Controlled Burn (Blackbridge Security 8)

Finnegan has been the best thing to happen to me in a long time, and I don’t even know his last name.

Chapter 2

Finnegan

“Have a good time last night?” Kit asks as I take a seat across from him.

My body sinks into the sofa, and I know I’m going to have a little trouble getting up. My workout this morning was extra intense, but they all have been lately. Ever since Kendall showed up in the gym, obviously a new resident in the building I live in, I’ve felt the strain in my muscles. Her smile makes literally every part of my body perk up and take notice.

“I was in bed by nine,” I tell my friend, shaking my head when he chuckles.

He doesn’t believe me, and that’s fine. I have nothing to prove to him.

“I did have a great workout this morning.”

“Yeah?”

“At the gym,” I say, knowing exactly where his mind went. “The literal gym. The one in our building? If you worked out a little more, maybe you wouldn’t be getting so soggy around the middle.”

Kit smiles wide, lifting his shirt to reveal a mountain of ridges down his abdomen. “So soggy.”

“Put those damn things away,” Deacon, our boss, mutters when he walks into the room.

“I really don’t mind,” Anna, Deacon’s wife, says with a wide smile.

The look Deacon gives Kit is murderous.

“What?” he asks with a scoff. “She’s the one looking, and you’re mad at me?”

Anna chuckles as she shifts her little boy from one hip to the other.

“Keep your clothes on when on the clock.”

Kit’s eyes dart from Deacon to the big clock on the wall. Noticing it’s after nine, he simply nods in agreement, his face falling a little because he’s missing out on the ability to tell him the workday hasn’t technically started.

“You got it, boss,” Kit says, blatantly winking at Anna just to rile the man up even more.

Anna leans in and whispers something in her husband’s ear, and although he points at Kit like he’s got a shitstorm coming, he follows his wife toward his office.

“He’s going to end up murdering you,” I mutter, pulling the box of mechanical parts from the floor and putting it on the table in front of me.

“He’ll kill Brooks first. I lifted my shirt. He dropped his pants in front of her.”

“What are you two assholes gossiping about?” the man in question asks as he appears from the hallway that leads to our offices.

“You,” we respond at the same time.

“I was telling him that Deacon will kill you first because you flashed Anna your ass,” Kit explains.

“I was seeking medical treatment from a wound. She walked into the room. I didn’t flash her.”

“She still saw your ass,” Kit reminds him.

“How is that tiny bite on your ass?” I ask with a wide smile. He’d made such an ordeal about getting bit, but Jude, our in-house medic, said it was not much more than a scratch.

“Healed,” Brooks mutters as he pours himself a cup of coffee before sitting down beside Kit. “Why are you in such a good mood?”

Kit chuckles. “He had a good workout this morning.”

“Oh yeah?” Brooks asks with a smile, quick to get in someone else’s business, but less than forthcoming when it comes to his own life these days.

“At the gym,” I say. “Literally the gym.”

“Like in the steam room?” Brooks asks. “That far corner is really dark, and you have like a five-second warning before anyone can spot you.”

“The steam rooms are gendered,” I remind him.

“Yeah,” he says. “Yeah, I know that. Did you guys watch the game last night?”

My eyes narrow, and they’ve done that so many times in recent months with Brooks, people are going to start wondering if I need glasses.

Kit goes on about how the umpires were the worst, and I lose my train of thought. My mind takes me back to the gym and imagining being able to sneak Kendall into that dark corner Brooks mentioned.

The day goes by slow as molasses, but that’s not unusual. The days always drag by. The mornings at the gym are the only quick times in my life these days, and it’s as if I’m living my life one workout at a time. I look forward to the gym and can never wait to get back in there. I would’ve asked Kendall out, but dating someone that lives in the same building means things get awkward after the appeal fizzles out. I’ve had it happen once before, and it was months before that woman finally moved away, and I didn’t have to spend extra time looking around corners and avoiding certain areas of the building. I don’t want to go through any of it again. It’s why I haven’t pulled the trigger on asking her. Dating within the building is messy, and after what happened last time, I’ll avoid it at all costs.