A Pound of Flesh (A Pound of Flesh #1)(80)

Riley frowned. “No. No, man. That was a mistake I will not be reliving. I just had a few deals to settle. Jack here for the usual?”

“Yeah,” Carter replied. “Diane was here earlier. She’d have loved to have seen you.” The two men snorted.

Riley and Diane hadn’t always had the best relationship. To say that she didn’t understand his foul-mouthed humor was an understatement.

“She wants me,” Riley answered coolly as he sat back and kicked his feet up. “What can I say?”

“Of course she does.” Carter chuckled but stopped abruptly when his cell beeped with an incoming text. Max. Dammit.

“That your new … female plaything?” Riley winked.

“No. It’s not my new ‘plaything,’” he barked before looking back at the cell screen.

“Okay, okay,” Riley retorted before he lit his own smoke. “Chill yourself, *. It was only a question.”

Carter exhaled and rubbed his forehead with his fingers. “I know … just … It’s not like that.”

“Things are going well with Miss Lane, I assume,” Riley commented smoothly.

Carter extinguished his smoke and blew rings toward the ceiling. “Just swell” was his curt reply.

Riley hummed as though daydreaming. “Damn,” he said in a low voice that he saved for seduction and all things nasty. “I do miss her tight ass in those pencil skirts.” He licked his lips. “And those legs? I could have smooched on those bad boys for—”

“Shut the f*ck up, Moore!” Carter bellowed. He snapped his arm up and pointed at Riley menacingly. “Watch your mouth about her.”

Riley lasted all of three seconds with Carter’s finger in his grill before his face creased into a smile the size of the Hoover Dam.

“Well, I’ll be goddamned.” He snickered with his hands up. “You and Miss L, huh? Nice.”

Carter’s arm dropped instantly and a groan of realization and frustration left him. He rubbed his palms down his face and mumbled into them.

“It’s not like that, okay? I mean, I want it— I want her to … f*ck.” He snatched his beer from the table and fell back into his chair.

Riley chuckled and sat forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “Look, man, I’m not interested in the hows, whys, or what-the-f*ck-ever. I’m just glad that I won the bet I had with myself.”

Carter narrowed his eyes. “Bet?”

“Yeah, I bet myself how long it would take for you two to bone once you were out.” He smacked his huge chest with both of his fists. “Guess I won, huh?”

Carter blinked in shock. “For Christ’s sake, Moore. We haven’t even— Shit, it’s not about boning.”

“Oh yeah, I know, but you get my drift.” Riley smiled and put his smoke in the ashtray. “Hey, talking of f*cking hot women, a few of us are going to hit a couple of bars tonight. You in?”

Carter shook his head. “Nah, man, I’ve got stuff to do.”

Riley waggled his eyebrows. “Or someone …”

Despite himself, Carter couldn’t help but laugh.

*

At the end of Kat’s class at Kill the following Tuesday afternoon, she found herself walking toward Jack’s office. Her feet and legs became sluggish, almost willing her not to keep going. But she had to. She needed answers and direction. And, truthfully, even with talking with Beth about her anguish from hurting Carter, there was no one else.

Gathering herself, she knocked lightly against the door.