Page 20 of The True Garza

Hell, she’s already lost points with me for being LX-BI.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Lexi mutters when I’ve taken too long to answer.

My phone vibrates in my pocket, and I groan crankily as I pull it out. I’ve not quite regenerated after a rather demanding two-week job in Colorado. Also doesn’t help that I haven’t been laid in twice as long.

Guy’s name flashes on the screen. “Yeah?”

“I just sent you the docket on London Bridge,” he tells me. “But because I know you’ll likely call me regardless to ask for the CliffsNotes version….”

“I know you’re low-key dissing me, Guy, but I’m too tired to care,” I mumble through a yawn, “so go on.”

“She joined LX-BI at twenty-three. But she was sharp right out the gate, so she was swooped up to train and work for a private organization in Germany. When she got back, she was hot. Everyone wanted her, and she wanted no one. So she became an agent for hire, contract by contract. Shortly after, she followed her father to Denver, who’d left a few months prior after his wife’s affair with Walter became known. She got engaged. Was contracted as lead agent on a huge case in Denver. ‘The Beheader Case.’ He got obsessed with her, murdered her assisting agent. But she took him down shortly after. Following that, her fiancé broke things off in favor of his ex. Then her father was killed in a crossfire during a bar brawl. She disappeared after that. Resurfaced fourteen months later—two days ago—here in LA,” Guy pauses after spitting all that out in one go. “‘Lonny Bridge’ is a big fucking deal in her field.”

“Well, fuck.” So that’s what she was doing when I met her? Hiding from the world? No wonder she was so closed off. I can’t imagine how she must’ve been feeling all that time.

“I was a dick to her because I thought she was LX-BI. Now that I know she’s a free agent and that she lost her father like that, I feel like an ass,” Guy comments. “That’s some shit, man.”

“Thanks, Guy. Think I’m gonna be reading the full version of your docket this time around.”

I hang up and curse at the ceiling. This is not the kind of information I’d been hoping for. If she was using random men to forget the pain, how can I be mad at her for that? Didn’t I embark on a pussy-binge when I lost my father, too? Yeah, I knowexactlywhat that pain is like. There’s no way I can hold what she did against her.

Still, I can’t expose myself to her again. No fucking way. I feel for her and all she’s been through, but I need to strip her of her appeal and allure. See her as no one special. As someone with no kind of emotional hold on me whatsoever. So I’m going to take a page from Trent’s book and just not give aflying fuck.

“Oh, man,” Lexi says with a full mouth, entirely amused, “you should see your face right now. Youreallylike this one, huh?”

With another curse, I throw my arm across my eyes.

First things first, control my fucking face when I think about Lonny Bridge.

CHAPTER Seven

“Girl, you are… damn.”

Lonny

“Whoa. What the hell kindof case are you working?”

Eyes wide, Brook gapes at me from the chaise along the floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room, files littered around her. “You look hot, sis. Like… an actual girl.”

When I fling her a glare, she says, “Don’t look at me like that. I love my little macho sister.”

On an eyeroll, I tug at the hem of the bodycon club dress Jules gave me. Cropped mid-thigh with nothing but rows of thin straps down the sides to hold the dress together, exposing my side-boobs and thighs. It’s the most revealing thing I’ve ever worn and I’m not in the least bit comfortable, but Jules assured me that it would blend me right in with the twenty-somethings.

“Wait,areyou going to work, or on adate?” She cocks her head in thought. “This doesn’t have anything to do with True Garza, does it? Considering all the questions you had the other night.” She removes her reading glasses and looks at me squarely. “Because you should know he’s off limits for us. Cassie called dibs on him.”

That has me arching a brow at her. First of all, Cassie is moreherchildhood friend than mine. I’ve never liked Cassie. Too chatty. Second of all, I haven’t seen or spoken to Chatty Cassie in years. Third of all, that gluttonous prowler wasalwayscalling dibs. If she could have all the men in LA, she’d take them.

Ignoring Brook, I grab my keys from her fancy key bowl.

“Besides,” she goes on, “he’s a decent guy. The best of the Garza men. And you’re… well…you.”

A snort leaves me. “Have a good night, sis.”

“Leave True Garza alone, Lonny!” she calls after me. “He’s one of the good ones.”

Somehow, I doubt that’s true.

Twenty minutes later, I pull into Red Cage and swing my car into an empty reserved spot because I’m a rebel. Tonight will be my first night showing up at Sheer Nights. At my request, Sacha and I spent a lot of time together over the last three days. We discussed all the possible outcomes of the plan and how to prepare for each scenario.