Page 25 of Shamelessly Loyal

“One moment.” I held the phone to Pretty Boy who stared at it a beat before he took it.

“What?” The growled syllable edged in hostility probably wouldn’t win friends, although it would undoubtedly influence people. “Why do you need my size?”

He cut a glance at me and I just gave him a patient look.

“Just mine and not hers?” Whatever Fletcher said in response to that earned a flat-eyed glare. “Fine…” He rattled off the numbers then took the phone from his ear to stare at the screen.

The call had ended, but I held my hand out for it. Pretty Boy passed it over without question, then seemed to frown when he realized. “Don’t scowl,” I told him as I lined up a shot of him. I green-screened out the area behind then snapped a couple of photos.

At least one of them was so stern it gave me shivers. It didn’t matter if they were perfect. In fact, most identification photos were of terrible quality anyway.

I snapped a couple of selfies, then sent them all over to Fletcher’s cloud server before I deleted the contact info and the sent email.

“Don’t trust me?” Pretty Boy challenged, and I stood, because his nearness was making it difficult to breathe, much less think

I patted his cheek. Another mistake, because the heat of his skin beneath my fingertips and the hint of stubble just added another layer to my already overexcited libido. I wanted to curl up and just rub his cheek, feel the rasp of it on my palm as well as against my own face while we kissed—

Cutting off that line of thought, I withdrew my hand and grinned at him. Better. “C’mon, Pretty Boy. We need to pack. Fletcher will have everything we need and we’ll need to get on the road as soon as we have it.”

Fletcher sent a message within four hours that everything was waiting for us. Pretty Boy’s shocked, then speculative, response probably shouldn’t have pleased me so much, but it did.

I packed light, mostly my own cosmetics and clothes for going and coming. While Pretty Boy seemed to seriously consider leaving me behind, he didn’t. When we left, there was no one around inside their little clubhouse and virtually no one outside in the warehouse either.

Did he wait for times when no one would observe us, or were they genuinely that busy? A question for another day. The drive took almost three hours and changeafterwe’d picked up the IDs, the cash, and the credit cards. Everything would work, and nothing would be traced back to us.

Bless Fletcher, he’d sent a couple of different sets for both of us. I was going to owe him some lemon pound cake from Alethia. My grandfather’s housekeeper made the absolute best, and it was one of Fletcher’s favorites.

Despite being located in what was essentially an abandoned backwater ghost town, the casino itself was quite busy when we arrived. The casino and the attached hotel. I had Pretty Boy pull right up front and made sure he had cash to hand off for a tip.

Check-in went smoothly, but then I had zero doubt about Fletcher’s capabilities. I made a point of flipping through the welcome booklet they’d given us at the desk.

“Oh, look!” I gave Pretty Boy a playful, if not frivolous, grin. “They have aspa. I might go get all pampered while you play.”

The bellhop taking us up gave me an indulgent smile as he flicked his gaze over me. Men were so predictable. They were going to look at my body anyway, so the empty-headed comments and smiles were all a distraction.

A useful one, but still a distraction.

I wasn’t the only one who noticed, in any case. Pretty Boy slammed a hand against the open elevator doors when we arrived at our floor. “I’ll take the luggage,” he informed our escort and glared at him.

My body clenched at the heated threat in Pretty Boy’s voice. The limited view afforded by the mirror in the hall gave me a good look at the bellhop’s face, but not Pretty Boy's.

Yeah, the fact his threat caused sudden pallor and sweat was hawt as fuck.

“I need a bath,” I said airily over my shoulder as I strolled down the hall.

“I’m right behind you.” Yes, we were playing roles but damn if that didn’t make my stomach tighten and a shiver scale my spine.

As promised, he was there by the time we reached the door. It was at the far end of the hall, nearest the stairwell. Normally, I’d object to being so far from the elevator. However, this also gave us another quick escape route, so I’d take it.

The suite Fletcher booked for us was fairly large, but there was only one bed.

Nice.

Shaking my head at it, I went to the closet; sure enough, there were already clothes waiting.

“What the hell is that?” Pretty Boy demanded, and I turned to find him glaring at the tuxedo hanging on one of the hooks on the wall.

“If you want to play in the big leagues, Pretty Boy,” I told him as I drew my dress bag out of the closet. “You have to look the part. We have an hour before dinner is served. Get changed and give me twenty minutes.” I paused. “Unless you need a shower too.”