“I’ll pick something up.” I throw him a bone.
“In that case, I’ll be there. Now, I’m going back for my post-breakfast nap.” He picks up his plate that’s now completely clean, not even a crumb in sight. I’m sure it’s mostly to show me up.
I shrug and continue slowly crunching away the rest of my breakfast.
***
Ashley barges into my office without knocking because why would you choose to listen to your boss and give him privacy when you can do whatever you want? It’s not like we live in a civilized society with rules and codes of conduct.
“Why is the hot man from New York back? Did you and Detective Sexy break up?” Her face emits so much judgment that I won’t be surprised if she’s an enthusiastic subscriber tothe Scientology Today newsletter. Don’t ask me how I know the name. That was the last time I pushed Sam that far.
I slam my laptop shut and start unpacking the takeout containers, so I can show him there are ways to do things for your friends without rubbing their noses in it. “Detective Sexy? Getting lazy with the names already?”
“Detective McMuscles, Officer Beefcake, Mr. Bench Press, Major Muscles. Oh, and Beef Supreme. Wait, that’s not the point. Don’t distract me. What did you do this time? Why can’t you be a bit nice to him?”
“I know, right?” Sam walks in behind her. Ashley turns to glare at him. “I’ve been telling him to be nice to me for years.Everyonecan see it.” He parks his ass on one of the empty chairs. Leaning in, he stage whispers, “Why is your goth assistant glaring at me?”
I wave him off. “Oh, that’s just her face. You get used to it,” I say loudly.
“No, I’m glaring because I’m an Ellick shipper and you’re being a roadblock.” Ashley turns and leaves, slamming the door behind her.
Sam shrugs. “Sooo… Ashley seems nice. Seriously toned down some of that weirdness since I last saw her.” He picks out everything he likes and leaves the rest for me.
I nod. “She’s been working hard on herself.”
“You’ll let me know if I need to lock my bedroom door at night, right?” Sam pops an orange chicken into his mouth.
He’s just left fried rice and Chicken Lo Mein for me. “What’s the fun in that? In fact, I’ve been thinking about giving Ashley a spare key. She’s just the best assistant, you know? She’s ready for the next step.”
Sam slides a container of Egg Rolls towards me. See, you don’t always have to be aggressive to get your threats across.
“Yeah, I’ll tell you. She’s harmless, though.” I happily dig into my lunch. “I think.”
Sam hums but doesn’t stop eating. I can see his mind grinding, and I hate it. If I find a single Ellick merch in my house, Ashley would be the last of his problems.
We eat while Sam tells me about the time he accidentally joined the Russian Mafia and had to seduce a henchman to get his help faking his death long enough to escape the country. I have so many questions, but honestly, it’s beneath me. I should be used to this by now.
“Why couldn’t you just pay him, though?” I blurt out anyway. I look down to find my food is almost gone.Damn it, I was so focused on Sam, I couldn’t even enjoy the best Chinese in the city.
“Wait, did I say I ‘had’ to seduce him? Nah, that was just a choice.” He winks at me.
Serves me right for asking. I shake my head and start cleaning my desk. Sam joins me, but he makes more mess than he helps me. “There’s no hurry. You can go slower. There’ll be less mess then,” I shout at him.
“Mess is a sign of a good time,” Sam shouts back.
“Stay still. I got this.” I slap his hand until he stops helping, and finally throw everything in the trash can. Then Sam slides a chair beside me, and I open the laptop to email Adrian Sinclair. Or his law firm, to be precise.
Raymond Booth liked to change his names like they were last season's clothes. Sam had tracked two of his other aliases. The one he used before he moved next door to me and the one he took on after moving away. We’ve lost his trail after that.
We draft a simple request. The plan is simple. We’ll hire his law firm to create contracts for an adoption drive and a free checkup I’m organizing for community outreach next week. We’ll keep asking for different lawyers until Adrian is assigned to the case. His specialties are contract and tort law, so the chances of getting him on the case are pretty high.
“Are you sure we can’t hack into their system and direct the request straight to Adrian?”
Sam looks at me like I’m being difficult. The guy who once hacked a Burger King because their system was temporarily down and he didn’t want to drive a few miles to the next outlet. “That’s so unnecessarily aggressive. Besides, didn’tyou promise your boyfriend not to do anything illegal anymore?”
I roll my eyes. “I just said I won’t kill anyone.”
There’s a polite knock on the door, too polite for it to be Ashley. That’s why I’m surprised when Ashley’s face peeks in through the door. “Are you okay?” I ask.
