Page 82 of The True Garza

I head over and guide her upright by her shoulders. “You’re making the clerks nervous.”

“What the….” She jerks, then scowls when she sees it’s me. “Ugh. What are you doing here?”

“You know how it works. Your location’s off for more than sixteen hours, we come find you.”

“Whatever.” She waves me off. “Now that you’ve seen I’m alive and well, leave me alone.”

“Buzzed in the middle of the day? You’re alive, but not well.”

She drifts along the display case. “You’re annoying.”

“Who’s overseeing things at Jules’s Touch while you play hooky?”

“I don’t care.”

“How about you hire a manager so, when you pull shit like this, it doesn’t affect your employees?”

“Always trying to tell me what to do,” she mumbles.

“Jules—”

She whirls on me. “Will you kill me if I kill your boss?”

More than familiar with that look, I cross my arms and keep quiet. She’s got her venting face on.

“Because Ihatethat bastard,” she goes on, “I hate him with the fire of ten thousand suns.”

“Careful,” I say, “you know he’s got ears in the wind. He always knows when we talk shit about him.”

“Ben ismyhusband.Mine. Not Torin fucking Garza’s,” she yells, pulling the attention of the clerks and a handful of customers. “Ben hadn’t even been back two weeks, and he had to leave again. Does he not care that he has a wife and kid to be here for? Why does he get to spend more time with my husband than I do? I’m so sick of this lifestyle!”

I pull her in for a hug. She tries to fight it, but I keep her locked in until she calms down. Truth is, Jules and Tor have a strange relationship, so we—including her husband—keep out of it. Tor respects and adores her, while she either loves or hates him, depending on how long he keeps her husband away on jobs.

“You’ve eaten for the day?” I ask the top of her head.

“Vodka.”

“Come on. Let’s get some food in you.”

~

Fifteen minutes later, her cheeks are stuffed so full, I’m sitting at the edge of my chair, prepared to perform the Heimlich maneuver in case she starts to choke. “Feel better?”

She sets down her half-slaughtered burger and takes a long pull of her slushy. “So this is what it takes to get True Garza to spend his money on a woman, huh?”

“Oh, no, this lunch isn’t free. I’m billing Reuben.”

“Seriously?” She widens her eyes at me. “Why are you like this?”

My phone lights up with an alert on the table, and I glance down at the screen.Not her. Texts, calls, and emails from everyone except the name I want to see the most.

“We’re transferring a team of commandos from the Denver branch next week. With an extended team here, we’ll be able to take longer breaks, so Reuben will be home more.”

I’m giving her false hope, and she knows it.

“That may be for the rest of you, but not Reuben.” She sighs. “It’s my fault. For falling in love with the king’s right-hand man.”

She’s right. There’s no one Torin trusts more than Reuben, hence why he’s the only one he takes with him on sensitive or highly classified assignments.