Rev It Up (Black Knights Inc. #3)(7)
Come on,” he cajoled when her face filled with mutiny. “With Snake back and Rock finally home, it’ll be like old times.”
“You mean the kind of old times that made you hide me away from your coworkers at Black Knights Inc. for the past three and a half years?”
After everything that’d happened in Coronado, after the horror of it, her brother had thought it better to keep her separate from that part of his life, the government operator part of it. He’d thought he was protecting her by keeping her a secret from his employees at Black Knights Inc., protecting her from more fear and heartbreak. And maybe he was right. But she’d become sick and tired of being a peripheral figure in his world. So she’d shown up at the hospital after his shoulder surgery and introduced herself to all the Knights who’d been waiting for him to come out of recovery.
Oopsie. My cover’s blown!
Aw, shucks…
“Well, the jig is up anyway, thanks to you,” he scowled and feigned punching her in the shoulder. “So you might as well come out to the shop and see what I’ve been up to.”
“I’ve got to finish rolling out this dough,” she hedged, getting desperate. When Frank got that particular look in his eye—yep, there it was—there was no nay-saying him. Of course, that wasn’t going to stop her from giving it her best effort. “Plus, I’ve got an early appointment in the morning.”
“Well that’s perfect. You two can pack some bags and spend the night.”
“A-are you insane?” she sputtered. It just gets worse and worse. “First of all, you know I don’t like to mess with Franklin’s schedule. And secondly, do you really want a three-year-old running around your—” she peered into the living room to make sure her little pitcher wasn’t listening in with his big ears, “—super-secret spy shop?”
“I wouldn’t let him go up to the command center.” Her brother’s expression very succinctly conveyed gimme some credit. “You guys could sleep out in the old foreman’s house. Dan doesn’t use it anymore.”
The thought of seeing everything her brother had built for himself was tempting, but not nearly as tempting as avoiding Jake. “I really can’t. I’ve got some work to finish tonight. Franklin needs a bath. There’s a load of laundry to fold and—”
“Michelle Knight, are you making excuses?”
She glared at him. “I’m Michelle Carter, remember? And I don’t understand why you’d want us to come spend the night. It’s preposterous.”
“Like I said, Snake wants to see you. This way, it’ll give you guys plenty of time to catch up.”
“Why would I want to catch up with him?” After the way he abandoned us. She didn’t need to say that last part. It was there in her tone. Directly after Steven’s funeral—God, Steven’s funeral. She still got sick to her stomach every time she thought of it—Jake had transferred to Alpha Platoon and signed on for a two-year mission that’d taken him to parts unknown. And when he’d finally returned to CONUS—continental U.S.—when she’d swallowed her pride, disregarded her better judgment, and sent him a letter begging him to come back to them, telling him they were his family and they loved him and needed him, what had he done?
He’d completely ignored her, that’s what. Acting as if she was nothing, as if her brother, his best friend, was nothing.
“Shell?” Frank reached forward and placed a hand on her shoulder. She hoped he couldn’t feel the trembling there. “What happened between you two? Did he treat you like he treated all those other—”
“No,” she was quick to interrupt him. Because even though four years ago she’d been determined to be the last notch on Jake’s bedpost—and they’d been close, oh so close that night at the Clover—she couldn’t let her brother go on thinking his best friend had pulled one of his typical Austin Powers moves on her.
Shall we shag now? Or shall we shag later?
Much to her surprise and dismay, Jake’s sense of loyalty and friendship, and whatever other noble notion you could possibly think of, had overcome his libido that night.
“Jake wasn’t like that with me,” she admitted, having lost count of the number of times she’d asked herself how things might’ve been different had they actually finished what they’d started in that bathroom.
“Good.” He nodded decisively, his frown turning into that weird pod-person grin again. “So there’s no reason why you can’t come out to the shop and help me welcome him back.”
No reason? Oh, sweet Lord…
Of course, maybe it was better this way. They say, whoever they are, that in order to conquer one’s fears, one first had to face them.
Swallowing, rolling in her lips, she called for Franklin to grab his jacket and tried not to pass out cold on her kitchen tiles as she wrapped up the remaining ball of dough and went to the sink to wash her hands.
The darn things were shaking like gravel on a dirt road during an earthquake.
***
Black Knights Inc. Headquarters
Goose Island, Chicago
“So, mon ami,” Rock murmured in his slow Cajun drawl as the breeze wafted the meaty smell of steaks cooking on the grill and mixed it with the waxy scent of the burning tiki lamps and the slightly fishy aroma of the nearby Chicago River, “ya said you’re here for Shell?”