Blackstone Ranger Charmer - Alicia Montgomery Page 0,19
form into place.”
Gabriel scratched at his chin. That really didn’t help, but he knew Damon wouldn’t be holding out on him if really did know the answer.
“You should spend time with her, get to know her,” Damon added. “And get her to know you. Your animal already knows Temperance is your mate, but she’ll need more convincing.”
Good thing Damon had brought that up first. “Speaking of which … I do have a little problem.” He briefly explained Temperance’s schedule. “Anything you can do? I’m scared she’s gonna get cold feet if I don’t act soon,” His lion paced, agitated at the thought. Don’t worry, buddy, he reassured his animal. We won’t let that happen.
Damon seemed to mull it over. “My hands are tied scheduling-wise since I don’t want to be accused of favoritism. But, find someone to swap with, and I’ll approve it. Do what you need to do to win your mate over.”
“All right, I’ll ask around. Thanks, man.”
Of course, he thought finding someone to swap shifts for a couple of days would have been easy, but it was more challenging than he’d anticipated since Temperance worked odd hours, so he might have to get two people to split shifts with. If he couldn’t, that would mean he would have to take some unplanned vacations days—and he couldn’t do that to Damon, especially with his wedding and honeymoon coming up.
The first person he had in mind was Daniel Rogers, who was easily one of the nicest and easy-going guys on the team.
“Sorry, Gabe,” Daniel said when he asked him. “My parents just got into town for a visit, so I already have all evenings off. Maybe next week?”
His lion huffed brusquely. Next week would be too late, but he knew Rogers wouldn’t have said no if it were possible. No one else he approached could do it either because they already had prior commitments or didn’t have the hours he wanted off. There was only one person he hadn’t asked yet, but he was absolutely Gabriel’s last resort.
“Hey, Anders,” he greeted the tiger shifter in the locker room. “Can we talk?”
Anders Stevens was flexing and admiring himself in the mirrors, completely unruffled by the fact that he was buck naked. Of course, shifters tended not to be self-conscious about nudity, though Stevens seemed to enjoy literally swinging his dick around for fun.
Anders put on a big smile and planted his hands on his hip. “Russel. Glad you finally came to see me.”
“You are?”
“Yeah. Heard you were trying to swap your hours for the next couple of days. Do you have something important going on?” He placed his hands over his heart in a mock gesture of shock. “Frankly, I’m hurt you didn’t ask me first.”
That’s because he knew he was going to pay through the nose for any favor from Anders. The man was an asshole. A lovable asshole, but an asshole nonetheless. “Well, can you do it?”
“Sure, man. What hours do you need?”
“I just need to be outta here five p.m., and I can be back by five a.m.” It would be tricky because all the shifts were nine to nine, plus it would throw off his own sleeping schedule. Not that he planned on doing a lot of sleeping if things with Temperance went right. “Or I can get Rogers to split—”
“Pshaw.” Anders waved a hand. “Piece of cake.” The tiger shifter always said he preferred the nine o’clock overnight shifts because it was a good excuse to hightail it out of a girl’s bed once he was done banging her.
“Really? You can get Rogers to—”
“Like I said, piece of cake,” Anders reiterated. “I’ll take care of it. Now you can go polish the gold bars in your vault or whatever it is you trust fund babies need to do.”
Gabriel rolled his eyes. However, this transaction had seemed entirely, suspiciously too easy. “All right, Anders, what do you want in return?”
“Damon’s bachelor party.”
Gabriel scrubbed a hand down his face. “Damon’s already decided not to have one.”
The other man crossed his arms over his chest. “Well, I guess that means you’re going to make him un-decide.”
“So that’s what you want in return? You just want to make sure Damon has a bachelor party?”
“I want to plan the whole shebang.” There was a gleam in his eyes that made Gabriel nervous. “And you’ll pony up the cash to pay for it. And I want the works, Russel. Vegas. Presidential Suite. Private jet.”
Gabriel grit his teeth. The money wasn’t the