“Hey. You finish early?”
I shook my head. “Need to change for a job. I’ll be out late.”
She nodded. “Okay.”
“You’re…okay?” I asked.
She nodded again. “All good. Thanks.”
Not knowing what else to say, I went to my room to change and hurried back out again as soon as possible.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”
“Sure. Bye,” she replied with an absent wave as she looked over one of her books.
I sighed and headed back down to my SUV, feeling antsy and uncomfortable.
I was meeting the boys at an event – one of the many galas the Nelsons put on for charity – and was in danger of being pretty well on time now. But that made for a nice change.
When I got out and headed for the foyer of the theatre, I saw that Tank was already there and Rollie was pretending to throw punches at him. Nico and Hawk were having an in-depth discussion, arms pointing in different directions, as Nico looked at his tablet.
“Going over the layout?” I asked as I walked up to them.
Hawk nodded. “One final sweep. Everything looks good.”
“I don’t know why I had to be on the ground for this,” Nico grumbled.
“Because the Nelsons have zero faith in their tech skills,” Hawk answered.
“Did you get to the penthouse?” I asked Nico.
Nico actually looked up from his tablet and had a vague hint of a smile on his face. “Oh, yeah. Hey.” He nudged his elbow towards Hawk. “You never told us your sister was cool.”
Hawk stopped his survey and turned to Nico in surprise. “Cool?” he scoffed. “Bert’s not cool.”
Nico gave Hawk a look that suggested he very much disagreed. “Hate to be the bearer of bad news, dude. But your sister’s definitely cool.”
I was obviously not the only one who heard the appreciation in his voice.
Hawk pointed at Nico. “Just what do you mean by she’s cool?”
Nico shrugged. “I mean she’s cool, man. She’s great.”
Hawk was obviously not sure how to take the news, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it either. Nico’s eyes lit up at the thought of Amber. What did that mean? Nico’s eyes were known to light up at the thought of pizza, so it didn’t have to mean he was interested in her. But was he?
“Great how?” Hawk asked, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.
“She speaks my language, for one thing. Obviously games. Into the same shit as me. Knows about than sanctity of the spawn point.”
I’d heard about the sanctity of the spawn point. I still had no idea what it meant. I felt a momentary twinge of something too akin to jealousy that Nico had met her once and had already managed a better conversation than I had with her in twenty-three years.
Hawk looked at me. “She might come in handy for this year’s Christmas presents.”
“She did get my t-shirt,” Nico said proudly.
I remembered which one he’d been wearing that morning. It was the one I’d bought him last Christmas. I hadn’t understood the reference, but the guy at the comic book store assured me it would go down well.
“It’s not like he has the most obscure taste on the planet,” I huffed, straightening my jacket unnecessarily and looking around like I was doing another sweep.
“Yeah, but I might actually win the present contest this year with Bert’s help.”
“I would be very interested to see what she’d come up with for me,” Nico said and the appreciation was well obvious in his voice this time.
“Just you watch how interested in my sister you are there, Nico,” Hawk warned.
Nico actually laughed, and it was almost self-conscious, both of which were odd for him and made me doubt his next words. “I’m not interested in your sister. I just think she’s cool.” He paused, then added, “She’s probably the coolest chick I’ve met.”
“You touch her and you’re dead,” I growled.
Hawk’s mouth had been open to say something, his finger pointing at Nico again. But at my words, he turned to me, still pointing at Nico, and blinked a couple of times. He finally shut his mouth, looked at Nico, back to me, another couple of blinks, then back at Nico.
“Yeah,” he finally said, far less threateningly after my outburst. “What he said. Bert’s off-limits, mate.”
“Who’s fucking Amber?” Rollie asked as he and Tank strolled over.
“No one,” Hawk and I snapped at the same time.
Rollie held his hands up, his trademark smirk on his face. “All right. Slow your rolls, gentleman. I was just interested in why Hawk’s giving us the ‘off-limits’ speech now.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
Rollie rocked back on his heels, his smirk growing. “Well, only that you’ve known us for fucking years and not once has this been mentioned. We talk about her all the time. Fuck, I feel like I already know her. But not once have you felt the need to tell us not to go near her.”
“One could extrapolate either you’re worried about us finally meeting her on Sunday, or Chaos has been misbehaving–”
“I’ve done nothing of the sort!” I said too loudly, as the same time Hawk said, “He knows better than that.”
Hawk kicked his chin to Nico. “This muppet on the other hand.”
Tank looked at me, eyebrow cocked in question and I cleared my throat. “Our resident nerd seems to think Amber’s…cool,” I said.
Nico’s cheeks got a touch of pink to them. “Yeah. I said she was cool. What’s wrong with her being cool?”
There was a lot wrong with him thinking she was cool. But I’d already had two too many outbursts in the last few minutes concerning her, so I bit my cheek to stop myself saying anything. Rollie had no such qualms.
Rollie grinned. “Oh, the O-Lord wants to give her a private lesson in…” he petered off and frowned.
“Yeah, I was wondering where that was going,” Hawk sniggered. “Dipshit thinks he knows everything about tech.”
“I know more than you!”
“Ah, Mr Grayson and company,” came a voice to put a stop to our ridiculous bickering.
I turned on my polished heel and nodded to our client, thankful to get everyone’s minds on work.
“Mr Nelson, thank you for trusting us with your safety.”
He waved a hand at me and smiled. “Oh, five big, strapping men? You have my utmost trust, boys.”
Rollie smiled. “We aim to please, sir.”
Mr Nelson smirked knowingly. “So, I’ve heard. Just don’t remind my husband. Now, the guests are set to arrive from five…”
The rest of my night was as boring as usual. Keep an eye on things. Be the relay man between Mr Nelson out in the party and the behind the scenes people. Be stern and foreboding so the guests knew there was a security presence – Mr Nelson liked us to be obvious, to be visible. He said it made him feel more important because none of his friends ever had any reason to justify hiring security, although how much of that was a joke I never quite knew as most of his friends had hired one or more of us at some point. He was one of our more generous clients though, so we bent over backwards to accommodate him. He was also just a nice guy.
Tank pulled off visible with ease by his sheer size alone. Hawk and Rollie were also excellent at making sure people knew they were around and very intimidating, as well as cheeky when anyone even vaguely flirted with them. Thankfully Nico was hidden away behind computer screens most of the night as he was the least foreboding of the lot of us and the one with the least patience for jobs that required acting a part other than just nondescript security.
Finally, the last guests left and Mr Nelson dismissed us for the night. Nico ripped his tie off at the first possible opportunity, while the rest of us just loosened them a little. We said goodnight, and the boys and I went in our own directions.
I dropped my bag in my office as I pulled off my jacket
and ran my hand over my hair. There was something about messing it up at the end of the day that made it really feel like the end of the day. I headed for my bedroom to change, trying to remember if I had any leftovers in the fridge when I realised I smelled something familiar. It was mild, merely a lingering scent, but it made me think of family dinners and laughter.
It was definitely vague and I was acclimatising to it by the second, but it was there. I just couldn’t work out what it was.
Suddenly, adrenalin surged and I was ready for whatever it was as my eyes scanned the penthouse. I was just about to spring into action when I realised that the slumped figure at the dining table was Amber.
“Don’t live alone anymore,” I muttered, looking around. That was the second night in a row I’d forgotten.
The lights were all off so she must have been asleep for hours.
“Fuck, that can’t be comfortable.”
I threw my jacket over one of the other chairs and went over to her. I crouched down, but she was fast asleep. Her books and papers were still all over the table, her laptop sitting dead by her elbow. I stood and leant over to look at it all by the moonlight streaming into the room. I caught mentions of round tables and wizards and epic battles, but I’d lost my decent night vision from a lack of use over the last couple of years.
“Amber?” I said softly.
She moved a little, but made no sign she was going to wake up.
For the second night in a row, I slid the sleeper’s glasses off their face. This time though, I gently picked her up. She didn’t wake, but she snuggled into me and I’m man enough to admit that I had a moment where I saw my entire life being different. I did, however, try not to look too closely at it.
I carried her effortlessly to bed, catching a lingering floral scent in her hair. For the second time in as many minutes, something felt familiar, but I couldn’t work out where from. But it made me think of summer days in the Graces’ backyard, it made me think of late night movies on the back wall and popcorn fights, it made me think of good times and happiness.
Before I set her on her bed, I looked down at her. I couldn’t remember ever seeing her asleep. But she looked peaceful. There was no sign of the anger or annoyance or whatever it was that she felt when I was around. I could almost imagine what it would have been like if we’d got along, if she looked up to me the same way she looked up to Hawk.
Something fiercely protective reared up in me and I wondered how in the hell anyone could hurt her. I completely agreed with Hawk’s assessment; I ever saw the fucker, then I was going to drag him to the deepest, darkest hole on the planet. And I was pretty sure I knew exactly which hole Hawk was thinking of. And I thought it was probably the best choice. That went for Dannie, too. Dannie, who had never once put Amber first, was just as much to blame.
Amber wriggled against me and I panicked she was going to wake up and freak out. Honestly I wouldn’t have blamed her. This would look weird.
I lay her down on the bed and watched as she did that little nose wrinkle she did. She had a million of them. But this one I couldn’t quite place. It was like she’d heard Hawk tell a dirty joke she found funny but didn’t think she should. But it also looked like one I hadn’t seen before. I wondered what she was dreaming of.
I put her glasses on the bedside table and pulled the other half of the blankets over her before I went over and closed the curtains. The soldier in me did a final scan of the room – still as bare as it had been the day before – and looked back at her once more.
I closed the door and headed out to get changed and find some dinner.
Carmel was going to kill me with her tiny little bare hands if she found out I’d skipped on dinner again. She was already complaining I was getting too skinny. No amount of assuring her I was putting on weight made her feel any better.
Once my suit was hung and I’d thrown on a pair of track pants, I headed for the fridge. There was a container there that I was sure hadn’t been there that morning. I pulled it out and found a chicken casserole. I knew for a fact that the restaurant didn’t make that chicken casserole and one whiff confirmed it was the recipe I’d shovelled by the plate-load for years at the Graces’. It was the smell that had been lingering when I entered, obviously from when she’d eaten, possibly not that long ago. I wondered if Hawk had found his way over after all.
I warmed some up and ate it as I looked over the counter to the table. Usually I was a neat freak – ironic given my nickname, I know, but less ironic given my years of military life. It was a weirdly neat mess, anyway. A mess that looked useful, necessary. A mess I could abide. And there was something oddly pleasant about evidence another human being was there with me.
Even if it was just my best friend’s little sister. Even if I barely saw her. Even if we barely spoke to each other. Even if she hated me. I realised it had been lonely in that big place all by myself for so long. And no matter how awkward I got around her indifference, it was going to be nice to not be alone anymore.
5
Amber
I sat bolt upright, expecting a crick in my neck. Then I registered that my vision was fuzzy. Then I registered I’d been lying down.
I looked down, thinking I must have fallen off my chair in the middle of the night – wouldn’t have been the first time. But that was definitely a bed under me. And I was still wearing my shoes. I blinked as I looked around the practically lightless room. There was only the faintest hint of sun coming around the curtains and it was wan. I looked over and saw my glasses were on the bedside table. I picked them up suspiciously as I looked around and suddenly wondered where I was.
I slowly slid on my glasses and suddenly everything came flooding back.
Dannie and Brent.
Patrick and Kit.
Nico and the droids.
Studying at the dining table all day because I couldn’t bring myself to go to sleep. Again.
“Wait…”
I looked around again.
I had absolutely no memory of going to bed. And there was the weird thing about still wearing my shoes and I was on top of the sheets under half a blanket. My cheeks flushed moments before I realised that all these things were adding up to the presumption that I’d fallen asleep at the table and Kit had brought me to bed when he got home.
“Oh, nice work, goober,” I muttered as I pulled myself out of the blanket and tried to remember what I’d shoved in the great Suitcase of Leaving that could be classified as clothes.
I pulled off yet another oversized jumper and dropped it on the bed as I stretched my slightly stiff neck and kicked off my shoes. I rifled through drawers and the (massive and almost empty) walk in robe for something to wear.
“Why did I pack so much underwear?” I muttered to myself.
And it wasn’t the everyday kind. I’d apparently just scooped out my entire lingerie collection – all those racy things that Dannie, Farrah and I loved buying but I’d had absolutely no reason to wear and now had no one to wear it for – without thinking of what I was actually going to wear. On closer inspection, it seemed like I’d done that for most of my clothes. It was lucky it was winter and most of my drawers had consisted of pants and jumpers.
Given the spectacular amount of nothing that really went together, I settled on some jeans and a hoody. I did a quick pass through the bathroom to detangle my hair and regain some sense of humanity before I wandered out to the main room. I always found that humanity made for a pretty decent start to the day.
Coffee also made a very good start to the day and it was all I could smell as I walked out of the little side passage and my stomach rumbled angrily.
“God, how long did I sleep?” I asked myself as I headed for the kitchen.
Kit kept saying make myself at home, so I guess I was going to do just that.
Halfway to the kitchen, I was stopped in my tracks as Kit walked out of his bedroom in nothing but his suit pants as he ran a hand over his hair.
And blow me down. My knees nearly buckled out from under me where I stood.
Muscles bulged and rippled where they quite frankly had no place being. He had tattoos covering his left shoulder and down to his elbow, one on his right pec, and something on his right rib. And that had nothing on the scars I could see even from that distance. Not that they did anything but add to the sinfully sexy damaged bad boy persona Kit had exuded since his early teens.
And just as I was gawking, he pulled his eyes from the window and saw me. His step faltered. I wasn’t sure if he was surprised to see me, just being wary around me, or had noticed the drool I suspected was hanging out of my mouth.
“Morning…” he said slowly.
His eyes took me in quickly, no doubt from years of having to read a room for any immediate danger. As he did, his expression turned almost cheeky like he knew exactly what was going through my head. I was suddenly super certain he could see every single dirty thought I’d ever had of him. I looked at him just long enough to half-wonder if that excited him.
The nerves won out and I did that super wanky thing where I pushed my glasses up my nose as I averted my gaze and nodded. “Morning.”
“Coffee?” he asked and I wondered if I’d just imagined a whole exchange between us.
“I can…” I started, gave up, then hurried over to the machine.
It seemed no amount of small talk one day prepared me for the next time I saw him. Each time, it was like I was back at square one trying to not be a dick so hard that I was an even bigger dick. It wasn’t surprising he was wary around me; I probably came across as idiotic bitch incarnate.
The hairs on the back of my neck were standing up and I snuck a look over my shoulder to see him leaning his hip against the other side of the counter, his arms crossed over that beautiful body, and watching me intently, like he knew something. As usually awkward as usual, I focussed on what I was doing and didn’t let his scrutiny get to me.
What had I expected if I was going to be living in his house? Of course there’d be awkward mornings and him taking me to bed and the need to talk to each other and me being a complete and utter tool. I was probably just lucky we hadn’t had more of it yet.
Chaos & the Geek (Grace Grayson Security Book 1) Page 5