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"You're right, she can't," Jake said. "But that's the image she's spent years building. When she walks into a room, people pay attention. It's great until she wants to sneak around."
"Maybe I should wear a wig," I said dryly. "No one would recognise me as a redhead."
"I still would," Jake said. "I would recognise you anywhere. You could change everything about you and you would still have the presence to make people notice you. So maybe you should sit this one out. Let the pup sniff around."
I considered it for a moment. Finally, I shook my head. "No. I want Asshole to know we're sniffing around. Let him know we're onto his bullshit. Besides, the mysterious Tony Jones might not have anything to do with Dagen. He might be a regular, old human criminal. Or a front for someone else. If anyone else is trying to muscle in on my territory, they better know we're coming for them."
"And then they'll have their face on the other side of their head?" Cooper asked hopefully.
"Exactly," I agreed. I didn't know how I would do that, but it sounded like fun.
I led the way to the door and nodded for Ben to follow us. He looked at me and the other guys with a brief, but intense look. I could almost see him wondering where this left us and our occasional hookups. Truthfully, I didn’t know. We’d known each other as long as Jake and I. Jake actually hired him to guard me after the auction. There was little about me he didn’t know. And the man knew what to do with his tongue.
The question was, how complicated did I really need my life to be? That was yet another question for later. In the meantime, I offered him a smile. He responded with a faint one back, and a nod. He was never anything but professional when other people were around.
I rode the elevator down to the bottom of the building with a car full of testosterone. The smell was delicious. For a solid minute, I considered pressing the stop button and seeing how many orgasms I could have before someone tried to get us out. If we weren’t on business, I might have. Besides, Jake and Cooper agreed to share, but Ben was a whole other conversation. One I wasn’t ready for yet.
The newsstand was only two blocks down the street, so we walked. Jake took his place beside me, his hand on my back, while the other two guys walked in front and behind. We absolutely didn't go unnoticed. In fact, several people, men and women, stopped to gape at Cooper. And he saidIwasn't conspicuous. Even with clothes on, he was a walking bag of sex. A human boner. A wet dream. A… You get it.
The gods knew Jake was just as hot, but in a dangerous, coiled aggression kind of way. No one would ever mistake him for someone who was harmless.
Ben—he looked like a bodyguard, with his dark trousers and vigilant, intense gaze. If there was something out of place, he’d notice it.
If the woman who worked at the newsstand was spying on us for Dagen, I would eat my left Louboutin. She looked younger than Cooper and smelled of pure human. And anxiety.
"Can… Can I help you?" she asked. "I'm sorry, this is only my second day. The guy who was here quit suddenly. I'm still trying to figure everything out."
I exchanged glances with Jake. No, that didn't sound suspicious at all.
"That's unfortunate," I told her. "I quite liked," I frowned, "what was his name?"
"Jason," the woman said. "Apparently he had some family stuff to deal with."
I nodded. "Jason. Of course. Well, I hope everything is okay with him. In the meantime, do you have any jelly beans?" I saw them the moment I walked up, but it didn't hurt to let her serve me. If I was nice, she would remember me, and she might come in useful someday. Or Dagen was using her and she would end up floating in the harbour in a day or two. Either way, I wasn't going to lose any sleep over it.
She pointed me to them and then moved over to serve another customer.
I grabbed a packet or two and ignored the look Jake gave me. "If you want some, you better buy your own," I told him.
He grabbed a couple but frowned around at the stand. "I have a feeling we need to get the fuck out of here."
His words and tone made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Whatever vibe he caught, I caught it too now.
“Yeah,” Ben said softly. He frowned, like he couldn’t put his finger on what was up. If he was on edge, then so was I.
I nodded and placed the jelly beans on the counter in the centre of the stand. Jake added another two packets and three packets of corn chips. When I raised my eyebrows at him, he added three packets of salt and vinegar chips to the pile.
"Are you going to let me eat some of that?" I asked.
He leaned in to whisper in my ear. "I'm going to eat all the jelly beans and make my cum so sweet you won't be able to stop drinking it."
"The hells you are," I said. I was absolutely eating some of it. And his cum. I paid for everything and picked up my jellybeans and a bag of each of the chips. "Besides, it's tasty enough as it is." I gave him a smile, but I doubted anyone who was paying attention would miss the edge in my expression. I wanted to get away from here as quickly as possible.
"Come on, Pup," Jake said to Cooper. "We're stocked up on crap food for a while." He spoke lightly, but I knew that expression on his face. Every nerve in his body was on alert. He didn't know what he was looking for, but he knew he was looking for something. Call it wolf instincts, or too many years of having to watch our backs, but he sensed something. He appeared as unnerved as Ben.
"What is that?" Cooper asked after we took a few steps away. "There's a weird smell in the air."
Jake swung his head around to stare at Cooper, then sniffed. "Fuck, you're right. The hells is it?"
