Page 73 of Hurry Up And Wait
I laughed at the stupidity of his statement. “What facts? Yes, IKE is watching her. I already knew that.”
“Yeah, IKE—who almost stole Jane from IRIS.” Eli spun and faced Red. “Do you think it’s a name thing?”
“I would if it was women going after the both of them all the time,” Red shrugged.
“She is not going after IKE,” I snapped. “He was there when the bomb went off. Why would I not want him protecting her?”
“I would think that would be pretty fucking obvious,” Red muttered.
“He’s handsome,” Eli ticked off his fingers. “He looks dashing in that suit.”
“He has nice hair.”
“I have nice hair,” I retorted. “And who gives a fuck about suits?”
“Women,” they both said.
“And that cigarette thing,” Red nodded. “Personally, I don’t like cigarettes, but a good cigar is perfect.”
“It does make him look cool,” Eli agreed. “I mean, think about it. James Dean looked like a bad boy when he smoked. And he got all the ladies.”
“James Dean died in a fucking car accident,” I snapped. “What’s your point?”
“My point is, you have competition, buddy.”
I glared at Red. “There’s no competition because technically, we aren’t even dating. And she isn’t dating IKE either.”
“Well, yeah,” Eli snorted. “Because you’re both in competition. If only one of you was dating her, it couldn’t really be a competition.”
I looked at Eli, then looked at Red. “Are you really fucking serious?”
Red shrugged. “Hey, you’re the one who insisted on leaving a job early to see her. All we’re saying is that you might want to…seal the deal.”
“I already fucking sealed the deal,” I argued. “We just haven’t set any…guidelines for the rest.”
They both leaned back, hissing under their breath.
“That’s not good,” Eli muttered.
“Definitely not good.”
“What?”
“Well, if you had sealed the deal and then like…shook on it, then you’d have a leg to stand on.”
“But you didn’t shake on it,” Red sighed, grabbing his bag where he’d dropped it on the ground. “And now you’re fucked.”
I turned and watched him walk off, followed closely by Eli. “Who shakes on sex?”
I didn’t wasteanother minute on those guys as I rushed over to Isla’s house. From the outside, everything looked fine, but just for the sake of making myself feel better, I decided to do a perimeter check. I slipped around the side of the house, checking the windows and behind all the bushes.
After that, I did a thorough check of all systems for the back door, the video feed, and the sensors surrounding the property and on the fences of her neighbors. When all that was good, I continued around the house, reassuring myself that all windows were secure. There was just one problem.
“What the hell is that?” I muttered, staring up at the second-story roof. I couldn’t see what was hanging from the shingles from this viewpoint, and there was no way to access it from the window. The only way to check it out was to climb up there to see it up close and personal. Luckily, there was a trellis on the side of the house that would take me not far from where I needed to be.
I hauled myself up, scaling as quickly as possible while avoiding the prickly vines and thorns. “What the hell is this shit?” I muttered, gasping and shaking out my hand when my finger was stabbed ruthlessly by an unknown object. “Son of a bitch,” I muttered, sucking on my finger to staunch the bleeding.
The shit I was willing to do for a woman was insane, but this woman was most definitely worth it. Once I was at the edge of the roof, I hoisted myself up and rolled to my back. I cringed at the pain that shot through me as I turned the wrong way and tweaked something near my spine. I sat there panting like a dog, staring up at the night sky and wondering how the fuck I was going to get myself down from here when I threw my back out. Hell, this was not going to be fun.