Free Big Bad Beast by Shelly Laurenston

noted, “You didn’t really argue that point with her, did you?”
    “There’s no point in arguing the truth.”

C HAPTER 5
     
    R ic walked into his apartment, placing his hockey bag right by the closet. Yawning, he headed down the hallway toward his kitchen, but stopped when he saw light coming from his office. Without thought, he pulled out the .45 he kept holstered to the back of his jeans more and more these days. Checking corners as he went, Ric made his way to his office, but stopped right inside the doorway.
    “Dee-Ann.”
    “You gonna shoot me, supermodel?”
    “If you keep calling me supermodel.” He put the safety back on his weapon and pushed it back into the holster. “What are you doing here?”
    “Needed some information and knew your computer was linked in to the Group’s database.”
    “True. Of course, you can also access the Group’s database by using one of the PCs at the Group office. As opposed to illegally breaking into my apartment, I mean.”
    “Where’s the fun in that?” She pointed at his TV. “Plus you have a plasma flat screen and a real comfy office chair. Ergonomic and all that.”
    Ric walked over to the desk and yelled, “What I’m trying to say, Dee-Ann, is that you can’t just keep coming in and out of my apartment whenever you like!”
    Startled, Dee gawked up at him, which was when he added with a smile, “Unless you’re naked.”
    She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Like a wolf with a bone.”
    “Don’t I deserve to get a little something out of it if you’re going to come and go as you like?”
    “You get the blessing of my company.”
    Ric resumed his trip to the kitchen. “I’ll make your blessing something to eat.”
    “You don’t always have to feed me, Van Holtz.”
    “If I don’t, who will?”

    Tonight all Dee got were ham-and-cheese sandwiches with some tomato soup. That is, the sandwich was freshly carved Black Forest ham with some fancy French cheese with a name she couldn’t pronounce, seasoned with cracked black pepper on fresh baguettes, and toasted in the oven. The soup was made from scratch with tomatoes he grew in the hot house he’d had built into part of his big penthouse apartment so he could have fresh vegetables and herbs for his home cooking. She was surprised he didn’t have a cow in there somewhere for the milk he gave her. She wouldn’t put it past him.
    “What were you looking for on my computer?” Ric asked her.
    “We’re trying to track down the owners of the properties that have been used for fights in the past. They’ve all been empty locations, but each one has been owned. The list is long, so I took half and Desiree took the other.”
    “What about Cella?”
    “She’s not too good with the thinkin’. Must be all those hits to the head.”
    “Dee-Ann . . .”
    “What?”
    “Make this work. Don’t push her out because you don’t like her.”
    “That’s not what I’m doing. She admitted she’s not good with the computer stuff, so I took part of it and Desiree took the rest.”
    “That works.”
    “I know.”
    “Not sure how the headlock in the cafeteria fits, though.”
    “It was a mutual headlock and that Charlene’s a tattletale.”
    “The lovely Charlene is my eyes and ears, so be nice to her.”
    “Lovely, huh?” The wording bothered her—she told herself she didn’t know why—so she suggested, “Maybe you should take Charlene out sometime. It’s been ages since you’ve been on a date.”
    “Dee-Ann, I work with Charlene. That would be grossly inappropriate.”
    And he wasn’t joking. “How is that inappropriate but telling me to get naked isn’t?”
    “First off, I don’t tell you to get naked. I suggest it in a completely nonthreatening and non-sexually harassing manner. And second, you and I are far beyond the boundaries of workplace etiquette that I normally abide by.”
    “And why is that?”
    “Because you constantly break into my apartment, wear loose-fitting