Page 28 of Double or Nothing
“I’m working tonight as well, but I can stay here with Jade until I need to leave,” Kit volunteers.
“I’ll stick around for a while too,” I say. “Jade, I picked up something for breakfast. It’s in the car.”
“Donuts?” she replies, her face lighting up at the prospect.
“How did you guess?”
“Leroy always takes good care of me when it comes to food. Where is he, anyway?” she asks. “Outside in the limo?”
“No, I drove myself here today,” I reply. “He’s shampooing the carpet in the limo and sanitizing the interior this morning to get the bloodstains out.”
“You own a car besides the limo?” she asks.
“A couple of them,” I reply. “Speaking of that, we need to get you a new car. You can’t take your old car out again, ever. In the meantime, you can drive any of mine that you want.”
“Really? You’re loaning me a car?”
“Sure, you can even test drive it this morning,” I offer.
“What kind of car is it?” she asks.
“A Porsche 911.”
“Give me ten minutes to get dressed and I’ll be right back.” She pulls out of my arms and takes off, running down the hallway to her room.
“Wow, you sure know how to get a woman moving fast,” Kit teases with a grin. “Offer a girl a Porsche and she turns into an Olympic sprinter.”
“She needs new wheels,” I reply with a shrug. “I’ll gladly buy her whatever she chooses once we have time to go car shopping. Her car is safely hidden in your garage, where it needs to stay.”
He nods back at me. “We’ve got it covered,” he says. “It’s safe here. No one will stumble upon it.”
Vulcan shoves away from the kitchen counter with a weary sigh.
“Are you heading out now, Vulcan?” Kit asks. “You’re coming back tonight, aren’t you?”
“It’ll be after midnight, but I’ll be here,” Vulcan replies. “Leave the porch light on for me.”
“What do you think I’m running here?” Kit teases. “A Motel 6?”
“I’ll catch up with you later,” Vulcan says. “I’ll go tell Jade I’m leaving and then I’m out of here. Call me if there’s anything up. We left quite a damn mess out at the RV to clean.”
“Will do,” Kit replies. “Do you need help?”
“Nah, I got it,” Vulcan replies. “The sooner we put this shit behind us, the better off we’ll be.” His gaze briefly locks with mine. “This isn’t the end of the world, Seven. It’s just the start of a new phase. It doesn’t have to be bad. In fact, last night was pretty damn incredible, and you would’ve thought the same if you’d been here.”
I bite back a reply. There’s no need to let him see how much this situation is bothering me.
I watch Vulcan stroll down the hallway and enter Jade’s room without knocking. The sound of running water from her shower, and then her laughter floats through the open doorway. I try not to picture Vulcan’s gaze drinking in her naked body under the gushing waterfall shower.
Walking over to the coffeepot, I pour myself a cup while Kit gets busy making his morning spinach drink in the blender.
A sudden shriek rings out from Jade’s room, followed by more laughter. I can only imagine what they might be doing in there. Vulcan probably turned the water to ice cold or God knows what else.
“Tell me again how that doesn’t bother you,” I say to Kit, waving a hand towards Jade’s room.
He stops cramming vegetables into the blender, lets out a tired sigh and turns to face me.
“Listen, I’m going to lay out the facts for you, and you can either take them or leave them,” Kit replies, his voice uncharacteristically stern. “If you keep on giving Jade a hard time about this, you’ll be left out in the cold. She will never choose either you or I over Vulcan. Especially not after what happened last night with him.”
