Page 18 of Beyond the Badge: Crew

“You’re only paranoid that we’re talking about you,” Torres said on a laugh.

He was but he wasn’t going to admit it. He simply shook his head and went back to Cabrera. On his way, he took a quick detour to the donuts again and snagged a cream-filled powdered donut.

He was going to have to add at least five miles to his ride tonight. His Peloton or his mountain bike, depending on the weather.

His ass was already starting to hurt thinking about it.

“You find a place?” he asked as he stepped behind her chair.

Without looking at him, she answered, “Last night I contacted a few complexes in the area and either they don’t have anything available, or they will, but not right away. I might have to move into a short-term rental or a motel until I find something more long-term.”

“I have another option for you.”

She stopped reading and turned around in her seat with her eyebrows pulled high. “Your place?”

Yeah right.He’d like to keep his damn job since it helped support his kids. “I don’t have any rooms for rent, but I do know of a house that’s sitting empty right now and is available.”

“Near here?”

“About twenty minutes away.”

“How much is it?”

“Cheap.”

“How cheap?”

“Five hundred a month.”

She frowned. “Five? So, it’s a tent?”

“Hardly.”

“What kind of house can I get for only five hundred?”

He answered, “One that’s sitting empty while the task force member is undercover.”

“Fletcher’s or Wilder’s?” she asked next.

“Fletch’s. Well, both, I guess.” He assumed that once their undercover assignment was over, they’d move into his house together since they’ve already been living together in the apartment over Shadow Valley Pawn, owned by the Dirty Angels. And Wilder had to give up her condo once La Cosa Nostra discovered where she lived and ambushed her there.

Cabrera shook her head. “Both? Are they a couple?”

“They are now.”

“Oh. Did they hook up before their undercover assignment or once they went under?”

“They didn’t know each other before.”

“Ah. A workplace romance, then.”

Romance. Right.More like a surge of hormonal horniness. “Sure. If that’s what you want to call it.”

“What would you call it?”

“I don’t really know what to call it since I don’t analyze other people’s love life.” Only their sex life.

Her lips twitched at his answer. “Have you been to his house?”

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