Page 49 of Savage Seduction

Whether that’s with… or without me.

CHAPTER 20

Max

Later that same evening, a knock at the door signals London’s arrival. I swing the door open, and she stands there with her back facing me.

“London? You okay?”

“Let me in,” she says, pushing past me. “Your devil cat is on the prowl. I could hear him growling somewhere in the distance.”

“Little Chubs? He wouldn’t hurt a fly.” I put my hand up to cover my smile as I close the door. “He’s never had a problem with you before; maybe he’s in a bad mood?”

“Right.” London places her computer on the kitchen table and saunters into the living room. “Something seems off about your apartment.”

I look around and shrug. “It’s the same as it always is.”

“Nah,” she says, narrowing her eyes. “Bad vibes in here.” She shivers.

I don’t want to dive back into the incident where The Butcher had broken into my place and violated my privacy, digging through my things and stealing my grandmother’sknife from under the bathroom sink. “It’s probably just the whole situation we’re dealing with.”

London nods and goes over to the sofa and sits down. “Are you in the mood for a movie or do you want to get down to business?”

“I don’t think I could concentrate on a movie even if I tried.” I grab her computer and hand it to her. “Let’s get down to business. I’ll order us pizza. There’s no telling how long this’ll take.”

She arches an eyebrow. “I can assure you it won’t take as long as you think, but if you order Canadian bacon and pineapple, I’ll stay all night.”

“You read my mind.”

She flips open the laptop. “I’ll take a side of ranch dressing too, please. And, babe, make sure they give us a bunch of those parmesan cheese packets too.”

“You got it.” I get up and grab my phone and walk into the kitchen to check the magnet on the fridge for the number. “Should we get thick crust, original, or cracker crust?”

“Whatever you want as long as it’s not thick or original.”

I smirk and look back at my best friend who blows me a kiss. She has always been there for me since the day we first met in college; me fresh from my injury and newly unemployed, and her struggling to find a place in the world since she decided to give up computer hacking. The former law breaker and law enforcer were now the best of friends—as thick as thieves.

I place the order and also get a dinner salad with blue cheese dressing, London’s favorite. “It should be here in an hour.”

“Which always means ninety minutes.”

“If we’re lucky,” we say in unison and laugh.

“Before we get started, I have to tell you about a guy I met online,” London says. “You know I’m not into these appsbecause of how easy they are to hack. You might as well just hand all your personal information and bank account over to the Russians.”

“Which app did you choose?”

“That new one everyone is talking about on social media.” London pulls out her phone and shows me the icon on her phone. It's a picture of two hearts kissing. “It’s called Devoted.”

“Yikes,” I say with a laugh. “Sounds serious.”

“I’m only trying it because supposedly my cousin’s friend Donna’s sister’s niece found her husband on there. He’s apparently rich and not ugly.”

“Rich and not ugly. Sounds delightful.”

“Don’t judge… the dating scene is rough, man.” She arches an eyebrow. “Not that you’d know. You haven’t dated anyone in like what… three years?”

“Hey, I went out with Dr. Dimples… remember?”

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