“Yeah?” Chase replied over his shoulder.
“The guys want to ask Jade a couple of things about the living room.”
“I’ll be right there, Bob.” Jade started to move, but Chase kept her in place by putting his hands on the top of the chest of drawers alongside her shoulders. As Bob left, she looked up at Chase. “What?”
Chase cocked a brow and lowered his head. “That’s what.”
Jade followed his gaze to the hard bulge in the crotch of his jeans and bit her lower lip. Ever so innocently, she asked, “Did I do that to you?”
“Yes.”
“It will be my pleasure to help you with that later, cowboy.” She stuffed the top of her stockings over his belt buckle, ducked under his arm, and gave his butt a saucy swat before sashaying out of the bedroom.
“Dammit,” Chase chuckled, looking down at the black silk.
* * *
“Damn Chase Cooper to Hades!”Franco shouted at the top of his lungs in the living room.
“Calm down, Franco,” Mateo said.
“No!” Whirling away from Mateo and Ragsdale, Franco threw a scalpel at the painting of Jade. “Damn you, too, you ungrateful whore!” The scalpel hit the canvas, slicing open the forehead. “Bitch!”
“That cut is symbolic, Franco!” Mateo blared at him. “You are losing the cognitive control, impulse inhibition, and problem-solving capabilities of your prefrontal lobe! Take another pill or snort something.”
“Don’t tell me what to do.” Franco pulled a second scalpel out of his pocket and stalked a couple of paces toward Ragsdale. “I need Chase dead!”
“I want him dead too,” Ragsdale said quickly, raising his hands in a defensive move. “He broke my nose for no reason, cost me a rich brunette, and a winning hand in poker. Don’t forget, since Lester was too chickenshit to take Chase on for you, I offered my services.”
“Yes, in exchange for fixing your nose, Ragsdale,” Franco scoffed, expertly twirling the scalpel between his fingers without cutting himself. “Which I will do only when the job with Chase is finished.”
“At least I got the trunk out of there along with the baby picture.”
“You left my tracker on her VW.”
Ragsdale flinched. “Yeah, well, I said I was sorry about that. I can still get it.”
“Really?” Franco asked sarcastically. “You already tried and failed, didn’t you? You just admitted when you went back for the tracker her car was gone.” Taking a step closer to Ragsdale, he asked, “And didn’t you also report Chase’s moving her out of the home I generously provided for her as we speak?”
“You charged her rent, Franco,” Mateo pointed out.
“Yeah, well.” Ragsdale glanced at Mateo and then shrugged at Franco. “I know where his ranch is and where he parks his vehicles. I swear I’ll get the tracker.”
“Count me out,” Mateo said. “I have enough on my plate. I’m done.”
“You’re done when I say so, brother dear.”
* * *
“We’re done,”Chase said to Jade. “Let’s roll.”
“I’m ready.”
On the one hand, Jade knew Chase had stayed longer than he’d wanted to, indulging her need to make sure her possessions would have a safe trip out to his ranch. On the other hand, with all of them working together, the move had gone a lot faster than they’d anticipated. Against her protests, Chase had paid the movers in full. The van had already pulled out and was following Bob to the ranch. She and Chase paused to say goodbye to Bill and Carol, who had come outside to bid them farewell. Now that the moving van was gone, Bella was back outside, too, so Jade picked her up for a farewell hug.
“We always have a Fourth of July cookout on my ranch. I hope you can come,” Chase said to the neighbors who had been so kind to Jade.
“We’d love to,” Bill said. “Wouldn’t we, Carol?”
