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“I don’t think he was thinking clearly, Lila.” Surprised at what had come out of my mouth, I blundered on. “He didn’t have any of his belongings and called the number he knew off the top of his head.”
“And why would that prevent Mr. Dallas from contacting me? Or you, for that matter since you two are…together.”
Throw Cooper under the bus, or not—that was the question.
“It’s my fault,” Cooper answered.
“No, it’s not his fault. Completely. We didn’t know what was going on.” Mostly. Pretty close to the truth.
“It was my second call. I panicked.” Unhappiness laced Zane’s words. “I was fuzzy on all the details. I woke up without my phone or my ID. It was a mess.”
“And that’s for me to handle, not Mr. Dallas. Or whomever you called first.”
“Oz.”
Lila waited a beat. I was pretty sure she was trying to shove down her anger. That was Lila. Emotions didn’t enter into anything when it came to doing her job. I could probably count on one hand how many times I’d seen her get emotional about anything regarding work—or us, for that matter.
And lately, we were a pain in the ass. All of us.
“Osmond?”
“I know it sounds bad,” Zane explained. “But he’s been arrested before. I just figured he would know what to do.”
“In the future, Osmond is not the first person you should call.”
Zane leaned forward and put the phone between the front seats. “There will be no second time.”
“That would be correct, because now all of you will have 24/7 bodyguards. No exceptions. I tried to be benevolent last night and let you all have unencumbered fun, despite my earlier directive, but that’s finished. For your own good,” she added.
Cooper gripped the steering wheel so hard I wondered if he’d pull it off. “I can take care of myself.”
“I’m aware of your training, Mr. Dallas. However, you are an asset to Ripper Records, and we need a little more assurance. Mr. Riggs will be at your place when you return. He’ll cover you and Miss Daly until the band leaves for Philadelphia. Mr. Landry, your detail will be at your house. I’m assuming you’ll be dropped home.”
“Yes, I’m bringing him home.” Cooper squeezed my hand once then put both his hands on the wheel. ?
??There’s one more thing. Two, actually.”
“Yes?”
“First of all, we’re heading to the brownstone to check out the damage and see if we can collect some of Teagan’s personal items.”
“Understood. I’ll send Mr. Riggs to her address instead.”
“Thanks. And the second.” His muscles bunched with tension. I reached out to lay my hand on his rock-hard arm. His nostrils flared with that visceral reaction that seemed to always happen when we touched, but the lines bracketing his mouth eased a little into a half smile. “We’re pretty sure this isn’t simply a stupid drunken night.”
“Hey.”
Cooper shot a look over his shoulder at Zane. “Sorry, buddy.”
“Go on.” Lila’s voice went past frigid to arctic.
“Zane just had one drink last night—other than one, maybe two beers. And I’m sorry, even a lightweight would require more than that to get into the kind of trouble Zane did.”
“I see. It did seem quite out of character for Mr. Landry.”
“Agreed. It seems very suspect.” Cooper glanced at me and shook his head when I opened my mouth.
“I’ll investigate this further. I’ll be in touch.”
