40. Utah

CHAPTER FORTY

utah

“ S orry, man,” Indy said and chuckled while he stood in the doorway, watching me readjust the raging hard-on that Memphis left in my shorts.

“You’ll get no forgiveness for this.”

He laughed again but the smile fell away quickly that time.

“Utah.”

I stopped fucking with my dick at the way he’d said my name. He was my friend more than he was my coworker at this point, but we still didn’t do the heart-to-heart thing very often. There really wasn’t ever much of a need. We didn’t exactly have personal lives to bond over. But something uncomfortable looked like it was about to burst out of him at any second now.

“How long has this —?” He asked and motioned between me and where Memphis disappeared.

“What? Why does it matter?”

I wasn’t concerned about being defensive of it, but Memphis was horrified by the thought of anyone else knowing what was happening for whatever reason her brain had created.

“Listen, I know I mess with you guys a lot. And I know it’s not actually any of my business. It’s usually just in fun. I know you know that. I don’t think I really believed she’d ever actually go for it, though.”

“Point, Indy?” I encouraged while he shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

“She’s my friend, Utah. My favorite one. Not a lot of people look at me and see who I am and just decide to keep me, despite it all. But she did.”

“I’m in love with her, Indy. If anyone is ever going to make you choose between me and her, it won’t be me. Don’t feel like you have to threaten me on her behalf. It won’t work, and there’s no need.”

“I didn’t plan on threatening you. I was going to ask you to be good enough for her, so I don’t ever have to watch while she ruins you if you put her in that position. She wouldn’t need my help. And I wouldn’t stop her.”

He probably wasn’t wrong there, and that shit made me laugh out loud. She could destroy anyone she wanted without ever having to see them.

“Loud and clear, Indy,” I said and smacked him on the arm. I tried to walk by him, but he stepped right in front of me to crush me in a bear hug.

“I’m happy for you and your dick,” he said and stepped back to ruffle my hair, like I was a child.

“You plan on having this conversation with her, too? Tell her to be good to me?” I asked.

“No need.”

“Should I be offended here? She’s your favorite friend . You’re telling only me to behave.”

“Don’t make me respond to that,” he said and flashed me the best smile he had available.

“You’re an ass,” I said. “But I definitely did something yesterday that I shouldn’t have done, and I have to go deal with it today. Keep her busy, will you?”

“And you’re not going to tell me what it is?” he whined.

“Not a chance. I’m not even your favorite.”

I made those assholes breakfast while they talked about Salem and Nevada. I almost choked on my own laugh more than once every time Nevada was the topic of discussion. It nearly burned Memphis alive to have to consider Nevada as the first new Executioner to be joining us in this endeavor.

“What’s the story with her and the doctor?” I asked. I never bothered to ask before. Memphis was there for the encounter with Nevada and she’d planned to do the talking. I didn’t have much faith in this plan working from the start and I couldn’t imagine any of these paranoid pricks jumping on board with us, so I didn’t take much interest in the background stories before.

I looked back at the tech twins when nobody responded to me. They were looking at one another uncomfortably, having some discussion on brainwaves alone.

“Nerds?” I asked again.

Memphis sighed and turned her laptop so the screen faced me. It took me a second of staring at the professional portrait of a doctor before I realized I was looking at the guy who’d shown up in that abandoned mobile home park where Triss and I had taken Jersey when he was half-dead.

“That’s Dr. Grant,” Memphis said quietly.

“No shit? The one who saved Jersey. I almost killed the guy because he realized who we were.”

“He’s dead now anyway,” Indy added. “Nevada killed him.”

“What? That’s only been like — what? Six or seven months ago that we saw him?”

“That’s kind of why I thought she’d be the easiest to get to,” Memphis said. “She hasn’t been doing this long. And I don’t imagine she ever wanted to be doing this in the first place. He was married. She was having an affair with him. Whatever happened between them, I think she killed him. I think the President knew it went that way, and I would guess he blackmailed her into working for him.”

“Hm. Who would’ve guessed that a homicidal nurse would be so widely sought after?”

“It’s still a risk,” Memphis said. “Bringing them in when they’re so new. And so cranky.”

“ Still a risk ,” Indy repeated and laughed. “Bringing her here when this is so new.” He stared at her while he nodded toward me. “If you don’t want her here, we’ll just move on to someone else. You don’t have to look for a reason,” he said and laughed again. I watched Memphis turn pink while she reached for her computer to turn it back to herself again.

“I’ve got something to deal with today,” I said and walked around the island to where she was sitting. “Just wait a couple minutes and you two can sit here and talk shit about Nevada until you decide what to do about her without having to worry about saying what you’re really thinking in front of me.”

“I’m not jeal—,” she tried to say when she turned in her chair to face me. I interrupted her words by leaning down to kiss her. She shocked the shit out of me when both her hands went right to my chest. I expected her to push me away and freak out since Indy was here to watch. Instead, her lips even parted to invite me deeper.

I ended up being the one who had to break away from that kiss.

“Don’t play that game with me unless you want me to take you back upstairs to finish what you started earlier, angel.”

“Can I come too?” Indy asked. “I’ll just sit quietly in the corner. You won’t even know I’m there after you hear that beep from my phone that says we’re recording.”

The pink flush crept right back up to Memphis’ face while I lowered my forehead down to hers.

“I’ll see you guys later today. Stay out of trouble.”

She grabbed my wrist as soon as I tried to back away. “What are you doing?”

I winked at her and continued backing away.

“Don’t do that. You know I’m an overthinker. If you don’t give me an answer, I’ll come up with one for you and it’ll be terrible,” she said quickly, and I could only laugh. “That’s terrifying, Utah. The last time you had a secret errand, you came back here with the most embarrassing collection of smut anyone has ever seen.”

“I still want to know what was in the box,” Indy said.

“Me too. What was in that box, sugar?” I asked.

“Fuck off,” she said and pushed me the rest of the way back that time. “Go be an asshole somewhere else for the day.”