Page 14 of Silver Fox Grump

Cheery thought.

“How’s Maisie getting on at work?” Wes fires off a round at the moving target. “How long has she been at Morden now?”

My chest is tight as I flick new ammunition into my pistol and avoid looking at him.

“Dunno,” I lie.

“Surely she’s bored? She has that business degree, but I can’t think she uses it?”

I shrug. She’s been promoted multiple times and is a junior manager, but I doubt Wes will appreciate that.

“I don’t see her much.” Also a lie. “Just when she takes notes, or meetings. Like for our South London cabal sessions. It’s good having a trustworthy person around.”

“I wish she would work for me,” he grumbles. “Or do her duty as a mafia princess and marry for the benefit of Mitcham.”

“She can marry me, if you ask really nicely,” I say in my usual dry manner.

“I will kill you if you touch her,” he replies, emptying his whole clip into the target.

“If you shoot me with that much accuracy, I’ll marry your son and your dog, too,” I smirk.

“I’ll murder you with a spoon.” He slams the next clip in with unnecessary force. “Heard it hurts more that way.”

“She’s twenty-three years old. You’re upset she doesn’t eat with a spoon anymore, so you feel old.” I keep my tone light and cynical, hiding how much this means to me.

“Fuck you,” Wes spits. “I’m closer to twenty-three than she is.”

I laugh. “Same.”

“Thanks for looking out for her. I just can’t accept she’s grown up,” he grumbles. “My daughter is a baby.”

“With a full-time job,” I point out.

“Child labour.”

“You were telling me I’m going soft. Child labour seems the kind of thing I could get behind.”

We’re walking a tightrope.

“Morally corrupt is fine.” Wes gives me a look that turns my blood cold. “But nobody touches my daughter.”

7

SEV

“Miss Matthews to see you,” my assistant, Nathan, says when I pick up the phone.

Shit.

It’s been over a week since Maisie has been indulging in self-love and posing semi-naked every evening, and I’m beginning to wear thin on restraint, so I’ve been avoiding her at work.

My brow furrows.

This is fine. I can keep control of myself.

Probably.

“Send her in.”