by KD Jones
Vic stopped in the main open lobby area and glanced around the room. “Jagger and Daniela have a healthy little girl named Leila. Leila was a little early. All of them are tired, but doing just fine. They should be coming home in a few days.”
Everyone there clapped and hooted in joy at the news. They all took turns asking questions about the baby and Daniela. When Vic looked uncomfortable talking, Lexi took over, answering everyone until Vic told them to get back to work.
Vic seemed to be looking at something behind Drake. He turned around and saw Jinx standing there, looking at Vic with hero worship. An ugly emotion of jealousy shot through his body and it only got worse when Vic smiled and opened his arms. Jinx threw herself into his embrace.
*****
“Jinx, you have grown up.” Vic lowered her to the floor.
“I’ve missed you and Jagger so much. I can’t believe he’s a daddy.”
Turning, Vic pulled his fiancée to his side. “This is my fiancée Lexi. Lexi, this is the one I’ve been telling you about, Jinx.”
Jinx looked up at the tall, curvy blond who had won Vic’s heart. It made sense that someone as perfect as her would be with Vic. He was handsome and sexy. Her teenage feelings for him had turned into a deep affection and friendship over the years, and seeing him happy with this incredible looking woman set everything in perspective for her. She smiled and shook the woman’s hand. “Nice to meet you Lexi.”
The blonde didn’t just shake hands, but pulled Jinx in for a hug. “Vic and Jagger told me so much about you. I hope you’ll come by my club tonight for a celebratory drink.”
“Sure. Looking forward to getting to know you.” She glanced over at Vic. “Well boss, I’m ready to start my training.”
He shook his head, looking at her multicolored hair. “Couldn’t you pick one color to go with?”
Jinx laughed. “I had been volunteering at a children’s hospital. They were kind of sad about me leaving, so I let the kids color my hair with food coloring on my last day before coming here.”
“Where are you staying?” Lexi asked.
“The apartment I had set up caught fire. Until I find a new one, I’ll get me a hotel.”
Vic frowned. “Where did you stay last night?”
“Drake was nice enough to let me crash on his couch.”
Vic glared over at Drake suspiciously, before looking back at her. “How did Steve take the news?”
She shrugged, “As well as expected. I don’t want to talk about it right now. I just want to throw myself into my training.”
“That’s the girl I remember,” Vic smiled and patted her on her head. “Have you had a tour of the place yet?”
She shook her head, “We just got in.”
Vic glanced at Lexi, “Honey, could you take Jinx and give her a tour? I need to give out the assignments.”
“Sure, no problem. Come on Jinx, I’ll show you all the best areas.”
Jinx glanced back as she followed Lexi down the stairs leading to the basement. Vic had pulled Drake into his office. She wondered what they were talking about.
“So, you just got into town last night?” Lexi asked.
“Yeah.”
“You’re staying with Drake for how long?”
“I’m hoping some time today I can arrange a hotel room.”
“You could stay with me and Vic. We have a spare bedroom.”
The thought of watching them be all handsy and possibly hearing their lovemaking was not a pleasant thought. “Thanks, but I really want to find my own space.”
They got to the bottom of the stairs; there were two long hallways. Lexi motioned to the right. “There are cells down that way to hold the perps until the authority picks them up. Down this way, they have a full gym for workouts and even a small shooting range.”
Jinx noticed a big metal door. “What’s that?”
“Their back door, as Vic likes to call it. They can transport dangerous perps in and out this way without taking them through the offices upstairs. Lexi stopped at a set of lockers. “These lockers are where you can store your personal stuff, and there are bathrooms back there.” They proceeded to the gym.
“Wow, this place is much bigger than I thought.”
Lexi nodded. “It is. Vic and Jagger worked really hard to build this up. I’m proud of them.”
There was a certain tone to Lexi’s voice, almost like a warning. “I’m proud of them too. When I first met them, they were working for someone else. They would talk about having their own place constantly. They were always so encouraging to me. I’m grateful for the opportunity to finally get to work with them.”
“I just don’t want anything or anyone to jeopardize this for them.”
“I’m not here to cause trouble.”
Lexi narrowed her eyes. “You’ve had five jobs in the last three years. I heard that you had quite the track record as a juvenile.”
Oh, someone had been checking up on her. Lexi was smart and sexy. She could see why Vic was attracted to her. Jinx smiled easily, “I haven’t had any encounters with the authority since I was sixteen. All the jobs I took on were to help support my mom when my grandparents got sick. I’m a friend, no threat to them or to you.”
Lexi breathed a sigh of relief, then looked guiltily at her. “Sorry, I’m a bit possessive. It’s not something I’m used to.”
“I love Vic and Jagger as brothers. They were there for me at my worst, and encouraged me to find a dream for myself.” Jinx turned in a circle in the gym and looked around. “This is all I’ve ever wanted. It may be stupid and dangerous, but it’s all I’ve thought about for the last ten years. My grandparents are gone and my mother is finally on her feet again. This is my time to follow my dream.”
“I’m sorry about your grandparents.”
“I’ve had a few years to grieve. They would want me to get on with the living.”
“I’m sure they are proud of you and looking down on you.”
“I hope so.”
“Don’t tell Vic I was—”
Jinx put her hand on Lexi’s arm. “There’s nothing to tell him.”
Lexi hugged her again. Oh boy, Jinx wasn’t really a hugger, but this woman sure was. Pulling away Lexi smiled down at her. “So, let me give you directions to my club. We’re inviting all of the office here to come and celebrate the baby. You’ll find that we’re a close knit family and take care of our own.”
It sounded like Lexi was giving her approval. “I’m looking forward to getting to know everyone. I’ll definitely come tonight.”
Lexi gave her a dazzling million dollar smile as they left the gym. “Great. Word of advice though, Drake’s a playboy, so watch yourself around him.”
“Oh, I have a boyfriend—sort of. Besides, I’m not really his type.”
“Just watch yourself around him. He’s a ‘love them and leave them’ type of guy.”
Jinx glimpsed a little more depth to Drake than that. Sure, he gave off a playboy image on the outside, but he had to have a little more of a caring nature if he would invite a perfect stranger into his home.
“I’ll watch myself.”
“Good,” Lexi said firmly, “because Vic would have to hurt him if he tried something.”
Chapter 6
Drake followed Vic inside his office. He was expecting to be asked to take on more responsibilities while Jagger was out with his mate and baby, which Drake would be happy to do. He didn’t expect the suspicion and anger coming off the other male.
“What you are up to with Jinx?” Vic demanded.
“Hey man, I picked her up from the airport like you asked me to. Why am I getting an attitude about it?”
“I didn’t ask you to take her to your apartment. Did you put the moves on her?”
“Of course not. The place she was going to stay at was a complete dump and in a dangerous part of town. I offered her my place for the night. Besides, she’s not my type.” He hoped it sounded more sincere that how he felt. He
was trying to convince himself that this was still true, but he had doubts.
Vic stared into his eyes and sighed. “Sorry, I’m a little protective of Jinx. She’s special and she’s had a rough life. I’ve known her most of her life. Besides my and Jagger’s mates, she is the only human that I consider family.”
“If she means that much to you, it might be a bad idea to have her work in such a dangerous position. Perhaps she should handle the phones, office work.”
Vic ran a hand through his hair as he walked around his desk and took a seat. “I wish it was that simple Drake. She would put up a fight if I parked her at a desk position.”
“You’re the boss…”
“Yeah, but she’ll threaten to go work for another bail enforcement agency, and I won’t be able to monitor and keep tabs on her. At least if she is here, I can give her less dangerous assignments. It really doesn’t matter what level of work Jinx is going, there will be a degree of accidents that follow.”
“What do you mean?”
Vic smiled ruefully, “Things seem to go a little screwy when Jinx is around.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Don’t worry about it. You’ll all find out soon enough. She needs her own space, so get her out of your apartment as soon as possible.”
“That’s the plan.”
“I’ll be coming in the mornings to give out assignments, but I’ll be out of the office the rest of the time helping Lexi get things ready for Jagger and his mate to bring home the baby. I need someone to help train Jinx. Since she’s familiar with you, might as well be you.”
Drake groaned, “More babysitting duty? Come on this is so not fair.”
“Just make sure you keep your hands off of this baby girl.”
A knock at the door had both men turning. Lexi stood there with her arms folded over her impressive chest. “Ready to go, Vic?”
“Where’s Jinx?” Vic asked, standing up and moving toward her.
“She was here a moment ago.” Lexi turned her head. “She’s talking to Shy.”
Vic took her into his arms. “Is she coming tonight to the club?”
“She said she would, and I gave her directions. I like her.”
“I knew you would,” Vic said nuzzling her neck.
Drake felt awkward watching the couple embracing. It made him feel a strange emptiness inside that he had no one waiting for him when he got home. He always imagined, years from now, settling down with a curvy hot female who would cook and clean and satisfy his sexual needs every night. Eventually they would do the honorable thing and pop out a few kids. He wasn’t ready for all that, but it was something that he thought about every now and then. Right now, he was having too much fun doing least honorable thing.
Sitting at his desk, he watched as Jinx came up and gave Lexi and Vic another hug. Then the couple left. Drake sighed at the thought of having to train Jinx, but decided he could start her off learning about the paperwork first.
“Come on Jinx, Vic’s made me your trainer until he’s back full time.” He pointed for her to sit at the seat on the other side of his desk.
“Sure. What case are we on first? Is it a robber, a murderer?” She sat down excitedly.
He grabbed a stack of applications and placed them in front of her. “Have at it.”
“What the hell is this?” she asked making her cute nose turn up.
“Almost forty percent of this job is paper work. We have to not only go through applications, make sure we have the necessary details to approve the bail bond agreement, but we serve legal documents to the applicants as well. Twenty percent of the time is spent going to court, and the rest of the forty percent is used for hunting those who try to jump their bail bond agreement. This is the perfect place to start.”
“Seriously?”
Drake fought not to laugh at the look of disappointment on her pretty face. “Yes, really.”
“Fine, what do I do first?”
“Go through the applications and make sure all the required fields are filled in. Separate them from those that are incomplete. Then you can work on the incomplete ones and call the applicants to get the information you need.”
“This could take all day.”
“Sometimes it does.”
“Well, do I at least get my own desk and computer to use?”
Drake glanced around the space. “Dugger left two weeks ago, but his desk hasn’t been cleaned out. If you want to do that first, then you can start working on the applications.”
She glared at him but stood up. “Where’s the desk at?”
“It’s there, the second one from the men’s bathroom.” It wasn’t the best location, but at least he could keep an eye on her from his own desk. He almost told her to wait when he noticed how cluttered the desktop was.
“What do I do with all the files?”
“I’ll get you a rolling file cart. Put everything that is work related on the top. Any personal items can go in a box that we’ll ship to Dugger later.”
Jinx nodded, walked over to the desk, and started straightening things up. It was going to take her hours. Dugger was known to be a real slob. Drake almost felt sorry for her. Maybe he could give her enough boring tasks that she would give up and move back to wherever she came from. That sounded like a great plan.
*****
Several hours later
Jinx wanted to kill Dugger. The guy had left his desk a disaster. She should write him a bill for having to clean his shit up. He had everything from applications he never completed to wrappers of candy bars and something that she was not quite sure was legal for helping increase the size of a male’s penis. Who the hell kept that shit in their desk? She didn’t want anyone else to see her handling that thing, so she grabbed a trash bag and wrapped it good before lifting it out of the desk drawer. She needed to look for sanitizer immediately.
“Are you ready?” Drake asked, standing to the side of the desk.
“Ready for what?”
“I have to go pick up my rental hover truck, thought you might like to come with me to get some lunch.”
“I can’t leave right now, but I’ll grab something later.”
“Do you want me to bring you something back?”
She shook her head, “No thanks.”
Watching him walk away, she couldn’t help but admire Drake’s ass in those jeans. Damn, he was sexy and dangerous to a girl’s libido. Looking down at the desk that was only halfway cleaned, she regretted not leaving with him. This guy Dugger better not come back, or she would have quite a few words to say to him about cleanliness.
Another hour passed, and finally she was done cleaning the desk. Jinx got sanitizer and sprayed everything. The desk actually gleamed. She went over to grab the paperwork from Drake’s desk and started working on it. The sorting was pretty easy, eventually she got lost in the work. It wasn’t that bad. She was so caught up in what she was doing that she hadn’t noticed when Drake came back, or that some of the bounty hunters were leaving for the day.
“Jinx, are you going to the club tonight?” Isaac asked, leaning a hip on the edge of her desk.
Jinx stopped what she was doing to look up at the sexy IT guy. “I promised Vic I would, so yeah I’ll be there. Are you going?”
“Yep. I have to head out to do a few things, but save me a dance.”
Jinx felt heat rise to her cheeks. “Okay.” Feeling eyes on her, she glanced over at Drake. He looked down at his computer, but not before she saw an angry expression on his face. What the hell was that about?
Drake came over a few minutes later. “I’ll be leaving for the apartment in about ten minutes.”
“Oh, is it time to go?” She looked around and noticed that only two other people besides her and Drake were there. “Let me finish this one application.”
“I’ll go downstairs and make sure the place is secure.” She watched him walk away and sighed with wistfulness. Turning back to her paperwork, Jinx completed the last ap
plication and set it to the side.
Shy came over with her bag over her arm. “Hey, I heard you weren’t able to move into your apartment.”
“Yeah, it’s a real pain in the ass. I’ll have to get a hotel for a while until I make other arrangements.”
“You could stay with me. I’ve got two bedrooms.”
“Are you sure you don’t mind?”
“It’ll be fun having another girl around. I can show you around town and we can shop. Please tell me you like shopping.”
“I do, but usually I do it online. I run out of time and I have to get a lot of my clothes in smaller sizes.”
Shy pointed at herself. “Tell me about it. I lucked out finding a few shops that specialize in petite sizes, and I have a seamstress who adjusts the tops because I have a little more at the top than anywhere else. I can show you where to get good deals.”
“I would appreciate, that and if you are sure about the offer, I would say yes.”
“It’s a deal then. I’ll see you tonight at the club.”
“I’ll see you there.”
Drake came up looking at Shy as she sashayed out of the building. It really ticked Jinx off for some reason seeing him openly checking out other women, but it was part of his nature. Besides, he wasn’t her boyfriend, so it shouldn’t make a difference—but it did.
“What deal does Shy want?”
“She offered for me to stay with her while I look for an apartment.”
“You can stay with me longer if you need to.”
Jinx had to give him credit, he was being really nice about things. She grabbed her purse and stood up. “It’s okay, I want to get out of your way. I think this will be perfect, but I appreciate your offering. Ready to go?”
“Yeah, let’s go.”
Chapter 7
Drake couldn’t understand why he was feeling frustrated with the idea of Jinx moving out. He couldn’t believed he’d offered for her to stay with him longer. The words had left his mouth before he thought them through. He barely knew her, but her positive attitude and bright-colored hair brought sunshine into his ordinary life. She made him feel things like protectiveness and joy, not to mention being aroused all the damn time. Man, he really needed to get laid.
