Page 51 of Enforcer

A dark chuckle returns through the phone. “She says hello back.”

“Taking calls while otherwise engaged, what has gotten into Daddy, I wonder,” I joke, and the phone beeps as Slate hangs up on me.

I laugh, momentarily forgetting all the bullshit as I move back into the room where the doctor is conferring with a nurse over the chart at the end of the bed.

Once I give Slate’s orders to him, I walk back to the SUV, where Pauly is waiting for me.

“We headed back to the apartment, Boss?”

I look down at my phone. “Give me a minute.”

Pauly only nods.

I tap Alyssa’s name, rocking my leg back and forth and biting my lip until I hear her answer.

It’s noon, well past time for her to be up and planning the wedding with the two buffoons she’s been spending all her time with.

“Hey,” she says, and there’s a different tone in her voice that I’ve yet to hear. Last night, she opened up to me—if only slightly.

“Hi. Busy later?”

“I don’t know. What do you have in mind?” Her sultry voice dips as Lorenzo asks her who’s on the phone.

She proudly tells him to fuck off, and I hear a door shut as she steps away from them.

I grin. She fits right in with us whether she knows it or not.

“I have to go to the docks for a stakeout,” I tell her, letting the news settle.

“So you thought what a perfect opportunity to take your no-strings friend with benefits on an adventure? After last night, Dante, I think I’m adventured out.”

I laugh. “No. I didn’t want to be away from you longer than I had to be and wanted to see if you would go with me. We could get greasy, take away food, and play twenty-one questions...” I trail off, hoping it sounds stupid enough to get her to say yes.

“What are you, a thirteen-year-old girl?” she asks, a chuckle ending her words.

“No... I’m a man who wants to see his girl and doesn’t want to sit in his car alone all night long.”

“Mmm,” she says, and I hope she’s thinking it over.

Is it a stupid fucking idea to take her there after all the events of last night? Possibly, but I also don’t want to leave her alone.

“What time is this stakeout?” she asks.

“Stakeout?! Who’s staking something out?” I hear Lorenzo shout.

A loud thud comes, and Alyssa shouts, “Get away from the door, you fucking lurker! This is my conversation. Fuck off!”

I can’t help the easy laugh that flies free. “The stakeout is at dark, say eight p.m.,” I reply, ignoring all the antics happening on her side of the phone.

“I’ll be free then. Meet at home?” she asks.

The way my stomach tingles when she sayshome, referring to my apartment, is something I choose to ignore, lest I get used to it.

“Meet you at home, and Lyss?”

“Mmm?”

“You won’t need panties for this stakeout,” I add.

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