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Boss Unwavering – Sneak Peek
Keep reading for a sneak peek of the next Boss book – Boss Unwavering, featuring Elaina Evans and a brand new, former military turned private investigator Alpha Hero, Sebastian Stone.
ONE
Sebastian Stone, the incorrigible bastard. Of all the auctions he could be outbidding her on, it had to be this one.
“Eight-thousand,” Elaina called out, raising her numbered paddle high in the air.
“Ten,” Stone countered.
The showroom spotlights gleamed off the custom paint of the Harley Davidson FXDC Dyna Super Glide, circa 2007, and she had to wonder what a motorcycle snob like Stone would want with a salvaged bike like the one before them. She supposed he could be wondering the same thing about her, but that was nobody’s business but her own.
“Ten-five,” she called, casting a poisonous glare in Stone’s direction. She couldn’t drop a penny over twenty-grand on this little hog, and though the machine itself wasn’t worth near that much, its sentimental value put it at a hundred times that much to her, easy. She just couldn’t spare it with the budget she was working with at the moment.
Stone noticed her scowl, and with a self-satisfied grin, raised his paddle once again, driving the bid higher and higher.
When he jumped up to seventeen-five, she began to feel the panic tightening in her chest.
“Eighteen.”
He came across almost bored at that point, which grated on her even more, as they kept the bid moving.
Pompous ass.
She hoped like hell he had a limit he’d hit soon without surpassing her quickly-approaching maximum.
“Twenty-thousand,” he called.
Damn-it!
All eyes in the room that had been bouncing from Stone to Elaina fell on her and waited with eager anticipation. She looked around, meeting their gazes and feeling the pressure, but anything higher was impossible. She was done.
She shook her head, and the crowd’s eyes went to the auctioneer.
“Twenty-thousand dollars, going once… going twice… sold to bidder number one-six-five.”
Sebastian Stone turned to her with a gloating look of triumph, but she was already pushing her way to the back exit, grabbing her phone to call Leo for a ride back to the bar.
*
“Elaina?” Leo called to her through the open window of his truck as he coasted beside her along the sidewalk.
She looked over, and recognition sparked her to slow and veer toward him to hop into the passenger seat. Then Leo sped off, heading back to Elaina’s Lounge.
“You couldn’t wait for me to get there?” he asked as she buckled her seatbelt.
She gave him a sideways glance but didn’t answer.
“I take it you didn’t win the auction,” he guessed.
“What gave it away, Mr. Obvious?” She was angry and didn’t want to talk about it. “Just drive, Leo. I’m not in the mood for twenty questions right now.”
“You’re the boss,” he said, punching his steel-toe boots to the floor, sending the truck speeding through town.
