Page 70 of Passion and Payback

“Never,” I told her, lying through my teeth in a way I refused to do to Rich about the coffee. She did not need to know that Hunter and I had enjoyed one another during business hours. It had been done in his office quickly and quietly but still during business hours.

All in all, things between him and I were progressing just fine. The new control of his own sex life had given Hunter renewed vigor and enthusiasm about sex. He was still hesitantand could change his mind at times, but I wasn’t going to complain or be upset. He’d already been through quite enough without me pressuring him to ‘finally’ have full-blown sex.

Not that I needed to go all the way to be happy. There were times when I ached to feel him from the inside. Everything else was still the perfect amount of intimacy and sexiness I needed to be with someone. We’d even worked our way up to where I could finger him without him losing his mind with anxiety or fear, and everything else just added flavor to our sex life.

Strangely enough, my teenage fears that had kept me from saying anything about my feelings for him had yet to come true. Almost nothing else about us and our relationship had changed significantly or somehow disappeared. There was the sex, and now we didn’t have to worry about physical contact between us somehow being mistranslated, mainly because it was supposed to be translated as a gesture of more than friendship.

Few other things had changed save for abandoning preconceived fears and worries. Of course, there were a few new things, including our current bloody plotting, but those seemed wholly separate from our relationship. Not that we had called it a relationship, of course, that conversation or anything close to it hadn’t come up between us. Not that I blamed Hunter for avoiding it. His last relationship had ended horribly, and I couldn’t fault him for wanting to stay away from the idea a bit longer and enjoy what he had.

“Somehow, that feels like a big fat lie,” Brooke said, then glanced over the counter. “Rich, my usual, please. Make it a double this time, though. I was up half the night.”

“Anything worth staying up for?” I asked with a raised brow.

She smirked. “If you consider two kids worth it, then yes. Otherwise, it was just misery and stress.”

“Mmm, can’t say it’s a bad thing to be there for your kids, but I can’t say it’s a fun thing either,” I said with a snort.

“Hmm,” she said, sliding onto the stool beside me. “What about you?”

“Uh, what about me?”

“Kids, you, yeah?”

“Kids, me, hell no.”

Brooke laughed softly as Rich set her steaming drink down. “What, don’t like kids?”

“Are you kidding?” Hunter asked, returning with a drink of his own. “Heloveskids. He’s just absolutely terrified of them.”

“Wow, thank you so much for putting my personal stuff on full display,” I told him with a glare. “Would you like to share anything else?”

“Maybe someone should go do the books like they’re supposed to,” Brooke said, raising her brow at him. “Instead of butting into conversations that don’t involve him. Or, you know, I could go try to balance the books again.”

“Like hell,” Hunter said, eyes going wide. “It took me weeks to fix what you screwed up!”

“Then maybe you should go get those books done on your own,” she said with a smirk. “Because you’re the only one who knows how to use that convoluted mess you created.”

“It's not convoluted! I spent forever making those things as easy as possible. All you had to do was follow my typed instructions. Yet you somehow managed to screw up every worksheet. I didn’t even know that was possible.”

“What can I say? I have a gift,” she said, glancing at me. “What about you? Good with numbers?”

“Technology decided many years ago that it despises my very existence to the point that it refuses to function properly whenever I’m around it,” I explained to her. “If I tried to operate the system, I would probably find a way to install a virus even without getting on the internet. Or the computer would explode.”

“Or any number of other things,” Hunter added helpfully. “Fine. I had stuff I wanted to do in my office anyway.”

By stuff, he probably meant he was going to continue digging for more information that could help us. I knew he wanted to move soon, between anxiousness to get it over with and impatience to get rid of the three men. His hatred and desire to see them die hadn’t abated in the slightest, but to my surprise, he had learned to control it. I had feared that with his newfound hatred, he would start to spiral out of control, and I’d have to fight him tooth and nail to hold back. I didn’t know if I should be relieved or concerned that he’d figured out the basics of keeping himself under control but had a feeling I would figure out which one eventually.

All we needed was a good in with the three of them, something that would let us get close without risking exposure. We had plenty of information about their doings, though we were bound to miss things. We had addresses, pictures from gossip and news sites, known associates and their addresses and information, and random stuff we could dig up without leaving a trail.

The problem was these three men were pretty high profile and didn’t go anywhere alone except for their homes. Every single one of their living spaces either had security systems up the wazoo, which neither Hunter nor I had any knowledge about dealing with, or in the case of penthouses, additional security in the form of a front desk, live-in security, and cameras.

All in all, we had plenty of information, but we lacked the opening necessary to move on them. Maybe if we had other people working with us with greater knowledge and expertise than the two of us, but we didn’t. Icouldcall in favors from some of the people I’d worked with in the past, but that opened up a whole new slew of complications and potential issues. The fewer people involved, the better, as far as I was concerned.

“So, scared of kids?” Brooke asked once Hunter had disappeared. I appreciated that she hadn’t commented on the fact that my eyes had lingered on Hunter’s ass in his well-fitting work pants as he walked off. Though that might tell me precisely how people had figured out the two of us had found our way to more than just best friends.

“Notofthem, really,” I said with an uncomfortable shrug. “I just...yeah, sometimes I get nervous around them. I should know better since I remember my childhood pretty well, but there’s just something so fragile and...I don’t know.”

“Kids are more durable than you think,” she said with a chuckle. “I’m always surprised by the shit they can get into and come out alive. My mom always said God looks over drunks and young children, and I’d swear to...well, God, that’s true.”

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