Page 64 of Exposed

“Sorry,” I whisper.

But seriously.

A wedding? My wedding? And at The Pink?

I will my heart to slow as we walk to King’s car. He beeps the locks and opens the passenger door for me. I climb in and finally breathe a sigh of relief.

King is in the car, and we’re out of the parking lot in no time.

“We’re on our way out. Did you get all of that?”

I turn to him. “Are you talking to me?”

“No. I’m talking to Brax and Micah.”

The Bluetooth immediately rings over the speakers.He touches the screen to connect the call before reaching over to give my hand a squeeze.

I hold on and don’t let go. I pull it closer to me, wrap my other hand around our connection, and close my eyes.

We’re alone, and we don’t have to fake it for anyone.

But I don’t care.

That was too much.

“That was a fucking lot,” Micah says as his voice booms through the car. “Do you know how close we were to coming in?”

King takes a left turn out of The Pink. I’ve never been so relieved.

“I do know. I thought I was going to have to give you the signal. That did not go the way I planned. I was counting on Dex to be more motivated by money than revenge. It appears he holds a grudge.”

I interject into the conversation without being asked. “I could’ve told you that.”

King glances over at me. “You could’ve filled me in on that little bit of information.”

I shake my head. “He’s the leader of a cartel. I assumed you’d know that.”

“Let’s agree from here on out that I know nothing,” King says. “Before we walk into the lion’s den, I need to know everything so I can be prepared.”

My eyes go wide, and I turn to him in disbelief. “Like you’re one to talk. I’m pregnant, King. Pregnant! That’s kind of a big deal and would’ve been nice to know.”

“I came up with that on the fly,” he bites as he merges onto the interstate. “You’ve never done this, but sometimes you have to improvise.”

“Oh, please school me on the ins and outs of undercover work. You said yourself you hardly ever do this. Don’t act like you’re the expert. I’m not sure if you remember our first meeting. There wasnothing smooth about you. You were so awkward. I wrote it off to you having social anxieties.”

King doesn’t take his eyes off the traffic, hits the gas to change lanes, and hops into the HOV. “I spent years fighting in deserts, jungles, and every other crevice of hell on earth. I do not have one fucking ounce of anxiety.”

“You did that day,” I argue. All the tension from our time with Dex has exploded, and I hardly recognize myself. I never argue with anyone. “You were awkward as heck. All I’m saying is that Dex was not going to take your deal until I agreed for us to be married at The Pink. I know Dex. He doesn’t do anything unless it’s on his terms. We had to give in to something to get out of there in one piece, and you weren’t relenting to anything.”

King throws me a frustrated glare. “If I gave in to his terms too fast, he would’ve seen right through me, and I would’ve come across weak. I was planning on giving him whatever percentage he wanted, I just needed a minute.”

“He wasn’t going to agree without more. The minute we sat down at dinner and he tried to make small talk with me about trying to make it on my own as a wedding planner, I knew what he was doing.”

“Baby, you don’t have to tell me what he was doing. I knew what he wanted the moment he wouldn’t take the meet with me without you there.”

Baby?

We’re alone.

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