He coughed. “Uh. Not—yes, sir. Yes, Boss.”
Maybe he was right. Maybe I wouldn’t shoot him if I had someone better. He amused me too much. Then again, the person that would replace him might amuse me even more.
I ended that call and sent a text to Lassiter.
Me: I’m forwarding information on a man to you. I need a file on his children. After that, find his weakness. A mistress. Gambling debt. Whatever it is. I want it.
The world was changing. AI. Drones. Technology. I had an entire team of hackers at my disposal, but I wasn’t forgetting that Ashton Walden also had a background in cybersecurity. Me, I was going to lean on my strength, and one of the classics worked for a reason.
A good old-fashioned threat.
Pictures of this man’s children sent to him would motivate him to do what I wanted. If they didn’t, I’d buy out whatever weakness Lassiter found on him. If he had a gambling debt, it would be mine, and I’d collect.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Blake
Housemate movie night. That was Palma’s big mistake. She got the idea the night before, before the robbery and way before the shit hit the fan, and made everyone promise to attend.
We’d gone into the weekend, so that night and Saturday night, Levi and I ended up going to wherever Creighton was, and that meant one of his nightclubs or his buildings. It’d been nice and reminiscent of how it’d been in high school and my first three years of college. I studied, then hung out wherever the guys were. Sunday night, Creighton came to me, and he came to me every night since like our earlier routine. He’d come after I went to bed, wake me up, and would be gone by the morning. I wasn’t sure how I felt about him being gone before I woke, but since that was the only time all of us housemates saw each other, I wasn’t going to disrupt the peace.
Levi, however, had no problem disrupting the peace.
He never left, and we all came home that first Monday evening to find out that he’d cleared out the basement. He renovated it and put in a bed, and it was now his room. Levi moved in. Considering the factthat this was on-campus housing, I was certain he was violating some policy, but no one protested too loudly.
Palma thought it was hilarious.
Turns out she enjoyed having Levi around. She shared that she enjoyed his flirting, but also liked having him there because she knew he was there for my safety. I don’t think she understood that Levi was more likely tobethe danger than to protect against any danger, but she was enjoying his presence. I had to admit that I liked having him around too. He added comedic relief at times, and he also put Marshall in his place when he started to grumble about Levi’s presence. However, that was only in the mornings because while everyone’s schedule was usually busy, the guys had previously spent the evenings at the house. That stopped this week. The guys had taken to being gone and only coming in super late at night.
Palma wasn’t having it. Not for Housemate Movie Night.
We were ordering Chinese food. Drinks were going to be made. And there would be movies.
I was excited. I was also nervous because Creighton was joining.
My phone buzzed just as I was getting to the house, and I let myself in through the front door. I pulled my phone out, saw it was Creighton calling, and stepped inside to text him back.
Me: One second. Just got to the house.
“Yo,” Marshall hollered as he came down the stairs and headed for the kitchen. “Blake’s here.”
“Blake’s here?” Palma asked from inside the kitchen.
There were other voices in there, and as I shed my coat and bag, Palma moved around Marshall, heading my way. Her cheeks were flushed, and her eyes were slightly dilated. The alcohol breath told me she’d been partaking before I got here.
“Hi.” She was beaming.
“Hi.” I softened. She hadn’t enjoyed Marshall and Heath’s absence this last week, so it was nice to see her smiling again. I nodded in the direction she’d just come from. “Who’s all in there?”
“The guys. Plus Niko.”
“Niko?”
She frowned, her eyebrows furrowing together. “Yeah. That confused me, too, but she showed up a half hour ago and announced that she’d be joining for the movie night. I have no idea how she even knew about it.” Palma shifted a little closer, lowering her voice. “It’s kinda funny, actually. She scared Marshall. He wasn’t expecting to see her and then total high-pitch shriek. Funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time. She’s just standing in there, against the wall and watching. The guys keep looking at her like she’s an apparition that they can’t believe they can see, you know? I’ve met her one other time. I forgot how pretty she is. But anyways, your boys are coming?”
“My boys?”
“You know.” Her cheeks pinked even more. “Our sixth roommate and your man.”
