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“That’s usually what gets men like him dead.”
They’d get through this test. Conn’s ability far outweighed that of his cousin Biz. No, she hadn’t met the guy, but she didn’t need to. She’d always have faith in her man.
“On another subject…” Quick pivot. “What’d you do with the flash drive?”
“Flash drive?” His fingers paused mid scruff scrub. “From the alley?”
She nodded. “You found it, right?”
“I…”
The hesitation shivered through her spine. “Strat?”
“Yeah, you told me to get it, to hide it, that’s what I did.”
“Okay,” she said, relieved. “That’s what I figured.”
“Why?”
“You don’t want to know.” Trepidation crept in. “You didn’t look at what was on it… did you?”
“No, but now you’ve got me curious.”
She smiled. “You and the rest of the city. If someone gets their way, everyone will lay eyes on it eventually.”
“Lay eyes on what?”
“Conn and me,” she said, figuring it was smart to prep the guy, just in case he thought to satisfy his curiosity.
“Conn and you, what—” The way his attention leaped to hers wrung a laugh from her throat. “Shit, babe. Someone’s got it? Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why would you…? Was it voluntary?”
“Let’s just say our beginnings weren’t as pure as you might think.”
He scoffed. “Never put Ire McDade and pure in the same sentence.” And her friend didn’t need long to put the pieces together. “That’s how he got you. Taped it, threatened to leak it.”
“Didn’t play out the way it should’ve, from either of our points of view.”
“You’re sitting there chill. You’re okay with—”
“Do I want the whole world seeing me and Conn like that? No. But, seriously, look around, McDades have bigger fish to fry.”
“Doesn’t have the same clout when you’re public, and your dad’s not high on his righteous high horse anymore.”
“There was a time I’d have stood up for the McLeod name. I did stand up for it.”
“Or lay down for it,” he said, not polite enough to disguise or restrain his snicker. “Come on, if you can’t laugh…” Her hand dropped to the table and his expression hardened. “Tell it different if he forced himself on you.”
Her friend would laugh if, in retrospect, there hadn’t been a hardship to the intimacy. If there had, if Conn had touched her without consent, Strat wouldn’t think twice about putting a bullet in the man himself, consequences be damned.
“It was never like that. I always wanted him, to be with him. Our first time was spontaneous.” Her tongue tasted the corner of her mouth. “Hormones and hellfire, for me anyway.”
“When did it change… for him?”
“Conn figured it out before I did. He’s smarter than me.”
