Page 64 of Blood and Bonbons

“I forgot our door was broken.”

I deflated against my seat as I pulled to the curb near the house. “Me, too.”

“Cross owes us a door.”

“We have no way of contacting him tonight. And I’m not going in there to check if it’s safe or not.”

Vena grinned as she pressed a name in her contacts.

“Was that Anchor’s name?” I asked.

“Anchors away, matey.”

“Why do you have his number?”

“Don’t act like you don’t know me,” she said, laughing. She then composed herself to talk to Anchor when he answered.

If I didn’t know Vena, I would have said Vena sounded like an innocent girl who needed rescuing as she explained that we’d broken our doorknob before work and didn’t feel safe going to sleep with it like that.

I hoped Anchor could see right through Vena’s bullshit act as she sweetly asked for his assistance. But since I wasn’t going to step one toe out of the car until the house was secure, I kept my mouth shut and let Vena work her devious magic.

“He’s on his way,” Vena said when she ended the call. “I have a mind to thank him by hoisting his jibs.”

“Can you try to go a week of work before hoisting anything?”

She gave a noncommittal shrug.

“Vena, I have to work with him, and our walls are thin. The last thing I need to hear is his bedroom moans.”

“Think he would be the loud kind? I’m thinking more guttural.”

I swatted at her.

“You wouldn’t be so high-strung if you got your own hookup,” she said. “Shepard is giving you every signal in the book.”

“He’s only protective. And he’s my boss. Not happening.”

“I bet he’d be good, though.”

“Not happening,” I repeated.

With a sigh, Vena turned her attention to her phone. “What should I tell our mystery trader?”

“That you want to see the proof without a meet-up.”

After a moment of hesitation, Vena typed a reply then placed her phone on her lap.

“I asked around about the strip club,” she said.

“I know. I had an awkward conversation with Anchor about it.”

“Really? What did he say?”

“That you shouldn’t talk about other clubs while at Blur. Shepard won’t be happy if he overhears you, Vena.”

Vena waved off my concern. “I didn’t find out any information, anyway. No one had a membership to it. What kind of strip club makes you have a membership? Wouldn’t they want all the horny men to flock to their door?”

“It does seem like an odd business model.”

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