Page 94 of Tactically Acquired

Spencer rolled back over and sat up, glaring at me. “Do you really want to know what’s going on? She’s fucking stressed. She thought we’d be getting out of action movies to turn to theater, and instead, we got signed up for another fucking movie. Do you have any idea how stressful it is to have no control over your life? To have someone else dictate what you’re going to do?”

“Yeah, I was in the military,” I retorted.

“So, you can see how this isn’t the time to screw with her head.” He sighed heavily and punched his pillow. “Can we let this go now?”

I grunted as he turned out the light on his nightstand. Maybe he was right. Then again, he said that she wanted to go into the theater, but when I met Audrey, she told me Spencer was the one who wanted to go into the theater and she liked doing action movies. So either Audrey was lying to Spencer or Spencer was lying to me.

24

SLIDER

She walked into the room with her arm slung through Spencer’s. They did that a lot—walked together. Everywhere. He guided her over to a stool and then kissed her on the cheek before going to the fridge to make her a smoothie.

Every morning, it was the same. For the past three days, I’d watched every move she made from a distance, trying to figure out what was really going on. Spencer made her a disgusting smoothie that she choked down, and she only seemed to do it because Spencer loved them so much. After that, she forced herself to join him for yoga, which she only did half-heartedly, getting distracted by something outside nine times out of ten.

Throughout the day, she lounged around the house, taking a few naps when her head started to hurt. The effects from the concussion hadn’t eased yet, and that was partially because she wouldn’t just sit the fuck down and take it easy those first few days. Now…now she had nothing else to do, and she knew it.

Spencer babied her, acting like she was his wife or something, but there was never any hint of attraction there. It was all a form of brotherly love, and there was no denying that whatever was between them, he truly cared about her. So, what the hell was she hiding? I just couldn’t figure it out.

“Here you go,” Spencer said, setting the smoothie down in front of her. “Your favorite flavor.”

She grimaced, picking up the glass. “Perfect.”

Spencer’s eyes dimmed slightly as he lowered his glass. “Hey, I promise we’ll try some fruit smoothies when we get home.”

“If we ever get home,” she huffed. “I miss my bed,” she grumbled.

“Me too. Hey, maybe when we get home, we should paint that wall bright blue like we were talking about.”

I cocked my head to the side. “You live together?”

Audrey narrowed her eyes as she slowly turned to face me. “Yes. Is that a problem?”

“Nope. Just didn’t realize it.”

“It wasn’t a secret. I told Thumper.”

He fucking knew and didn’t tell me. I ground my molars, but just smiled, not letting on that I was pissed. Not that I had a right to be. Hell, I walked out on her when I had her right in front of me, willing to take my cock. I still dreamed about how wet and warm her pussy was around my fingers. Fuck, I wanted to taste her.

I sighed, taking a sip of my coffee to distract myself from my errant thoughts. Now wasn’t the time to go down memory lane. Thankfully, Rae came stumbling down the hall, still in her pajamas since she’d just gone to bed a few hours ago.

“Did you forget something?” I asked.

“Dash called. He just finished going through Audrey and Spencer’s place,” she mumbled, plopping down in a chair at the table.

“Did he find anything?”

She shook her head. “But I asked him to send over the pictures anyway so we could look through them. Maybe we’ll see something they missed.”

It was highly unlikely, but it was worth a shot.

Rae kept her voice low as she whispered, “We need to find something soon. Her director won’t stop bugging Lock about where they are. He’s getting pissed that he can’t contact them and has no idea where they are.”

“That’s sort of the point of a safe house,” I muttered.

“You know Hollywood types,” she sighed as her laptop booted up.

“Is there anything you need us for?” Spencer asked.

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