Free Paint It Black by Michelle Perry

up. You know Necie can be bought. A Big Mac, a Snickers bar…she’ll sell you out.”
    “Nuh-uh!” I said, but Tuck looked worried. Cougar grabbed my shoulders and pulled me backward against him. “Who is it, Necie? Tell me.” He started tickling me. “Tell me!”
    “Stop it!” I gasped, slapping at his hands. “Tuck, help me.”
    Bill banged his fist on the table. “Kids, kids … man, I feel like a kindergarten teacher. Settle down. We’ve got work to do.”
    Cougar smiled and leaned back. He made one last feint at my ribs, and laughed when I flinched.
    Bill rolled his eyes, and turned to Linda, who occupied the seat on the end. “You start.”
    We went through our routine, giving him a brief update on the cases we were working, then he threw out the new business.
    “Okay,” he said. “I need a husband/wife for an undercover op this weekend. Any takers?”
    “Timeline?” Cougar asked.
    “At best, a couple days. Could turn into a couple weeks though, depending on how twitchy our host is. We probably won’t get it kicked off until the weekend.”
    Cougar leaned back in his chair and scratched his chin. “How ‘bout it, Neese? Will you marry me?”
    I thought about the paper on Bill’s clipboard and wondered how long it would take it to be processed. “Ah, I’d better pass on this one.”
    The room fell silent. We had a pretty clean system for stuff like this: Cougar, Angel, and I loved the undercover assignments. Linda, Ubi, and Tucker preferred to stay behind the scenes. I could only imagine what they were thinking.
    “O-kay,” Cougar said slowly. “Well, what do you say, Linda? I swear it’s not a rebound thing.”
    Linda winked. “You’re not exactly my type, hon, but what the hell?”
    That got a laugh, because we all knew Linda’s type ran petite, blond, and decidedly female.
    I felt Cougar’s gaze on me as Bill talked, but I couldn’t meet his eyes. I spent the rest of the meetingwondering how I was going to tell him I was leaving.
    I didn’t want to leave him. I didn’t want to leave any of them.
    Bill marked something on his clipboard and said, “That’s all I’ve got. See you guys later.”
    Ubi and Tucker headed for the door, announcing that they had to be in court by ten. I pushed away from the table. With nothing pressing on my agenda, I thought about asking Cougar if he wanted to grab breakfast. Before I could get the words out, Kimberly Lausen edged inside the open door. Her beautiful face lit in a smile when her gaze landed on Cougar. “Hey, Jason. Got a sec?”
    “Sure.” Cougar stood and brushed my shoulder when he moved past. I felt a twinge of jealousy while I watched him hurry to her. They stood close together. She was nearly as tall as Cougar, and every hair of her stunning auburn hair fell neatly in place. I had to admit, they looked good together. He smiled when she tucked a piece of paper in the front pocket of his shirt.
    Forcing my attention away from them, I glanced at Linda. She was watching them, too.
    “Thanks for taking the assignment,” I said. “I’ve got a lot of things going on right now.”
    She wrinkled her nose and smiled. “Ah, pretend marriage to Cougar doesn’t sound too traumatizing, even to me.” With a wink, she added, “That boy’s almostsexy enough to make a woman change her mind.”
    I chuckled, thinking of how I hadn’t met a woman yet who seemed immune to Cougar’s charms.
    Because of our different assignments, I didn’t get to see Cougar again until Wednesday night, when we shared a shift at the hospital. Thankfully, Grady had let up a little about the visits since I’d agreed to take the time off. I waited until I got Abby tucked in before I headed to the hospital.
    The guys were watching a basketball game. Angel’s bed was cranked in an upright position, and he looked almost normal sitting there, though he still couldn’t talk or grasp a pen for very long. Cougar sat eating pretzels, his feet propped on Angel’s bed.