They sat in silence for a while, Andrej wolfing down the best damn chili he’d had in ages and J.C. sharing his space like he belonged there. The ancient rock of the canyon wall was warm and rough against Andrej’s back,

the ground dirty under his ass. Around them the compound buzzed with quiet activity. Machinery moved back and forth, disappearing into side canyons and behind camouflage tarps, stirring up dust. Once, Andrej could’ve sworn he heard a muffled explosion from somewhere. The ground trembled slightly. Andrej put down the empty bowl and reached over to steal J.C.’s beer to wash down the last bite.

“Are you seriously digging bunkers now?” he inquired mildly.

“Something like that.” J.C. smiled, the crow’s feet around his eyes deepening. He hadn’t changed all that much, Andrej noted fondly. There was more gray in his beard and hair than the last time they’d met, a new scar peeking out from under his collar, but mostly he was still the same John Charles King, deceptively laid back on the surface and rock solid beneath. The only friend Andrej had outside of syndicate circles; well, except for Riley, maybe. He wasn’t sure whether he could still count Riley as a friend. They’d lied to him a lot and Riley Cooper wasn’t the type to forgive easily. Andrej had never had to lie to J.C., who was every bit as dangerous as the crowd Andrej usually ran with, though not nearly as cold-blooded. A different kind of crazy. J.C. was much more likely to kill you for personal reasons than for business or an abstract idea of honor. It was a fine distinction, but one Andrej appreciated.

He handed back the bottle with a warm smile of his own. “Thanks for taking us in,” he said, and stretched out his legs. Almost as good as lounging in a deck chair. Almost. He shifted his hip, lifted up, and reached down to brush a particularly obnoxious piece of rock from under his ass.

Nature was not his friend.

J.C. eyed the pitiful remainder of his beer reproachfully, but there wasn’t a hint of disapproval in his tone when he addressed Andrej.

“You gonna tell me what’s going on now?” he rumbled, and it was ridiculous how good it was to hear that deep voice for real again, not only on the phone.

“I would if I could.” Andrej had been chewing at the problem for hours and it didn’t make any more sense now than it had before. “This was totally out of control, man. There was military all over the fucking place.

First they tried to shoot Riley and then they fired three grenades into that diner like it was Baghdad or something. Boom.” He mimicked an explosion, shrugged a little and slumped back against the rock wall. “Misha