“How so?”
“He’s got expectations about me taking over when he retires, but he refuses to let go of anything while still barking orders. Sometimes, I don’t always agree with how he goes about things and we butt heads. But it’s been getting worse lately, especially since we opened the stores in Denver.”
“They’re your stores, too, right?”
He cocked his head. “How did you know that?”
I dropped my gaze to my food. I may or may not have had Rabbit do a deep dive into Orion and his history. Rabbit had been Doom’s recruit back in the day, and he was one of my best friends.
“Raquel?” he pressed. “Did you do a background check on me?”
I shoved a bite of beef broccoli into my mouth and shrugged, chewing dramatically as he watched me through narrowed eyes.
He grinned. “Glad you did that, Razzle.”
I nearly choked on a swallow. “What? I didn’t.”
“Means you like me. You really, really like me.”
“How do you figure?”
“If you didn’t, you wouldn’t care to find out more about me. And since you know that there’s a shit ton I can’t tell you, it’s flattering that you’d try to get the information illegally.”
“I did nothing illegal.”
His grin widened and I realized he’d just got me to admit that I did, in fact, do exactly that.
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t get too cocky. I did a background check on Sierra.”
“Liar.”
He was right. I was a liar. In fact, he’s the only person on the planet I’ve ever wanted to know more about, but he didn’t need to know that. “Would you please stop reading my mind?”
“Nope.” He grinned. “I like your mind.”
I took a sip of wine and studied him. “I thought you were going to be gone for a week.”
“Plans changed.” He cocked his head. “How’d your test go?”
I sighed. “Terribly.”
“It can’t be that bad.”
I raised an eyebrow. “I suck at science, Orion, it was worse than bad.”
“Need some help?”
“I think it’s way too late for help,” I grumbled.
“I’m good at science, Razzle, so whatever you need, you let me know.”
“Are you good at chemistry and microbiology?”
“Did you know that I fuck around with our plants and have created several strains that focus on different outcomes for our clients?”
I gasped. “What? No. You do?”
“Microbiology’s my jam, Razz.”
