Page 28 of Vallaverse: Noir
“And you have an Omega to think of now,” Beckett smirks. “I'd be very upset if you would rather sleep in an office somewhere than with me.”
With us, I silently amend. Whether Beckett and I ever have a relationship of our own, one thing is very certain. Dana will be sleeping between the two of us every night, beginning with tonight. “How much do you have at the center?” I ask him instead of starting another argument.
“Not much.” He shrugs. “Mostly clothes and a few hobbies and books. No more than what would fit in your trunk.”
“Good, good.” I look at Dana and continue. “Would you like to keep your apartment? It might be good to have a place in the city.”
“Of course I'm keeping my apartment,” she says, incredulous.
I smile at her affront. “Alright. We'll go by your place and you can get what you need for now, then we'll go help Beckett with his things.”
“You can't just swoop in and take over my life, Pierce. I have a job. People are depending on me to do the things I said I would. It's important.”
My smile falters. Is that what I'm doing? It might be, but I don't know how else to function in the new world I've foundmyself in. “It isn't intentional. Just logical. Isn't it? Beckett will obviously need to stay with you, and you will absolutely be staying with me.”
She huffs and starts pulling trousers and other clothes from her suitcase. “I'm not giving up my job. I wouldn't expect Beckett to give up anything that was important to him.” She straightens suddenly. “Do you have any obligations? I mean it. I won't have you re-evaluating your entire life because of me. I can't ask you to do that.”
Beckett answers her earnestly, all joviality leaving his expression. “I would do it without being asked, Dana. I wanted this too much, for too long. I would rearrange my entire existence to be with you. It wouldn't matter. I just want to be wherever you are. I don't have a single obligation that matters.”
“Oh.” Dana licks her lips nervously. “Oh. Okay then.”
~
I told Dana to grab what she'd need for a few days and that's exactly what she packed. A few outfits, underclothes, a stack of notebooks, and a heating pad. Beckett wasn't much different. It only took a little longer to get his things loaded into the back of my car.
They're following behind us in Dana's car. It looks exactly what you would expect a private investigator to drive, generic and anonymous. Beckett seems excited about it. I can't blame him. Until I met her, the idea of a private detective mostly stayed in the realm of movies and spy novels for me.
She's going to make jokes about me employing a driver. She's already made a few comments about it. I think she's going to give me a hard time about everything. My parents weren't like that. My mother wasn't allowed to give my father a hard time, or make jokes about anything, or really have an opinion at all. I don't ever want Dana to be afraid to be herself in my presence. I want her to challenge me. I'm looking forward to that very much.
I want the full story of her past injuries, though. I want it as much as I want my next breath. Obviously, she's had more than one surgery. I won't be surprised to find out that she's had a few. What I want to know is why. She has scarring from more than stitches and sutures. There's a vicious one that runs the diagonal length of her hip. It's too jagged, too uneven, to be anything a surgeon would have left behind. It's just one out of a pile of mysteries about her that I can't wait to solve.
Dana doesn't say anything when we get out of our cars once we arrive at my home, but I can see the snarky remarks building behind her eyes. She's just waiting for the right time to unleash them. For now, she just glances at me with her eyebrows raised high after each new thing I show her and Beckett about my home. She can't hold it in anymore after we get to the kitchen, though.
“You don't really have a cook, Pierce. Not really. Please tell me you don't. That would be too much.”
I lean against the marbled counter. “I have two.”
She pinches the bridge of her nose. “Of course, you do. Where are Beckett and I supposed to sleep? I want to rest for a while before I have to start making phone calls.”
“In the master bedroom.”
“We can't take over your room, Pierce. Don't you have a second, or fourth, bedroom in this shack?”
“You won't be taking over my room,” I tell her. “I'll share it with you.”
“Don't be ridiculous. We've only just met.”
I raise my brows. “I know exactly what color your nipples are. We can share a room and a bed and anything else we need to share.”
Beckett laughs, but she blushes.
“You expect us to sleep together every night?” she asks.
“Every single night.” I glance at Beckett. “Do you have a problem with that? I don't know how else this arrangement is going to work.”
“As long as she's in the middle and you don't snore, I'll be fine.”
“There,” I say, giving her a satisfied smile. “Settled. I'll show you upstairs. How long would you like to rest? Do you have many calls to make?”
