reading the words right out of my head. “But since none of us want our ears to bleed when we’re unable to call for medical attention, let’s move on. Gabe, I assume you were here working on the housing development?”
Gabe grunts in affirmation.
“Who put you in charge of interrogating everyone?” Tobias wants to know. “I have a lot of experience playing a cop and wouldn’t mind putting it to use.”
“It’s not an interrogation,” Banks clips. “But if we’re going to be here for a while, we might as well know who we’re sharing air with.”
Tobias laughs. “Don’t act like you give two shits about our explanations for being on Roosevelt Island. You’re only asking as a formality, so it won’t seem odd when you ask Elise about hers. Be a little less obvious, mate.” The Brit is sharper than we’ve given him credit for, even if his charmingly affable expression is back in place. “On second thought, stare at her with a little more psychotic intensity. Maybe you’ll kickstart the engine and we can all go home.”
“No, thank you,” Gabe mutters.
My head tilts back so fast to observe his face that my neck gets a crick. In the last few minutes, the construction worker has become this silent monument of comfort, but with the low utterance of those three words, he becomes the focal point of the tram car. When he realizes he’s turned himself into the center of attention, the tips of his ears turn a dark shade of red, starkly obvious on his Irish-looking skin. “Never mind. I’d just…rather not go home.”
“Why?” I ask, my attention drawn to the strong column of his neck where a tattoo peeks out from his hoodie, stretching up toward his ear. It looks like a wing of some kind. There’s some lettering on the other side, as well. How far down those neck tattoos stretch? There’s so much ground to cover. “Why don’t you want to go home?”
He hesitates. “My brother lives next door.”
“You boys in a tiff or something?” Tobias asks absently while looking out at the skyline.
“Sort of,” Gabe replies. “But it’s more that he’s living with my ex-wife.”
I trade a wince with Banks, our expressions once again indistinguishable.
What the heck is up with that?
While I’m continuing to wonder about my oddly immediate kinship with Banks, I’m only half aware of my palm sliding up and over the rock-solid mound of Gabe’s right pectoral. My hand is moving of its own volition, as though compelled to give him comfort. And when my fingers trace the outline of the wing tattoo on his neck, I begin to wonder if the air is thinning in this cable car. Or if some kind of delirium-inducing toxin has been released into the scant space, because I don’t just go around stroking the pectoral muscles of strangers. Talking to strangers is a stretch for me, unless it’s strictly work related.
This is work related.
Gabe is a portal into the deputy mayor’s relationship with Jameson Crouch.
You’re going to question Gabe about what he’s heard. Seen. Right?
Yes. I am.
As soon as he spills the tea on his brother and ex-wife. “Why are they living together?”
“It’s not a very nice story,” Gabe says, hesitating for a beat, before stroking a hand down the back of my long, dark hair—and God help me, I’m shivering now for an entirely different reason. Am I attracted to this big bear of a man? “Are you sure you want to hear it?”
“Yeah,” I whisper, my attention ticking over to Banks, then Tobias. They’re both watching Gabe’s giant paw travel down the length of my hair and neither one of them seems to like it. Not one bit. Why? They just met me. They have zero claim on me and I don’t have one on them. Or Gabe. Apparently, that toxin in the air is potent and nothing makes sense anymore. “Tell us.”
Gabe hums. Adjusts his stance.
“My brother and Candace were both popular in high school. Everyone wanted to be him, be with her. But they were with each other. Only. Until after graduation, I went to trade school. Got this job as a foreman and started making money. At the same time, my brother was unemployed. Drinking too much. They broke up, a few more years passed.” A lump slides up and down in his throat. “And suddenly she wanted to be with me. For stability, I guess, since we were pushing thirty. But I guess she never really got over my brother, because, uh…”
“You found them turning each other’s cranks,” Tobias finishes. “Been there. On the crank turning end of things, of course.”
I shoot Tobias a venomous look.
He winks back at me—and he’s very lucky the windows on this tram don’t come down or I might “accidentally” push him out of one. It occurs to me in that moment that I am having vastly different reactions to these three men. Tobias riles me up, irritates me. Banks is like looking into an emotional mirror, giving me a strange sense of camaraderie. And Gabe? I’m protective over him. A man twice my size.
Like I said, nothing makes sense anymore.
Giving myself a mental shake, I refocus on Gabe’s story. “I’m sorry that happened. It can’t be easy living next door to them.”
“They act like it didn’t happen. The marriage. And they park on my lawn.” His tone is disbelieving and I get the impression he’s never said any of this out loud. “Their wheels are only a few inches onto my property but it kills the grass. I like my grass.” He splits an annoyed look between all three of us in defense of lawn maintenance. “Anyway. They…expect me to follow their lead and act like the marriage never happened and I don’t know how.”