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Ange sighed and threw down her pen before standing and pulling her suit jacket off the back of her chair. “Gideon, finish that report before I finish it for you. Be warned: if I do it, you’re likely to get suspended for harsh language. Kid, come with me. I’ll take you to Greer and Henry.”

Mini-Riley blinked. “To catch the birds?” His eyebrows rose. “You really do shit like that? Why can’t I help like arrest someone or something?”

“That’s Grady’s job,” Quinn murmured. Grady would have flipped him off, but Quinn was still buried in his paperwork.

“Now, Mini-Riley.”

“Wait, you’re serious?”

“I’m sorry,” she said, deceptively calm as she stared at him with an impassive face, “did you have something better to do?”

Mini-Riley turned his wide eyes to first Grady and then Quinn and wisely kept his mouth closed when he realised that he would have no backup. He shook his head mutely.

“Good, then let’s go.”

Grady laughed as they left. He would have paid good money just to see Greer’s face. He would have sold hiscarto see it.

“Hey, so Will and I are going on a date to the zoo this weekend. Do you want to join us?” Quinn asked.

Grady paused with one hand poised to write. “Why, you can’t handle your boyfriend on your own? Take one of the other ones. Isn’t that why you have so many? You can just trade them in and out like Poké Balls.” Grady could not believe he’d just said that. Lake had been playing something on a small handheld device the night before, with his head in Grady’s lap, and had tried to explain Pokémon to Grady like he was a third-grade child, and hestilldidn’t get it. He wondered if he’d used the reference righ—no. Nope. He was not going to ask Lake, because that would be admitting he’d used it in the first place.

Grady made sure to keep a straight face and appear completely confident in the ridiculous sentence he’d just uttered. Quinn didn’t need to know anything beyond that.

Quinn blinked. “Yes, Grady. That isexactlywhy I have three.”

“Okay, so…”

“So, I was thinking that you could bring Lake.”

Oh.

“That deer-in-headlights look is good on you,” Quinn remarked.

“You’re an asshole.”

“You don’t want to go on a double date with us?” The question was innocent, but Quinn’s face was anything but.

“What are you, twelve? No, I don’t fucking want to go on a double date with you, and especially not with the boyfriend who can’t sit still.” Honestly, the only acceptable one was Peyton, and Quinn had been playing with fire even going there, considering he was the youngest brother of their boss, Big-Riley.

“Hence the walking around nature of a zoo,” Quinn drawled.

It was probably a smart choice, but Grady wasn’t going to tell him that. “The use of the word ‘date’ implies that Lake and I are dating, which we aren’t.”

Quinn didn’t respond to that, just arched an eyebrow. Grady was about to go all Ange on him and throw a pen.

“How long are you planning to tell yourself that?”

“Do I walk into your house and shit on the floor? No? Then fuck off, Quinn.”

“Touchy.”

Grady leaned back, glaring. “Why are we partners?”

“Someone was punishing me,” Quinn said. “It was a whole thing.”

“I hate you.”

“I guess that’s a no on the date, then.”