She waited until the shifter had walked away, throwing uneasy glances over his shoulder. His eyes lingered on her for a second, but she ignored that. Swinging her legs off the bench, she eyed Victor, hands braced on either side of her knees.
“Take me home, hmm? I like how you didn’t ask if that was what I wanted.”
Victor whirled around and faced her. “I-you’ve never showed any interest in my job, let alone a want t’ join me.” He sat back down and ran his fingers through his hair. “I never wanted to drag you into my work love.”
Summer gave an uneasy shrug. “I didn’t want to intrude. But from the sound of it, you shouldn’t be doing this alone. If this Jeremiah makes even you afraid — ” She shrugged again. “Do you have someone you usually call for backup?”
“Me an’ him got into it a while back, an’ right now, putting us anywhere near each other is guaranteeing one of us won’t come back alive.” Victor sighed, looked around, then sat down. “I don’t usually work with other people because I usually can’t trust ‘em.”
Summer put her hands over her face. “Let me get this straight. You would have taken this job if I hadn’t happened to be here with you, wouldn’t you? And I wouldn’t’ve known anything about it — except you might not have come back.”
Victor was suddenly flustered, “I-well…I mean, I would’ve told you I had a job, y’know? I guess I’m just sort of used to going solo on jobs, no matter how dangerous it is.” He turned so that he was facing her a bit more. “If you really want to come….I’d worry something would happen, but I won’t stop you, love.”
Still muffled, she shook her head a little bit. “That’s not even the point. The point is that you might die, on one of these jobs, and I know almost nothing. You mostly just … vanish. And, you know, if you’re claiming me, then I have a right to be worried. Or maybe not, because neither of us has any real measure at all of the other one’s combat ability.”