The building wasmadefor it, honestly.Word is the architect who designed this building had Blackwell’s in mind, which I can totally see.
So when Yari made the call, and actually got him on the line, I was practically crawling out of my skin.
Naturally, it took some going. Dr. Lemuel Love, PhDisa professional, after all—more so than all of my doctors combined. He doesn’t simply take sketchy-sounding job offers from strangers over the phone. But I knew we had our man when he called back, asking all kinds of grumbly, robotic questions.
It was really him.TheDr.Melvin Strange.
Eep!
The salary I had to offer to get him here is no second-hand Subaru, but it’s fine.I’ll just take it out of the budget we don’t have.
In fact, I’m headed to a board meeting as we speak, to inform them of Dr. Love’s scheduled arrival and request some additional funding I know they won’t give me.
“Dr. Love signed his NDA,” Yari tells me, practically beaming.
He’s excited for me, and it’s cute. Yari really is the best possible assistant for me, which is odd considering that he has no connections to the cartel whatsoever, and was an escort for most of his adult life.
To think, my drunken one night stand turned into a flourishing professional relationship. Turns out, all I needed to finally nail down the perfect assistant was tonail downthe perfect assistant.Nudge nudge wink wink.
Peeking across the backseat of the SUV, I show him a pleasant grin. “I am so excited to meet him.”
“What do you think he’ll be like?” Yari asks, almost dreamily.
I have to try not to laugh.Let’s not get carried away here.“Based on how he sounds on the phone, verybuttoned up doctor. But we know there’s another side to him, if that book is any indication…That’sthe part I want to uncover.”
“I hope you two become friends,” he chirps. “You could use one.”
I shoot him a look. “I don’t get to have friends, Yaricito. You know that.”
“Psshh.” He waves me off, back in his phone. “I think you need a friend to keep you from going full Voldemort.”
That time a small one sneaks out. “I have the next best thing… Employees.” I smirk, and he rolls his eyes. “You, Kent, Paulino, Max… Jonathan.”
There wasn’t supposed to be a pause in between those, but therewas, and of course he noticed it.
Damn kid’s like an auditor. He misses nothing.
“When’s the last time you just sat and shot the shit with Jonathan?” He lifts an accusatory brow. Perfectly trimmed, with those two lines in the left one, like he’s a G or something.
My lips twitch. “That’s not fair. I don’t shoot the shit with Kent either.”
“You know what I mean,” he mutters. “If Jonathan’s really your friend, maybe you should let him know it.”
“First of all, I didn’t say he was myfriend, I said he was myemployee,” I grumble, becoming annoyed by this conversation.
It happens pretty effortlessly any time Officer Chevelle is involved. Things have been tense between us for years, and I refuse to think about what it means.
“As areyou, don’t forget that, chico.”
“Yes, sir.” He shifts subtly, and bites his lip. I squint at him.
I might need to fuck him later. We’ll see how the rest of the night goes.
We reach the office in Midtown late in the evening; our usual private suite in the lawyer’s office. These meetings always take place after hours, since it’s all veryhush-hush. For as much as I own this city, I sort of come and go like a phantom, appearing here and there for various business dealings, popping up to threaten people when I need to, then vanishing into the night.
I like it that way. Hiding in plain sight only works if you do theplain sightpart well. I attend the occasional event or function, but I make it a point to remain as mysterious as possible. I’ve earned the ability to get away withliteralmurder, and I pay handsomely to ensure my name wouldn’t dare be uttered byanyone.
Unless they’re summoning me like Beetlejuice.
