His thumb was rubbing over my neck.

  “When I visited my aunt, Robbie was on the block. I didn’t go see them a lot—less after I moved in with your family—but Robbie, his brother, and I got into a fair bit of trouble.”

  I was waiting for more.

  He paused.

  Oh no. That wasn’t it. I raised an eyebrow. “More, please.”

  He laughed, his hand moving to cup the side of my face, his thumb rubbing over my cheek now, falling to my lips and moving back. “His uncle runs a gym. When I started training, it was with Robbie and Ace. We didn’t hang out as much when I stopped coming around, but Robbie reached out a couple years ago. He needed start-up for this place, so I gave it to him.”

  Both my eyebrows shot up now. “He owns it?”

  Kash nodded, his eyes dipping to my mouth and staying there. “He doesn’t manage it. I bought the franchise fee for him and he runs everything else. It’s doing well, and I take a cut.”

  Holy crap. I noticed the customers in a whole different light.

  Feeling a little faint, I asked, “Why am I amazed by this? I know who you are, what other businesses you do, and yet you owning the local Burriotle is blowing my mind.”

  Kash chuckled. “Ace is a big-time MMA fighter. If I hadn’t chipped in, Robbie would’ve needed only to wait another year. Ace would’ve bought in instead. I got lucky with the timing.”

  “Does my dad know about this?”

  A guarded look fell over Kash, clouding his face. He didn’t move away, but I felt him pulling away. His hand slid to the back of my neck again, his thumb holding over my pulse. “No. I did a lot, and do a lot, that your father doesn’t know about.”

  I was hearing a different tone from him. Was that disappointment from Kash? Was that what I was hearing?

  “I’m sorry.” I lifted a hand, wrapping it around his wrist.

  His pulse jumped at my words. His eyes darkened again. “Why are you apologizing?”

  “Because, for some reason, that hurts you.” I was going with my gut, not really knowing what I was saying until the words were out. “My dad hurt you. I don’t know how or why, but he did.”

  Kash’s eyes grew intense. He didn’t respond, just held me, feeling my heartbeat, and his eyes locked on mine. I couldn’t move.

  My other hand went to his chest, resting over his stomach muscles.

  They were so tense, too.

  He drew me to him, his lips moving to mine in a light and soft kiss before he let me go.

  “I love you. Do you know how much?”

  He rested his forehead to mine, drawing in a deep breath.

  My throat swelled. “How much?”

  His hand tightened on mine. “The depths sometimes amaze me. And other times…”

  My heart began beating faster. “And other times?”

  “And other times it scares me.”

  I wasn’t sure what he meant. My pulse was beating an erratic drum in me, so I wasn’t sure if I wanted to ask, either.

  Then, I didn’t have to.

  The moment was broken a second later when Robbie returned to the table, but as he sat and talked with Kash, as the two laughed, as we had food and drinks brought over, I was still feeling the effect of those words from Kash.

  My whole insides had melted, and he knew, his eyes catching mine and warming. His hand moved to my leg under the table, and like in the car, his fingers rested on the inside of my leg.

  It was the best Burriotle I’d ever enjoyed.

  NINE

  I was listening to my voice-mail and Chrissy’s voice played. “You need to call your mother right now. You need to update her on your first few days of school. Dinner was not enough. We didn’t get the time to talk like we need to. You need to tell your mother you love her because if you don’t, your mother will hunt you down!” She breathed hard into the phone, and I was grinning listening to her. “You got that, my beautiful little genius daughter that I love and cherish and worry about? Call your mother!”

  I snorted, because it’d been her who had been distracted during dinner. Not me. I’d been thankful at the time.

  “Enjoyed any good burritos lately?”

  Now I wasn’t so thankful, because calling Chrissy back might’ve saved me a little from the teasing I’d already endured this evening.

  I was at Naveah. It was a couple days later, and that question came to me as I was in the VIP booth, squished with Matt and Guy. No Tony. No Chester. Both absences that I wasn’t complaining about.

  And I knew the teasing would start, just didn’t know when it would start.

  Tuesday was the Burriotle date.

  Someone there took a picture of us, of Kash leaning over me like he wanted to eat me for lunch.

  That photo was sold the next day.

  It came out Thursday. And here we were. Thursday night. Naveah. My brother beside me. That damn picture was haunting me, and so was Chrissy’s voice message.

  The club was packed. We had extra club staff at the end of our stairs to keep people from coming up, and since we’d just gotten here, I figured I got my brother for thirty minutes before he’d head off to quench the real thirst that had brought him to Naveah.

  I figured I had that long with Guy, too, before he had a girl up here, or two. Both were grinning at me, sharing sly looks.

  I flushed, putting my phone away. “Fuck off.”

  Matt laughed. “I do believe that’s the look Kash had, wanting to do that to you.”

  “I took a girl to get a burrito the next day and what do you know?” Guy piped in, his amusement thick. He winked. “It worked. She got a different burrito within an hour of leaving there.”

  “An hour?” Matt shot at him. “It took that long?”

  I added, “What were you doing before?”

  Guy’s grin lessened, but he rolled his eyes and gave us both a middle finger. “Fuckers.”

  Matt jerked his chin up to me. “Where’s your man tonight?”

  The official answer: “Working.”

  The unofficial answer: a meeting with Japan investors. Why I wasn’t supposed to know that, I didn’t know, but Kash let it slip he had to call overseas, and I got a text later telling me not to share with anyone the location of “overseas.”

  Matt didn’t care. He didn’t question. He only nodded, all easygoing. “Right on, right on.” His hand was resting on the booth next to my shoulder and he bumped me with it. “Fill me in. How’s the school thing going?”

  Matt barely went to class when he got his degree, so he didn’t really go to college. How he got that degree, well … I was assuming money had something to do with it, but I wasn’t going to ask. Graduate school, what I was doing, was a phenomenon to him.

  I got it. I did. He gave me enough teasing, lumping me in with Cyclone and Peter, that I knew there was a part of him that was bothered by it all. I didn’t know why or how it related to him, though I had a guess. And I didn’t like what my guess was, but as he asked me this question, I could tell he was genuine in asking. He’d been authentic the other times he questioned me, too, and that was warming my belly in a way no alcohol could obtain.

  I smiled at him. “It’s going good, actually.”

  And it was.

  I was up to date on my assignments. I thought there’d be more papers, but there weren’t. Turns out computer grad school was actually about computers, so the assignments we had were easy for me. I had to put in extra time reading the textbooks so I knew I would get everything correct on the quizzes, one of which we had coming in the morning.

  I wasn’t supposed to know that, but moving through our student database, I had hit a few extra buttons that I shouldn’t have and I got the screen that showed me the complete schedule of pop quizzes in my IT Strategy and Management class. I didn’t print anything out. Didn’t copy it. Just got one good look at the screen before I was pushed out. That was enough.

  I didn’t share with anyone that I’d had that peek. I was prepared, because I actually did the readings. Some of the students in the class didn’t. They skimmed. Melissa told me her secret was to read the first section, the last section, and every third paragraph the rest of the chapters. Hoda, I didn’t know what she did. After I came back from Burriotle, she didn’t say anything to me the rest of the day, and it’d been like that for the past two days. Melissa, on the other hand, loved everything about that day and proceeded to share this with Fitz every time he was with me.

  The rest of the guys in the class thought Fitz was cool, though only one or two of them told him this. Melissa was the one who told me the guys thought Fitz was cool, because the guys mostly all stuck to themselves. They lingered around a few of their computers. The spokesman was the extroverted “leader” of them, Dax, but the rest just talked with one another. And Melissa, she was on the in with them.

  Me. Liam. Hoda. We weren’t.

  I hadn’t figured out why yet, but I would. It was a mission of mine.

  Erik was supposed to come inside with me tomorrow, so I’d see their reaction to him. I wasn’t sure if I wanted Hoda’s ice to continue or not. I still hadn’t said anything to her about Holden Mansour, but she was here. I texted Torie and she looked at the schedule and texted back it was an affirmative. Holden Mansour was scheduled for an eight-to-two a.m. shift in the security room.

  I’d only been in Naveah for thirty minutes, so I hadn’t had time to even look, but it was during her slotted time.

  “Aw, fuck.” Guy slid farther down in the booth, his gaze locked on the crowd beneath us.

  I looked, and “Aw, fuck” was right.

  “Fucking hell.” From Matt. He took his drink, slammed it back, and held up the emptied glass. The VIP server rushed over. “Keep those coming, and can we bar those girls from coming up here?”

  Bar?

  I turned surprised eyes on my brother, until I saw them, too. I’d missed them before.

  Victoria, Fleur, and their friend, whose name I recently found out was Cedar Barlow—which, though I’d never share it with those girls, I thought was a cool name. They were making their way up here. Victoria was wearing a slinky cream-colored dress, Fleur had on red, and Cedar was wearing a black one. As they maneuvered up the stairs, I dipped to the shoes, because though I was normally not a shoe girl, I could hear my inner Chrissy Hayes wanting to know.

  All of them were wearing the heels with the red bottoms. No surprise there. What was surprising, though, was that all three of them had no jewelry on, but each had some faux fur wrapped around their shoulders. I guess that was their accessory.

  Victoria took the lead, a pinched look on her face as she stood in front of the table. Her hair was good. She’d lightened it again, so the red looked like sun streaks of orange. “Guy. Matthew.” She didn’t look at me, her hand going to one hip and a little purse falling down to rest on its chain over her wrist. “Is Kashton coming tonight?”

  Fleur and Cedar were looking at me, fully at me. They were doing it for their girl, and both held calculating looks in their slightly narrowed gazes.

  Matt’s tone was cold. “How would I know?” His hand, the one right next to my shoulder, gestured to me. “Why don’t you ask the one who would know?”

  Victoria’s mouth flattened, and she visibly grimaced before sighing, turning her gaze my way. “Hi there, Becky. I didn’t see you.”

  Becky. I rolled my eyes.

  I wasn’t going to respond to that.

  Cedar moved forward. “She asked you a question.”

  I wasn’t going to respond to that, either.

  Instead, I picked up my drink and turned to my brother. “Did the music get louder in here? Did you guys say something?”

  Matt pressed his lips together, stifling a laugh.

  Not Guy. Guy was okay with expressing he was loving watching this showdown. His eyes were twinkling.

  Matt shrugged, raising his voice. “Maybe. It’s starting to grind on the ears.”

  “Exactly.” I matched him, raising my voice. “Or maybe it’s my allergies kicking up. I’m starting to get a headache.”

  “Jesus Christ,” Victoria hissed. “Bailey. I’m talking to you.”

  I turned to her now and grinned. “Oh, hey. When’d you get here?”

  Fleur’s head was turned toward the floor. Her shoulders were shaking, but Victoria and Cedar couldn’t see her.

  Cedar threw her hand in the air. “Seriously? You’re going to play that game?” Her lips were tight. “With us?”

  Leaning forward and resting my arms on the table, I said to Victoria, “You usually travel with two others. Where are your friends tonight? You’re going alone?”

  Her eyes threatened to bug out.

  I heard Fleur snort, her hand raising quick to her mouth, and she turned away.

  Cedar’s mouth was hanging open at me. “Are you seriou—”

  I was done playing. My eyes cut to hers. “Use a sentence that doesn’t have the word serious in it. Do it. I challenge you. Grow your vocabulary. It helps fight off dementia.”

  Cedar looked ready to scream at me, but her mouth stayed shut.

  I was impressed. I thought for sure she’d blast me, but her gaze kept going from Victoria to me and I clued in. She couldn’t make a move without Victoria’s approval. She couldn’t engage me in a confrontation. Her leader wasn’t allowing it.

  Why? That made no sense.

  And to prove my theory, Victoria smiled at me, her tone magically softer. “Bailey. I need to talk to Kashton about something. He’s not been returning my calls and I was hoping he’d be here tonight.” She glanced to Matt. “Or find out when he will be here.”

  Kash was freezing her out. Interesting.

  Matt’s eyes just slid to mine. He only had one eyebrow up now, and I read that look he gave me. He was letting me handle this.

  My phone buzzed at that moment. Torie.

  Bathroom.

  Okay then.

  Sliding out of the booth, I said to Victoria, “You want him, you probably should consider the reason he’s not getting back to you.” Her mouth opened and I beat her to it. “And no, I’m not going to ask him about you.” I nodded to Matt. “Be back. Bathroom.”

  Erik and Fitz were off shift, so I had two new guards. I hadn’t met them, but as one broke off from the line of other guards, I asked him, “What’s your name?”

  He paused. “Scott.” Then he dipped his head and moved forward.

  I went with him because I was guessing he knew the plan. They didn’t ask where I had to go, and he led the way to a bathroom off the main floor. For once, there was no line waiting to use it, but maybe that’d been put into play already, because he knocked once and stood by the wall. He said, “You can go in.”

  Torie was leaning against the sink counter, her arms crossed. Her eyes locked on mine.

  I cleared the last partition to see where the stalls were and saw that it had all been planned. Hoda stood by the stalls, her head down, her arms crossed tight over her chest.

  Torie spoke to the room, “Checked out Holden Mansour’s application ten minutes ago…” She was scowling at Hoda’s bent head before finishing, looking at me. “To find it’s now a Hoda Mansour file and the gender has been changed. Male to female. My boss said you get to make the call so”—she leaned forward, but her hips remained resting against the counter—“you give me your call.”

  Crap. This had progressed quickly.

  Hoda’s head snapped up. “I don’t see why it’s her call—”

  “It is because my boss says it is.”

  “Because her dad says it is—”

  “Because her boyfriend says it is.”

  Hoda’s mouth closed with an audible clap. She seemed stunned, and I sighed internally because I hadn’t wanted to think it, but now I couldn’t not think it.

  “You released that image of Kash and me last summer.”

  It made sense.

  She was here.

  She knew who I was by then.

  She wasn’t happy I was coming to her program.

  She worked IT here.

  She would’ve had the skills, and the motivation.

  She did it.

  I wasn’t asking. I knew it.

  The guilt that flushed her face told me I was right. Shame flared briefly before she thought about whatever she needed to make it go away.

  Guilt. Shame. Then coldness. And anger after that.

  Her top lip curved up. “You can’t prove it.”

  Torie snorted. She looked to say something, but I shook my head, quick.

  Hoda underestimated me. That was fine with me, because I didn’t want to know how she’d react when she knew not to underestimate me.

  “Maybe. Probably not. But you did, didn’t you?”

  She didn’t respond, not at first. “Am I fired?”

  “What’s your issue with me?”

  Heated eyes swung back to me and she drew upright, her head falling back. “You mean besides the fact you didn’t earn your spot in school? What about the circus you’ve brought to our classrooms? Or that all the guys think you walk on water because you’re related to Peter Francis? Or that you have a seriously hot boyfriend wading into shit to save you, and he carries you out and no one says a word, like his word is god at school. I get it with him being my boss, which I didn’t know until now, but at Hawking? It’s hard to get into that school, and you got in no worries at all, probably no sweat at all. You probably just said ‘Daddy, I’d like to go to Hawking’ and he picked up the phone the next day and, voilà, you’re an incoming graduate freshman at Hawking University by that afternoon. I mean, you don’t get it.”

  Torie’s mouth was hanging open, just an inch. She was as shocked as me.

  I thought it’d be more. “Jealousy? That’s what this is all about? You’re straight-up just jealous?”

  “My father is a doctor and he works all hours of the night. He’s barely home. My mom takes care of us, all of us, and I have eight brothers and sisters. We didn’t have it easy growing up. We had chores to do. Every morning I had to get up, help with breakfast, do the dishes before school. Then I had to be responsible for all my siblings, making sure they all had their bags and lunches, and I had to make sure we all got home after our activities. Three girls were kidnapped where I grew up. Three. All just walking home from school. But you don’t get that, do you? You probably had drivers taking you back and forth from school and home and your friends’ houses.”