Hell on Wheels (Black Knights Inc. #1)(39)

Probably. Ghost was nothing if not observant. So, yeah, he no doubt saw all of it. Which was probably exactly why the guy was always careful to keep her at arm’s length.

Ghost had some serious issues. No doubt starting and ending with Grigg and what happened in that filthy, stinking hut in Syria. It didn’t take a genius of Ozzie’s caliber to figure out Ghost’s feelings for his dead friend’s kid sister must fall directly into a category appropriately titled It’s Complicated.

“No,” she shook her head. “I didn’t tell Nate. I wanted to run it by you first. I didn’t want to look like a fool if you thought it was nothing.”

Ah yes, not wanting to look like a fool in front of the one person you wanted more than you wanted your next breath? Frank could relate.

And speaking of fools…Dan poked his head into the office followed by his much prettier, much better half.

“Whadup, kiddies?” he asked as Patti pushed by him to glare at the donut in Frank’s hand.

Busted.

“I thought you said you were gonna start cutting sugar from your diet,” she harrumphed, hands on hips.

Ho-kay, he’d made that grandiose statement in front of the Knights in the hopes Becky would leave off stuffing those ridiculous suckers in his pockets.

The ruse hadn’t worked. Either Becky was determined to undermine his alleged new diet, or she simply reveled in the fact that he was a total wuss when it came to resisting root beer-flavored suckers.

If he had to lay down money, he’d bet on the latter.

Now, looking at Patti’s perturbed face, he figured maybe it was better to actually go on the sugar-free diet.

But, shit, he really loved his morning donuts.

Sometimes the best defense, especially in the face of an agitated woman, was evasion and diversion. “Ali just remembered something that might help us figure out just what in the world is going on here,” he replied, neatly sidestepping Patti’s looming lecture.

“She has?” Ozzie asked, appearing in the doorway dressed in his pajama bottoms. Did they…? Yes, they did. They had tiny Starship Enterprises all over them.

The kid absently scratched his smooth, bare chest while simultaneously trying to pat down his hair—which was wild on a good day. This morning it was out of control. Frank never knew hair could actually stand on end. He’d always thought that was just an idiom.

“Yes,” he replied, for once happy for Ozzie’s interruption. “She has, and we need to—”

“We need to what?” Ghost shouldered Ozzie aside and cast a wary glance over Ali.

The poor woman tried to disappear behind Peanut. That it was actually kind of working spoke to the salient fact that Becky needed to put the damned cat on a diet…yesterday.

“As I was saying,” Frank’s patience started to shred. “Ali received a zip drive from Grigg about a week before you gave them the news of his death. And she—”

“Jesus, woman! You’re just now tellin’ us this?” Ghost’s face was enough to give small children nightmares.

“You misunderst—” Frank tried and was immediately cut off by Ali.

“I didn’t remember until this morning, you big jerk!” she shouted and Peanut turned cold, warning eyes toward Ghost.

“How can you forget somethin’ like that?” Ghost shot back, taking a step toward Ali. Peanut hissed menacingly. “I swear I’m gonna have to kill that cat,” he spat, his fists clenched at his sides, his nostrils flaring.

“Ghost,” Frank tried again, “if you’d just shut the hell up and give me a chance to expla—”

“Don’t forget I know where you sleep, Ghost Man,” Becky threatened, pushing into the office.

Oh, good. The gang’s all here. Now if everyone would just stop interrupting him, maybe, just maybe they could come up with a game plan to retrieve that zip drive.

He opened his mouth, then snapped it closed and decided to see just how this little scene would play out when Becky stomped over to stand toe to toe with Ghost.

Funny, considering toe-to-toe put Becky’s nose on level with Ghost’s chest.

What? Did the woman think she could shin-kick the guy to death?

“You harm one hair on Peanut’s head,” she stuck a stiff finger in Ghost’s flexing left pectoral muscle, “and I’ll change you from a rooster to a hen one night when you least expect it.”

Ho-kay. No shin-kicking for Rebel. When she plotted revenge, she knew to keep the timeline abstract and aim for a man’s most prized possessions.

Duly noted.

***

“Is this really necessary? It’s eighty degrees out there.”

“Uh.” Becky eyed Ali as the woman dubiously pinched at the butter soft leather chaps Becky’d loaned her. “Yeah, but only if you’d like to keep the top three layers of your skin should you guys get in a wreck.”

“You think we’ll get in a wreck?”

Lord, help me to not strangle this prissy little woman. “No,” she sighed. “But in life there are no guarantees.”

“Don’t get philosophical with me while I’m wearing leather.” Ali complained as she slid her arms into the equally soft, summer-weight leather jacket.

“Ha! Like leather and philosophy are mutually exclusive? I bet Plato and Aristotle wore leather while pondering life’s elemental questions. Leather sandals, for sure.”