Page 23 of Iron Blade

A Thousand Perfect Orchids

Kira

Isat in my office, staring at the spreadsheets, sales, and papers of authenticity that littered my desktop.

My finger traced my bottom lip where he had kissed me the night before. I had gone to bed thinking about it - about him.

Should I have reported the kiss to Blink? Would he care?

This was well outside of my scope! I wasn’t supposed to get close. I wasn’t that kind of agent. My job was to observe, report, and launder our fucking money to fund our operations. I wasn’t supposed to get involved. I wasn’t trained for that! Not really.

Dread seeped into my skin as I thought about how he had looked at me. How relentlessly he had pursued me. How I had allowed it. I didn’t even think twice! I had wanted it. I couldn’t deny that.

A knock at the door grabbed my attention.

“Delivery for Miss Kekoa.” A guy in a gray jumpsuit stood at the doorway, staring down at a clipboard. “Are you her?”

“Yes,” I said, waving him in.

Deliveries were par for the course. Canvases, art, and so many other things. I wasn’t expecting anything today, but sometimes people sent things early just to be rid of them.

I walked up to the man and signed the papers in his hand.

“Thanks,” he said, before turning his face down the hallway. “A’right, lads, bring it in!”

His voice had been American, but the words sounded Irish. I hated that it made me think of Eoghan, again.

I had to get him out of my head before I fell in too deep.

Then the words finally registered. “Wait… lads?”

How many people would it take to bring in this delivery?

It didn’t take long for me to figure it out.

A dozen guys walked in, wearing the same gray suit declaring them delivery men for Charlie’s Arboretum. In their hands were small pots of white Dendrobium Orchids. Each delicate stem must have had a dozen blooms on it, and at first, they put them on my desk. The first guy turned right around, and joined the back of the line, rotating through with more stems until my floor, the walls, the desks and shelves were covered in these plants. The sweet, subtle scent of it perfuming the air.

“Who sent these?” I asked the first man who had made me sign for the shipment.

“Eoghan Green, of course,” he said, as the final pot of orchids was delivered, and the men disappeared down the hall.

“Of course,” I mocked, because there was nothing obvious about it being from Eoghan Green. There was no card, and nothing that inherently declared that an Irish madman was doing something insane.

I went into a folder that contained the phone directory for the gallery. Eoghan’s number was at the top, listed as “owner”. I called him, and he picked up on the first ring.

“What is this?” I demanded, trying to figure out exactly how mad I should be.

“A thousand perfect orchids.” He sounded like that was the most obvious thing in the world. Like of course it was a thousand fucking orchids. What else could it be? “At least they better be. If a single blossom is missing, do let me know so I can deal with them.”

I froze, a shiver going up my spine. Was he threatening to kill someone over a fallen flower blossom?

“Deal with them… how?” I asked, through clenched teeth. My heart was beating out of my chest as I waited for his answer.

“A negative Yelp review, maybe.” I could hear his smirk on the other end of the line. Jesus, was everything a joke to him?

“And why are they in my office?” I was looking for a reason to stay angry because this was fucking insane!

But still, he was so charming. Warmth crept over my chest at the mere thought of him, ordering a thousand blossoms for me. No one had ever given me such a gesture.

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