He nods, mistaking my sarcasm for sympathy.“Fuck yeah.Don’t get me wrong, Lily’s sound, but Landon is a prick and with him comes all the others.It’s annoying as hell.You don’t see me letting myself into their house and making myself at home.”
“You?You don’t make yourself at home in other people’s houses?Really?”
Unbelievable.
“Nuh uh.Got more respect for others,” he states as I take another step toward the kitchen.“Hey, is it true that your cousin doesn’t like people touching her food?”
I stop at the door that leads to the small hallway to the kitchen and turn back.“Why?”I ask slowly, my heart racing.
“Because I kind of got hungry while ordering the food and helped myself to the cookies I found stashed in the oven.”
My eyes widen.“What the hell were you doing in the oven?”
He shrugs.“Automatic reaction?”
“Oh my god, she’s going to kill me,” I groan, stomping my way into the kitchen.“You don’t touch their food.Ever.I tried to steal a chip once and nearly got a fork in my hand.”
“Woah, and you let that slide?”he calls out.
“I was eight,” I reply.
“Are you sure they aren’t related to the Carters?”
“As sure as a person can be, but if another person asks me that question, I may do a DNA test.”
“I wouldn’t want to know,” he grumbles when I walk back in, handing him a bottle of water.“I would like to know why you dislike me so much though.”
I narrow my gaze on him as I take a seat in the armchair.“Nice try.It may be easier to tell you what I like about you.”
He grins, leaning back against the cushions.“There’s something you like about me?”
I snort as his phone rings.“No.That’s why I said it’s easier.”
He rolls his eyes, hitting the screen on his phone.“Yo.”He pauses, listening to whoever is on the other end of the phone.“I can do Wednesday.Is it everything we moved downstairs that needs to go back up?Yeah.Tell Liam that’s fine.See ya.”
Liam.Why is that name so popular tonight?I want to ask who it is, but that would mean starting another conversation.
Fuck it.
“Liam?Is that the same Liam your brother mentioned to Malia earlier?”
He glances up from his phone.“Probably.Was it to do with security and erasing stuff?”
“Yeah.Jaxon said he could help Malia.”
“Then yeah, same Liam.Black had him and Rebecca kidnapped last year and Liam got seriously injured.He, um, he basically had to learn to walk again, so we moved all his shit downstairs before he was released from therapy.He’s better now and could probably move his shit himself, but he wants us to clear out the hospital stuff before he decides to burn it.And trust me, his neighbours would start a protest to get him kicked out, the snobby fucks.He lives on Windmere Grove, the fancy area up near Western.”
He speaks like this is just news about a stranger, not someone he knows and clearly respects.
I’ve never met the guy and my heart breaks for the man.It’s a stark reminder about who I work for.How could I not see it?I glance at Reid, hoping he doesn’t think that because I work with them, I’m like them.Because I’m nothing like them.And for some reason, I need Reid to know that.I need him to know that if I had known just how bad they were, I would never have worked for her.
“I didn’t know how bad they were,” I whisper.“Until tonight, I just thought Katherine was a bitch.I didn’t know the rumours were true.I thought it was office gossip because she was at the top.”
“You’re just doing your job,” he states.“I’d love to know how she got out of the embezzlement charges, though.It didn’t take much for us to get her investigated but it was ironclad.”
I shrug, not even the least bit surprised to hear the Hayes are involved with that.Rumours had circled in the office, and one of them had been that a family had it out for the Black family.The guy who occupied the office next to mine believed they pissed off the wrong company or family, like we were dealing with the mob.“Guess she knows people.That was one of the many rumours going around the office.”I curl my feet up on the chair, wishing I could keep my mouth shut, but I continue.“They want me to be an inside woman.”
His eyes widen.“Why the fuck would they ask that of you?”
