But instead, all I could think was that Vince had been wrong. Champ had apologized to me this morning—it was the very first thing he’d whispered in my ear in the pantry, and just like every second of that fucking hot interaction, it was emblazoned on my brain.

And if Vince had been wrong about that… was it possible that he’d been wrong about other things too?

18

CHAMP

Quinn left the pantry so quickly, I felt dizzy. By the time I got myself cleaned up and put back together, he was long gone. I entered the kitchen to the stares of the entire Drakes family.

“Good morning,” I said, flashing the smile I used to use back in the service when interacting with the brass.

Marissa looked past me toward the back hallway. “Were you…?”

“In the pantry?” Levi added.

“With Quinn?” Marissa finished, her eyes sparking with a knowing glint.

“He thought he saw a mouse,” I said with a shrug. “We looked everywhere but couldn’t find anything.”

Tommy’s eyes narrowed at me. “We don’t have mice. I pay a service.” Then he turned to Levi. “Call the pest people and get them out here. We will not have mice here with all our guests coming.”

Carlotta blinked awake over her coffee mug. “Mice?”

“Like I said, we didn’t find anything. No need to call anyone,” I said quickly. “Our search was very… thorough.”

Carlotta put a hand on her chest. “I don’t care. Get them out here. You can never be too careful with pests.”

“We appreciate your diligence,” Marissa said with a grin. “Although I thought you two had agreed not to… hunt mice again until after you were married.”

Her father frowned at her. “What does that have to do with anyth—”

“Hello!” Trey said, waltzing into the kitchen from the front hall. “Good morning. So sorry I’m late, but I brought donuts!” He leaned over and kissed Marissa’s cheek, and she flushed pink but didn’t look particularly pleased.

Levi jerked, his knee bumping the underside of the table and making all of the drinks slosh.

Tommy’s face darkened. “Where the hell were you last night?” he asked.

Since I didn’t want to be caught in a Drakes family drama scene, I scooted around Trey to the front hall with a murmured goodbye, then collected Hercules and headed out. When I was almost to the front door, I heard Marissa telling Trey in a furious voice that she couldn’t be bribed with donuts, especially when they weren’t even Annie’s donuts, which reminded me of Quinn again.

I was beginning to accept that almost every-damn-thing did these days.

Fuck, I really wished I knew where his head was at. I debated stopping by Taffet Events just to make sure he was okay, but Riggs stopped that plan with one simple text.

Riggs: At the office. We have news. You coming in?

I groaned. Who the hell had decided to have mandatory Sunday hours today?

Oh, right. Me.

Me: Yeah. Be there in five. Or call me and fill me in.

Riggs: No can do. See you soon.

No can do? I frowned down at my phone, picked up the dog, and jogged the rest of the way out to the truck.

When I got to the office, I nodded a greeting at our drowsing receptionist. “Herman.”

“Not at all, sir!” He jumped to his feet with a cordial smile. “And Happy New Year to you too.”

Well, that explained why he was here on a Sunday.

I bit back a sigh and continued past him toward the group assembled in front of Riggs’s desk when Herman’s voice called out, “Hold up, boss. Message for you from your roommate.” He held out a large sheet of yellow legal pad paper. “I wrote it down to make sure I got it right, just like he asked me.”

My heart leapt when I pictured Quinn calling to talk to me, but the message wasn’t from Quinn.

In shaky scrawl, the note read: Jericho says you have bugs. Call him ASAP.

Great. The Drakes may not have had mice in the pantry, but apparently, I had bugs at my house. Sometimes I hated living in Tennessee.

I glanced up at Herman with a sigh. “Jericho’s my contractor, not my roommate,” I explained. “He’s doing work at my house.”

Herman’s jowls dropped, and he leaned toward me slightly. “Yes, sir, but he was here earlier. That’s when he…” His eyes got big as he finished the sentence by mouthing the words found the bugs.

I frowned, then remembered I’d asked the team to call Jericho over to fix the faucet in the bathroom the night before. Figured the world’s slowest contractor had done this one thing fast.

“Got it. Thanks, Herman.” I’d have to have Hux source me the best pest company in Tennessee. I was tired of dealing with contractors who didn’t do things properly.

When I got into the back room, I came to a stop and stared at the chaos surrounding me. Hux and Elvo were dismantling Hux’s computer setup. Jordan and Casey were inventorying our small weapons cache. Yolanda and Riggs were boxing large stacks of folders. “What the fuck is going on?”

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