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When he broke the surface, Sloan’s deep laughter was the first thing he heard. Sloan crouched near the edge of the pool, his expression relaxed and happy. It was even more handsome than when he looked smug. Happiness made him look younger, the soft age lines on his face smoothing out.
“Keep trying, pet. This is fun.”
Conall gathered water in his mouth and attempted to spit it at Sloan, but he anticipated the move and took a few steps back. “I hate you.”
“No, pet, you love our games.”
Conall pouted but didn’t deny it. His interactions with Sloan kept him excited every day, and he would wake up with a smile on his face. He’d never felt this way, even at the Virtue. “You haven’t won yet. I will win.”
“If you say so,” Sloan said, crossing his arms. “Now get your shorts on. Fionn will be here shortly, and I don’t want to hear him complaining about how he doesn’t want to see you naked.”
“Where has he been?” Conall walked through the water to the edge again and grabbed the pants that were floating near him. Putting them on wasn’t the easiest task, but he managed it before he laid his hands across the edge, leaning on it as he stared at Sloan. “I saw him having breakfast this morning, and then he was gone. I thought he would have been in the meeting with Soletsky.”
“I have him and Daire doing something for me.” Sloan walked toward him again and crouched, running his hand over Conall’s wet hair, before he touched the scars on Conall’s right pec and the deeper one on his shoulder. No matter how many months slipped by, Sloan never forgave himself for Conall being kidnapped. He didn’t say anything, but he also didn’t need to.
“Doing what?”
“Running down some errands.” Sloan’s eyes darkened. “I’ve played chicken with my rat for too long, pet. It’s time to take out the trash.”
“How, if we don’t know who he is?” Conall whispered.
“That’s what Fionn and Daire are doing. We have leads. I sent Jamie on some too, but they amounted to nothing.”
“What kind of leads?”
Sloan smiled, a rare expression that he reserved only for Conall, or at least from what Conall had seen that was true. He cupped Conall’s cheek and kissed him gently. “It doesn’t matter right now. They’ll report back when they’ve done what I’ve asked, and if it amounts of anything, I’ll let you in on what’s happening.”
Conall nodded because he trusted Sloan. They’d reached a point in their… relationship where Sloan told him what he needed to know when the time was right.
Someone cleared their throat, and Sloan turned to look at Cormac. “Forgive me for interrupting, boss, but we’ve heard from one of our cash houses. They’re having issues with a thief.”
Sloan sighed. “Always some brave, stupid soul.” He smiled at Conall. “Finish your swim and we’ll talk later.”
“Sure you don’t want a blow job before you go?” Conall teased.
Sloan laughed as he stood. “No,” he said sharply before he spun on his heel and left.
Ronan shook his head and grinned. “You’re not going to win this bet, sir.”
Conall waved his hand at him. “We’ll see.”
An hour later,Conall’s skin was tingling from the sun, so he got out of the pool and had a shower. He got dressed and went to his old room, which Sloan had turned into an office for him. He went through the whorehouses’ paperwork, examining profits, inventory requests, and clients’ names to check if there was anyone they could blackmail. He came across a couple of senators’ names, as well as some cops who might be able to give them insider information.
When he was done, he passed off the information to Cormac to give to Sloan before he got dressed in what he called his yard clothes. They were simply a pair of jeans and a T-shirt that he’d found at Walmart, much to Sloan’s disgust. There was no use having an expensive shirt if it was just going to get dirty and that’s exactly what happened when Conall was gardening.
It was weird, but it had taken him a good year before he found himself in the greenhouse to the right of Sloan’s massive backyard. At first, he’d only wanted to check it out and see what else Sloan had been hiding from him. Half of him had expected it to be full of weed, but he’d been pleasantly surprised to find orchids instead. The gardener had come in to tell him all about flowers, pointing them out and giving Conall names, before he went into the basics about them. Conall had found himself intrigued.
“The greenhouse is temperature-controlled to keep the orchids alive,” the gardener had said with a laugh as he swiped some sweat off his forehead. “That’s why it’s humid in here.”
“Why does Sloan have this?” It was the one thing that had Conall genuinely curious.
The gardener, an older man who couldn’t have been younger than seventy, smiled sadly. “His mother loved it in here. After Mr. Killough Senior died, she asked Mr. Killough Junior to build this greenhouse for her. She spent a lot of her time here until she got too sick.”
“How did she get sick?”
Sloan had never mentioned his mother much, and Conall felt like he knew nothing about her. But the gardener only shook his head and changed the topic. It was then that Conall learned some things weren’t meant to be spoken about.
Now, Conall came to the greenhouse whenever he could, finding an attachment to it that he’d never expected. The gardener had taught him how to take care of the flowers, and Conall made it his hobby. Terrance had cackled when Conall had told him about it.
