The corners of my mouth tug upward. “Deal.”
Thirty-Five
Magnolia
Iadjust my mask and try not to think about the SUV I’m pretty damn certain followed my driver all the way to the club gates. Which means Jules has probably told his boss exactly where I am by now.
The mercenary part of me is responsible for the blood-red smile curving my lips.
I hope he thinks I’m here to fuck anyone and everyone who isn’t him.Even though I’m only really here to see one man.
It’s cruel and it makes me a bitch, but I don’t care. I’m grasping onto whatever I can to make myself feel in control. I won’t let Moses take that from me too.
I’m almost twenty minutes late when I finally open the door to the private room.
I step inside, expecting a teasing greeting to come from Rhodes’s deep, rough voice, but all I get is silence. My first thought is thathemust be late too, but I realize my error as I take in the entire room and find him on the bed. He’s fully clothed, laid out on his back, his arms overhead with his hands beneath thick locks of wild brown hair.
Asleep.
“Really, Rhodes?”
“You’re late, and I haven’t slept in three days,” he replies with his eyes still closed, but the corners of his mouth turn up. “I gotta take opportunities when I find them.”
I push the door shut behind me. “You didn’t have to come.”
At this, he peeks at me with one blue eye. “And miss playing with you? Never.” He pushes himself off of the bed and comes toward me with the easy grace of a man comfortable in his own skin. “I’m going to make you work tonight, Mags. You’ll wish you had a nap too.”
“Pssh.” I shake my head, glancing toward the chessboard set up on the table at the side of the room. Just the sight of it shakes my self-possession because it makes me think ofhim.
No. I’m putting Moses out of my head for tonight. I can worry about him in the morning.
I gather myself and cross to the table, grasping for normalcy with each step. “You winonceand suddenly you think you can take me. Not a chance, rookie.”
“Hope springs eternal,” he says with a yawn. “Damn, I’m getting too old for this up-for-days-at-a-time shit.”
“Whatever. You still love running around, catching all the bad guys, and collecting your big fat checks.” Rhodes is a fugitive recovery agent, which is basically a high-class bounty hunter.
His lips quirk as he walks toward the two decanters on the sideboard that we always request. “Yeah, you’re right. I’ll do this shit until I’m dead. I fucking love it.”
I trail a finger along the edge of the chessboard, stopping right next to the knight, and a lump rises in my throat. I have two chess pieces in my purse, but they don’t belong to this set.
God, Moses is going to kill me when he figures out where I am.
Thankfully, Rhodes interrupts my runaway train of thought, one that’s leading me nowhere good, by lifting the whiskey. “Your usual, I presume?”
I glance at the board one more time. “Make it a double.”
“Rough day?” Rhodes’s sharp-eyed gaze cuts to me.
Slowly, I inhale a breath. “You could say that. Lot of shit going on.”
He pours both glasses and carries them to the table. “You want to talk about it?” he asks as he offers the lowball with the most liquor in it to me.
Under normal circumstances, I’d sayno way in hell, but tonight ... well, nothing’s normal anymore.
“I don’t know.” I sip the whiskey.
He sets his glass beside the game board. “You can tell me about it as we play.”