Page 93 of Tactically Acquired

“It looks like I’m the only one doing that,” he grumbled.

“Hey, Thumper’s on the fucking couch. He has a bionic leg that he has to take off every night, but you don’t see him bitching.”

His eyebrows shot up in surprise at my admission. “Seriously? He’s like the Terminator?”

I rolled my eyes. “Don’t let him hear you say that. He’ll never let me hear the end of it.” I grabbed two extra pillows and placed them in the middle of the bed, hoping that was enough to keep us fully separated. I started undoing my pants when Spencer coughed loudly.

“Whoa, um…not cool.”

“What’s not?”

“You can’t take your pants off!”

“I’m going to bed. Of course I can.”

“Not with another man,” he argued.

“It’s not like I’m taking my underwear off. I’m getting comfortable.”

I shucked my pants and tossed them over the chair. I was beat and needed a good night’s sleep to get my head on straight. All this talk about relationships with Thumper was fucking with my head. We needed to figure out what the fuck was going on and end this assignment.

Climbing under the covers, I tugged the covers up and closed my eyes.

“You should have just stayed away,” Spencer muttered.

“What?”

“From Audrey. If you were only going to walk away, why the hell did you even go near her?”

Another person I had to explain myself to. Fucking great. “It’s not your business.”

“She’s my best friend, so it’s absolutely my business. She doesn’t deserve that kind of shit. Not now.”

I was about to brush him off when his words hit me. “What does that mean?”

“What does what mean?”

“You said not now. Why would you say that?”

“Because you shouldn’t be fucking with her head,” he snapped.

“Yeah, but you said not now, implying that something’s going on,” I pushed.

He rolled to his side, blocking me out. But now there was no way I would get to sleep.

“You can’t just say something like that and then go to sleep.”

“Oh my God, I didn’t mean anything by it, other than she’s dealing with enough right now.”

“Because something else is going on,” I hedged.

“No! We just finished a movie. We needed a break and instead got kidnapped. Now we have to go do another movie that she’s not ready for?—”

“Ha! See? Right there! She’s not ready for— Why is she not ready for it?”

“Because we need a fucking break!” Spencer shouted.

No, there was more to this. I knew it. My gut was screaming at me. “I’m not buying it. There’s something else going on. What the fuck aren’t you telling me?”

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