“We’ll begin transitioning you to your new position effective immediately. I believe I may have said that already. Forgive me. It’s been an interesting few days,” she said, picking up her folders and walking toward his office door. “Also, I’ll take the Goldman case. Send me what you have.”
“I just agreed to a plea,” he said tersely, holding his ground.
“We’ll see. Movers will be here by the end of day. You’ll be moving downstairs.”
Alec stared after her as she shut his office door in his face. Dammit! He hadn’t anticipated this. Of course, she’d be concerned over any aspirations her staff may have, never want anyone to succeed above her own position. And having him acknowledge, in however small a way, that he was interested in a federal judge appointment, had sent her ego directly into self-protection mode. And scorched-earth was her weapon of choice. She was just that kind of person.
Child Protective Services.
Was she serious? What the… Dammit! Alec gripped the bridge of his nose, lowering his head, trying to gain perspective when all he wanted to do was put his fist through the damn door.
It took a couple of seconds, but Alec spotted another file folder sitting on his desk. He went straight there. In Twiford’s need to put Alec in his place, she must have forgotten the folder when she picked up the stack she’d had with her. He opened the flap and saw a series of surveillance photos of the biker club. He couldn’t believe his luck and her ignorance. What a seriously dumb move to leave something so valuable behind with a man she’d just dressed down.
He didn’t hold back. Alec thumbed through several eight by ten shots, finding Keyes front and center in many of them. Alec could see why Keyes had been targeted and treated as a threat. He was a big guy, bigger than any of the other club members. Seeing Keyes like this, he looked intimidating as hell. Certainly not the sexy man he’d wanted to get to know. Alec flipped through the photos, trying to reconcile the kind, generous, helpful man with the badass biker dude pictured before him. Alec wouldn’t have felt comfortable enough to approach Keyes had he met him under conditions that produced that intimidating scowl and the stance that screamed danger.
Doing something he’d never normally do, he pulled out his phone and snapped a picture of Keyes from the photo below, then turned that eight by ten and took another. They’d be handy for his spank bank later. Moreover, he hoped Twiford might forget where she’d left the file. Curiosity more than anything made Alec want to know what drove her single-minded focus to bring this club to its knees. She’d probably claim he tampered with evidence and fire him for daring to peek in her file. And truth be told, this was not a good ethical decision for the job he held.
That concern lasted for about five seconds. Alec shrugged, closed the file, and decided to let fate handle any repercussions.
The quiet neighborhood made the rumble of Keyes’s bike echo louder than ever before as he slowed, rolling past super nice house after super nice house, looking for the correct address. Uncertainty had him lifting his gaze after every mailbox he passed, checking out the spread of the next home. The missing pieces to the Alec Pierce puzzle grew more complex. Why would a single man on the prowl choose to live alone in one of these enormous homes? Unless he wasn’t alone.
This was a bad fucking idea. If he had a brain in his head, he’d keep going, drive straight out of this pretentious neighborhood and never look back.
He couldn’t help but gawk at the two-story monstrosity as he took the turn into the driveway. He wasn’t sure he’d ever seen anything so nice. Keyes cut the engine and kept the bike balanced between his parted thighs, still undecided if he should follow through with this plan. The indecision made his stomach churn.
On one hand, he’d thought about the man who owned this fancy house for almost two solid days. There was no denying the chemistry they’d first shared on that dark road then again at his shop. Hell, he’d jacked off thinking about the blond at least three times in the last twenty-four hours. Had caught himself smiling for no fucking reason twice today. Finally, this afternoon, he took time off work and went to Boardwalk Ferrari. When he stepped into the garage, the service manager—an old friend of his—handed him a folded piece of paper. Key figured it was a receipt or something for him to sign, but when he opened it his heart skipped a beat.
When you’re ready to collect, come see me.
Alec
3133 Whispering Oaks Drive
McKinney
4321
Staring up at the house, Keyes wondered whether Alec could just be another douchebag cheater, his wife and kids doing family things in that house as Keyes stood there like a fool. But even now, Keyes’s gut rejected that notion. Alec didn’t have the look of a family man, not that he’d been around too many of them in his lifetime, but surely, he wasn’t stupid enough to leave an open invitation if he were a married man and had a wife and children living there. Which left the only other possibility, and Keyes pretty much figured he’d hit the nail on the head with the assumption that the guy liked to slum it.