Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE
Maverick
What the fuck had I been thinking?
I went to Jo's house to confront her about her secret and ended up fucking her instead. Without a condom no less.
How could I be so fucking stupid?
I was always careful. Wrapping it up was my number one rule. I had never forgotten to do it in the past.
I wanted to kick my own ass for forgetting.
Instead I was fuming on my way back to work with nowhere to take my frustration out because of course a good ole hate fuck didn't do the job.
Life sucked at the moment.
Slamming my truck into park outside of the security office, I stomped inside and glared at Annalee.
"Don't give me that look. I'm innocent in this whole thing." Yes, she was, but she was also the only one in the vicinity, and I was angry enough to be a jackass simply on principle alone.
"Where's Nolen?" I snapped. He was the person I should be taking my anger out on.
"Still in the back where you left him when you stormed out of here."
I glared at Annalee. When did she become so damn vocal? She used to be quiet and timid when she first started working here. I guess that was what happened when she spent so much time with Maisie.
I didn't bother saying anything more, but Annalee sure did as I was marching my way into the back. "You're welcome."
I bit my tongue before I said something I couldn't take back. Owen certainly wouldn't appreciate me taking my frustration out on his wife.
Hendrix met me as soon as I walked through the door. "Well, aren't you a sight for sore eyes."
A growl worked its way up my throat before I could tamp it down. "I wasn't gone that long."
"Maybe not but you sure didn't return in a better mood. Care to share with the rest of us why you're so angry?"
"I don't owe any of you an explanation," I bit out.
This wasn't who I was, and it definitely wasn't how I acted as a boss. I was supposed to be the rational one. The person my friends could count on to keep their cool when things went to shit.
Everyone in the room looked at one another, but it was only Hendrix who continued to confront me. "Listen, Maverick. I respect the hell out of you. We've known each other a long damn time, and I would gladly follow you blindly into any situation, but this isn't you."
I puffed out my cheeks before letting out a long exhale. My shoulders slumped in defeat. "I know. I'm sorry."
"Don't be sorry. Just tell us what's going on."
I sighed. "I can't do that. Not now at least."
"You can't or you won't?" Hendrix challenged.
"I can't. Not without breaking a promise."
Every guy in the room nodded. "We understand." This time it was Nolen who answered.
"We need to talk about what we learned."
I looked at Easton. "I know we do."
"So what do you think we should do with this information?" Owen was the nicest out of the group, so he was purely asking because he didn't want to see Jo get hurt, and that pissed me off.
Everything about her currently pissed me off it would seem.
"I think we need to preserve the secret."
Of course Nolen would think that. He was the one who knew it before the rest of us. But in this case, I had to agree with him.
"I think so too. At least for her safety. We don't know who wanted the information, and since they were willing to beat Vanessa up for it, I think we need to play things on the safe side."
Just the mention of Vanessa had Nolen fisting his hands. I understood where he was coming from. Seeing Vanessa like that had been hard for all of us, so I could only imagine it was worse for him.
"So we can't say anything to her?" Nolen, being the troublemaker he was, asked.
"I never said that. I just said we won't be the ones spreading it across town. You got me?"
All of my friends nodded their heads including Hendrix. He could be a ball buster most of the time, but he knew when to be serious, and this was one of those times.