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I gasped playfully. “What? You miss a party to be with little old me?”
Her face fell. “You’re pushing it, Dani.”
I smiled. “Which is why you love me.”
“Wait, now? Seriously?”
My ear perked up at the sound of the voice behind me. It sounded an awful lot like Benji. That stupid jerk-off. But it was the voice that came after his that sent a shiver down my spine. And explained why I’d heard the motorcycle earlier.
“I told you to be ready once I called. This is me calling, since you don’t want to pick up your damn phone.”
I slowly peeked over my shoulder and saw Max hunched over a table with Benji. They sat a couple of tables down, in a corner that didn’t have a window beside it. I quickly turned back around as my toes curled in my shoes. I heard Hannah talking at me, but I closed my eyes, trying to block out her voice so I could pay attention to them.
“Dude, I didn’t do it intentionally. I was in class, remember? This morning? I got that class with--”
Max interrupted. “I call, you jump. That’s how that works. You wanna be one of us? That’s what it takes. This is the last time I’m tracking you down for a job. Got it?”
“Hey, Maxy-pad. You're the one who wanted me to--”
Max growled. “The fuck did you just call me?”
Hannah cleared her throat. “Dani? Are you listening to a word I’m saying?”
The growl that bubbled up Max’s throat had me rooted to my seat. But Hannah’s voice pulled me from my eavesdropping moment. I looked at her with wide eyes and she cocked her head, trying to figure out what in the world was wrong with me.
Join the club.
The scraping of chairs along the floor pulled my eyes over my shoulder. I saw Benji and Max get up from the table, heading straight for the exit. Max loomed over the lanky boy, his leather jacket pulled taut over his broad shoulders. And when his eyes roamed over the room as he stood by the exit, those dark green eyes I’d been daydreaming about all morning found mine.
I held my breath.
He stared at me as he held the door open for Benji. Even as Benji walked through it, he didn’t move. I didn’t dare move, either. I watched him lick his lips, causing my cheeks to flush. And when Hannah started laughing, Max slipped effortlessly through the door and into the exit stairwell.
“Wow, you’ve got it bad, Dani, dear.”
I let out the breath I was holding. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Hannah’s giggle told me she knew exactly what I was talking about.
And I didn’t know how to feel about the predicament I found myself in.
12
Max
With Rupert at my side and Benji directly behind me, the crew I had hired for this job rode up the driveway of my father’s home. When my father jumped, everyone around him said ‘How high?’ So when he’d finally sent the text message this afternoon that we were to all assemble, I didn’t bat an eye. I had been frustrated all week with this shit. What started out as a Tuesday afternoon job had turned into a Friday night job, per a last minute change on our client’s part. That kind of shit didn’t bode well for me and my boys. Especially since Mr. Dean struck me as the kind of man my father had become.
But the moment was upon us. We parked our bikes in front of the porch and made our way inside. The ritual was simple: Dad briefed us on the details of things now that everything was solidified, we would receive our tentative schedules, and if Dad wanted to make any changes to the crew members I had brought on board, he reserved the right to do that during the briefing.
Which he had done to me many times before.
We all walked up the steps and the heavy wooden door of my father’s mansion magically opened. We marched into the foyer, taking up our stances while we waited for my father to appear. He enjoyed the theater of it all. The drama of us waiting for him while he entered a room by himself.
And when he appeared, I let out the breath I didn’t realize I had been holding.
“Eight men?”
His booming voice made my ears twitch.
