Chapter 1
BYE FELICIA
“Fuck, baby,” she said and reached for me, but I slipped out of her grip. “Where ya running off to?”
I grabbed my jeans off the floor and pulled them up quickly, needing to get out of here. “This was a mistake, Jeanine,” I admitted without looking at her as I zipped up my pants.
She tried to pull me back toward the bed. “Come on. You know you want more,” she said as she kneeled with her legs spread, giving me a full view of everything I’d already sampled and nothing I wanted again.
“It was nothing more than a moment of weakness.” I shook my head, pulling out of her grip. “It won’t happen again.”
Her body jolted back before she narrowed her eyes at me. “You’re a real asshole, Frisco.”
“Babe, you knew exactly what last night was.” I leaned forward and kept my eyes pinned to her. “Don’t act like you’re crushed.”
She glared at me, crossing her arms over her chest. “But I thought—”
I put my hand up. I was done. Done with her. Done with us. Done with everything that had to do with her. “That’s the problem. You didn’t bother to listen.”
Her nostrils flared as she flung virtual daggers with her eyes. “You said you wanted me, though.”
“Yeah, I wanted to fuck you. Nothing more. We’ve been over for a long time.” I pulled on my T-shirt, smoothing out the wrinkles with the palm of my hands. “Face reality, Jeanine. You’ll never be more than a fuck to me. You made sure of it when you fucked your trainer.”
The one thing I could never forgive was infidelity. She thought that her pussy was so damn good, I’d forget about her offering it up to someone other than me. When I made a commitment to someone, I fully expected the other person to follow the same rules. Jeanine hadn’t felt the same way.
Maybe I treated her shitty by fucking her last night and being harsh with her this morning, but I didn’t care. The hurt she caused me ran deep, and the pain hadn’t dulled in the three months since the truth had come out.
I ducked just as her high heel landed near my head. “Get the fuck out of here. You were the biggest mistake of my life.”
I grinned as I slid on my boots. “I’m the best man you’ll ever have, babe. You’ll never forget the way I fucked you, how deeply I loved you, and how caring I was with you. You’ll crawl back to me someday, begging for it again.”
She closed her eyes, dropping her head. “Just leave, Frisco.”
I stopped in the doorway, glancing over my shoulder. “Call me when you’re missing my cock.”
“Fuck you!” she yelled, reaching over the edge of the bed, and I took that as my cue to get the hell out of there.
“Never again. That I promise you.” I headed down the hallway, feeling a freedom I hadn’t felt before. I’d never let her talk me into spending another night in her bed. I wouldn’t even fuck her in a bathroom stall if she offered me pussy with no strings attached.
I jumped when a loud thud echoed through the small space. I guessed I’d hit a chord with my ex.
I’d spent three months feeling sorry for myself. Jeanine had ripped my heart out. We’d been together for two years, and just when I was about to propose to her, I caught her fucking him. She begged for my forgiveness, swore it had only happened once, and that it would never happen again, but I told her to hit the road.
It wasn’t that I swore off women, but I couldn’t even think about a relationship. The ladies at the Neon Cowboy, my favorite bar and hangout, were more than happy to share my bed without ties.
I walked out of her house knowing it was time for me to move on. Jeanine was my past, and who the fuck knew where my future would lead me.
I’d been given a fresh start.
For the first time in a long time, I felt ready to conquer the world. I had a kick-ass job at ALFA Private Investigations, a great group of new friends, and my buddies at the Neon Cowboy. Pussy was in abundance.
Life couldn’t be any fuckin’ better.
I’d never needed anyone to make me feel whole. I’d spent years in the military, traveling to countries most people only read about, and served as a member of one of the most elite fighting forces—the Navy SEALs. The men I surrounded myself with were my family and everything in the world to me. We’d looked out for each other.
Now, I had a new team. The guys at ALFA were my new family, and we had each other’s backs just like my brothers in the SEALs did when I served.
Right now, work was the name of the game.
Pussy was a recreational activity.
Variety is the spice of life, right?
Who wanted to be nailed down to one woman?
I sure as hell didn’t.
* * *
“Aren’t those the same clothes you wore yesterday?” Thomas asked when I sat down.
“Shit happens.”
“Who was it last night?” James dropped a stack of files on the conference table with a smug grin on his face.
“You don’t wanna know.” Sam began to laugh.
James shook his head, knowing the answer already. “You didn’t?”
“She offered. I took.” A slow grin spread across my face.
“Never go back.” Thomas rubbed his forehead like he was trying to remove a spot from his skin. “It never ends well.”
I leaned back in the conference chair, twisting from side to side and thought about his words. “Ended well for me.” I laughed, remembering how pissed off Jeanine had been when I left. Fuck her feelings. She hadn’t been thinking of mine when she cheated.
“Let’s start the meeting and forget about Jeanine.” Her name sounded like acid coming from Thomas’s mouth.
“Please.” Her smell still lingered on my fingers, taunting me as I rubbed my chin.
The guys hadn’t stopped giving me shit about her. Every time I said her name, they’d tell me to get the fuck over her and find a new woman.
The problem was, I found too many.
“Let’s welcome our newest member, Bear.” Thomas gave Bear a nod.
“I’m happy to be here,” he replied without a smile as everyone greeted him.
That was Bear—serious as a heart attack, funny as fuck, and scary as hell. We’d been friends for years. We were regulars at the Neon Cowboy and both friends of Thomas’s brother Joe. We both jumped at the chance to work for a PI firm in town when Joe mentioned they were looking for new guys to hire for the crew.
“Frisco.” James snapped his fingers, annoying the hell out of me.
I dragged my eyes to him. “What’s up?”
He slid a folder down the long, black table, and it stopped right in front of me. “New case for you this week.”
“What is it?”
“Someone wants proof that their spouse is cheating.”
I looked up at James’s grinning face and gritted my teeth. “Getting a kick out of this aren’t ya, man?” I asked. Really, I’d been given a free pass for too long and could handle the job, but it was nice being offered the better cases.
“Shit happens every day to people. Just do your job and get the proof.”
“Fine,” I grumbled, reading over her details, and pretending to be upset.
“Sam, where are you with your case?” Thomas changed the subject and left me to study my next assignment.
I hadn’t taken a cheating case in three months. Thomas and James had been kind enough to pass them along to the other guys.
I read the information that Mary Green had written while cases were assigned to everyone else around the table. There wasn’t anything unusual. Her husband had started staying later at work, began dressing differently, changed his cologne, and added a password lock to his phone. She suspected he was cheating and wanted proof.
“Can I just ask something real quick?” Bear rubbed the back of his neck and seemed uneasy. I’d never worked with Bear, but he wasn’t acting like his self-assured asshole self I knew.
“Shoot.” James motioned toward Bear with a quick nod.
“When the fuck did we start calling him Sam?” His eyes moved to Sam before anyone could answer the question. “You’ll always be Flash to me. Sam just sounds so, so…fucking old.”
Sam’s face turned pink. “I dropped the nickname years ago, Bear.”
Sam, aka Flash, had worked with James and Thomas years ago. They were undercover DEA agents and Sam worked for the FBI. They worked together, not always nicely, to take down one of the biggest motorcycle gangs in Florida. Afterward, they were all sick of the life and the lies they had to tell, and that’s how ALFA came to fruition.
“It suits you, though, pretty boy. I’m calling your ass Flash. Just putting it out there,” Bear said and crossed his arms over his chest as he stood his ground.
Sam never seemed to sound right, but he tried to throw out the nickname. I didn’t know much about the guy, but I knew that he’d had a thing with James’s wife before they were a couple. The tension between James and Flash was often so intense that I could almost see the anger radiate from James.
Sam would laugh it off and try to smooth the waters, but James never got rid of the chip on his shoulder. Sam had a woman, Fiona, and was madly in love with her. Izzy, James’s wife, was happily married and didn’t want anything more than a friendship from Sam. James being James let the past lie, but he didn’t forget everything entirely.
“Whatever you want.” Sam held his hands up and gave Bear the killer smile he’d been nicknamed for.
“Glad that’s settled,” Morgan chimed in, tapping his fingers on the table, looking completely bored. “We done here?”
“Are you good, Frisco?” James asked, ignoring Morgan.
I nodded, giving him a fake smile while I closed the file. “I got this. Easy case.”
“If it’s too soon, I can give it to one of the other guys,” he offered.
“What the fuck?” Morgan complained, rolling his eyes, and groaning.
I lifted my chin to him before I glanced at Morgan. “I’m not a pussy, man. I got it.”
“About damn time,” Morgan said with a smile. “You back finally, brother?”
“I’m back.” I stood and glanced around the table. Each of the men around the table had my back. They treated me with kid gloves during the entire breakup. I wouldn’t have made it through with my sanity if it hadn’t been for them. “And better than ever,” I added before I walked out of the room.
As I headed down the hallway toward my office, I could hear the guys hooting and laughing. I felt the truth in those words when I spoke them. I was no longer the man I had been even the day before.
I was better, a different version of my former self.
I was a self-described asshole, but I had a kind heart, too.
One thing I knew for sure: I’d never be anyone’s doormat again.
“So it’s really over?” Bear called down the hallway, following close on my heels.
I stopped at my office door and turned to face him. “Finished.”
He fist-pumped the air and whooped before he spoke. “That bitch didn’t deserve you.”
“I know.” My happiness had been written all over me since I’d left her place, unable to wipe the grin off my face. She fucking didn’t. I knew that before I caught her with that steroid-filled douchebag.
“Drinks tonight to celebrate my first case?”
“Sure, Bear. Neon Cowboy?”
“Fuck yeah. Where else, man?”
“I’ll be there. Now get to work so they don’t fire your ass before you start.”
“Pussy,” he whispered and disappeared into his office.
Bear always knew how to put shit in perspective. He’d never liked Jeanine, but then again, I never cared what his opinion of someone had been before. Closing the door behind me, I tossed the file on my desk from across the room, and took a deep breath.
Tonight was a night to celebrate.
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