Mason stopped outside the door of his truck and looked at the ground, playing with his keys. “You telling them you’re going on assignment?”

Do I ever? “Nope.”

He nodded. “All right. Call you at ten when I get in my truck. I’ll have mine filled up too.”

“Later.” I climbed in my truck and placed the files and plates on the passenger seat. Taking a deep breath, I told myself it was just another assignment. Just like the last three. Clearing my mind, I started preparing myself to once again say good-bye to my parents without their realizing what I was doing.

I HOPPED OUT of my truck, and Mason did the same. “You got the keys and everything?” he asked as he stretched.

“Yep. I’m guessing it’s . . . this way? Twenty-one oh four. First floor, Chief? Really? That’s just asking to be broken into.”

Mason followed me to the second door on the left and we both stayed silent as I put my ear up against the door. No noise. Mason inspected the handle, said it looked clean and was still locked. We’d already discussed trying not to scare any of our neighbors, so we both had our guns in their holsters on our hips under our shirts. But with the hit and the fact that this apartment had been set up for us, it felt unnatural to go in unprepared.

With a look confirming that we were both ready, he unlocked and opened the door and I stepped in with Mason directly behind me. As soon as we were in, he shut the door silently and we both had our weapons drawn as we cleared the unit. Satisfied with our search, we reholstered and opened all the blinds in the dark apartment before heading out to grab our bags.

“Mason—what the f**k?” I slammed the door to my truck shut and slung my bag over my shoulder. “I said one bag each.”

He hefted a box out of the backseat of his truck and reached in for another. “Yeah, you also said the essentials.”

“What do you deem essential?” I walked quickly over and opened the top. “I told you to leave the apartment looking like we still lived there, dumbass! How is taking this looking like we still live there?” Folding the flaps over each other, I pushed the box with our Blu-ray player and all our Blu-rays aside and checked the next box. “Our Xbox is not essential!”

“Dude, how can you even say that? Of course it is.”

“Not when we’re on assignment,” I hissed.

“We’re supposed to look normal. And when aren’t we playing Xbox when on assignment? We killed Juarez and his boys in all our online tournaments.”

Okay. He had a point. We were always playing. “But still, Mason. If someone goes to our place and sees our Xbox, the controllers, games, and headsets gone, not to mention the hundred or so movies and Blu-ray player . . . you don’t think they’ll find that suspicious?”

“Well . . .” He stood up and raked a hand through his hair. “Whatever. They were essential.”

“God, I f**king hate you sometimes.”

He shrugged, then picked up his bag and one of the boxes. “You know you’d be bitching in a week if I’d left them. You’re welcome in advance.”

“Hey, boys.”

We turned to see a short, freaking gorgeous blonde in next to nothing standing there with a coy smile crossing her face.

“I’m Candice.” She bounced once on her toes and the bikini top she was wearing didn’t do much in the way of helping keep her girls in. “I take it you’re just moving in?”

“Thank the good Lord above,” Mason whispered next to me, and I huffed a laugh. “We are. I’m Mason. This is my cousin Logan.”

“Cousins? Wow.” Her eyes went wide and she dragged her teeth over her bottom lip as she stuck her chest out even farther. God, could this girl have been any more obvious? “Do you need any help moving in?”

I almost laughed. She was the size of a toothpick. “Uh, no. We’re good, this is all we have. Thanks anyway.”

Her brow furrowed as she took in the two small boxes and bags but quickly smoothed out. “So, you’re moving into the apartment directly across from ours. We’ll be neighbors.”

Oh, joy. I sucked on my lip ring and watched Mason walk right up next to her.

“Really now? Lucky me, unless . . . you said ‘ours.’ You aren’t living with your boyfriend or anything, are you?”

“No!” She slapped Mason’s arm and giggled. Actually. Freaking. Giggled. Like a damn toddler. “It’s me and Rachel, she’s my best friend. She’s not here right now, but I’m sure you’ll like her. All the guys do, she’s the pretty one.” She pouted and I’m pretty sure I did laugh then.

Good God. I’d only been around this girl for two minutes and already she was annoying me. I was a guy. I didn’t mind if you wanted to walk around in your bikini. But the way she continued to bounce and stick her chest out as she devoured us and fished for compliments was a sure way to get me to lose interest fast. Girls who had to try that hard were better fitted for Mason. Obviously. But shit, if Candice was like this, I couldn’t imagine how bad her friend was. I didn’t want to put up with this during an assignment; living across from them was going to be a nightmare. I didn’t like first-floor apartments anyway. I wondered if Chief would let us change.

Leaving them to blow smoke up each other’s asses, I walked back to our unit and dumped the box in the living room and the bag in one of the bedrooms. We needed to go shopping for beds and couches soon. But I was too damn tired for that after all the driving we’d done. When I walked back outside, Candice was practically leaning against Mason and he was eating it up. I shook my head and punched his shoulder as I passed them.