Page 34 of Nothing to Beat

“Roxie!”the surprise guy called.“Rox, where’s Zairn?What happened?Are you fighting?Are you over?Are you calling off the wedding?”

“I missed you too, Mr.Lurker.You’re just so much more endearing than the masses of your colleagues that surround our New York home on a daily basis.”

Sarcasm could be a useful tool.

“Rox—”

“Zairn is fine, I am fine, and everything is on track for the wedding of the century.”

As her friend whirled to flounce away, the surprise guy blinked, frozen in what appeared to be shock.

Tripp draped an arm around her.“She doesn’t usually talk to him so much.”

Guided up the stairs and through a communal entrance into a stairway, she wasn’t exactly sure why they were there.What an odd place to—unless it was a secret residence.Not so secret if that guy outside was from the press.

People in her father’s line of work had secret safe houses, maybe Zairn and Roxie did too.

Roxie walked down a particular hallway, through a specific door, and threw her arms out wide, tossing her head back to breathe in deep.

“God, it feels good to be home.”

Home?Home!This was Roxie’s home.

Scanning the space, a smile grew slowly.An apartment, furnished, a kitchen with appliances, nothing too shiny or new, lived in, this was Roxie’s apartment.Even after getting with Zairn, they’d kept it.

“This is where you live?”

“Where she lived with Toria and Jane before meeting Zairn,” Tripp said, retreating to the kitchen as she and Roxie went deeper inside.

“And you still own it?”

“I don’t own it,” Roxie said, kicking off her shoes and pulling out her hair clip to toss it over the back of the couch onto the seat.

“You rent?”

“No, we don’t pay for it,” Roxie said then hummed.“I don’t think.”

“So it belongs to someone else?”

“Belongs…?No.We don’t care about that shit in our group.Now!Before we do anything else—”

“Roxie!”

Spinning around, seeking the source of the exclamation, a short beauty rushed through the front door prompting Roxie to meet her with exuberance.

“Rainie!”The women embraced.“My dear, sweet Rainie.How have you been, beautiful?Where’s Gauge?”

“At the office—when is he not, huh?”

“Oh, honey, I’m sorry.You want me to go over there and drag him back here?Sometimes they need a little snapback to reality.”

“Oh, no, he works out of the office upstairs.One of the apartments has become a sort of satellite division for… well, everything.It’s all corporate up there now.”

“I heard you set up home across the hall.”

“We did and go in and out of Viva when we need to—oh, who cares about that?You brought friends!”

“I did.”Arms still around each other, the women turned to them.“Sequoia Drury, this is Rainie Tait, a very good friend.And—”