Dream Chaser (Dream Team #2) - Kristen Ashley Page 0,45

“Yeah, I guess that’s life, but it sucks.”

Boone reached out a hand on the table and rapped his knuckles to it.

She looked to it and he opened it, palm up.

Then her gaze came to him, she put her hand in his, and he wrapped his fingers around it.

“I hate saying this shit to you, but sometimes there are no whys. There is no answer. There are no reasons. Bad shit happens. Really bad shit happens. Seriously bad shit happens. Good people, innocent people, unsuspecting people get caught up in it and it isn’t fair. What it is, is life. And the only defense you got is to live your best one while you got it.”

“So you’re hot and wise,” she joked.

He grinned at her. “Stick with me, grasshopper. I’ll show you the way.”

She grinned back. “I’ll bet.”

Their pretzel came, and he let her go, waiting for her to tear off her chunk, before he went for it.

“I dance tonight,” she said while he was chewing.

He just looked at her.

“I kind of, you know…” She broke that off and started up again. “It’s just that it’d be cool if you’d spent the night again. If it isn’t a pain for you.”

Sleeping in her jungle of plants with her tucked into him and the smell of her hair in his face?

Fuck no, it wasn’t a pain.

“We’ll do your thing you wanna do after this. I’ll take you to your car. I’ll go home, shower, pack a bag, come to yours. We’ll hang, do dinner, I’ll take you to work, bring you home and spend the night.”

She didn’t look sure about that and she explained why.

“Boone, you’re not real good at Smithie’s,” she pointed out.

Yeah, he’d gotten in her face about her job.

Or a part of her job.

“I know how you taste now, Ryn. I know how your ass feels snug in my crotch.” He quirked his lips. “So now that ass is officially mine, just don’t do any lap dances, and we’ll be good.”

“Sure?” she asked.

He nodded and tore off another chunk of the pretzel.

She went after her own, saying, “You haven’t mentioned anything about the meeting.”

Shit.

This was because he didn’t want to.

But he had to.

He gave her a rundown over the rest of the pretzel, and they had fresh drinks, their sandwiches, rings and the classic plastic tray of goodness that Brother’s always served that included pickles and banana peppers and shit like that by the time he finished.

“Well, uh…it isn’t for me to say, what you all get into, but now it’s not about Brett. At least not only about him. It’s about Corinne. And I’m not feeling super confident those two jackasses are gonna work hard to find out who took her life.”

“We’re gonna do some poking around, Ryn,” he said.

She didn’t hide her relief.

God-fucking-dammit.

“And we need your help with that,” he went on.

She’d taken a big bite of her sandwich, but when she heard his words, her eyes got wide, and with mouth full, she asked, “Me?”

“We need to know how Cisco knew Crowley was investigating dirty cops.”

She chewed, swallowed, and stated, “Oh. Okay.”

Then she put down her sandwich and immediately grabbed her purse to pull out her phone.

For a second, Boone just stared.

Then he reached out and wrapped his fingers around her wrist.

She again gave him her eyes.

“You can’t just call him,” he said.

“Why not?” she asked.

In that moment, he wished he lived in a zone, considering she seemed kinda tight with this fucking guy, that wasn’t a good question.

“He’s not gonna tell you over the phone,” he noted.

“Sure he is,” she replied.

“Ryn, he’s gonna think someone is listening.”

“Boone, he’s probably gonna hope someone is listening so someone will do something about it so he can come out of hiding.”

He slid her phone out of her fingers, put it on the table and took his hand away, doing all of this saying, “When he comes out of hiding, babe, this means he’s gonna go back to dealing drugs, in earnest, since his players are still out on the street, they just don’t have their overlord making his moves to be certain they don’t lose supply.”

She made a scrunchy face he wanted to kiss.

But he didn’t because she had to get this.

So he kept at it.

“He’s got a headquarters, and for a square block around that, he shakes down every business owner for protection money even though they probably wouldn’t need anyone keeping their business secure if he didn’t do his business close to theirs. He’s been known