Free Dirty Power by Ashley Bartlett Page A

against his. “This is weird.”
    “You have no idea.”
    In horror, I watched the two guys saunter closer. They were cruising me. Nope, only one was cruising me. The other was checking Christopher out.
    “Here they come. If you flirt I’ll fuckin’ kill you,” I muttered.
    “Yes, honey.”
    “Nope. I don’t know what I want to do for dinner,” I said loudly.
    “There’s that Cuban place you wanted to try,” Christopher suggested.
    “That sounds nice.”
    “Mmm hmm.”
    The two guys stopped a few feet from our towel. “Hi there,” the taller one said.
    Christopher tilted his head back. “Hi.” He grinned. That grin was going to be our downfall. Why did he have to be good-looking?
    “How you guys doing?” The shorter one this time. He was shirtless and muscley. I wondered if that was Christopher’s type. Or maybe if the taller one was. He was more of a pretty boy. The short one was more rugged-looking with cultivated stubble. Christopher had the same kind of facial hair thing going on.
    “All right. Enjoying the sun,” Christopher said.
    “Mmm hmm.” I didn’t want to speak too much. The voice would probably give me away.
    “Vacation?” pretty boy asked.
    “Honeymoon,” Christopher said.
    The rugged one’s smile dropped for a second.
    Pretty boy covered better. “Oh, congratulations.”
    “Thanks,” I said.
    “Yeah, thanks.” Another Christopher smile. “Five years and now we’re legal. It’s pretty exciting.”
    I smiled at them. I was going for love struck. It didn’t work. I leaned over and whispered in Christopher’s ear. “Hurry this up.”
    Christopher laughed. Deep and hearty and far more genuine than I expected. He was good at faking. Not surprising, really. He’d done it for half his life.
    “Now if we only knew where to eat tonight. Any recommendations?” Christopher asked.
    “Where are you staying?” rugged one asked.
    Christopher named a hotel. Not the one we were staying at. They suggested a couple places that were presumably nearby.
    “Great, thank you,” Christopher said.
    I nodded. “Yeah, awesome.”
    “All right. Congratulations again.” They sketched a simultaneous wave and started to stroll away.
    “Are they gone?” Christopher asked after a minute.
    “Yes.” I watched their retreating backs. “That was painful.”
    “The taller one was gorgeous.”
    “Keep it in your pants, darlin’.” I threw as much disdain into darlin’ as I could.
    “I’m going to kill Breno.”
    “Agreed. Epically bad idea. I think we can stop holding hands now.” I let go of his hand.
    “We are going to have to figure out a better way to watch the back of the house. This isn’t working.”
    “Want to get out of here?” I asked.
    “Please.”
    “Thank God.”
     
    *
     
    “Did you see anything interesting?” Christopher asked.
    “No. And I’m bored of surveillance. I can’t sit in a damn car anymore. Even sitting on the beach is boring,” Ryan said.
    “We’re all tired of it, Ryan,” Reese said.
    “My ass hurts from all that sitting,” he whined.
    “Did you get a decent layout of the house?” I asked.
    “I drew you a picture didn’t I?” Ryan pointed at the sketch on the table.
    We all leaned in to look. Again. It didn’t make any more sense this time than when I’d first seen it.
    “What is foodage?” Breno pointed at one of the childish squares. There was an arrow pointing at it labeled foodage.
    “The kitchen. Obviously,” Ryan said.
    “And this?” Christopher pointed at another section of the drawing.
    “A balcony,” Ryan explained.
    “What about this section, with all of the arrows and lightning bolts?” Breno asked.
    “That’s where the alarm panel is,” Ryan said.
    “Wait. What?” I asked. “You can see the alarm panel? We’re in. We just need to watch and get the code.”
    “No, dude. You can’t see the keypad. What kind of shitty security company would install it facing a window?” He had a point. “That’s why