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.