“All right, I’m just kidding. Kinda. Those are important things too but I guess the biggest thing is I want someone who’s loyal. Being married to a cop ain’t easy. I need someone I can trust to leave at home and not have to worry about if she’ll be there waiting for me when I get off. A woman who wants kids and a family but still thinks it’s important to take care of her man, too.” Nitro lifted his head with a low groan. Mike laughed and rubbed a hand over his neck. “Oh, and someone who is willing to love this big baby.”
My heart warmed and ached all at the same time.
“Well trust me, Mike, we exist. I would wait for Reid every night if I needed to, and I know I’m not the only one. There are a lot of women out there who would be lucky to have a good man like you.”
“I’m a man who knows what he wants. And for some reason, the women I’ve met don’t seem to understand that. They say I’mtoohonest. That I move too fast because I’m upfront about what I want. But I don’t see the need in wasting time together if we’re not on the same page from the beginning. And I’m tired of chasing down ass every night.”
I wondered just how muchchasinghe actually had to do. Mike was a good-looking guy. A giant compared to most, he was tall and lean with a ruggedness to him that was so alluring. You could tell he’d seen things. Things no one in their right mind would ever want to see. But there was a softness to him, too. It was obvious his heart was much bigger than his ego, though I believed it didn’t suffer much.
“You know, Mike, I think I may have the perfect girl for you.”
He leaned forward, curiosity sparking in his green eyes. “I’m listening.”
“My roommate, Max. She’s kind of a homebody, but she loves to cook, loves animals, and writes about sex.”
“What do you mean she writes about sex?”
“She’s a romance author.”
“And she writes about sex?”
“She writes about other stuff too but with lots of sex.”
“A woman with an imagination, now that’s an ass I’d chase,” he said with a wink.
“Only one condition if I’m going to hook you up, Mike.”
He grinned. “Anything.”
“You have to promise not to break her heart.”
“Darlin’, if she’s everything you just described, I pray like hell she doesn’t break mine.”
Iwas on my way to meet the point of contact for the bust when Ryder called me with bad news.
“What the fuck do you mean it’s empty?”
“By the time our team arrived, there was nothing there. Someone must have tipped them off.”
“What about the Intel?”
“They were sent on a self-destructing hard drive. Motherfucker shut down our whole system. Thank God we had Oakley though. He’s working to restore it now and can hopefully salvage at least some of that data.”
“Now what?”
“We need to find Krull Karter. We don’t think he is involved with any of his father’s dealings but he may know where Dante is. We think he might have left the country.”
“Let me take care of that.” It’s time Krull and I had it out once and for all.
It should have happened a long time ago.
“Last known address is Chicago but phone records show he’s been in Vegas for the last week.”
Vegas was only four hours from me.
“Shoot me the address.”
“Coming your way now.”
