Page 11 of Fearless

He clears his throat. “It’s important.”

“Take it to Cole.”

He shifts, and I instinctively brace myself for the worst. “He’s gone and locked himself in the office toilet. I could hear him, but he didn’t want to hear me.”

Idiot.

Cole, that is. Not Derek.

“Do you need to go?” Meisie asks.

“I don’t need to go,” I tell her. Turning back to Derek, I ask him what’s going on.

He looks at Meisie, as if not wanting to talk business in front of her. Normally, that’s a rule I live and die by, but I don’t suppose it particularly matters tonight. She’s not going to remember this in the morning.

“It’s fine, this one’s a keeper. Spit it out.”

“Shipment got busted. I sent Paul over to redirect the second one, it should be alright but I thought you should know.”

I nod my head. “No worries. Keep me informed. And keep your phone switched on.”

Derek removes himself from the situation and I feel Meisie’s eyes bore into my skull.

“Are you…?” She trails off, as if not wanting to say the word.

A gangster? A criminal? A dealer?

I smile at her. “I’m a businessman.”

She smiles into her drink. “Is that what they’re calling it these days?”

“Not really.”

“I bet you do this kind of thing all the time.” She says it like a statement but I know she means it as a question.

I’ll play along. “What kind of thing?”

“Choose a girl. Make her feel all special. Take her home with you, and never speak to her again the next day.”

I shake my head. “Not once. Honest. I’ve never taken a girl home with me. And if I take you home tonight, I fully intend on speaking to you the next day. And every day for the foreseeable, with a bit of luck.”

Not a single word of that was a lie. I don’t mix business and pleasure. And I can’t let her go even if I wanted to.

It seems to work, because that look in her eyes is back.

It’s a look that tells me exactly what she wants, she’s just not sure if she should be bold and go with it.

I’ll make this easy for her.

“I’m leaving, and you’re coming with me.”

She watches me for a second, and then puts her drink down on the table. “I guess I can follow you. Will you wait out front? I parked in the underground parking.”

And risk her changing her mind?

“I’ll bring my car around and you’ll get in it.”

Her wild eyebrows draw together. “What about my mom’s—my car?”

---