Hawk & the Lady - Elizabeth Stevens Page 0,42

If anyone had a right to be miffed, it was me over his behaviour. Surely.

For the most part, Tank’s disapproval made diddly in the way of impact on my life.

I’d seen less of Mrs Fortescue by the very nature of my spending more time with Leah as her date for the fancy parties and functions. But I’d made sure to carve out some time for my benefactress – as Chaos called her – whenever I saw her. As far as I knew, she was the only person outside the team and Anna to know the whole thing was a sham. I hadn’t meant to let it slip, but when she outright asked me if there was something fishy going on, I just couldn’t bring myself not to be honest with her.

She’d laughed, of course, and wished us luck.

Which is where I was at when I walked back into the office after a mid-morning consult. I found Rollie and Chaos on break in the conference room. Nico was in his office and – surprise, surprise – Tank was nowhere to be seen.

“You like her,” Rollie said with a wry smirk.

I’d be an idiot, even for me, not to know who he was talking about.

I shrugged. “She’s all right. Good fun.”

“No. You like her.”

I scoffed. “What do you mean, ‘I like her’?”

“I mean, you like her. Like, more than it’s all just pretend like her.”

I raspberried my lips. “She’s a top shag, but that’s it.”

“Uh huh. That’s why you’ve got that stupid grin on your face like Chaos has.”

I threw a look to Chaos, who was watching us with interest. My best mate stayed suspiciously silent. There was no leaping to my defence or reminding Rollie that all I was capable of was shallow and meaningless connections destined to end poorly. Not even half-heartedly or jokingly. Something smelled fishy – as Mrs Fortescue would say.

“I don’t have any stupid anything.”

“Except maybe that brain in your head,” Nico chipped in as he walked by on the way to his office with his extra giant caffeine refuel.

“If you haven’t got anything useful to say, you can shut up,” I informed him.

He paused and looked at me over the rim of his glasses. “Oh, my input is useful. You just don’t want to hear it.”

“Really? And what is this useful gem you’ve got to say?” I asked.

He pointed at Rollie with his coffee mug. “He’s totally right. You have a massive emotional boner for this chick.”

I was so at a loss for words to remind them how stupid they were for suggesting such a thing, that I actually spluttered. Completely unintelligible words, spluttered. When I finally managed words, I can’t say they were much better.

“She’s… I mean… We have fun. But I don’t… It’s not like… No. I don’t.”

Nico nodded like I’d just made his argument for him and walked off. Chaos snorted like it was involuntary, and I scowled at him.

“Have you got something to say, oh illustrious leader?” I asked him sarcastically.

Chaos shook his head as he picked his mug up and shrugged. “What could I possibly have to say?” he asked nonchalantly before taking a sip and looking around the room like he was waiting for more entertainment.

“Uh, you could back up your best mate?” I replied. That was obvious. Wasn’t it?

Chaos shook his head again and was doing so badly at holding in a laugh that he looked about ready to dribble coffee down the front of his perfectly ironed shirt. “My hands are tied, mate,” he finally got out once he’d swallowed.

“What exactly does that mean?” I asked as Rollie whooped in glee.

Chaos kicked his head towards Rollie as he lifted his mug again. “I don’t lie to you.”

“Except when you’re shagging his sister,” Rollie offered.

“Not helping,” Chaos and I said in unison as we pointed at him, then turned back to each other.

“That was on Amber. She wanted to be sure before we told everyone,” Chaos reminded the room.

“Whatever,” I said, having more important things to focus on than the reminder of that momentary betrayal I was – 99.9% – over. “What do you mean you don’t lie to me? How does that mean you can’t back me up all of a sudden?”

“Because, dude’s right,” Chaos answered with the kind of apologetic shrug that’s not at all apologetic. “You’ve got it bad.”

“Nico was right,” Rollie said.

Chaos nodded. “What was it? Emotional boner.” He nodded again. “That’s what you’ve got.”

“An emotional boner?” I scoffed. “I haven’t heard such wank in