Bullying?
Paulie rubbed the back of his neck.
“Little too late for all of it, Paulie. I’ve grown up since then and am mature enough to realize that you were just following in your father’s shitty footsteps. I may have been none the wiser at the time, but I’m not an idiot. I became a cop to catch his killers and do what law enforcement failed to do, not to rat on those who I’m loyal to. So get that out of your fucking mind, or I’m sure Mav here wouldn’t mind telling you to fuck off.”
I grinned at her tenacity and wrapped an arm around her waist to pull her into my side. “Get ‘em, tiger,” I murmured in her ear, making her smile up at me with shiny eyes.Fuck, I couldn’t wait to get to the bottom of that look and understand everything that made her tick. “You heard the lady, Paulie. Now, let’s hear what she came here to share with us.”
Sophie turned to face me again, leaving Paulie pale and put in his fucking place, right where he belonged. It was sexy watching her fire off like that. I could kiss her right now, but I knew there was something bothering her. “Did you already interrogate your rebel?”
I ran a hand through my hair in frustration. “He didn’t give me much information, just said there were rumors that Sophie Reyes had discovered the truth and that there was a lot of nervous chatter about the future of the cartel.”
She hummed. “I was freaked out, Mav, and that doesn’t happen easily. Not in my line of work. I could’ve pulled my gun but I didn’t want to cause a scene in a place I have no jurisdiction, so I let it play out and then ran here. I’m not even sure how he found me in that coffee shop. He didn’t exactly… fit in.”
She was so damn cute.
“What were you doing at the coffee shop? Didn’t you just finish brunch?” I glanced at my watch to see she couldn’t have been done for more than an hour.
“Yeah,” she sighed. “I was passing by and figured you’d need a caffeine fix.”
I ducked my head to meet her eyes. “You wanted to get me coffee?”
Sophie nodded, pulling one of the drinks out of the carrier and handing it to me. “You didn’t have any before you left, and I knew you had a late night.” Her face turned pink. “Besides, I figured you had enough on your plate and were probably stressed from… well, all of this bullshit.”
My heart fucking melted. She was so fucking sweet. I couldn’t help but lean in and kiss her. “Thank you. My morning is already better.” I tipped her chin up to kiss her again. Then, I took the carrier out of her hands and set it on the coffee table, pulling her to sit on my lap. When I glanced at Duane and Paulie, they were watching us with intense peculiarity. “Are you alright, babe?”
She took a deep breath. “I am. Just a little freaked out in light of our conversation this morning. Have you gotten a chance to talk with them about what we discussed?”
Whatwediscussed. There was nothing about it beingheridea, justours.I fucking loved that. She knew we were a team already.
“Actually, we were talking about it just before you got here.” I shot Paulie a mock pout, pitching my voice into something high and obnoxious. “That’s when Paulie got all pissy.”
Sophie giggled, throwing a smug smile his way before glancing at Duane in question.
“That’s Duane,” I said, my voice returning to normal. “He’s my head of security.”
“Ah. So he’s the one responsible for the detail that never leaves me alone?”
Duane blushed—yes, actuallyblushed—all the way down his neck. “Sorry, ma’am. Boss’s orders.”
Sophie sighed, shaking her head.
I shrugged. “I get worried.”
“I can handle myself. Been doing it a long time now.”
“I know you can, but now you don’t need to,” I said, brushing her hair over her shoulders, where I spotted one of the hickeys I'd left on her yesterday. I wonder if she’d spotted the others down her rib cage and on her hips yet.
Her eyes softened as she raised a hand to rest on my cheek. I leaned into her touch, and that invisible string that seemed to tie our souls together tugged us a little closer.
“Alright, seriously, enough with this mushy gushy bullshit,” Paulie said, shifting in his seat like it physically pained him to sit through the conversation. When we looked over, he was rubbing the back of his neck, avoiding eye contact like he’d rather be anywhere else.
Sophie and I both laughed, and for a moment, silence stretched between us. Paulie squinted at me as if I’d grown a second head, while Duane leaned back in his chair, arms crossed, brows lifted in something close to suspicion. I couldn’t blame them—I wasn’t acting like my normal self by any means.
For a second, all I could focus on was the warmth of her, the way she felt in my lap. But then reality sank its teeth in, cutting through the moment like a blade. The initial shock of having her here bled away, replaced by something heavier: the fact that one of my men had confronted her in a fucking coffee shop.
I exhaled hard and moved her off my lap, then rose to my feet. My blood had been simmering ever since she told me, but I’d kept it at bay until I had all the facts. Rolling my shoulders, I dragged a hand down my face. “Where thefuckwas her detail when this happened?”
26
