“I’m serious. Nothing happened,” Carmichael protested. “Yeah, she’s fucking hot, but...” He made a face. “I don’t know. Once I found out that she was in the salonduringthe shooting, it was weird. She was really aggressive and?—”
“Like you have a problem with that?” Wilson asked, his skepticism written on his face.
“I don’t usually. But that place was shot to shit, and she was acting like she’d chipped a damn nail.” Carmichael shrugged. “Like I said, it was weird. Rubbed me the wrong way.”
“Aww,” Tash drawled, bumping her shoulder into Carmichael’s. “Our little guy’s growing up.”
Carmichael shot her a look of mock indignation. “You wound me, T.”
Tash grinned and met Xander’s gaze. “So getting back to this girl you like...”
“How about not?” he muttered.
She continued as if he hadn’t spoken. Story of his life with Tash. “So do youlike herlike her, or are you gonna pull a Carmichael on her?” Tash glanced at Carmichael. “Sorry, I meant pull an old Carmichael on her.”
“God, Xan.” Abbot groaned. “Please tell me you’ve outgrown your man-whore days.”
Heading back to his SUV, he grabbed a stack of tablets from the back of the vehicle. Closing the liftgate, he shook his head. Ridiculous. These people were ridiculous. “I’ll admit that I had a somewhat sketchy past?—”
“I heard that back in the day, you could’ve made me look like a damn monk,” Carmichael said, taking one of the tablets from him.
Xander frowned. “Where the hell did you hear that from?” Not that it was a lie, but still.
“I don’t know,” Carmichael said, though he angled his head toward Wilson.
“Traitor,” he grumbled, handing Wilson a tablet.
His friend simply shrugged.
“Let’s just agree that both you and Carmichael are gross,” Tash said as she took a tablet and powered it up. “Now thequestion is, if we ever see this lady who has you all moon-eyed, do you want us to talk you up or make her run for the hills?”
He sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face. “How about none of the above?”
Tash smiled, and it was all teeth. “Sorry, that’s not an option.”
Wilson groaned, and Xander met his gaze. “What? You have something to add?”
Wilson shook his head. “You guys gossip worse than the ladies in town. Can we actually get some work done?”
“Ugh. Always the voice of freaking reason,” Abbot muttered before turning to Tash. “How do you put up with his grumpy, sour mug?”
“You get used to it.” Tash shrugged and narrowed her eyes as Wilson took a step toward her. “Uh-uh. You try and put me in a headlock, I will lay you out flat, buddy. You know, just like I did this morning.”
Xander chuckled as Wilson held his hands up and took a step backward. Smart man. “Alright, kids.” Because swear to Christ, that’s what they were all acting like. “Time to be responsible fucking adults. Billionaire resort owner at one o’clock.”
Just like that, everyone straightened and donned their game faces. They crossed the parking lot in seconds, and as Xander approached Gabriel, he held out his hand.
“Gabriel, good morning.” He gestured between the man and his team. “Everyone, this is Gabriel Ortiz, owner of Pacific View Resort. Gabriel, you remember Carmichael from yesterday. This is Tash Silver and Bennet Wilson. They, along with myself and Carmichael, will be looking at your grounds, operations, and processes.” As everyone shook hands, he continued, “This is Sam Abbot, one of our top cybersecurity experts. She’ll review your digital security and make appropriate recommendations.”
“It’s nice to meet you all,” Gabriel said as a lean, familiar-looking man dressed in a Pacific View Resort polo approached. “I believe most of you already know Michael Kwon, our head of security.”
“Long time no see,” Xander joked, lifting his chin at the other man in greeting. Aside from seeing the man yesterday while on-site, most of the team had worked out with Kwon the morning of the shooting. The man was somewhere in his late forties, former Seattle PD, and one of the best Muay Thai practitioners Xander had ever seen in person.
After greeting the group, Kwon turned to Abbot and held out his hand. “I don’t think we’ve met.”
“Seeing as I’m cybersecurity and not a gym rat, that makes sense,” she said, shaking his hand. “Sam Abbot. We’ll be spending a lot of time together today going over the systems you have in place.”
“Looking forward to it,” he replied with a grin.
