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Exactly. The current between us feels ancient, like a soul-deep déjà vu.
“But Carly’ll be done with rehearsal soon.”
A couple of guys I didn’t meet walk by and she nods at them. I find myself pressing my hands over her thighs, letting them know she’s mine.
She twists and looks at me. “What did you just do?”
“What?”
“Did you go caveman just now with the glare at those guys and the handsy thing?”
“Maybe.”
She laughs. “You can’t do that!”
“What can’t I do?”
She narrows her eyes. “Behave.”
I lean into her ear, whisper, “Or what?”
She narrows her eyes. “I dunno. Maybe I’ll have all the Cock Worldwide cranes repainted with the face of Smuckers instead of that logo. How would you like that?”
Something in me goes still. She could do that. One phone call and she could.
Locke’s most valuable asset is stability. A change like that would literally threaten thousands of people who depend on me. And she could do it. She has all the power.
One phone call.
Thousands of people. My responsibility.
The ID is mob-level good. This is a five-alarm fire.
I feel queasy.
She’s searching my eyes. We’ve been laughing at the exact same things all month. If I weren’t me, I’d think the crane thing was funny, too.
She tries a smile. “A cartoon picture of Smuckers’s round little marshmallow head? Maybe not, huh?”
Do I really know her? Really?
I give her my breezy smile, the one that always fools the cameras, and I reach for my phone. I’m moving away from her.
“Kidding,” she says. “Really.”
I’m scrolling through my phone, like I might find a feel-less-screwed-up app there. They need to make an app like that.
“Come on, you think I’d do that?”
“I’m kind of a freak about that logo.”
“Wait. You think I’d do that?”
A silence. I’ve let her closer to me than any woman ever. The fake dog whisperer who inherited my birthright.
Have I been reckless?
In my gut I trust her. Automatic. But my head is ringing with what Brett said. Our own PI doubts her. I don’t know her real name.
