Oh man.

He picked up his fork.

“Uh… Zano,” I called.

“Yeah, honey?” he answered his chicken.

Shit.

I stared at his profile, his square jaw, the line of his full lips, the spikes of his thick eyelashes. Then my eyes slid through the food, the champagne bucket, the flowers, the candles.

I took this all in, but my head was filled with promises of three, one, two (with the possible inclusion of four) and the way it felt when he drew my pendant in his mouth that morning.

Then I decided we’d both had enough for the day and tomorrow would be a better time to explain to Ren about the “real job” I was finding.

So, I scooped up some peanuts and mumbled, “Nothing.”

Crap!

Chapter Fourteen

Hit Play

Darius stared at me.

“Well?” I prompted.

We were sitting in his truck outside Fortnum’s the morning after Chinese with Ren (and, by the way, after chocolate candles, we did four along with one, as well as three and two; it was righteous).

I’d just told Darius my future career path.

“You got instincts I haven’t seen except in men trained and experienced or earned on the streets,” Darius stated.

Well that was good.

“I still don’t like it,” he finished.

Hmm.

“It would mean a lot if I had your support,” I said quietly.

He shook his head but said, “You have my support, Ally. I know you enough to know no one’s gonna be able to talk you out of it, but that isn’t it. Seen it time and again, takin’ your back, you got your shit tight. But your girls are nuts. The reason I don’t like it is because those women don’t have their shit tight.”

“They won’t have anything to do with this,” I assured him.

“How you gonna manage that miracle?” he asked.

“I explained it to Indy, she gets me. They will too.”

He shook his head again and looked forward. He also looked reflective. And lastly, he didn’t say anything.

“Darius,” I called, and his head again turned to me.

“You need to get licensed, and for that you need bona fide investigative hours. And the way to get them is workin’ with Lee,” he announced.

I blinked at him, something funny, but by no means bad, moving through me.

Before I could pinpoint what that feeling was, he kept talking.

“And no way your brother is gonna take you under his wing. He’s been on my ass now for months to find a way to shut you down. He doesn’t give a shit you close cases, you’re trained, you shoot, you run, and you take this shit seriously. He knows the dangers and he wants you nowhere near that. Your dad and Hank agree.”

“Maybe I can convince them,” I suggested, but when Darius’s expression turned from pensive to dubious, I tried something else. “Maybe I can work my next case with one of the Hot Bunch and whoever that is can vouch for me.”

“You’re workin’ your cases with Brody and me and that hasn’t worked. Brody thinks you’re the shit, Ally. And he’s shared that with Lee. Repeatedly. Lee isn’t swayed.”

Okay, as annoying as Brody could be, at Darius’s words, I remembered why I loved him.

“Then I’ll work with another investigator,” I proposed.

“Sylvie Bissenette,” Darius said immediately.

I knew of Sylvie. I’d never met her, but she was a private investigator in town who had a reputation, a good one.

And this idea was a good one, too. Badass bitches take on Denver.

I liked it.

“She had a partner,” Darius went on. “He re-enlisted, died overseas. That means she’s used to workin’ with somebody. But Lee also contracts with her occasionally, so she might not be big on takin’ you on if that makes things shaky with Lee.”

God.

Lee.

Every time I turned around it came back to Lee standing right in my way. And he was my brother. I loved him, respected him, admired him. I needed to finesse that, not try to find my way to blow through it.

“That said,” Darius carried on, “she’s a chick in the business and knows it isn’t easy breaking through. She might be down with workin’ with you because of that.”

A ray of light.

“Uh, dude,” I started, “there is another way.”

“That would be?” he asked.

“You’re in the biz, so you could vouch for me with the Licensing Board.”

That expression I did not like crossed his face before he hid it and replied, “Ally, I’m not licensed, and I’m not gonna be. Workin’ with Lee, I don’t gotta be. But still, it isn’t going to happen.”

I didn’t get this.

Sure, he had a rap sheet, but as many times as he got arrested, nothing ever stuck. He’d never done time.

And it wasn’t like he was the only human being who did wrong and turned his life around.

I wasn’t certain how the Colorado Licensing Bureau felt about it, but he’d been working under Lee now for over a year. He was on the crime-free wagon and hadn’t once even teetered, much less fallen off.

I could tell by his face that this wasn’t the time he was going to share, and I wondered if there would be a time he would do that voluntarily.

I suspected there would not.

So that meant it was soon going to be my time to get out the tequila and have a sit down with my brother of another color. He lived. He breathed. He worked. He even smiled and sometimes laughed.

But something about him made me feel he was on hold. Waiting.

For what, I didn’t know.

But it was becoming clear it was time I did what I could so Darius Tucker would stop existing on pause and hit play.

“I’ll talk with Sylvie,” he offered.

“That’d be cool, Darius,” I accepted.

Darius changed subjects.

“Now, you know both Hank and Lee have been in my face to keep you out of this Rosie shit, but I know if I tried, you’d lose your mind and you’d get in it. So I’m gonna keep you briefed.”

Seriously.

I loved Darius.

I grinned.

He kept talking.

“He’s smoke. His shit was good shit and he’s still got fans here, so I’m workin’ my way through who I knew was partial to his product. The boys from New Mexico have no ties here. This is not good. No known associates, nothin’ to go on. Brody’s workin’ that book thing and he’s also workin’ hotel/motel registrations for me. I’m takin’ this on two angles, shuttin’ down Rosie and shuttin’ down the source of danger by findin’ those guys. It’s not gonna be easy so Lee has also assigned Hector to work with me.”