Chapter 30
Elise
I ’m going to lose my mind if I have to sit in this house for one more minute without doing anything productive. I’ve never had a case move this slow. Being undercover should be helping it go faster, but it seems to be having the opposite effect. I can’t tell if things are actually as stagnant as they seem, or if Enzo just isn’t telling me all of the information he has. My coworkers have been just as silent, just sending generic check-in messages and asking for updates. Which I don’t have.
I’m not getting pulled from this case, I know that much. I’ve invested too much time and energy—too much of myself—to give up now.
Tonight, I’m going to push my luck with Joey. He’s babysitting me while Enzo, Sal, and Frankie are at the club. I haven’t figured out why Enzo thinks I need someone to watch me, but at least he picked Joey. I’m sure I could get information out of Sal too, but I’m guessing he’s loyal enough to Frankie that he’d be a harder nut to crack. Joey seems like he would be open to talking to me if I played my cards right. Worst case scenario, I can always seduce him.
Dressed in my uniform—just in case Joey is reporting every little thing back to Enzo—I go downstairs in search of my target. He’s exactly where I figured he’d be: playing video games in the living room. It works in my favor because he’s relaxed and distracted instead of suspicious and on edge.
“How come you’re the only one who gets stuck with babysitting duty?” I ask, plopping down on the couch next to him.
“I guess I’m just lucky,” he says, shooting me a wink before shooting several of who I assume are the bad guys in his game. If they’re the good guys, then he needs more practice.
“Can I play?” I gesture at the screen.
“Do you know how?”
“Not even a little bit. But you can teach me. Help me alleviate some of my boredom.” I flash him a sweet smile, and he hands over the controller. I hold it like it’s a foreign object, which isn’t entirely inaccurate. I’ve never been into video games, and I’m terrible at them, but I do know what the buttons are for. Joey doesn’t need to know that, though. The more helpless he thinks I am, the more he’ll focus on helping me and not pay attention to our conversation.
“Wow, you really don’t know how to play. Alright, let’s do this. I love a good challenge.” He proceeds to show me where to put my fingers and explains what all the buttons do before catching me up on what’s happening in the game.
“So basically, shoot all the people coming at me and try to get to the other side of this city without dying?” I summarize.
“That’s the gist,” he agrees. “You ready?”
“I guess we’ll find out.”
He starts the game, and I’m dead within ten seconds.
“I don’t think I was ready.”
“That’s okay,” he says with a laugh. “Try again.”
Twenty minutes later, I toss the controller down and throw my hands in the air. “I give up. This game is impossible.” And apparently distracting. I didn’t even realize that I got sucked in and completely forgot why I came downstairs in the first place.
“You stayed alive for a whole minute that last time. I bet by next week, if you practice, you’ll make it through the city in one piece.”
“Next week?” I exclaim. “I can’t spend a whole week playing this game.”
“Why not? It’s not like you have anything else you have to do. It might help you not be so bored,” he points out.
“I’d just be bored of the game by then.”
“What would you rather do? Go back to the club?”
I can tell he’s joking, but it’s exactly the opportunity I was looking for to get this conversation back on track. “I’d like to be able to help you guys with whatever work is keeping everyone so busy. Maybe then the other three wouldn’t be working so much and you wouldn’t need to play babysitter.” I pause, wondering how far I can push this, and decide to go a little bit farther. “And I wouldn’t have to worry about you all getting hurt.” It’s not a lie; I don’t want them to get hurt, and I do want to help them with their work. But the pout that I feel gracing my lips is a little over-the-top.
“We’re mostly doing surveillance right now anyway,” he reassures me. “It’s pretty safe.”
“It sounds boring.”
“It can be,” he admits.
“Are you allowed to bring a friend with you?”
He looks at me like he’s questioning if I’m really asking what he thinks I’m asking. “That sounds like it could be a pretty dangerous distraction.”
“I thought you said it was safe?”
“It’s safe as long as I’m paying attention to my surroundings.”
“Hmm…” I pretend to think. “Maybe you’re right. It probably wouldn’t be a good idea.”
He nods and picks up the controller so he can play his game again. I lie down on the couch and roll to my belly, stretching my body out just enough that my dress rides up and gives Joey a glimpse of my ass. My eyes stay glued to the screen, but I can see him adjusting himself in my peripheral vision. I wiggle a little more, trying to get more comfortable, and he groans.
“You’re killing me over here,” he says.
I look at him over my shoulder, acting surprised. “What?” Then I pretend to realize the state of my dress. “Oh, sorry.”
An innocent smile and a shrug are lost on him; he’s staring at my ass and looks like he’s trying to move the dress out of his way with his mind.
“It’s my uniform now, you know. I’m not allowed to wear anything else. Just dresses.”
He nods absently, but his eyes don’t move. I smirk.
“Oh, that’s right.” My voice is dripping with seduction, but I don’t think he’s listening to a word I’m saying. “You didn’t get what you really wanted last time, did you? During my audition, that is. Frankie didn’t let you have it.” I shift again, letting the dress slide over my ass and up to my hips. Joey is practically drooling, and I can’t deny that I want him to touch me.
“You’re trying to get me killed, aren’t you?”
“You can touch it, right? You just aren’t allowed to fuck it.”
For the first time, he breaks eye contact with my rear and looks at my face. “That’s a good point. But I’m not sure I’d be able to stop myself.” He looks back down and we both fall silent until he says, “Fuck it. It might be worth dying for.”
He drops the controller to the floor and moves to kneel behind me on the couch. Right as he grabs my hips with both hands and pulls me up to be on my hands and knees, the front door opens, and Enzo walks in.