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Who knows? Maybe I’ll get lucky and catch some hideous illness so I can miss work.
* * *
Feeling out of sorts, I spend the rest of my shift trying unsuccessfully to forget about the big jerk. My luck improves a little after work when I manage to get an Uber to school. The universe isn’t done with me, and the next four hours go from bad to worse. On the day my distracted mind makes paying attention impossible, Professor Bailey decides to drop the assignment from hell on us. This should be right up my alley, but I’m not myself. And I’m really scared this is a permanent affliction after my run-in with the big jerk.
“How was class?” Amelia asks as I walk through our apartment door. The small two-bedroom apartment isn’t much, but it’s all we need.
As usual, my roommate is sitting at our small dinette studying before her late shift at the hotel. Worry flashes through her golden eyes, reminding me that I can’t hide anything from my best friend.
We met in nursery school when our single mothers became close friends. To make life a little easier for both of them, our mothers pooled their resources and moved our two families in together. They worked opposite shifts so we could have at least one parent at home at all times. For the last eighteen years, we’ve been connected at the hip. Two peas in a pod but totally the opposite in appearance. I’m short, curvy, and blonde with plain blue eyes, while my gorgeous bestie is tall and curvy with chestnut hair and amazing caramel-colored eyes.
On a high school field trip to the police station, I found my true passion: crime. Actually, solving crimes. That day, I made up my mind to pursue a degree in Computer Forensics while my bestie decided to study Forensic Psychology. Since the Silver Spoon Falls Community College is known for its superior forensics department and its extremely reasonable tuition, we threw caution to the wind and packed our bags.
“Class was fine, but the rest of the day sucked.” I drop my bag next to the breakfast bar and reach for an apple. “Zippy gave up the ghost this morning, and I was ten minutes late for work.” I leave out the part where I dealt with the biggest jerk in the world. “Then professor Bailey announced a special assignment.” I make quote marks with my fingers. “To improve our understanding of finding obscure data hidden in plain sight, we have to examine his computer and find the suspect file.” The day from hell just kept giving today. “Whoever finds it first gets to skip the final.” Hello, universe. I could use a break here. Please let me be the one who comes up with the file first.
“I’m not surprised.” Amelia glances up and shrugs. “Naming your twenty-six-year-old on-its-last leg car Zippy is like naming a dog Lucky. You’re just asking for karma to bite you in the rear end.”
“Thanks for your love and support,” I grumble half-heartedly. “That’s just what I need to end my utterly sucky day.”
My bestie walks over and wraps her arm around my shoulder, giving me a squeeze. “You know I’m just teasing.” She points at the sofa. “Sit down and tell me about it.”
“I don’t even know where to start,” I grumble.
“Come on, it can't be that bad.” Amelia hops up and heads to the kitchen to pour us each a glass of my favorite wine. After she hands me the glass, I drink it down in one gulp before blurting out the entire story.
“Oh. That’s not good.” She grabs the bottle of wine and pours me another glass. “You might be in trouble.”
No damn duh. I’m in a lot of trouble. Somewhere out there is a big jerk dying to spank my poor rear end, and a crazy little part of me is looking forward to it. I do need help. Lots and lots of help. And wine.
CHAPTERTWO
RYKER
"Hold the fuck on. Did you just say you threatened tospankthe hotel clerk?" Razor asks, choking on laughter. "What the fuck, Ryker?"
I tilt my head back and curse at the ceiling. Of course, my pain-in-the-ass twin caught that part of the conversation. He always catches the inconvenient parts yet rarely listens to anything else I say. Like the time I told him that we weren't dressing up as each other for a week in high school. I got slapped twice that week for shit I didn't even do!
"She was mouthy," I mutter defensively. I leave out the part about her sweet voice making my fucking cock ache. Some things he doesn't need to know. It's true, though. Her grumpy little attitude, that sassy mouth, and her sweet voice had my cock standing up and taking notice. Which is, quite frankly, a damn miracle. The bastard hasn't noticed anything in longer than I can remember.
I work too damn much. But when the whole world is going to hell in a handbasket, and you work for the CIA, well, long days and late nights are inevitable. There have been a helluva lot of both for longer than I care to admit. I've been burning the candle at both ends for so long that it's starting to wear thin.
I'm burning out. There's no other way to put it. I need something other than work in my life. Quite frankly, I want someone to go home to at the end of the day. I want what our parents have and what my brother and sister have both recently found with the loves of their lives. I've spent too goddamn long building a future. I'm ready to start living it now.
Which is exactly why I've requested a transfer to the Houston office. Razor and Jules think I'm coming home later this month to visit. They don't know I'm coming to look for my own place. I’m officially transferring to Houston in six weeks. I'm not telling them until all my shit is in order.
"Did you ask for a secure room?" Razor asks, fucking with me.
"I like my privacy," I grit out. And I'm nothing if not careful. It comes with the territory. But I don't tell Razor that. He doesn't need to know just how dangerous this shit can get. Our baby sister, Jules, definitely doesn't need to know. It'd just upset her.
"It's Silver Spoon Falls, jackass," Razor says, laughing. "The most dangerous thing around here is, apparently, the water."
"What the fuck is wrong with the water?" I scowl out of the window of my office, watching traffic creep through DC at a snail's pace. At this time of day, not even the slog lines do much to clear congestion. Fuck. I hate this city. It's too big, too loud, and too irritating.
I can't wait to get out of here.
"It's magical or some shit." Razor snorts. "I don't know. The whole damn town swears people fall in love fast around here because of the water."
"Is that what happened to you?"
