After lunch with Beck, I spend some time with Emmy while we wait on Chelcie to finish up with Sway. According to Maddox’s last grunt filled, one-word response, phone call, she is happily being ‘fluffed like a fucking bird’. I start laughing so hard that I almost drop the phone when he tells me that Sway has already tried to sit on his lap twice. Those guys can play all they want, but they secretly love the attention that Sway is not shy about throwing at them.
“We need to get Sway a man. Not just any man, but we need someone that could stand up next to these C.S. boys and belong. Certified, grade-A, hunk material.”
Emmy looks up from where she’s entering some notes from an earlier meeting the guys had and drops her jaw.
“You aren’t seriously thinking about playing matchmaker, right?”
“Why not? It shouldn’t be that hard to find him someone. I bet if we checked Craig’s List right now, there would be a million men looking for companionship!”
Emmy snorts. “Yeah, maybe if you were in the market to start pimping. You can’t pick him a man off Craig’s List… That’s just dirty.”
“Okay then, Ms. I Know Everything, where would you like to find him a man?” I cross my arms and huff.
“Uh, how about, I don’t. I have enough trouble with my own dates, let alone picking up someone else’s.” She turns her attention back to the computer, effectively cutting me off.
Whatever. I turn around from the front desk and take in their lobby. I was shocked when Greg told me that the guys did all their own decorating. The lobby is pretty dark, but still welcoming. Emmy’s desk is the center of attention when you walk in the door, literally, the first thing you can see. Then of course, there is the Corps Security logo in huge black letters behind her head. The walls are a dark gray, and on either side of Emmy are two thick black couches. Both sitting areas have a gray coffee table with various piles of crap magazines on them. We had finally talked the guys into adding some red accents around the place to at least make it look a little happier and less ‘my wife is cheating, will you catch her’ gloomy.
I walk over to the left of her desk, pick up the most recent People magazine, and start flipping the pages.
“Emmy, we’ve got to take an important call in the conference room, so hold all the other calls, and when Coop comes back, tell him to get in here.” Beck’s voice draws my attention away from the magazine. He walks over and gives me a brief kiss. “You okay up here for a second? We’re just right down the hall.”
I smile up at him and reach out to rub the frown from his brow. “I’m fine. Emmy and I were just discussing the benefits of getting into the pimping trade, so just go along, and let us work our magic.”
He walks away with a smile and all traces of his frown gone.
“You are nuts,” Emmy says from her desk, punctuating each word with a hard snap of the keyboard.
“But you love me!” We both laugh, but before she can go back to her work, I ask her the one question I know she hates to be asked. “So, how are things with Maddox?”
She loses the small smile on her face and stops what she’s doing.
“Things aren’t anything and they won’t be anything. That man is impossible.”
“You’re giving up?” I really never expected her to hold on to her flame for him this long, but I had been hoping that he would at least let her in when he realized how awesome she is.
“It’s for the best, Dee.”
Before I can reply, Coop comes dancing in the door, running his fingers through his shaggy blond hair. We both start laughing when we notice the gold glitter falling from his locks.
“This isn’t funny! I swear Sway has some kind of tracker on my truck. Ever since Greg told him I was some glitter fairy, he finds the need to come shower that shit all over me.”
I can’t hold back the laughter. I have to walk over to the desk and hold on so I don’t fall over, and squeeze my legs together so I won’t pee in my pants like a little kid.
I’m so busy laughing that I miss the second the mood shifts from light and laughing to deathly serious. I’m wiping the tears from my eyes when I notice something out of the corner of my eye. I take in Emmy’s stark white face and bugged-out eyes, before looking over at where Coop is standing. He’s frozen with his hand still in his hair, but his attention isn’t on the glitter anymore. I have never, not once in the two years that I’ve known him, seen him look like this. Playful and joking Coop has been replaced with someone that would give Maddox a run for his money. He looks absolutely lethal.
“Dee, get your ass behind the desk. Now.” Coop’s voice sounds the same, only much harder. I try to move, but the second I shift, the figure standing in the doorway turns his attention back towards me. I don’t even need to focus on him to tell that he’s pointing a gun right at the side of my head. The sickening click of him releasing the safety is all I needed to hear.
“If you even think about movin’ a fucking inch, I’ll put a goddamn bullet through your head.”