Rafe snorted.
Bishop picked up his bowl and drank straight from the edge, his throat working in a series of gulps as he finished the hot meal.
“I’m just trying to understand.” I reiterated my point without looking away from Rafe. “What if you decorate the clubhouse?”
Rafe’s nostrils flared. “Excuse me?”
I’d gone too far to back down or stop, so I plowed ahead. “What if you decorated for Christmas? Everyone loves Christmas. You put up a few lights, maybe put a tree in the window, and boom.”
I waved my hands and tried not to smile at the thought of turning this place into a Christmas wonderland. “Seeing the club celebrate Christmas with them will make you a part of the community.”
Colt walked in through the side door.
The instant he heard me, he started shaking his head and slashing a hand back and forth over his throat in a ‘stop talking’ gesture.
I did, but only because I’d finished what I wanted to say.
Colt’s warning look proved one thing.
I really needed to stop pressing Rafe.
He sat so still and silent that it brought a new kind of awareness to the situation.
The coldness I’d felt from him moments ago turned arctic.
A trip beneath the freezing waters of Alaska couldn’t be colder than the way he watched me.
I’d seen hunger and desire in his eyes before. I enjoyed those.
This… This sent a wave of unease into my belly.
I sat back and rested my wrists on the table. It took some effort, but I managed to raise my lips in a teasing grin. “You act like such a Grinch that people believe it.”
The room turned to stone.
No one moved or blinked. I’d learned to appreciate silence, but not this kind.
This silence promised retribution.
I resisted the urge to check that my wire was still in place.
I’d worn it all day without any trouble, but I’d also not bothered too much with worrying over what the guys on the other side might hear.
All this talk about how they were perceived might lead to the information that I’d been sent to find.
My one regret was that they’d all heard Bishop confess to his past.
It was a noble past, an honorable thing he’d done to save his fellow soldiers.
I wasn’t sure any of the detectives I worked with had that kind of loyalty and honor.
They didn’t for me.
I knew damned well they’d leave me here to rot if things went sideways.
No one would come to rescue me if Rafe or the others found out I was a detective.
My pulse kicked up a notch, and my phone buzzed in my pocket.
