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A long, lonely night lay ahead of me. I knew sleep wouldn’t come until I jerked off to thoughts of Serena. Vicarious pleasure would have to do until I got this shit sorted out. And, if I woke up in the middle of the night, I’d have to repeat the process to get back to sleep.
I stopped and considered turning around.
CHAPTER 20
Duke
On Wednesday afternoon,I picked Serena up after work, same as before. We shared a kiss, but she didn’t hold my hand on the way back to the car.
“How was work today?” I asked.
“Oh, same old, same old, except that I’m grounded. After the crash, my boss won’t let me go out in the field until he figures out what to do with me.”
“But it wasn’t your fault.”
She shot me the side eye. “And you told me to claim it was.”
“Sorry.”
“Yeah, everybody’s sorry for me except Remy, who’s sorry for the deer. I can tell Powell is trying to use this to demote me and put his pet, Remy, in my place.”
I beeped the door locks open. “That sucks.”
“Tell me about. It’s really, really sucked to be me for a few days.”
Inside the car, she didn’t look my way or offer her hand. We were definitely in Awkwardville after last night, and there wasnothing I could do about it because Lucas had been called out of town for the rest of the week. The conversation I needed to have with him couldn’t be done over the phone.
“I need some clean clothes,” I told her. “Is it okay if we stop by my place on the way home?”
She stared out the window. “Whatever.”
As I turned onto Wilshire, she looked over at me. “I’m still supposed to wait, right?”
I glanced over. She was beautiful, and I yearned to touch her. But I nodded. “Lucas is out of town.” I turned into the long circular drive in front of my building. “We’re here.”
“I thought you said we were going to your house.”
“I saidplace.” She was correct that it was no house. It was a gigantic fucking tower.
“Holy shit. You live here?” Her surprise was understandable, given that this was the premier address in this part of town.
I shrugged. “Mr. Covington’s wife named it Battlestar Covington. I just call it home.”
“You know Lauren?”
I parked and shut off the engine. “We’ve done work for several of the Covingtons.”
She let me run around the car to let her out.
Before we reached the safety of the lobby, three men stepped out from behind a car. I recognized the two burly ones as two of Zolotarev’s goons, Baldy and Tattoo Neck. I remembered seeing them drop Ariana off to meet her father.
This was not good. I stopped us, dropped the bag, and swept Serena behind me with my free hand.
“Stay back,” I whispered. I had my phone in my hand, and I wished it was my SIG. But my weapon was sitting in the lockbox in my truck. I hadn’t expected to need it in my own parking lot.
Baldy had a Beretta out, and I bet he knew how to use it.
Tattoo Neck flexed his fists. He didn’t have a gun.
