Chapter 27

Wren

“Where is she?” Jude asks, his eyes darting around several of the other guys to look down the hallway.

“Sleeping,” I answer, surprised they’ve been here for ten minutes before someone asked about her.

“In your bed?” Finnegan questions, mirth filling his eyes like he’s not so certain I could seal the deal with any chick.

“Get serious guys.” I give Flynn a look of thanks for saving my ass.

“You better come up with a better plan,” I mutter, returning us back to the original conversation. “Because this shit isn’t going to fly.”

Ignacio chuckles, and no matter how much I know deep down he’d never try to go after my girl, I’m still a little uneasy with him being in the same apartment as her. She wants me. That’s clear as day with the way her eyes light up around me, but I’m still floored by her reaction to him last night. First the words, then the redness in her cheeks. It was unbearable.

The guys watch me as I step away from the counter to pour yet another cup of coffee. I spent half the night tossing and turning, trying to figure out a way to end this shitshow as quickly as possible and the other half going in and out of the guest bedroom to make sure she was okay.

I’m exhausted, and I know she must be feeling the same way. She didn’t shift or lift her head once when I creeped in there last night. Even Simon reacted the first couple of times.

“We’re not saying use her as bait, Wren,” Flynn says, his voice low like he’s trying to coax a scared puppy out from under the porch.

“We’re saying make it look like she’s bait,” Ignacio adds.

“You already set up some of it by using her real name for her plane ticket yesterday. If he’s tracking her like we know he is, then he knows she’s already back here,” Flynn continues.

“Your plan falls apart because she didn’t go home or use her name for a hotel room last night. He doesn’t know she’s here. Don’t you think he’ll be suspicious if two nights later she finally pops up on a manifest somewhere?” I sigh, rubbing my hands over my face, willing my eyes to stop feeling like sandpaper. “He’s too smart for that.”

“He’s desperate,” Finn says. “He won’t be able to resist checking up on any leads.”

“And what keeps him from sending some gun-toting thug like the fucking Russians did with Deacon and Anna a couple of months ago, huh? It’s too fucking dangerous.”

“For who?” Jude snaps. “She’ll be here with you. Not to point out the obvious, but this is what we fucking do, Wren. It’s literally just another day.”

“It’s not just another day. She’s not just another client.”

I pace the length of the kitchen, talking myself out of destroying my personal space. Plus, I don’t want Whitney to wake up in the middle of all of this.

“She is,” Flynn snaps. “She is another client, and I realize you’re close to this and right in the fucking middle of it, but so was Anna. Who was also another fucking client, and you know that we’d give our lives for any fucking one of them. We make that commitment when we sign that contract. That’s why we make sure they’re fucking worth it before we start. We would’ve died for Anna in South America or the Maldives, just like we’d die for Whitney in some shitty hotel on the other side of town if that’s the way it ends up.”

“I want to be there,” I concede, unable to look Flynn in the eyes as he seethes beside me.

“Absolutely not.”

“No way, dude.”

“Fuck no.”

They all chorus their own responses, but they boil down to a resounding no.

“I’m a part of this,” I argue.

“You’ve done your part,” Ignacio says, his fingers tapping on the closed cover of my laptop.

“Let us do ours,” Flynn adds.

“I can’t. I need to be—”

“Wren?”

We all spin around, and suddenly my mind is no longer on arguing to play a part in taking down Jones at a seedy hotel room. All I can focus on is Whitney standing at the end of the hall, hair in tangles around her shoulders. She has an adorable crease on her face and an embarrassed smile on her face. I watch her throat swallow, figuring out that she called my name before she discovered all the guys standing around me.

“Nice pussy,” Ignacio says.

Flynn groans, and Jude chuckles.

My eyes dart to the apex of her thighs, but she’s wearing sleep shorts. They’re not indecent, but the tank top barely holding her tits is another story.

Simon is a happy boy this morning, purring and circling around her legs like he’s finally forgiven her for torturing him for several days.

“I love ginger pussy,” Finn interjects.

Everyone cackles, and even Flynn cracks a smile. I know they’re testing me. They probably took bets and planned this shit out to see who could make me lose my shit first.

“Clothes, Whitney. You’ll wait for me in your room.”

Her eyes widen.

“Oh shit,” Jude mutters. “Hide the knives. Wren’s about to get cut.”

But he’s mistaken because the fire burning in her eyes isn’t anger.

“Yes, Sir,” she whispers before she turns around to leave.

The guys all look at me while I watch her plump ass sway down the hallway.

I bite the inside of my cheek to hide my laugh when I turn around to face them again. Jaws are hanging open. Finn is rubbing his eyes like he didn’t just experience what happened.

“Holy shit.”

“Did that just happen?”

“What the actual fuck, man?”

“You said you had no game,” Brooks mutters, his brows creased.

“Yes, sir?” Flynn murmurs, his head shaking a little like he’s utterly confused.

“She’s kinky?” Gaige whispers, more awe than question in his voice. “You lucky fuck.”

“You’re kinky?” Flynn questions, still not coming to terms with what just happened. “I thought computer guys blew their loads the second they saw real tits in person.”

I would step around the counter to punch the guy in the dick, but my cock’s still hard from the little show we all just witnessed.

We haven’t discussed many things, the Yes, Sir response being one of them. It’s not really my thing, or at least I didn’t think it was until those breathy words came out of her mouth. She knew exactly what she was doing. She was taking a little of herself back last night after getting embarrassed at the thought of Ignacio touching her personal things. I look across the kitchen island and glare at him.

He narrows his eyes at me.

“Stay away from her.”

“Me?” He taps his thumb against his chest, but then a slow smile pulls at his lips. “Don’t be mad at me. I can’t help it if your girl is interested in a little Latin lovin’.”

“Torres,” Flynn groans. “Now isn’t the time.”

“It’ll be hard to do your job without a fucking tongue,” I warn. Damn near impossible actually since he’s the interpreter for BBS.

To show his skills, Ignacio lifts his hands and tells me to go fuck myself in sign language.

“He wouldn’t,” Flynn assures me before turning to the demon in the room. “You wouldn’t, right?”

Ignacio straightens. “Never.”

There’s sincerity in his eyes, and deep down I know he wouldn’t, but fuck if I’m not utterly territorial over that woman.

“And that’s two down,” Gaige mutters before turning to place his empty cup in the sink.

“Two?” Brooks asks.

“Him and Deacon, both of them in love and down for the count.”

I stare at Gaige like he’s grown a second head, but I don’t bother opening my mouth to argue with the man. If what I feel for Whitney isn’t love, I don’t know what it is.

“Can we finish this up?” Flynn asks with a sigh. “I need some fucking sleep.”

“That shitty hotel she stayed in the other night is going to be best,” Jude says, switching gears instantly. “It’s off the beaten path, there isn’t much traffic, and people mind their damn business in places like that because they don’t want anyone in theirs.”

“Tonight?” I ask.

“Tomorrow night,” Flynn says. “We need to give the FBI time to get some things set up.”

I nod, leaning in closer as they run through even the minutest detail to make sure the plan goes off without a hitch.

It’s another hour before they file out of my apartment, and I’m grateful for the squeeze of reassurance Ignacio gives my shoulder on the way out.

“Yes, sir?” Flynn says, looking past me down the hall as if it held the explanation for his continued confusion.

The second the door snaps closed, I’m moving. I have a very sexy woman with a lot of explaining to do. The little vixen knew exactly what she was doing putting on that little show in front of my friends.