I traced my thumb over thewinged shield above the name, embossed into the cardboard. Cute.
“Huh.” I said, tucking thecard in my pocket with a tiny smile. “Personal security like…”
“Like a bodyguard,” heresponded with a broad grin. “Hot profession, right?”
“Hot profession,” I agreed. “Goodnight,Grayson.”
Gray chuckled, his eyes softand warm and inviting. I wished, right then, that we’d met differently. That Icould maybe consider having a little more time with him.
But I knew better.
“Night, Miles,” he said,darting in and kissing me on the cheek, then slipping away, heading for thedoor as he buttoned and zipped his jeans. “Nice to meet you, too.”
I watched the door swingclosed behind him, and sighed.
That had been enough. Ithadto be enough.
It was all I was allowed tohave.
TWO
GRAY
“GOOD NIGHT, GRAY my love,”Fox crooned from the office doorway, drawing my attention.
“Night, Fox,” I said, tryingnot to smile at the pet name. Fox was one of the good guys—one of thebestguys—and I waslucky to have him working with me. Even if his relocation to the land of thefree, home of the brave from Merry Old England had made him even more insufferablyBritish than he had been back when we were both still enlisted.
“Do you feel any need to putmoney on whether or not Mrs. Henderson’s husband is, in fact, an adulterer?”
I looked up. “You knowsomething.”
Fox smiled one of his slow,coy smiles. “Grindris a fantastic resource for the private investigator. I have a date.”
“Don’t sleep with the client’shusband,” I warned.
I was fairly sure Foxwouldn’t, but I figuredif I told him not to, it wasn’t my fault if hedid. Being in chargeof a private security company was harder than it looked, and I wasn’t sure I had thehang of it. We’d only been in business six months.
On the other hand, no onehad died yet. That was a good track record, right?
“I was planning on lettinghim get as far as propositioning me in person,” Fox said. “And then providingthe recording and the messages to his wife.”
I wasn’t sure that wasa good plan, but Fox was the PI. He had a license and everything. Heprobablyknew what he wasdoing.
Honestly, he was one of veryfew people I would have trusted with my life. I figured I could afford to trusthim with his side of the business, even if he was deliberately making it soundlike a bad idea. He joked, but he also knew his shit.
That was why we got along sowell, I figured. He could take things seriously without taking themtooseriously, and I liked to think I was the same.
“Well, good luck with that,”I said as he headed for the door, already picturing the sly grin on his face ashe drew poor Mr. Henderson into his trap.
I didn’t feeltoomuch sympathyfor the guy, though. He was getting what he deserved for sneaking around behindhis wife’sback. Fox got alotof cheating husbands to look into.
I knew he would have likedmore of a challenge, but the spring in his step told me that there wassomething to be said for the thrill of the chase, too. He’d have a goodnight even though he wasn’t about to get laid.
Probably.Probablynot about to get laid, although knowing Fox he’d just pick someone upwherever he’d arranged to meet Mr. Henderson. Fox was the kind of man who couldhave anyone he wanted for the night.
Once Fox’s footsteps hadfaded in the hall, I closed my laptop and sat back, gathering the energy to gohome. It was just as well Fox was about to bring in a paycheck, because we wereabout to really need one if another client didn’t show soon.
Growing pains, I toldmyself. All businesses went through them. We had plenty of happy clients tospread the good word.
