Inheriting a SECRET (Corrigan & Co. #7)(58)
He’s right. Dammit. I wanted to be able to play with Darcy, but I’ll be ninety and still killing the wrong people. “What else can I do?”
Nate and Aiden look at each other, smile, and speak at the same time. “Bar fight.”
“Huh?”
“You need to get drunk and fight it out with some douchebag in a bar,” Nate explains to me.
“Is that safe?” I ask. I’m perfectly content to stay here in his apartment, drinking beer and eating pizza. I like pizza.
“No. But what guy wants to be safe?” Aiden asks.
Me. I want to be safe. I can’t raise my hand, or say that, though. Instead I look at the other guys. “Is it really necessary?”
“Oh yeah,” Jake says. “Everyone needs one good bar brawl under their belt.”
“Okay.” Not okay, so not okay.
Why am I doing this again? Oh yeah, for Darcy. I’ll do anything for Darcy. Even possibly die in a bar fight. No, that’s too harsh. The guys will back me up. Right?
* * *
Darcy
“Don’t freak out when you see Brayden, okay?” Nate says, when I walk into the lobby at Corrigan & Co.
He must’ve been waiting for me, and this can’t be good. We head into an elevator together, and I tell it to take us to Matt’s floor. Brayden’s new office is up there, and now I’m definitely going there first.
“Why would I freak out? What did you do to him?”
“It wasn’t me. I mean, it was kind of my fault. Mine, and Aiden’s. We were just trying to help, and okay, maybe mess with him a little.”
“Nate.”
“He wanted to win at Call of Duty. That was on his list. But he couldn’t win. Even when we told him to shoot. I mean, God Darce, he’s…I don’t even know what he is.”
“I know that. He knows it, too. But it’s sweet that he tried.”
“Umm, sure.”
“What does this have to do with me freaking out?”
“Well…umm….see…umm.”
“Spit it out.”
“We told him he needed to do something else to keep his man card.”
“What. Did. You. Do?”
“We made him get into a bar fight,” Nate says, backing as far against the opposite side of the elevator as possible.
“Excuse me?”
“We thought he could maybe fight. A little. But he can’t. We stepped in when it got bad, but yeah, He’s looking a little rough today.”
“This was you and Aiden?”
“Yeah.”
“Only you and Aiden?”
“I plead the fifth.”
“Bro code, huh? Well, bro code this. You are no longer my friend, Nate Anderson. Not. My. Friend.”
“Just for a day or two, though, right?”
“Maybe a week,” I tell him, smiling. I simply cannot stay mad at him, even when I want to punch him.
I get off the elevator, and he stays on, heading to his own office. I walk to Brayden’s, and see that he has a new secretary. She’s young and pretty, but not a threat to me, so I smile as I stop at her desk.
“May I help you?”
“Yes. I’d like to see Brayden, please.”
“I know you don’t have an appointment, so I’m afraid not.”
“He’ll see me. I promise. Just tell him that Darcy’s here.”
“He’s very busy.”
Seriously? This chick may not be a threat to me, but I’m about to be one to her. I take a deep breath and pull out my phone. He picks up on the first ring.
“Hi, Cat.”
“Hey, Crown. Listen, I’m here to see you, but your secretary won’t let me in.”
“Shit. She’s a little possessive.”
“You think?”
“Be right there. Don’t kill her, please. Matt says she’s one of the best from the secretarial pool.”
“Fine. Steal my fun.”
The door to his office opens, and the desire to punch Nate comes back full force. Brayden’s got a black eye and a split lip. I’ll deal with that in a minute. Ms. Secretary of the Year needs to be put in her place right now.
“I’m sorry for the confusion, Muska. Darcy is allowed in whenever she wants to see me. I don’t care what I’m doing or who I’m with, you always put her calls through and let her into my office.”
“Oh, okay. I just didn’t think she looked like your type.”
I may be in leather pants and a slouchy shirt, but seriously? “He gave up his kingdom for me, so I’d say I’m definitely his type.”
“What? Kingdom?” she asks, her eyes wide.
“Google it,” I tell her as I walk into his office and close the door behind us.
“It looks worse than it feels,” he says immediately.
“Does the other guy look worse?”
“Umm, I could lie here, but no. Not at all.”
“What could possibly make you think a bar fight was a good idea?”
“It’s a guy thing. Nate and Aiden said every American man should get in a bar fight at least once in their lifetime. The other guys agreed.”
“I can’t really argue with that.”