Total pages in book: 183
Estimated words: 174715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 874(@200wpm)___ 699(@250wpm)___ 582(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 174715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 874(@200wpm)___ 699(@250wpm)___ 582(@300wpm)
“That’s all the more reason why you need me. I’m a good researcher. I can find dirt on dirty cops if there is dirt to be found.”
“I just called in Walker Security to help.”
“You need personal protection?”
“No,” I say. “The name is deceiving. They do far more than security. They’re the best of the best at intel. They’ll get me the ammunition I need to protect myself should this become a real problem.”
“I’m not getting off this plane,” she insists, her jaw settling hard.
“For all the reasons you worried about us—your career and your mother—you need to stay here, woman. Let me repeat, I’m protecting you.”
“Outside of my unwillingness to desert you, my law career is just another reason I have to stay. You told me yourself, I can’t walk away from something because it’s hard. And I don’t want to walk away from corruption ever, most certainly not corruption that could hurt you.”
“Consider this an order: Get up and get off the plane.”
“Fire me, but there are two sides of our relationship now. That means what happens to you matters to me. Employer or not, I’m still going with you.”
“Holy fuck, woman,” I growl. “This is not—”
She presses her lips to mine and I tell myself to stand her up and walk her off of this plane, but damn it to hell, this woman makes me crazy. Proven by the fact that I don’t walk her off the plane. I cup her face, and kiss her, a punishing, hard kiss, that ends with the yelp of the flight attendant. “I’m so sorry,” she says. “I just—I need to let you know we’ve been delayed another fifteen minutes.”
Lori surprises me by showing zero remorse for being busted by twisting around to look at the flight attendant. “Thank you, Katy,” she says. “Is it possible to get food while we wait? I haven’t eaten all day and I can’t fight with this man and win without some energy.”
She laughs. “I think you’re winning.” She tries to straighten up her face. “I mean, of course. Coming right up.” She disappears, and Lori turns back to me. “You don’t get to declare us all in, and then be half out, Cole Brooks.”
I cup her face. “Sweetheart, I have never been all in with a woman like I am with you.”
“I can help,” she whispers. “I want to help, and we can—”
“If I let you stay on this plane, you will do what I say, when I say it. Agree or I swear to you that I will carry you off this plane right now.”
“As it relates to the job, I agree,” she says.
My lips curve. “You had to clarify that, right?”
“Yes. I did.” She shoves on my chest. “Now tell me what happened on those calls.”
“There’s not much to tell.” I kiss her and release her.
“There’s something to tell,” she insists, both of us settling back into our seats. “You just tried to kick me off the plane.”
“Sometimes it’s just a gut feeling.”
“But you think the detective is out to get you?”
“I don’t think he’s an ally, that’s for sure.”
The flight attendant reappears with two boxes in her hand. “Each has finger sandwiches, cookies and chips. I can do something fancier in the air.”
“You’re a goddess Katy,” Lori says, accepting her box. “Thank you. Do you have bottled water?”
“I do,” she says, pulling one from her apron and offering it to Lori, before handing me my box as well as an additional water.
Katy departs and before she’s even shut the curtain, Lori has taken a bite of a cookie. “Isn’t that supposed to come last?”
“Why?” she asks.
I laugh. “Indeed. Why?”
“I’m a rule breaker,” she says. “You didn’t know that?”
“You’re a contradiction on that topic, sweetheart, but I like it.”
“I’m not a contradiction,” she says. “I simply choose where to be daring.”
“Such as my hotel room?” I tease.
“No,” she says sobering immediately. “What happened there wasn’t about a room or a night.”
She has my full attention and I lean closer. “Then what was it about?”
The flight attendant chooses that moment to reappear, “We’re a go for take-off this time. I don’t need to gather your items, but I want you to know we’re lifting off in ten minutes.”
She’s gone again, and Lori pulls out a sandwich. “You,” she says. “My daringness that night was about you.” And before I can reply or demand her meaning, she changes the subject. “Do you think the detective is setting up the starlet to get to you?”
“I’m letting you change the subject,” I say, “but I’m going to ask for clarification later. As for the detective and our starlet client, I do think he’s using her to get to me.”
She seems to consider that a moment. “But what can he really do to take you down?”
“You’d be surprised what a dirty law enforcement agency can do. And as for the question of what that will be, the unknown is always the elephant with fangs in the room.”