“Are you sure it’s the liver and not the intestine?” I close one eye, wondering if I have the organs backward in my mind. Maybe the champagne is messing with my knowledge of anatomy.
“The fuck,” Damon says, stepping out of the car. “You kill someone and hit a fucking kill switch.”
“Let’s not be throwing accusations around,” Mac says defensively. “The club has backup lights and generators.” This is true. It’s a new building code if a place can hold a largeamount of people to help stop chaos from ensuing. “And it’s only temporary. We have five minutes.”
“Yeah, and he’s not dead.” Yet. Blood is pooling out all around him, his eyes falling closed. “Okay, now he’s dead.”
Damon mutters a string of curses. “It’s cold out! You know how hard it is to dig a hole right now?”
“It’s warmed up today,” Mac huffs, holding her arms over her chest.
“Do you need me to take the body?” I spin around to see Paxton casually standing there. I hear Damon pull out a gun.
“Don’t shoot. It’s Mr. Winks-a-Lot.”
“Winks a what?” Damon asks, confused.
“Her fiancé,” Mac corrects as he walks right past me. Damon still has his gun trained on him.
“I have not agreed to marry him.” Now I’m the one getting defensive.
“I’m pulling out my weapon,” he tells us. I hold my hand out to tell Damon to stand down. He would rather not listen, but he does.
Paxton pulls a gun out in one smooth move and flips it in his hand, bringing down the butt of the gun on the lock of the club door.
“We don’t need a random stumbling out here.” Paxton flips and reholsters his gun.
Mac elbows me in the side. “Don’t drool.”
“What?” I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand, and she snorts a laugh. I elbow her back.
“Do I need to handle the body?”
“It’s kind of romantic. He wants to dispose of a body for you. This might be a match made in hell.” Mac is smiling like a giant goofball, but I can’t say she’s wrong. It’s kind of sweet.
“I can handle my own body.”
“I was only offering, Sunshine. I never thought that you couldn’t.” Why does that make me want to have another one of those kisses with him?
“Oh.” My cheeks start to get strangely hot. The alcohol—yes, it’s a side effect, I believe.
“I don’t know what’s happening,” Damon mutters, pinching his nose between his eyes.
“We have it,” I tell Paxton. I’m not fully sure what the game is. I can’t trust him even if I have this strange urge to. “Damon was fucking with you, Mac.” I glance down at the dead man, who had it coming. “We always have a few holes ready.” I flick my gaze over to Paxton. “In case you were wondering.”
Chapter Seven
PAXTON
The last thing I want to do is go to a party on the other side of the country, but I might not have much of an option. A new last-minute invite is in my inbox. I have my docks locked up tight, but politics can change things, and on the West Coast, it’s all politics. I was sure Governor Welch was a shoo-in for reelection, but now Archie Guldner is making a play for his spot.
Archie has been on my radar, but he’s on the younger side for a governor, so I was betting on him waiting a bit longer before he let it be known that he might be throwing his hat into the next election.
The Marinos might be on to something. They have a problem with a person, they snuff them out. It makes things a lot easier. They do run a cleaner shop compared to most families, but if backed into a corner, they’ll handle it no matter what has to be done.
I have never fully worked like that. A lot of what I do on the West Coast has to stay less bloody. I prefer it that way, but I have to say, watching Naomi last night could easily sway that. She was adorable in the alley. Not that I’d ever tell her that. Especially when she still had that knife in her hand.
I smile, standing up from the desk in my hotel suite, making my way over to the room service cart. I grab one of the peaches I’d requested, bringing it to my nose, and I inhale. The smell is taking me right back to last night when Naomi was close enough for me to breathe in her sweet scent. I have never been taken with a person the way I am with her. Obsessed is a better way of describing it.
