Page 79 of Dropping Like Flies

I grimaced at the memory of how Ben had aggravated Flynn. “Impressive isn’t how I’d describe it. More like foolhardy and dangerous. He could have gotten seriously hurt. Even more hurt than he is already.”

Cade shrugged. “It got the job done.” He studied me for a moment. “And are the two of you okay?”

A warm glow filled my chest, and I struggled not to smile. “We’re fine. Actually, that’s why I came early today to catch you alone. I need a witness this weekend and I wondered if you’d be up to the job?”

“A witness! Are you going to court? What’ve you done?”

I rolled my eyes at the conclusion Cade had jumped to. “Nobody’s going to court. Well, Flynn might be, given he’s a murdering bastard, but apart from that…” A sudden attack of nerves had me examining my fingernails as an excuse not to look at Cade. “Ben and I are getting hitched at the registry office this weekend, and I thought you might like to be there. I know I can trust you to keep your mouth shut about it until we’re ready to tell everyone. We want to get the marriage out of the way, and then we’ll have a big do and make it common knowledge. We figure we’ve already waited long enough, and yes, I know that was my fault, but it’s done and I can’t rewind time.”

Cade’s silence had me lifting my gaze. His eyes had gone wide, and he was staring at me like I’d grown a second head. When he eventually regained his composure, he sat forward in his chair. “Wow! I can’t believe you’re actually getting married.”

“Believe it,” I said. “Ben’s expecting me there and if I let him down again, I’ll become one of his crime statistics.”

Cade laughed. “In that case, I’d love to be a witness.”

With that sorted, I moved on to my second reason for arriving early. If I couldn’t talk to Asher, I’d talk about him to the man who knew him best. “Where’s Asher?”

“Not here.”

“I can see that. Where is he? I was hoping to have a word with him.”

Cade gave an expansive shrug. “I’m not his keeper.”

“No, but you are his boss.” I slid off the desk and onto a chair, stretching my legs out in front of me. “You know he’s the reason I got to Ben in time, right? If he hadn’t turned up outside my building with information he should have had no way of knowing, it could have been a very different story.”

“I’m aware of what happened.”

Cade’s words were too careful. Too guarded. Which told me he knew something.

“I want to ask him where he got the information.”

“You should.”

I narrowed my eyes at Cade. “Or maybe I should just ask you.”

Cade gave a less than convincing laugh. “I don’t know how Asher’s mind works. He’s just as much of an enigma to me as he is to everyone else.”

“Right…” There was no keeping the disbelief from my voice. I’d known Cade long enough to know when he was lying and he was doing it now. Before I could call him on it, Cade’s office door opened to admit a blond man I recognized all too well and a dark-haired man I’d never seen before.

Cade let out a hefty sigh. “Does no one knock anymore?”

John shrugged as he strode our way, the usual smirk on his lips. “I don’t work here anymore, so I figured I could do what I want.” He stopped dead when he got close enough to realize I was the man sitting with Cade, his brows shooting up. “Bloody hell! You found your way to work, Griffin. What happened? Did you get so drunk you went the wrong way and ended up here?”

The gloves were off. I guess, as unlikely as it seemed, John had been censoring himself in our previous encounters. The funny thing was that in my newfound state of happiness, I found I didn’t mind. In fact, his forthrightness was refreshing. At least I knew where I stood with him. The Griffin of old would have told him to fuck off or ignored him completely. But Ben had eviscerated that man in a hotel room in Manchester, and a different man had made the return journey to London.

I stood and squeezed his shoulder, the leather of his jacket squeaking beneath my fingers. “It’s good to see you again, John.”

He shot me a suspicious look. “Is it?” He looked to Cade. “What’s wrong with him? Did you make a robot that looks like him and talks like him, but doesn’t have any of the personality defects?” He didn’t leave Cade any space to answer. “Speaking of robots…” He jerked his head toward the door he’d come through and left open. “Where’s Glacier Pants?”

“John…” The quiet admonishment from the dark-haired man at his side had me studying him. He was very handsome with dark wavy hair and green eyes brighter than your average shade. Not as handsome as Ben, but still handsome. “We said we’d attend this meeting, find out what Cade wanted, and keep our heads down,” he continued.

I laughed, John shooting me another strange look as if he’d never heard me laugh before. Perhaps he hadn’t. I hadn’t had an awful lot to laugh about in my self-imposed world of denial. “I don’t think John’s capable of keeping his head down.”

“Tell me about it,” the dark-haired man said. Despite aiming for fed up, fondness saturated his words. He stuck his hand out for me to shake. “I’ll introduce myself, seeing as it doesn’t look like anyone else is going to do it. Bellamy.”

I shook his hand. “Griffin.”

His quiet nod said he recognized the name, but wasn’t about to comment on anything he might have heard, which given it had been from John, I could only imagine how uncomplimentary it had been.

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