Reluctant thief Baz Barret is tasked with stealing from the formidable archaeologist Rei Collingwood--who happens to also be his college crush and rival--but when Rei goes missing after the burglary, Baz must find her before he's blamed for her disa...
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It was difficult to fight off the idea that Rei would not come back.
Fluke found her once. Even Baz would never manage the impossibility of tracking her down a second time. She would be miles away, digging her way into secret caverns of forgotten civilizations to avoid the responsibilities of real life.
"Are you brooding?" Diego asked from the island, where he read up on muscle groups. He didn't look up from the book, as if he could sense Baz's mood behind him.
"I am resting, as per Doctor Vega's orders," Baz replied, stretched out across the pulled-out couch, taking up as much of it as possible. The TV was on, but it wasn't doing anything that made Baz wish he had his own. It was just background noise.
"You can't multitask?" Diego graced Baz a glance.
Baz shot him a look, propping himself up on his elbows. "If I was brooding, you would know. I do not half-ass my brooding."
Like with nearly all things, it was half-joke, half-true. Diego ought to know that particular truth better than anyone. Baz was past the stage of brooding. He flew through that stage so quickly that he didn't have time to marinate in his own misfortune. Reality had already set in, weighing down but not crushing him. With or without Rei, Baz would leave.
"You know, you don't have to do what she says," Diego said.
Baz let himself drop back onto the bed, staring at the ceiling. The floor lamp cast shadows through the popcorn texture.
"If I had a better idea, I'd do something else," Baz said, "being that I don't..."
"Is that the only reason?" Diego asked.
No. Yes. Baz shut his eyes.
"Don't think it matters. She's—"
A sharp knock at the door interrupted him. Diego and Baz exchanged a look, fear striking before anything else. Diego rose, crossing cautiously to the door. He swung it open and Rei breezed right in, arms laden with plastic bags, hauling a carry-on sized suitcase behind her. She parked it, not addressing it at all. Diego made no comment about her moving in.
"Cheng's meeting with his lawyers tomorrow to discuss how next to approach a reward or ransom," she said.
Baz sat up, watching Rei whip off her sunglasses as she set her bags on the island. The smell of fried rice answered a question before it was asked.
Rei put on an impressive act of pretending not to notice their confusion. There was something...off. Rei was trying too hard to be casual and it read in ways Baz could perceive but not pinpoint. It was like she emitted a nervous energy, buzzing off her.
"What happened?" Baz asked.
"I picked up take away," Rei said which, while completely unenlightening, Baz appreciated. Her hands busied, pulling out styrofoam takeout containers. "I didn't know what you liked, so..."
