Page 33 of Time to Bounce

“I wanted to ask you if you wanted to go to Japan with me,” I babbled. “I have these tickets. They’re paid for fully. I’m going. Next week. By myself. So I thought I’d ask if you wanted to go. With me. There.”

He was already shaking his head. “Thanks, but no thanks.”

Wow, he was short.

“But it’s a free trip,” I said. “With me.”

Wow, I sounded desperate.

But to my credit, I really didn’t want to do this trip by myself.

He patted my shoulder like he was consoling a sullen child, then said, “Go home, Athena.”

I looked down at my lap, then nodded once.

Reaching for my window, I started to roll it up, but his angry words had me halting.

“Don’t read more into it than there actually was,” he snarled.

With my tail tucked between my legs, I rolled the window the rest of the way up, put my car in drive, and sped out of the parking lot.

May your coffee kick in before reality does.

—Coffee Cup

GABLE

I felt like utter shit for what I’d said.

I should’ve been nice about it, but seeing her there, especially that night, scared the holy hell out of me.

“You ready?” Tyrone asked.

I looked at the building that we were raiding in ten minutes.

“10-4,” I replied.

“Little harsh with her, weren’t you?” Tyrone asked.

Maybe. Probably.

“Not at all,” I snapped, disagreeing with him on general principle. “You know why she couldn’t be here.”

The warrant we were executing was going to be brutal.

I fully expected a lot of shit to happen in ten minutes, and the last thing I wanted was Athena to be there when it all went down.

“Yeah, but you could’ve just asked her to leave,” he suggested. “She would have if you’d been sincere.”

I thought about the last two weeks, and how Madman had talked about her nonstop, and shook my head. “No, Madman is being a fucking creep when it comes to her.”

Which he knew.

“Yo, Carrie, you ready?”

‘Carrie’ was Callena Baron, an agent with the FBI, and my ‘girlfriend’ for the night.

She was going in as my backup as I waited for the castle to be stormed.

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