Page 77 of Our Tricks

“I’ve got to leave, beautiful, but I’ll call as soon as I’m done with this meeting. If it’s going to take longer than just a few hours, I’ll find my way back to you, okay?” he whispered, brushing the hair out of my face.

He was wearing an all-black suit with a black shirt, and it made him look sexy as hell. Running a sleepy hand down his chest, I grinned. “You’ll have to wear this on our next date. You look hot.”

Cam smiled and clasped my hand to his chest. “God, you’re making it even harder to leave this plane.”

“Go, this is important. If the CIA can help us take down Marco and make sure we don’t end up in jail for it, this will be worth it,” I reasoned with him. “Plus, I’ve never been to Washington D.C., and it will be fun to see the sights and do all the things.”

Leaning forward, he pressed another coffee-tasting kiss to my lips before he left. Pausing at the door, he looked back at me. “Love you, beautiful.”

“Love you too. Now go become a spy for the government,” I urged, blowing him a kiss.

Nodding, he left the room and shut the door to the bedroom. With a sigh, I tossed my arm over my head and tried not to think of all the ways this could go so fucking wrong.

“You know I didn’t understand the two of you being together back in college, but now he’s exactly what you need,” Harper commented as she rolled over to face me. “While I don’t support the fact you both ended up being criminals, I’ve seen enough to realize this is where you thrive. It all comes so naturally to you.”

Letting my arm slide off my face, I looked at my best friend. “It wasn’t always easy. There were times I wasn’t sure I was going to survive. Then I had a wise friend who told me that one of the things she loved most about being a designer is that if she couldn’t find what she was looking for, she’d just fucking make it. That’s exactly what I did.”

Harper pushed up on her elbow, looking down at me, shocked. “You talking about me?”

“Yes, silly.” I laughed. “Who else did I have other than you and Wes?”

“True, but there were about two years when you ghosted me,” she reminded me. “Hardly returned my calls, showed up for my birthday and Christmas, but you were so different. I wasn’t sure we could be friends, and obviously, I didn’t know the whole story of why you up and left the dorm, then finished your degree online. Hell, you didn’t even show up to graduation.”

“It was my self-righteous attempt to convince you that you were better off without me in your life,” I answered. “If I weren’t around, then you’d find a new best friend to hang out with, but you refused to follow the plan.”

“Damn right, I wasn’t going to lose my first and only best friend in my whole life,” Harper grumbled, sitting up and crossing her legs, clearly not going back to sleep. “Dax, I don’t think you get how much having a real friend who wasn’t vain, superficial, and obsessed with getting ahead in the industry meant to me. Now look at us, sitting on a private plane with our harem of men waiting out there for us to wake up.”

“Let’s not forget you’re also now a criminal,” I pointed out, poking her leg. “Miss I kidnapped a girl from the Russian mob and smuggled a tank into the US. That’s one hell of a way to make an entrance, you know?”

She rolled her eyes and started to pile her hair on her head in a messy bun. “Well, I couldn’t let you have all the fun.”

Grinning, I sat up only to tackle her in a hug. “Can I just say that I love having you around for all of this? I love my guys, but sometimes you just need a girl to talk through things. Tilly is awesome, and I think all three of us will be friends for life, but I don’t have to explain anything to you. Thank you for not letting me walk away from you.” I hugged her tight, and she returned the gesture just as tightly.

“I wanted to be so mad at you for keeping this from me, but I get it.” I narrowed my eyes at her not believing what she was saying. “Really I do. Now that I’ve seen a glimpse of what this has been like for you the past eight years, I’d have done the same thing. Do me a favor, though. Make sure at the end of this, we’ll be able to grow old and be the crazy ladies in the nursing homes talking about our glory days and all the kinky sex we had with our husbands.”

Laughing, I released her and sat up, pulling her with me so we sat facing each other. “So you’re saying we’re going to outlive our men?”

She gave me a dry look. “Seriously, have you met mine?”

“Fair, let’s hope that isn’t for a long time from now, and they help give me nieces and nephews to spoil,” I said, slipping off the bed and padding to the door, holding my finger up for her to be quiet.

Yanking the door open, Jaxson and Cognac tumbled into the room, nearly falling on their faces. After a minute, they both smiled at us, not in the least ashamed of listening in on our conversation.

“Think you can make that happen, Jaxson?” I asked with my hand on my hip.

He snorted and waved a hand. “Not a problem, we’re just waiting for the approval to remove the birth control implant, and then it’s a race to see who can get the bun in the oven fastest.”

“Wow,” Harper intoned. “You make that sound so romantic.”

That got his attention, and he instantly turned his focus to her. “Gorgeous, you know how badly we want kids with you, but we’ve respected your rule that we need to be married before you’ll let that happen.”

“Oh, no. Don’t you dare make me sound like the old-fashioned stick-in-the-mud bad guy here. Tell them why I said that,” Harper ordered.

“You want us to be married so you can take out a massive life insurance policy to support yourself and three or more kids if something ever happens to us,” Jaxson shared with a sigh. “Which we’ve told you isn’t necessary because of the money we have saved in properties, offshore accounts, and other collateral.”

“Right, and how do I explain that way of life to the government, IRS, or colleges when the time comes? If I have that legitimate and legal money, it won’t be so odd for me to be as well off as I already am. You have to think of the big picture here,” Harper chastised.

Everything about this conversation made me smile. Harper was such a realist sometimes, but it was the side effect of losing her whole family and living through these incredibly real situations.