“They’ve met?”
She shrugs. “Not technically. Romeo is my muscle, so he pulled Jay out of that club when it was burning to the ground. I used to keep him a little closer, but now Jay’s here, so I push my other guy back.”
“Closer?” I lean forward and glance down the hall in search of Jay, then bring my eyes back to Soph. “You fuck all your muscle, Sophia? Doubt Jay would be thrilled with that.”
“No.” She huffs. “I meant closergeographically. Which, by the way, was the right move, considering I sent him into that club after Jay. We had minutes to move, so keeping my guy a hundred miles away wouldn’t have really cut the cheese in that scenario, would it? But now Jay is here, he’s part of the Checkmate army, so I push my guy back and use him to collect intel.”
“Speaking of…” I turn the laptop and push it to the edge of my desk. “Please?”
“No!” She stands and comes around her desk. Storming toward me in body-hugging clothes that show off her perfect ballerina form, she snaps my laptop closed and glares. “Leave her be. You can approach her the old-fashioned way like regular folks.”
“What the hell is the old-fashioned way?”
“No intel. No secrets. A girl wants to swoon, Spencer. Which is why I’ve sent Jay on his quest for the perfect proposal. Abby wants a prince; if you don’t know how to make a girl swoon, then you’re not her prince.”
“Swoon.” I pull the laptop toward me on a growl. “You’re dreaming if you think I’m gonna romance a chick. If she doesn’t wanna fuck, then that’s up to her. But I don’t care about any woman enough to want to romance her.”
Laughing, she walks toward the hall with a wave of her hand. “If you say so.”
“I say so!”
“Uh-huh.” She stops at the doorway and turns back with a grin. “That’s what I just said.”
I sit at my desk after she leaves and stare at the closed laptop. I don’t have the skills to do anything more than a general address, date of birth, phone number search. And I already know all of that stuff. So… old-fashioned?
“Fuck.”
I stand up fast and send the rolling chair back against the wall. I check my thigh holster out of habit, then dig a hand into my pocket and drag out my car keys. Because I’m a fuckin’ pussy who’s about to go old-school.
Swinging out of the office and past Kane’s robust – and by ‘robust,’ I mean three-hundred-pound – receptionist, I hurry along before she jumps up and tries to hump my leg and make ‘yeah baby’ noises.
That’s not my ego talking; Dolly dry humps everyone, and now that Kane is hitched, she has to turn her sights on the rest of us. While Kane is hanging at the hospital with Jess, the rest of us are getting his share.
And it’s a fuckin’ lot.
“Tell the guys I’ve gone out if they ask.”
“Sure thing, sugar. Did you hear Jessie got out of bed today?”
I stop at the front door and turn back. “Uh, no. Good for her.”
“Uh-huh. Now she’s just gotta take a crap, and everything will be all better.”
“Okay, thanks for putting that in my head.”
I see a woman who’s been chopped in half trying to take a shit and hoping it passes through her ass and not her incision. I see little Jessie becoming one of those play-doh toys, where the dough squeezes out of every orifice. Jessie’s dough is shit, and now it’s coming out of her head.
“Gross. I don’t need to know her private business, Dolly. Lemme know if they call here and need anything. Otherwise, I’ll head back up this afternoon and see them.”
“You got it. Sophia has dance this afternoon, so I’m gonna be over there with the kidlets.”
“Not my business. I don’t work here. I just hang out sometimes.”
The woman with F-cup tits and enough hair to smother a man firms her lips. “Whatever you say, sugar. Everybody comes here to see me. You don’t have to pretend. I’m single, you’re single…”
“I’m leaving.” I walk away and slide into my car parked on the street out front.
I drive a jacked-up, lifted, tricked out, almost bomb-proof, civilian stock Humvee. Because I can. Because the military wouldn’t let me keep the original Humvee that sustained the kind of blow that should have killed me. Now I’m brand loyal, and plan to always turn heads when I drive down Main Street; which I don’t do all that often.