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“Warning, this might be convoluted and I haven’t had time to cross reference.”
“Okay.”
I flipped the papers over so I had a blank sheet ready to take notes. Kira opened her laptop and she was back to all business. One minute joking and teasing and handing out wisdom, the next total focus on work. Joking, teasing, ribbing each other at the start of a meeting then business. I didn’t joke when I sat in a meeting. I didn’t tease the criminals who sat across from me and I certainly didn’t share how much I liked to be spanked. Though that was a new revelation, but still, I’d never tell Big Boss Mobster I was falling in love, and part of why I talked about it now was because with Easton, I knew I was safe to be me. I didn’t have to keep my composure and pretend I didn’t have emotions. I could be me, any way I wanted to be. Say, do, behave, react how I wanted.
Kira was right.
My soul knew what it needed.
And it found it.
Found Easton.
TWENTY-SIX
“Long time, Pidge,” Zane drawled.
The woman on the couch with her knees bent, feet tucked on the cushion, glass of wine in her hand, smiled.
She hadn’t made a single move to get up or put her wine down when we entered.
And Christ, Zane was right; it was like looking at Nebraska in twenty years. The sight was far from bad. Anna was in her fifties and a knockout. Her daughter’s smile was better, or maybe it was only when she was smiling at me with her eyes lit after I said or did something she liked. Anna’s grin was cocky, chalked full attitude. Something else mother had passed down to her daughter.
“Well if it isn’t my old pal, Viper.”
“You’re losing your touch, woman,” Zane noted and dipped his chin to indicate her lounging on the couch instead of moving to her gun on the coffee table in front of her.
“Saw Badger at the coffee shop yesterday morning. Figured you come knocking.”
I glanced over at Badger who was staring at Anna but seemed to be looking straight through her. Totally devoid of any expression. The dude was huge—a tall, built, wall of muscle. He’d be hard to miss but still, if he didn’t want to be seen, he wouldn’t be. Which meant he wanted Anna to know he was there.
“And if I was coming in here to shoot you?” Zane pushed.
Anna shrugged.
“Then it was my time and what better way to go out than by the hand of the infamous Viper. Besides, you wouldn’t shoot an old friend, would you?”
“Of course I would.”
Her smile widened. This one looked genuine, like she found Zane amusing.
“Don’t be a dick.”
Dick.
Jesus.
Like mother, like daughter.
Anna dragged her gaze around the room, pausing on me. Those pool-blue eyes sized me up. I could see Zane falling for that—those soft eyes, pretty face, the desire to protect that beauty.
“All this for little me?” she quipped.
Theo, Smith, Cash, Jonas and I were spread out around the living room. None of us had holstered our weapons. Add in Zane and Badger and the show of force was mighty. If we’d wanted to take her out, she’d be lounging on the couch in a pool of blood. And we wouldn’t have had to enter the house to make that happen. The curtains were open. She hadn’t been hiding, and neither did we when we walked in the front door after Badger reported she was alone.
Why make shit more difficult when you could turn a handle and walk right in?
“Get up, Pidge, we got shit to do,” Zane informed her.
