Up in Flames(2)

Watching TV. I didn’t feel like lying to make him jealous. I had realized long ago that Major didn’t do jealous where I was concerned, which sometimes felt like a slap in the face. Yet another thing I always forgave him for, just because he was so damn nice.

Gossip Girl or Grey’s Anatomy?

He knew my two favorite shows. He remembered everything about me. Which was yet another thing that complicated things for me.

Gossip Girl.

I’m good, he texted, with a winky face. He was the only guy I knew who used emojis. At first, I thought it was weird, but I expected it now. It was just Major being Major. He could make things acceptable that normally weren’t sexy.

Lunch today? Maybe Japanese?

He loved Japanese food.

And I was afraid, maybe just a little, that I loved him.

Sure.





Major


I let out the breath I was holding. I could never be certain if Nan was pissed at me. Did she have a reason to be? Not really. We weren’t exclusive, and I’d reminded her a few times that we were just friends with benefits so she wouldn’t get any ideas. But I didn’t know if that really mattered to a girl like Nan.

The woman who had spent the evening at my apartment came with a lot less baggage than Nan. She laughed and was easy to be with. I didn’t worry about making her angry or if she was about to have a mood swing that would ruin the night. I also didn’t have to worry about not being able to walk away the next day. With Nan, I was stuck until this job was over. I had to keep her happy. Fucking her and walking away wasn’t an option.

Sarah, on the other hand, knew the score. She wasn’t clingy or needy. She was no-pressure and fun, and she offered me the release I needed. I liked her, but I didn’t want to keep her in my life. Not in that way. I just needed someone like her to balance out Nan’s overwhelming presence.

Nan had a way of making me forget that we could never be more. My job was too important. We could never be real. She just didn’t know it. Yet.

I didn’t need to know what she was doing last night. I already knew. I may have been busy with my date, but her house was under constant surveillance. Cope—my boss, so to speak—was watching her every move when I wasn’t. If she went out, we needed to know where.

Luckily, she’d stayed put, and I’d gotten to have a fun night with Sarah. The last time I’d tried to go out with Sarah, Nan had called upset over something, and I’d had to go over to her place to comfort her. She was a ball of emotions and constantly kept me on my toes.

A sharp knock on my door made me groan with dread. I knew who it was, and it was too early to deal with him. I hadn’t had my coffee and eggs yet. Sighing, I got out of the warmth of my bed, jerked on a pair of shorts that I’d left on the floor the night before, and headed toward the door.

Cope barely let me get the door open before he forced his way inside. He was taller than me, though not by much. But it wasn’t his height that made him larger than life; it was his persona. He walked into every room like he owned it—and if he didn’t, he’d kill whoever he needed to in order to own it. He was the kind of son of a bitch you didn’t want to piss off. He was as brilliant as he was crazy, and I’d seen him track down a target within minutes and kill with no emotion.

“You enjoy your night?” he asked, with an edge to his voice.

“Yeah, I did. Thanks for asking,” I said matter-of-factly, refusing to let him intimidate me. I hadn’t told him about Sarah, and I wasn’t going to start now.

Cope didn’t even glance back at me. “You’ve gotten us nowhere. She doesn’t trust you. She knows you’re a slut.”

Slut? What the fuck did he know? “She does trust me.”

Cope turned quickly, and his dark eyes pierced me with a glare that would make Superman take a step back. “The fuck she does. The woman’s not stupid. She knows. She’s been with enough men to know when she’s being blown off.”

“I’m taking her to lunch!” I fired back at him.

“Not enough. She might not know who the other girl is, but I sure as hell do. Sarah Jergins, 8431 Ravenhurst Drive. She knows you were with someone. That means she won’t trust you enough to spill her secrets, and we need the fucking secrets. She’s our only in with Livingston. She got close to him. She has to know something. We need to know what she knows.”

Cope stalked toward the door to leave, and I took the opportunity to make faces behind his back, because it was the mature thing to do, obviously.

When he put his hand on the doorknob, he stopped. “You’ve got a week to figure it out, and then I’m stepping in. If you can’t make the girl fall in love with you, I’ll have to do it myself.” With that, he jerked open the door and slammed it behind him.