“Yeah, no thanks. She can keep it,” Lincoln said
“Fuck you, you fucking bastard.”
“Not even with someone else’s cock.”
I sighed. “Linc, please.”
“Just wanted to make my position clear. I don’t do sloppy seconds unless I’ve helped make the mess.”
“Dude! Enough!”
I wasn’t a fucking prude. I fucked wherever and whenever, but there was a time and place when discretion was the better part of valor.
Heidi came back into the room with a robe and Mara’s shoes. Where she found them, I had no clue because Mara kicked them off her feet on her way to the pool earlier, and they’d flown in opposite directions.
“Thanks. Grab the SUV, and we’ll meet you outside.”
Nodding to Lincoln, we lowered Mara to the floor and traded the suit coat for the robe, fighting her every step of the way. We would all need to see a doctor for a hearing test because of all her screaming.
I grabbed her by the shoulders, gave her a tiny shake to get her attention, and said, “We’re leaving. There are paparazzi swarming the hillside with telephoto lenses. Do you really want that splashed all over the front page of every gossip rag, newscast, and entertainment show for the foreseeable future?”
“You can go fuck yourself. I didn’t hire you, and I don’t want or need you fucking up my fun.”
Locking my jaw down to keep from popping off at the bitchy little diva, I waited until I could respond without yelling. “No. You didn’t hire us. Your daddy and the campaign did. He was tired of constantly fielding questions about your outlandish behavior. But… if you don’t want us around, that’s fine. Fire us, and we’ll be on our way.”
She smirked, crossed her arms, canted her hips, and like a snotty-assed teenager, she tossed her head. Water flew from her dripping wet hair, splattering us as she said, “You’re fired. Now, fuck off.”
She stomped back outside, dropping the robe as I watched her go.
“Jesus fuck, she’s a cunt,” Linc said.
I nodded. I hated using that term for anyone, but Mara Cagot was a walking calamity with zero impulse control and a wild, stubborn streak a mile wide and deeper than the Mariana Trench. The campaign staff were told that protecting someone who didn’t want to be protected was next to impossible. They’d assured me it would be fine, that Mara would be cooperative and on her best behavior.
I was still waiting to see a nanosecond of said best behavior.
I smacked Linc on the back, nudging him toward the door. “Let’s go. I want a shower and a drink, not necessarily in that order.”
“I’ll see you a shower and a drink and raise you a long, hard fuck with a dude who knows how to treat a guy right.”
“Hmm… yeah. Let’s add that to the to-do list too.”
We walked out of the house and hopped into the waiting SUV. Heidi drove us back to the house Uncle Matthew still owned from when he’d been stationed at Coronado. I loved the place. It was the family’s SoCal base of operations. He’d gotten it for a song forty years ago, and as the houses around it went up for sale, he snatched them up, recreating a mini Holt compound like we had at the ranch in Texas.
My phone rang just as we pulled into the garage. The ass-chewing I had coming had arrived. I swiped the phone as we walked through the mudroom door and into the kitchen.
“Walker,” I said.
“What in the holy fuck is going on out there? That girl’s picture is everywhere. And in one of them, I can clearly see your ass standing in the background.”
“Thatgirlwas a fucking menace. A literal goddamn nightmare. She wanted to be guarded as much as a fucking mob boss wants a pair of cement boots.”
“That doesn’t fucking change the fact that they hired Holt to protect her, and you failed to do so.”
“You know what, cuz? Kiss my ass. If you think you can do a better job at reining in the cocaine-snorting princess, fly your ass out here and do it your-damn-self. I’m taking the weekend off.”
I hung up the phone, pissed that cell phones robbed you of the pleasure slamming the receiver gave you. My phone clattered across the counter where I tossed it. It wasn’t the same, but it would have to do.
“Makes you wish you were at Nana and Pappy’s so you could slam down the receiver on their old wall phone, don’t it?” Linc asked.
