Rory nods, slipping his hands into his pockets. “Yeah, they’ve been all over the news.”
Letting out a humorless laugh, I explain, “The FBI asked me to talk to my father. Apparently, he won’t give anyone answers except me.”
Hunter moves toward me. “Have you talked to him at all since he went to prison?”
“Nope. I didn’t even attend the trial.”
Luke joins Hunter and Rory in front of me. “So yesterday was the first time you’ve talked to him?”
“Yes,” I corroborate.
Rory raises his brows. “And you still showed up to work today?”
“Yes.” A drop of insolence makes its way into my voice. “As I pointed out earlier, you hired me to do a job.”
“Do you want to go home?” Hunter asks, his brows scrunching together.
“Why would I do that?” I search their faces for an answer, like this is some kind of bizarre test and I’ve been given a trick question.
“You had an intense day yesterday,” Rory says, as if I wasn’t the one to experience it all. “It’s okay to need to decompress.”
I can’t for the life of me understand why they care so much. Their words contradict the actions I’ve experienced from every other person in my life.
But maybe…Maybe they’re different.
Choosing honesty and vulnerability, I reply, “Actually, I’d like to work. I don’t want to think about yesterday. It was a disaster, and I’d like to keep my mind occupied with other things.”
“That, we can do,” Luke responds for the three, and the other two don’t object.
“Thanks.” I step around the protective brick wall they’ve created and settle in my chair.
Whipping out my laptop, I get to it and lose myself in something that has always made sense to me when nothing else in my life has—ones and zeroes.
Ones and zeroes don’t lie. They are what they are.
I don’t know how much time has passed when I lean back in my seat, closing my eyes to give myself a short break. The soundof fingers typing on keyboards registers in my mind, causing my eyes to shoot open.
I don’t know how long they’ve been at the table with me. It could have been the whole time if their almost-empty coffee mugs are anything to go by.
Then I realize how relaxed I feel. It’s like I can finally take a deep breath.
Maybe I can do this trust thing.
It’s not half bad so far.
CHAPTER 12
RORY
I’ve spent the last six evenings staring at the ceiling of my room, bored out of my mind. Usually, I go to my nightclub, Onyx, on the Lower East Side to find a woman or two and spend the rest of the evening with them.
After meeting Savannah, I can’t go back to living like that. That routine does nothing for me now.
If she knew how often I think about what it’s like to just spend time with her, she’d quit RHL and block my number. And if that doesn’t do it, then discovering how often I hack into security cameras and watch her would certainly send her running for the hills.
Or a police station.
But here I am on a Friday night, monitoring the footage of the security camera across the street from Savannah’s apartment on my laptop while I sit on my bed in nothing but my silk ruby boxers. I must look ridiculous with my computer on my thighs, staring at the screen as I eat my heavenly pepperoni pizza dipped in ranch.
