His eyes flicked back and forth between my own before he sighed. “You’re gonna hate the life I make you live.”
“The only time I’ll hate it is if you’re not beside me,” I promised. “Now, allow me to be my own person. I made the decision. I chose you. I love you. Live with it.”
With that, I scrambled out of his lap and finally took a look around the place. “Where the hell are we?”
He chuckled as he walked to the desk I hadn’t spotted until now. “The location of my newest business venture.”
I looked around, studying the crappy walls and the old beer posters.
“What are you doing?” I asked. “Going to open a bar?”
“The bar’s already open,” he answered as he watched me get dressed. “Apollo and I have teamed up. We’re opening an online business that will focus on helping people in situations like the one I found myself in. The businesses with the corrupt boards. The ones with the horrible bosses that like to take advantage of their underlings. And anything in between. Apollo and I talked a lot, and we think that we can really focus on rooting out the evil in the business world.”
I ran my hand against the old wood paneling beside his desk before I turned and said, “I can’t wait to work here with you.”
The smallest bit of hope sparked to life in his eyes. “You…you’d want to?”
“I’d love to,” I said. “Now, who’s going to help me move back into your apartment?”
He winced. “I let another tenant move into it last week. When I started staying in the house next to yours, I saw no reason to have both. Plus…I never liked it. The whole damn building was exhausting. Reminded me of my dad, and what he held over our heads.” He reached for his zipper and zipped himself, but the impressive bulge was still highly visible. “How do you feel about a boathouse?”
“I think it’d be great for now,” I admitted. “But eventually, it’d be too scary to have a crawling baby who’ll eventually walk on one.”
His face sobered and took on a green tinge, as if he was physically sickened at the thought of anything happening to Holt, imaginary or not. “That’s slightly terrifying. Maybe we’ll move to plan B and get to building a house.”
That had my belly tightening as butterflies took flight.
My lips kicked up at the corner before I said, “I think I’d like that. Though, don’t you think it’s a bit early to go building a house together?”
His head tilted, and his eyes were intense as he said, “The chance for you to run is gone, Baker. You’re stuck with me now.”
The way he said it made it sound so final.
I probably should be offended, but all I could think about in that moment was that I liked the sound of the permanency in his voice.
I also liked that he would never consider letting me go.
But the joke may be on him. He might never let me go, but I’d have never run in the first place.
Twenty
Sometimes I have to remind myself it’s not worth the jail time.
—Copper to Cutter
COPPER
I thought the day would be harder than it was.
I announced the closing of Castanon to the world, and the only reaction was at most underwhelming.
Though, it was underwhelming because at the same time that I announced the closing of Castanon, I also shared the corruptness that was embedded in Castanon that had led to the folding of the company.
“…Marcellus Lynch, head of finance, has been indicted on fifteen counts of embezzlement, including…” Baker kept reading about the board members and the charges that were brought against them, but Holt pulled himself up on my computer chair in the back office of the bar and stared at me with his mama’s eyes.
“Hey, bud,” I said as I pulled him close to my chest.
He immediately laid his head down on my pec and closed his eyes.
