Hold (Gentry Boys, #5)(31)

“Sure,” Aspen answered cheerfully, pausing between staple clicks. “He’ll be around after he recovers.”

I took a drink, grateful to the unknown inventor of coffee. “Recovers from what?”

Staple. “From me.” Staple. “Woke him up at four am for a workout.” Staple. “Not that he minded.” Staple. “We went at so hard-“

“All right, enough,” I groaned. “Shit, I just walked right into that one.”

Aspen suddenly popped her head around the corner. I saw an innocent smile beneath a Technicolor mop. “You have a dirty mind, Cordero. I was talking about the marathon we’re training for.”

“Right,” I nodded, although the smirk on Aspen’s face said she was messing with me and the only marathon she’d been training for this morning was a vulgar one.

Speaking of vulgar, once Aspen had skipped away, I stood there leaning against the wall, still moodily wishing that I’d managed a morning quickie with Saylor. The memory of her mouth, the idea of her mouth on my dick, was a haunting way to start the day. If Creed wasn’t already stopping by at lunch, I’d think up some excuse to head home for a short f*ck break.

Yeah, I still had a hell of a filthy mind.

Thank god I married a girl eager to please it.

The vibration of my phone jarred me back to business. I didn’t recognize the number.

“Head out of the gutter, kid,” Declan Gentry said by way of greeting.

“You’ve got no idea where my head is,” I fired back.

“Of course I do. It’s mooning around in the break room wishing it was back in bed with your wife.”

“What?” I sputtered, plunking the coffee cup down so hard the contents swished out onto the counter. “Where the hell are you?”

“Macedonia I think. Is that where we are, Jen? Yup, Macedonia.”

“Cameras,” I remembered and whirled around to see the tiny lens mounted in the upper corner. Deck had them installed about two months ago. “I keep forgetting about them.”

“You’re not the only one. You might want to reconsider resting your hand on that countertop.”

“Why is that?”

“Because Aspen and Brick f*cked themselves silly in that very spot yesterday morning while you were in the back office messing with spreadsheets and shit. On second thought they probably remembered the cameras after all. They seem like they enjoy an audience.”

“Gross.”

“Don’t be such a prude, Cord.”

“A prude,” I scoffed, “You watching now?”

“Of course.”

I dropped my pants and mooned the camera.

“Shit,” Deck exclaimed. “You should have warned me you were gonna do that. Jenny saw. You upset her.”

I zipped up my fly, keeping the phone balanced between my shoulder and my cheek. “I’m sure she’s seen far worse behavior from you.”

“Nope. I’m an adult now. Aw, jeez. She’s crying. She ran into the bathroom, howling that she’s never seen such an ugly, hairy ass since the last time she visited the zoo.”

“Deck!” Jenny laughed in the background.

“Whatever,” I grumbled. “You calling from Macedonia for any specific reason?”

Deck dropped the laughter. “Just wanted to make sure all was well with the shop and that there’s no more trouble from any junior Gentrys.”

The morning after our Emblem odyssey, I got in touch with Deck and summarized the basics. As I suspected he’d asked Gaps to keep an eye on those two boys and let him know about any trouble they managed to find. He didn’t mind parting with the bail money at all and was very appreciative that the three of us had dropped everything and driven down there to liberate the boys from Emblem’s finest facilities. Once again I wondered whether he had more of a connection with them than just distant cousins but I didn’t ask. Maybe no one knew for sure one way or another. There were a lot of unsolved mysteries in the world, particularly when it came to Gentry biology.

“All is well,” I told him. “Gaps said he’d call if anything else came up.”

“Good, good,” said Deck. There was a heavy pause. “No trouble from anyone else, right?”

“No.” I frowned. “Like who?”

Deck had a large number of dubious associates but from what I could tell they universally feared him more than they wanted to f*ck with him so I’d never witnessed any fallout. Despite the fact that we were business partners there were things outside the scope of Scratch that he didn’t share with me.

“Just checking,” he answered lightly but I knew that was bullshit because Deck never asked a question for no reason. But I also knew he never offered an answer that he didn’t feel like sharing so I let it go.

We chatted for a little while longer, just about Say and the girls and exotic travel destinations. Then he abruptly declared that Jenny was in need of some attention and a hot naked woman trumped transcontinental cousin talk.

“Hey Cord,” he said before he hung up. “Beware, okay?”

I was puzzled. “Beware of what?”

“Huh? I said take care.”

“Oh.” I put a hand behind my neck and squeezed some stiff muscles. I must have heard him wrong. “You do the same.”