I’d never tagged a tail.
Damn.
“Man, I’m always on The Retreat job,” I informed him. “Every third ass**le who cheats on his wife takes his bitch to The Retreat. My ass is in the parking lot there so often, management suggested they paint my name in a parking spot so it’ll be reserved.”
“Not good for business, a PI’s name in a parking spot,” Creed muttered.
“That’s why I declined. That’s me, looking out for the local adult resort.”
I heard his chuckle and it was different than I remembered too. Not just deep and smooth, the rough was in it. It made it sexier. A lot f**king sexier.
Shit.
“You ever been there?” he asked.
“Where?” I asked back.
“The Retreat,” he answered.
“Partner, were you talking in your sleep thirty seconds ago?”
“I meant as a client, not an investigator.”
Oh yeah, I had. Rubber mattresses. Fake silk sheets. Velvet comforters. Mirrors on the ceiling. Hot tubs in every room. “Environment chambers” where you could f**k in a gentle rain, breeze or both. Swings. Love machines. Steam rooms. Twelve channels of p**n . Rooms available at matinee rates.
I’d so totally been there.
“So we are talking about our pasts?” I asked and he was silent. “Advice,” I went on. “You feel like an adventure, call the top in the environment chamber. Seems like it’d be awesome but that water hitting your face all the time is distracting.”
That got more silence, which worked for me because it meant he shut up.
It stopped working for me when it went on a long time. He had a month of a possible hostile takeover of Knight’s business to catch me up on and he couldn’t do it in sign language when my eyes were on the road. This was because I couldn’t see his hands and I didn’t know sign language.
I glanced his way again, mouth open to say something then I glanced straight ahead and shut my mouth.
I did this because his stubbled jaw was tight and his head was turned slightly to look out the side window.
Unhappy thoughts. Unhappy thoughts I did not give one shit about.
“Rule,” I said quietly into the car. “You don’t wanna know, don’t ask.”
“Deal,” he muttered immediately and that killed too.
I knew why. For some reason, it f**ked him up that I’d had experience of The Retreat. Why this would be, I did not know. He disappeared on me and he’d done it nearly sixteen freaking years ago. He couldn’t think I’d been holding out, pining for him all that time. He’d looked into me, he knew I didn’t. At first, I didn’t have a choice. Then, I did and I sure as f**k took advantage of it.
I wasn’t going to think about that either.
“You wanna fill me in on what you’ve learned for the last month?” I asked as I kept moving us toward The Retreat.
“Yeah,” Creed answered. “You know Drake Nair?”
“Yup,” I replied.
“You know who he is to Knight?”
“Been in Denver awhile, Creed, and almost all that time, I’ve known Knight.”
“So you know Knight stole his stable and his club right out from under him.”