I hear Ivy’s small steps rush after me, so I pick up the pace. To be honest, pinning the decision on Smoke is a desperate play. I’m grasping at straws, but the woman has turned my world upside down, and she hasn’t even moved in.
I knock once, loud, as I barge in. “I need to speak with you.”
Smoke looks at me warily from behind his desk. “I’ll have to call you back,” he says from his phone.
“She can’t stay,” I insist.
“Why not?” Smoke asks.
Ivy knocks once and charges in behind me. “Yes, why not?”
Turning to face her, I say, “You can’t just barge in here.”
Smoke rolls his eyes. Hands clasped across his chest, he leans back into his chair. “Do I need a gavel?”
Frustrated, I plant my hands on Smoke’s desk and lean in. “Her background check isn’t finished.”
“I’ve lived in North Carolina all my life. My best friend’s father is the sheriff.” Well, that’s just great. And fucking convincing.
Smoke passes an imperceivable glance her way, and I know he’s swayed. Shit. He tosses me a look, and I can already read his mind. But his words surprise me. “Give us a minute, Ivy.”
“But—” This time, his look is sterner, and she complies. “Okay,” she says meekly.
We both watch as she walks out the door. The second she shuts it I can breathe.
“Well?” Smoke asks.
“Well, what?”
“Why can’t she stay? Because you’re horny?”
I deadpan.
"Maybe you need a vacation, Leo. A break.”
I scoff. “Please. Without me around, you couldn’t find your nuts to scratch them. Seriously, there’s no one who will bother to point them out to you.”
He offers me a seat which I reluctantly take. From the fridge, he tosses me a coke, while he pours himself a scotch. “No one—not you—not me—have gotten through to Trinity. It’s the breakthrough of the fucking millennium.”
“Her being here is dangerous. She’s on Andre’s radar.”
His face contorts with suspicion. “Why?”
“I don’t know. Yet,” I add. “But I’ll find out.”
He stares out the window, taking a long sip of his drink. “Then keeping her around makes it that much easier to find out.”
Unsettled, I exhale. Loud.
“Tell me I’m wrong,” he challenges, and that’s just it. He’s not wrong.
“Just breathing over here. Isn’t a man allowed to breathe?”
“Yup,” he says with another sip before turning to me. “The choice is yours, Leo.”
“What?” Where did that come from? I stand. “What do you mean the choice is mine? After going on about what an asset she is to Trini and that she might be a strategic advantage against Andre. Now, all of a sudden, the choice is mine? The hell it is.”
“Half the time, the two of you are in some weird tango between hating each other and fucking each other, and as much as my morbid curiosity wants to keep Ivy around just to see how your little love-hate-fuck fest ends, it’s not my life, Leo. It’s yours. She’ll be reporting to you. Working for you. Day in and day out.”
He takes a moment to stare at a photo of Trini, weighing the consequences of what he’s saying. “We all know what you’ve been through, Leo. This can’t be my decision or Trini’s. It’s yours.”
I want to tell him I’d do anything for Trini. For him. For this family. And it claws at my heart that I can’t.
He tosses back the rest of his drink, centering the glass on his desk. “Let her know which way you decide. We’re behind you, Leo. One hundred percent.” He pats my back. “We’re family.”
He walks out. And I’m left wondering what the hell I do now.