Page 123 of Clean Slade
But trimming and washing adorable doggies was a breeze compared to the other part of my life.
Sometimes I couldn’t believe I was, for all intents and purposes, a drug dealer now. Sure, Slade and Wyatt had been hard at work trying to uncover Salieri’s people and find a base of operation, but things were going slow because the last thing we wanted was to alert Salieri—or worse, my father—to what was going on. That was if Salieri didn’t already know what was going on. It made no sense why he’d sent that guy to take Mac. But surely, if he had sent him, he would have sent someone else by now. I mean, it had been over a month. But he hadn’t. Which only made the incident with the intruder all the weirder.
Regardless, I had Slade now, and he knew everything.
Every call, message, or encounter went through him first. Although that didn’t mean if I got caught, I wouldn’t be charged.
It was late afternoon when I managed to get a break, and I spent most of it sprawled all over the reception desk, trying to rest my eyes and ignoring my grumbling stomach.
“Are you dead yet?” someone asked, and I sprung up to find Tiago and a takeout bag on my desk.
“Not yet, but soon,” I grabbed the bag before I finished my sentence and rummaged through to find what he’d gotten me. “Is it Chinese? It smells like Chinese. Please tell me it’s Chinese.”
“It is,” he said just as I found the egg rolls and shoved one in my mouth. Tiago was a friend. He wouldn’t judge me. “You’re not hungry at all, are you?”
“Shut up.” Now was not the time for banter.
Now was the time for eating.
“Shutting up.” Tiago chuckled and attempted to get an egg roll, but I slapped his hand away.
“Sorry. I’ve gone primal.” I offered him one as he dramatically rubbed the back of his hand.
“Yeah, I can see. But unless you want me to go primal too, let me eat, or there will be consequences.”
He took an egg roll and opened a carton of chow-mein. The steam rose from the box like an offering to the gods of yore, a thanks for the food we were chomping.
“What’s up with you? Why aren’t you eating your boyfriend—erm, I mean eating with your boyfriend?”
Tiago spent most of his afternoons at the Outpost being all lovey-dovey with Joey and pretending he was working remotely. Although I had sources that begged to differ on how much work was actually getting done. And Autumn wasn’t much of a liar.
“I could ask you the same thing,” he retorted as he bit into a piece of juicy chicken.
Ever since we got Thelma and Louise, chicken had been banned from our house, which naturally only made me crave it more.
“Boyfriend? What boyfriend? Pfft.”
It wasn’t that I wanted to hide it from my friend. It was just more fun that way. As if we were doing something secret or forbidden.
“Honey, save it. Unless you’re going to try to convince me you sleep with a hanger in your mouth again, don’t bother lying.”
“There’s nothing going on. It’s all in your head.” I rolled my eyes and opened another box. “Oh thank you Lord.”
Crispy chili beef. I could barely contain my saliva as I snatched several pieces with my chopsticks and shoved them down my piehole.
“The Lord didn’t buy all this. I did. And when are you going to stop pretending Slade is just your nanny?”
I shrugged.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Heisjust my nanny. Well, Mac’s.”
“Yeah, I’m sure he takes care of you just fine,” he said. “I’m happy for you, you know. Even if you’re not ready to admit it yet. But if you dare get married before us, you’ll never hear the end of it.”
“Whatever. What’s new with you? How’s the paper?”
It was his turn to shrug.
“What’s that for? You were dying for a promotion, and now you just…” I mockingly shrugged like he had a moment ago.
