Page 6 of Tactically Acquired

There was no point in lying to her. I’d already fucked it all up. “Look, Knight asked us to look out for her. I just wanted to make sure she was okay.”

“You’ve already seen her,” she snapped.

“I know, but…that’s not the same thing as spending time with her and making sure she’s?—”

“Watch your words,” she threatened. “That woman has had men bearing down on her for far too long. The last thing she needs is another man coming over here and lying to her. If you want to check on her, you come here with the best of intentionsand flat out ask her. You do not use me as an excuse to worm your way in here and pretend to hang out with her.”

She was right. Of course she was. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to be an asshole. I just—Lock made me do it.”

She scoffed at that. “Slider, it was great. It really was, but this is over.”

“What? It was a mistake,” I argued. “I wasn’t trying to hurt anyone!”

“And I’m glad your intentions were good, but I don’t let anyone use me, and part of my job as her roommate is to make sure that no one tries any bullshit with her. She’s trying to get out on her own after years of abuse and?—”

“Now hang on a minute,” I said, my anger pushing to the surface. “I may not have come about this in the best way, but I would never hurt her. I’m looking out for her. We all are. We all want to see her get back on her feet and start living again. This is just as much for Knight as it is for Eva and Cash. Don’t ever fucking imply that I would in any way take advantage of her or?—”

“I know, I know,” she interrupted, closing her eyes with a sigh. “I’m sorry. I know that.” She took a deep breath and blew it out. “Slider, I really do appreciate your intentions toward her, but this is not the way to do it. How do you think she would feel if she knew you were pretending to be friends with her? Coming over here with pizza to hang out, but the only reason you were doing it was out of some sort of obligation?”

She was right. Hell, it was a shitty thing to do. If I wanted to get to know her, I should have just tried that. “Yeah, I see that now,” I answered quietly.

“Just…”

I nodded, understanding what she wanted before she said it. I walked forward, slipping my fingers between hers fora moment, then leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Sorry I fucked it all up.”

“I know.”

I headed around the side of the house, not bothering to go inside and make my excuses to Izzy. The last thing she needed was to see my face again. I knew Lock would be pissed at me for screwing that up so quickly, but honestly, I was more angry with myself that I hadn’t just gone about it differently. Fox would have known what to do. Lock should have sent him.

Then again, maybe he was trying to spare her from a never-ending night of show tunes.

3

LOCK

The clock ticked on the wall like a bomb. The file in front of me could destroy the company or save us. But at this point, I wasn’t sure we had much of a choice. Cash had left us in an untenable position. After months of turning down jobs and focusing solely on finding the men who were behind keeping The Syndicate alive, the company was floundering. Nothing I had done to date could save us from the massive amount of debt we’d accumulated trying to resurrect the company.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” My eyes flicked to Eva. This was her company. Even if I was the current CEO, I knew I was only a placeholder for when Cash returned. And he would return. There was no other choice.

“Lock, I’m not the person to ask,” she sighed. “You need to do whatever you think is best.”

“This is your company, Eva.”

“It’s Cash’s company,” she whispered.

I leaned forward, narrowing my eyes on her. “Let’s make one thing crystal fucking clear right now.” Her eyes met mine and flared at my words. There was the fight I needed to see. “You are Cash’s wife, and we will get him back. I swear to fucking God, we will get him back and return him to you. And when we do that,he needs a company to come back to that he can be proud of, so I need you to think about this and tell me what you think he would want me to do.”

She swallowed hard, her eyes flaring with heat. The fight that had been struggling to rise to the surface was still there, but was diminishing a little every day he was gone. I fucking hated to see her struggling so much, but she was doing everything she could to hold it together. It was hard enough when she had the kids to think about, but on top of that, she had her husband’s legacy. I wouldn’t fucking let her down.

“Do it.”

I nodded. “I’ll call the studio and confirm that we’ll take them on. It won’t be pretty, but it’ll get cash flowing again.”

“It’ll be a fucking pain in the ass, is what it’ll be,” Johnny muttered from the corner of the room.

I had forgotten the three Js were here. They were always so fucking silent that it was sometimes as if they weren’t even around. Aside from the massive dark presence in the room that made your skin crawl and your balls want to take up residence inside your body. Other than that…

“You should have let us go after him,” Jason muttered.

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