said again, her voice quiet. “Look, I’m sorry. I . . . damn it, Zach, I don’t get why you can’t let yourself take another day when just looking at you hurts me, but if it’s that important for you to go in, I’ll damn well be the one to take you.”
Then she lowered her hand and leaned in, kissed him gently, avoiding the cut on the right side of his mouth. “I’ll take you in. You either call me or figure out a way home. And I’ll bring you dinner tonight and when you’re sore and bitching about how you shouldn’t have bothered going in, I get to point at you and say ha, ha, I told you so.”
“Is that how it works?” he asked, ignoring the way his voice went kind of raspy on him as he wrapped his hand around her ponytail and tugged her head back.
“Yeah. And you will say it.”
* * *
“I can’t believe he came in,” Javi muttered, watching as Zach limped around the break room, surveying the damage.
“Me, neither,” Abigale said.
Keelie snorted and glared at them both. “Javi, you should know better. I’m surprised he didn’t stumble in here yesterday, although I know it was late when he finally got out of the ER. Zach all but bleeds this place.” Then she gave Abigale a look of mocking condescension. “Although I’m not surprised the glamour girl doesn’t know any better.”
Javi chose that minute to beat a retreat, disappearing down the hallway. Abigale couldn’t say she was sorry. Folding her arms over her chest, she shot Zach a look, but he was preoccupied and the music Keelie had blaring from her office was loud enough to offer at least the illusion of a private conversation. Narrowing her eyes, she studied Keelie and debated. Did she go for subtle?
Keelie met her gaze with a bold, almost hostile glare and Abigale decided subtlety would be pointless.
Fine. Screw subtle.
“Keelie, you want to tell me what in the hell your problem is with me?”
Keelie shrugged, her narrow shoulders moving restlessly under the fishnet top she wore over a skintight tank top. Flowers and scrolled tattoos wrapped around her biceps and danced along her collarbone. Beautifully done, elegant . . . almost soft, Abigale thought sometimes.
Ironic, because Abigale didn’t think there was anything soft about Keelie.
But then again, anytime Keelie was around her, it seemed like the woman was pissed off.
“Who says I have a problem with you?” Keelie asked.
“Pretty much every word out of your mouth, every look you give me, and the general why don’t you kiss my ass, bitch attitude you seem to have with me,” Abigale said, shrugging. “Look, maybe that’s just you, but I don’t see you calling everybody you meet glamour girl. I’d think maybe you had a problem with people from the entertainment industry, but I saw you talking to Sebastian and you didn’t treat him like something you’d scrape off your shoe, and you work with Zach just fine. Which leads me to think it’s just me.”
“I don’t care what industry you worked in,” Keelie snapped. She gave Abigale a dismissive glare and added, “If you think being an actress makes you special, you’re dead wrong.”
“I agree. It doesn’t make me special. It was a job and it’s not one I miss. So . . . if it’s not that, what is it?”
It was quick. Very quick, but Abigale saw it. That flicker of a glance toward Zach. Swallowing, she waited as Keelie gave another one of those jerky, dismissive shrugs. “It’s nothing.”
“You have a thing for him,” Abigale said when the other woman went to turn away.
Keelie stiffened.
Slowly, she lifted her head and Abigale could see her staring at Zach. And the man was still oblivious, squatting on the floor and eyeing the damage to the door. It was clear somebody had attempted to clean things up yesterday, but the door would have to be replaced. He had a look of resignation on his face as he shoved a hand through his hair. Even with his face battered and the bruising from his eye spilling down over his cheek, he looked beautiful. Too beautiful. Hell, just then, he looked a little more beautiful . . . like a fallen angel ready to go on the warpath.
A second later, Keelie turned back around and her mismatched eyes met Abigale’s. “A thing for him? You think that touches it?” Her voice was low and angry. She paused, her mouth working as though