Mike didn’t pay much attention to the fact that the airport parking garage had just charged him twenty-one hundred dollars.
He was in a hurry to get home.
Mike’s home in New York was on Heather Street in Manhattan, located at the far western edge of Greenwich Village between Seventh Avenue and the Hudson River.
Heather Street was a two-way road roughly four hundred meters long.
Red-brick townhouses built in the late nineteenth century lined both sides of the street.
Nearly every house looked the same, with a small front lawn, a garage large enough for two cars, a dark green wooden door, and three stone steps leading up to the entrance.
Technically, though, the house wasn’t Mike’s.
It had belonged to his adoptive parents.
After they died the previous year, ownership of the house passed jointly to Mike and his sister Heidi, who shared neither of his biological parents.
Heidi was a federal agent who worked in Washington, D.C., and rarely returned to New York, so Mike usually lived there alone.
Even so, he had barely changed anything inside the house.
The interior remained exactly as it had been when his adoptive parents were alive.
Mike hadn’t even moved into the master bedroom and still slept in the smaller room he had used for years simply because he was accustomed to it.
By the time Mike returned to Heather Street, it was already six in the evening.
As soon as he turned onto the street, his attention was drawn to the fifth house from the corner, where warm light shone through the windows.
That was home.
After pulling up in front of the garage, Mike raised an eyebrow when the door opened and revealed a black Dodge already parked inside.
A short while later, he parked his Chevrolet beside it, closed the garage door, and entered the house through the small connecting door.
The moment he stepped inside, Mike saw a woman standing by the kitchen island.
Hearing him enter, she turned toward him.
Her long dark-brown hair was tied neatly into a low ponytail.
She wore a sharply tailored dark-gray suit jacket, beneath which the edge of a holster could be seen.
A black watch with scratches across its face rested on her left wrist.
Her features were strong and well-defined, and her light-brown eyes gave her a capable, independent air rather than any impression of delicate softness.
It was none other than his older sister, an FBI agent.
Heidi Ametra.
Mike decided to speak first.
He took off his coat as he walked toward the kitchen island.
“What are you doing back today?
Are you on vacation?” He hung his coat on the rack, pulled out a barstool, and sat down across from her.
Heidi picked up the coffee in front of her again and took a sip while continuing to read something on her laptop.
“I transferred back from headquarters in D.C.
to the New York field office half a month ago.” Mike raised an eyebrow and looked at her.
Heidi looked up in return.
“Weren’t you supposed to be traveling in London?
How did you end up in Norway, and why couldn’t I reach you by phone?” Mike blinked, then seemed to remember something and slapped his forehead.
“Right, that’s my fault.
Sorry.
My phone got ruined by the cold while I was traveling in the Arctic.
By the time I got out, I figured I was heading home soon anyway, so I didn’t bother buying another one there.” In reality, his phone had been destroyed during the fight with Malekith.
After leaving the Arctic, Mike had stopped at Natik’s home to rest for a while, only for Natik to invite him out on a fishing trip.
Mike thought relaxing for a few days sounded good, so he went along and spent three days at sea.
He had been telling the truth about not wanting to buy another phone, though.
Since he was already returning to New York, and there were several old phones Heidi had replaced over the years sitting at home, there was no point wasting money.
Save where you can and spend where you should.
More importantly, Mike hadn’t expected Heidi to transfer back from FBI headquarters in Washington.
While the two of them had been living in different cities, Heidi’s job meant they usually only spoke by phone on weekends when she had free time.
When work became especially busy, an entire month could pass without a single call.
Mike quickly changed the subject.
“By the way, why did you suddenly transfer back to New York?
You never mentioned it.” Heidi took another sip of coffee.
“My supervisor said the New York office was short-staffed half a month ago, and I happened to want to come back.” She set her cup down and looked at Mike with a faint smile.
“What, you’re not happy I’m moving back in?
Did you get a girlfriend while I was gone?” Mike looked at the smile on her face and didn’t find it charming in the slightest.
Instead, it gave him the familiar uneasy feeling only a younger brother with an older sister could understand.
He laughed and met her gaze without flinching.
“Trust me.
If I had a girlfriend, you’d be the first person to know.” Mike wasn’t opposed to marriage, nor had he sworn himself to a life of being single.
He had simply never met a woman who made his heart race.
That was all.
As he spoke, Mike smoothly redirected the conversation back toward Heidi.
“What about you?
Still seeing your boyfriend?” “We broke up.” Heidi picked up her coffee again, her tone completely casual.
Mike froze for a moment.
“You broke up again?
With John?” “Not John.
Adam.
I broke up with John the day after you talked to me two months ago.” Mike sucked in a breath and stared at his completely calm sister.
Then he clicked his tongue twice and shook his head.
“Heidi, do you think I’ll ever actually get the chance to walk you down the aisle?” Their adoptive parents were gone now, so if Heidi ever married, Mike would be the one to walk beside her and give her hand to her future husband.
The problem was that Heidi’s romantic history had been rather…
eventful.
Of course, Mike had no intention of judging her love life.
Everyone lived differently.
As long as Heidi was comfortable with her choices, he wasn’t going to criticize them.
Even though the two of them hadn’t seen each other in two months, only a few exchanges were enough for them to slip naturally back into the same teasing rhythm they’d had since childhood.
Heidi told him about a male agent at the New York office who had recently invited her out for drinks and how she was still deciding whether to accept.
Mike, meanwhile, told her about his travels in London and Norway.
When he mentioned going deep-sea fishing with Natik, Heidi’s eyes immediately lit up.
“Deep-sea fishing sounds amazing.
I want to go too.” “Then take some time off.” Mike smiled at her.
“I’ll go with you.
And you have to try Natik’s roasted polar bear sometime.
You’d love it.
Actually, now that I think about it, have you taken a single vacation since you started working?” Heidi gave a helpless smile and shook her head.
“I’d like to, but I can’t.” “Why not?
Is the entire New York FBI field office going to stop functioning if you’re not there?” …