“Hudson?” Blake prompts.
“Hm?”
“Time is wasting.”
Ah, Blake at his finest. “I’d like your guy to go through my security footage.”
“Sure. What’s he looking for?”
“Anything.”
Blake lifts an eyebrow, and I spot the tiny scar from childhood, reminding me again of the Easter Sunday Dad wasn’t home. “Time frame?”
“Last three weeks.”
He smiles. “I see.”
We are brothers. I know him, and he knows me. I don’t have to explain much of anything. I’m looking at the security footage of my wife while I was away. It is what it is.
“Deadline?” he asks.
“Yesterday.”
Blake’s jaw works. He’s glitching. No deadline. Blake can’t function right now.
I chuckle. “If he can have it back to me tomorrow morning, that’ll do.”
“Twenty-ninth, then. I’ll pick the hour. Consider it done. Anything else?”
“Nope.”
“Try to make it to lunch,” he says.
“See you soon, Hudson.” His wife waves. “Say hi to Benny for me.”
Since everyone calls her Benny, I’ll stick with Princess. She’s my little princess. Nobody else can call her that.
My princess stridesdown the steps, wearing something new. Black leather tights, a fuchsia crop top, and a flimsy bra showing the curves of her big breasts. They’re perky with hard nipples that I clearly see through the thin cotton.
“What the fuck are you wearing?” I ask.
“Clothes.” She sashays past me as if I’m the butler and stands by the door. I open the door for her (I am the butler, apparently) when my phone pings.
My brother and I share a schedule, and this alert sound is his fifteen-minute warning for when he thinks I’m gonna be late. I don’t know why I agree to do anything with Blake. Or my wife. “Half of Chicago will want to fuck you.”
“I only care about my better half.”
In the open doorway, we stand there, complete strangers, and yet she’s trying to get closer and tell me she likes me while I’m the same ol’ asshole I’ve always been.
“I worry about shooting someone,” I say.
She pats my shoulder. “Don’t bring your gun, then.”
I laugh as we walk out to the car.
“Hey, Hudson,” she says as she slides into the front seat. “Were you ever in the military?”
“Navy. Why?”
