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"Fucking hell. You roped Gideon into helping you?" I growl, stomping in circles around my office. "What the fuck, Zayne?"
"I'm not helping him. I'm just enjoying the shitshow."
"Uh, fuck both of you," Zayne protests. "This isn't a shitshow. I don't need help. And it's only illegal if the stalking is unwanted."
"We have got to get you a law dictionary," Gideon says around a yawn. "Stalking is stalking. It's all illegal."
"You know what I mean."
Zayne has lost his ever-loving mind. Actually, I'm not sure he had one to begin with. But he's completely gone around the bend over Emma. It's fucking me up a little. I've never seen him like this. Hell, I've never even seen the man date.
Not that I have room to talk. I went into the military straight out of high school, and then came home broken five years ago. We started Carmichael Security the following year. I keep telling myself I'll get around to it eventually, but the truth is that I'm a fucking coward. The thought of jumping into the dating pool with hearing aids and scars all up and down my body isn't appealing to me.
"Hasn't she shot you down every time you've asked her out?" I ask Zayne, trying to reel him in before his big ass ends up in a jail cell, enjoying the three hots and a cot lifestyle. "I'm pretty sure that puts whatever the fuck you're doing in unwanted territory."
"She takes care of her grandma and her grandma's twin sister."
"Awesome. You're going to get your ass kicked by two old women when they find out. Gideon, please record this for my viewing pleasure." What? If he's going to lose his mind, it's my goddamn duty to ensure I have front row tickets to the shitshow.
Huh. Maybe Gideon is on to something.
"I'm not going to get caught. My point is that she's been turnin' me down because she's busy taking care of them."
"Or maybe she just doesn't like you," I suggest, though I'm fairly sure she does, in fact, like him. She had damn hearts in her eyes the day they met in the office. I felt like I was standing in the middle of a Hallmark movie.
"Plausible," Gideon agrees, making me grin.
"Does anyone like him? Or do we just tolerate him because Ma said we have to at least pretend we like him?"
"B. The answer is B."
Zayne completely ignores us, taking all the fun out of giving him shit.
"I called to tell you that you have a new client," I say after a moment.
"Can't take it. Busy."
I make a note to add a new rule to the employee handbook.Stalking the woman who keeps turning you down isn't a valid excuse for refusing to take a client.We started the handbook the day we started the company. It's mostly full of bullshit, like no cooking fish in the microwave. But it's sacrosanct. Everything goes in it. Unfortunately, if it isn't in the fucking book, it doesn't count.
"You don't even know who it is."
"Don't care. I'm busy. You're going to have to handle this one."
"She's a model."
"Don't care," Zayne says. "She could be the fucking Pope and I wouldn't care. I'm busy. You handle it."
"Fuck, fine," I growl, giving up. There's no fucking way I'm dragging him away from Emma anytime soon. Until he's got his ring on her finger or she's got a restraining order on his crazy ass, there will be no talking him down. "But I'm telling Ma you're stalking Emma."
"I'll tell her that you're the one who set her shed on fire."
"That was ten years ago." It was also an accident. I was playing with fireworks I wasn't even supposed to have. She still thinks it was set by some random arsonist. I'm not telling her any differently. She'll kick my ass.
"She loved that shed," Gideon murmurs. "She could be ninety and still be pissed."
He's right, dammit.
"Fuck. You're both assholes," I growl.
