Tony hesitated as if he planned to ask for more details, but I slapped the top of his dash as Broadrick walked out. He stopped on the porch and stared at me in Tony's passenger seat as the truck drove past him.

His expression matched my own. Pain. Misery.

If leaving him in my past was the right choice-which it was-why did it hurt so much?

"What's the plan today?" I turned in my seat and asked Tony to distract me. "Murder, mayhem, gun violence?"

Tony shook his head. "Not for you."

"Bummer." A shootout would really take my mind off Broadrick.

Tony chuckled and turned into the parking lot for Buddy's Bar on the edge of Pelican Bay. It acted as the town's only pizzeria, catered to the local motorcycle crew, and was well-known for being a hangout to notorious criminals. Good to see the gun fight wasn't completely off the list.

"I've gotten a tip that my mark is meeting his contact here. He's trying to skip across the border into Canada."

Oh, definitely sounded like exactly what I needed to forget about the conniving SEAL in my living room.

"Are we going to run in there, bust a cap in his ass, and haul him out in cuffs?" All brilliant suggestions.

Tony's forehead crinkled with his concerned expression. "No."

Man. No one knew how to have fun in this town.

"Then what exactly are we doing here? I need to know the plan." How did I help if I didn't know what I needed to do?

"We are going to sit at a table together and pretend to be a couple. If," he overemphasized if, "I think the time has come for an apprehension, I will move in on the mark and you will stay in your designated location."

I unbuckled and crossed my arms. None of that sounded exciting to me. "Fine, but only because I didn't have anywhere to hide the stun gun in this outfit."

I couldn't shove it in my bra with the tight tank top.

"Someone gave you a stun gun?" Tony asked, sounding horrified. He shook his head twice and then opened his door. "Don't make me regret this."

"Whatever," I whispered to myself and followed him to the front of his truck. No one ever regretted bringing me along to anything.

Ten minutes later, we were sitting in a wooden booth at the back of a mostly empty Buddy's Bar. Tony ordered a pepperoni pizza and breadsticks without asking if I liked that toping. I did, but he could have asked. What if I had a thing against meat?

If he didn't start putting more effort in soon, it'd go down as the worst fake first date I'd ever been on.

Tony sipped his beer, the small napkin sticking to the bottom of the glass. "How does this place only sell pizza?"

I followed his gaze around the dive bar pizzeria. The whole place was unfinished wood. Maybe they slapped a sealant or something on the big wooden beams, but we were not eating at the Ritz. How large of a menu did he expect the local biker gang to offer at their seedy establishment? The place was probably a cover for all the money laundering the biker club did.

I shrugged when his gaze met mine after he finished his perusal. "People don't come here for the food. More for the liquor." Drugs, foul deeds, beer, fights. Oh, and they had two pool tables in the back. If you wanted pizza, any discernible resident of Pelican Bay ordered it to go.

The booth Tony chose was large and had two benches, but we were both currently residing on the same side of one, with barely an inch separating us. My thigh rubbed against Tony's jean-clad thigh and our elbows tapped one another when I went for my rum and coke.

It wasn't an appropriate time of day to drink, but Buddy's wasn't an appropriate place. So I figured in this case, two wrongs made a right.

Tony jerked his leg, and it rubbed his jean material against my exposed thigh. I tried to pull down the skirt, pretending I hadn't developed an enormous case of nerves after walking in the front door.

His hand fell to mine, stopping my movements. He leaned in close and practically pulled me into his lap. "If people are looking at you, they won't notice how I'm watching them."

"Oh, right?" Made sense. I tried to take a breath and relax, but Tony never explained my official job duties as a decoy. I was the definition of winging it.

Although, from the way the three guys sitting next to one another on the other side of the bar stared, I was acing the test.

I'd just hiked in a breath and given myself a little pep talk about everything being fine when Tony moved so fast, I didn't have time to stop him. In one full jerk, he grabbed the hem of my skirt and hiked it up, causing both sides to rise and definitely showing more skin to the men at the bar.

"I should have made you sit on the outside of the booth," I whispered to him and focused on not glaring at my suspected targets.

That would be a very undecoy like thing to do.

Tony chuckled in that deep sound I'd quickly learned meant he found me amusing. I hadn't, however, decided how I felt about him finding me amusing.

Did he find me amusing in a cute way or like he wanted to put a knife in my chest? You could never be totally sure.

Or maybe it was me. Did I have a problem with trusting men? Is that why Broadrick hurt so much?

No.

It couldn't be me.

Broadrick was a liar. Plain and simple. We'd established that. It was a him problem, not a me problem.

"Relax, Vonnie." Tony laid his hand on my knee in what he probably meant as a reassurance, but it only raised my nerves a hundred-fold.

I had a pissed off SEAL in my apartment and a bounty hunter with his hand on my knee at Buddy's bar. I was so screwed.

Tony's fingers rose higher, and he stroked them against my thigh until he hit the hem of my skirt. Shit. I had a hot guy practically feeling me up and Broadrick's scowly expression in my mind.

I was so super seriously screwed.

In my mind, I ran through the calendar, trying to determine the last time I shaved the top of my leg. It was January in Maine and I wasn't in the habit of wearing short skirts, so it wasn't always a top propriety in the shower. Crap.

I froze. I had no recent memories of my shaving the tops of my legs, which meant it had been a while. A long while.

Tony's fingers ran along the hem of my skirt, getting dangerously close to the inside of my thigh and obliterating all the calendar countdown images I'd pulled up.

My heart ticked away in my chest, making me painfully aware of the predicament I'd found myself in. Tony leaned in close, putting his mouth right next to my ear.

"How is your case going?" he asked.

I breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn't tried to whisper sweet somethings in my ear or confess his undying love. No reason to worry, then. The whole thing made me stupid.

You are here as a decoy, not an actual date, Vonnie.

Which was why it was absolutely fine that I wasn't responding to his touch the way I'd respond to someone else's. A stupid lying someone else.

Rather than move away after speaking, Tony kept his face at my ear, giving the rest of the bar the impression he was kissing me.

"Not well," I whispered to him, hoping to the guys at the bar it looked like I said something smutty.

At that moment, it hit me why Tony needed me as a decoy. While he made it look like he was getting frisky with my ear, it gave him an open chance to case the entire bar. The realization calmed my ragged nerves. All I had to do was play along.

I leaned into his touch and placed my hand on his knee, giving him a chance to check out the second half of the bar.

"Why not? I thought that brown dog you had this morning was Brent."

I gave a slight chuckle as if his kisses were turning me on, finally getting into the game we played for the patrons of Buddy's. "No, I meant my murder case."

With my reduced nerves, I relaxed my guard. As if he noticed when my muscles uncoiled, Tony lifted me up and sat me in his lap.

I went rigid again.

"Relax, Vonnie. You're supposed to be enjoying this," he whispered in my ear. "Put your head on my left side so I can use your hair to cover my view."

Right. Totally still playing around. I nodded and swept my hair to the side, laying my head on Tony's left shoulder while sitting on his lap. His hands wrapped around my middle, and he rested his large palms on the top of my ass cheeks.

Deep breaths.

Okay.

Go time.

I positioned myself a little higher, doing my best to get into the setting when the bar's door opened, sunlight spilling into the otherwise dim space.

Broadrick's heavy frame covered the opening a second later, and I went rock hard on Tony's lap.

He grabbed my ass.