Page 20 of Nevada

I open the box and she picks out a sugared cream-filled donut. “A woman after my own heart,” I laugh. “And no, Sugar Lips, I don’t wonder. I like bein’ single. Not like my bedpost is runnin’ out of notches anytime soon.” Okay, so I’m also an asshole. Even though I haven’t been getting any lately, I’ve still got a reputation to uphold. Can’t go around letting the women of the club think I’m getting soft.

“Charming.” She rests the donut on a coaster next to her empty cup. “Thanks.”

I don’t budge. “You gonna eat that?”

She gives me an exasperated look; her lips almost quirk in a smile. “So you can watch me eat it and put the memory in your spank bank for later? I don’t think so. I’ve got work to do, unless you want to come help me with the financial reports for several businesses whose ledgers aren’t balancing?”

“So cold.” I grin. “But I love it when you talk finance geek shit, it turns me on.”

“Goodbye, Nevada.”

I finger wave as I chuckle, leaving her office to cross over into the one opposite.

Rock’s already here, much to my relief.

“Yo, big boy.” I set the open box of donuts down on the desk. “How’s it hangin’?”

He looks up from one of several screens around the desk. “It’s hangin’ fine, my ol’ lady’s not complainin’. What about you? Heard you went home alone last night?”

I run a hand through my hair and take a seat on the opposite side of the desk. “Had too much to drink,” I lie. Even though I did have an offer for a blow job in the men’s room by some random chick, I wasn’t into it. By the time I got back from dealing with Star, I pathetically wanted to go home and sleep so tomorrow would come around quicker. I’m fucked. So fucking fucked.

He gives me a suspicious look with narrowed brows. “Who was that chick?”

“Which chick?”

“The hot one with chestnut hair and an ass you could sink your teeth into?”

I grind my teeth. Rock may be happily loved up with Aspyn, but that doesn’t mean that he isn’t gonna look. “She’s someone I met a few weeks ago at the Whiskey Straight. As it happens, I need some intel on her.”

“She seemed like she wasn’t enjoyin’ you too much, bro. Draggin’ a woman out by the hair kinda gives it away.”

“It was by the elbow,” I mutter, though pulling on her hair is something I imagined doing while squeezing my dick again this morning. “She came into the bar lookin’ for Brew and Haze because her sister’s been missing; she thinks she’s caught up in the sex trafficking ring we just busted open a few months back.”

“And you wanna help her?”

I guess I do. Ever since I saw the look on her face — distressed and distraught over her sister — I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.

“I wanna make sure she doesn’t get herself arrested. She pulled a fuckin’ knife on me in the bar.”

Rock’s eyebrows shoot up. “She got a death wish?”

“She’s a PI but acts like a regular G.I. Jane. Trust me, she might be pretty but she’s got a mouth on her like you wouldn’t believe.”

“Gimme some details.”

I reel off her name — her real one — and then Rock taps around on the keyboard. “Probably gonna take me a little while to get into the system, but I can email what I find over to you when I do.”

“I need her address,” I tell him. “Where she works, that kinda thing.” She must have an office somewhere. I did stalk her Facebook business page that led me to her website but it only had a PO Box. Maybe she works from home?

His eyes meet mine. “For work purposes I assume?”

I rub my chin. “If we’re callin’ it that.”

“Kinda hot she’s a Private Eye.”

“No shit.”

He must be on her webpage. “You seen her website?”

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