Brant nods a bit guiltily. “She was sopping wet and so fucking cute. I couldn’t help it.”
I close my mouth, swallowing my lecture. “Can’t argue with that.”
“Can’t argue with what?”
We both look behind us at Madix standing there, still holding a bucket and wearing the gloves.
“How’s the OCD?” I ask like a jackass.
“Eat shit,” Madix retorts. “Did you guys get her to agree to leave as soon as the storm passes?”
Brant and I exchange a guilty look. “We’re working on it,” I say.
Madix levels a look at me, unimpressed. “You haven’t even tried yet, have you?”
“Nope.”
“Get to fucking work. This is still a retrieval mission. I don’t want to disappoint Sheriff April, but I’m also not going to stay here with this crazy chick. I want to get back to our place where all of our supplies are and ride this shit out.”
“We know,” Brant says, running a hand across his jaw. “But we can’t go anywhere until this storm passes.”
I nod in agreement. “The dirt road is like a river right now, dude.”
“Then we leave as soon as it clears up,” Madix says without missing a beat. He starts heading back to the hallway, where he passes Remi as she walks out of her bedroom. “Looks like we’ll have to stay the night, so I’ll get the sheets and blankets washed,” he tells her. “Towels, too.”
Remi blinks at his back as he continues to walk. “Wow. You’re serious about this cleaning stuff.”
“Yep,” he replies as he continues forward and then disappears into her bedroom without invitation.
“Sorry,” Brant says with embarrassment, while Remi just blinks at the spot where Madix was. “He can be...intense.”
Remi turns to face us and walks into the kitchen, and we follow her in. We all stop in the doorway in surprise. The place is gleaming. Literally. I can see my reflection in the stovetop.
“Wow. He’s hired,” Remi announces, her head swiveling from side to side as she takes it all in. “What’s his foreplay game like? Is he this attentive as a lover?” she asks seriously. I’m barely able to hold in my laugh when she turns her expectant eyes on me.
“Jesus, you just come right out with it, don’t you?” Brant asks with a snort.
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I?” she replies, looking at him like she really doesn’t understand the question, but the innocent look morphs into a smirk. “Oh, I forgot, only men like sex and actively pursue orgasms. My bad.”
I chuckle, not sure how to respond to that, but I’m turned on by it all the same. Brant seems to be feeling the same way, judging by the sheepish smile he’s wearing. He rubs his short mohawk with one hand and discreetly adjusts himself with the other. This chick is trouble, in all the best ways, and I don’t think the three of us have even seen the half of it.
9
Madix
Iaggressively attack the smudge on the mirror in the bedroom before I realize that it’s a defect of the glass, and it’s not coming off no matter how hard I scrub at it. That would irritate me to no end. If I lived here, I’d have to replace the damn thing.
I put my back to the mirror and run my gaze over the bedroom, double checking that I tackled everything in here and it’s now up to a standard I can live with. I exhale a sigh of relief, able to relax just a little for the first time since we chased crazy in the shape of the hot blonde through the front door. All in all, the place wasn’t as bad my first glance convinced me it was, but now everything is gleaming and sanitized, and I can move around without getting the fucking heebie jeebies. She lets way too many fucking animals inside her house.
My stomach grumbles, and I grab all of my supplies and head back into the kitchen, finally relenting to my hunger pains and conceding that I need food. When I walk into the room, I see Brant and Theo sitting at the table and Remington moving around the kitchen making sandwiches. I put the cleaning supplies away and snap off the rubber gloves. I wash and then dry my hands on the clean towel I just pulled from the dryer an hour go. I shoot Brant a questioning look, and the answering shrug of his shoulders tells me that they still haven’t explained to this chick that we need to leave as soon as the roads are passable.
Of course they haven’t taken the bull by the horns, or in this case the hot weird girl by the pink combat boots. Despite what we’re here to do, they keep getting distracted, although maybe I’m not one to judge, since I’ve just spent most of the day cleaning her house.
I clear my throat, knowing that I’ll have to do this myself. “Remington, we need to talk about the plan after the storm ends,” I announce.
She gives me a passing glance and then goes back to sandwich making.
I soldier on. “You’re pretty secluded out here, which is good, but it doesn’t change what’s happening out there in the rest of the country. People will start leaving the cities and flocking out to less populated areas in an effort to limit their exposure. Who knows how long it will be before a group stumbles on this place,” I tell her.
