Blitz (Blast Brothers #3) - Sabrina Stark Page 0,12

kind of question was that? "Definitely."

He gave me a dubious look. "So…your first festival, what was it like?"

I gave my computer a worried glance. I was only a few slides into my presentation, and already, he was throwing it off-kilter.

Was he doing it on purpose?

Probably.

I looked back to Chase and felt my gaze narrow. "Wait a minute. Is this coming out of my ten minutes?"

"Meaning?"

I gestured toward the projector screen where the Blast logo remained. "I'm just saying, if I've got only ten minutes, I'll never get through it at this rate."

"Alright," he said. "Then consider this off the clock. Your first festival – tell me about it."

I studied his face for a long, tense moment. Was he serious? He looked serious. As for myself, I was feeling seriously rattled. "Well…there's not much to tell, considering that I was just a baby."

"Uh-huh. But you're sure you went."

"Of course."

"You got any proof?"

I tried for a laugh. "What? You want a picture?"

"You bet I do."

"Seriously?" I hesitated. "Honestly, I'm not sure I have one."

He frowned. "Is that so?"

With growing trepidation, I said, "Let's say I don't have a photo. Would that be a problem?"

"It would be now."

"Why?"

"Because you just offered one." He gave me a hard look. "What, you thought I wouldn't take you up on it?"

Yes. I had thought that, in fact. But the reason for this was obvious. "It was a joke."

And now, he was looking more jaded than ever. "So you don't have a picture? That's what you're saying."

My stomach twisted. I was blowing this, bigtime. "If a picture's that important, I'll find one."

"You mean you'll try to find one? Or you will find one?"

My chin lifted. "Oh, I'll find one, alright."

"You're on," he said. "Same time tomorrow then?"

I blinked. "Excuse me?"

"We'll take this up again tomorrow." He glanced at his watch. "Let's say four o'clock."

So I was being dismissed? With growing confusion, I glanced toward the projector screen.

When I did, I swear, my face burst into flames.

Once again, my computer had gone into wallpaper mode.

Instead of the logo for Blast Tools, I was looking at another picture of myself. In this one, I wasn't wearing a bikini.

That was the good news.

But the bad news? Instead, I was wearing a long silver prom dress along with a sparkly crown and white sash that proclaimed in big red letters, "Tomato Queen 1st Runner Up."

At the sight of it, I almost groaned out loud.

Just shoot me now.

Chapter 10

Chase

Inside my office, Brody was laughing his ass off. "And you're meeting with her again?"

I liked a good joke as much as the next guy, but unlike my brother, I wasn't laughing.

Nearly twenty-four hours had passed since my meeting with Mina Lipinski, and I'd spent far too many of those hours wondering what she was up to.

It was distracting the hell out of me, which might explain why I'd made the dumb-ass decision to tell my brother about yesterday's meeting.

After that pageant photo, Mina had practically ripped the cord from the computer and rushed out of my office faster than you could say, "Point me to the nearest loony bin."

But that wasn't what she'd said. No. What she'd said was, "Fine. I'll be back tomorrow."

Tomorrow was today.

According to Gretchen, Mina was already here in the building. She'd arrived twenty minutes ago, a half-hour early for our scheduled meeting.

To Brody, I replied, "Too late to cancel now."

"Oh yeah? Why's that?"

"Because the meeting's in ten minutes."

"So?"

"So I'd be a dick to back out. Don't you think?"

"Since when has that stopped you?"

Never.

The truth was, I'd never been one to play by the rules, and canceling a meeting last-minute – or simply not showing up at all – it would hardly be the rudest thing I'd ever done.

Hell, it wouldn't even get an honorable mention.

When my only reply was a tight shrug, Brody gave me a long penetrating look. "So, what aren't you telling me?"

Shit.

I was in no mood for an interrogation, especially from my little brother – the guy who'd come to believe that he had all the answers, ever since his engagement to the love of his life. His words. Not mine.

In my world, love wasn't something that lasted a lifetime. It was something that might last a night or two, or maybe a month at best.

Me – I wasn't the kind of guy to stick around.

And I sure as hell didn't worry about what people thought of me. Yeah, I could play the game as well as the next guy, better even. I was a