Текст книги "Kian"

Автор книги: Tijan

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“What is it?”

“Huh?” I was still looking at my phone.

He was here. He was waiting for me.

Jake gently nudged my hip with his hand. “Jo? You okay?”

Looking at him took work. My neck felt like it was pulling my head through waist-deep wet cement. When I could finally focus on him, his gaze went back to my phone.

“Is something wrong?”

Yes, very wrong.

I tucked the phone against the palm of my hand, so he couldn’t read the screen, and I slid it into my pocket.

“Uh, yeah—no, I mean, no. Nothing’s wrong.”

“You sure?”

“Very.”

The lies were spilling from my lips, but I needed to get Jake out of here. Even knowing he was so close to Kian sent a cold blast through my body.

“Um, I—thank you for walking me back to my place.”

“Walking?” Jake grinned, following me back inside from the balcony.

There was something off about his response to my comment. A buzzing sound was filling my head, so I couldn’t stop and pay attention, but I registered that. I shook my head. I couldn’t concentrate on what happened between us. My blood was coursing through me, picking up speed, as I made my way to the door.

The lights were still off, and there was a different feel to my own apartment. It felt alien, surreal. I knew it was because Kian was above. Fear was mixing with a sense of urgency, and I just wanted Jake gone. That was all I wanted at that very instant.

“Yeah.”

Pulling open the door, I fixed a fake smile on my face. “I, uh…we should do this again someday.”

Jake’s head reared back as he stared down at me, pausing in front of me by the open door. “Do this again? Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine.” More lies. “Completely.”

“Okay…” He stepped into the hallway, still watching me. “You’re sure, sure?”

“Absolutely.” I started closing the door, still smiling around it. “Thank you, Wanker.”

“Wanker?” His eyebrows shot up.

I shut the door with a click, turning my back against it. I let out a breath of air, then drew another one in even more slowly. I closed my eyes. I needed to calm down. He was up there. And he was waiting. The meeting was finally going to happen.

There was no way I was going to calm down.

I grabbed my key and patted my pocket to make sure my phone was there, and I lingered on my bedroom door. I had a Taser in there. Erica never knew about it, but old habits died hard. I’d kept it just in case, and Kian was a killer.

Do I—I gulped—need it for him?

No.

A voice sounded in my head. It was final and strong.

As soon as I heard it, some clarity started to peek through the storm in me. It was a smidgen, enough to calm some of the jitters in my stomach. The Taser remained hidden in my room, and I stepped out into my hallway before locking my apartment door. Moving to the side hallway and then up the stairs for the roof exit, there were two sides inside me.

One was yelling at me to turn around, leave my building, and call Snark, call the cops, call the cavalry. The other side had a Zen-like calmness to it. I was going where I was supposed to go. Seeing Kian was the right thing. He wouldn’t hurt me. He never had. He had only protected me.

Both sides weren’t quite rational, but I kept climbing up those stairs until I was standing in front of the roof door. It looked locked, but I knew I could go through it.

I’d been up there once when I first checked out the building before moving in. I had come with Erica to look at the apartment. Upon Snark’s urgings to make sure I knew all the ways in and out of the building, I had gone back a second time, alone, and finding the roof door had been on that agenda.

The door was old and heavy. I stepped out and looked around. The roof was empty, except for two worn-down lounge chairs set up by the roof’s edge, overlooking the city, with two big rocks on the bottom to anchor them down from strong winds. Beside the door was another large rock. I didn’t know if it was used to prop the door open—well, that had to be the only reason, so I started to roll it into place. The door was open by a good foot in length, and I stepped forward.

Goose bumps littered my arms, up and down, and I started shivering before I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to hug off the chill.

“Kian?”

I stepped farther out from the door and looked around. The city cast a hue from below, giving the roof’s edge a light that looked like it was hugging the building. It was beautiful. The night was clear with stars blinking from above. I would’ve appreciated the sight more if I wasn’t focused on all recesses of the roof’s shadows.

“Kian?”

He wasn’t here. I stepped even farther away from the door and slowly felt myself rejoining my body. The euphoric high that I was riding on, that was so closely mixed with panic, started to ebb, and I became more grounded.

He wasn’t here. All of this had been for nothing.

My shoulders settled down an inch, and I turned back for the door.

“I was waiting for your boyfriend to leave.”

I stepped in his direction and saw him. He was at the edge, and he shifted toward me. His words and where he was clicked with me. He was standing at the side of the building that overlooked my street. He’d been waiting to see if Jake left the building or not.

“He’s not my boyfriend.” My voice didn’t sound attached to my body. It was hoarse and high-pitched, like I was nervous and breathless at the same time.

Kian was still in the shadows. The hue from the street was behind him, so I couldn’t make out his face, but he started for me.

I fell back and then caught myself. My teeth sank into the side of my cheek. I forced myself to stand there, waiting for him, but half of me wanted to run away while the other half was leaning toward him.

He moved closer, and the light from the door illuminated his face. The door was behind me, so the light was mostly blocked, but there was a small slit from where the door was attached to the doorframe. It wasn’t a lot, and the small light disappeared as he moved even closer, stopping just in front of me. I still couldn’t fully make out his face, but that split second of vision had been enough.

Dark.

Brooding.

Deadly.

Gorgeous.

Molten dark eyes, angular high cheekbones, a strong jaw, lips that seemed to rest just perfectly while waiting to be curved high into a smile or to be pulled down into a frown.

As he came toward me, his lips showed neither emotion. He was just watching me back. My eyes traced his silhouette. He was still tall and lean, but his shoulders were bigger than I remembered. His shirt hugged to his form, showing how cut he was. He looked even more like a deadly weapon than he had been before going into prison.

His eyes narrowed, and I could feel him assessing me. I glanced down to the floor, wondering what he was thinking as he took me in. The streetlights were behind him but facing me. He could make out my face, my body, my everything.

My teeth sank even more into my cheek. What did he see when he looked at me?

He murmured, “He’s not?”

“He’s not.” That came out like an annoyed huff. I flushed, not intending it to be like that.

I could hear Snark yelling at me in my head. I needed to get away. I couldn’t see Kian. He was a part of his team, the evil lawyers who wanted to blame everything on me.

I began to edge for the door. What had I been thinking?

“You look different.”

I stopped. “So do you.”

Through the darkness, I caught how the side of his mouth lifted into a half-grin. It moved back down, and he stepped closer to me. He was looking down at me. There was still space between us. I couldn’t feel his body heat. Another person could’ve wedged their way between us.

“Why did you come see me? How did you even know where I was? Or recognize me?” There. Finally, I was sounding like an adult. There was the golden question that I wanted answered.

He didn’t answer.

He continued to study me. I couldn’t see his eyes, but I felt his scrutiny.

“To make sure you were all right. I hired a private detective, and I helped him out. I thought you might be going here. I remembered one of your speeches in school was about how much you loved this school, and I knew it was you.”

I was stunned. “Really?” He remembered that? And he just knew it was me? How do I digest all of that?

“And to let you know that you don’t need to be scared of me.” His voice softened, and he closed the distance.

I could feel his body heat, and I could make out his face. Those eyes, I gulped again, I’d forgotten the power they had in the courtroom. He was looking into me, like only he could read my thoughts, know my feelings, and understand me. He knew me. That was how I was feeling again. A sense of feeling sheltered flowed through me. It pushed out the fear and coldness. I was beginning to grow warm, wanting to close the distance.

I never touched him before.

Not a hug. Not a handshake. Nothing.

Well, that wasn’t true. He gave me his shirt after killing Edmund. Mine ripped, so he lent me his. I never gave it back. It was a secret that I never shared with anyone. That shirt was still in my room, in the same box as my Taser. The irony wasn’t lost on me. One keepsake from him next to a weapon to use against him.

He kept going, “My parents and my lawyers don’t want me anywhere around you, but I had to come. I needed to make sure that you knew not to be scared of me. I…what I did, I know it was shocking. I shocked myself. I still don’t quite know what happened. I remember what I did. I remember doing it, but before it happened and the events leading up to it, those are still a blur, even after two years.”

Hearing him now, I was surprised. The lawyers hadn’t let him take the stand.

“I’ve seen doctors who told me that my brain doesn’t want to feel whatever I was feeling before it happened. I remember hearing you and opening the door. Then it’s blank. I-I just don’t want you to be scared of me. That’s all.”

I was right back in that room, not on the roof with Kian.

Edmund’s hands were on me again. Then the door opened…

I began to back away again. “I can’t.”

Edmund had one hand around my throat.

“Jordan.” Kian reached for me.

“No, I can’t do this. I’m sorry. It’s—I’m feeling him again, Kian.”

I knew it was Kian. I knew he was there, telling me not to be scared, but I wasn’t feeling it was him. The flashbacks were too much, and they were coming in at breakneck speed. I couldn’t handle all of them, not all at once.

I shook my head, and my back hit the door. I reached behind and felt for the door handle, then moved around the door. The back of my legs hit the boulder.

I started to fall backward, but Kian caught me. He lifted me and held me to him for a second. I felt him kicking at something, and then he set me back down. He had moved the rock out of the way. And he was holding the door open, so it wouldn’t hit me.

“Okay,” he said. “I just wanted to talk to you before…” He hesitated. He was raking over my face. “Never mind. I didn’t intend for this. I’m sorry, Jordan.”

“It’s Jo,” I murmured. “I’m using the name Joslyn.”

“That’s right.” A resigned sigh slipped from his lips. He looked haunted. “Go ahead. I’ll wait and make my way from the roof. I am sorry. I didn’t realize my presence would bring all those memories back. I never intended for that.”

He sounded in pain, and for a second, I stopped.

Everything was pushed aside for a split second, and I could clearly see him. He felt bad, but I still felt danger lurking from him. The image of him, right before he had taken a knife to Edmund’s throat, was in the back of my mind.

I wanted to leave. I wanted to stay. “Thank you for coming.”

He nodded, his face becoming a mask. “You don’t have to be scared of me, and I know what your FBI agent thinks. My team won’t blame you. I’ll go back on trial, and I know what he’s said to you. None of it is true. You were the victim. I wouldn’t let them victimize you again.”

“You know?”

He nodded again. “I know that you’re hiding, and I understand why. The media would crucify you.”

“I couldn’t have a normal life again.”

“I know. I do. That’s why I disappeared that first time on the street. Your boyfriend, or whoever he is, would’ve seen me. I…” He paused and glanced away for a second. “I think I just wanted to talk to you for me. I needed to reassure myself that you weren’t scared of me.”

“Never.”

His gaze jerked back to mine, and I was caught, once again held by him. Something deeper was happening between us, but I couldn’t name it. I didn’t think I even wanted to. If I did, I’d have to make a decision to let it happen or stop it completely. I didn’t want to do either of those things, so I let it go. I silenced the voice second-guessing everything in my head. He had killed to protect me. I needed to be grateful, and that was it.

“If I hadn’t been born into the family I have, this wouldn’t have been such a big media frenzy. For that, it’s my fault. What I did, who I am—all of that created this whole thing. I know the news is starting to focus on you, and they’re asking questions about where you are, et cetera. I just wanted to come and apologize for that, too. They put a romantic spin on it, but now that you’re missing, I’m worried they’re going to turn on you. I hope they don’t.”

I knew what he was saying. I was waiting for it to happen, too, but that was why I was still hiding. I reached out and touched his arm. “If they turn on me and if they find me, I’ll have to deal with it. Until then, thank you, Kian. For what you did, thank you.”

“You’re not scared of me?”

I shook my head. Most of the fear was dissolved. “You saved me.”

“He threw away his future while you got a new one.”

Snark’s words were taunting me. I should’ve paid them more attention, but I couldn’t.

The storm inside of me was for Kian. My brain was telling me to get away as fast as possible. Logic wasn’t winning right now.

My phone starting buzzing, and I pulled it out. Erica was calling me.

“I’m sorry. I should take this. She doesn’t usually call unless the world is ending, or she needs wine ASAP.”

He chuckled. “She sounds fun, whoever it is.”

I started for the stairs, but I didn’t want to go. I wanted to stay up here, and I wanted to get to know someone whom I felt like I had known all my life.

I sighed. My phone kept buzzing, and I clicked Answer as I was going down the stairs. “Hey, what’s up?”

“You will never believe what she did.” Erica’s anger was like whiplash.

I kept going down the stairs, but my mind and everything was still on the roof. He’d wanted to make sure I was okay, that I wasn’t scared of him. I had never considered that possibility.

“She’s such a bitch.”

I tuned back in to what Erica was saying as I got to my floor and went through the door. “Who’s a bitch?” Wait, she’d already said that. I had heard it. “Susan. What did she do again?”

“First, she backstabbed the senior reporter. She’s out. Susan got her kicked off the project, and I have no idea how she did it, but she’s trying the same with me. Susan’s trying to scoop me.”

I frowned as I got to our apartment and pulled out my keys. Fumbling through them, I found the right one and unlocked the door. As I did, I stopped. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, but I didn’t feel fear. I felt him. Slowly, I straightened upright. The phone fell away, and I looked where I’d just come from.

Kian was standing there. He was watching me.

This would’ve been creepy if it were anyone else, but remembering the stark need on his face while on the roof as he’d said he wanted to make sure I wasn’t scared of him pushed everything out of me. I held up a hand to him.

He waved back. “Making sure you got there okay.”

I nodded. “I know.”

“Jo?” Erica was calling from my phone.

I held it back to my ear, but I was riveted by Kian. I could see him better now in the hallway. With the lean cut of his body, the jeans he was wearing, the black sneakers on his feet, and even how the whites of his eyes seemed to stand out from how tan his skin was—he was gorgeous.

The corner of his mouth lifted, and I knew he’d caught me checking him out. Ducking my head down, my cheeks got red, and I shoved inside my place. The door swung shut behind me, and I leaned back against it.

I was so stupid, checking him out after everything. I shook my head at myself, but then heard Erica’s voice again.

“Jo! Hello? Jo, where are you?”

“Sorry. There was a guy in the hallway.”

“You weren’t home? I thought you got off work an hour ago. Where were you? Wait.” She paused. “Is he hot? Please tell me he’s a new neighbor.”

“I’m home now, and no, I don’t think he’s a neighbor.”

“Oh.” She sounded disappointed. “Wait. How’d you get home?”

I sighed, pulling open the fridge to grab a water. “Jake walked me home.”

“Was that Jake? Please tell me it was because I’d like to rub that in Susan’s face. I swear, she’s just as possessive of him when he’s not Tara’s boyfriend than when he was.”

Sinking down on a chair, I put my water on the table and gripped the phone tighter. “Erica, you called me for a reason. You don’t usually call to vent when you’re working.”

“Oh, yeah, I’m not working. I’m at the Wine Cellar. I was more calling to have you come down here, so I could vent to you in person. Wanker couldn’t come. He said something about throwing up. I don’t know what he meant. He’s never sick, so it couldn’t be because of that, but whatever. Can you come down?”

“To the Wine Cellar?”

Kian was probably leaving the building right now.

Erica kept talking. Venting. Wanker. Wine Cellar. It was all jumbled together.

I turned toward the balcony.

Could I see him?

“Uh-huh,” I murmured to the phone as I stood from the table.

There was no conscious thought. My body moved that way. The light was left on. If he looked up, he would catch me. I didn’t care, and I sank down on one of the chairs. I’d just been there, not even an hour ago, hiding from people who had been chasing after me. I was back, and I was the chaser now.

There he was.

I leaned over the railing, and Kian came out the side door. As he did, he stopped in the sidewalk. His hands searched inside his jeans pockets, and then his head straightened. He twisted around. He was gazing up. I ducked down, but I could still see a little bit.

He was staring right at my apartment.

I was eight floors up, and it was dark out, but he continued to look up. My forehead pressed against the railing, and I gripped my phone so close to my head that Erica could probably hear the street sounds through it.

“Jo?” she said.

“Yeah?” I murmured, clearing my throat.

Going back to my knees, I peeked again, but he wasn’t there anymore. I couldn’t see him up or down the street. I shouldn’t have been surprised. He was a ghost now.

“Will you?”

I cursed. I’d missed so much in this conversation. “Yeah. Sure. No problem.” What had I agreed to?

“Great! I’ll save you a seat, but I have to warn you that some of the others from the newspaper are here, too.”

I’d agreed to head down to the Wine Cellar. “Oh. Yeah, give me ten minutes to get there.” I glanced down at my uniform. “Make that twenty.”

“I’ll have a drink ready for you. Thank you, Jo!”

“Yeah. Okay.” I hung up, and I couldn’t help myself. I looked one last time before heading back inside.

There was no Kian below.

It was the next morning.

Erica was hungover, and I was late for work. I rushed from my bedroom, but stopped at the sight of Wanker stretched out on our couch. Somehow, Wanker had slept over. His shoes had been kicked off. His shirt was pushed up as he was idly scratching at his chest, and he had his other arm flung over his face, his nose stuck into his elbow. He was snoring, too.

Erica came out of her room at that same time. She made a beeline for the coffee pot.

I held up two fingers. “One, I need a cup of coffee, too. And, two, how did he get there? He wasn’t at the Wine Cellar with us last night.”

She grinned, filling a cup. Before pouring the second cup for me, she lifted her mug and took a good whiff of it. “Heaven. My God,” she groaned, tipping her head back with a dreamy smile, “I need this to keep me awake today.”

“Hey.” I held up my hand. “Don’t make me jealous. Pour me a cup, too.”

She poured me one as well, and when I grabbed it, Wanker moaned from the couch. He sat up with his hair sticking in the air and a nice bulge in the front of his pants. He looked down at it, up to us, back to it, and then sighed.

He muttered, falling back to lean against the couch, “He says good morning, too.”

Lovely.

I ignored his member’s good morning. “How is it that you got here? You weren’t at the Wine Cellar last night.” I leaned back against the counter. I had picked the morning shift, so I was late, but a good cup of coffee couldn’t be rushed.

Erica rolled her eyes. “He called a few hours ago, convinced that he needed to go to the hospital.”

Last night, Erica had been falling over wasted.

I asked her, “You were steady enough to take him?”

She snorted. “Hell no. I talked him into taking a cab here, and when he got here, he suddenly felt better.”

He grumbled, yawning and stretching at the same time, “I thought I was dying. Thanks for the sympathy, too. Good friends you are.”

There was enough coffee in the pot for one more person.

“We’re the best kind of friends there are, if you want the last cup.”

“The best. The very best.” He stood up and began scratching at his chest again as he continued, “The one-of-a-kind best—unique and rare and”—he moved closer to the pot, leaned down, and took a big whiff before a dreamy smile came over his face—“the kind that I just want to hug.”

He had morning breath.

Before I could retreat, Erica held up a hand. “Back away from my roommate. You’re sick. You were throwing up.” She paused and amended, “We were both throwing up at the same time. He got the toilet. I took the garbage bin.” She shuddered. “Not good times.”

The image flashed in my head. “Gross. I didn’t need to know that.”

Erica grinned over her cup. “It’s one of the perks of being my roommate. We’re close, Jo. You get to know everything about me.”

Wanker grunted, moving back to the couch with the whole coffee pot. “I do, too, and I’m not your roommate.”

“No, you don’t.”

“I don’t?” He looked at her in surprise.

“Nope.” Erica grabbed her bag and then her purse. Putting her arms through the straps, she secured her bag onto her back and then reached for her cup. Pausing at the door with her keys in hand, she frowned at him. “I have to go. It’s our last day for prep before the interview.” Her eyebrows shot up, and she said to me, “You have to be there today.”

“Me?”

“Yes. Oh my gosh, that was the other thing I needed to vent to you about. Susan rescheduled the interview. She’s going to meet with him tomorrow. I found that out last night. I was supposed to do my questions on the original date, two days from now. Oh, man.” Her palm hit her forehead. “That was the whole reason I had you come out last night.”

She had been hanging all over one of the other reporters when I got there, so I hadn’t been filled in on whatever was wrong. Remembering that, I met her gaze, and she looked toward Wanker before giving me a slight head shake.

Message received. I would keep my mouth shut, so I took another sip of my coffee instead.

After a second’s pause of silence, Erica continued, more quietly, “So, yeah, that was why I was upset. Susan wasn’t going to tell me. She was going to have her assistant do the background questions.”

“That other reporter is out?”

“Susan got her completely kicked off the project. It’s a big scoop for Susan. She tried saying that it got moved up a day because of his team’s request, but she could’ve told me. This is all we’ve been working on for the last month.” The ends of her mouth pinched together, and the lines around her eyes strained. “But we’re doing a meeting today to go over everything one last time. She knows that I got you on the approved list to be my assistant, so you have to be there.”

“I have to work.”

“You have to get out of it.”

“But—” I remembered launching myself at that couple and the woman’s threats that she was going to get me canned. On second thought…

I lifted a shoulder. “I could call in sick.”

“Perfect.” Erica beamed at me. “Okay, the meeting starts at three, so when you come to the building, just text me. I’ll come down and grab you in the lobby.”

I nodded. “Sounds go—”

The door slammed shut, and it was down to two. I glanced at Wanker. He stared back at me over the coffee pot.

He grimaced, his hand moving to his stomach. He muttered, “I should’ve held off on the coffee.”

“Too soon?”

He stood, passing me the pot, and he headed for the other pot. “Much too soon. Much.”

A second door was slammed shut, leaving me alone.

I said under my breath, “And it’s down to one, folks.”

When the barfing sounds started, that was my cue to leave, but first, I needed to make that phone call. Paul wouldn’t believe me, not if that woman had already called or even if she’d call later. He’d know I was lying, but I wanted to avoid that storm, even though I’d be going into a different one.

After putting the coffee cup into the sink, I headed for my bedroom with my phone in hand when Wanker opened the bathroom door behind me. The toilet was flushed before he turned off the sink.

He returned to the couch, wiping wet hands over his mouth. “Sorry. I…sorry you had to hear that.”

“You going to be okay?”

He didn’t answer that question. Instead, he leaned back against the couch. “I know she was with someone last night.”

Oh, whoa.

I shrank back against my bedroom doorframe.

He lightly rubbed his hand over his stomach. “It’s why I came over. I had to see for myself. I think that’s why I felt sick.” He cringed, turning a light shade of green. “Or why I felt sicker.”

He looked up at me. He didn’t know, no matter if he’d said he did. I knew he didn’t, and in that one look at me, he was checking for confirmation. I steeled myself, ready for his inspection, but when those eyes met mine, I wasn’t prepared for the sadness there.

He was speaking the truth. He really did know.

My shoulders relaxed. “I’m sorry, Wanker.”

He waved me off. “Nope. Trust me, I get it. She doesn’t have those feelings for me. She made that perfectly clear.”

With his shoulders slightly drooped, he got up and went to the sink. He dumped out the rest of the coffee that he hadn’t drunk and washed the cup. He dried it, too, and then put it back inside the cupboard. All the while, he didn’t look at me. I didn’t talk. I had no idea what to say. I still didn’t as he collected his keys, wallet, and phone.

Going to the door, he paused before opening it. His back remained toward me. “I think,” he started, his voice low, “it’s time I pull away a little bit. She should be able to have a guy over and not worry that her best friend might drop in and get jealous.”

“Wanker.” I took a step toward him.

He waved me back, still turned away. “Watch out for her when she’s doing that interview, would you? That guy is dangerous.”

I let out a silent sigh. “Yeah, I will.”

“And can you not say anything to her? About what I just said to you.” He glanced over his shoulder to me. The pain was evident. His eyes were stricken.

I nodded, feeling a lump in my throat.

“Thank you.”

Then he was gone.

I wasn’t sick, but I did feel a little ill when I got to Erica’s news building. When I got inside, I let the front desk person know who I was and five minutes later, Erica was calling my name from a side door.

I hurried over and hissed, “You guys aren’t ordering food, are you?”

She turned and started up the stairs but frowned over her shoulder to me. “Uh, yeah. We usually do if the meeting goes long. Why? We’ll order for you, too. You don’t have to worry about paying.”

“Tell me you’re not ordering from Escape.”

“Oh.” She stopped as she was rounding for the next level of stairs and turned with big eyes. “No.”

Oh, no.

“Crap. I didn’t even think of that, and there’s already been a request put in for Escape. One of the head honchos here is buddies with the new owners of Escape. That’s why you guys deliver to us.”

She started back up, but I caught her arm. “Wait. New owners?”

“Yeah.” She frowned at me. “You didn’t know?”

“No.” And why didn’t I? But I didn’t have time to ponder that.

Erica was through the door and heading for the conference room. The tables formed a U with the opening having a podium and a marker board on the wall. Susan was standing behind the podium, talking with a few other people. She glanced up at our arrival and stiffened. I felt her eyes on me, but I ignored her and slipped into the chair beside Erica.

I couldn’t quite remember the reason Erica wanted me there—oh, yes, I was there to distract Susan by just being there. My presence pissed her off, and as she kept staring at me, I could tell it was working.

Score one for Erica.

Susan cleared her throat and held a hand up, drawing attention from everyone in the room. She pointed to the door. “Marcus, can you shut the door? Let’s get the meeting going, shall we?”

A guy did as she’d asked.

Erica leaned toward me and whispered, “Told you she’s on a head trip. Hope you’re ready for some nausea. Her ego trip makes me want to hurl on a daily basis.”

“Erica,” Susan called out, her beady eyes fixed right on my roommate.

Erica straightened in her seat. “Yeah?”

Oh, snap. I was ready for some drama to ensue.

Susan was going to call her out, but she pointed to me and asked in a tight voice, “Would you like to introduce Jo and explain her presence to the team? And while she’s doing that, has everyone put in their orders on the sheet? We scrapped the order for Escape. We’re ordering pizza instead. I’m going to make the call right now.” She held up a piece of paper. “It looks like pepperoni, cheese, taco, and Hawaiian? Any other requests?”

And I missed a hit with that one.

No one voiced a different opinion.

Susan narrowed her eyes, staring at me. “Go ahead, Erica. Do your introduction. Since I know what you and Jo like, I’ll be right back.”

She sounded polite.

She looked polite.

But I did not get the polite vibe from her. Susan left the room, but my tension remained on my shoulders. No way was I going to be the fool and relax around her. That would be like a snake playing dead, pretending to be an ugly-ass necklace. Hell no.