Without a dinner table to sit at, I set the placemats and cutlery on the breakfast bar that faced the rest of the kitchen. Conversation would be a bit awkward sitting in a line while we ate, but I hoped that some small talk would help ease us into what I wanted to discuss.

  The smell of baking cheesy pasta permeated the air by the time Leo arrived home. He paused in the doorway for a moment, surprised, before cautiously closing the door behind him.

  “What are you doing?”

  I scoffed. “Making dinner. Obviously.”

  “Yes, I can smell that. But…why?”

  I turned back to the sink and continued scrubbing the pot I’d used to boil the noodles in. Some of them had gotten stuck to the bottom when Lucie tore through the kitchen like the devil had lit her tail on fire. I’d chased after her, making sure she was just being her usual dramatic self and not hurt. In the time it took, some had cemented to the bottom. Thankfully, I’d made too much pasta for the dish. How did anyone measure it correctly, anyways? It was a surprising challenge for me in my culinary endeavors.

  “What, I can’t try a new hobby?” Leo hadn’t been around all the other times I’d attempted a new recipe, which had been on purpose. If something went sideways, it would give me time to hide—or air out—the evidence without worrying about whatever comments he would make. I was oddly protective of my new hobby, and didn’t want someone used to the best of the best dissing on my food.

  “Of course you can. Just…surprised, is all.”

  I hummed in response

  Leo deposited his work bag on the faux wood plank floor near his hallway and came over to inspect what I had in the oven.

  The doorbell rang then, a sound I’d only heard a handful of times, typically on my way out as some of Leo’s friends were on their way in, a slow four note chime.

  Leo turned to look at me, a questioning look on his face.

  “Are you expecting someone? Is this what all this is for?” he wondered.

  “I made enough for everyone,” I answered, my wrist aching as I scrubbed. “You’re welcome to join us. Do you mind grabbing the door for me? I’m a little indisposed.”

  It was almost comical, the look on Alex’s face when Leo greeted him. Leo turned to me, with a solid what the fuck expression. I just grinned at them. Thankfully, Leo stepped aside so Alex could enter, and shut the door behind him.

  “Dinner will be ready soon. Make yourself at home, Alex. Bathroom’s through there.” I nodded my head vaguely toward my bedroom door.

  Alex stood there, weighing his options before opting to come sit at the placemat nearest to me at the sink. It also put him closest to the floor-to-ceiling wall of windows that overlooked part of the city and the bay beyond. I’d opened the curtains, letting the fading sun wash the gleaming white countertops in soft, muted oranges and yellows. It almost looked homey. Only the lack of personal decoration or memorabilia kept it feeling not-quite-cozy.

  “So,” he started. And stopped.

  “So,” I parroted. “I hope you’re up for a bit of an adventure.”

  I glanced over at Alex, and saw Leo standing off to the side, watching our interaction. At least he hadn’t bolted for his bedroom or office, though I wasn’t sure that was a good thing yet. His hovering had almost a sinister quality to it. Just…standing there, motionless, watching.

  “What type of an adventure?”

  I focused back on Alex. “A culinary one. I decided to try a more complicated recipe than I usually do.”

  “Color me intrigued.”

  Admitting defeat at getting the pot scrubbed clean by hand and hoping the dishwasher would take care of the rest, I rinsed it and loaded it. I poured myself a glass of the wine I’d bought earlier, offering some to both Alex and Leo, who both refused. More for me, then.

  “I’m not the greatest cook yet,” I admitted. I took a sip of my wine, enjoying the delicate fruity notes. “But the recipe seemed straight forward enough, even if it had, like, fifty steps, so I figured I’d try it out tonight on two unsuspecting men who wouldn’t dare hurt my feelings by telling me it’s garbage.”

  Alex’s chuckled, a low sound that warmed me. Or maybe it was the wine. “I wouldn’t ever call my girl a bad cook. Creative, maybe. Or experimental if it was really bad.”

  Leo flinched in my periphery, looking between the back of Alex’s head and my face. He had to know Alex and I were seeing each other regularly. So why did he seem surprised at Alex’s words? Even though I technically wasn’t his, as Alex implied, all it would take was a short conversation and it would be. I was ready, and I wanted that, but I was also willing to wait to be absolutely sure.

  “Smart man,” I answered lightly. I wanted to lean over the counter and kiss him for his comment, but I didn’t want to rub anything in Leo’s face or risk making Leo uncomfortable enough to leave us. I was determined to have this conversation, tonight, and scaring one party away wouldn’t be productive.

  My timer beeped, and I turned my back to pull the dish out of the oven. The cheese on top gooey and slightly browning, and it looked perfect. I carefully placed the casserole dish on top of the pot holders I’d put out and gathered plates from the cabinet. I took another swig of wine before plating the pasta quickly. The pictures online had looked gorgeous, a small hill of pasta topped with a little basil, but the cheesy noodles slipped and slid into a flat circle instead. At least it smelled decent. I put the basil on top anyways.

  “Bon appetite,” I announced, placing full plates down for Alex and Leo. I grabbed a plate for myself and put it down between the men to act as a buffer. “Leo, when are we getting that table replaced?”

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  Finally, Leo stopped his awkward standing and sat down at the place to my left, picking up his fork gingerly like it might leap up and stab him.

  “I placed an order for one, but it’s on backorder.”

  I scooped a forkful into my mouth—really should have grabbed spoons instead—and asked, “Why not get one that’s in stock?”

  “Because I liked it.”

  I tried not to moan at the flavors exploding on my tongue and turned to Alex. I did a damn good job with this, even if it didn’t look like the picture. “Did I tell you that I’m the reason he needed to order a new one? I broke it.”

  “You broke the table?”

  Nodding while I finished my bite, I then continued, “Yeah, well, Leo and I had a…disagreement of sorts. And I was frustrated and tired, and I must have done something just right because when I slapped my hands down, I broke the table. It was glass. It was everywhere.”

  “It was quite the mess to clean up,” Leo added.

  “You must have been pretty upset,” Alex said, a sharpness in his tone.

  “I was,” I agreed. “But you know what? Now I can do this.”

  Leo was too late to catch on, though he tried to stop me when he figured it out, knocking my hand away.

  The wine bottle I’d teleported to me, instead of ending up in my hand, landed in the space where my hand had been and nearly toppled over. Thankfully Alex’s reflexes saved it, his arm darting out to catch it.

  I turned and gave Leo a reproachful look. He glared back at me, and I raised my eyebrows at him.

  He let go of my wrist like it burned, muttering, “For fuck’s sake.”

  “Who wants to do show and tell next?”

  Neither Leo nor Alex answered immediately. Leo was frozen, Alex failing to hide a smirk.

  “I can,” Alex offered. He hopped off his stool, walked over to the coffee table, and lifted it with one hand.

  Leo’s face was priceless. If I could take a picture without getting my head chewed off, I would have.

  Alex carefully put the table back down, still with one hand.

  “Leo?” I prompted. “Your turn.”

  He let out the biggest sigh known to mankind, and in short succession lifted the wine bottle to top up my glass. When he finished, I picked it up and toasted him.

  “We’ve got a lot more in common than most people. I’ll start us off. Leo,” I addressed, turning to face him. “Alex recognized that I had this ability without a demonstration.” I turned to Alex. “Leo’s bio-screens have picked up on some stats when we use our abilities. It’s a work in progress, but if we put our heads together I think we could make some headway.”

  “Absolutely not! You can’t be—”

  “I don’t know if—”

  I interrupted them both with a loud, “Hey! I don’t give a shit why you don’t want to. Can you seriously tell me, to my face, that the other person doesn’t have valuable information that could prove exceedingly useful?”

  Leo just stared stoically, and Alex shook his head. He sat back down at the seat beside me and began eating again.

  “Keeping things so secret is not the way to figure all this out. We need to share the information we have. I know you don’t want to. But come on. Obviously, there’s no way to convince the CEO’s of Farley and Hubert to become all buddy-buddy with each other. But if we can at least share information with each other, take it back to your respective bosses, it’s at least something.”

  There was no sound other than Alex eating and Leo pushing his food around on his plate. I wanted to give them time to process what I’d said and come to the realization that I was actually full of wisdom, but I was itching to get started with it. I could be patient.

  The limit to that patience, apparently, was about ten minutes. Once we were done eating, I collected the plates and brought out store-bought cheesecake dessert. Cooking, I could do, but I hadn’t explored much with baking yet. Leo refused a slice, but Alex accepted and started digging in immediately.

  “Let me put it this way,” I warned in a quiet voice. “Either you can start talking through things, or I’ll just start spewing everything I know.”

  Granted, I didn’t know much. I had enough to give both sides something to work with, though.

  Alex glanced over at Leo, then to me. I shrugged. Looked like the decision was made for me.

  “So, something that we’ve noticed is a spike in radiation, specifically—”

  I barely saw him move. One moment, Leo was sitting like a statue, and the next he had a hand clamped over my mouth to staunch my words.

  So, I bit him.

  He yanked his hand away, shaking it out and having the audacity to look appalled.

  “What the fuck?”

  I crossed my arms. “Didn’t I just say that if no one talked, I would?”

  “You can’t.”

  “Oh, really? What are you, the free speech police?”

  “That’s intellectual property of—”

  “And who all knows about this ‘intellectual property’ besides the two of us?” Leo didn’t answer. “So, if it only belongs to you and I, and the company doesn’t know about it, it’s not their intellectual property, is it?”

  Leo was at a loss for words; he knew I was right.

  “So,” I continued. “The screens have picked up that gamma radiation is involved.”

  Alex’s eyebrows nearly disappeared into his hairline.

  “We don’t have many answers to the questions I’m sure you have. But now that we’ve identified it, Leo is hoping to do more tests to figure them out. Leo, does that sound about right?”

  To be honest, the fact that Leo was still sitting and hadn’t stormed off was encouraging. And surprising.

  “Alex?”

  “I’ve had my ability for about two years, now. In that time, my LaShoul’s episodes have vanished as long as I don’t suppress my ability and use it regularly.”

  “Two years? And your company hasn’t shared this with anyone because…?” Leo’s question was valid.

  Alex shrugged. “It’s…complicated.”

  “Then un-complicate it,” Leo demanded There was no room for arguing or a non-answer. Alex’s refusal to answer would end the conversation right now.

  Alex sighed, standing up from the island and settling himself onto the couch. I decided to join him and tucked my feet under me. Leo stayed where he was.

  “It’s a fine balance; use the ability too little, and the LaShoul’s comes back. Most people who can’t, or don’t, learn to harness and use it end up dead. On the flip side, if it’s used too much, then you burn out. And people can end up dead that way, too. As far as why this isn’t public knowledge, trying to force an ability backfires. More people end up dead than with an ability that way. It has to happen naturally. They tried, before. Ninety percent of people in the study they conducted ended up dying anyways.”

  Holy shit. That was a high percentage.

  Leo immediately had a question. “Do you know the survival rate of people who don’t force it?”

  Alex shook his head. “Unfortunately, we don’t, at least not exactly. LaShoul’s takes a long time to diagnose, as you know. So there are people who don’t get diagnosed at all. But from what we do know, it’s closer to about six percent. But, again, there are likely people out there with abilities we have no clue about.”

  “Who is ‘we’?” I wondered.

  “There’s a group of us. We keep an eye out for others who may have accessed their abilities, and make sure they’re okay. We try not to intervene with their whole origin story, as we like to call it. But once it’s been confirmed, we’ll invite them to meet with us, explain what’s going on with them and what’s at stake, ask if they’d like to join us, those sorts of things.”

  A thought occurred to me, and it was out of my mouth before I considered the wisdom of it. “Is that what you did with me?”

  “No. But after spending more time together, I started picking up on things that made me suspicious. And once you mentioned the hand thing, I knew that you had either manifested an ability or were on the cusp. It’s why I suggested to apply for Hubert Industries; they’re integrated. The group to the company, not the other way around,” Alex clarified quickly. “The majority of Hubert isn’t involved.”

  “Will I be invited?” I wondered.

  “Yeah, I think so. It’s not up to me. I think, because of your bio-screen, they’re a little hesitant. It’s an unknown to them, after all. They know about you, at least. And if they do invite you, you’ll know before me probably. It’ll take at least another few days for a decision to be made.”

  Leo suddenly blew out a long breath and said, “Fine. Fine. I’ll share what I know, too. Just…give me a minute. We’ll want a visual aid for this.”