Page 107 of Nails

He looked at the guys.“I thought it was Riley!”he shouted, and everyone started laughing again.

“I hate all of you,” Nails growled, dragging a hand down his face.“Where is Riley?”

“She left about thirty minutes ago to run some errands,” Bear said between chuckles.“She told us you were still asleep and to let you rest.Though she didn’t say anything about replacing herself with a plush imposter.”

Nails glared at the panda lying on the floor like it had just been dumped after a weeklong relationship.Oh, she was so going to pay her back for that.

“She probably thought you needed something to hold,” Snow said, his voice still shaking from laughter.

“Well, I didn’t need that,” Nails grumbled, kicking the panda lightly with his foot.“I’m going to need therapy now.”

“I think we’re the ones who need therapy because we can’t unsee that shit,” Aussie said.

“Shut up,” he said, throwing his pillow in Aussie’s direction.

The team continued cackling like hyenas as Nails pulled a pillow over his head and groaned.

“All right,” Bear said finally, wiping his eyes.“We’ll leave you alone, lover boy.Don’t do anything we wouldn’t do with a stuffed animal.”

“Get out,” Nails muttered.

When the door finally clicked shut, Nails let out a long, defeated sigh.He grabbed his phone from the nightstand and opened up his messages, found Riley’s number, and typed out a message.

Nails:Didn’t like waking up alone.

Riley:Aw, I hated leaving you, too.But hopefully Patty the Panda kept you company?She’s very cuddly.

She had even included a panda emoji.

Nails stared at the screen, snorted, and then laughed out loud before swinging his legs over the side of the bed.

He looked at the giant stuffed panda on the floor like it had personally betrayed him.

He scratched his head, wondering how in the hell she had Houdini’d her way out of the bed and replaced herself with a four-foot plush bear without waking him.He was a light sleeper.He was trained to be that way.

If she thought that was funny, and he knew she did, then he was going to return the favor.Still smiling, he got up and headed for the shower, already planning how he was going to get her back for this.

But deep down, even as he plotted, he couldn’t stop grinning.He would cuddle that stupid bear a hundred times over if it meant keeping a smile on her face.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Riley stood in front of the full-length mirror in the club’s changing room, smoothing her hands down the front of her skirt as her thoughts spun through her mind.

She left her long hair down and slightly tousled, precisely the way Adam liked it.It was a calculated decision, just like everything else.Plus, it also covered the two butterfly bandages on her shoulder.

She fixed a stray wave near her temple as her eyes were locked on her own reflection.On the outside, she appeared calm and composed.But inside her nerves were a jumbled mess.

Adam had pulled out all the stops for his mystery guests tonight.When she arrived earlier, he had a crew up in the VIP suite cleaning it from top to bottom.All top-shelf liquor had been stocked behind the bar, and even fancy bowls with snacks were ready to be uncovered.

Earlier, back at the house, she and the team had spent over an hour tossing ideas back and forth, trying to pin down who Adam’s mystery guests could be.No one had hard answers.But the one theory they all kept coming back to was that these people could be potential buyers.That possibility had twisted Riley’s stomach then, and it still did now.

But the energy around this gathering, and the way Adam had rolled out the red carpet, all pointed to something more and bigger than casual business.

She knew that the team was worried.She could see it in their eyes.But even through the worry, the guys had stood behind her and never tried to talk her out of it.They trusted her.And that was what kept her steady now, even as her stomach coiled with the weight of what might be waiting upstairs.

Because if tonight really was a showcase, then she wasn’t just undercover.She was a product on display.

Her thoughts drifted to Nails, who unfortunately had the night off.He hadn’t said much during the discussion.But the way he’d looked at her before she left, like he wanted to throw himself between her and the entire damn world, said everything.