Page 22 of Beyond the Badge: Crew

He shrugged.

Something was up. Crew reallywantedher to rent this house for some reason. Could it be he was simply tired of coming over to check on it? Maybe. But he seemed to have some sort of ulterior motive and she doubted it was to make her life easier.

“C’mon. Let’s do a quick walk-through so I can get out of here.”

“Got a hot date or something?”

“Don’t you have a dog to walk?”

She grinned. “I pay a dog walker—actually, she’s one of the front desk clerks—to walk him mid-day. I’ll just have to find someone to do it around here if I end up working long hours.”

She followed him back into the house. On the left side of the house was two smaller bedrooms sharing a Jack and Jill bathroom and another bedroom with its own bathroom. To the right of the great room was a nice sized kitchen with a breakfast nook. On the right side of the house was the primary bedroom with its own huge bathroom with a very inviting whirlpool tub, along with a laundry room right off the garage.

As they headed back out, the two rooms off the foyer ended up being a small dining room on one side and what looked like a cozy theater room with a small wet bar on the other.

She could picture herself in one of the comfy-looking recliners with the lights off, her feet kicked up and munching on popcorn while she watched the latest blockbuster movie.

The house was perfect and worth a hell of a lot more than five hundred a month.

After Crew set the alarm, they both stepped back outside onto the front porch, and he locked the door.

“Will that be my key?”

His fingers tightened around it before shoving his hand deep into the front pocket of his jeans. He acted as if he was afraid she would try to snag it from him. “No, I’m hanging on to this one. I’ll grab one for you from one of the other guys.”

“Why would you need to keep it?”

“In case of emergency.”

Uh huh.

They headed back to their vehicles and once they stopped next to his bike, she asked, “So, what’s with the MC thing? You never explained.”

“The Plant isn’t only the headquarters for the task force.”

She shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

“I’m going to explain it, just give me a chance.”

“You were the one in a rush to get out of here.”

He slipped his mirrored sunglasses over his gorgeous eyes even though the sun was beginning to set. “The BAMC owns that building. They rent the top floor to the feds for our task force.”

She pressed her lips together to keep from asking one hundred and one questions and did her best to let him explain first.

“The BAMC originally bought it as their clubhouse.”

She pressed her lips tighter together because he wasn’t talking fast enough. And she had no idea what the BAMC stood for.

“We redid the whole building.”

Fighting impatience, her hands curled into fists, and she pressed them to her thighs to keep from bursting.

“We made the first floor our clubhouse. The second floor is Nox’s apartment.”

She pushed out a breath. “Can I talk now?”

“I’d prefer you didn’t.”

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