Wicked as Lies (Wicked & Devoted #3) - Shayla Black Page 0,93

away from this.

“If I play along, you’ll talk to me about the situation with Tessa when I come back?”

Logan turned to his brothers. “How cute. He thinks he has a bargaining chip.”

That pissed Zy off. “I fucking do. I can walk out there right now and tell Trees everything. He’ll believe me.” Which was true. “And he’ll walk.” Which was a bluff, because Zy wasn’t sure how Trees would react. “You’re already short one team member, maybe two if Grant’s fling with Maggie turns serious. And what about Walker? You sure he’s going to hang around now that he’s getting married and has a baby on the way? How’d you like to be short two more? That would leave you with a team of zero. Good luck running a business with that.”

“Yes,” Joaquin said. “When you come back, we’ll listen.”

Hunter and Logan both turned to him with identical scowls. “What the fuck?”

“This isn’t the battle we should be fighting right now. We have bigger problems than junior’s love life. If he wants to bang the secretary—”

“Shut up and don’t be so fucking disrespectful! I’ve never touched Tessa, not once in the ten months I’ve known her, and it’s been hell. I did that because you fucking made me. I’ve asked you to bend a little, but you just keep putting my balls in a vise and don’t seem to give two shits about either of us.”

Hunter let out a deep breath. “All right. I get it. You go to Comfort with Trees, and we’ll find a workable solution to your problem. Once everything is calm in Texas, you come back here and we’ll negotiate.”

It wasn’t perfect, but it was more than they’d been willing to give. And it would have to do for now. Otherwise, they would send Trees into danger alone, because no one else was around to protect his flank.

“Fine.”

Logan leaned in. “But while you’re there? Watch everything Trees says and does. Everyone he communicates with. Everything he focuses on. All. Of. It. Are we clear?”

Fuck you. “Crystal. When do we leave?”

“Tomorrow,” Joaquin put in. “We’ll keep an eye on Tessa while you’re gone.”

They had him twisted up in so many knots, he didn’t see another way out of the situation. But since Cash was still in rehab and Tessa was barely speaking to him, he didn’t think it mattered. Once he figured out how to maneuver the situation here at work and she knew she wouldn’t lose her job, he’d do his best to marry her, give Hallie siblings, and love her for the rest of his life.

“Thank you. Trees and I will get this done fast. Then I want more than lips moving. I want real action. I want Tessa.”

“We know.”

January 25

Zy sat beside Trees in his beat-up truck as they bounced east out of San Antonio. They had spent two fucking weeks in Texas, giving Josiah a hand in breaking up the group of fanatics who had been after Shealyn’s grandparents’ land. It had been some harrowing shit because Enlightenment Fields hadn’t been averse to murder to get it.

At least he and Trees were finally heading back to Louisiana.

While in Comfort, they had also tried to keep Josiah from falling for Shealyn’s gorgeous sister, but they’d failed. Now Josiah and Maggie were engaged, and just as Zy suspected, Grant wasn’t coming back to Louisiana or to the EM team. He would be replaced—starting tomorrow—by Comfort’s former deputy, Kane Preston, who had admittedly done a decent job of helping them shut down the Enlightenment Fields crazies. Still, in a team full of SEALs, Green Berets, and other elite warriors, he didn’t see this Rosco P. Coltrane working out. Yeah, Preston had some military experience and he’d seemed all right, but c’mon… At least the hazing would be fun.

Oh, and along the way, Zy had watched his best friend’s every step while reporting back to the Three Stooges. Or rather, the bosses. But he was fucking done. Tomorrow morning, he would get free of their fucking contract so he could finally make Tessa his.

Well, if she would have him.

Zy refused to accept that they were done. He wished like fuck he could have a do-over on Trees’s Christmas party. But she’d made herself clear. Her job—and her daughter—came first. He was just the asshole who kept pushing her boundaries because he couldn’t fall out of love with her. Hell, he’d never even tried. The way she’d grabbed Hallie and run from him that night before they’d even