Total pages in book: 165
Estimated words: 154925 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 775(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154925 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 775(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
If he was very still, she might not see him. Or he could hide. He could jump under the desk he’d been given and curl into a ball, and she wouldn’t even know he was here. She would do her crying thing and he could sneak away and eat that sad-ass burrito and deal with his brother’s cat. Yeah. He’d trained for this. He’d spent years in the Navy and the Agency learning how to elude a dangerous foe, and right now that overly emotional goth girl seemed like the most dangerous opponent of all.
Because he wanted to figure out why she was crying and deal with the situation. It was his first, stupidest instinct to walk right up to her and hug her against him and ask what had happened. Like they’d always been friends. Like it was normal and natural to offer her comfort.
Fuck. He did need to see a therapist because he looked at her and saw everything he could have had if he hadn’t been in that car that night. If he’d made different choices, he would have gotten his MBA in management and probably come to work right here but in the business offices. Or for his stepdad, and one night she would have walked into Top and they would have met and talked all night and made all kinds of normal relationship mistakes. He would have forgotten important dates and she would… Well, she wouldn’t have turned out to be a traitor to her country and tried to pull him into hell with her.
He wouldn’t have been forced to murder that little goth princess.
“Damn it.” She stopped in front of Wade’s office and let her head fall forward against the door. “What am I doing? Go home, MaeBe. Except your home is currently being occupied by assholes.”
It was the sniffle that did it. He could easily have evaded her, but his feet wouldn’t move, and after she sniffled he gave in. “Do you need something from his office? I can probably get through the lock.”
She screamed, and the beer bottle dropped to the floor with a thud as she jumped and turned.
Kyle held up his hands, showing her he didn’t have anything in them. Not that he couldn’t do a ton of damage with his hands. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
She put a hand over her chest as though she could stop the way her heart was racing. “Well, you did a good job. I think I’m having a heart attack.”
She wasn’t, but she had definitely been scared. “Again, sorry. I wasn’t trying to hide or anything. You didn’t notice me as you came in.”
No one had trained this woman. Earlier he’d seen his Aunt Erin walk in, and though she’d done it as casually as possible, she’d noted where everyone was. She’d likely done it out of long habit of being situationally aware of her surroundings, but it was what he’d come to expect from women in his world. Julia would have known where every living creature was along with the entrances and exits and whether or not the people in said room worked for an evil empire or not.
“I thought everyone was gone.” She bent down to pick up the bottle she’d dropped. It hadn’t broken on the carpet that covered the floors down here on the bodyguard level. She stood back up, and her mascara had run slightly, giving her a raccoon-like appearance. “I was looking for the recycling bin. This was out in the hall.”
Sure it had been. And she’d found it and poured it down her throat. Damn she shouldn’t look so pretty with ruined makeup. “Does Wade keep booze in his office?”
She frowned and sighed. “A bottle of whiskey. The bodyguards usually trade bottles of booze for Christmas every year, and Wade keeps his in his office. Or so I’ve heard. I…this is stupid. I’m going to go.”
He should let her. He wasn’t going to. “I assure you whatever Wade has in that office is complete shit compared to what my uncle keeps upstairs. Come on. It’s the best view of the city. We can get the snack basket and you can tell me why you’re crying.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. Besides, why are you up here so late? It’s your first day.”
“Okay. You’re a cautious woman. I can see that. You need an exchange of information. I’m here because I don’t have a car and my brother is at some faculty event. He’s an actual functional adult with job responsibilities that go beyond throwing his body in front of a bullet for whoever’s paying him to. I’m lazy and the train station is a couple of blocks away. I also saw some shit during my time with the military so I don’t sleep well, and I was thinking seriously about running a couple of miles on the treadmill so I might be able to sleep tonight. Oh, and I’m avoiding Hamilton.”