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Her poor attempt to make me jealous has me fighting my eye roll. As if I’d still want that cheating scumbag?
Have at it, Cynthia. He’s all yours.
“We all have our lives to get back to, and I’m sure you want to be back in Colorado, where you belong,” Cynthia adds.
Trent’s behaving professionally, but clearly Cynthia is not. If she’s attempting to take a dig at us, her insult falls short.
Chase smirks. “You’re right. We’ll make fast work of this assignment. Our crew has other pressing cases to investigate. Besides, Simone and I want to get back home to our family.”
Cynthia’s mouth pops open, her eyes dropping to my stomach. Trent makes a choking sound, croaking, “Family?”
“He means the crew and my immediate family,” I amend quickly. What is Chase trying to accomplish?
“Well…” Chase drawls, squeezing my side. “We’ll be adding our own brood into the mix soon enough.”
Trent’s eyes widen. “You’re expecting?”
Oh, my God!I’m going to strangle this biker.
“No,” I declare, a little too loudly. I clear my throat before continuing. “Let’s leave our private matters alone and focus on the investigation.”
“Of course,” Trent says gruffly, with red-tipped ears.
He ushers us into the designated conference room our team is using as headquarters for the duration of this project. We take our seats around a sleek glass table. A large window dominates the exterior wall, letting in lots of natural light. Butch and Chase scowl at the space—they prefer the dark interior intel cave Jo created for them back home. I admit, I feel a lot more exposed in this space.
Cynthia attempts to enter the room, only to be stopped when Trent steps in front of her. “Cynthia, I appreciate your willingness to help, but this meeting is for those involved in the investigation.”
She chortles at his dismissal. When she notices Trent is serious, her eyes narrow. “Trent, love. If I’m to be helping, then I have a right to sit in on this meeting.”
He shakes his head, refusing to budge. “Pulling files does not make you a member of this investigation. It means you assist as needed, and when asked. You can return to your work. Be on standby for when we officially begin the audit.”
Punk whistles low between his teeth. He flinches when the tip of my heel connects with his shin. We don’t need to add to the drama.
Cynthia’s face puckers at Trent’s rejection, but she schools her features quickly once she notices our crew is blatantly eavesdropping. “Very well. I’ll be in my office if you need anything.” She quickly takes her leave.
Trent closes the door with a soft click. He drops into a chair at the table with a sigh, seeming to be more at ease with her gone.
Punk is the first to speak. “You know you’re going to pay for that later, right?” He jerks back in his seat when the toe of my shoe makes contact with his leg again. “Damn, Priss. Ease up.”
“Knock it off,” I hiss in warning.
“Stating the obvious, is all,” Punk claps back.
“Punk, so help me…”
Trent waves me off. “It’s fine, Simone. Your teammate is only speaking candidly. And he’s not far off the mark.” He exhales, running a hand over his face. “Perhaps it’s best if we address the elephant in the room before we start.”
He looks at me across the table. “I have no problem working alongside you, Simone. We always worked well together. But obviously, there’s bad blood between us.”
“And whose fault might that be?” I accuse sharply.
“I’m not saying it’s your fault. We know the failure of our relationship lies in me. But you had to know you reappearing after a year would cause some sort of feeling. A little warning would’ve been nice.”
I’m about to spit nails when Chase leans across the table on his muscled forearms, glaring daggers at Trent. “My woman doesn’t owe you shit after what you did to her.”
Chase’s defense is appreciated, but I wish he’d lay off the claiming vocabulary. It doesn’t help when trying to deescalate a hostile situation.
“The warning wouldn’t have been for me, but for Cynthia,” Trent implies.
