Chapter 6 Sacrifices
SACRIFICES
ORI
“You’re really not going to speak on her, are you?”
If I weren’t so close to retirement and in an office where I didn’t have a clear escape route because of the time of day, I would’ve pulled out my gun and shot the smug bastard standing in my doorway.
“If you’re going to get in my business at least attempt to keep the shit confidential.” I kept my eyes on the file in front of me not bothering to look at the intruder.
“Inviting me in for the gossip? This must be good.”
I could hear the laughter in his voice increase as he walked deeper into my office. When he plopped his happy ass down in the chair across from me I finally looked up at him.
It only made me want to shoot him more.
“What is it you want, Vega?”
He braced his ankle on one knee leaning back like he had all the time in the world.
“You’re mighty testy about the doctor.”
I sat back too distracted by his words to stay focused on what was in front of me. “Bruh, say what it is you want so we can move past the niceties. We have shit to do.”
His smile widened and I wanted to throw something to stain the light blue shirt he wore.
“Part of the shit we have to do is get her involved with this case. I know you have your meeting with Pappy today but I can handle the introductions that need to be made with the team. I know Cochran wouldn’t mind—”
“I will cut off your hands, grind them up, form them into patties, grill them and force-feed you every one if you reach for your phone to call her.”
Unbothered by my threat of violence he smiled wider, my anger the silent confession he’d been seeking. “Threatening death isn’t that unusual for you but such a passionate way to torture me? What’s the story with you and the doctor?”
“Why do you think it’s anything more than my not wanting to deal with her in the first place?”
“Women don’t give you that kind of static, Ori. They’re either fawning all over themselves to fuck you—”
He had balls saying that shit the way he did. “Something you have firsthand experience with yourself—”
“True, but I’m not the topic of conversation. Women are either begging to fuck you or running scared while secretly wanting to fuck you. She stood and faced you down like she’d already conquered you and was irritated that you’d gotten up for another round. So, what’s the deal?”
It was wild how easily he’d pegged my situation with Asha.
Asha.
Her name had played on repeat in my head for hours last night.
She burrowed into my brain like a parasite intent on destruction and so far she was achieving her directives.
I could barely focus for days after I’d met her but I had pushed her to the back of my mind and focused on work.
Now she was going to be integrated with my job and my anger increased at having her near me in an intimate setting consistently.
Maybe Cochran will assign her to someone else.
That shit ain’t about to happen.
I’d done my research and as much as I didn’t want to admit it Dr. Asha Avery was brilliant.
Her book had garnered her a lot of success and I was currently halfway through it after starting last night.
Her fixation on wanting to make the study of mad men her life’s work intrigued me and that too pissed me off.
Who hurt her?
“We know each other.”
Vega laughed folding his fingers together on his lap languidly.
“Tell me some shit that isn’t so fucking obvious, Ori.”
I shook my head because he was playing like I wouldn’t fuck him up. “I gotta go back to shootin’ muthafuckas because you really over here talking to me any kinda way.”
He cracked up clearly unaffected by my threat. Which meant I was going to have to toss his ass off the building. “You could try. But your big ass is slower than me and you know it. That .002 seconds counts when your life is on the line.”
“I met her at the club.” He wasn’t going to stop asking questions and giving him a general answer was easier than continuing to avoid him.
Alec’s brows rose in a way that was too intrigued for my liking. “Explicit? She didn’t look the type but then again no one does. The doctor must’ve turned you out.”
“Watch how you’re fucking talking.”
He had his hands up laughing again. I needed to stop snapping on him like I was because he would continue to needle this point just because he could get a rise out of me.
“Not like that, damn. But I see what I said was right because you’re about to go toe to toe with me and I’m just teasing.
She could’ve been in there getting knocked down by five with a line waiting out the door and I wouldn’t have shit to say. ”
I worked my neck back and forth because the visual of something like that happening with Asha had me ready to snap. Specifically Vega’s neck, since he put the image in my brain but I couldn’t do that since he was just talking.
He needed to learn to shut the fuck up, though.
“I don’t know why you think she turned me out.”
His stare moved from amusement to blank disbelief.
“It’s clear that she doesn’t treat you deferentially at all.
No cowering and, most importantly, no reflex to following your commands.
That shows you never established any with her.
But the way you’re itching to shoot me in the kneecap is screaming that she had an effect on you.
She’s fucking exquisite so I can’t blame you for being enthralled. Even if it is so unlike you.”
“You know I don’t have a problem with the entire OC Cartel coming after me because I killed you.” That was my natural response to him calling her exquisite and it put a smile back on his face.
“You don’t have to say shit. I already know what I see and that’s fine. The way you’re going to act over the next weeks is going to say everything. I’ll hold off and tell Cochran that you’re going to handle introducing her to the team. Unless—”
“I’ll take point on it.”
“From the looks of it, you better get on your knees, whatever you did left her not wanting to fuck with you like that. Can’t believe you’re leaving them disappointed, Nakoa.”
Yacouba was always callin’ Xerxes ass the Creole Casanova but I dealt with the Cuban version daily.
Alec had no qualms about being a ladies’ man since he was single as hell.
At thirty-three he was slightly younger than I was but in his culture he was a fucking old ass man.
He and his cousins were being looked at funny because they hadn’t settled down yet but none of them wanted to.
It was one of the main reasons we bonded.
He was just a whore and I was unable to be vulnerable enough to let a woman get that close to me for a consistent period of time.
I’d get a new case and end up halfway across the world so having a relationship wasn’t conducive to my profession.
Besides, trusting a woman was the last thing I wanted to do because the one who should’ve loved me first hurt me the worst.
Alec stood up and straightened his blazer. “You’ve got time but not a lot. Cochran wants her here within the week.”
“Why the hell is now the time to be doing this?”
I knew I was getting irritated for no reason but I didn’t care.
It wasn’t a state of being that differed from how I normally was because, honestly, I could be an asshole when it came right down to it.
My grandfather had called me up and said that I was needed for business.
Instead of it being a phone call or something that I could do covertly under the cover of night, I was told I was needed in the middle of the day.
That was the first warning that something was up.
We had a satellite office in D.C. that my grandfather insisted on, since it was local to me.
This place was constantly monitored but rarely used.
I nodded to two of the security guards who were stationed at the entrance of the elevator.
No one was allowed up onto the floor except me and Pappy.
I hit my palm on the scanner my senses heightened despite the trust he put into the staff of this building.
No one had my trust but him and depending on what this was about, that could end today.
The door to the car opened and I lumbered inside not bothering to move with any stealth.
I needed everything to feel my wrath, even the damn air, so moving gently wasn’t much of an option with the way I was distracted.
My palm was placed on the reader that allowed the elevator to move.
There was only one stop possible on this ride so I didn’t need to press any other buttons once I allowed the system to vet my print.
This thing was top-of-the-line, sensing temperatures, weight and perspiration before it would allow the car to activate.
It was to ensure no one was moving onto the floor under duress and that the car would only carry authorized personnel.
My grandfather and I were the only ones in the system so it made tracking movements easy.
Dom’s ass is too good at what he does.
I closed my eyes and calmed my mind about what I was getting ready to walk into.
I hadn’t thought too much about it because she’d been on my mind.
The balance that I was trying to find between the person I’d fucked in a club and the woman I’d met at work was near impossible.
Asha Avery had been someone who was truly a Dr. Jekyll and Mrs. Hyde type personality.
Not that women couldn’t have a hidden side, but she seemed to be two different people entirely.
The problem was I wanted the one who was hidden behind the mask of respectability that she gave me that day in her office.
The one who will tell me exactly how much she couldn’t stand men while she rode my dick.
I’d battled going back for weeks in-between cases to catch up with her again and that type of hyper-fixation was something I never allowed myself.
And now I have to work with her.