Run to Ground(57)

“Jules?” Norman Rounds called from his booth, distracting her from impending tears and awkward hugs.

“Be right there,” she responded, giving Theo an apologetic grimace. “Your usuals?” At their nods, she hurried to the beckoning man. Theo watched her go, not even trying to pretend that he wasn’t enjoying the view. When she reached Norman, however, Theo frowned.

“Rounds has been in here a lot lately,” he told Hugh in a low voice.

Without even looking toward Norman’s table, Hugh answered, “Yep. Showed up in Monroe six months ago and has been squirreled away in Gordon Schwartz’s compound ever since—well, until lately. I’d caught glimpses of him around town once in a while, but this daily breakfast thing is different.”

“Why the change?”

“No idea. Maybe the bromance honeymoon period’s over and Gordon refuses to cook for him anymore.”

Before Theo could say anything else, Otto dropped into the booth next to him. “Why are you here?”

“I just asked him the same thing,” Hugh said, giving Theo a mock-chiding look. “You have another week to go before your mandatory leave is up. It’d be longer if you told the truth about how much your ribs are hurting.”

“I’m not at work,” Theo growled. “I’m getting breakfast. And he was talking to you. You know, the one with the extra hole.”

Otto raised a hand, cutting off Hugh’s retort. “You”—he jerked his chin at Hugh—“should be at home. And you”—this time his sharp gaze fixed on Theo—“should also be home.”

“I’m getting breakfast!” Theo repeated, a little louder that time.

“And flirting with the new waitress,” Hugh added. “Jules.”

Theo turned his fiercest scowl on Hugh, but it just made his partner smile wider.

“He held her hand.”

Otto’s eyebrows lifted so high they almost touched his hairline.

“I know,” Hugh said, as if Otto had made a comment. “We didn’t think it would happen, but our little boy is all grown up. Remember when he said all girls have cooties and he’d rather die than kiss one?”

If he hadn’t been positive Megan would take unholy glee in banning him from the diner, Theo would’ve climbed over the table and started pounding on Hugh, bullet wound or no bullet wound.

“Quit trying to distract me,” Otto grumbled, although his mouth had twitched at the corners. “How’d you get here?”

“Great.” Hugh flopped back in his seat dramatically, but then winced, presumably when his leg protested the jerky movement. “I have two new grandmas now.”

“He walked,” Theo answered for Hugh absently, his attention distracted by movement at the stranger’s table. Norman Rounds reached out and grabbed Jules’s wrist, pulling her closer to him as he spoke rapidly. Theo stiffened. “Let me out.”

“Why?” Hugh asked, while Otto just looked at him.

“Out.” When both men still looked at him expectantly, Theo exhaled, short and sharp, and jerked his head toward the stranger’s table. “He’s militia, and he’s touching Jules.”

After a single glance, Hugh and Otto got to their feet, and Theo rushed out of the booth behind them. Theo tried to move around them and take the lead, but the two men formed a wall, even with Hugh swinging uncomfortably on his crutches.

“Hello,” Hugh greeted Norman, who immediately dropped his hold on Jules. Nudging her gently out of the way, Hugh lowered his body into the seat next to the gaping man. “Hope you don’t mind if I sit here. My leg is throbbing something fierce, and I really need to get my weight off of it.”

Jules took several steps back, as if she was happy to put some space between her and Norman. “Oh no! Do you need anything? Like an ice pack or something? I have some ibuprofen in my purse. Oh, what am I saying? I’m sure it’s hurting more than over-the-counter pain meds could even touch. Is there any way I could help?”

As Hugh shifted, taking up more of the room on the seat and trapping the still-startled Norman in the corner, he gave Jules an entreating smile. “Just my breakfast? Please?”

“Of course.” She gave Hugh another one of those shoulder pats that made Theo unreasonably jealous. “Right away.”

Theo watched her hurry off before sliding into the booth across from Norman. For once, when Otto followed him in, Theo didn’t complain about being trapped. This time, it was someone else—Norman, to be exact—who was the animal caught in the cage, and Theo was one of the hunters.

“Hello,” Hugh said amiably, shifting another inch toward Norman. Now that he’d recovered from his surprise, Norman wasn’t acting like most people would have. Instead of cringing or getting hostile, Norman just pasted on a bland smile that eerily matched Hugh’s. “I don’t believe we’ve formally met.”