Page 54 of Charming But Reckless

“And your husband? “I asked. “How would he feel about this?”

Her eyes went cold. “I have a feeling my husband might be involved. I didn't want to say anything before now, but he has been acting oddly. And he's gotten closer to my father in recent years. I didn't bring him here tonight because I gave him the excuse that we needed to swing by the school. He'll meet us there though. This little charade is just for the officers. I'll take all the attention I can since I'll probably be a single woman in the near future.”

I gaped at her, unable to hide my reaction. This woman had brass balls. She was ready to take down her father, who was connected to a syndicate of really rough fuckers, AND she was going to be a single mom because she knew her husband either knew about her father's proclivities or was involved.

Maybe both.

Sick people tended to attract other sick people, especially when that sickness was something like child pornography or abuse. I didn't know how the assholes did it, but they moved in tribes and kept each other's secrets.

I watched the three of them head off, then turned to Memphis with a raised brow. “You think this will go smoothly?”

Before he could answer, Ronan spoke up. "Did you see the way she looked? That woman is ready to set that man's empireon fire, even if it means she'll never inherit a dime of his fortune."

He had Damari tucked into his side. The young man was out cold. He had been having nightmares again, which frustrated Ronan to no end. He wanted to vanquish every beast his boyfriend encountered.

Memphis clicked his hands and made pretend guns at Ronan. “That's exactly right, partner.”

Sinclair happened to walk in at that exact moment, two trays of coffees in his hands. "Please stop watching westerns when I go to sleep, sweetheart. It's not good for you."

Memphis threw up his hands. "I need something to entertain me, and you don't like it when I watch you all night."

I choked on a laugh and then covered it with a cough. Memphis glared at me, though he didn't say anything else because Sinclair was setting the coffees down and walking into his partner's arms.

"If it means you'll stop quoting these cheesy movies, you can watch me all you want."

Memphis smiled, then stole a kiss.

He pulled Sinclair behind the wall of his cubicle, and then I heard the sound of them dropping into the chair. The two would be cuddled up together, kissing and researching whatever Memphis was working on next.

Meanwhile, Ronan and Damari were in their own little world. Godric and Cohen hadn't shown up yet, though I suspected they would be in soon. No one missed a mission, even if we weren't directly involved. Not when it came to the Gilded Ones. It was all hands on deck.

Sometimes one of us would see something the others hadn't, or we would hear things that clued us in to something else. There was a reason we were a team instead of running missions solo.

As the night went on, Arick and Sol came into the war room. Sol had an iPad and headphones on. He was watching one of his favorite cartoons. He tucked himself in the corner on a giant bean bag chair that looked kind of like a dog bed, though I would not say that out loud.

Damari loved that little space if he couldn't be with Ronan. Since he had offered it to Sol when we arrived tonight, I no longer felt the need to tease him about it.

Especially since Sol wiggled his little body inside like he was the most comfortable he'd ever been in his life.

Arick sat down beside me and placed his hand on my thigh. “Catch me up. What have I missed?”

I smiled at him and pressed a kiss to the side of his head. “Not much. Olivia has been at the party for only half an hour. Archie is keeping an eye on the kids, no one will get to them. And Takeshi is playing bodyguard. Though he is a bodyguard, so technically he's not playing one.”

Arick motioned to his throat. “Is not talking going to be an issue for the mission?”

I shook my head. “Not likely. At the rate he's been learning ASL, he’s almost fluent in it. He also has a look that tells people to fuck off. Because he doesn't want to talk to them anyway. It's a win-win for him.”

I heard Ronan chuckle. Likely because he agreed with me. It's muffled since I'm sure he didn't want to wake Damari.

As Arick sat back in his chair, leaning beside me, I embraced the comforts that came from doing this with him. I didn't know what to think about him working for NightShade. It puts us in a precarious position since the job could be dangerous at times.

At the same time, it offered us something different from what the others had.

Because while Ronan and Memphis had their guys coming in and out of the office, and Cohen and Godric both workedhere, what Arick and I had spanned decades. Our friendship was rooted so deep in the past that being with him and working with him made sense to me.

Plus, he had made Memphis very happy so far.

They had been working together every day, putting more and more intel to use in our search for the final Gilded Ones member. Every crumb of information that could be scraped off the internet was gathered. We needed to know what was coming, what we were up against.

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