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"Who's that?" she asked.
"Keir's a fixer," he managed to get out, the low raspiness in his voice showing just how close to the edge he still was. "He'll know someone who can find out what's in our system. Once we know that, I can figure out the next steps."
The teasing look on her face melted in an instant, as if the reminder of the mystery substance was enough to sever its hold on her.
"You mean so we can figure out the next step." She tossed the phone to him.
He caught the cell without looking away from her beautiful face and the emotions flashing across it. Lust. Annoyance. Fear. Determination. The woman should never play poker.
* * * *
The elevator binged ten minutes later and the doors had barely slid open before Keir Locke's voice boomed through the loft.
"You asshole, Taz. If you could have seen the babe who had her lips around my cock when I got your text, you would understand that when I say this had better be fucking good that I mean it."
Before Taz could tell his brother to shut the fuck up, Bianca picked that moment to walk out of the bathroom, where she'd gone to change into some of his old workout clothes. She wore his worn Texas Steers Football T-shirt knotted at the side so it dipped in at her waist and a pair of his workout shorts held up only by the miracle she'd managed to work by rolling up the elastic waist eighty billion times. Her wavy brown hair was loose around her shoulders and she'd washed her makeup off, not that it did a damn thing to lessen her appeal. If Taz could have shoved his brother back into the elevator before he spotted her, he would have without a second thought.
"Well, hello there, darling." Keir stopped in his tracks and gave her a slow up and down.
Even knowing that Keir flirted as easily and as often as he breathed—with about as much forethought—didn't stop him from contemplating murder. "Bianca, this idiot with more balls than brains is my brother Keir."
She crossed over to him and held out her hand. "Nice to meet you."
"Looks like my night must be in for an upgrade." Keir took her hand and brought it up to her lips like they'd been transported back in time, and instead of being a quasi-legal security consultant, his brother was the king of KissUpLandia.
Taz fisted his hands. He wouldn't kill him. Just rearrange his face—significantly. "Keep your mouth to your fucking self."
Ignoring him completely, Keir winked at Bianca. "You let me know when this jerk starts boring ya. I'm mighty entertaining."
"I'll keep that in mind." She pulled her hand free and sauntered over to the kitchen island next to Taz without even a second glance back at his brother.
Considering that more women than he could count—including a few of his ex-lovers—had
fallen for Keir's tattooed, muscled, bad-boy charmer routine, her dismissal of the other man put a stupid grin on Taz's face before he could stop it. Noticing the pierced eyebrow Keir raised in question and the shit-eating grin on his face, Taz forced his lips back into their normal half snarl.
"Did you bring it?" he asked.
"Of course." Keir lifted up the small black pouch in his hand and strutted to the island. "Care to tell me what this is all about now that you've cock blocked me twice in one night?"
Taz grabbed three beers from the fridge, popped the tops and set them on the island. "Take our blood first and I'll tell you everything over a beer."
Five minutes later, he was a vial of blood lighter and had a fuzzy cotton ball taped to the inside of his elbow with medical tape. He and Bianca took turns bringing Keir up to speed about everything except the exact nature of the Bisu Manor party and the entirety of what had happened in the garage.
Keir nodded thoughtfully, for the first time in his life quiet for longer than five minutes in one stretch, and took a long pull off his beer bottle. "Would this party be one of the rich people orgy variety?"
Taz closed his eyes and sighed. Really, he shouldn't be surprised. The fact that he hadn't asked about what had happened in the garage was a fucking blessing, considering his brother was probably tapped into the building's security feed.
"You know about the parties?" Bianca asked.
Keir grinned and tapped her beer bottle with his before taking a swig and putting it down. "Darling, I fix a lot of problems for a lot of important people in the beautiful state of Texas and beyond. There's not a lot of what goes down that I don't know about." Slow and deliberate, he traced a finger down her forearm. "Now, are you sure I can't talk you into switching brothers? Just look at his nose. It's been broken twice. I'm still one hundred percent as God made me, with the addition of some ink and a few special piercings. I'm more than happy to show you them all."
Her soft giggle and the coy way she looked at Keir through her thick eyelashes put a foul taste in Taz's mouth as he fought to stay seated on his stool instead of jumping across the granite island and landing his fist in his brother's face. Let's see how your nose looks after that, dickwad.
Then, quick as a spooked mare, Bianca hooked a foot around the leg of Keir's stool and yanked, sending him flying back into the air. His brother landed on his ass, ego dinted but nose still perfectly straight.
"How about you keep your hands to yourself before I fix you?" Bianca took a slow sip of her beer, cool, as if she hadn't upended a guy that had a solid one hundred pounds of muscle and at least a foot on her.
Just when he thought she couldn't get hotter, she made a move like that. Yep, his Kitten had claws and she wasn't afraid to use them. He loved it.
