She huffed, but her lips twitched with an aborted smile that had my heart flipping in my chest. Geek texted me backa thumbs up, and I focused back on my laptop. “You two get some food and rest,” I told Gidget and Halo. “You’ll be sitting around all day tomorrow, but if Noah and I don’t find anything tomorrow, you’ll be back on the road next. We’ll be taking turns while spreading the search further and further out until we find something or someone. Something will eventually have to give.”
“Got it.” Halo and Gidget stood. Gidget headed for the hall off to the left without saying a word, though I didn’t expect him to. Halo aimed for the kitchen, no doubt to stuff his face and attempt to fill the bottomless pit that was his stomach. The man wasalwayshungry.
“What time are we heading out in the morning?” Noah asked me.
“Early,” I told her, focusing back on my laptop, this time combing through everything much slower. “Probably right at daybreak. I want to make the most of tomorrow that I can.”
She nodded. “I’ll be ready. And for the record, I’m driving.”
I smirked at my computer screen, not bothering to turn to look at her, even as I could hear her getting up from the couch and heading for the stairs to leave me alone once more.
“I’d never expect anything less from a woman like you, mama.”
She hummed. “You might have some brains in that skull of yours after all, Blayke.”
I snorted a laugh.
12
Noah
Iwas not a morning person by any means. I did not like being up early, and what I hated more than that was people who were chipper and all sunshine-y before ten fucking A.M. And guess who was all bright smiles and happy-go-lucky at six in the fucking morning while I felt dead in my soul?
Blayke fucking Gabel. The mother fucker I had to spend the next several hours in a confined space with.
Fuck my life.
“Morning, mama,” he greeted. I watched over the rim of my coffee mug as he headed over to the coffee pot to pour himself a cup, adding enough sugar to turn him into a diabetic before he was forty. “You ate breakfast yet? Going to be a long day of riding.”
“I don’t eat this early,” I grumbled, staring into my coffee. If I dunked my entire face into it, would it wake me up faster?
He shook his head. “Well, that won’t do. You need to eat. Food is fuel, mama.”
My anger was about to be my fuel. It was too early for these conversations. And why was he smiling at me? Who the hell was this happy so early? It wasunnatural.
“Can you just be quiet?” I snapped, setting down my half-empty cup of coffee, which was still steaming. The roof of my mouth was a little scorched, but I knew I didn’t have much time before we had to head out. “It’s too early for your cheerful personality.”
He snorted. “Lighten up, mama. You’ve got to deal with meallday.” And he sounded positively gleeful about that, the asshole. “We’ll get breakfast in a little while when we stop to regroup. Otherwise, you’ll be irritable all day.”
I arched a brow at him, my lips flattening with annoyance. “Are you trying to imply something?” I asked, my voice dropping an octave. He was treading on thin ice, and I was about to turn his balls into my personal fucking rage toy.
He swallowed the rest of his coffee, not even flinching at how hot it was. “That you’re a raging bitch when you’re hungry? If so, yeah—that’s what I’m implying.” I was going to punch him in his smug, handsome face. Didn’t matter how much I liked him. Didn’t matter that I found him sexy as fuck and sometimes even endearing. I didn’t have the patience for his shit this early in the day.
“I’m going to rip your dick off,” I snarled, pushing back from the bar and standing.
He winked at me. “Don’t tease me with a good time, mama.”
I turned and stormed for the garage, where our bikes were being kept so they were hidden from anyone snooping around or spying on Alejandro’s place. “Go fuck yourself, Blayke.”
“I do that every night and morning since you stepped into my life,” he called from behind me.
Christ. I pushed open the garage door and tugged my keys from the pocket of my black cargo pants.
I hated that I was both annoyed and turned on by him at the same time. How the fuck was that even possible?
Blayke took a bite of his breakfast—migas—as he stared at me. I tried ignoring his staring, biting into my breakfast burrito, but I swore the longer I tried to ignore him, the more intense his staring got. Finally having enough, I set my burrito down and glared at him. “Do you have a fucking staring problem? You’re ruining my breakfast.”
He cocked his head to the side the tiniest bit, reminding me of a dog when they heard a squeaky toy. I almost snorted at the comparison because Blayke was one hundred percent a golden retriever type of man. “I can’t admire a pretty woman?”
