I flinched when the car speakers blasted Lucian’s ringtone at an ear-splitting roar.
“Shit,” he muttered, fumbling with the volume control before answering with a curt, “Lucian Armstrong.”
“Hey, Pookie!” Liv’s voice cooed through the speaker. I clapped my palm over my mouth to stifle a shocked giggle as a flush crept up Lucian’s neck. Liv continued, oblivious to my shocked mirth. “How’s it all going at the hospital? Are you missing me like I’m missing you?”
“We’re in the car, Olivia,” Lucian grumbled, scratching the back of his neck as he pulled up at a red light. “You’re on speaker, and Irina’s here with me.”
“Oh! Uh … whoops, I guess? But did it go okay at the hospital? No major incidents?” Liv’s tone was all business-like now, but I couldn’t contain my grin.
“Unless you count me wanting to throttle Irina every thirty seconds, and a man in the carpark recognising her from Tickle, it was incident free.”
Liv gasped. “She was recognised? That’s probably not an issue though, he didn’t try to get a selfie with her, did he?”
“No. He did not. And I had words to him about being discreet, or I might mention to his employer that he tried to accost a woman he recognised from a sex app in the carpark.”
“You did not!” I gasped. “Lucian, he was just a nice man who was concerned that you were dragging me through a dark carpark! He wasn’t going to report me!”
Lucian glowered at me in the mirror. “I’d rather be safe than sorry.”
There was no point in arguing with him, so I changed the subject. “So,Pookie, how about you tell me why Liv suddenly has a pet name for you.”
Liv giggled riotously down the phone. “Better yet, come and pickme up, and I’ll explain it all myself. I need to meet with Henry about this debacle Atlas has gotten himself into anyway.”
I frowned. “What debacle?”
Lucian’s scowl deepened. “I figured Henry hadn’t been keeping abreast of the news from California. Atlas has been behaving very badly, to put it mildly.”
Something about this news prickled at the base of my neck. I sat back in my seat, breathing deeply around my churning gut, the tightness in my chest, the wave of dizziness.
“I’ll detour past the apartment and collect you, Livvy,” Lucian murmured, the softness in his tone at odds with his dark expression. I couldn’t even find it in me to make a teasing remark about ‘Pookie’ and ‘Livvy’.
Liv’s hand slid into Lucian’s the moment she climbed into the car. His eyes flicked to the mirror then back to the road, but his thumb caressed her knuckles.
“You okay?” he asked.
Liv nodded. “Yeah. No new messages, no voicemails. I’m hoping he’s gotten the hint.” She turned in her seat, leaning towards me without letting go of Lucian’s hand.
“I did it, Ri. I left Josh.” She gave a small smile, and Lucian tightened his grip on her hand. Like someone who didn’t want to let her go now that he had her.
Tears pricked my eyes. “I’m proud of you, Liv.”
She laughed wetly, wiping at her own glistening eyes. “I couldn’t have done it without this guy.” She gave Lucian’s bicep a squeeze. “Josh has been … difficult.”
Lucian let out a furious grunt. “Josh has been a psychopath and should be locked up for the safety of all women,” he snarled under his breath.
“Butyou’resafe, Liv?” I pressed.
“Well, I haven’t been able to go into the office. Lucian kindly let me share the Airbnb he’s staying in, and I’ve been working remotely from there.”
“Josh has been loitering outside the office building, trying to catch Liv on her way into work,” Lucian added. “But after the … altercation I had with him, I doubt he’ll show his face near Tickle HQ again.”
“La naiba,” I muttered, rubbing my forehead. “You weren’t lying when you said you’d had an eventful couple of weeks. And then there’s whatever is going on with Atlas … is Henry going to have to go to America to deal with it?”
My stomach dropped at the thought, but Lucian shook his head.
“Henry needs to talk to his investor and look at distancing the business from Atlas … maybe even buying out his shares.”
My mouth fell open. “Is it really that bad?”
