A take-no-prisoners, badass woman who never let anyone even look at her sideways… let her coworkers talk to her like absolute shit. The fuck was that about? I had no idea, and then I was being ushered into the back with the men while Naomi sat in the front, watching my dog like he was planning on charging her or something. I sat there, saying very little, as the Peter guy prattled on and on and fucking on about their experience andAnd, at the end of it, I came to the conclusion that I didn’t trust a damn one of them to handle my shit. Hope, though? With her biker daddy and her biker uncles and her aunts that did all sorts of illegal shit? She could be trusted. Besides, it was funny as fuck to watch those men’s faces fall when I demanded it be Hope. If there was one thing I’d learned in life, it was that it was satisfying as hell to take a person of power down a peg or two. With that, I walked out, a smile tugging at my lips as I walked Val down the street with me to order som

Nah, man, he spent the morning cleaning up puke and shit,” Manny said, walking up behind Luis with an even more stacked plate. “I wouldn’t be hungry either.” Luis’s brows pinched as he glanced over toward where Val was sitting at the front window, watching the grounds, likely itching to get out there with his friends. But the dogs were on schedules. Some were in the house a good chunk of the day, but outside all night. Others had the opposite. I didn’t believe in having dogs living outside, not even for protection, but some of them—like Val—seemed to live for their guardMy gaze kept drifting toward the clock, watching the hours tick away, getting more and more concerned that I hadn’t heard from that PI place. Were they really going to shoot themselves in the foot by not letting Hope take on the case? I mean, they got paid whether she solved the fucking case or not. Though, yeah, I had no doubts that she was capable of sussing shit out. If for no other reason than spite. Spite

Which is someone working behind—“ Elijah started. “I know what a fucking snake is, E,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Did he say why he thinks that?” “He didn’t give a lot of specifics,” Liam said. “He mentioned some vague things about things getting leaked that shouldn’t have been if ‘all the holes were sealed up,’” he went on, air quoting the part A had said. “Pretty much. We can’t go asking questions, but need to have answers,” Peter said. “Now why don’t you run along and tell the client what is going on, then take your ass home, so we can get to work?” I wanted to snap back at that, but I didn’t say anything as I grabbed my wallet, took another sip of my cold coffee, and headed out the door. The problem was, I didn’t have a phone number. Honestly, I doubted Peter and the guys did either. Jay struck me as more careful than that. And I couldn’t exactly show up at his house either. So my only choice was to wait for him to leave, hope he was alone, then follow him. It took longer t

Hey, I need a place to crash for a few days. You don’t mind, right? Then: Where the hell are you? I’ve been here two days already and haven’t seen you yet… “Right,” I said, shrugging as I went across the apartment to tuck away the gun, and plug in my phone. The texts could wait until the morning. If there was something serious up, Violet would know about“How long are you crashing?” I asked, looking over at her. “Probably just another couple of days. Work has been surprisingly light lately. If you want privacy, I could go crash with…” she paused then, going through the list of cousins, mentally checking off the ones who’d recently gotten shacked up and were spouting out babies. “I know. The list is getting shorter,” I said, nodding. “You’ll always have me. I don’t plan on shacking up with anyone,” I told her as I went to grab the bags. “I know, right? Who the hell has the time?” Vi agreed, following her nose into the kitchen with me because, if there was one thing you could coun

“What?” I asked, my pulse hammering in my wrist and throat, not used to being caught so off-guard. My hand was still holding the knife I’d pulled out of my cup holder. A’s gaze cut there for a brief second, unbothered, before it was looking back out of the windshield. “See… I got this strange feelin’,” he started again. “That you’ve been lying to me.” Shit. You don’t get as far as I got in life by being blind to the shit that was going on around you. Especially when that shit involved your work. So, yeah, I’d clocked the guys from the private investigator place. Sitting in their cars. Watching shit. Following people. I had to give them some credit. They were decent at their jobs. If I wasn’t looking for them, and I didn’t know who they were, I probably wouldn’t have noticed them. Different cars. Different clothes. The thing was, it was the men. Didn’t see Hope not once. It didn’t take a genius to realize what was going on. They’d gotten her to agree to the job, then took it