I spin Elodie round, my head finally clearing. “What the fuck was all that?”
Bob comes up and licks at her legs, but she looks too dazed to notice.
“Elodie.” I give her a little shake by her shoulders.
She blinks several times, then her eyes fill instantly with tears. “Can we go now?”
“Not until you tell me what that was all about. First Rosco, now Wayne? What was he talking about?” My head is back to spinning too fast to catch a coherent thought.
She looks away. “Nothing. He’s just a prick. They all are.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
She yanks her shoulders free of me. “That is not a lie. They are pricks. Worse than that.”
“Fine, they are. But what went down with you and the minions?”
She frowns. “Nothing.” She backs away. “We just don’t get on.”
I cross my arms. “You’re severely downplaying something.”
She throws her hands up to the ceiling. “What do you want me to tell you, Fiz?”
“Did you fuck Wayne?”
Her face drops. Eyes narrowing into piercing spears of ice. “No.”
“Rosco?”
“No.”
Something in her tone – her entire rigid stance – feels off. But why would she lie?
“How do you know them?”
“Uh, because we’re in the same world?”
“Not good enough.”
Elodie rolls her eyes. Shakes her head. “They were there when I met Drago to arrange our new partnership.” She looks down, avoiding my gaze. Unwavering defiance now dissolved into awkward discomfort.
“And?”
“And.” She hits me with a nasty glare. “They’re just horrible pricks. Like the rest of you. End of story.”
I study her; take in her tight, challenging features. Now I’m happier than ever that I never told Caden about Rosco. Because I’d have to tell him about this. And now this seems bigger than one encounter in the ladies’ restroom. She has a history with the minions. But – from what I can gather – she has no interest in being involved with them. She hates them, possibly more than she hates us. So, as long as I keep my mouth shut, like she clearly wants me to, it shouldn’t come to light. And if I pry more information out of her, it’ll obligate me to tell Caden. If I want to keep this secret, the less I know the better.
It was my fault for forcing her to come here. She didn’t want to. She wants to avoid them as much as possible. Now I know, I can happily accommodate that. Keep her separate from the minions, and there’ll be no drama.
Dropping my arms, I hook a finger into the waistband of her trousers and pull her in. “That was really hot. Sticking up for me.”
She scoffs, then pushes against my chest to create distance between us. I don’t let her. “I wasn’t sticking up for you. I just hate him slightly more than you. He has a more bash-able face than you do.”
I laugh heartily, feeling it deep in my chest. “You like me.”
She screws her face up, but I see her eyes drop to where my dimples must be showing. “As if.”
This only makes the warmth in my chest hotter. “You stuck up for me. You like me. You want to kiss me.”
