The passenger door opened. “Get the fuck in,” Cole said with a sigh.
“So sweet to me, honeybee.” Will got in beside him and blew a sarcastic kiss at his companion. “Now will you let me finish my damn point?”
“I assume you want to talk to one of the other guests Marcus invited to the party last night.”
“Mm, yeah. I’m thinking Nessie.”
Cole’s lips thinned. “Vanessa…dislikes me.”
“I know.”
Everybody knew. Nessie had made a bet with Cole five years ago about who could lift the most expensive thing from a guest at the Met Gala. Will hadn’t been around for that one, but from the way he’d heard it Nessie had gone after a historical Cartier diamond necklace worth over ten million dollars and had only managed to get it thanks to a strategic fountain dunking. When she’d presented herself in damp triumph at the afterparty, though, Cole had showed her the phone he’d lifted from a tech mogul that was directly connected to his crypto wallet. He’d drained the man’s account of almost three hundred million dollars that night, right in front of Nessie’s face.
Needless to say, she’d never forgiven him for showing her up so comprehensively.
Will got it. Crypto was imaginary money that rich people had made up to make themselves even richer, and it was bullshitthat it counted for more in this world than a physical, tangible object. Nessie and Will were cut from the same cloth, and feeling more and more old-school in a world where hacking skills were a requirement for pulling off big jobs. Cole was the kind of savant who could do both, and Will would be lying if he said he wasn’t at all jealous.
He’d never tell him that, though.
“She likes me well enough,” he continued. “And she lives close to here, so we don’t even have to travel out of state.” That was another way they were alike; Nessie very firmly believed in having a home base.
“Why does she like you?” Cole asked reluctantly.
Will batted his eyelashes at the other man. “Baby, the only person who dislikes me in our circles is you.”
Cole laughed. “Bullshit.”
Okay, maybe that was a sliiight exaggeration, but… “We went on a double date once and both the guys ended up being assholes. She helped me, I helped her, it worked out.” It was as detailed as Will was going to get—that particular story wasn’t his to tell, but he knew Cole could read between the lines.
Cole sighed and took off his sunglasses. He glared at Will and for a moment, Will couldn’t quite breathe right. Cole looked tired, cranky, and unfairly gorgeous even sitting in a battered Subaru. “You get that this is a perfect example of why we’d work better on our own, right? Vanessa won’t even let me past her front door.”
Will smiled again. “I’ve spent an unholy amount of time working on ranches, honeybee, and if there’s one thing I know how to do by now it’s mend fences. I’ll have you two on a brunch-bitch basis before sundown.”
“Good luck with that.”
Challenge accepted.
“Go away.”
Will pouted at the ring cam. “Aw, c’mon Nessie, don’t be like that.” He felt more than a little exposed here, outside the hubbub of the inner city on a charming, tree-lined street with no visible trash or rats. City and country, Will knew how to deal with, but suburbs? Not so much.
“You bring thatbastardto my door, after one of theworstnights of my life?—”
“You weren’t even arrested!”
“—and you expect me to just let you waltz in like you own the place? To hell with youandCole Dalton!”
“We’re not the people responsible for what happened last night,” Cole spoke up.
“Shut up,” Will hissed.
“Oh, so what,I’mto blame for ruining a vintage Chanel evening gown?I’mto blame for not intuiting the chaos that was about to erupt? Howdareyou?”
Will sighed, then got face-to-face with the camera. “One question and then we’ll leave,” he promised. “And I’ll look for somethin’ real nice for you the next time I’m at your favorite store.”
There was a pause. “You’re banned from the Kensington location.”
True, but there were ways around that. “I’ll make it happen anyway.”
