Page 29 of In Spades

He grinned. “You’re not gonna make this easy on me, are you?”

I shook my head. “Not in the slightest.”

I may or may not have rushed through the rest of the floor. I may or may not have knocked out a few rooms on the next floor before my lunch break rolled around just to get ahead. And I may or may not have snuck into Hannah Jane’s office and freshened up.

God bless that woman and her desk stash of emergency cosmetics.

I was halfway across the lobby when I heard the ominous click of Hannah Jane’s stilettos.

“Where are you off to in such a hurry?” she asked, shifting her armful of wedding binders onto her hip.

I tucked my hair behind my ears. “Oh, uh, you know. Just on my lunch break.”

Hannah looked down at her phone. “Are we going to talk about the Chase thing?”

I wrinkled my nose. “What Chase thing?”

She glanced left and right, then lowered her voice. “He kind of disappeared after what happened at the bar with Bee and Kingsley.”

“What do you mean, disappeared?” I asked. “That doesn’t sound like Chase. He’s never been the flighty type.”

“I mean, he kissed her cheek, then walked out of the bar. By the time we got outside, he was gone. I didn’t see his car in his driveway for two days.”

“Maybe he stayed with Layla,” I suggested. “I mean, they are seeing each other.”

Hannah shook her head. “Mel texted Layla and checked. She hadn’t heard from Chase since the day before Kingsley showed up at Jokers. I finally saw him when I left for work this morning.” She paused, chewing on her lip. “His hands were cut up and bruised. He looked like he lost a fight with a brick wall.”

“Is there any chance he killed Kyle?” I said, half-joking.

Hannah snorted. “Goodness, I wish.”

I sighed. “I mean, we all worried about what would happen if Bee and Chase started dating and broke up. But we didn’t consider what would happen if they never got together.”

Hannah nodded in agreement. “I have a bunch of leftovers from a catering tasting this morning that I was going to eat for lunch. You wanna share?”

Before I could answer, the lacquered wood doors that served as the main entrance swung open. Will strolled in, carrying two loaded bags with the Revanche logo stamped on either side. When Hannah Jane noticed the branding. I could practically hear the wheels turning in her mind.

She nodded with a devious smile on her face. “I see you already have lunch plans.”

I squeezed my eyes shut and groaned. “Please don’t make this a thing. It’s just lunch.”

“Mhmm,” Hannah snickered. “And Isaac and I were just supposed to be a one-night stand.”

“Han.”

“Kris,” she parroted.

Will sided up to me, shifting the bags to one hand. “Hey, Sunshine.”

Hannah’s smirk turned downright nefarious. “Sunshine? Oh, that’s just too cute.”

I felt like crawling under a rock, but Will was apparently unfazed. “Nice to see you again, Hannah,” he said casually.

Hannah Jane eyed the Revanche bags. “You didn’t happen to run into Maddie over there, did you?”

Oh no. If Maddie saw Will picking up lunch for two, it would only be a matter of time before the entire poker club found out.

Like clockwork, my phone exploded.

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