Page 145 of The Fixer

“Not everything, as it turns out. I did a lot of soul-searching after you left, and I decided you’re a more vital piece of me than my career. That doesn’t mean I’m giving it up, though. I worked out a compromise with Sterling where I’ll go back to Chicago once a month for in-office days. We’re going to test it out, but I’ll make it work.”

“Well, fuck me.” She giggled, and he narrowed his eyes. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”

One side of her mouth hitched. “Well, that’s too bad.”

Reaching out his finger, he traced a line along the back of her hand. “Let me amend. You’re perfectly welcome to take that literally later. After I catch you up onourproject and introduce you to the new crew. A lot’s happened around here.”

Her face bloomed with a full smile. “How much later can I act on what you want me to take literally?”

He leaned in and gave the shell of her ear a quick lick. “Remind me to teach you some patience when we’re alone, dirty girl.”

A familiar car drove by and honked. Another followed, and someone hollered, “Woot! Woot!” Neve, as it turned out. They both waved to her. Down the block, a small group from Mountain Coffee let out shrill wolf whistles.

He shook his head. “This town knows every single thing we do.”

“Maybe that’s because we’re doing it on the sidewalk.”

“Come on. Let’s go inside so I can show youandtell you what’s been going on while you’ve been incommunicado.”

When he wheeled toward the store, he realized someone had taken down the paper covering the windows, and the grinning faces of his new crew stared at them through the glass. The guys pumped their fists, whistled, and high-fived each other.

“A bunch of romantics, all of them. They’ll make great characters for your books.”

“I might not be writing for a while. I need to spend time with a certain cover model.”

He laughed. “I want you to meet Cade, my foreman-in-training, and the rest of my crazy new crew. You about gave the kid a heart attack, by the way.”

“Oh no! What did I say?”

“Nothing. It was how youlooked.And trust me, I get it.” He gave her a salacious sweep. “I love the dress. What’s underneath it?”

“Guess you’ll have to find out for yourself.”

“Killing me.”

“Do you think you can put up with a partner whose mind scatters in a million different directions at once and who has yet to figure out how to turn off her tears?”

“Absolutely. I can do that. Iwantto do that.”

She took his hand and whispered, “I love you, Charlie.” He whipped toward her, and her tears rimmed and spilled.

Cupping her head, her pulled her in tight and buried his head in her neck, breathing her in. He didn’t give a shit if they had an audience. “I love you too, princess. I should have told you so in Chicago. I’ve missed you so damn much.”

“Why didn’t you?” she murmured beside his ear.

He set her apart from him, keeping his hands firmly on her hips. Arms dangling over his shoulders, she stroked the back of his head. “I don’t know. I wanted to. I guess I didn’t want to go out on that limb because I figured you were about to dump my ass.”

“I might be nuts, but I’m notthatcrazy.” She winked at him.

He brought her inside and introduced her to the crew as his partner and their second boss on the Haven project.

“Boys, I’m taking the rest of the day off. Don’t burn anything down.” They laughed and mumbled a few inappropriate jokes. He took Joy by the hand and walked her toward his truck, Sunny and Luna following close behind. As they strolled, he gave Joy the highlights of the raid.

“Cade was working for Weatherly and had a feeling the guy was up to no good. Then he noticed a fresh load of select lumber that appeared in the middle of the night at one of Weatherly’s sites. He thought it was weird—not only the timing of it, but the fact that it was select, which Weatherly apparently never orders.

“Other stuff started randomly appearing, getting shuffled with other materials. When he heard about what was happening atmyjob sites, he put the two together. After the drywall showed up, he told his mother, and she brought him to tell me.” He told Joy how the sheriff’s department had uncovered a ring of thieves—that included Felix and his brothers—spearheaded by Weatherly.

Not only was Weatherly a greedy thief, but he was stupid. He’d had them use his own late-model truck and trailer for the bigger jobs, and while Charlie’s cameras hadn’t captured the plates, enough witnesses were willing to connect him and the truck.

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