Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 109640 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109640 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
“It’s a figure of speech.”
He went back to circling her Audi. “What’s the horsepower?”
He thought he would stump her. That she was simply a girl who liked pretty cars and didn’t know what was under the hood.
He’d be wrong. She picked this vehicle for a reason.
“591.”
His eyebrows rose just slightly above his sunglasses as he continued around her vehicle, acting as if her form of transportation needed to pass inspection and not her.
She decided to hit him with a couple more facts. “It has the capability of going zero-to-sixty in 3.2 seconds and tops out at 190 miles per hour.”
His step stuttered. “Damn,” he said under his breath.
“Like I said, it would blow your bike’s doors off. If it had doors.”
“Not off the line, it wouldn’t. But when it came to distance, you’d be correct. My bike’s top speed is 160. But anyone doing 160 while on two wheels on Pennsylvania roads has a death wish.”
“They don’t call it Pot Hole Pennsylvania for nothing.”
His eyes would’ve locked with hers if he wasn’t wearing those mirrored sunglasses. Funny, most of the assholes she knew preferred mirrored sunglasses. They thought it gave them some sort of edge. All it did was make douchebags easily identifiable.
“Never heard it called that but even so, it’s painfully true.”
Oh, look at that. Did he just pull an inch of that long stick out of his ass?
She was used to having to prove herself, dealing with Crew and his task force would be no different.
He finished circling her car, stopped just inches away and tipped his face down to hers. “You figure out your living arrangements?”
“Not yet.”
“What I’m hearing is, you failed your first assignment.”
Apparently, he was going to do his best to make her miserable so she’d ask to be reassigned elsewhere.
He didn’t know her. Because if he did, he’d know that trying to push her out would only make her dig her heels in deeper.
She was stubborn like that.
Don’t tell me I can’t do something because that will only make me work harder to prove you wrong.
But he didn’t need to know that. He’d find out soon enough. “Since you didn’t give me a deadline to complete it, I don’t consider that a failure.”
“You were almost late this morning.”
“The word ‘almost’ means that I wasn’t. And it had nothing to do with my commute, it was because you failed to tell me that the entrance to this place was hidden at the rear of the building.”
“Since we deal in investigations, that was test number two.”
Bullshit. “Really,” she said dryly.
“Really,” he echoed.
“What’s my third test?”
“Now if I told you that ahead of time then it wouldn’t be a test.” He tipped his head toward the side of the building. “Let’s go.”
“No wonder your wife divorced you,” she muttered under her breath.
His head twitched and his shoulders stiffened but he kept going without breaking his stride.
He led her around to a covered exterior stairway. On their climb up the steps, they passed a landing on the second floor, but he didn’t stop.
“The feds only rented the third floor?”
“Yes.”
“Are the other two floors abandoned?”
“No.”
“Who occupies them, and do they know what we’re doing on the top floor?”
“What we’re doing?”
“Am I not part of the team?” she asked his broad back as they stopped in front of a metal door with a numeric keypad.
He spun on her, making her take a half-step back. “Not yet. This task force has been in place for a year now. We’re a cohesive team. Everyone knows what they need to do, and they do it.”
“And you think I’m going to screw that up.”
“Don’t screw that up,” he warned and turned back to the door. He punched in a code she didn’t catch because he was blocking it with his body.
“I’ll need that code.”
“Yep.” He pulled the door open and walked inside.
The interior did not match the exterior at all. It was surprisingly decent. Like a lot of work—and thought—had been put into the workspace.
The top floor was almost completely open. The exception was what looked like a bathroom and large closet along the back wall. In the center was a long conference table with chairs. Along the walls, desks were lined up with computers. Attached to another wall was a large whiteboard full of notes and scribblings. Next to it was a just as large cork board with pictures and mugshots pinned to it of who she figured were members of the Deadly Demons MC. File cabinets, a table full of snacks and a coffeemaker, along with a full-size refrigerator, filled the rest of the wall space.
She frowned at the cot tucked in the back corner by the bathroom. Interesting.
If late nights were going to be the norm with this assignment, getting a place in the vicinity would be a priority since she would not be spending one night on that cot. As soon as she was discharged from the Navy, she bought the most comfortable bed she could afford.