“You trying to go two-for-three, Dutton?”
I stopped in my tracks and turned to face him. “Excuse me?”
“Well, you got Theo.” Kane pushed off the counter and stood beside me. “Now you’re working on Noah. I gotta tell you, I don’t think he’s interested.”
“Why don’t you go fuck yourself? I don’t need to screw every single guy I talk to. Here I am,notfucking you. See how that works?”
He chuckled and the sound went straight to my pussy. Damn him and his gravelly, sexy voice.
“It’s only a matter of time for us,” Kane said as he trailed his inky finger down my cheek, making my heart stop for a second.
Gathering my strength–what little I had at the moment–I took a deep breath.
Bad idea. Why did he have to smell so fucking good? A hint of cologne, leather, and maybe a little sweat, and those stupid butterflies were back with a vengeance, attempting to shove my self-control into the trash.
“I’ll pass,” I forced a smile and patted his hard chest. Another bad idea. I had the urge to dig my nails into his muscles, preferably while he railed me on the countertop behind him.
Theo cleared his throat behind us. “It’s racked. Who’s gonna be heads?” He asked as he held up a quarter.
“I will!” I said a little too enthusiastically before jogging to the table and swiping the pool cue from Theo’s hand. He flipped the quarter and showed me–heads. I reared back and hit the cue ball, watching proudly as I sunk two balls. “I guess I’m stripes.”
“We doing teams or what? If so, we need to wait for Noah. You think he got lost on his way to the kitchen?” Theo asked as he lined up his shot.
Shit, it had been a while since he left.
“We have snacks!” Gemma’s voice echoed from the doorway. Saved by the bell.
I released a breath as Gemma and Noah delivered their pile of chips, pretzels, and various bottles on the counter. Gemma’s blonde hair was messy, making me waggle my eyebrows at her. She widened her eyes before turning to hide her grin.
I loved that she was enjoying herself and having fun. She spent too much time locked in her gilded cage. She needed to let loose.
Kane’s eyes locked on me again and I schooled my face. I had to be careful. The last thing we needed right now was another messy murder.
Gemma grabbed my arm and tugged me away from the guys. “Thank you,” she whispered, a big smile lighting up her face.
“What are friends for?”
Chapter 4
Kane
“Youwanttotellme what that botch job was all about last night?” Dad asked as I plopped into the leather chair across from him.
He had a rectangular table in his office that he used for meetings and he was sitting at the head of it, sipping his coffee and tapping a pen, irritated by my lack of control last night.
I couldn’t say I was impressed with myself either. We had a protocol we followed when it came to taking out targets and it was followed because it protected us. Last night my mind was…on another planet. I couldn’t stand the thought of Dani fucking Marco, so I took him out while he was conscious, making a huge mess for myself and our cleaners.
“I watched the video footage, Kane. Marco never did anything that Danica didn’t want him to do, so that story that he got aggressive was bullshit,” Dad said as he slammed his coffee mug down on the wooden table, sloshing the liquid over the rim.
I leaned back in the chair, swiveling from side to side, wanting to be anywhere but here right now. Anywhere but in Dad’s line of fire.
“Well?” He spat.
“I don’t know. I just…wanted to get it over with.”
“You can’t do that shit, son. You know how important it is to follow procedure. You created quite the situation for our crew. They handled it, yes, but it wasn’t supposed to go down that way.”
“I know,” I sighed, looking up at the tall ceiling, cringing at the obnoxious crown molding and gaudy light fixtures. How many times has this room been remodeled now? At least four since I was a kid.