Page 17 of Best Man For The Job

He piled food onto a plate. After setting it in front of her, he took the seat beside her with his own plate. They ate in companionable silence, until finally she looked over at him as he read the paper.

“So what now?”

“Now we sit tight and wait.”

“Wait for what, exactly?”

“For me to get some reliable intel so we can find this guy. Until then, you’ll stay here with me. I can keep you safe.”

“What about your job?”

“I can do everything I need to for my current workload from the comfort of my home office. So don’t worry. Okay?”

“Okay,” she sighed.

“What, no argument?”

“You’re right. No sense arguing.”

Sloane finished her breakfast quietly. She cleared their dishes from the table. She was startled when the wall phone rang by her head.

Max pushed to his feet and walked over to grab it. “Hello.”

There was a long pause before Max turned, his body stiffening slightly. He handed his phone out toward her. Sloane took it, a questioning look no doubt on her face. Max looked less than happy.

“It’s for you.”

For her? Foster and Bella must be wondering what in the world was going on. Maybe she could stay with them for a few days instead. She took the phone from Max’s outstretched hand.

“Hello?”

“Sloane, honey, are you okay?” Brody’s voice boomed through the handset.

“I’m fine. How did you know I was here?”

“I called Foster. He reamed me out pretty good after he told me what happened.”

She looked at Max. He casually leaned against the doorframe, his arms crossed in front of him. He was so damn striking that it was harder than she would have thought to pay attention to the conversation she was having. Watching him was too distracting. Mentally, she took a deep breath, fortifying her resolve to not even think about falling for a man like him. It would only lead to heartache and she’d had enough of that in her life. Her gaze fixed on anything other than the handsome man in the room with her. See, look how interesting the stove was.

“Where were you?”

“I was home, honey. My phone died so I had it charging. I’ll be more careful in the future.”

“Your phone was dead all night?”

Sloane could feel the pinpricks of tears forming in her eyes. Even though she had no real way of knowing for sure, deep down she knew Brody was lying. She risked a glance up at Max. The anger coming off of him was almost visible. Could he hear Brody on the other end of the line? She must look like a damn fool. Everyone at the station knew about Brody’s indiscretions. They were the perfect alibi for him. All except Foster. He was like Big Brother, always watching out for her, even when she didn’t want him to.

“Of course not, but I went to sleep while it was still charging. I’m sorry, honey. Do you want me to come get you? I can drop you at your apartment before I go to the station.”

“No, I’ll be fine.”

“With Max?”

Brody’s loving boyfriend façade started to slip. There was an underlying hostility in his voice, and it grew stronger with each word he spoke. It almost sounded like jealousy, which was ridiculous—he had never been the jealous type in the past. Then again, she had never given him a reason to be.

“Are you fucking him, Sloane?”

“No. My God, how can you even think that? I’m not like you, Brody. I don’t fuck everything with a dick just because I can.”

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