Page 58 of Savage

“You’ve already pulled him in.”

“More.” I knew King would hate this next suggestion. Cooper had put his life on the line twice now to get information about Mick, and after last night, I figured this was the least I could do.“He’s not interested in writing a story about where he is.Right now, he thinks he’s at some fancy safe house because I’m in security.”

“Well, that’s good, at least.”

“Exactly, so do we have to keep him locked up like he’s in prison? God knows when we’ll get Mick, and you can’t very well keep him tucked away.”

“Can’t I?” King side-eyed me then headed back to his desk, his silence giving nothing away as to where his mind was at. “He can have temporary access. He can move about the upper floors?—”

“That’s not enough.”

“Watch yourself, Lachlan. You’re treading a thin line as it is. Your attitude isn’t going to help your cause.”

I clenched my teeth, knowing King was right. He was already allowing way more than I expected.

“The information he brought us was valuable. He wants to be part of the takedown, King.”

“Absolutely not.”

“He deserves a chance?—”

“To what?” King slapped his palms on the desk and glared at me. “Get killed?”

“I won’t let that happen. I’ve already proven that.”

“But you can’tguaranteeit. He’s a civilian. A reporter, which is even worse.” King hung his head as though exhausted. “You’re lucky I’m even letting him stay at the club. There’s no way he’s going downstairs. Especially not without being vetted?—”

“Thenvethim,” I shouted a little louder than usual, but I couldn’t seem to control the emotions running through me.

Cooper had turned his entire world upside to track down the man who was responsible for his friend’s death, and now that he was close, we were going to snatch that away from him because he was getting underfoot?

How was that fucking fair?

“Alessio can have all the information you need in less than an hour, and you know it.”

King’s jaw bunched as his fingers all but drilled holes in the desktop. But then he raised eyes to mine and said, “Fine. But you better get him to sign a fucking NDA.”

“On it.”

“And Lachlan?” I turned back around to see King’s gaze drop to my neck. “Nice tattoo.”

21

COOPER

AS I SAT at the ten-person dining table in the penthouse alone eating the most exquisite chicken, plated like it’d come from a five-star restaurant, it occurred to me how out of the norm all of this was.

Obviously I knew that, but sitting here with nothing but my thoughts had me wondering who Lachlan really was. What this place he’d taken me to really was. Because after last night, I no longer believed he was just the head of a security company. He was too connected, too confident, too smooth, as was his friend Lucien.

All of this was on a different level. Cost seemed to be no issue, nor did the unlimited resources that seemed to fall from the sky for these guys. So what was his story?

This was where I’d been firmly keeping my thoughts, because the alternative was to remember deep-throating Lachlan’s cock, and I didn’t need a hard-on all damn day.

I speared the chicken a little too hard, and my fork scraped against the plate.

I’m not thinking about blow jobs today. Not when it’s clear he thinks I regretted it.

He’d been in one of the bedrooms near the front door when I got out of the shower, and I’d chosen one across the penthouse to give us both space.

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