Page 53 of Renegade

“Grey said you were here. We got a problem. Eli’s on a run with some of the guys and Cage has appendicitis or some shit. We need you to get us in and out of here, no questions asked.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. My best friend and his wife were in a car accident and Grey thinks now’s a good time for me to do club shit?”

My voice got louder and louder until I was shouting directly into Torch’s face. He didn’t seem fazed by it; he just whipped out his cell phone. “No problem. I’ll just let Grey know you said no.”

Fuck.

I shook my head. “Get him here and I’ll see what I can do.”

Torch nodded and went back inside to grab ‘Monica.’ She seemed to be having a lovely conversation, judging by the look of anxiety on Lauren’s face. They said their goodbyes and the woman left with Torch.

Brant stood up. “Listen, I’ve got to go into the office tomorrow, so I’m going to have to call it a night. You ready to go?”

Lauren looked helplessly at the double doors leading back to exam rooms. “But, I don’t know if Elizabeth is okay yet.”

He sighed. “I really need to go. Can you find a ride home?”

She looked back toward the sliding doors and saw me. I nodded to her and she gave me a small smile. “Yeah, I can do that. Thanks for dinner and the wine. It was really nice.”

“Mmhmm, I’ll call you.”

I’d bet twenty bucks he wasn’t going home. He was going to get laid.

He had that disinterested look in his eyes as she talked; probably thought that he’d take her to dinner and then get into her pants. At some point during the evening, he realized she was too preoccupied with her best friend being in a car wreck to go home with him.

The guy was a grade A prick.

I waited until he was gone before approaching her. “You alright, Red?”

She nodded. “How do you know Monica and that guy?”

“Uh, I’m a cop. I meet all sorts of people. How do you know Monica?”

She squirmed in her chair and suddenly found the floor very interesting.

“Red?”

She blew out a frustrated breath, which lifted her hair up off of her forehead just enough for me to see her eyes. “She’s just someone I used to know.”

I knew that was as close as I was getting tonight, so I let it drop. “So, first date? He seemed…nice.”

Lauren shot me a look. “Don’t patronize me, Mike.”

I grinned. “What? C’mon, Red. That guy? He’s no good for a girl like you.”

If that guy was a stick of dynamite, then I was a block of C-4, but we’d worry about that one later.

She cocked her head to the side. “And you’re…what?”

I settled back against the plastic chair and put my arms behind my head. “Well, Darlin’, I’d say that I’m your soulmate. It’s gotta be fate—us running into each other again.”

That was some high-quality chick flick shit right there, so I was expecting her to eat it right up. Instead, she frowned.

“Fate? Try your best friend is married to my best friend. That’s not fate—it’s logistics.”

It was time to break out the big guns. “What if I wanted more than one night with you, would that change things for you? What if I told you that I hadn’t been able to get you out of my head since we all went out that night?”

Her mouth closed and then opened, but I knew I had her when her chest turned bright red and I got to watch it move up into her face. “Um…” she began.

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