Page 70 of Bad Seed
I close it before she can get any wild ideas, then take her bag.
“What’s all this?” I ask as I realize it’s full of groceries.
“I’m going to make you dinner,” Sadie declares. “Like I should have on our first date.”
I juggle the bag, trying to get a sense of what she has planned. My senses ping, already on high alert, and I stare up at her watching me.
“It…was it a date? I mean, it didn’t have to be. It could have been a friendly meeting. A really friendly meeting. Without pants. For like ninety percent of it. That kind of meeting might have kept me in a corporate job. Oh, I’m babbling.”
Snickering, I drape my arm over her shoulders, rest the shopping bag at my side, and walk her to the kitchen. “We can call it a date, if you’d like.”
“Okay. Good. What would you call it?”
I hadn’t put any thought into that first time. A night of hot fucking had been the plan. Then, after a slight detour, I was to vanish. What does it even matter? A date here, a night out there. It’s all the same in the end.
Damn near kissing her ear, I whisper, “A fucking good time.”
“Ha ha.” She blushes all the way down her deep cut neckline. I trace the rush of red with my eyes and clench my hands around the shopping bag so they don’t follow.
Being professional is fucking impossible around her.
As a distraction, I start to unload the groceries. Sadie sidles in beside me, tapping a finger to her lips. “But if, say, someone were to see you and ask, ‘Hey, who is that?’ What should I say?”
“Aubry Gene,” I tell her slowly.
“I know, I know. But…”
What is she getting at?
She doesn’t know, does she?
What if Cuke or the other Squash told her? What if the Peppers have already found her?
“What would you tell them?” I ask, eyeing up the exits without thinking.Is she sweating? What does she know?
“I’d say…” Sadie twists her fingers together.
I stop staring at her cleavage and focus on her neckline. That dress is so tight there’s no way it could hide a wire. Unless the mike is between her tits.
She won’t meet my eyes and stares at the ceiling.
If they got to her, then they could be outside right now. Watching. Where? I itch to swing out the security cameras.
“I mean, if someone asked me point blank…”
She’s standing right in front of the drawer that hides the gun. Does she know that too? Did Cuke tell her?
Sadie’s wandering eyes drop to the floor. I clench my hands, my breath shallowing as my blood surges for a fight. “I’d say that you’re…” Her velvety brown eyes drift up to me and she nips her lip. “…my boyfriend.”
Oh…
Oh, fuck. That’s all?
I mentally wipe the fear sweat off my forehead. My hands unclench, and I fill my lungs. A boyfriend.
A boyfriend?
“What about you?” Sadie asks looking like Astin when I pull out the cat carrier.
