Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 114819 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 574(@200wpm)___ 459(@250wpm)___ 383(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114819 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 574(@200wpm)___ 459(@250wpm)___ 383(@300wpm)
“You good?” Dev asked, scanning his face. “You look weird.”
Dev didn’t get it.
Cash nodded, his shields firmly in place as he started to turn away again.
Dev tightened the grip on his arm, forcing Cash to face him, keeping him in place. This time, Dev’s free hand landed on Cash’s pec. There was no way to hide his heart’s frantic thumping. A knowing smirk replaced Dev’s happy smile as his fingertips gently caressed over his chest—a rare PDA that Cash allowed. Keyes and Alec stood just behind Dev.
“You know, he’s a blank canvas,” Dev said while looking Cash directly in the eyes. “Not a single bit of ink on this hard body. I’m sketchin’ his full body design now. Gettin’ it all ready to do him up right.”
“Has he agreed?” Keyes asked as if he already knew the answer. “You know he has to want your art.”
The good-natured ribbing left Dev unfazed.
“I feel like that’s a decision I need to make for him,” Dev answered, his tone dead serious. They’d been having variations of this same disagreement every day for almost a week.
And it opened the door for the perfect diversion to ease some of this crazy emotion engulfing him.
“The design he wants to ink on me involves his name. Not his given name but his nickname. Devilman scripted all over my body. Woven in and out of the designs he’s creating.” Saying it aloud had Cash chuckling at the absurdity.
He ducked his head, chin to chest, grinning at the memory of the art Dev had shown him. First, they had to get through this case alive, then he might entertain a tattoo.
“Alec, you and Keyes take off first. Take the route home I emailed to you.” Another speedy job well executed by Joe while he and Alec had spoken. “Our new security team will track you through the streetlights. Dev, say goodbye to the girls. I’ll be in the car.”
“See how bossy he is?” Dev asked. He and Keyes exchanged their unique dap slap. Dev then offered a fist bump to Alec. “I’ll get to know you soon enough. Keep an eye on our guy.”
“You keep an eye on you,” Keyes said and knocked Dev in the arm. He used enough force to cause Dev to stagger a step or two to the side. “I got me covered.”
Cash ignored the rest of the exchange and managed to hold himself together as he walked toward the garage. He didn’t let go of the unsteady breath he held until he was fully seated inside the car, alone.
Chapter 14
“Tell me what happened to you out there,” Dev said for the fifth time as he followed the ridiculous route home that Cash had plotted out with his new security team before they’d ever left the apartment earlier that day.
These changes to his driving routine were made to benefit the security detail that now watched him through an intricate maze of electronic surveillance. In all the times he’d driven to his mother’s house, he’d stayed on the highways, never taking these side roads before. Probably because the new map tacked on an additional twenty minutes to their drive home.
Of course, big brother could keep a closer watch on them on this route. Apparently every streetlight they passed recorded them driving through. Street signs had also been retrofitted to watch as they passed by.
When this technology went mainstream, he couldn’t see how anyone was going to be able to get away with shit anymore. And whoever this Aaron Stuart was, he had a solid reputation for finding the answers through this complicated, clever way of tracking individuals.
The only upside for Dev was that the poorer parts of town that he frequented wouldn’t qualify for an upgrade in street navigation equipment anytime soon. Their shit was old, and the technology was expensive.
Wait, had Cash answered him yet?
Dev ticked back in his thoughts to see if he logged Cash’s reply in the lightning-fast way his thoughts shot through his brain.
He glanced over at Cash who had his cell phone in his hand but stared out the side window. Since his agent always had work on his mind, the down moment seemed more in line with the anxiety and insomnia plaguing Cash, not from any worry from the agency.
Their sexual chemistry was off the charts, but Cash seemed to be putting barriers between them there too. Metaphorical walls designed to create distance. Cash’s feelings had come across so strong in the beginning before they truly got to know one another. Maybe after getting to know him, Cash wasn’t overly happy with what he saw.
That fit with just about everybody else in his life. His mom still liked him but that didn’t count. She’d birthed him, making like and love a requirement. And then there was Mae. She liked him, but he saw that fading much like it had with Abi as she got older.