Page 117 of Beyond the Badge: Crew

“You sure you’re good?”

Nox set his dark eyes on him. “Will be once you stop blocking my door.”

Crew shifted out of the way. “Got it. I’ll be upstairs.”

“Figured that.” Nox pushed past him, unlocked his door and went inside.

Crew stood there long enough to hear the deadbolt click. He shook his head and sighed in frustration on his way up the steps.

Nox had been on the road to recovery before finding Sloane’s sister Sadie dead in a motel room in Ohio.

Not only dead but with her corpse violated.

Crew heard it had been an ugly scene. He did his fucking best not to imagine it. It was bad enough to set Nox back by months, if not longer. The whole reason they had that intervention with him and gave him the “ultimatum.”

Was the counseling and support group working? Seemed to be, but it was a damn slow process.

He punched in the code and the lock released. He went inside to see some of his team already hard at work.

Except for Rez, who was lounging on the couch hardly working. Of course.

He went over to the couch to see his brother’s eyes shut. Crew thumped him in the chest with the heel of his palm.

“Hey!” Rez shot up, eyes wide, rubbing the impact point.

“Maybe you should stop fucking Sapphire all night and get some sleep. You’re supposed to be working, not napping.”

“Maybe you should find someone to fuck instead of your fist and you’d understand why I’m so damn tired.” Rez got to his feet.

Crew went to the coffeemaker next. Priorities. “My fist doesn’t talk back and is always nearby when I need it.” He grabbed his mug from the stand next to the coffee and filled it to the brim. “Even better, my fist isn’t high maintenance. It doesn’t need money for clothes, purses and makeup and doesn’t whine until it gets jewelry.”

“Who hurt you?” Rez asked him.

Even though Rez was sort of teasing, he knew about all the turmoil Crew went through during the divorce. He had witnessed a lot of it. So did the rest of his BAMC brothers.

Crew turned and found Finn sitting at the far end of the conference table working on a laptop. He had no fucking clue what Pippi Longstocking was working on since he didn’t micromanage his team. He trusted them to get done what needed to be done.

All except for Rez.

“Yo, Little Orphan Annie!” he called out as he approached that end of the table.

Finn ignored him by keeping his head down and continuing to type away.

“Carrot Top,” he tried next.

Still no response except for the snickers from the other guys sitting at various stations doing whatever they were assigned to do for the day.

“Heat Miser.” When he still didn’t get a response, he followed up with, “Prince Harry!”

Rez snorted behind him and pushed past him to drop into the office chair next to Finn. He leaned closer to their redheaded brother, stage-whispering, “Crewella Deville is calling you. Hide your puppies.”

Finn glanced at Rez. “I thought I heard nails scratching down a chalkboard.” He looked directly at Crew. “I was right.”

“Hey, I was just talking to Nox…”

Everyone in the room stopped what they were doing and turned to listen. Well, now he knew how to get everyone’s attention.

Finn sat back in his chair. “And?”

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