Placing his hands against the top of the desk, Rowe pushed back to his feet and Quinn did the same. “Go get your techie shit packed up, and head over to Shane’s office so you can get all the dirt on this case. I’ll go pull him out of my weapons closet and away from my boyfriend.”
Quinn could only smirk as he preceded Rowe out of the office. The man might grumble, but there was no question that his boyfriend, Noah, had eyes only for Rowe. Shane might be sexy as hell, but Quinn was sure that Noah wouldn’t even look twice at the man.
Of course, Quinn planned to do a hell of a lot of looking. As he shuffled back to his shared office, he replayed the image of Shane in his head. Long legs encased in snug, dark jeans. A nice black, button-down shirt that stretched across incredibly broad shoulders. Curling dark hair and warm, brown eyes. And his mouth. Fuck. He had a perfect mouth. It had a wicked cast—like he spent a lot of time with his mind in the gutter. When he’d smiled, Quinn had felt the blood start to rush straight to his cock. Oh yeah, working in the same office with this guy was going to be just fantastic.Chapter Three“I can’t believe you won’t let me help you on this case,” Hollis grumped for the second time, tossing a copy of the Cincinnati Enquirer on the top of his desk.
Shane fought back a smirk. Hollis had to be the only person he knew who still read a physical paper. The main headline caught Shane’s eye about the Hamilton County medical examiner coming under investigation for money laundering. He was looking forward to digging into the story, but it would have to wait.
Drawing his eyes back up to Hollis, Shane bit his lower lip. He liked Hollis. The ex-cop was a great investigator, snarky as hell when he wanted to be, and just an all-around good person. It had taken a little convincing to get Ethan to agree to offer Hollis a position in their small agency. Yeah, the man had a few marks on his record. He’d been the subject of an investigation by Internal Affairs when Shane made the offer, but it only took two minutes of asking around to find out that every time Hollis had pushed the law, it was to protect a citizen.
Frankly, it pissed Shane off that the man had lost his job after taking down a child trafficking ring. He’d been responsible for the rescue of a bunch of kids. Shane couldn’t ask for an employee with more integrity.
Of course, the former cop saw it as his duty to keep an eye on Shane whether he wanted him to or not. Especially since the shooting. He was still waiting on the cops to release the name of the kid who’d been shot in the ballpark, so he could start looking for his mother. The red file folder sitting on his desk with the single page of notes had mocked him over the past several days, demanding Shane give the kid some kind of justice after his murder, but he had zero leads, practically no information, and the sad fact that to stay in business, paying clients had to come first.
“Look, man. The client is being very particular. Very confidential.” Shane leaned back and put the heel of his right foot up on the corner of Hollis’s desk and then crossed the other over his ankle. “You know I would love to bring you in. You’ve always got my back.”
Hollis snorted, crossing his arms over his chest. “And instead you’ve got this…this other guy at your back. How do you know you can trust him? What’s he got that I don’t?”
“First,” Shane paused and held up one finger as he counted off his arguments. “You’ve got your own case to work.”
“Nearly done. I’ll have it closed up in another day. Two, tops.”
“Second, he comes from a very reputable source, so I feel like I can trust him.” Of course, Hollis had recommended that Shane go to Ward Security. He just didn’t feel like telling the former cop yet. He liked to rankle the overprotective man.
Hollis just rolled his sharp blue eyes.
“And third, he’s got a set of unique skills that you don’t.”
“Doubtful.”
Shane chuckled. “You know, you almost sound jealous. Should we call Ian?”
Just the mention of Hollis’s fiancé melted his whole demeanor. His shoulders relaxed and his scowl rolled away under the force of the grin he simply couldn’t hold back. Hollis was a handsome man with his broad chest, long muscular legs, dirty blond hair, and angular face, but when he smiled, it was always like getting hit in the chest. While Hollis was definitely not Shane’s type, he could definitely appreciate Hollis’s natural sexiness. Ian Pierce was a damn lucky man. He and Hollis had been engaged for less than a month, and right now they were basking in the glow of their new status.