Page 51 of Diamonds & Deception

“Drake.” Her voice is soft and hollow. Pleading, but not in a sexual way.

I need her out of my apartment before she finds a way to weaken me into forgiving her. I roughly untie the bind on her left wrist and ankle, then round the bed and untie her right side.

“Get dressed and get the hell out.” I storm off and lock myself in my office, bringing the nearly empty tequila bottle with me.

CHAPTER TEN

I’m at my desk in myoffice before the sun is up and have already polished off a carafe of coffee. Not even burying myself in data can push Nora out of my mind. Nothing works. Not the caffeine, not reading through the budget reports I skipped out on yesterday.

There’s a light tap on my door before it opens. It’s still early for it to be Nancy. I look up from my desk and nod at Nolan.

“Clocking out?” He’s still wearing the same suit he had on yesterday morning. His work hours are as long and sporadic as mine. He often pulls twenty-four-hour shifts when we host high-stakes tournaments and checks in on his management round the clock.

“Something like that.” Nolan takes a seat across from my desk and leans forward on his elbows. “I came to check on you. You weren’t upstairs.”

Since I’ve never brought a woman back to my penthouse, the guys have had free rein to use it between shifts, hang out, or grab a bite to eat in quiet. Even though I gave them the penthouse next to mine to crash after extra-long hours, or whenever, I still keep my door open to them. We all have keys to each other’s places.

“Catching up on work.” I pick up a stack of files and let them drop onto my desk. “Nancy rescheduled everything for this afternoon.”

“Drake. Seriously, man. Do you want to talk about it?”

I lean back in my leather chair and rub my hand across my scratchy jaw. “Numbers look good, but the slots are—”

“Drake. You don’t have to pretend to be alright. Yesterday was a fucking hard blow. It’s obvious how much you care about Nora—”

I hold up my hand to stop him. “Don’t go there, Noles. She’s a woman I fucked for a couple of weeks, then she fucked me over. I’m done. Over it. I don’t want to hear you bring her up again. Got it?”

He hesitates before he nods.

“Yesterday morning, you stopped by the penthouse to talk to me about something pressing. What was it?”

Nolan sits a little straighter, the concerned best friend posture gone and the head of security persona back. It’s what I need right now.

“Matthew and Jackson have suspicions Eddie Donahue is dealing and selling under our roof.”

Nolan’s top two security managers are former Marines and good, honest men. If Nolan trusts their suspicions, so do I.

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