“He’s braver than me then.” He grimaces, his eyes forward at the door. “Did I hurt you?”
“Nah. I need that coffee though, more than I need protection from these people here.”
I open the door and Rhodes doesn’t give the three waiting a glance, which is really gratifying. He takes an obvious step back to the kitchen while I stand front and centre in the doorway, blocking everyone from entering. I keep my focus on Joker because he should and does know better.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he says in his surly, alpha tone.
“Glad you realise how pissed I am, Joker,” I snarl. I seriously need coffee. But instead of giving him the mouthful he deserves, I look straight at Talon. “Why are you here? Yesterday you made it pretty clear you thought my partner and I were scum. You even stood around while the people you work with dragged me away. Oh, and let’s not forget that my father and my partner are both still being held in custody by those lovely people you work for. So, if you’re here to serve a warrant, hand it over and fuck off.”
I hold my hand out, but he doesn’t move a muscle. Okay, that’s a lie. He chews his jaw so hard, one of his teeth is going to have to give pretty soon.
Hayes moves instead. He hands over a piece of paper, “It is early. We barged in and wouldn’t let Joker push us away. But you need to see this, Talon’s been working all night.”
“And what is it?” I wave the envelope around instead of looking at it. On purpose. Because if anyone gets too close, they will get a hit of my scent, and my secret is going to be busted.
Hayes answers quietly. “A photo of Reid arriving last night on a private charter with Senator Anders.”
“Well, that’s going to make today’s meeting interesting isn’t it.”
“Yeah. They weren’t travelling alone either, Raney,” he says, his eyes imploring I stop and listen to him.
“Let me guess,” I drawl slowly. “Sharlene is with them?”
He drops his eyes, but I’ve already moved my attention over to Talon. Talon’s never been able to lie, he does this weird eye twitch, but it’s always the same. “It’s true, Lolli.”
“Raney.” I correct him quick like a slap across the face. And yeah, I see the sting in his eyes. I hum dismissively before I really let loose. “Good to see the police have got their priorities right. I mean, gunning after my father and my partner with the tenacity of a fucking bulldog instead of properly locking up the wife of a Senator who nearly fucking killed me.”
Talon doesn’t even hide his contempt when he bites right back. “It is not me who decides who’s a criminal and who is not, Raney.”
I look at him, making sure I’m hearing this right. And then I glare at Joker, who is really fucking slow to catch on this morning.
“Fuck you.” I jab my finger at Talon. “And you. And fuck you too, Joker,” I hiss before I step back and slam the door in their faces. Spinning around, I walk straight into Puck, literally.
He tucks one of his arms around me protectively, holding me to his chest before he gets ready to catch the door as it flies open. Talon won’t be able to leave my dismissal of them be. And it’s exactly what happens too. Except Puck’s there blocking the door from opening wider than a couple of feet.
“You are not fucking welcome here, Talon. Fuck off. You too, Hayes.” Puck’s voice somehow mimics Koz’s; it’s ice cold and not at all welcoming.
But then I move before any of them do, ducking under Puck’s arm, my hand lingering for a sweet moment before I give him a little shove in the direction of the front door.
“Rhodes, can you please do your thing? Everyone out. I’m eating breakfast alone,” I say. Not waiting for an argument, and definitely not waiting for any reaction either.
Leaving him to sort out the mess behind me, I climb back on the kitchen stool and open up the laptop Rhodes collected. I’m not surprised Sharlene’s decided to make an appearance at the lawyer’s office; there’s no way she’d pass up an opportunity to gloat in my face that her sons are finally free of any bond or arrangement.
The absurdity of it all is not lost on me. I’ve been trying to get the forms signed for years, but apparently this is what Reid has been waiting for—his mother to finish her ridiculously inadequate sentence of home detention before she can sit across from me. But I’m all for it—I’ll gladly look her in the eye when I sign those forms just to show her how fucking far I’ve come. In fact, it’s an easy decision right there and then to not go in with a face full of makeup so she can see the scars she left behind.
Sitting at the kitchen counter, I log in to Koz’s business mainframe and start completing the deals he ran through with me earlier. I get so caught up in finalising the order for the Russians that I miss when Rhodes re-joins me in the kitchen. He lets me work and gets busy making coffee.
Once done, I start going back through and deleting my history, cleaning up traces of my online presence. It’s actually ridiculously easy to do when you know how. Logging off the laptop, I grab my phone and check my emails to make sure that the airline booking comes through so the people trying to get something on Koz are appeased. It’s a convoluted game in motion, but so is life.
“Rhodes, can you arrange extra security for us? I want to be gone from here within the hour. And if you can give Giuseppe a call, or I will, but I’m not staying here. I’ll have to attend the meeting at the lawyer’s within a few hours, but after that I’m disappearing. And clearly, I don’t want anyone but you aware of my movements. While I shower, if you can get a message over to Puck, I don’t want him coming today, if you can give him your phone number. Tell him we’re staying here, but I need some time alone. Make some bullshit up, but that’s the only person who needs to know. I mean no one else. I don’t care if Joker…”
He interrupts me. “You shower and do what you need, and I’ll arrange everything else, Ma’am.”
“I’ll need a new phone too. I’ll leave this one here along with pretty much everything I brought, so we’ll also need to do a bit of shopping, but I can do that in the car.”
“Of course.” He nods. And I leave him in the kitchen fixing a mess that is the last thing I need right now.
I take my time showering, washing my hair and using nearly half a bottle of unscented body wash and shampoo before I slather copious amounts of scent blocker over my skin. It’s lucky I had them leftover in my bathroom. Sadly, the pack from Unity Collegiate is pretty much a dud. They sent over four days’ worth of blockers, a couple of sample tubes of cream, and a t-shirt. It’s a good t-shirt, super soft and silky but a fucking t-shirt!
