“Derrick,” Jack said, clearing his throat. “I don’t know what to say.”
“You have nothing to say yet because Derk hasn’t accepted,” Murphy reminded him.
“Derk, if you don’t take the position, I’ll personally haunt your ass and make your life a living hell,” Jack snarled.
“And that’s different from every other day how?”
“Fucking Derk,” Carl laughed. “Are you sure you want that kind of torture, Mr. Murphy?”
Jack punched his good friend in the arm. “Shut the hell up.”
“Wouldn’t it be nice to work closely with your girlfriend?” Murphy baited. “To keep an eye on her and know she’s safe and guarded? Bring her into the fold. Allow Courtney to shower her with friendship and love. You’ll know who’s coming and going from her daily life. There’ll be nothing that you aren’t privy to when it comes to Mackenzie because you’ll be here, not in some car, seated in front of a house, wondering what the men, who visit every day, are propositioning to her?”
“You would never allow that?” Derk challenged. Fucking bastard went right for his weak spot.
“I can’t stop what’s said in the lobby, out of earshot.” Murphy sat back in his chair, a twitch of his lips his only tell that he knew he’d nailed Derk to the wall.
“Fucking asshole,” Derk muttered.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Murphy slapped his hands off the desk and turned to Jack. “Find yourself an office on the West side of the city and set up shop immediately. Derk’s working for me starting tomorrow. We’ll move the West leader to the vacant Eastern spot.”
“Hey,” Carl chimed in. “I want an office job.”
“As soon as Smith decides to fall in love, you’re in.”
“Damn it to hell,” Carl moaned. “I’ll never get a desk.”
Ignoring the idiots in the room, Derk texted Mac to get ready to be interviewed by Murphy in an hour. Why the man was playing that game, he didn’t know. As part of the deal, Murphy planned to hire her.
When he looked up from his phone, Mr. M stared at him for a long moment. “I’ll take care of her, Derk. She’s family now.”
She was. She was his family. The only one that mattered. The only one that he’d ever given his heart to. The only person who’d ever own the damn thing. Fuck, he was screwed, going all sappy over Mac.
***
“He hired me!” Mac squealed as she bounced out of the office and into his waiting arms as he leaned against his car. “I’ve never had a real job before.”
He cocked a brow. “Bartending isn’t a real job?”
“You know what I mean. One that gives me paid vacations, retirement, sick days, paid holidays. I’ll get weekends off. I haven’t had a weekend off in forever,” she said excited.
Yeah, he gave that to her. A small price for making her happy.
“Come on, Mac. Let’s go out to dinner, then we can go home and you can show me how happy you are by sucking my dick.”
“Derk!”
He shrugged. That’s what he wanted, why keep his mouth shut about it?
29
Mackenzie’s back was killing her. For two weeks she’d slowly moved boxes of her stuff into Derk’s home. Which was now their home. Once she had everything moved in, she took on the task of rearranging his house to make room for her few items. Derk didn’t care what she did with the place, but there wasn’t enough closet or drawer space for both of them. Upon her search, she came across the oddest thing. A panic room, of sorts.
“Derk,” she’d called.
“Yeah?”
“What is this?”
“What?”
“This…crawl space.”
That got him to the bedroom quickly. He stood next to her with the small door open. It was located behind the dresser she moved to make room for her new chest of drawers that’d been delivered earlier in the day.
“It’s a crawl space that leads outside,” he said, closing the door. “There’s several located throughout the house.”
“Did you build these?”
“Ironically, no. They came with the house. The previous owners were convinced the government would come after them one day, and they wanted escape routes. I didn’t know about these until after I’d moved in. I don’t think the realtor even knew they existed,” he said.
“Have you ever been in them?”
“Once, when I found them. I was curious,” he said nonchalantly. “This one leads outside to the left side of the house.”
“Oh.”
“Oh,” he mocked. “Wanna play trapped girl and I’ll rescue you?” He waggled his brows.