Page 60 of Penny For Your Thoughts
“Longhorns.”
“Excuse me?”
“The flag. Texas Longhorns. It’s college football.”
Puzzled, I tipped my head to the side and studied my boyfriend. “I’m sorry, but how do you know that? You don’t follow football. Oh my god.Do youfollow football? Are you a football fan? How did I not know that?”
Diem shrugged noncommittally. “I don’t give a shit about football, but I know the flag.”
“Oh. Wow. Impressive. Extra point goes to you. Shall we?” I unbuckled my seat belt, eager to confront the kid who had not only stolen Kael Scarrow’s identity but also used it to scam an elderly man out of his savings. I would bleed the asshole for information. Put the fear of god in him. Make him talk, even if I had to strap him to a chair and tear his—
“This is my rodeo,” Diem said. “You aren’t threatening him or breaking fingers or strapping him to a chair.”
“I wasn’t planning to… How do you do that?”
Diem diverted his attention from the building, his smug expression suggesting my plan was written all over my face.
“Fine, but you do not get to have all the fun. You are not the leader of this operation. Be a good Diem and share the case with your boyfriend.”
“We have a kid who is potentially responsible for scamming a senior citizen out of tens of thousands of dollars. Without resorting to threats or causing bodily harm, which one of us will be more apt to get him to talk?”
“There is nothing wrong with a little bodily harm.”
Diem arched a brow.
“Are you insulting mysize? Because I’m offended.”
“Which one of us, Tallus?”
“Echo… if she bares her teeth and growls. Can you make her do that?”
Diem bared his teeth, a deep rumble emanating from his chest, a wicked gleam shining from his stormy gray eyes.
I sighed and rolled my eyes. “Fine. You’re right. The bear trumps the dog. Sorry, Echo. I tried, but Daddy is winning all the points today.”
Echo chuffed from her place in the back seat, and I liked to imagine she agreed with the unfairness and was equally offended.
“For the record,” I said as we got out of the Jeep, “I can be intimidating.”
Diem rounded to the sidewalk and approached me instead of the building. His towering height forced me to crane my neck to maintain eye contact. He stopped less than a foot away, chest puffed, shoulders back, his shadow swallowing me whole, and with a humoring guise that dared me to go for it. Try to intimidate him.
“That’s not fair. You’re built like a tank and wearing a sexy trench coat and hat. You have this whole mob boss aura thing going on. How can I compete with that?”
Diem removed the fedora and set it gently on my head before tucking two fingers under my chin and bending to kiss me—right there in the open where anyone could see. I melted at the contact.
“You’re too sexy to be intimidating.”
“Well, duh, but do I look more intimidating with the hat on?” I posed and scowled.
“You look like a kid playing dress-up.”
“I do not.” I went for a haughty lift of the chin, but the hat slipped and fell over my eyes, ruining the effect. “Goddammit. Take your stupid hat back. Your poor mother. I hope your head wasn’t that big at birth.”
He chuckled and fit the accessory back on his melon-sized noggin, tipping it forward at an angle to shadow his face.
“You’re intimidating, and you put my sexiness to shame. It’s not fair. Those two things should not go together, but somehow, you make it work.” I forcibly spun my tank of a boyfriend and patted his bum, encouraging him to get moving. “Now, go bully the kid into shitting his pants. Tell him to give back Elwood’s lunch money or else.”
Our suspicious man, who called himself Kael, did not respond when we knocked on his door. Either he wasn’t home, or he had peeked through his peephole and decided the giant linebacker of a man on the other side was not someone he wanted to tango with. If he was into the illegal business of scamming senior citizens, he would rightfully be wary of strangers showing up at his door unannounced.
