Dark and Deadly - Lynn Hagen Page 0,1

held his hand above his eyes to shield the sun. “I never knew what happened to you after you moved out of the apartment building.”

“Nothing, really.” Except Warren had started dating a psycho. “Bought a house in town. That’s about it. I still work at Antonio’s Pizza.”

Well, Warren had inherited some money after his grandmother had passed. That was how he was able to buy his own home. But he didn’t want that money to dry up, so he’d kept his job.

Cosmo grinned, and damn, the guy was gorgeous. Warren didn’t usually go for redheads, but Cosmo was stunning. So was his boyfriend. “I never knew you worked there.”

They’d lived across from each other for five damn years. Then again, all Warren knew about Cosmo was that he was a bartender at the new gay club.

Only because Warren had gone once and seen Cosmo behind the counter serving drinks. He’d decided that Pump wasn’t his cup of tea after some big hairy bear kept hitting on him all night.

Warren might’ve been slim and on the shorter side, but that didn’t mean he wanted to be spanked by some stranger in leather.

“Well, it was good seeing you,” he said to Cosmo. Warren was starving and wanted to grab a bite to eat. He also needed something cold to drink. After ducking and dodging around so many people, he’d worked up a thirst.

He’d begun to turn when a tall, muscular, dark-haired man with eyes the color of dark chocolate stopped next to Cosmo. Good lord. The guy was amazingly handsome, making Warren’s heart skip a beat.

“Who’s your friend?” the newcomer asked with a wiggle of his blunt brows. Warren rolled his eyes. He needed another guy in his life like he needed another hole in his head.

“This is Warren.” Cosmo flipped a hand toward him. “We used to be neighbors before Warren moved out of my apartment building. He works over at the pizza joint.”

Jeez, tell other people’s business much? Thank goodness that was all Cosmo knew about him.

Cosmo flipped a hand toward Mr. Flirty. “This is Kane Ashton, but everyone calls him Ash. We’re coworkers.”

Warren didn’t want to be rude, but he wasn’t in the mood to make new friends. He could tell Cosmo was trying to see if they hit it off, but Warren wasn’t interested. Maybe if he didn’t have a psycho ex-boyfriend he would’ve stuck around.

“It was nice meeting you,” he said to Ash then faced Cosmo. “It was nice running into you.”

Warren didn’t say anything to Cosmo’s boyfriend because they hadn’t been introduced.

“Wait,” Cosmo said. “Maybe we could hang out for a bit.”

That wasn’t going to happen. Warren wasn’t sticking around so Cosmo could play matchmaker, though he had to admit that Ash was nice looking, with dark, assessing eyes that raked over Warren with interest.

“Sorry, have other plans.” Like keeping two steps ahead of Ryan, who may or may not even be there. The guy kept really strange hours, which Warren could never keep up with.

Ryan seemed to be a night owl and always slept the day away. But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t come to the festival to track Warren down. Especially since Warren had just broken up with him.

“Hey, wait.” Ash jogged to catch up to him. Warren kept walking. Whatever the guy had to say, he didn’t want to hear it. Warren was focused on the stand ahead of him that was selling hot dogs, while still staying on guard.

“Did I really make that bad of a first impression?” Ash asked when he caught up. “Or do you find me that repulsive?” He sniffed under his arms. “Definitely not my odor.”

That made Warren crack a small smile, but he refused to stop. It wasn’t Ash’s looks. The guy was gorgeous. That wasn’t even the problem with Ryan because he was also stunning. The problem was boundaries which Ryan had no concept of. “How can you make a bad first impression if all you did was ask who I was?”

Damn it. Warren needed to stop encouraging Ash to have a conversation. He was trying to get away from the guy, but Ash seemed hellbent on talking to him.

“That’s what I’m saying.” Ash easily kept pace with him. “You can’t spare two minutes of your time?”

With a long-suffering sigh, Warren stopped and looked up at Ash. He had to shield his eyes because the sun was directly behind the guy. “Look, you seem like a real nice person, but I’m not interested.”

The fact that Ash