Page 39 of Fixed Asset

He was lying.

“Why do I get the feeling you’re lying?”

“Because I am.”

“Are you going to tell me how you got your nickname?”

“Nope. That story’s reserved for teammates. The kind who stay with the team and aren’t a one and done.”

Well, damn.

“Are you offering me a job?”

“No, I’m offering you a place on a team.”

My stomach did a flip. I liked that I’d earned the respect of a man like Pete. But there was Jack to consider. I didn’t want to be a distraction, and if he couldn’t get over me being in the line of fire, I wouldn’t risk his life or the lives of the other men on the team.

“Are you thinking about Jack?”

I normally wasn’t so transparent. To make myself feel better, I chalked it up to Pete’s superior situational awareness.

“How’d you know?” I tossed out the rhetorical question with a smile.

“He knows I want you on the team. We wouldn’t be having this conversation if the team didn’t agree you were a good fit.”

Jack agreed.

He’d said he loved me, which still had me walking on air. And he’d admitted he’d been wrong. Not to mention, he hadn’t ridden to the rescue until I’d called for backup. Though, he had been the first one to make it to the house, and Mason was huffing and puffing, bitching about Jack’s ‘my woman’s in danger’ superpower. But he’d waited. Then he’d come for me. He’d trusted I knew my limitations. He’d trusted me to take care of myself.

That was huge.

That was what I needed.

“What about Ryan and Aiden? They haven’t met me.”

“There’s also Gavin. He’s back in San Diego keeping an eye on the Dirty Plank. But you’ve won Mason,” he weirdly stated.

“I’m not tracking.”

Pete shifted uncomfortably and glanced around the forecourt. Berta and the rest of the team would be out soon.

“Mase doesn’t trust easily. It took Jack about five months before Mase started to trust him, and that’s not on Jack, that’s on Mason. He’s been my best friend for a long time, and sometimes I wonder if there will ever come a day when he lets me in. He’s the best man to have your back in a firefight. He’ll sit around the fire, have you busting a gut laughing, and he’ll do it while drinking you under the table. But that’s all you’ll get from him. He’ll trust you with his life, but not with his secrets or his scars.”

I thought about Mason’s devil-may-care smile, and my heart ached for him. I’d sensed the darkness in him, but it bothered me knowing how deep it ran.

“So what I’m saying is,” Pete went on, “if Mason trusts you after forty-eight hours, they’re all in.”

It was good to know I had Mason’s trust. I’d take it and keep it safe.

“Let me think about it. I just bought a nice condo in Prescott.”

“San Diego’s weather’s better. And I think I got something you want that’s more valuable than real estate.”

“What’s that?”

“Jack.”

He wasn’t wrong. I wanted Jack and Jack was in San Diego. And as cool as my condo was, I’d give it up in hot Arizona in a second to be with him.