She nodded with a frown.
Totally adorable.
He stepped out of the bedroom with a wide smile on his face to find Ralen walking into the house
“Someone looks happy with himself,” Ralen commented sourly. “Probably because you didn’t have to go deal with the dark ogre.”
“Dark Ogre? That’s a new one.”
“Well, he is an ogre, and he’s got a face like a black thunder cloud. Therefore, he’s the Dark Ogre. Actually, now that I’m starting to say that, it sounds too cool. Maybe the wart-ridden ogre from under the bridge.”
“I’m pretty sure it’s a troll that’s under a bridge,” Cash told him as he grabbed one of the bags off the table and started searching through it.
Ralen just grunted. “Troll will work. Actually, troll might work better. What about if a troll and an ogre had a baby? Could that be Titus?”
“I take it that Titus was in a really good mood this afternoon,” Cash said.
“Got into me. Said that we’re not doing our job properly, that we’re distracted. I asked him what the fuck he wanted us to do. If Alejandro’s men couldn’t find Ortega, there’s no use in us going to where he was last located. If he was even there in the first place. If Ortega doesn’t want to be found, then very few people would be able to find him.”
Cash didn’t point out that he’d used that exact same argument with Ralen. He always tried to do the opposite of what Titus wanted.
Thankfully, this time it worked in Cash’s favor. If Ortega had gone underground, he must have his reasons.
“I’ll send Ortega another message,” Cash said.
Ralen nodded with a sigh. “I’ve already done that. The truth is that I am starting to get worried. I don’t see why he wouldn’treply to us. Titus is up in arms because Bonnie is getting upset. Even though they’re not related, you know she still thinks of Ortega as family. Not to mention the fact that Dante is getting increasingly worried.”
Shit. What were they going to do?
“Alejandro’s guys are going to widen their search,” Ralen explained. “They’re going to take it step by step and work their way back toward New York to see if they can figure anything out. If we work on the assumption that he was headed this way, perhaps we should do the opposite. And work our way back here.”
“Yeah, guess that sounds logical. But it could also be a waste of time.”
“I know, but I don’t think we can just sit around and hope for the best. Let’s give him a bit longer to reply. Then we’ll go.”
Cash nodded, picking up the bags of stuff he’d asked Ralen to get. “Thanks for this.”
Ralen gave him a smug smile. “No problem. I’m sure the two of you are going to enjoy yourselves this afternoon. Anything else I can do? Put in some earplugs? Play some music really loud?”
Cash shot him a look. “It’s not like that. We’re not . . . this isn’t about sex or attraction. Addie needs a Daddy and I enjoy taking care of her. That’s all it is. Nothing more.”
Addie closed the bedroom door.She’d finished her lines and had wanted to see what Cash was doing.
All right. She hadn’t actually finished all of her lines. She’d done fifty, and she was hoping that would be enough. She’d also wanted to shake out her hand because she’d written them really fast, and now it was cramping. Plus, some of the words didn’t look very legible. Was he going to judge her on penmanship?
Anyway, none of that mattered now as she sat down and tried to process what she’d just heard.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise. She’d already known that this wasn’t going anywhere. Soon, they’d both go their separate ways.
It was about mutual benefit not mutual attraction.
Nope, the attraction was all one-sided because she was very much attracted to him. She’d kind of hoped that he might be a tiny bit attracted to her. After all, he’d said that she could touch him whenever and however she wanted.
But she guessed it didn’t really mean much. Just that he liked being touched.
Perhaps the reason she was so attracted to him was because he was the first man to pay any real attention to her.
Actually, no. She knew she’d be interested in him no matter what. How could she not be? He was the sexiest man she’d ever seen in her life, and that included on TV or in movies.
