Page 140 of The Wrong Play

Parker shook his head in disgust. “What’s yournon-crazy idea?”

Matty groaned into his hands. “You guys are insane.”

I turned my attention back to the screen, watching as Riley shook her head at whatever the guy said. She wasn’t interested—that much was clear—but it didn’t matter.

Because now, I had a new mission.

I clapped my hands together. “All right, gentlemen. Time to find Riley some new hobbies.”

Parker grinned. “Ooh, can we make her a football fan?”

“We’ll see,” I mused, already mentally drafting a list. “Step one: get rid of the coffee shop job. Step two: get heroccupiedso she doesn’t notice step one.”

Matty groaned louder. “I hate that this is an actual conversation happening right now.”

Parker nudged him. “Oh, shut up. You’re just mad because Jace is making moves, and you’re still scared of your stalker/future soulmate.”

Matty scowled. “We don’t even know what mystalkerreally looks like. Besidesblonde. It’s possible it’s Darla.” He shivered in horror.

I didn’t blame him. Darla had come out in a mumu yesterday, the same one in that infamous boob pic, and I’d been traumatized all morning.

But back to my problem…

I wasn’t totally sure if it was Riley’s job that was making her upset, but it was best to cut out all variables when it came to her happiness.

Because when it came to my babylicious, there wasn’t a single thing I wouldn’t burn to the ground to keep a smile on her face.

“Hey,” Jagger answered, sounding suspiciously out of breath.

“What’s wrong with you? Did you answer in the middle of sex again? Because I told you that was rude.”

Surprisingly, the girl he’d been with hadn’t been upset at all. Probably because of our superior genes. It was a known fact that Thatcher genes drove women crazy. Her moans had only increased during the call—which maybe would have been hot if it wasn’t my brother who was balls deep inside her.

Jagger scoffed like I’d said something outrageous. “No, I’m not in the middle of sex. That girl was a one-time thing. Obviously, since she was bad enough in bed that I answered the phone.”

“I just thought that you were answering because I’m your brother, and I could have been in mortal danger.”

“Oh, is that a thing that football players in college experience often…mortal danger?”

“It is when your family is a member of the mafia,” I snapped, a little miffed because it sounded like he’d only answered because he was bored.

Also, considering the Sphinx had left me for dead at the top of that building the other night, football players, akame, were actually in mortal danger quite often around here.

Jagger made a weird growly sound. Huh, he and Matty were both good at that one.

“All right, so are you working out? Did you just get done riding a bull?”

“Did you just ask me if I just got done riding a bull?” he asked…or more like gasped since it sounded like he was now running.

A bang sounded through the phone, and I almost dropped it. That sounded like…gunshots.

“Motherfucker,” Jagger growled, sounding even more out of breath now.

“Oh…let me guess. You’re at your job. Doing boring office work…procurement work. Absolutely nothing exciting happening on your end at all,” I drawled sarcastically.

Here was the thing about Jagger: I knew he did something nefarious at his job. And he knew I knew he did something nefarious at his job. But apparently, he wasn’t ready to talk about it. He was only ready to get me questionable items—like when Parker needed those pharmaceuticals—or to provide me with large sums of mysterious cash to invest.

“And that definitely wasn’t fucking GUNSHOTS that I just heard either,” I added calmly.

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